where there wasn't a gap between what we profess to believe and what we actually practice. there is somethat is sometimes n down by those who oppose. there had been some black men were able to vote during the revolutionary period and many of their rights are taken away. white women in new jersey were able to vote at the time of the revolution. there were laws passed to make sure that would not be the case. we don't really have a democracy in the united until after the 1960s. and s involved in trying to get those rights was struggles and how hard fought were. gives an appreciation of what we have t and also an understanding of how hard it is to have mo that it is always a fight to keep it. as lincoln says, whether we ever attain perfect■qñ[is a queion

for another day, but a commitment to the constitution and to the declarati o independence is a commitment to working toward freedom and equality. the 1830s were a very dynamic time. this is the time when slavery enters in a big way into the national political arena. it was very violent, period. mob violence was a real problem.

lynchings and murders. it's aru time. lots of people are concerned about whether not this american experiment is going to survive. alexis de tocqueville visited the united states in 1831 and writes a glowing book, democracy in america. some say the greatest book ever written about the united states as well as the greatest book written about democracy. and yet it's a period of considerable upheaval related to of law. and that's, i think, what drew lincoln to the lyceum address on that historic night in january of 1838, the invites us into the mind of a younger lincoln already thinking about the major issues of his time. justice for all, irrespective of their background. that is what the lyceum contributes. it is a profoundly prophetic speech. it's what we make of it, rather

than what was made of it at the time that i think is important. abraham lincoln was a self-educated lawyer. he was extremely ambitious. he was very. he had educated. he came from humble beginnings. but what's remarkable about lincoln, how thoughtful he is from a very young age. he moves from new salem, springfield, which becomes the capital of illinois in 1837. ultimaly, heecomes an attorney and state official, and that is the giearly career righn springfield. lincoln was invited to speak before a gro t called the young man's lyceum of springfield. these un men tended to debate questions that had to do■é with

state and regional d political . the worde greek. it was the name of aristotle's school. a lyceum is what we would call today a3 public lecture or an educational institution. lyceum today■■ might be somethig akin to your local library hosting guest speakers. these organizations were seen to be fun. you could do well. you could do not. sir, will lyceum were of democrc values ando be an american. how to be a good american. how to be a good day were discussed there in a public setting. so lincoln is invited to give this speech at theeum, and for his topic he chooses the perpetuation of our political institutions. american democracy under attack

because of the rise of mob violence over the issue of his lyceum address ■@mentions three series of murders, the first of which there had been a pamphlet circa late in suggesting that there was going to be a slave insurrection. the state of mississippi and white vilified and disdained for their craft. the fear stirred by this would be fanciful were directed towards them because these white gamb wresponsible for helping ad aiding and abetting this prospect black insurrection in mississippi. well, thwnas linked to it. so many people were hanged. black le people, they just hang them without any due process of law for being

suspected. they rebels or assisting slave rebellion. lincoln's as they left them hangin the trees of mississippi like the spanish moss. and then we have the killing of the white abolition. elijah lovejoy, who wrote very vehemently and increasingly so against slavery, but also condemned in harsh language the burning of francis mackintosh, a free black man in lovejoy, was forced to leave st louis and set up his print shop in alton, illinois, a southern part of illinois free state. nevertheless, he was tracked down and months later killed. there, and his printing press famously thrown into the river. ■f4each of these events, lincoln highlights and i think importantly links them together as part of this abandonmentand d for in this country, which is if someone is guilty, there's a

process we go through a judicial process. we don't just string people up on trees or shoot them or burn them. he goes on to1" of law and can hold americans together amid all of these disagreements and differences that that's all we have. and lincoln is not pro-slavery by anyf the imagination. he is definitely anti-slavery in ent. you can see that right from the start of his political career in the illinois legislatureabolitionists that hs against. risk. abolitionists are not popular. they are■ceittacked by people are part of the status quo. lincoln saw this as the giving up to the passions rather than

reason, soberation. otherwise, we're going to fall prey to these commit what he calls suici. certain only the ct features the subject matter in 1837 was resonate through out american history. there are many moments of extreme violence. there are many moments of there are moments of mob violence. there concerns about the health of our democracy. those themes and topics recur. so looking at the way lincoln and others of his time were, 0grapple living with these questions, it can help us think through our own present moment. one of the things that lyceum activity did encourage was

thoutfef debate, listening to oth this that i think can help us think through fo our selves, how we want to live our own lives. as a black man from pittsburgh who and he comee ship and with police who are trg to chase down a suspect. and they enlist mackintosh into this chase. and when he refuses, they arrest him and such begins the sad and tragic tale of mackintosh, who before he is incarcerated, strikes a blow to one of the officers. a deadly blow ki and before lonb surrounds s ■ó they remove him y

take him to the outskirts of what was st louis at the time, where he is chained to a tree and and they got away with it because when ey pu, actually let the mob go free. william hernd argues that this moment mackintosh is killed. spurs rule of law and democratic night in january of 1838. lincoln is saying everyone is entitled to due process of law an it's corrosive for our whole community anr country. if we succumb to our passions in this way. francisln mentions by name who is the victim? he mentioned several other people and concludes the address

by talking about george washington. he mentions and julius caesar and napoleon. but of the victims including the white victim, elijah lovejoy, who wrote about mackintosh's murder, mackintosh is the only one lincoln mentions by name isn historic context. even today, after any number of deaths related to police brutality. we still find ourselves as a nation glossing over the names of black victims for lincoln to mention mackintosh by is critical. not only humanizes him, but it also suggests that this particular killing racially motivated and based as it was, is an important element to this overall discussion of democrat decline. it's not just that the rule of law is being abandon in vacuum. it's connected to our history and present history at the time, related to race. and lincoln makes that ■tconnection, one that,

incidentally, no other politician is making that makes the speech particularly impressive but also unique. one of the things that was characteristic this period was that the participer in the mobs defended them were often very respectable members were members of the ele to do this because we had to run thosbagu or. the abolitionists are divisive. abioour community. and so we have to viont town, mn example of them to so many of ts were done in the name public go. one of the things, lincoln is participate in a mob or justify a mob no matter how much like s

doing, you should never resort passion to overtake reason and we have it are designed to deal with conflict and we need use them. don't, we are one road to ruin. at the very gig of the lyceum address lincoln describes the gifts of american democracy and that these gifts were bequeathed to us by the founders. the field has already been harvested. that's the language heterms of . they set out this beautiful overnment. our job is to fulfill it by carrying it into dangers lurking that lincoln sees as threatening the possibility of this democrat experiment continuing. it's not going come from abroad, hegoing to come from ourselves. die by suicide.gether he says nois the threat. the threat is our own ability to

use reason and common sense to soberly walk the path of justice within christ. lawlessness, the government, theirth in the government will be diminished if the rnment can't protect me, then my own commitments to it diminish. he saw that as a real risk with the kinds of lawlessness that he saw across the nation. what do you do when there are laws that you think are wrong or laws that you disagree with? he says in the lyceum address you get them repealed, right? the answer is not to break those laws. it's to get them repealed. lincoln believed that since the we don't have the muscle memory■> for democracy the way we used to. do we get those feelings to the proper level?

educate nation. democracy has to be ritualized. it has to b cultivated on an ongoing basis and i think this is what lincoln is getting at. you know, it's not. well, the we're good know each generation is■■ charged with caretaking americanone way thaty american citizens can help shore up our democracy and uphold our represen to understand that americans, citizens are all this together, that a holding the republic is not a partizan thing, that upholding the republic means other. so i think it's really potent right now, not to pour fuel into the fire. the constantly re up people, which seems to be are present

political mode, unfortunately. but i think that does pose a dangero republic in the long run, because if you're going to demonize your enemy that degree in the end, you won't see them as fellow citizens. you will see them as the enemy that you would wish as lincoln was a foreign power to try them over your internal enemy. that's the only way a republic dies, as he says, through suicide. i think that is one thing that we can certainlyoln's lyceum adt one thing that we should think thoughtfully as he did. it is to deny the history of the world tells us is true. to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. lincoln is saying if you have just rampant lawlessne and abide world are looking around and that opens the door to the

possibility that someone who's ambitious, who's potentially tyrannical, can come in and say, 've got the answer, and the answer is power for me. i am going to save you from this chaos and this violence. what? thank you. these places would satisfy an alexander, a caesar or a napoleon and never towering genius disdains a beaten path. he's saying for ambitious men like will they■1e able to be satisfied in just maintaining the good thing thathe founde■[b? most certainly it expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch? well, at some time spring up amongcqand when such a one doest will require the people to be un other, attached to the government and laws generally inteigensuccessful wes

at the time when the united states was founded, they believed they were participating in this great, unprecedented experiment. but he says the experiment has largely succeeded. and so here we are. what are people of passion? people who want to make a difference? what are they going to commit nation is established? what happens when really ambitious men come forward who 't content with just being a member of the legislature of ju? people who want more than that. he worries that people like that are going to look at what has succeeded about the united states and want to tear it down, that they're going tohey can maa difference is by destroying what

previous generations have constructed. so it's a pretty urgent call for americans to commit themselves the constitution, and also reason that it's critic subordinate their passions to ñreason. ben franklin after the constant reported to have told the woman who asked him, so, mr. franklin, what kind of government do we have? and he says, a republic. can keep it, you can we make it? can we keep it? can we keep the democracy and the lyceumress is a moment in time. it's a snapshot where lincoln says, look at this we're losing it. we're losing this democracy right now. it's happening before our eyes. and if we're not careful, we'll lose itthe key lesson of linco's lyceum address is that violence is not the answer thatló]w no mr

how much you may disagree with an opponent in a representative government resorting to arms is the worst thing you can do. epublic has a system of law in■y and that the rule of law should be above any monarch, any tyrant, any strong man. when we look at why lincoln concludes with george washington in the lyceum address, he says, we need our washington to washi? who is washington? is he the■'en delaware river? is he the general who inspires at valley forge? alexander caesar.referenced is m address? th could have done anything. washington did on the battlefield. and they did. but what they could not do. the greatest gift washito steppm

power. persal restraint. to have all that power and greatness before you and to say, you know what, that's enough. it's someone else's turn. lincoln's lyceum address was published in the san carmenjoure week after he presented it. the impact at the time, it's very hard to nobody sent in letters to the editor. there wasn't compliment. there wasn't criticism. it was silent.that was very com. the see it as a really key tohstone moment for looking at the ways that lincoln's pub his career. i think the contribution makes,. it's for o address is not just f the&5 career,

but what does it say to us? we're going to have in a large democracy like ours, groups, ideas, ideologies that really profoundly disagree with, maybe even revise will. nevertheless, in a multiracial democracy,abide them and if we disagree, we have to root them out, not through violence, but through discourse, exercising our rights, through e democratic process. that's thee. that's the gift of the lyceum in many the reason why lincoln's words are so timeless is because the issues that he addressed in his speeches still live on with us. it is so important for read some of those messages and realize that these issues not current, that they're not just being made up today, that they've been5% with us for a log time and that lincoln was one of the first presidents to address

them head on in all his speeches, starting the lyceum address as ending with his second inaugural address, a month before he is assassinated. he is still talking about these issues. there's a reason why i think we continue to revere lincoln and that each generation because hie value of our institutions, of value of our democracy are

■■dj■ ■h>3and thanks for joinin.

c-span's american history tv we're here at the organization orleans, and we'reerence