■< always a fight to keep it. as lincoln says, whether we ever attain perfection is a question for another day, but a commitment to the constitution and to the declaration of independence is a commitment to ■ ■erking toward freedom and equality. the 1830s were a verys the timee

national political arena. it was very violent, period. mob violence was a real problem. lynchings and murders. it's a brutal jail, difficult time. lots of people are■#■/ concerned about whether or not this americansurvive. alexis de tocqueville visited writes a glowing book, democracy in america. some say the greatest book ever written about the united states p]■as wl atest book written about democracy. and yet it's a period of val related to the rule of law. and that's, i think, whateum adn that historic night in january of 1838, the lyceum address invites us into the mind of youg about the major issues of his time. justice for all, irrespective of

their background. like no other, lincoln's speech, it is a profoundly prophetic speech. it's what we make of it, rather than what was made of it at the important. oln was a self-educated lawyer. he was extremely ambitious. he was very. he hadcated. he came from humble beginnings. but what's remarkable about oln, how thoughtful he is from a veryhe moves from new bee capital of illinois in 1837. ultimately, he becomes an attorney and state official, and early career right there in springfield. lincoln was invitedeak

before a group that was called the young man's lyceumeld. these young men tended to debate ad to do with state andpolitical issues. lyceum is from the greek. it was the name of aristot school. a lyceum is what we ul public ln educational institution. lyceum today might be something akin to your local lib speakers. these organizations were se to could do well. you could do not. sir, will lyceum were forums for the expression of democratic values a the virtues of what it means to be an american. how to be a good amerito be a g. and so the topics of the day wesetting. so lincoln is invited■9 t lyceud

for his topic he chooses the perpetuation of our political institutions. he does at because he sees american democracy under attack because of the rise of mob viol slavery. lincoln, in his lyceum mentions three series of murders, the first of which occur in 1835. there had been a pamphlet circa late in suggesting that there was going to be a slave insurrection. the state of mississippi and white gamblers at the time had long been vilified and disdained for their craft. the fear stirred by this would be fanciful were directed towards them because these white gamblers were somehow responsible for helping and aiding and abetting this prospective black insurrection i't true, but they

were linked to it. so many people were people, they just hang them■w without any due process of law for being suspected. assisting slave rebellion. m hanging on the trees of mississippi like the spanish moss. and then we havthe kiinof aboli. elijah lovejoy, who increasinglo against slavery, but also condemned in harsh language the burning of francis mackintos a free black man in sto leave st d set up his print shop in alton, ■/ illinois. a free state. nevertheless, he was tracked there, and his printing press famoly thrown into the river. each of these events, lincoln highlits and i think

importantly links them together as part of this ab]andonment of what washington and others hoped foin this country, which is if someone is guilty, ther'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 toxplain why recourse to the rule of law and to the courts is the thing that can hold americans together amid all of these disagreements and differences that that's all we have. and lincoln is not pro-slavery by any stretch of the imagination. he is definitely anti-slavery in sentiment. you can see that right from the starof his polthe resolutions os legislature of 1837 against abolitionists that he protests agolitical risk. abolitionists are not popular.

they are being attacked by people are part of the status quo. lincoln saw this as the giving up to the passions rather than reason, sober reason must be our salvation. otherwise, we're going to fall prey to these passions will lead the nation to commit what he calls suicide. it is certain only the case that n1features the subject matter in 1837 was resonate through out american history. there are many moments of extreme violence. there are many moments of viole. there are moments of mob violence. there are worries and concerns about the longevity of our democracy, the health of our decr emes and topics recur. soking at the way lincoln and others of his time were,

grapple living with these questions, it can help us think through our own present moment. activity did encourage was thoughtful reflection debate, listening to others. there are features of this that i think can help us think through for our selves, howlive. ■p■çfrances mcintosh was a blacn from pittsburgh who was visiting st louis and he comes off the a melee with police who are tryin. and they enlist mackintosh into e refuses, they arrest him and such begins the sad and tragic tale of mackintosh, who before he is incarcerastrikes ae

officers. officer and before long, a mob surrounds his jail cell. and they remove him forcibly take him to the the time, where he is chained to a tree burned alive and they got away with it because when they were put on trial, a judge, suitably named judge lawless, he actually let the mob go free. william herndon argues that this moment mackintosh is killed. spurs lincoln to action to talk about the rule of law and democratic decline in springfield that night in 8. lincoln is saying everyone is entitledocess of law and it's corrosive for ourand fe country. if we succumb to our way.

francis mackintosh's, the only person abraham lincoln mentions by nwhictim? he mentioned several other people and concludes the address by talking abouteo he mentions and julius caesar and napoleon. but ofhe vtims including the white victim, elijahñmurder, may one lincoln mentions by name. i think this is important in 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 not only humanizes him, but it alsoar killing racially ■lis an important element to det decline. it's not just that the rule of law is being abandoned in

vacuum. it's connectedour history and present history at the time, related to race. and lincoln makes that connection, one that, inde making that makes the speech unique. characteristic this period was that the participer in the mobs and people who defended them were often very respectable members of the community. they were members of the elite who would say, well, we just had to do this because we had toun those bad guys out of town or. the abolitionists areabolitionio our community. and so we have to them out of town, make an example of them tour community. and so many of these mob actions werepublic good or the public p. one of the things, lincoln is

saying is it is never okay to participate in a mob or justify ah you don't like what some person is doing, you should never resort to allowing our passion to overtake reasont are designed to deal with conflict and we ■m=need use them. and if we don't, we are on the road to ruin. at the very beginning of the lyceum address lincoln descr ofy and that these gifts were by the founders. the field has already been uses in terms of glory. they set out this beautiful experiment in self-government. our job is to fulfi it by carrying it out. and that's where we come into dangers lurking that lincoln sees as threatening the possibility of this democrat experiment continuing. it's not going come from abroad, he said but it's going to come

from ourselves. we mli as men or die by suicide. he says no foreign government is the threat. the threat is our own ability to use reason and common sense to soberly walk the path democratid justice within christ. lasn people's sense of adherence to the government, faith in the government will be diminished if thgovern', theny commitments to it diminish. heaw that as a real risk with the kinds of lawlessness that he saw across t 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 themep answer is not toe laws. it's to get them repealed. lincoln believed that since the founders have died off, we don't

have t m for democracy the way we used to. this comes down to feelings how do we get those feelings to the proper level? educate nation. democracy has to be ritualized. it has tof0 be cared for and cultivated on an ongoing basis and i think this is what lincoln is getting at. you know, it's not. well, the founders established it and we're good know each generation is charged with caretaking american democracy. one way that i think ordinary ■american citizens can help shoe up our democracy and uphold our representative government is to x# americans, citizens are■fat a holding the t upholding the republic meansrech

other. so i think it's really potent right now, not to pour fuel into the constantly rile up people, which seems to be are present political mode, unfortunately. but i think that es republic ine long run, because if you're going to to that degree in the end, you won't see them as fellow citizens. you will see them as the enemy thatou would wish as lincoln was a foreign power to try tm your internal enemy. that's the only way a republic es through suicide. i think that is one thing that wean not from lincoln's lyceum address, but one thing that we should thiabod thoughtfully as he did. deny the history of the world tells us is tr ambition

and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. lincoln is saying if you have justness and the law abiding good people in the world are looking, what's in it? for me? that opens the door to the ambitious, who's potentially the answer, and the answer is poweror to save you fs chaos anthis vlewhat? thank you. these places would sat8ñq/fy ana napoleon and never path. he's saying able to be satisfied in just■ maintaining the good thing that the founders built? most certainly it is it unreasonable, then, to expect possessed of the loftiest genius coupled with ambition sur■icie t push it to its utmost stretch? well, at some time spring up

among us. and when such a one does, it willited with each other, attacd to the government and laws generally intelligent to successful we frustrate his tgdesigns. at the time when the united at founded, they believed they were participating in this great, unprecedented experiment. but he says the experiment has succeeded. and so here we are. what are people of passion? people who want to make a difference? what are they going to commit themselves now that the nation is established? what happens when really ambitious men come forward who aren't content with just being a er of the legislature of illinois or just being a lawyer? people whoes that people like tt are going about the united

states and want to tear itown, that they're going to see that the only way they can make a difference is by destroying what previous generations have constructed. so it's a pretty urgent call for americans to commit themselves to law. the constitution, and also reason thats critically important that people subordinate their passions to reason. ben franklin after thed been c's reported to have told the woman who asked kind of government doe have? and he says, a republic. if you can keep it,t? can we keep it? can we keep the democracy and the lyum address is a moment in time. it's a snapst ere liol photo. we're losing it. we're losing th happening befor. and if we're not careful, we'll

lose it completely. the key lesson of lincoln's lyceum address is that violence is the answer that no matter how much you may5pponent in a re government resorti to arms is thethat republic has a system of law in place and that the rule ofaw above any monarch, any tyrant, anytrong man. when we look at why lincoln concludes with george washington in the lyceum address, he says, we need our washington to emerge. what's washington? who is washington? is he therosses the delaware river? is he the general who inspires at valley forge? alexander caesar. napoleon. the tyrants that lincoln referenced is that the lyceum

address? they could have done anything. washington did on the battlefield. an more arguably. but what they could not do. the greatest gift washington gives is he stepped away from power. personal restraint. to have all that power and greatness before you and what,'. it's someone else's turn. lincoln's lyceumss was published in the san carmen journal, the complete text the ted it. the impact at the time, ' know. nobody sent in letters to the editor. wasn't compliment. there wasn't criticism. it wasthat was very common. the response subsequently has been to see it as a really key touchstone moment for looking at the ways that lincoln's public speech evolved through his career. i thinkhe contribution lincoln

makes, frankly, is for us today. o review the lyceum address is not just a part of thee or a footnote to lincoln's career, but what does it say to us? to have in a large democracy like ours, groups, ideas, ideologies that really profoundly disagree with, maybe revise will. nevertheless, in a multiracial democracy, we have to abide them and if we disagree, we have to root them out, not through violence, but through discour, exercising our rights, freedom of speech, through the democratic process. that's the difference. that's the gift of the ways. the reason whyrds are so timeless is because the issues that he addressed icfhis speeches still live on with us. it is so important for us to read some of those messages and realize that@#se are

not current, that they're not just being made up today, that they've been with us for a long time and that lincoln was one of address them head on in all his speeches, starting the lyceum second inaugural address, a month before he ising about thee issues. there's a reason why in revere d that each generation discovers lincoln because his words of the value of our institutions, of value of our democracy are

6ç■mand thanks for joining us o.

c-span's american history tv we're here at the organization of historians conference