![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhltLMtkumSoSfpUWKLF5Dzspgv-IUCv-0q8OYMqmH9ZZxPIOhcQmINbDBRdRvvsGYUaavHnh6KOfYYg5TByYEZlejJESU-2F-1-vY9dJ9vbxQpfGrH-2ko3Zzz6avGCgeaZKAYQQgWCT8u/s400/Abraham_Lincoln_half_length_seated,_April_10,_1865.jpg)
From a speech by the very young Abraham Lincoln delivered January 27, 1838 to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois:
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
2 comments:
Sadly, I fear the suicide to be the likely outcome of a people who fear change.
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