President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous address, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions”, on January 27, 1838, at a juncture during which our country was amidst immense national strife. America’s Founding Fathers who had established the country had passed, and in their absence, the once idealistic nation of America had transformed and fallen into a place of violence, rioting, and turmoil, effectively leaving the fundamental principles of our country behind. In light of these events, Lincoln delivered his speech, more commonly known as the Lyceum Address, to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield to discuss the deteriorating state of the nation. In the speech, Lincoln points out that this decline was a result of people acting upon pure emotion and not abiding by the law, suggesting that the path to reviving the principles that this country was built from, was to re-establish reverence for the law and government. His proposal implies that the way to restore these fundamental morals and restore the integrity of America was to look to the legislation rather than act upon emotion, indicating that Lincoln was an adherent to the law who was fearful of the excessive emotion involved in issues persisting in the United States; moreover, his advocacy for the law is clearly seen in the Lyceum Address.
Despite the fact that Lincoln believes unbridled emotions can quickly lead to radical actions and violence, he places a greater emphasis on having reverence for the law throughout his speech. He touches upon the notion that emotions, when left unchecked can become disastrous, however, this is not the central claim of his address. Instead, Lincoln merely uses examples of hyper-emotionalism to supplement his main idea that restoration of respect for the law is essential in order to better the condition of America. For instance, he provides the harrowing example of McIntosh, a free, innocent mulatto man who was burned to death at the hands of unnecessary, anger-driven mob violence. This man’s murder is indicative of the exact lawlessness present in America that Lincoln focuses on; if people were in fact obeying the law, there would not be nearly as much chaos in the country. Pointing out that our forefathers had erected a “political edifice of liberty and equal rights,” Lincoln nurtures the idea that the fundamentals of this country, composed in the Constitution, were created in order to ensure that America would prosper as a peaceful and civil country (Lincoln 13). I believe that by laying down such a strong basis of his claim, rooted in our country’s history, Lincoln makes a compelling argument for why it is imperative that high regard for the government be restored as well as illustrates his lifelong dedication to the preservation and harmony of the union. Later in his speech, Lincoln rhetorically asks how we will combat the dangers and adversity in the country, ultimately concluding that encouraging “every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, [to] swear by the blood of the Revolution, [and] never [to] violate in the least particular, the laws of the country…” (Lincoln 17) is the only simple solution to resolve the crisis. In my view, this “simple solution” is very idealistic and lacks legitimate grounding in actuality because it proposes an idea that, in theory, would resolve the violence and disobedience in America, but one that is very difficult to achieve. Nonetheless, it promulgates Lincoln’s beliefs and reveals who he is at this stage of his life— an obedient man of the law.
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Critics may argue that the main focus of Lincoln’s address is not to promote lawfulness but to voice his concern about hyper-emotionalism, as he expresses his dismay towards excessive emotion, asserting that it clouds rationality and is a large cause of the chaos ensuing in the country. However, although he opens up his speech by describing atrocious occurrences of violence due to citizens’ discontent with the circumstances of the nation, rather than dwelling on the fact that much of the chaos is emotion-driven, Lincoln, uses these examples to simply support his claim. He reverts back to his love for the law and warns that “if the laws be continually despised and disregarded,'' (Lincoln 17) the peoples’ detachment from their government would follow, ultimately leading to increased unrest in the country as a result of a virtually ineffective administration. Lincoln believes that the reason for the turmoil in the first place is because of the public’s failure to abide by constitutional laws, and he maintains that straying any further from the government and law would lead to a complete and utterly anarchic society. Furthermore, any argument claiming that Lincoln is not, in fact, concerned by excessive emotion, can be refuted because, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Lincoln, author, and historian David Donald claims that Lincoln’s biggest worry was that uncontrolled emotions due to disregard of the law will lead to more violence and unrest in the country, thus simultaneously invalidating the counterclaim while also upholding the image of Lincoln’s lawfulness. In fact, Donald prefaces his analysis of Lincoln’s speech by stating that in it, “[Lincoln] had attacked hyper emotionalism in politics, warning that the nation’s ‘proud fabric of freedom’ was endangered by the passions of the people— ‘the jealousy, envy, and avarice, incident to nature’” (Donald 80), detailing that by breaking the law, they are in reality threatening very “freedom” that Lincoln wishes to reintroduce by means of the law.
Condemning and discouraging hyper-emotionalism, Lincoln advocates that having reverence for the law is a better solution than acting upon extreme feelings. The focus of Lincoln’s speech is specifically the law and the dangers caused by people not abiding by the law, as well as encouraging the audience to look towards reason rather than emotion to resolve the problems Lincoln emphasizes this point several times in his address. Additionally, Donald concentrates on how Lincoln repeatedly alludes to reason and order as a large part of the solution to conflicts in the country. Specifically, he references certain parts of the speech where Lincoln elaborates on this idea of reason in his speech to build on his claim promoting lawfulness, gathering that “he [Lincoln] proposed erecting a new ‘temple of liberty’ not resting on emotion and custom but carved ‘from the solid quarry of sober reason’” (Donald 82). He explains how Lincoln’s explicit argument is based on the requirement of lawfulness for the perpetuation of the original political institution and principles that our Founding Fathers had fought for. Lincoln encourages every American to perpetuate the legacy of the Revolution and to “...pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor…” (Lincoln 17) to support the Constitution and the laws it has established to foster an equal and just environment in the country, and in my opinion, Lincoln’s adamant repetition of having reverence for the law clearly displays his rightful nature and provides further insight on his persona.
Overall, Lincoln’s Lyceum Address not only helps us understand the context and condition of America in the 1830s, but it also explores a lot about what kind of a person Lincoln was in terms of his ideologies, temperament, and much more. Lincoln strived to uphold the Constitution established by our founders because he knew that it was intended to create a society of freedom and equality for the people, therefore he encouraged people to try and overlook excessive emotions and put their faith in the law in order to move past the savage state of America at the time. In my view, Lincoln’s strict advocacy for respecting the law is admirable and thoroughly exemplifies the strict, disciplined standard that he held himself to. Not only were many of the ideas he discusses in his speech applicable in Lincoln’s era but they can also be applied to today’s world as well in order to work towards combating the social injustice issues we face in America and make our nation a more equal and just society.
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