Opening Paragraphs of the 1838 Lyceum Address, Rewritten for 21st Century Readers

In this discourse, I aim to elucidate the imperative of safeguarding our political institutions. Situated within the chronicles of events transpiring under the sun, we, the American People, find ourselves in possession of an enviable expanse of land, distinguished by territorial scope, soil fertility, and climatic salubrity. Governed by political institutions conducive to civil and religious liberties, our heritage is bestowed upon us by a valiant and patriotic yet departed ancestral lineage. Their noble endeavor was to acquire and bequeath this fertile land, erecting a political structure upon its hills and valleys dedicated to liberty and equal rights. Our responsibility is to transmit these unblemished to subsequent generations.

The question then arises: How do we fulfill this responsibility? Where should we anticipate peril, and how should we fortify against it? The specter of an overseas military juggernaut traversing the ocean to vanquish us is dismissed. The combined might of Europe, Asia, and Africa, commanded by a Buonaparte-like figure, would be impotent against our geographical barriers. The peril, if it arises, must emerge domestically. It cannot be of foreign origin. If our downfall is decreed, we must be its architects and executors. As a community of free citizens, our endurance through time or our self-annihilation hinges on our choices.

Opening Paragraphs of the 1838 Lyceum Address, in Lincoln’s Original Words

As a subject for the remarks of the evening, the perpetuation of our political institutions, is selected.

In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American People, find our account running, under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era.--We find ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them--they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.

How then shall we perform it?--At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-- 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.