Ethos In The Lyceum Address Summary

The rule of law is reflected as a core principle of our nation and vital to ordered liberty. To rightly govern the American rule of law it is essential to acknowledge the continuity between the American Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The United States of America “government” is framed by these two important documents. The principles of the Declaration of Independence constitute the foundation of the government based on the universal equality of all human beings, and the U.S. Constitution founds the political process that is to be followed by the elected officials in governing the people. One cannot be without the other; both are essential for a stable government. Abraham Lincoln’s speech at the Young Men’s Lyceum in

He asked his listeners if the nation was to become endangered, would it sprout from overseas or from within the nation. He was referring to the mobs and others going against the laws of the nation. In the Lyceum Address, Lincoln went on to say that if danger “ever reach us it must spring up amongst us,” and that “we must ourselves be its author and finisher”. He thought that “as a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide”. Lincoln believed that if the nation continued on its destructive path by ignoring the rule of law, the nation in return would destroy itself. Lincoln went on to say in his address: “Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others”. Abraham Lincoln may not have addressed the Declaration of Independence in his Lyceum Address but in referring to the laws and to the U.S. Constitution, he explains that without following these laws the Declaration of Independence was for nothing and means