Quotes are tricky things and many folks often get them wrong. While a steadfast student of history, I have also been burned by the social media quote machine a time or two. This has however, made me laser focused on the truth of what our founders and shapers have left for us to ponder concerning the fate of this great republic. Thus I’ve embraced Reagan’s philosophy of “trust but verify”. One of the quotes I’ve heard bandied about over the years has been both heralded and denounced, but rarely vetted. It is one which references the fact that our enemies will make no successful effort against us but to wait while we destroy ourselves from within. In fact, it is so altogether fitting and proper considering events of this past week, as well as our overall national station in the age of Obama, that I give you the true text today. Consider the words carefully my fellow Americans.
The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Address Before 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 Bonaparte 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.” – (Abraham Lincoln) January 27, 1838
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