The Law Must Prevail

In January of 1838, Abraham Lincoln, a 28-year-old Republican from Illinois, saw trouble on the horizon. Not from other countries but destruction from within. The trouble Lincoln perceived was the growing lawlessness as men ignored the rule of law. 

During a speech in Springfield, Lincoln pointed out that ignoring the law eventually broke down the guardrails designed to protect individuals. 

“Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane,” Lincoln said, “they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much as its total annihilation.”  

He called for people to support democracy through “sober reason.” Lincoln asked that Americans exercise “general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.”  

In January of 2025, we watched as convicted criminals, who not only attacked the very foundation of our democracy but assaulted and injured those tasked with upholding the law, were prematurely released from prison. Certain citizens were jubilant at the decision. 

Let’s say intruders broke a window and entered your home. Your adult son tried to defend your property only to lose his eye when the intruder attacked him with a pole. Your uncle was tased repeatedly which resulted in heart failure, your daughter was bloodied, your home ransacked, and an intruder defecated in your kitchen.  

The violators were arrested, put on trial, found guilty by a jury of their peers, sentenced to prison based on their crimes, then prematurely released at the whim of another. How would you feel? What would your recourse be? 

I believe Lincoln’s recognition that the law must prevail over individual passions reverberates far beyond the specific crises of the 1830s. 

Historical references inspired by historian Heather Cox Richardson.