''Abe'' Lincoln's Yarns and Stories - University of Macau Library

Yarns and Stories, by Alexander K. McClure 240"Theirs was the task (and nobly did they perform it) to possess themselves,us, of this goodly land, to uprear upon its hills and valleys a political edificeof liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours to transmit these--the formerunprofaned by the foot of an intruder, the latter undecayed by the lapse oftime and untorn by usurpation--to the generation that fate shall permit theworld to know."This task, gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty toposterity--all imperatively require us faithfully to perform."How, then, shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect theapproach of danger?"Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean andcrush us at a blow?"Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa, combined, with all thetreasures of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with aBonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from theOhio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years."At what point, then, is this approach of danger to be expected?"I answer, if ever it reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot comefrom 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."I hope I am not over-wary; but, if I am not, there is even now something ofill-omen amongst us."I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country, thedisposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the soberjudgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive