America at war—with itself 

By: Tuffy Fields

“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. 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.” To paraphrase this in modern copy the meaning is, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves from within.” 

These prophetic words were not uttered recently nor were they some speech delivered in the magnificent halls of our noble capital nor were they espoused from an elegant orator during a political ride through the countryside. These words were delivered in 1838 to Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, warning that mob violence, disregard for the rule of law, and internal division posed the greatest threat to the nation. He feared that chaos could lead Americans to embrace a tyrannical leader promising “law and order. The hallmark of this insurrection from within would not surface until 1848 when Carl Marx published his Communist Manifesto and the catalyst was in place to launch the European Revolution of 1848. The author of the warning to America was a young lawyer, Abraham Lincoln.