In 1787 as
final deliberations on the Constitution were being completed. Dr. Benjamin Franklin was asked if the new government would
be a monarchy or a republic. His answer:
"A Republic, if you can keep it.”
Fifty years later, with a clear view of the divisions facing the nation, Abraham Lincoln eloquently spoke of the challenges our young nation faced. At Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, he said in part:
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? 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.
We stand at that point again on this 4th of July.
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