Words To Reflect On

"I hope I am not over-wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute [for the rule of law]... wild and furious passions.

"This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, through grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny."

—Abraham Lincoln, 1837