# Abraham Lincoln — "let reverence for the laws … become the political religion of the nation" > [!quote] "Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation." > — Abraham Lincoln, Address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois ("The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions"), January 27, 1838 ## Context A 28-year-old Lincoln, alarmed by a wave of mob violence and lynchings across the country, told the Springfield Lyceum that the gravest threat to the republic was not foreign invasion but Americans' growing willingness to substitute mob passion for legal process. His remedy was a civic culture of "reverence for the laws" deep enough to function as a "political religion." ## Why this matters The foundational American argument that the rule of law is the load-bearing wall of self-government — and that its enemy is mob rule, the substitution of force and passion for courts and process. Lincoln's warning runs directly to [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] at Little Rock and [[John F. Kennedy]] at Ole Miss, both of whom faced exactly the mob-versus-court confrontation Lincoln predicted. It is also the antithesis of any leader who incites a crowd to override a legal outcome. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [Abraham Lincoln Online, Lyceum Address text](https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm); [The American Presidency Project](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-delivered-before-the-young-mens-lyceum-springfield-illinois). Authoritative text in Roy P. Basler, ed., *Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln*. - **Status:** Verbatim. Undisputed. ## Related quotes - [[Dwight D. Eisenhower - mob rule cannot override the courts]] — Lincoln's mob-versus-law warning, enforced with the 101st Airborne in 1957. - [[John F. Kennedy - no man is entitled to defy a court]] — the same confrontation at the University of Mississippi. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Rule of Law]].