17 years after 9/11, a warning from Abraham Lincoln

It is but a single line in a powerful address given by Abraham Lincoln to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois in 1838. Just a small part of a speech that predated his iconic declaration that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” by some two decades. Entitled“The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” Lincoln’s entreaty came during a time both transformational and dangerously divisive in our young country’s history. It should be contextually framed against the backdrop of the Nat Turner slave rebellion, a deep financial depression, the emergence of the Whig party, and the rise of the abolitionist movement.

This single, powerful, cautionary line succinctly sums up America in 2018: If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.

Lincoln’s warning spoke of common fears about a “transatlantic military giant,” and “armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined,” flush with unlimited resources, and with “a Bonaparte for a commander.” No, he gently chided throughout the passage, America should not fear the outside invader and foreign actors wishing to do us harm. The danger to the Republic was here, in our midst, and right under our noses. It wasus.

The “house divided” line certainly became an iconic Lincolnism. But its lesser known corollary — that we are our own worst enemy and the author of our potential destruction as a nation — is what resonates for me, on this 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

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