A young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln stood before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois in 1838 to deliver a speech on the perpetuation of America’s political institutions. The Lyceum Address is as relevant in 2024 as it was in 1838. And its message stands as a second testament to a core theme of the Book of Mormon: the sanctity of the rule of law.
Lincoln focused his remarks in the Lyceum Address on the greatest threat to the perpetuation of political institutions. In other words, what could destroy the government, peace, and liberty of the United States? “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 in their military chest; with Buonaparte 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.” The greatest threat to the United States would never be external. It was not to Europe that Americans should cast a suspicious gaze.
Instead, Lincoln urged his fellow Americans to look in the mirror. “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.” How would this suicide be committed, or what was its source? The great danger was the widespread disregard for law. Lincoln highlighted several examples of mob lawlessness in his address. In Mississippi, a group of gamblers was hung by a mob morally opposed to the practice. Yet gambling was legal in the state. Again in Mississippi, a group of enslaved black men were hung on suspicion of conspiracy to start an insurrection. Then white men suspected by mobs to be in league with the enslaved black men were hung. Finally, strangers with no connection at all to the events were caught up by the same bloodthirsty mobs and hung. “Dead men were seen literally dangling from the boughs of trees upon every road side; and in numbers almost sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery of the forest.” In St. Louis, a newly free black man was seized in the street, dragged to the suburbs, and burned alive after being accused of murdering a man.
These examples are interesting selections because they seem at face value to be of little consequence to the average American in 1838. Surely a few less gamblers in the country is a good thing, even if it is technically legal. Why mourn the mob execution of the free black man if he was soon to face the death penalty for murder? Here Lincoln answers,
When men take it in their heads to day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that in the confusion usually attending such transactions, they will be as likely to hang or burn someone who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is; and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of tomorrow may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so; the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of individuals are trodden down and disregarded.
No one wins in the game of mob justice, for the mob can just as easily turn against you tomorrow.
Surprisingly, though, this scene of chaos is not the worst effect of lawlessness. Worse is waiting. When the guilty go free and unpunished, “the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in practice.” Those who were once only restrained by fear of punishment become utterly unrestrained in the violation of the law. Their fondest hope is the total abolition of government, for in such a circumstance they would excel. This seems a sufficiently evil consequence, yet worse is still to come according to Lincoln.
The final and most evil effect of lawlessness is its impact on the good men and women of the country. Those who once loved the law, scrupulously abided by the law, and would have died to defend the law, now witness its consistent violation in the destruction of their property and the injuries of their families and friends. They begin to detest the government for its weakness in upholding the law and seek its replacement with a new form that can promise safety. The free government will be left friendless because its best citizens are alienated from it. And at this moment, “men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric, which for the last half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the world.” In short, at this perilous crossroads, a demagogue will step forward and, with the promise to restore law and order, seize power.
The demagogue is the great and ancient threat to free government. The nation in 1838 - and surely in 2024 - was particularly liable to the rise of such a threat. In the founding generation, those men who hungered for distinction and fame, those who belong to “the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle…an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon…” could distinguish themselves in the erection of an entire nation. But in 1838, the nation was built. How then could a man of such intense ambition distinguish himself? In emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen? Perhaps in destroying old governments and erecting new ones in the demagogue’s image? This “towering genius” or willful individual will be successful in degree equal to that of the lawlessness of the people. On the other hand, only a people fiercely wedded to the Constitution and the rule of law can prevent the rise of a demagogue.
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country and never to tolerate their violation by others…to the support of the Constitution and the Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor.
Lawlessness is inextricably linked to the destruction of political institutions. The perpetuation of free political institutions is dependent upon a people almost religiously dedicated to the rule of law. This devotion must be taught in homes, in schools, in churches, and in civic institutions. It must be “proclaimed” in state and national legislatures and enforced in the judicial system. “Let it become the political religion of the nation…”
In fact, Lincoln pushes devotion to the law to its extremity. He quickly acknowledges in the Lyceum Address that bad laws exist. He insists, however, that bad laws must be strictly obeyed until they can be repealed through the proper legislative channels. Here he is clearly speaking to abolitionists in his insistence that no grievance justifies mob rule or undermining the rule of law. Lincoln demands that right must be done the right way, that the sanctity of the law ultimately outweighs any particular grievances that could drive one to act outside the law. Only this kind of devotion can prevent tyranny and the destruction of free political institutions.
A young Lincoln’s warning about lawlessness and ultimate political destruction is deeply reminiscent of a similar warning from the Book of Mormon. Lincoln began his address by asking from what quarter the great danger to the perpetuation of political institutions would come. In the Book of Alma, the military leader Captain Moroni asks and answers the same question. “And it came to pass…he named all the land…A chosen land, and the land of liberty. And he said: Surely God shall not suffer that we, who are despised because we take upon us the name of Christ, shall be trodden down and destroyed, until we bring it upon us by our own transgressions” (Alma 46: 17-18). The great danger to the peace, liberty, and government of the people of Nephi was not external. Captain Moroni was urging them not to cast their suspicious eye at the Lamanites. Instead, he urged the people of Nephi to look in the mirror and see themselves as the single greatest threat. If they were to be destroyed, it would be by suicide. This warning proved prophetic.
At this point in the war chapters contained in the Book of Alma, the people of Nephi had just won a war against the Lamanites. But instead of an era of peace, this victory ushered in political and religious instability among the Nephites. A man named Amalickiah sought to destroy the liberty and government of the land and become the king. He had many followers, particularly among lower government officials seeking power. Amalickiah is described as a man of “cunning device and a man of many flattering words, that he led away the hearts of many people to do wickedly” (Alma 46:10). Amalickiah was a classic demagogue - a man of immense ambition and skill - thwarted only by the majority of the people of Nephi remaining steadfastly attached to the rights and laws of the land. Defeated but not dead, Amalickiah fled with a few followers to the lands of the Lamanites.
Similar episodes occur throughout the Book of Mormon. The book of Helaman begins with the political assassination of the chief judge Pahoran II and the creation of the Gadianton Robbers. In the fortieth year of the reign of the judges, the great chief judge Pahoran died, and the people argued over which of his sons should replace him. Pahoran II ultimately won the day by the voice of the people. One brother, Paanchi, accepted the people’s decision. The other brother, Pacumeni, refused to accept the results of the selection process and sought to “flatter away those people to rise up in rebellion against their brethren” (Helaman 1:7). He was immediately arrested and condemned to death for this treason. Clearly the people of Nephi had little patience for a man obsessed with his own power. However, the supporters of Pacumeni were angry and conspired to have Pahoran II murdered by Kishkumen, pledging that none of them would speak of the plot and thus none would be punished.
This was the genesis of the Gadianton Robbers, a group which “did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi (Helaman 2:13).” The group was initially led by Gadianton, “who was exceedingly expert in many words, and also in his craft…therefore he did flatter them, and also Kishkumen, that if they would place him in the judgment-seat he would grant unto those belonged to his band that they should be placed in power and authority among the people (Helaman 2:4-5). Gadianton sought power and used flattery and rhetorical flourish to gain it. He and his people consistently undermined the rule of law. For example, after Helaman II took the position of Chief Judge, Kishkumen and his band attempted a second assassination. This attempt was thwarted, but Gadianton and his band escaped into the wilderness.
The Nephites' survival from this point until the coming of Christ in 3rd Nephi was dependent upon their devotion to the law. When they held fast to the law, the Gadianton Robbers were unable to corrupt them and they won wars, which were usually instigated by Nephite dissenters, against the Lamanites. However, at other times the majority of the Nephites united with the Gadianton Robbers “and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed, that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings” (Helaman 6:21). This corruption began with a minority and spread until it had “seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils…And thus they did obtain the sole management of the government…and thus we see they were…ripening for an everlasting destruction” (Helaman 6:38-40). A civil war followed by a devastating famine then afflicted the people of Nephi. Though the people repented, they could not stamp out the Gadianton Robbers, who within twenty years gained such strength that only the combined armies of the Nephites and the Lamanites in a state of total war could defeat them.
Within a few short years of this great victory, however, the political stability of the Nephites is again threatened by class division and lawlessness. Prophets rose up among the Nephites to call the people to repentance. This message was received poorly by the powerful and educated class of lawyers, judges, and high priests, who sought to silence the prophets through secret executions. “Now there were many of those who testified of the things pertaining to Christ who testified boldly, who were taken and put to death secretly by the judges…now behold, this was contrary to the laws of the land, that any man should be put to death except they had power from the governor of the land” (3 Nephi 6:23-24). Clearly these executions became public knowledge because a “complaint” went up to the governor in Zarahemla, and the corrupt judges were brought before him to be tried for their crimes. Yet justice was thwarted by the friends and kin of the corrupt judges who were determined to see that they not be punished according to the law. This group entered into a covenant to “deliver those who were guilty of murder from the grasp of justice…to destroy the governor, and to establish a king over the land” (3 Nephi 6:29-30). And they succeeded.
The group conspired to assassinate the chief judge of the land. This led to political crisis and the complete dissolution of the Nephite state. As Lincoln later argued, the repeated violations of the rule of law caused even the good men of the country, those who had loved the law, to look to a new system of government. “And the people were divided one against another; and they did separate one from another into tribes…and thus they did destroy the government of the land” (3 Nephi 7:2). The law of the land was abolished in favor of new tribal laws and a general regulation of peace between the tribes. The political upheaval wreaked great spiritual damage as well, for because of the “great contention in the land…the more righteous part of the people had nearly all become wicked” (3 Nephi 7:7). As for the secret group, they created their own kingdom in the north and appointed Jacob their king, trusting that their strength would eventually grow sufficient that they could go to war with the tribes.
Such were the affairs of the Nephites until the natural disasters signaling the crucifixion of Christ destroyed much of the land and its people. After three days, redemption - both spiritual, political, and social - was offered by the voice of Christ. But first Christ lists the cities destroyed by the natural disasters to “hide their wickedness and abomination from before my face” (3 Nephi 9:8) Only one city is singled out for specific wrongs outside general “wickedness” for destroying the prophets and the saints. That city is Jacobugath, the presumed capital city of the people of King Jacob.
And behold, that great city Jacobugath, which was inhabited by the people of king Jacob, have I caused to be burned with fire because of their sins and their wickedness, which was above all the wickedness of the whole earth, because of their secret murders and combinations; for it was they that did destroy the peace of my people and the government of the land; therefore, I did cause them to be burned, to destroy them from before my face… (3 Nephi 9:9)
The specific indictment against the people of King Jacob is stunning. Their wickedness was more serious than that anywhere else on earth because of their willful undermining of the rule of law, their “secret murders and combinations.” It was the people of Jacob who destroyed the peace and government of the Nephites. It was their crimes that led to so much suffering, turmoil, and sin. And this warrants specific call-out by Christ!
What can we learn from this episode? Perhaps that God takes the law seriously and that each of us have a personal duty to uphold the rule of law and the peace of our people. The law, properly constructed, brings out the best in humans. Without law, there is chaos. Law is the foundation of peaceful living with your fellow man. If public decisions cannot be made through regularly established processes, such as elections, then they must be made on the basis of force. As Lincoln argued on the 85th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, “...when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets… Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election neither can they take by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war.”
Lincoln’s key argument in the Lyceum Address is that only a devotion to the rule of law can prevent tyranny and political collapse. Only a people united in reverence for constitutional processes and legal regulations can keep the demagogue at bay. That is the same message given in the Book of Mormon. From the war chapters in Alma to the destruction of the Nephite state in the lead up to Christ’s visit to the Americas and the brief history of the rise and total annihilation of the Jaredite nation, the Book of Mormon testifies repeatedly about the sanctity of the rule of law. “And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed” (Ether 8:22) We live in a time that threatens political upheaval, lawlessness, and demagoguery. The warnings from prophets ancient and modern “like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust” to us are the same: destroy the peace of the people and the government of the land at your own peril.
NOTES:
[1] This episode continued after Amalickiah’s flight into the lands of the Lamanites. Before long, he wormed his way to the top of the Lamanite government and established himself king. He then stirred up the Lamanites to war against the Nephites. He was aided and abetted in this effort by other Nephite dissenters who rejected the laws and rights of the land. This is part of a regular pattern in the Book of Mormon: Nephite dissenters strengthen and stir up the Lamanites against the Nephites.
[Back to manuscript].
[2] Lincoln, Abraham. Address at Independence Hall. Feb 22, 1861. Emphasis added by author. [Back to manuscript].
[3] Moroni 10:27. [Back to manuscript].
Full Citation for this Article: Johnston, Savannah Eccles (2024) "Lincoln, The Book of Mormon, and 2024," SquareTwo, Vol. 17 No. 3 (Fall 2024), http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleJohnstonLincolnBOM.html, accessed <give access date>.
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