The Political Violence that Worried Young Abraham Lincoln

He feared for America's future

On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln spoke to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. His topic can be summed up in a sentence: “Outrages committed by mobs are the every-day news of the time.”

The 28-year-old Lincoln, a lawyer and state legislator, cited the outbreaks of violence that made him fear for the future of America’s experiment in self-government. There was a lot to be worried about.

In July, 1835, the citizens of Vicksburg, Mississippi hanged five people suspected of being professional gamblers. In April, 1836, a black man facing murder charges in St. Louis was seized by a white mob, chained to a tree and burned alive. Realizing the torture that awaited him, Francis McIntosh had begged in vain for someone to shoot him.

And a little more than two months before Lincoln spoke, an anti-slavery newspaper editor who was trying to defend h…