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…
