Courage: To Stand Up for Our Laws and Institutions

Our Harry Truman-inspired courage blog this month (below) was written before an angry mob stormed the Capitol on January 6.   We stand by the column's sentiments, but the moment requires something more.  The founder of the Republican party, Abraham Lincoln, launched his political career with a speech denouncing “the mobocratic spirit” too evident in parts of the country.  He contended that should it happen, American demise would not come from across the Atlantic (recall the War of 1812 when the British stormed the Capitol), but from free Americans themselves, who chose to take the law into their own hands.  He called on Americans to have the courage to stand by our laws and institutions, and change bad laws rather than take the law into their own hands.  Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum address (somewhat shortened here) bears re-reading.