Lyceum Address Quotes

When men take it in their heads today 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. —“The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions”: Address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838