Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.”
- Source
- Lyceum Address
- Date
- 1838
Meaning of “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves…”
Lincoln warns that republican institutions can be destroyed from within through citizens’ own choices and conduct, making preservation a responsibility rather than assuming external enemies are the only danger.
Where does it come from?
Lyceum Address, January 27, 1838. Lincoln is discussing mob violence, disregard for law and the preservation of republican institutions; the sentence is not a generic prediction about national collapse.
