national emergency?
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?
By what means shall we fortify against it?
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?
Never!
All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected?
I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us.
It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.
As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
~Abraham Lincoln, Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838)
You know, my Dad used to tell me that over and over when I was a kid; I didn’t know he was paraphrasing Lincoln then. But I’m worried now, because “it must spring up amongst us” and it seems it already has. . .