In February 1860, Abraham Lincoln delivered the “Cooper Union Address.” Lincoln wrote the speech over the four months between receiving the invitation (October 1859) and delivering the speech. Lincoln scholars believe it was this speech that moved Lincoln from relative obscurity and cemented his candidacy for president.
There were 1,500 people in the audience on that February night in New York City. An attendee recorded his reactions, “When Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disappointed. He was tall, tall—oh, how tall! And so angular and awkward that I had, for an instant, a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man.” However, as Lincoln continued to speak, “his face lighted up as with an inward fire; the whole man was transfigured. I forgot his clothes, his personal appearance, and his individual peculiarities. Presently, forgetting myself, I was on my feet like the rest yelling … cheering this wonderful man.”
Another attendee wrote, “No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience.”
The Cooper Union speech was 7,000 words; by comparison, the “Gettysburg Address” was 272 words (yup, just 272). All 7,000 words were printed and widely circulated as campaign literature because Lincoln was answering southern Democrats who threatened to secede if a Republican were elected president.
The New York Times reprinted the entire speech with this explanation, “The carefully crafted speech examined the views of the 39 signers of the Constitution. Lincoln noted that at least 21 of them—a majority—believed Congress should control slavery in the territories, rather than allow it to expand …”
Is the “rule or ruin” speech relevant today? You decide.
Lincoln made clear that he opposed expanding slavery into the western territories. He also made clear that, while the issue articulated was slavery, the underlying issue was how the United States would function—if it continued to function as one country at all.
“But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your Constitutional rights. That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such thing …” Yet, Lincoln added, “You will rule or ruin.”
According to the Constitution, Article 1, Section 7 (sometimes called the Revenue Clause), bills for raising revenue must start in the United States House of Representatives. And yet, as the deadline for raising the debt ceiling approaches, regardless of the dire consequences of reneging on the debt payments, the Republican majority is not coming to agreement and passing a bill or so much as a continuing resolution. They are discussing impeachment.
Let’s say they are purposefully ignoring their obligation, allowing the United States to default, and at the same time, impeaching the sitting president. What effect would their two actions have on the strength and stability of the country?
All over the country, Constitutional rights and obligations, as well as the Constitution itself, are being challenged by what President Bidan calls MAGA Republicans. The right to vote, the right to travel, the right for the vote of the people to be the unchallenged final decision, the right to privacy, and the obligation to comply with Article 6 (the Supremacy Clause) of the Constitution: When state law and federal law conflict, federal law displaces, or preempts, state law.
When our institutions that secured justice for all are under assault, when the Golden Rule and the sense of community is being cast aside, as the tenets of our democracy are attacked, President Biden said he is trying to appeal to the people’s reason to restore the soul of America.
“I ran for president because I believed we were in a battle for the soul of this nation. I still believe that to be true … [and I believe] it’s never a good bet to bet against the American people.”
We all hope Biden is right. In his presidency so far, he has repeatedly delivered on promises, even as others doubted he could. He remains steadfast in his belief in us. A majority of us agree, even as the politicians seem irrevocably divided. One side seems more drawn to authoritarianism—or perhaps just to destructive chaos. At such fraught and anxious times, it is as if Lincoln were reaching across the centuries and speaking directly to all of us.
“Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin.”
The world has changed, Lincoln’s Republican Party was defending the Union and the Constitution against the southern Democrats; now it is the Democrats defending our way of life against the MAGA Republicans. Today it feels as if pulling a lever in a voting booth for a MAGA Republican is akin to pulling the pin on a grenade.
Some of us fear. Some of us despair. Some, like Biden, remain optimistic, with trust in the strength of our form of government. To all of us who want to defend and protect democracy, what advice did Lincoln offer as he stood at a similar crossroads?\
“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menacs of destruction to the Government might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
Is the “rule or ruin” speech relevant 163 years later? You decide.
