There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.  In any case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true—­that is, the thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of all law and all good citizens, or it is wrong, and therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and in neither case is the interposition of mob law either necessary, justifiable, or excusable.

But it may be asked, Why suppose danger to our political institutions?  Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years?  And why may we not for fifty times as long?

We hope there is no sufficient reason.  We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous.  There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and which are not too insignificant to merit attention.  That our government should have been maintained in its original form, from its establishment until now, is not much to be wondered at.  It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away.  Through that period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is understood to be a successful one.  Then, all that sought celebrity and fame and distinction expected to find them in the success of that experiment.  Their all was staked upon it; their destiny was inseparably linked with it.  Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring world a practical demonstration of the truth of a proposition which had hitherto been considered at best no better than problematical—­namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves.  If they succeeded they were to be immortalized; their names were to be transferred to counties, and cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered and sung, toasted through all time.  If they failed, they were to be called knaves and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be forgotten.  They succeeded.  The experiment is successful, and thousands have won their deathless names in making it so.  But the game is caught; and I believe it is true that with the catching end the pleasures of the chase.  This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated.  But new reapers will arise, and they too will seek a field.  It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us.  And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before them.  The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and in maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others?  Most certainly it cannot.  Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing