It is but a single line in a powerful address given by Abraham Lincoln to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois in 1838. Just a small part of a speech that predated his iconic declaration that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” by some two decades. Entitled “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” Lincoln’s entreaty came during a time both transformational and dangerously divisive in our young country’s history. It should be contextually framed against the backdrop of the Nat Turner slave rebellion, a deep financial depression, the emergence of the Whig party, and the rise of the abolitionist movement.

This single, powerful, cautionary line succinctly sums up America in 2018: If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.