The Lyceum

The Lyceum. Looking for Lincoln. , Lyceums were community associations that sponsored lectures, debates, and discussions. , Eastern Protestant missionaries and educators brought the concept to frontier Illinois. Promoters hoped their Lyceums would disseminate knowledge and encourage civic responsibility. Townspeople hoped attendance would help them climb the ladder of middle-class respectability. Aspiring local leaders used them as forums for honing their oratorical and analytic skills. In Lincoln's day there were over 3,000 lyceums nationwide. Springfield had two Lyceums---the Sangamon County Lyceum, founded in 1833, followed a few years later by the Young Mens' Lyceum. Meetings were usually on Saturday nights.

Prominent local men---and those who hoped to be prominent---were invited as speakers. Topics included science, culture, health, history, and politics. Participants discussed such questions as whether to abolish the death penalty, whether newspapers could be trusted, and whether married people were happier than single people. Since women also attended, Lyceums had a social and recreational function, as well. At the Lyceum, young men like Abraham Lincoln could simultaneously pursue their professional and social advancement.

From 1838 to 1840, the Young Mens' Lyceum met in the Baptist Church, on the southwest corner of Seventh and Adams Street. It was here that Lincoln delivered his famous "Lyceum Speech" on January 27, 1838. The church did not have the tall "battlement" tower at the time. It was added twenty-one years later---the year before Lincoln was elected president. The tower housed a 2,300-pound bell. It rang at Lincoln's election---and at his funeral.

A few weeks before his 29th birthday, Abraham Lincoln addressed the Young Mens' Lyceum. He responded to the question; "Do the signs of the present times indicate the downfall of this Government." His remarks---known as the "Lyceum Speech"---are an important Lincoln text, containing clues about the developing mind of the future president. Lincoln was writing in a period when many Americans feared that vigilantism and mobocracy threatened their society. Lincoln's speech, entitled "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions," still has relevance today.

...(L)et every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty....Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe...Let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges...In short, let it become the political religion of the Nation...