"Lyceum Address" by Abraham Lincoln, List 5

Sandy (United States of America)
In an 1838 speech, 28-year-old Abraham Lincoln warned that individual and mob disrespect and disregard for US laws and courts would be the enemy from within that would destroy America. An ambitious leader, hungry for personal distinction, could arise to lead mobs fueled by passion—and not governed by reason—to cause America's downfall.

This list covers vocabulary from "Distinction will be…"—"...not prevail against it."

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. paramount
    having superior power or influence
    Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.
  2. avarice
    reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth
    By this influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice, incident to our nature, and so common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were, for the time, in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive; while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive of revenge, instead of being turned against each other, were directed exclusively against the British nation.
  3. prosperity
    the condition of having good fortune
    By this influence, the jealousy, envy, and avarice, incident to our nature, and so common to a state of peace, prosperity, and conscious strength, were, for the time, in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive; while the deep-rooted principles of hate, and the powerful motive of revenge, instead of being turned against each other, were directed exclusively against the British nation.
  4. dormant
    inactive but capable of becoming active
    And thus, from the force of circumstances, the basest principles of our nature, were either made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement of the noblest cause—that of establishing and maintaining civil and religious liberty.
  5. indubitable
    too obvious to be doubted
    The consequence was, that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son or brother, a living history was to be found in every family—a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related—a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned.—But those histories are gone.
  6. authenticity
    undisputed credibility
    The consequence was, that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son or brother, a living history was to be found in every family—a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related—a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned.—But those histories are gone.
  7. despoil
    destroy and strip of its possession
    They are gone.—They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-resistless hurricane has swept over them, and left only, here and there, a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage; unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated limbs, a few more ruder storms, then to sink, and be no more.
  8. verdure
    green foliage
    They are gone.—They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-resistless hurricane has swept over them, and left only, here and there, a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage; unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated limbs, a few more ruder storms, then to sink, and be no more.
  9. descendant
    a person considered as coming from some ancestor or race
    They were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now, that they have crumbled away, that temple must fall, unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason.
  10. calculating
    good at tricking people to get something
    Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.—Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and...a reverence for the constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last; that we revered his name to the last; that...we permitted no hostile foot to...desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.
  11. morality
    the quality of being in accord with right or good conduct
    Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.—Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and...a reverence for the constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last; that we revered his name to the last; that...we permitted no hostile foot to...desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.
  12. desecrate
    violate the sacred character of a place or language
    Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.—Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and...a reverence for the constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last; that we revered his name to the last; that...we permitted no hostile foot to...desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.
Created on Wed Apr 29 20:16:22 EDT 2026 (updated Thu Apr 30 14:59:08 EDT 2026)

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