"Americans, Lincoln warned, had fallen victim to "wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of the courts." If respect for the rule of law disintegrated, the stage would be set for the emergence of an ambitious tyrant, a "towering genius" who would seek to gain a place in history even greater than the founders by "emancipating slaves or enslaving free men." The remedy was for Americans to rededicate themselves to the rule of "cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason" and make respect for the rule of law their "political religion."60"