“Abstractly considered, the hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg, was of but little consequences. They constitute a portion of population, that is worse than useless in any community; and their death, if no pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually swept, from the stage of existence, by the plague or small pox, honest men would, perhaps, by much profited, by the operation.”

Abraham Lincoln, Speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum, Springfield, Ill., Jan. 27, 1838