This is an excerpt form The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions by Abraham Lincoln.

“Yet, notwithstanding this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure that the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affection from the government is the natural consequence; and to that sooner than later, it must come”

What did he mean by this?