And there is something un-American about mobs going into neighborhoods and restaurants to intimidate innocent citizens.

President Donald Trump should respond to the vicious, destructive and lawless mob precisely as President Abraham Lincoln did.

Consider how deeply Lincoln understood the importance of enforcing the law and providing safety and order—and the obligation of the government to use force when necessary.

President Lincoln understood mob rule, and he hated it. Lincoln believed in the obligation of government to take action to protect people and property from mob violence.

In Lincoln’s lyceum address of January 1838, titled “On the Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” he describes mobs as the enemy of law-abiding citizens. He also captures the exasperation of citizens when government does nothing to suppress the mobs:

In 1850, Lincoln wrote a “Fragment on Government,” which connected the protection of people and property from lawlessness to the government’s central reason for existence:

Days after the Baltimore riots against Massachusetts and Pennsylvania militia on April 19, 1861, Lincoln replied to a delegation from Baltimore who insisted he do nothing:

In Lincoln’s Special Message to Congress on July 4, 1861, he posed the necessity of calling out the “war powers” of the government to resist insurrection:

Lincoln explained the results of resisting the mob in Baltimore:

In the spirit of President Lincoln, President Trump should issue the following warning to the violent and the lawless:

Every honest citizen will be asked to submit video of anyone they see engaged in violence, looting and destruction.

Every business will be asked to share any pictures its security cameras produce of mobs and violence.

Every TV news show will be scrutinized to seek to identify the violent and the destructive.

Every policeman will be asked to use their phones to film every violent or destructive person they encounter.

The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security will be tasked with coordinating with state and local authorities to track down, arrest and prosecute the violent, lawless and criminal.

Those local authorities who refuse to cooperate will have all their federal funding suspended until they are replaced by the voters with people who are anti-criminal and anti-looting.

Like Lincoln, we are going to ensure “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

To read, hear, and watch more of Newt’s commentary, visit Gingrich360.com.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.