Today is the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It represents the thoughts of the United States' greatest president. Abraham Lincoln rose from a humble beginning, facing adversity all through his life, and met his challenges with courage and thoughtfulness. He carefully thought out his plans and actions to obtain the results that would be best for the country. The more I learn about him, the more I am impressed. I highly recommend Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals" and the Lincoln movie from a few years ago starring Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln. These will give you a good picture of the man from several years before his election as president to his death. There are many many books written about him - you can find other good ones also.
There are five copies of his Gettysburg Address and this is the one that is considered the original. It is the only one that is signed and dated, and it is the one that is inscribed at the Lincoln Memorial.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- 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.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
The Address was carefully written, not on a train going to the event as folk lore would have it. Mr. Lincoln gave much thought to these words and the thoughts he wished to convey. He followed a skilled orator on the program that day, Edward Everett, who spoke for about two hours, which was customary for cemetery dedications of that day. After the ceremony was completed, Mr. Everett said to President Lincoln that he envied him because he (Lincoln) had said in two minutes what had taken Everett 120 to recite.
To me, his speech challenges us to continue the great task that faced the nation then, and still. Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle for the preservation of the Union sundered by the secession crisis, with "a new birth of freedom," that would bring true equality to all of its citizens. He also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality.
I have hope that there will be leadership of this country that will act with the courage, understanding, and forethought that Mr. Lincoln displayed as well as with the dedication to the principles of human equality set forth by our founding fathers.
Take care.
