SEVENSCORE AND TEN YEARS AGO . . .

[indianasmith]

The President of the United States got up to deliver "a few closing remarks" at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, PA. Tired, sick, and deeply burdened by the incredible toll of the war, Abraham Lincoln got up and delivered what many believe to be the greatest political speech of all time in about two minutes. His words not only capture the essence of what the Nineteenth Century's deadliest war was all about, they also capture, for many of us, the very essence of America.

NOVEMBER 19, 1863:
Fourscore 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.


Well said, Mr. President. Well said!

[zelmo73]

09 September 2002

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address To Be Read at The 9/11 Commemoration, September 9, 2002

(New York Governor Pataki Will Read Lincoln Speech)

By David Pitts Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- One of the highlights of the September 11 commemorative events in New York is expected to be Governor George Pataki's reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, considered one of the greatest speeches in the English language.

Contacted in Albany, the state capital, a spokesperson for the governor explained that Pataki chose to recite the Gettysburg Address at the event honoring those who died in the September 11 attacks because "Lincoln's speech is always inspiring," even though it was given long ago during a conflict far different than that faced today. "The governor gave the keynote speech in Gettysburg in 1998 at a ceremony marking the 135th anniversary of Lincoln's address," the spokesperson added. "Governor Pataki is a student of history and a great admirer of Lincoln's message."

Lincoln's address -- just 272 words -- was given in the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg after one of the bloodiest battles of the U.S. Civil War (1861-65). But the nation's first Republican president spoke not to the passions of the moment, instead choosing to stress the universality of the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Said the historian Stephen Oates in his book, "Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind The Myth," it was "a national rededication to the principle that all men are created equal, a new resolve to fight for that proposition and salvage America's experience in popular government for all mankind."

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that 'all men are created equal,'" Lincoln said in the opening lines of his speech. Without discussing directly a primary issue over which the Civil War was fought -- the enslavement of African Americans in the Southern states of the Confederacy -- Lincoln implicitly extended the American promise to all races, skillfully seeking to close the gap between ideal and reality in American life. In a key phrase, Lincoln refers to the "unfinished work" that lay before the American people.

In addition to substance, many biographers have remarked on the beauty of the language used by Lincoln -- a level of eloquence rarely equaled. The poet Carl Sandburg, author of perhaps the most definitive work on Lincoln, wrote that the speech was smooth and melodic despite the toughness and urgency of its message. "His cadences sang the ancient song that where there is freedom men have fought and sacrificed for it, and that freedom is worth men's dying for," Sandburg added.

The year was 1863. The Civil War was far from over, a victory for the Union by no means assured. Lincoln was invited to Gettysburg to say a few words at the consecration of a cemetery for the Union war dead. A great battle between Union and Confederate forces had taken place in the area earlier in the year resulting in 45,000 dead and wounded from both sides. Lincoln left Washington at noon on November 18 and arrived in Gettysburg that evening. At 10 o'clock the next morning, he led a procession to the cemetery and shortly thereafter spoke the words that echo through the ages. By all accounts, he spoke for just three minutes.

The timelessness of Lincoln's message on that day, his view that great struggles essentially are about ideas and ideals, is a recurrent theme in the many biographies of the nation's 16th president. "By his words, Gettysburg becomes more than a scene of carnage, rises far above the waste and slaughter," wrote J.G. Randall in his book, "Lincoln the President," and becomes "a challenge to a society founded on the idea of democracy." He added: Lincoln's remarks represent "the undying flame of aspiration, the perpetual light that points, albeit from a battlefield, to peace."

Garry Wills in his book, "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America," makes the point more directly. Lincoln's achievement in the speech was to change the way that Americans looked at their own Constitution. "They walked off from those curving graves on the hillside," he wrote, "under a changed sky, into a different America. Lincoln had revolutionized the Revolution, giving people a new past to live with that would change their future indefinitely." Lincoln, Wills continued, "undertook a new founding of the nation, to correct things felt to be imperfect in the founders' own achievement," particularly their acquiescence to the continuation of slavery in the South.

To be sure, Lincoln's closing words on that long ago November day were addressed primarily to his generation of Americans. But they also spoke to succeeding generations as well, and ultimately to the aspirations of all mankind:

"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."

Governor Pataki will recite the Gettysburg Address in its entirety at Battery Park in New York City. It is one of many events being held in New York and across the country on September 11 as the nation remembers the people who died a year ago and, to use Lincoln's phrase, ponders "the unfinished work" that lies ahead in this 21st century struggle.


http://www.usembassy.it/file2002_09/alia/a2090908.htm

[Allhallowsday]

Whoever wrote the preceding is a windbag. 
The great ABRAHAM LINCOLN got it perfect in very few words.  Thank God for LINCOLN, our greatest President. 

[Leah]

Whoever wrote the preceding is a windbag. 
The great ABRAHAM LINCOLN got it perfect in very few words.  Thank God for LINCOLN, our greatest President. 

"I would like to have a few drinks with you AHD"- Lincoln

[Flangepart]

Whoever wrote the preceding is a windbag.  
The great ABRAHAM LINCOLN got it perfect in very few words.  Thank God for LINCOLN, our greatest President.  

Gerry Wills is Liberal columnist, so windbag is inevitable. Not that the other side is perfect either, but if you're part of the current establishment...

[Allhallowsday]

Whoever wrote the preceding is a windbag.  
The great ABRAHAM LINCOLN got it perfect in very few words.  Thank God for LINCOLN, our greatest President.  

Gerry Wills is Liberal columnist, so windbag is inevitable. Not that the other side is perfect either, but if you're part of the current establishment...

The posting and the link credit the article to DAVID PITTS.  What are you on about?  The question is rhetorical.

[zelmo73]

*ahem*

Our webmaster and host would prefer we avoid political discussions on this forum.  Though I'm guilty of participating in such myself, he's right.  Let's avoid doing so in future.

[indianasmith]

Wills is a respected historian, and his book, LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG, while a bit longwinded, is a fascinating study of this famous speech.

[Flangepart]

*ahem*

Our webmaster and host would prefer we avoid political discussions on this forum.  Though I'm guilty of participating in such myself, he's right.  Let's avoid doing so in future.

Fair enough. Just that some of Wills thought were mentioned in the article.

[Allhallowsday]

*ahem*

Our webmaster and host would prefer we avoid political discussions on this forum.  Though I'm guilty of participating in such myself, he's right.  Let's avoid doing so in future.

I don't know these writers, and don't read them.  You quote me but I do not understand your point.  I made no political comment.  So, now, what are you on about?   I don't get it.  

Please stop trying to politicize every discussion.  

*ahem*

Our webmaster and host would prefer we avoid political discussions on this forum.  Though I'm guilty of participating in such myself, he's right.  Let's avoid doing so in future.

Fair enough. Just that some of Wills thought were mentioned in the article.

I didn't read the article, though I started to.  Too long.     

[zelmo73]

*ahem*

Our webmaster and host would prefer we avoid political discussions on this forum.  Though I'm guilty of participating in such myself, he's right.  Let's avoid doing so in future.

I don't know these writers, and don't read them.  You quote me but I do not understand your point.  I made no political comment.  So, now, what are you on about?   I don't get it. 

Please stop trying to politicize every discussion. 

You got all defensive when Flangepart mentioned the inevitable windbagginess of the Liberal columnist. Just chill, bro. This is the Gettysburg Address that we're discussing, not something silly like gay marriage in New Jersey or whatever.

[Allhallowsday]

*ahem*

Our webmaster and host would prefer we avoid political discussions on this forum.  Though I'm guilty of participating in such myself, he's right.  Let's avoid doing so in future.

I don't know these writers, and don't read them.  You quote me but I do not understand your point.  I made no political comment.  So, now, what are you on about?   I don't get it.  
Please stop trying to politicize every discussion.  

You got all defensive when Flangepart mentioned the inevitable windbagginess of the Liberal columnist. Just chill, bro. This is the Gettysburg Address that we're discussing, not something silly like gay marriage in New Jersey or whatever.

Perhaps you don't understand that I hadn't read the article yet saw who wrote it.  DAVID PITTS wrote the article and apparently quoted the other writer ("GERRY WILLS") and I guess you assumed that "liberal columnist" is a buzz word for me, but it isn't.  I don't know current writers much and don't follow any.  Who's David Pitts?  Who's Gerry Wills?  I don't know.  
I wrote:
"The posting and the link credit the article to DAVID PITTS.  What are you on about?  The question is rhetorical."  
Meaning, I was perplexed but didn't really care about an answer.  Maybe snarky but not political.  I see your attempt to be snarky too.    It's political.
It's good manners to keep political opinions private, particularly if your host would prefer it.  
I started to read the article you posted and found it too long and stopped.  I did not read far enough to get any political leanings, it's just history to me.  I skimmed the article and saw the GETTYSBURG ADDRESS quoted (the greatest speech by any President yet).  Did you read what I wrote about ABRAHAM LINCOLN?  

I think the article is long for a web forum, and I apologize if it offended you that I pointed it out.  Now I will have to read it.  Not defensive, peace, brother.

[lester1/2jr]

bah 

[Allhallowsday]

bah 

[lester1/2jr]

I'm a known non fan of Lincoln and all presidents but I'll butt out of this one anymore than I already have. the mythologizing is just...a little much