News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Schools

November 18, 2009

BRUCE'S HISTORY LESSONS: Seven score and six years ago this week

Seven score and six years ago this week (Nov. 19) in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln honored a request to “say a few words” to the assembled crowd at a ceremony honoring both Confederate and Union soldiers who had fallen in a three-day Civil War battle fought near Gettysburg, Pa. Lincoln was not the featured speaker; that honor went to Edward Everett, a noted orator who delivered a three-hour speech recounting this conflict and the events leading up to it. Long speeches like Everett’s were the norm back then, and his talk was well received.

At 272 words, Lincoln’s speech was much shorter — so short in fact that Lincoln delivered it in his high-pitched voice and sat down before the official photographer could take his picture. Lincoln received polite applause and everyone went home. No one realized this short address would change America forever.

But change it it did, as historian Garry Wills notes in his Pulitzer-prize winning book, “Lincoln at Gettysburg.” Wills writes that when Lincoln said our nation was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” he was reminding the country that the higher purpose to which our nation must strive was not written in the Constitution. Yes, as Lincoln had acknowledged many times previously, the Constitution permitted slavery, but the Constitution was merely an instruction manual on how to share power and responsibility, and it was the product of compromise and deal-making to boot.

Rather, Lincoln suggested in this address that our higher purpose — our nation’s creed — is found in the Declaration of Independence, which says that liberty and equality are the intellectual pillars on which America rests.

Subtly, brilliantly, Lincoln was issuing a wake-up call to a nation that had all but forgotten the Declaration in its obsessive hairsplitting over what the Constitution did or did not allow, including whether or not it allowed a state to secede from the Union.

Although public reaction to Lincoln’s speech was mixed, long-term its message became part of our national consciousness. As Wills says, Lincoln “picked our pocket” intellectually. After the Gettysburg Address and its call for a “new birth of freedom” we began to think differently about what it meant to be an American. In 272 words, Lincoln gave us a purpose much more noble than the one we had before.

We all know that Lincoln, through his leadership of the North, saved the Union. I would add that through this short speech he made the Union more worthy of saving. In my opinion, Lincoln’s second inaugural address, delivered two years later, is his greatest speech, but the Gettysburg Address is easily his — and our nation’s — most important speech.



Bruce G. Kauffmann’s e-mail address is bruce@historylessons.net

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Schools
Latest News
Multimedia
Like us on Facebook!
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
TribStar.com Poll
Front page
AP Video
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff Witness Describes Fla. Face-chewing Attack Unexpected Smog in Pristine National Parks Raw Video: Cop Shoots Man Eating Another's Face Dairy Farm Uses Chiropractor to Help Cows Obama Honors Fallen Troops at Arlington Cemetery Man in Crane at Texas College Says He's Armed Raw Video: Deadly Explosion at Minn. Paper Mill Romney Campaigns Ahead of Claiming Nomination Russia Condemns Ally Syria Over Massacre of 108 Romney Promises World's Strongest Military Diplomatic Expulsions Follow Fresh Syria Report Patz Suspect's Sister: I Went to Police in 1980s Panetta: Asia the 'Project' for New Navy Grads 15 Dead in Northern Italy's 5.8-magnitude Quake White House: No Military Intervention in Syria Raw Video: Earthquake Shakes Evacuees in Italy Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing Obama Pays Tribute to Vietnam Veterans Police Probe Similarities in 2 Disappearances
NDN Video
Los Angeles Bar Bans Bachelorettes Hamster Plays Dead Beyonce Shows Off 60 Pound Weight Loss at Concert Drunk Women Breaking Into Houses: A New Trend? LeAnn Rimes Rocks Short Shorts Raw Video: Cop Shoots Man Eating Another's Face Gordon Ramsay Carried Off Field Man Dies Getting Lap Dance Kim Kardashian Claims Items Stolen from Her Luggage Bear cools off in Calif. family's pool Ep. 3: Chopped Desserts Air Force dad surprises family at baseball game Justin Bieber Wanted for Questioning for L.A. Scuffle J.Lo and Marc's Friendly Reunion Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff Jet makes emergency landing after debris falls off Raw Video: Deadly Explosion at Minn. Paper Mill Cynthia Nixon Ties the Knot Woman, 80, Falls Out of Skydive Harness Mid-Jump Keira Reveals Engagement Ring
Parade
Magazine

Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.
  • -

    March 12, 2010

activity
Real Estate News