News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Schools

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
November 18, 2009

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

By Bruce Kauffman

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
Join the Conversation
Helium
Front page
AP Video
Raw Video: Greek Rioting Ahead of Austerity Vote Coroner: Houston Autopsy Results Weeks Away Greece Passes New Austerity Deal Amid Rioting Nordic Festival Puts North Korea in Spotlight Pop Music Superstar Whitney Houston Dies at 48 Raw Video: Child Rescued After Kosovo Avalanche Whitney Houston's Church Mourns Her Passing Reaction to Houston's Death at Clive Davis Party Raw Video: Whitney Houston's Last Performance 'Rumor Has It' Adele's Rolling in the Grammys Police: Houston Found Dead in Her Hotel Room Severe Cold Wreaks Havoc in China Fans 'Speechless' Over Houston's Death Snow Strands Italian Towns Fuel Removal Under Way on Capsized Italian Ship 79 Turtles Seized at Shanghai Airport Grohl, Grammy Nominees Cut Up on the Red Carpet Video of M.I.A's Obscene Halftime Gesture Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life And the Winner for Best Super Bowl Ad Is...
NDN Video
Turkey's first face transplant Adele's revealing "60 Minutes" interview Obama Unveils $3.8 Trillion Budget Bobby Brown on Houston's Death Raw Video: Greek Rioting Ahead of Austerity Vote Exclusive Video: Bobbi Kristina Leaving Hospital Lusetich: AT&T Recap 'Bachelor' Free Falls into the Ocean Raw Video: Aurora Borealis As Seen From Space Grammys 2012: Highlights 2.12: Pebble Beach Pro-Am -- Phil Mickelson 2012 Grammys: Rihanna 2012 Grammys: Taylor Swift Raw Video: Child Rescued After Kosovo Avalanche Exclusive Video - Whitney's Bodybag FUEL TV: Punk Payback Gym tips Whitney's Final Days - EXCLUSIVE Romney Tops Santorum in CPAC Straw Poll First glimpse of Blue Ivy Carter Angry Dad Shoots Teens Laptop
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