Used to be a holiday.
Lincoln’s birthday.
—
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
This is the sort of lie a conman tells. A little bit of truth, mixed with a very big lie.
"Four score and seven years ago.." refers to 1776. Specifically July 4, 1776, which is the day the Declaration of *INDEPENDENCE* was officially created.
While yes, the Declaration of *INDEPENDENCE* did contain the words "all men are created equal", the purpose of the document was not intended as a commentary on slavery, but instead about the *RIGHT* for states to be free of a government that no longer represented their interest.
Here we have Lincoln referring to a time in which 13 slave owning states declared *INDEPENDENCE* from a Union.
But he is presenting it as if they were speaking about slavery. This is the con-man's bait and switch.
No, "four score and seven years ago..." was *NOT* about slavery, it was about the rights of states to *LEAVE* a Union.
Thanks for the Declaration of Independence.
When I was a teenager, our family drove down to Springfield from our Chicago suburb to see the log cabin where he lived. My dad was a big fan of Lincoln and wanted us to see it. Probably a replica, but a powerful experience anyway.
Only one American now has a holiday named after him/her - Martin Luther King, Jr., not to mention black history MONTH.