Posted on 11/19/2007 2:51:38 PM PST by mdittmar
"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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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."
That was Edward Everett,he sent a message to President Lincoln that day.
I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours,as you did in two minutes
Me too.
President Lincoln said worse than that in the 1800's.
C'mon,read a little,then see it in context."the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc."
Note to self:
Do not invite anyone named Robert Todd Lincoln....
You may be correct. While generally panned in the media when the Gettysburg Address was delivered I personally think it is the finest speech ever given by a President. Sometimes the greatest sentiments can be expressed in the fewest words.
And of course you can point out some Southern leader who’s views on the races was more enlightened?
Look at the context!!!!! He's talking about the way those of African decent was treated, not their worth bestowed by the Creator.
Lincoln: Perhaps you have long been free, or all your lives. Your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people. But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race. You are cut off from many of the advantages which the other race enjoy. The aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free, but on this broad continent, not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours. Go where you are treated the best, and the ban is still upon you.
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