It was 141 years ago today

[Gentle Giant]

The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

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

[Dr Dave]

They don't write 'em like they used to.

[jazzy mary]

Last year, I visited Gettysburg on a class trip with my younger daughter. It's an extraordinarily moving experience. If you ever have a chance to go to the battlesight, go! I was amazed how beautiful it was with all the memorials and everything. And, of course, as I mentioned before, incredibly moving.

[Tom Storer]

This photograph was taken at the Gettysburg site, it is thought just after Lincoln arrived, around three hours before he delivered the famous address.

In this extraordinary detail you can actually see Abe clearly enough to be recognizable. What a photo!

[Gentle Giant]

I've always found this very funny:

Gettysburg PowerPoint

[Gentle Giant]

I strongly recommend this brilliant book:

FROM THE PUBLISHER
The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome battle. Instead he gave the whole nation "a new birth of freedom"--by tracing its first birth to the Declaration of Independence (which called all men equal) rather than to the Constitution (which tolerated slavery). In the space of a mere 272 words, Lincoln brought to bear the rhetoric of the Greek Revival, the categories of Transcendentalism, and the imagery of the "rural cemetery" movement. His entire life and previous training, his deep political experience, went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece. As Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel has been restored to its bold colors and forgotten details, Garry Wills restores the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln at Gettysburg combines the same extraordinary quality of observation that defines Wills's previous best-selling portraits of modern presidents, such as Reagan's America and Nixon Agonistes, with the iconoclastic scholarship of his studies of our founding documents, such as Inventing America. By examining both the Address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew and reveals much about a President so mythologized but often misunderstood. Wills shows how Lincoln came to change the world, to effect an intellectual revolution, how his words had to and did complete the work of the guns. The Civil War is, to most Americans, what Lincoln wanted it to mean. Now Garry Wills explains how Lincoln wove a spell that has not, yet, been broken.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

They don't write 'em like they used to.

If by "they" you mean the President, then they don't write them at all, anymore. IIRC, Lincoln wrote that speech himself, on the train ride from Washington DC to Gettysburg.

I've been to Gettysburg twice. The second time wa a few years back with mrs. jmj, and we hired a guide to escort us around the battlefield and narrate the sequence of events. It cost about $35 and was well worth the money; especially for mrs. jmj, who was not very familiar with the battle.

By all means, if you ever have the chance, go to Gettysburg. Coming from the south, you can drive on the Emmetsburg Road and go directly through the Peach Orchard on your way into town. Way cool.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

I strongly recommend this brilliant book:

A great great book!! There's a wonderful section on the history and relevance of cemeteries and memorial sites. But most importantly and brilliantly, as mentioned in the review Jason cites, an illuminating analysis of Lincoln's redefining of American values by pointing to the Declaration of Independence rather than the Constitution as the central document of the republic.