Gettysburg Address Revisited

Folklore has it that Abraham Lincoln penned the Gettysburg address on a napkin or scrap of paper while en route to the site of this now famous masterpiece of oratory. I think we can all agree that he did a pretty good job of it that day, in a hurry, under incredible stress from the Civil War and all the attendant problems associated with it. He was also facing some rough weather politically during the struggle, from both sides of the aisle and both sides of the not-yet-established Mason-Dixon line.

But he kept his eyes on the goal, and lifted his thinking above the fray that day. He inspires us even now, if we will revisit the address and apply what he's saying to the troubles our country faces today.

The Gettysburg Address

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon 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 here who 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; 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, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

November 19, 1863