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Lincoln's spare words at Gettysburg inspire 150 years later
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/11/18/4632336/lincolns-spare-words-at-gettysburg.htmlOne hundred fifty years ago, President Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg, Pa., to comfort the soldiers on the battlefield, honor those who died and steel the nation for the challenges ahead. Although Lincoln humbly professed no one would recall his words, few speeches are as celebrated.
Lessons from the 270-word speech are legion: purpose sharply framed, powerful, evocative and — most rare today — spare. All politicians with dreams of greatness can learn from the efficacy of a speech that has been memorized by schoolchildren for decades.
The gift of this speech written for dedication ceremonies at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery can continue if politicians of all stripes take a moment to recommit themselves to Lincoln’s plea to help preserve this great democracy. Recall and celebrate these words today:
"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
Lessons from the 270-word speech are legion: purpose sharply framed, powerful, evocative and — most rare today — spare. All politicians with dreams of greatness can learn from the efficacy of a speech that has been memorized by schoolchildren for decades.
The gift of this speech written for dedication ceremonies at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery can continue if politicians of all stripes take a moment to recommit themselves to Lincoln’s plea to help preserve this great democracy. Recall and celebrate these words today:
"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
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I think it's worthwhile for progressives in particular to recall the message of this speech, and to celebrate it today.
--lastlib
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