272 Words that Changed the World!!!

President Abraham Lincoln
Haggard and Emaciated from the Ravages of the Civil War

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

Lincoln spoke these words in dedication of the 51,112 men who closed their eyes for the last time on that Pennsylvania battlefield. Most of those men, Union and Confederate, had been rescued from hastily-dug shallow graves and buried properly on "Cemetery Hill" by ten Black men hired to perform the gruesome task. It was upon "Cemetery Hill" that Lincoln cast his spell.

The President was accompanied to Gettysburg by his personal valet, William H. Johnson. Johnson , a free Black man from Springfield, Illinois, was likely the only person to hear Lincoln's speech before he addressed  the assembled mass.

As was customary for the time, several very long speeches were delivered prior to Lincoln's. At only 272 words, one might say Lincoln's address was a 19th Century "tweet." But ahhh, the brevity!  Therein lies the genius! In less than three minutes, Lincoln had encapsulated the quintessence of American Demorcacy. He had recalled the Nation to its raison d'etre.

 

One of the most basic differences between Conservatives and Progressives is revealed in the first six words of this speech, "Four score and seven years ago..." Basic math will reveal that Lincoln references back to 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence. While Conservatives give "pride of place" to the U.S. Constitution which became effective in 1789, Progressives adore the Declaration. Why? Because, while the U.S. Constitution condoned Slavery, the Declaration was "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

 

Lincoln's Gettysburg address has been studied and memorized the world over. It was the "tweet" heard round the world. It declared that Union victory in the Civil War would usher in a "new birth of freedom." It declared to the world that this Nation, and its experiment with Democracy would not be derailed by the misguided ideals of the Confederacy..."and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

 

It has required plenty of struggle, but "ooh, ooh, child" things continue to get brighter!

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrotsEzgEpg

Until we rendezvous...

Peace!!