The Gettysburg Address

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.  Given my respect, almost veneration of Abraham Lincoln, I think this is the greatest speech ever given on American soil, if not the greatest anywhere ever.  (Granted, some think Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address ranks higher, but that's like picking between the best and the best.)

Lots of myths have grown up around the Address.  No, he didn't write it on the back of an envelope while on the train from DC to Gettysburg.  He was not the featured speaker.  In fact, he was invited as a mere formality and it was a surprise that he accepted; Lincoln didn't venture far from Washington, especially to give speeches.  The main speaker was Edward Everett, former US Senator and president of Harvard, one of the most renowned speakers of the day.  The festivities had originally been planned for earlier, late Sept or Oct, but Everett was recovering from a stroke (or heart attack?)

Everett spoke for more than two hours; Lincoln took just over two minutes.  Purportedly afterward, Everett told Lincoln, "Mr. President, you just said in two minutes what I couldn't say in two hours."  Coming from Everett, that was the highest praise.

Yet, immediate reactions were mixed.  At Gettysburg, it was over almost before it was started.  The crowd, estimated at 15,000 (in a town with a population of 1/6 that), remained silent, either not understanding or thinking there was more to come.  The cameras there to take photos of Lincoln hadn't had time to set up--he was done before the cameramen got started.  Newspapers lauded or pooh-poohed the Address, depending on political affiliation/party.  The naysayers used words like "shameful" and "embarrassing."  Today, that seems incredible.  I guess even then politics trumped intelligence, even common sense.

Read the Address again; it takes a minute or so to read.  Lincoln has redefined the great experiment called "American democracy."  He takes "liberty/freedom" and adds to them "equality."  He cites American exceptionalism (and our current President claims to be a devotee of Lincoln--BAH!).  Note how it is, at the end, not "shall not perish from this land" (or nation or US...), but "from this earth."  (There are several copies of the Gettysburg Address extant; they don't read exactly the same.  We don't know exactly what Lincoln said that day, "this earth" or "the earth."  The meaning is clear, though.)

How important are liberty/freedom and equality?  Well, as he notes, that's why all those people were in Gettysburg that day.  Thousands of good men gave their lives on those July days, gave their lives for liberty/freedom and equality!

Please recognize the poetry of the Address.  Certainly another President (or any speaker) might well have opened with "In 1776" or even "Eighty-seven years ago."  See how Lincoln, who worked on this speech for several weeks beforehand, begins:  "Four score and seven years ago...."  And he uses such poetry throughout the speech.

The ideas and ideal, the poetry, the entire (albeit brief) Gettysburg Address is inspiring, especially in this day and age.