Saturday, November 19, 2011

Gettysburg Address

On this day, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave a most moving speech; for us, today it is a touchstone for our time.
Many revile Lincoln, having suspended states rights and abolished slavery which stepped on "property rights"; I would like to posit that Lincoln was acting as God would have him do. He was a prayerful man, and it is my firm belief that he was acting according to the spirit. He restored states rights in the end and righted a terrible wrong as well. Until we meet God face to face, and the questions of the ages are answered, I will hold Lincoln in high regard, and bless his name for all the good that he did.
Lincoln's words resonate with us, because of the times in which we find ourselves. These are dark times, with evil growing around us. Communism is on the rise and we have "king-men" elected to high places. Many have died for the freedoms that these evil and designing men which to usurp; let us not forget their bravery, their sacrifice, but rise up and take back the government from those who would bind us into modern day slavery.
I have been to this battlefield, the spirit is strong there; those who have sacrificed are continuing participants still in the cause of freedom.

Gettysburg; November 19, 1863
“Fourscore 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 battlefield 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 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, 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.”

1 comment:

Ritsumei said...

It is a great speech. I have such mixed feelings about the man, about the precedent, about the whole thing. Clearly not about slavery (though I've seen convincing arguments that slavery was on its way out already). Slavery is evil. But is committing one evil in order to end another really something to be honoring?

I'd like to get a bunch of Lincoln's papers and read them. See what I can learn about what was going through his mind. A diary would be best.... even Obama occasionally says something in a speech that's worth saying, and I've learned from Obama that speeches are a very small part of the reality of a situation.