"Fourscore and Seven Years" Fourscore and Seventy Years Later

This past Tuesday, November 19, marked the day 150 years since the dedication of the cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield, during which Abraham Lincoln gave the now-famous Gettysburg Address.  What follows are my thoughts on this occasion and that famous speech, in 272 words, just like the number of words in that oration:

The Gettysburg Address truly came from the heart of Mr. Lincoln’s simplicity.  He was a man who never made much of himself, as the quotations attest on a wall at the visitors’ center at the National Historic Site now at his birthplace in central Kentucky.  The circumstances of an immensely significant time in American history put him on center stage, and he has been revered for generations since.  The speech was written to express some thoughts on the grave reality of the war going on at the time.  Yet is a speech that has been “long remembered” in the sevenscore and ten years since, and shall surely for many more score.

In a trying time in the United States, President Lincoln reached back to the beginning of this nation, the spirit of 1776, and the values upon which it was founded, which have served as a driving force for years hence, through his time unto ours.  The Founders had a vision of liberty, freedom, justice, and equality for all people.  It wasn’t fully realized then, but set in motion a drive to more fully realize it as part of the American experience.

This is a vision that inspires me today.  Even in the midst of the troubles we face as a nation, by renewing ourselves in that vision, under God, we will become a great nation as we work to realize this dream of liberty and freedom for all.  We have stood out as a nation before all the world for more than two centuries because of this vision, and as it becomes more of a reality, we will continue to shine.

If you haven’t gotten the chance yet, read the text of this oration here: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=36&page=transcript