Memorial Day and the Gettysburg Address

Memorial Day often drifts my thoughts to Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address, delivered November 19, 1863. President Lincoln delivered his address in dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery, where over 3.500 United States soldiers were buried (and remain to this day) following the Gettysburg battle. I believe his speech both honored the sacrifice made by the soldiers who gave their lives on that great field of battle, and also expressed a renewed dedication of our original “Spirit of ’76” that sparked our nationhood and gave birth to the American democracy.

Sallicio, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Lincoln’s words were simultaneously concise and precise, a combination not often seen in political speeches. In that spirit, here is the Gettysburg Address, the version displayed in the Lincoln Room of the White House, and upon the walls of the Lincoln Memorial.

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.

Have a good Memorial Day. Remember that this day is to reflect on those who died in battle so we can remain free. We have a responsibility to honor them by not squandering what they died for.

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