One hundred fifty-two years ago on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The previous speaker, Edward Everett, a noted orator, gave a speech that lasted two hours. President Lincoln’s speech was just 272 words and over in a matter of minutes. He said, “[T]he world will little note nor long remember what we say here”. That, of course, is not true, the world still remembers what Abraham Lincoln said, most notably “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Perhaps we have forgotten why he spoke those words and why his words still speak to us today.
President Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the cemetery in Gettysburg. The country was in the midst of a long and bloody war between the northern and southern States that began thirty-nine days after President Lincoln’s inauguration. At Gettysburg, the President called on the citizens of the United States to rededicate themselves to ensuring that the government created by the Constitution would continue and the United States would remain undivided.
Today, although we are not engaged in a bloody war, we are very much a country divided. Some want us to return to a time when women had few rights. Others want us to return to the days of the “wild west” when people walked around with holstered guns and/or carrying rifles. There are also those who believe only white Christians should be allowed to vote and run the government on the local, state and federal levels. How ironic that those voices come from the Republican Party. How ironic that the descendants of the Confederacy have taken over the party of the President who “gave the last full measure of devotion” to save the Union and ensure that our government survived.
These groups all claim to be following in the footsteps of the Revolutionaries and Founders. They are all wrong. Those who fought the War for Independence did not do so to create a government of the few, by the few and for the few. President Lincoln did not accept war and Union soldiers did not give their lives to preserve a government of the few, by the few and for the few.
Now we must answer President Lincoln’s call with our voices and our votes. We must honor those who died at Gettysburg and the President who saved our Union. We must stand together, united in our belief and determined to protect and pass on to future generations a government that is truly of, by and for all people.
Moderately liberal, liberally moderate, American flag waving Democrat! Bachelor of Arts in History with concentration in Early American History and Abraham Lincoln
Graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts Degree online in American History at Southern New Hampshire University