149th Anniversary of the "Gettysburg Address" is today

[hellboy30]

http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/...t:25/entry:686

http://www.thevillagessuntimes.com/a...ysburg-address

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.

[midaeu]

Perhaps one of the greatest speeches of all time. Not to bad since Lincoln was second banana that day.

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by midaeu

Perhaps one of the greatest speeches of all time. Not to bad since Lincoln was second banana that day.

True. I think Lincoln was almost an afterthought. Edward Everett was the main attraction and he gave Lincoln a very gracious compliment:

Edward Everett was quick to grasp what Lincoln accomplished at Gettysburg. As soon as Everett returned to Washington, he complimented the president on the "eloquent simplicity & appropriateness" of his remarks, adding in open humility: "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." Unfortunately, Lincoln had heard only the polite applause commonly awarded men of his station, whatever the occasion, which stands in marked contrast to the crescendo of praise that sounded across the nation after the American people had time to read and reflect on the Address.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trt032.html

Charles Sumner probably paid the speech it's biggest tribute:

On June 1, 1865, Senator Charles Sumner commented on what is now considered the most famous speech by President Abraham Lincoln. In his eulogy on the slain president, he called it a "monumental act." He said Lincoln was mistaken that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here." Rather, the Bostonian remarked, "The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech."

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creat...gettysburg.htm

[LeanotLee]

His second inaugural wasnt to shabby either.
One of the greatest speaches of all time!

John