A new view of Lincoln at Gettysburg

[william42]

A new view of Lincoln at Gettysburg

By Greg Pierce
March 10, 2007

THE GETTYSBURG GOSPEL: THE LINCOLN SPEECH NOBODY KNOWS
By Gabor Boritt, Simon & Schuster, $28, 415 pages, illustrated

http://washingtontimes.com/civilwar/...5205-1575r.htm

For one thing, even today we hear arguments about whether the speech fell flat for listeners on Nov. 19, 1863, or whether they erupted in applause or sat in awed silence. Contemporary accounts of newspaper reporters (and others) vary wildly.

But Mr. Boritt's most surprising finding, at least to this reader, is that decades went by before most people came to recognize its greatness. This, and the likelihood that the address was completed with just hours to spare, calls into question the thesis of Garry Wills' "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America."
Mr. Wills, whose 1992 book won a Pulitzer Prize, asserted that Lincoln, through his speech, had "stealthily" shifted the meaning of the Constitution in the direction of the Declaration of Independence.
Mr. Boritt, in his preface, contrasts Mr. Wills' work with that of Mary Shipman Andrews' "The Perfect Tribute," a 1906 fictional tale that did much to cement the idea that the speech was written on the train to Gettysburg.

Terry

[OpnDownfall]

Historically, Lincoln was not the main speaker scheduled for the ceremonies. Edward Everett was to give the main speech, after which the President had been invited to say a few words appropriate to the event.
Sen. Everett gave the well crafted speech expected by his listeners and was very well received and found to be mostly praiseworthy.
After listening to everett for about 4 hours, it seems that many in the listening crowd was ready to move around a stretch a little. It was reported that the crown was starting to mill around, in preparation for Lincoln's speech, but it was over before many realized he had started, as a result not as many heard the President's Address as they did Everetts'.
As usual the speeches were printed up in the newspapers around the country and it is difficult to believe that those who actually heard the words and the masses who read it later would fail to respond to its power.
In 1863, the war was still to be won and it was not so obvious at Gettysburg, that the Union would prevail. It would seem that Everetts Speech about the necessity of a Union Victory and the rightness of the cause, as opposed to Lincoln's melancholy look into the future, after the war had been won, was more what the listeners and readers wanted and expected. Lincoln's address was a little too short and not entirely appropriate to the expectations of his audience. But even then the words resonated, and its popularity steadily increased in it's scope and power as Victory became more certain.
It's popularity was a slow but steady progress and it was adopted by those in power to solidfy the Victory of the Union, but it popularity already existed and its power could only increased through the years.
Although not immediately as popular as it later became, it was not 'unsuccessful' even at the time and it is doubtful that it took 'decades' for its greatness to be recognized.

[samgrant]

That's right, the photographers were just getting their cameras in place, but then it was over. As far as I know, the image of Lincoln's speech was never recorded.

He did have a way with words, though.