Brought Forth, Conceived, Dedicated.

[unionblue]

To All,

Interesting article about how the Gettysburg address was worded by Lincoln.

Brought Forth, Conceived, Dedicated, by John Burt.

http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2013/11/brought-forth-conceived-dedicated/

Enjoy,
Unionblue

 

[FarawayFriend]

Very interesting!
Although I would not have emphasized the "childhood" aspect. I always thought that Lincoln was referring to the nation as a living organism which cannot afford to lose an important part of its "body". I thought that his aim to hold the union together is a result of his feeling that the nation can only live as one - undivided.
Nevertheless, this new aspect is definitely worth thinking about.

 

[donna]

It is interesting. Thanks for posting.

 

[Bomac]

Interesting indeed.

 

[TerryB]

Nicely written, but I sense an agenda. Note how many references there are to the idea that the Constitution needs to be a living, breathing thing. Win that argument and the words on the page don't have to mean anything at all.

 

[Union_Buff]

A very interesting read Unionblue, thanks for posting

 

[ErnieMac]

Nicely written, but I sense an agenda. Note how many references there are to the idea that the Constitution needs to be a living, breathing thing. Win that argument and the words on the page don't have to mean anything at all.

An argument that started when the Constitution was ratified and still exists today.

 

[Carronade]

About 2/3 of the address, "We are met ..... shall not have died in vain" could apply equally to any war in which our soldiers struggle and sacrifice to advance a noble cause, to which the rest of us should dedicate ourselves. FDR for example could have said much the same had there been a comparable occasion during WWII.

The philosophical meat of the address is found in phrases like "testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure" and "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" - the idea that the American experiment may fail, or the very idea of democracy perish from the earth, if a section of the country which has an irreconcilable difference with the rest is allowed to go its own way.

 

[James N.]

I don't know about your local area station schedules, but the Dallas PBS station KERA has been promoting a show about the Gettysburg Address for 8PM tonight.

 

[TerryB]

An argument that started when the Constitution was ratified and still exists today.

You are very correct. So hopefully, it's not over yet.

 

[diane]

This has always been one of my favorites, and is one of the best examples of American literature. It's almost a prose poem. Lincoln could sure handle the language! It also shows a very remarkable maturation of thought, from his first days in office to the battlefield of Gettysburg. Before, it was an oath of office that made him responsible to keep the Union together. But then, as time went on, he began to understand there had to be a Union worth keeping together. The very principles and ideas of establishing a Union in the first place were being tested and it had to be more than a Union of states. He was thinking of a nation, and nation building.