Hey Its Gettysburg Address Day

[BillT]

Seven score and ten years ago Lincoln delivered the Gettyburg Address.
One of the greatest speeches in US history, and nice and short too.

Here it is from Wikipedia:

    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 battlefield 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.

[Mugwump]

I remember memorizing it back in school......I still remember most of it....

[BallAquatics]

Yea, I remember about it back in school too.  We were taught it was about slavery when in fact it was about states rights and only when Lincoln needed to rally the troupes did the focus switch to slavery.

Dennis

[Ron Sower]

Yea, I remember about it back in school too.  We were taught it was about slavery when in fact it was about states rights and only when Lincoln needed to rally the troupes did the focus switch to slavery.

Living in Virginia for most of my life, you better believe we got a lot of that history. And yes, that war was fought over States' rights and industrialism of the north vs. agriculturalism of the South, and slavery was central to both.  States should have the right to govern as they see fit and slavery was all important to having the labor to work the agricultural fields that grew the cash crops. As in most wars, whatever stirs the hearts and minds of the masses is what the industrialists, bankers and politicians will use to get them to do what they want.

Please understand that I'm not a supporter of slavery. Just sayin' that's the way it was!