!50 years today since President Abraham Lincoln’s famous ‘Gettysburg Address’. It was made at the consecration of a new cemetery opened at the battlefield in honor of the Union Armies dead. In all 50,000 men were killed during the engagement, it was The American Civil War’s bloodiest battle………
“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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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.”
President Abraham Lincoln November 19th, 1863
It went on to be an important statement for most Americans of what defines them, and their country, and is still aspirational for many of what America really could and should be.
Cheers Jez XXXXXXX
PS………. The American Civil war gave us the first photographs from the battlefield : Photographs from Gettysburg
PPS……… Here is a podcast appreciation of the importance of the famed speech by the BBC’s James Naughtie
PPPS………. Above an image I made in DC at the ‘Rolling Thunder’ salute to the fallen and the veterans of America’s more recent wars.
[ 6 ] c omments
Is that the whole s peec h? I alway s thought it was lik ely to be r eally long.
k athy K @ Nov ember 19, 2013, 11:28 pm
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T hats it …… s o s uc c inc t and mov ing ……. about all the enor mity of the s ac
r ific e and the hope c r eated thr ough the inc r edible br av er y , s ac r ific e, s tr uggle
and s uffer ing ……. about attempting to honor that s ac r ific e by in ac tual r eality
building on the beauty of the or iginal c r eed that all men ar e c r eated equal …….
Lets fac e it ……. Its an amaz ing tex t …… one of the gr eates t politic al s
peec hes of all time …… It would be s uc h a pr iv ilege and s uc h a gift to be able to be
that eloquent and that effic ient in c onv ey ing meaning and emotion ……. : ) )
Cheer s J ez XXXXXXXXXXX
jez blog : ) ) XXX @ Nov ember 19, 2013, 11:39 pm
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A s peec h to be r emember ed for ev er me think s … Wonder ful,( if thats the r ight
wor d?) photos fr om the battlefield,I gues s y ou may under s tand what it took for
thepeople r es pons ibleto r ec or d thes e images … Hope all is good Br o..Stay Safe Dude
PaulS @ Nov ember 20, 2013, 5:43 am
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Yes the or iginal photojour nalis t is pr obably Mathew Br ady he s et the gold s tandar d for
getting in ther e mak ing las ting images that liv e for ev er ….. tak ing big r is k s ……
liv ing an outr ageous life…… going bank r upt……… the r es t of us hav e been attempting
to follow in his wak e r epeating all the impor tant s teps ……. ex c ept hav ing to dr ag ar
ound a whole c ar t load of wet plates of c ollodion that y ou had to mak e up y our s elf befor e
s hooting…….. this r eally was old s c hool when it was totally c utting edge……….. : ) )
) ) ) ) ) )
Cheer s br o J ez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
jez blog : ) ) XXX @ Nov ember 20, 2013, 9:00 am
Mak es our moder n day politic al py gmies look a bit feeble
Lee @ Nov ember 22, 2013, 2:12 pm
Linc oln…. an amaz ing s tatement that s till liv es on……….. it’s a week of
giants fr om the pas t …….. today 50 y ear s s inc e the as s as s ination of J F K
……….
Cheer s br o J ez XXXXXXXXX
jez blog : ) ) XXX @ Nov ember 22, 2013, 11:51 pm
