For three hot days, from July 1 to July 3, 1863, more than 150,000 soldiers from the armies of the United States of America and the Confederate States of America slashed at each other in the hills and through the fields around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
I was taken aback by Sam Waterston’ reading the Lincoln’s Address in Ken Burns’ Civil War series. Every other reading I’ve heard placed the emphasis on the prepositions in the last sentence, i.e. OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people. Waterston placed the emphasis on the word ‘people,’ i.e. of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, for the PEOPLE. It sounded odd at first. But as I thought of Waterston’s change in emphasis more and more, I began to think of us PEOPLE as active participants in assuring the all people have the right to live, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, rather than mere recipients of the rights, fought for by others. Now every time I read the Address, I follow Waterston’s example by emphasizing the role of the PEOPLE in assuring these rights.
I find it fascinating that Lincoln chose to use the word PEOPLE rather than MEN in his final sentence. Think of how differently we might think of the Address if he had written “of men, by men, for men” instead.
He did sometimes use the word"men" in that way, as was the custom of the era. I welcome more inclusive language. More Lincolnian sagacious poetry.
"Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
I’ve always appreciated clarity in concise form. Y’all satisfy that fascination in me and none as much as Professor HCR quoting the words of our most humble and inspirational President who was meant to live in his time. I’m also reminded that “Republican” was his party, so unlike its appearance of today.
Many Americans, especially those who support Trump and his acolytes, cannot think by the kind of extension your comment makes. All these Trumpian folks hear is MY liberty, MY freedom, MY house, MY family, MY job, MY church; other folks’s freedom, house, family, job, church, school seem like the enemy and therefore needing extermination …. It never occurs to Trump-lovers that the rights to life, liberty and happiness apply either to all people at all times or they are revocable to anyone at any time.
it is the difference between narcissism and emotionally "adult", between tyranny and a just, constitutional democracy. We all pursue self-interest and I suspect we all cope with narcissistic urges. I do. But a physically adult human who cares exclusively for self-interest while indifferent to that of others, or who even enjoys making others suffer, is a sociopath, and potentially extremely dangerous. Even more danger lies in cults of narcissism for, which history provides far too many examples. I think we as a society must get more "real" about what is at stake. My take on Lincoln's subject matter.
1. there is a rational (or healthy) level of self-interest that benefits the individual and is in fact essential to a democratic society and
2. There is an irrational (or unhealthy) level of self interest that is eventually destructive of both the the individual and is in fact inimical to democratic society, and
3. If we want to . “get more real” we must think more rationally?
Then I agree.
Unfortunately, rational thought is, by the way, the one thing many politicians abhor and voters don’t do. For example, the case of Herschel Walker’s most recent stump speech on the important topic of werewolves and vampires. A rational politician would never publicly claim to prefer being one to the other. And a rational person would never vote for a candidate who claims to prefer himself as a werewolf rather than a vampire. Yet 49% of Georgia voters gave their approval to a werewolf wannabe!
Alas. And as a matter of lived human experience, wisdom seems to involve integration of rational, evidence-based assessment of circumstances with a keen sense of what "really matters", assessment of accuracy and value, like Einstein deciding to chase light beams in his mind rather than just watching the game. Like Lincoln looking at liberty in context. If it's of, by and for The People we want, we collectively choose to steer the "ship of state". Bad, careless, of negligent decisions at the wheel can quickly lead to "maritime disaster".
Precisely on point. "... rights to life, liberty and happiness apply either to all people at all times or they are revocable to anyone at any time." There will always be a cadre of folks who believe themselves to be 'special cases', and that cadre is not limited to _rumpians. Consider for a moment parts of the current gop coalition 'big tent' ; 1.) extremist dogmatic religious zealots, 2.) anarchists, including conspiracy theory acolytes, bigots and misogynists, 3.) Commerce / profit first and always zealots, 4.) Republican first, american second automatons. 5.) General collection of hell bent, bitter, resentful hearts - or holes where hearts should be. And no, they don't get it, including the ones who consider themselves 'deep thinkers', who may think they are 'using / manipulating' the clueless and think they can get this genie back in the bottle.
J L - Thanks for mentioning these words spoken by Lincoln. He spoke of "the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere." All men, etc., perhaps with the emphasis on 'all'.
We sometimes forget, collectively or individually, that while we prize our freedom of this and that, freedom to do this or that, we are actually impinging on others' freedoms to do their own "this and that". By doing so we are falling into the very trap Lincoln is warning us against, namely that by familiarizing ourselves with chains, by trampling on the rights of others, we have indeed lost our own independence and become fit for the first tyrant who arises. How true those words are!
Tyranny can be very seductive as well as coercive. Like a movie monster that does not seem ever to really die, it keeps rearing its ugly head.
And to underline your point, as FDR pointed out, freedom is freedom from as well as freedom to. Freedom from robbery or rape precludes any possible "right" to rape or rob. Freedom from air pollution impacts one's choice to pollute the air. How do we provide a robust palette of diverse and creative choices and "all get along"? Actively promoting honestly, empathy, and a collective contract may be as good as it gets.
Hence, law and order, where no one is above the law - including and especially those with armies of lawyers to subvert and undermine the rule of law. Now, if only that could work in practice (?).
So powerful in 2 minutes; it compares poorly to others who blather on, with little respect for our democracy. It is a great reminder of those who fought, died, including Lincoln, and were injured, for our freedom. Thank goodness for them all! It is left to us to carry the work forward!
I am thankful that he didn't use the word men. We women have had more than an uphill fight to be accorded the rights and freedoms for which we have given every measure as well for this nation. We would not want to think we would have had to fight Lincoln as well.
Fran Your focus on Sam Waterston’s Lincoln reading of PEOPLE is spot on. I have been re-watching Ken (and Ric) Burns Civil War during my nightly exercises.
I felt Lincoln’s despair as tens of thousands of Union soldiers were slaughtered in battle because of poor generalship. Gettysburg came only months after the disasters of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. After McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, and others, Lincoln was desperate for a winning general.
U. S. Grant took the key citadel of Vicksburg on the Mississippi the day of Pickett’s disastrous charge at Gettysburg. Lincoln in Grant had fought his fighting general, with Sherman, Grant’s sidekick.
With such profound wartime grief, I am astonished that Lincoln was able to speak like an angel in his unforgettable two minute Gettysburg eulology.
There is an excellent book on death in the Civil War called The Republic of Suffering. I read it several years ago and it made a deep impression on me. A good death in a more religious America was in your home town surrounded by your family and friends and remembered and buried by them. The Civil War turned this upside down with so many soldiers dying in a very different manner. Some parents spent a lot of time trying to find their sons' bodies. Also thou shalt not kill made some refuse to kill the enemy. I was going to reference it more, but must have loaned it to someone because i can't find it on the shelf.
Michele What I recall from the Burns’ Civil War was that death and dying was so matter of fact, after futile charges by brave men. At Antietam, Fredericksburg, and elsewhere, one heard of the moans and cries on the battlefield.
Joseph Chamberlain (FRedericksburg?) spoke of the cold and pulling two dead bodies together as he slept with these bodies.
Deaths on Civil War battlefields were not considered "good" deaths as the book describes. It must have been horrific and of course, people could survive weapons that didn't shred bodies as modern ones do There was a series on PBS for awhile which was set in a hospital somewhere behind the lines, but run by Yanks. Awful. Lots of sawing off of limbs. I have an ancestor who survived, but was crippled and walked with a cane which he made a habit of hitting everyone with. Apparently when he died, everyone was glad.
I cried when I read Lincoln's words in today's letter. Then I listened to Waterston's reading and was especially struck by the force in the words "...we here highly resolve..." In an instant, my mind flew forward through the next 159 years, beyond the devastating slaughter of Gettysburg, through a century and a half of horrifying cruelty enacted upon people of color or "others" and millions of lifetimes spent struggling and suffering because of the systematic suppression of equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL people.
As I and thousands of others write postcards to GA youth and text-bank GA voters in the next two weeks and continue to take various targeted actions in the next two years, we can join in Lincoln's pledge "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."
I agree. It’s the best reading of the Address, imho. I also was rooting for Waterston to get the part of Lincoln in the Spielberg movie, but Daniel Day-Lewis did a great job.
By the way, if you’re interested in Waterston’s interpretation of another famous Lincoln speech, he recreated the Cooper Union speech at Cooper Union. It’s long, but once he gets past the legal framework Lincoln used, it’s a moving experience.
Thank you so very much for your comments, Fran! I have an even greater appreciation for President Lincoln (if that was possible) after digesting this interpretation. We will rise again, as we have so often in our history under severe and heinous conditions.
Personhood, I believe is measurable and can discriminate qualified individuals into levels. So, all men are not equal but can be improved with training, experience, calibration and review.
Unfortunately, a majority of Americans have not developed the foresight to even reach the Micawber Threshold so democracy is a poor choice of government. Representative democracy would work if we could trust political parties to select qualified candidates. But that has also failed.
Governments must put more focus on developing resilient personhood around the world rather than focus on some abstract human rights agenda.
Heather, I expected a photograph and your oath to rest this day. Instead, reading Lincoln’s words gave me the chills. All these many decades later, such words DO mean something! Thank you, dear friend, for your love of our history, often bloody and tragic. I will mull over those words today, as I work in my small garden in India.
No one remembers the exaggerated oration of Mr. Everett. But everyone remembers Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which was directed outward toward preserving the nation and the liberty and equality of the people. Mr. Everett was there, in his celebrity, to hear himself talk.
Everett got it, and said this to Lincoln shortly afterward, “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”
In eighth grade speech class we had to memorize this speech and then give it in class. I was never more terrified of anything that I was when I got up to do this. It took me the longest time to get the first word out and then they just tumbled out. And the teacher gave me an A! This speech has always had great meaning to me as a result, and I read it every year and think about its meaning.
I am not a fan of rote memorization in schools, but for some purposes it makes sense. I too was required to memorize the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble of the Constitution. Both stayed with me (though I could not recite both in their entirety at the moment, I have a pretty good idea of what's in there), so it comes to mind more than it otherwise might.
I was sad when we more or less canceled significant national observance of Lincoln's Birthday. It spurred a lot more discussion of Lincoln as a culturally influential figure in classrooms than I suspect goes on today.
In Texas, history information is so controlled! It’ll be interesting to see what classroom teachers do this year for president’s day. It’s strictly dictated by the state. They are given a pamphlet every month for Social Studies. Books at our school were put in storage. But even our Texas history books were pretty controlled by the state. Hopefully they’ll continue to honor Lincoln!
One very good thing about having access to Google is: All young adults have access to real history IF they want access. Wikipedia is fairly good at balanced views.
So, a kid from Texas who wants to know that the Texas "revolution" was really about the fact that Mexico had outlawed slavery?
Reminding me of the vast Dallas Texas Schoolbook Depository of ill-fame, Lee Harvey Oswald's perch on Nov. 22, 1963, and the fact that, as a history teacher, I learned that many textbook companies had to make sure their editions would be acceptable in the huge, somewhat controlled, Texas market. The result: not very inspiring books to say the least. (As a New England independent school teacher, I never had to suffer the consequences very much, fortunately.)
I read in James Loewen's 'Lies My Teacher Told Me' that most U.S. History texts for schools must have the approval of a board of review based in Texas. Explains the warped interpretations of history students are exposed to nationwide.
Warped knowledge is dangerous. I propose that we drop books that tell real history, from the sky, onto Texas grounds. If Abbott can send immigrants to other states, let’s, in kind, send Texans tons of books.
thanks Denise, I shared your comment with some friends who are teachers( an eye opener to me).. If you don't mind, are you a teacher? or what is your role in the schools? Did you see yesterday's NYT article and video re the crisis for teacher?
Did you read the ridiculous pamphlet per the TX state legislator printed this year for the public that condenses our state history as pick and choose whitewash?
Denise--I am late to this discussion, but as a long-ago K-12 Texas schoolboy I have to say that Krause and company are carrying on a not-so-fine Texas tradition. If you're interested, look up Mel and Norma Gabler of Longview. They began a kitchen table industry of objecting to many science and social studies books that offended their highly fundamentalist views. For decades they were extremely effective at influencing (and successfully badgering) the Texas State Textbook Committee to exclude various texts that didn't meet their bigoted standards. And at that time the Committee's recommendations had country-wide influence on the publishers due to the size of their market.
Texas has geographical school districts not run by cities and counties, with only one small city exception. They help provide citizen oversight of public education goals, success and policies, whereas the superintendent advises the board and manages the district..
The local school districts largely decide which
Instructional materials to use, with The TX State Board of Ed. proclaiming which texts are bid for each year, and then the Texas Education Agency's Commissioner grading each textbook, software package or other learning tool. School districts can decide whether or not to use state-adopted materials, with state-mandated curriculum and testing to be covered. The Texas Legislature recently passed a law regulating classroom instruction and teacher training meant to stop (their wrongly understood idea of) critical theory inculcation, with social studies quite smothered.
(The SBOE had gender identity info removed from biological sex in textbooks before further consideration.)
Sad thing is that the Republicans have held state control of govt in TX about the past 30 yrs, and these conservatives have put so many restrictions on what and how subjects can be taught that teachers have been leaving in large numbers. Too many positions unfilled. And see my just above comment.
I, too, was required to memorize the Preamble and the Gettysburg Address-growing up in Pennsylvania, it meant so much to visit the sites of these historic docs and events. I never believed we would have to survive such a threat to our government of the ppl, by the ppl, and for the ppl. This threat feels so sinister because it is shrouded in lies, betrayals, hidden sources of funds, and Wizard of Oz machinations behind curtains by wealthy white men who wish to destroy democracy and elect themselves as supreme rulers. Never would I have guessed we would be in this place.
Jen, what upsets me so much is to realize how long the wealthy have been working behind the scenes while I and my friends were so very complacent. Thanks to HCR and other historians (I’m talking about you, Joanne Freeman), we are much more aware today. Hard work ahead.
I’ve always had a fascination about Lincoln. With relatives in Springfield IL, we’d visited many tourist attractions for him. My daughter said the year I was born helped her remember Civil War dates! I said what?! She said because you know it was just a 100 years before you were born! Oh thanks Anna that doesn’t make me feel old at all! Ha!
Good morning FERN. On other urgent topics, see my OFF TOPIC comment below. Jodi Kantor at the NYT has busted Justice Alioto as the leaker of 2014 case.
Roberts has lost control of his Constitutional role as Chief Justice: Roberts has lost it partially as a result of what one could call "informational warfare".
And “we the people” have lost control of the Selection process under the influence of Citizens United and the Federalist Society as they manipulate the Senate
Bryan, i saw it and loved that it was Jodi Kantor! If you get a chance, see the movie “She Said”. Very powerful and about how she and Megan Twohey cracked the Harvey Weinstein case wide open.
There was a time when we all had to memorize it and develop some concept of what it meant. I'd wager that is no longer the case in most 5th grade classrooms, or 8th grade, or Junior year of high school.
The reading level is too high for 5th, 8th, or junior high school students now. When I taught a (college) sophomore-junior statistics course years ago, one of my students complained on a teaching evaluation that I used "too big words". Or was it "two"?
Could be either, or is it ether? I saw the same thing as a manager in the hospitality industry and our HR department was at pains to make sure we didn't talk down to the kids who could barely write.
For me, the most moving monument in Washington, D.C. is the Lincoln Memorial. The Gettysburg Address appears on one wall; Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on another. I don’t know how anyone with a heart can stand there and read these without becoming teary eyed.
I love that monument! We took our kids there when they were very young on a frigid spring break. Their dad explained how important it was to know about Lincoln and that this was a monument for all people. It belonged to all of us.
Our son-in-law proposed to our daughter there one spring night in the early spring. Recent graduates of UC Santa Barbara, he was going through Quantico and she was working in D.C. as paralegal. The Memorial remains very special to them.
Took both of my daughters there in 2019 when we went to the Women’s March. I think it is one of the most astounding places to visit. There sits Lincoln, towering over the land in majestic glory. His gaze is set ahead for the future that he never got to see or experience. Reminds us all how fragile life is.
I am reading with dismay the responses on FB that are attacking Lincoln, who was, when all is said and done, a man of his times with all the shortcomings that entails, at the same time he was an idealist dedicated to the promise and potential of a country founded on consent of the governed. it does not take perfection, nor even pure intention, to do the right thing. Do you agree with Mitt Romney on everything? Yet he voted to impeach. Do you agree with Liz Cheney’s voting record? Yet, she, too, has acted in the best interests of the country in her committee work. John McCain voted down repeals to Obamacare. And after years of hiding in silence to protect his political future, Mike Pence is one of the lynch pins, if not the central figure, in defending the Constitution on January 6, 2021. Those are just a few of the imperfect, probably or definitely biased, humans who have chosen at one critical moment after another, to act in favor of the country and the principles on which it stands. No one is all good, and no one is all bad, and recognizing that duality of human nature is critical to the type of dialogue on which democracy and equality of each person’s voice and vote must stand. It is not a bad thing, indeed it is paramount, to put preserving the country above one’s personal views, for without that Union there is no future country to become “a more perfect Union.” It makes all the more alarming those rabid Republican voices who are willing to default on debt, excuse the insurrectionists, and defy our courts. But I digress…
KEM, I hate to see so many people attacking Lincoln for being a person of his time. In the book The Persuaders, Anand Giridharadas discusses activist Loretta Ross who says that, far too often, we attack those who are not as “pure” as we see ourselves. An example is demeaning those concerned with climate change unless they go meatless. She says that we turn away possible helpers when we require an unrealistic level of purity. All too often, “the perfect is the enemy of the good”.
Thank you for this reminder, who has been what they are in their best moments, every other moment of their lives. Not a one of us. As George Saunders said in an Oscar acceptance speech “what seems other is not other at all, but just us on a different day.”
Ha! The perils of responding to HCR's late night missives! Your observation is so perfect that I am not going to correct the autocorrect...absurdity at its best, eh?
Wow. Lincoln was remarkable and truly singular. He represents the best of the United States. Coming from a background of poverty in a remote setting, he committed to develop himself to the best he could be, and thus self-educated so he grew and grew in stature and character. The wonderful simplicity of his approach, his attitude. I visited the cabin in Kentucky where he was born and lived a few years. I've been to the cabin in the dark forests of Southern Indiana where he grew from ages 7 to 21. And I've been to his home in Springfield, Illinois where he matured into adulthood; always searching for a portion of his spirit developed in each location.
And then he gave us the Gettysburg Address. What a person! Needless to say, we could use a few of his breed today.
I would love to visit all of those places! My family was from Illinois and always claimed Lincoln wholeheartedly and didn’t think others could claim him.
I have to say, I went to several rallies for our Texas governor candidate Beto O’Rourke. Of course it’s a very different time! Very different topics! But he did remind us of Lincoln a bit. He wanted to unite our very divisive state. He listened to people who didn’t agree with him. He took pictures with everyone in the room and asked you face to face what concerned you. But alas with 9.6 million registered voters not voting, we got Abbutt again. Beto moved the needle a bit towards a different future. People just didn’t show up. Very sad indeed!
So very true, when people look back at Beto’s speeches he will be remembered as a genuine unifier. Not sure what his role will be, but there still is a place for him in Texas leadership.
As for the approximately 55% of Texas voters who did NOT vote, I believe many democratic leaning people bought into the constant Republican polling data released showing Abbott in the lead, falsely believing their vote wouldn’t matter, hence lower than expected turnout. The views of our current state executive branch do not align with the majority of Texans and are not sustainable. Reasonable minded people in our state legislature need to step up and do what’s right for Texas and hold accountable those who try to further divide us.
We need voter reform so desperately! Especially at the local school board level! Patriot Mobile poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into these elections is turning our public schools into fascists dream schools! The most recent information I’ve heard is Stephen Miller is behind the christian nationalist movement supported with Patriot Mobile money. The school district I live in just banned gay and gender fluid books. Next up is Guardianship Law to put guns in teachers hands in the classroom. A woman at the board meeting told me as a teacher if you’re not willing to die for my child you shouldn’t be a teacher. What?! I told her she should homeschool. She said she was lucky enough to be raised in a Christian home, I said I was too. I guess mine was more focused on the teachings of Jesus. It’s really getting divided in our classrooms! But that’s what Republicans want, no more public schools. I’m ready to move!
Agree and a big, bold part of voter reform should be “Statewide, Citizen-Led Ballot Initiatives.” If Texas were one of the 26 states that allow citizen ballot measures, then issues like no book banning, reasonable reproductive rights and common sense gun legislation could be put on the ballot for a direct vote by Texans — who overwhelmingly support these issues! Contact your state representative and senator and ask them to file a bill endorsing this, the next legislative session begins January 10, 2023. When a state legislature is unresponsive to the will of the majority, citizens need a more direct voice in our democracy.
Exactly! But our overwhelming Republican politicians wouldn’t support such a measure. The recent information coming from Austin is hopeful. On the list is abortion reforms for cases of rape, incest, medical when the mother’s life is endangered. Also giving money back to education. Right now all federal funds marked for education go into Abbutt’s slush fund. So I think Republican are seeing some value in Beto’s campaign.
Yes, some hopeful bills are being filed and it’s true Republicans are unlikely to support this ballot measure, but the first step to ever getting it is asking for it — recent citizen led ballot measures are how Idaho passed Medicaid expansion and Florida raised the minimum wage! I want to hear Abbott, Paxton and Patrick explain why Republican led states like Idaho and Florida give their citizens a direct say in democracy but Texas does not.
From my perspective as a poll worker in Bexar County, the election process went extremely smoothly and our county level election administrators do a great job.
What really needs to be investigated are the multitude of voter suppression efforts at the sate level. Sec of State John Scott should explain why other states seamlessly offer user-friendly voting processes but Texas does not. For example: no online registration, must register at least 30 days in advance, no limited ballot voting on Election Day - only in early voting, limited and confusing mail ballot options, and what exactly AG Ken Paxton is doing with all of the "Reasonable Impediment Forms" voter forms he collects ....
Thank you for this link of Sam Waterston reciting the Gettysburg Address, Elizabeth. In addition to his emphasis on 'the PEOPLE', I thought Sam Waterson's pacing and tone so simple and unfancy that I could see Abraham Lincoln as I listened.
Indeed it is...I have always liked Waterston's work. His recitation is slow enough to give time to ponder those each of those meticulously chosen words and phrases to form such a simple but stunning invocation.
Hendon, the closest examples that come to mind are the current POTUS and Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and so many Democrats in Washington and state governments, it would take a book to list them all. Please add your own choices.
I am incredibly moved by those who are standing in the breach for us--imperfections and all--direct links of discipleship to Democracy going back to Abraham Lincoln.
These are the heroes we desperately wanted and waited for, in our misery during the four years of wanton evil in the White House. Remember?
And now we watch and pray with exultant hearts for the heroes and the People in Ukraine, Iran, and so many other places where Democracy struggles to be born and reborn--our brightest hope as we struggle together.
Hi Gus, when I think of true selfless character and commitment to the U.S. ideals, the first American who comes to mind is General George C. Marshall. His integrity and abilities were beyond question in any regard. His clarity of mind and purpose left people in awe. During WWII, he was probably the single most respected person in the country. He never had a political agenda. He was completely committed to serving his country. President Roosevelt chose and entrusted Marshall with the preparation and training of the U.S. WWII army and military as a whole. Congressmen of both political parties trusted Marshall implicitly when he requested supplies from them. A character study of Marshall in the Feb. 1944 issue of Reader's Digest demonstrates how thoroughly Congress, the President, and the American people trusted Marshall. He gave Eisenhower every opportunity to rise to command leadership. Marshall mentored a number of other army leaders also (e.g., Omar Bradley, Mark Clark, et al). And then, as Secretary of State, he developed the Marshall Plan which saved millions of people worldwide from starvation.
Something went wrong in the post-WWII U.S.; something which allowed an evil presence like Senator Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism. (I could go further on this subject but not now.) We need to review our post-WWII policies and correct our course. Ref. the issue of Iran, we have to review why we allowed the CIA to destroy democracy in Iran and then install the dictator Shah whose oppressive rule led to the Islamic Revolution which we're still facing today. The U.S. government has instigated a lot of the problems we find ourselves faced with. We have to do much better if we really believe in democracy.
Our country and the world are desperately in need of a George C. Marshall today.
Carole, loving your neighbor as yourself is often very difficult. I am having trouble feeling a kindred spirit with many Americans these days. However, I was raised by incredible, loving and progressive parents. I think that is where we learn about “the equality is for all” philosophy. It is not inborn, but neither is hatred. We learn these values at our mother and father’s knees. The good AND the bad...
I understand they were encouraged to remove this piece from their musical. Thanks be to God that they refused. The entire play was making a point about racism - remember the children of the man the female lead fell inlove with - she was going to marry him until she saw that they were biracial.
I am on the liberal side now, but was raised by loving conservative parents. We had a great conversation (including politics) over playing cribbage this evening. I forwarded HCR's post to all of my family, as all will agree and find common ground with it this Thanksgiving!
Elisabeth, I, too, had parents who were committed to the condition of equality. Prejudice was not taught in our home nor was it tolerated. The song "Jesus loves the little children..." not only served as a reminder of what's right but further as a doctrine of how life is to be lived. My parents felt the same equality for all religions, as long as they proposed equally humanitarian values.
My father looked at issues from multiple angles. On the issue of "Love your neighbor as yourself," my father would say, "The problem in achieving this is that most people do not really love themselves." Now, that is something to consider.
What Elisabeth said. It is taught. Hatred for African Americans and anyone non white or non "Christian" has been and is being taught by millions who were taught by their parents. It is inevitable that this evil bigoted thinking would seep into our political institutions.
I too am appalled that in this "day and age" that more than a handful of people still think very much as they did when Lincoln gave that speech.
My parents moved to South Carolina for employment. It was a cultural shock. They felt as if they had landed in a swamp of hate. Eventually they found tolerant friends. But they were few.
If I were to post about the Gettysburg Address today on my Facebook page, I'm guessing close to all of my friends would "like" it; those who are rabid MAGAts believe with all their hate-filled hearts that what is said there calls liberals to task for supporting civil rights for all. It is freaking mind blowing.
In 1990 our daughter married a young serviceman who was from Mississippi. We are from Washington state. We flew there, were greeted by his parents at the airport. Our first stop was a fast food place to get something cold to drink. The young man at the counter was black. His accent though was northern. So, I asked him where he was from (Chicago). His dad had transferred for work. We had a very nice, short conversation. I could see the inlaws backing further and further away. Evidently, I had committed the ultimate sin of conversing with a black person. That was my first quick lesson in how blacks are treated in the deep south.
Great poem. I was ready to praise the poet after a couple of lines. Then, seeing the poet's name at the end, I was to praise him once again, as I've done over the past 58 years since I first learned his name while reading "The Prophet". His intellect and soulful understanding, plus his clarity in thought and expression, make Khalil Gibran one of a kind. Thanks for the pick-me-up from a wise presence of the past.
I come to this letter each day knowing that I will be educated. I never had a good history teacher, and I never developed an interest in history whatsoever. Had HCR been my teacher, I would always have been enthralled by history as I am becoming now. The comment section furthers my education as well. I enjoy your comments, your knowledge, and your humor. And I am happy at age 70 to be learning something important every single day. Thanks to all of you.
It's been my experience as a public historian that most people don't appreciate history until they have one themselves; that is, they can see themselves in the stream of the events that they personally experienced.
Hi Kathleen, you've confirmed my thoughts about having to have some 'seasoning' sprinkled on your life for most people to be able to have an appreciation for history. For me, growing up in central Pennsylvania and having so much of our US history geographically close at hand, it wasn't really until my 30's onward that my curiosity kicked in. As my life progressed another 20+ years, I met and worked with people from around the globe, and started realizing the incredible depth of content and context that was skimmed over during my school years. I've regretted that I didn't have that spark ignite earlier, but I'm grateful that I've been learning so much more these last handful of years due to this community and people like HCR, and yourself, who educate beyond the lecture hall. My gratitude to you. 💞
I like to call this "Letters From an American" "LFAAU" (adding the word "University" at the end of it.) I feel like both the letters and the comments are as good as auditing a history class taught by Professor Richardson.
It's been my experience as a public historian that most people don't appreciate history until they have one themselves; that is, they can see themselves in the stream of the events that they personally experienced.
"Still Learning" - I could have written what you have written verbatim! At my very advanced age (far older than you), I am soooo happy and grateful to be finally learning history.
On the advice of a comment here, I'm reading Dr Richardson's book How the South won the Civil War. I bought it, but I think you may find it in your library. Since I don't already know it all, it's really fun to finally put all those pieces into a clearer picture of the past. Here's to learning something every day ✋☺️!
The gulf between the motivation behind Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the motivation behind Trump’s self-centered social media posts is staggering. The likes of Trump must never again be elected president.
My Great Grandfather fought in Hooker's army. He enlisted at the outset of the war, and mustered out at the end. However the dying didn't end with Lee's surrender. I found a gazetteer of the reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic. In it was listed the whereabouts and current situation of the soldiers. About every fourth member was listed as "Suicide" PTSD is as old as war.
We lost my nephew to suicide after he fought in Afghanistan. People aren’t meant to be killing machines. We’re way more wired to love than to hate and do harm.
I try to instill this in my students. As the Art teacher, we do a gratitude project every thanksgiving to show others our appreciation for them. Hoping to plant a little seed of caring in each child! I feel outnumbered in my efforts but I keep trying!
I'm sorry for your loss. I have dear friends whose son suicided after his service in "The Sandbox" (he was the only survivor from his platoon in an engagement they called "The House" and could not live with himself.)
I hope that you are right in that we are "more wired to love than to hate and do harm"; I have seen far, far too much evidence to the contrary in the evil that humans do to each other.
Medical treatment during the Civil War and during World War I was not so then advanced that the suffering has to have been unimaginable. These stats, if true, don’t surprise me that many could not live with the aftermath. Those who have seen this level of carnage can rarely be made to talk about it. The horror of it. Lincoln urges us to never forget these sacrifices.
First let me say how much I enjoy your daily letters in the perspective that you bring to the volatility uncertainty chaos ambiguity of our world.
Also, please forgive this long missive, and, the need to be thorough in sharing this correction, With all due respect, to today’s letter.
I just had the privilege of taking my 93 or old mother. Phoebe, to the Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg in September, where we sang ‘let it be’ to her great great great … grandmother Elizabeth McConaughy, 1610 to 1706, and the rest of our ancestors buried 100 feet from where the cemetery hosted Abraham Lincoln and the platform for the Gettysburg Address. As our national park guide, Mr. Ed Guy, shared with us at the beginning of our tour, the renowned local lawyer who founded both the Evergreen Cemetery itself and the National Cemetery, and the national war memorial park, was not Judge David Wills, but rather David McConaughy Jr, who practiced law in Gettysburg from 1850 to 1900, after his father who practiced from 1800 to 1850.
He founded the Evergreen Cemetery by subscription, starting in 1852, formally opening in 1854. The 24-inch high stone wall along the crest of cemetery ridge that the union soldiers fell over at the end of the first day was created by the digging of graves in the Evergreen Cemetery, which yielded many rocks with every grave. The founding of the cemetery was accomplished under a great deal of local church resistance headed up by none other than Judge Wills, whom you credited today. Further fact is that 18 months before the battle, David McConaughey optioned the 9 acres next to Evergreen toward town specifically for a Civil War cemetery.
David hosted the Abraham Lincoln to speak on the Evergreen Cemetery property, facing the crowd on the 9 acres that he had optioned 18 months earlier. I would appreciate knowing the source where you got the information crediting David Wills, so our family can have an opportunity to correct the record in that case, as we are so thrilled has now happened very thoroughly at the Gettysburg Foundation, the Museum and on the Tours.
Thank you for always being so clear and productive. And thanks again for the consistent daily context. I find it very helpful.
ps. All of this was explained to my grandmother, my mother and myself by President Eisenhower’s caddy when he was president, and golf partner of Ike’s in Gettysburg, Art Kennel, who died 11/9/2013. His son Brian runs Evergreen today.
Art related to us that David McConaughy had been spying for Pinkerton and the army of the Potomac for the months leading up to the battle, going around Pennsylvania trying to find Lee’s army. He said it was David who met the Army of the Potomac in the middle of the night after the first day and placed all the Union Canyon wheel-to-wheel along cemetery ridge in the pitch dark so that the union had command of the high ground on the second day.
Art believed that David had been standing next to General Crouch and General Meade on the third day and had seen pickets charge happened right in front of his eyes, in which 8 to 10,000 men died in 56 minutes of continuous firing of grapeshot. David was impacted, began buying up pieces of the battlefield the next day, personally purchasing pieces of Culps Hill, Picket’s charge and Little Round Top. As Mr. Guy explained to us at the beginning of our tour, David then assembled a group to begin the development of the cemetery and national memorial, which then purchased back the option and property from him at the prices that he paid for them. He made no money on the deal. As Mr. Guy was very clear to point out.
David and the group then invited officers, ultimately of both sides to come back to the field to identify the fallen, which they did for decades after that.
The head of the historical society gave us a letter for our file in which general Robert E Lee respectfully declined invitation to the picnic. As an oral historian of this country I am continually saddened at the way the actual work that people of great character have done to build the great comments of this country.
Working as a cultural architect, cultural anthropologist an applied sociologist, I have been conducting many dozens of participatory democratic experiments through action research, and collecting what I called the greatest stories never told about the true history of this country and what it really is, not all the BS that we are fed Through the mass perceptual monopoly.
At www.commons.org we hold record of the many, many, people who actually did the work, who have been written out of the story because they weren’t trying to get the credit they were just trying to get it done. You have likely never heard the names of some others who were written out of the story until recently, James Wilson, according to Mitchener and Hancock, the architect of this country. It was Wilson who said, “ I wish for vigor in the government, but I wish that vigorous authority to flow from the legitimate source of all authority, the people. The government are to possess not only the force but the mind or sense of the people at large”.
George Reed, his partner consensus builder for processes from the Declaration of Independence to the drafting of the constitution, James McKay, Whose Indian office map and introductions to all the indigenous tribes along the Missouri river enables Lewis and Clark to be successful after he had tried and failed twice to go overland to the Pacific, David McConaughy Jr, Founder of the Evergreen Cemetery and the Gettysburg national monument, and his son David McConaughy, Founder of the world stewardship Council and early innovator of systematic giving in modern philanthropy, and last but certainly not least, unknown to many, the astonishing Walter Russell, appropriately known as the Leonardo da Vinci of America and yet almost unknown to vast majority Americans.
The number of indigenous, black, immigrants, and people of color who have literally created our modern world with their technical inventions, only to have the acknowledgment for what they did be nonexistent (see Indian Givers book). They and so many thousands of other stewards who have made great contributions to benefit all because their character drove them to do it.
This is the true triumphant story of this country and the levels of trust and exchange of mutual benefit never before seen in the history of humanity as we know it.
How can the citizens of this country possibly be more successful when we don’t know the actual story of what created what we have today?
I hope HCR sees your comment, so important! Please find a way to get it to her attention, if not here, maybe send her an actual letter. I think she would want to know about this. Good luck!!
Thanks for telling this story-so many “ordinary” people who are never recognized as heroes and sheroes for their dedication, genius and sacrifices. One other correction-characterizing enslaved Black people as “neighbors” is a stretch.
Like so many school children, I was required when very young to memorize Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I had no idea then what it meant, nor the postscript to battle it powerfully punctuated, but I managed to rattle it off acceptably.
Over the years, it’s meanings have filtered down, so that I eventually achieved understandings of racism, slavery, economies, war, diplomacy, and the substantial difficulties of democratic institutions!
Democracy, real democracy, is not for adolescents, which is why we have a minimum voting age. It is neither for immature adults, of which we have far too many; adults who cannot tolerate the seeming lack of control, or chaos of differences and diversity, the slowness to politically get somewhere.
Perhaps mothers who have the patience for their children is my most poignant metaphor. Children need time to explore, develop agency and mature in their empathy for others, and their resilience to how difficult a world we live in. And the future is about our children, grandchildren and the world we will leave them, isn’t it?
I was taken aback by Sam Waterston’ reading the Lincoln’s Address in Ken Burns’ Civil War series. Every other reading I’ve heard placed the emphasis on the prepositions in the last sentence, i.e. OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people. Waterston placed the emphasis on the word ‘people,’ i.e. of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE, for the PEOPLE. It sounded odd at first. But as I thought of Waterston’s change in emphasis more and more, I began to think of us PEOPLE as active participants in assuring the all people have the right to live, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, rather than mere recipients of the rights, fought for by others. Now every time I read the Address, I follow Waterston’s example by emphasizing the role of the PEOPLE in assuring these rights.
I find it fascinating that Lincoln chose to use the word PEOPLE rather than MEN in his final sentence. Think of how differently we might think of the Address if he had written “of men, by men, for men” instead.
He did sometimes use the word"men" in that way, as was the custom of the era. I welcome more inclusive language. More Lincolnian sagacious poetry.
"Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
“….and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.” Just wow….JL, thank you.
A warning in perfect prose, heed or regret for generations
No kidding. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”
What we fear most we bring about for ourselves if we deign ourselves worthy of doing it to others.
Heavy. True. Divine self-fulfilling prophecy.
Yikes!
I think you mean 'deem' rather than 'deign'.
Thank you.
This quote is why I read these comments.
I have sent it to all my Republican friends asking if this could be: "Trumpty Dumpty".
Should be an interesting day.
I'm gonna give that a try too, Mike. We'll see what kind of response my freedumb friends have to this.
I’ve always appreciated clarity in concise form. Y’all satisfy that fascination in me and none as much as Professor HCR quoting the words of our most humble and inspirational President who was meant to live in his time. I’m also reminded that “Republican” was his party, so unlike its appearance of today.
2 comments, both positive. So far.
Many Americans, especially those who support Trump and his acolytes, cannot think by the kind of extension your comment makes. All these Trumpian folks hear is MY liberty, MY freedom, MY house, MY family, MY job, MY church; other folks’s freedom, house, family, job, church, school seem like the enemy and therefore needing extermination …. It never occurs to Trump-lovers that the rights to life, liberty and happiness apply either to all people at all times or they are revocable to anyone at any time.
it is the difference between narcissism and emotionally "adult", between tyranny and a just, constitutional democracy. We all pursue self-interest and I suspect we all cope with narcissistic urges. I do. But a physically adult human who cares exclusively for self-interest while indifferent to that of others, or who even enjoys making others suffer, is a sociopath, and potentially extremely dangerous. Even more danger lies in cults of narcissism for, which history provides far too many examples. I think we as a society must get more "real" about what is at stake. My take on Lincoln's subject matter.
Hmmm…so you are saying that
1. there is a rational (or healthy) level of self-interest that benefits the individual and is in fact essential to a democratic society and
2. There is an irrational (or unhealthy) level of self interest that is eventually destructive of both the the individual and is in fact inimical to democratic society, and
3. If we want to . “get more real” we must think more rationally?
Then I agree.
Unfortunately, rational thought is, by the way, the one thing many politicians abhor and voters don’t do. For example, the case of Herschel Walker’s most recent stump speech on the important topic of werewolves and vampires. A rational politician would never publicly claim to prefer being one to the other. And a rational person would never vote for a candidate who claims to prefer himself as a werewolf rather than a vampire. Yet 49% of Georgia voters gave their approval to a werewolf wannabe!
Alas. And as a matter of lived human experience, wisdom seems to involve integration of rational, evidence-based assessment of circumstances with a keen sense of what "really matters", assessment of accuracy and value, like Einstein deciding to chase light beams in his mind rather than just watching the game. Like Lincoln looking at liberty in context. If it's of, by and for The People we want, we collectively choose to steer the "ship of state". Bad, careless, of negligent decisions at the wheel can quickly lead to "maritime disaster".
Precisely on point. "... rights to life, liberty and happiness apply either to all people at all times or they are revocable to anyone at any time." There will always be a cadre of folks who believe themselves to be 'special cases', and that cadre is not limited to _rumpians. Consider for a moment parts of the current gop coalition 'big tent' ; 1.) extremist dogmatic religious zealots, 2.) anarchists, including conspiracy theory acolytes, bigots and misogynists, 3.) Commerce / profit first and always zealots, 4.) Republican first, american second automatons. 5.) General collection of hell bent, bitter, resentful hearts - or holes where hearts should be. And no, they don't get it, including the ones who consider themselves 'deep thinkers', who may think they are 'using / manipulating' the clueless and think they can get this genie back in the bottle.
Amen to this statement, it is heard constantly whenever the trumpian crowds gather.
Thank you for this.
J L - Thanks for mentioning these words spoken by Lincoln. He spoke of "the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere." All men, etc., perhaps with the emphasis on 'all'.
We sometimes forget, collectively or individually, that while we prize our freedom of this and that, freedom to do this or that, we are actually impinging on others' freedoms to do their own "this and that". By doing so we are falling into the very trap Lincoln is warning us against, namely that by familiarizing ourselves with chains, by trampling on the rights of others, we have indeed lost our own independence and become fit for the first tyrant who arises. How true those words are!
Tyranny can be very seductive as well as coercive. Like a movie monster that does not seem ever to really die, it keeps rearing its ugly head.
And to underline your point, as FDR pointed out, freedom is freedom from as well as freedom to. Freedom from robbery or rape precludes any possible "right" to rape or rob. Freedom from air pollution impacts one's choice to pollute the air. How do we provide a robust palette of diverse and creative choices and "all get along"? Actively promoting honestly, empathy, and a collective contract may be as good as it gets.
Hence, law and order, where no one is above the law - including and especially those with armies of lawyers to subvert and undermine the rule of law. Now, if only that could work in practice (?).
Your last sentence here, JL, says it all to us who wish to remain sane.
Fran, here is the link to Waterston’s wonderful rendition of the Gettysburg Address: https://youtu.be/W3TgkH7VGSk Magnificent reading. Thank you!
So powerful in 2 minutes; it compares poorly to others who blather on, with little respect for our democracy. It is a great reminder of those who fought, died, including Lincoln, and were injured, for our freedom. Thank goodness for them all! It is left to us to carry the work forward!
"compares poorly"? (Some more nitpicking for today.)
Thanks so much for that link! Really, thank you.
Elizabeth, I hadn’t heard it before. Thank you so much for sharing the link!
Same here. Powerful.
Thank you! Loved hearing it again!
Here is the clip from Ken Burns' The Civil War: https://youtu.be/qCXUbQ4JjXI?t=216
Perfect. Nothing and remembering.
Noting
Such powerful words. Pray that we are wise enough to heed them, now more than ever. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing Waterston’s rendition.
Goose flesh provoking.
Thanks Elisabeth.
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this link, Elisabeth!
Thank you!! I listened, shivering with emotion, and now I'm posting.
"We the People ... "
The Constitution does begin with the words "We the People" writ large.
The law of the land.
I am thankful that he didn't use the word men. We women have had more than an uphill fight to be accorded the rights and freedoms for which we have given every measure as well for this nation. We would not want to think we would have had to fight Lincoln as well.
Lincoln knew he had to go home and answer to his coach and perhaps the one critic that he really feared - Mary. She was a tremendous influence on him.
I never thought of that. Thank you Fran!
Wonderful, Fran! You have changed the meaning for me....I think the one Lincoln intended. I love Sam Waterston, btw....
" ... the role of the PEOPLE in assuring these rights" is again imperative at this very moment.
I am also fond of Waterson’s reading of it.
Fran Your focus on Sam Waterston’s Lincoln reading of PEOPLE is spot on. I have been re-watching Ken (and Ric) Burns Civil War during my nightly exercises.
I felt Lincoln’s despair as tens of thousands of Union soldiers were slaughtered in battle because of poor generalship. Gettysburg came only months after the disasters of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. After McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, and others, Lincoln was desperate for a winning general.
U. S. Grant took the key citadel of Vicksburg on the Mississippi the day of Pickett’s disastrous charge at Gettysburg. Lincoln in Grant had fought his fighting general, with Sherman, Grant’s sidekick.
With such profound wartime grief, I am astonished that Lincoln was able to speak like an angel in his unforgettable two minute Gettysburg eulology.
There is an excellent book on death in the Civil War called The Republic of Suffering. I read it several years ago and it made a deep impression on me. A good death in a more religious America was in your home town surrounded by your family and friends and remembered and buried by them. The Civil War turned this upside down with so many soldiers dying in a very different manner. Some parents spent a lot of time trying to find their sons' bodies. Also thou shalt not kill made some refuse to kill the enemy. I was going to reference it more, but must have loaned it to someone because i can't find it on the shelf.
Michele What I recall from the Burns’ Civil War was that death and dying was so matter of fact, after futile charges by brave men. At Antietam, Fredericksburg, and elsewhere, one heard of the moans and cries on the battlefield.
Joseph Chamberlain (FRedericksburg?) spoke of the cold and pulling two dead bodies together as he slept with these bodies.
Deaths on Civil War battlefields were not considered "good" deaths as the book describes. It must have been horrific and of course, people could survive weapons that didn't shred bodies as modern ones do There was a series on PBS for awhile which was set in a hospital somewhere behind the lines, but run by Yanks. Awful. Lots of sawing off of limbs. I have an ancestor who survived, but was crippled and walked with a cane which he made a habit of hitting everyone with. Apparently when he died, everyone was glad.
Drew Gilpin Faust 2008, Vintage Civil War Library. See Google Books.
BTB, she was President of Harvard University.
Yes. I looked it up. I wish I knew where my copy is. I really learned a lot from this book.
The example I recall from the book was a Confederate who refused even when threatened with death himself.
Thanks for the info.
I cried when I read Lincoln's words in today's letter. Then I listened to Waterston's reading and was especially struck by the force in the words "...we here highly resolve..." In an instant, my mind flew forward through the next 159 years, beyond the devastating slaughter of Gettysburg, through a century and a half of horrifying cruelty enacted upon people of color or "others" and millions of lifetimes spent struggling and suffering because of the systematic suppression of equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL people.
As I and thousands of others write postcards to GA youth and text-bank GA voters in the next two weeks and continue to take various targeted actions in the next two years, we can join in Lincoln's pledge "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."
I agree. It’s the best reading of the Address, imho. I also was rooting for Waterston to get the part of Lincoln in the Spielberg movie, but Daniel Day-Lewis did a great job.
By the way, if you’re interested in Waterston’s interpretation of another famous Lincoln speech, he recreated the Cooper Union speech at Cooper Union. It’s long, but once he gets past the legal framework Lincoln used, it’s a moving experience.
https://youtu.be/oeT1L_hB5cs
Thank you so very much for your comments, Fran! I have an even greater appreciation for President Lincoln (if that was possible) after digesting this interpretation. We will rise again, as we have so often in our history under severe and heinous conditions.
It was what Lincoln did.
Personhood, I believe is measurable and can discriminate qualified individuals into levels. So, all men are not equal but can be improved with training, experience, calibration and review.
What the founders missed was that personhood does not depend on race, gender, wealth or family status, rather on the seven or so characteris like those described in https://philosophymt.com/what-are-the-characteristics-of-personhood
Unfortunately, a majority of Americans have not developed the foresight to even reach the Micawber Threshold so democracy is a poor choice of government. Representative democracy would work if we could trust political parties to select qualified candidates. But that has also failed.
Governments must put more focus on developing resilient personhood around the world rather than focus on some abstract human rights agenda.
It’s was striking and I’ve never forgotten it.
Heather, I expected a photograph and your oath to rest this day. Instead, reading Lincoln’s words gave me the chills. All these many decades later, such words DO mean something! Thank you, dear friend, for your love of our history, often bloody and tragic. I will mull over those words today, as I work in my small garden in India.
No one remembers the exaggerated oration of Mr. Everett. But everyone remembers Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which was directed outward toward preserving the nation and the liberty and equality of the people. Mr. Everett was there, in his celebrity, to hear himself talk.
Everett got it, and said this to Lincoln shortly afterward, “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”
Good to know. Thanks for sharing that nugget of information.
Peter Tenney, thank you very much for this valuable addendum.
In eighth grade speech class we had to memorize this speech and then give it in class. I was never more terrified of anything that I was when I got up to do this. It took me the longest time to get the first word out and then they just tumbled out. And the teacher gave me an A! This speech has always had great meaning to me as a result, and I read it every year and think about its meaning.
I am not a fan of rote memorization in schools, but for some purposes it makes sense. I too was required to memorize the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble of the Constitution. Both stayed with me (though I could not recite both in their entirety at the moment, I have a pretty good idea of what's in there), so it comes to mind more than it otherwise might.
I was sad when we more or less canceled significant national observance of Lincoln's Birthday. It spurred a lot more discussion of Lincoln as a culturally influential figure in classrooms than I suspect goes on today.
Apparently in VA they considered erasing MLK Day. I object to governments promoting Critical ERASURE Theory.
AKA "lies".
In Texas, history information is so controlled! It’ll be interesting to see what classroom teachers do this year for president’s day. It’s strictly dictated by the state. They are given a pamphlet every month for Social Studies. Books at our school were put in storage. But even our Texas history books were pretty controlled by the state. Hopefully they’ll continue to honor Lincoln!
One very good thing about having access to Google is: All young adults have access to real history IF they want access. Wikipedia is fairly good at balanced views.
So, a kid from Texas who wants to know that the Texas "revolution" was really about the fact that Mexico had outlawed slavery?
They can know that with a few button clicks.
Access to books, too. Tony Morrison's novels are a target of school library censorship. I recommend watching her documentary on Netflix.
Absolutely ridiculous and cruel!
Reminding me of the vast Dallas Texas Schoolbook Depository of ill-fame, Lee Harvey Oswald's perch on Nov. 22, 1963, and the fact that, as a history teacher, I learned that many textbook companies had to make sure their editions would be acceptable in the huge, somewhat controlled, Texas market. The result: not very inspiring books to say the least. (As a New England independent school teacher, I never had to suffer the consequences very much, fortunately.)
I read in James Loewen's 'Lies My Teacher Told Me' that most U.S. History texts for schools must have the approval of a board of review based in Texas. Explains the warped interpretations of history students are exposed to nationwide.
Warped knowledge is dangerous. I propose that we drop books that tell real history, from the sky, onto Texas grounds. If Abbott can send immigrants to other states, let’s, in kind, send Texans tons of books.
I just looked it up.... a space rented by a textbook company...not storage for textbook rejects/bans
thanks Denise, I shared your comment with some friends who are teachers( an eye opener to me).. If you don't mind, are you a teacher? or what is your role in the schools? Did you see yesterday's NYT article and video re the crisis for teacher?
Did you read the ridiculous pamphlet per the TX state legislator printed this year for the public that condenses our state history as pick and choose whitewash?
Denise--I am late to this discussion, but as a long-ago K-12 Texas schoolboy I have to say that Krause and company are carrying on a not-so-fine Texas tradition. If you're interested, look up Mel and Norma Gabler of Longview. They began a kitchen table industry of objecting to many science and social studies books that offended their highly fundamentalist views. For decades they were extremely effective at influencing (and successfully badgering) the Texas State Textbook Committee to exclude various texts that didn't meet their bigoted standards. And at that time the Committee's recommendations had country-wide influence on the publishers due to the size of their market.
Ignorance is (not) Strength.
Are there School Boards in every county and if so what power do they have?
Texas has geographical school districts not run by cities and counties, with only one small city exception. They help provide citizen oversight of public education goals, success and policies, whereas the superintendent advises the board and manages the district..
The local school districts largely decide which
Instructional materials to use, with The TX State Board of Ed. proclaiming which texts are bid for each year, and then the Texas Education Agency's Commissioner grading each textbook, software package or other learning tool. School districts can decide whether or not to use state-adopted materials, with state-mandated curriculum and testing to be covered. The Texas Legislature recently passed a law regulating classroom instruction and teacher training meant to stop (their wrongly understood idea of) critical theory inculcation, with social studies quite smothered.
(The SBOE had gender identity info removed from biological sex in textbooks before further consideration.)
I feel for the teachers and the kids. Might as well be indoctrinated in a cult.
Good heavens, it's got a lot of layers and a lot of "canceling," Pat, Sandra
How horrible for a teacher to be chained to this state’s idiotology!
Sad thing is that the Republicans have held state control of govt in TX about the past 30 yrs, and these conservatives have put so many restrictions on what and how subjects can be taught that teachers have been leaving in large numbers. Too many positions unfilled. And see my just above comment.
I was required to memorize them also. They echo in my mind.
Birthday blessings! Eat LOTS of cake.😊
I, too, was required to memorize the Preamble and the Gettysburg Address-growing up in Pennsylvania, it meant so much to visit the sites of these historic docs and events. I never believed we would have to survive such a threat to our government of the ppl, by the ppl, and for the ppl. This threat feels so sinister because it is shrouded in lies, betrayals, hidden sources of funds, and Wizard of Oz machinations behind curtains by wealthy white men who wish to destroy democracy and elect themselves as supreme rulers. Never would I have guessed we would be in this place.
Jen, what upsets me so much is to realize how long the wealthy have been working behind the scenes while I and my friends were so very complacent. Thanks to HCR and other historians (I’m talking about you, Joanne Freeman), we are much more aware today. Hard work ahead.
Evil must ever be confronted, and beaten back.
Jane Mayer: “Dark Money”
Could not get through that book because I was so angry, so upset to know how manipulated we were/are!
You owe it to yourself to finish it
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday, Janet!
Hope you had a very nice birthday, Janet!🎉🎂🌸
Yes, Happy Birthday Janet!
I’ve always had a fascination about Lincoln. With relatives in Springfield IL, we’d visited many tourist attractions for him. My daughter said the year I was born helped her remember Civil War dates! I said what?! She said because you know it was just a 100 years before you were born! Oh thanks Anna that doesn’t make me feel old at all! Ha!
Happy Birthday Janet!
Good day for a birthday; every day is a good for birthdays. Happy Birthday, Janet.
Good morning FERN. On other urgent topics, see my OFF TOPIC comment below. Jodi Kantor at the NYT has busted Justice Alioto as the leaker of 2014 case.
Well. Is Roberts going to discipline him? There was such handwringing over the “leak.” (Better word: plant)
Impeachment appropriate asap. But more handeringing likely. We need an investigation into the scope of the 2014 case, plants, operators etc.
'...the plants...' I'm coming 🌱.
Bryan, it is always good to see you, the bringer of news, legal understanding and greetings with warmth. Salud, my friend.
Big “whoa”….
The machinations of politicians in full masquerade mode; “I’m not a judge, but I play one in court”
Roberts has lost control of his Constitutional role as Chief Justice: Roberts has lost it partially as a result of what one could call "informational warfare".
And “we the people” have lost control of the Selection process under the influence of Citizens United and the Federalist Society as they manipulate the Senate
Bryan, i saw it and loved that it was Jodi Kantor! If you get a chance, see the movie “She Said”. Very powerful and about how she and Megan Twohey cracked the Harvey Weinstein case wide open.
Thank you Marlene; I'm a huge film buff; "She Said" on my list now.
There was a time when we all had to memorize it and develop some concept of what it meant. I'd wager that is no longer the case in most 5th grade classrooms, or 8th grade, or Junior year of high school.
In 5th grade, we all had to memorize something. I chose "Old Ironsides" and can still, 55 years later, remember about a third of it.
The reading level is too high for 5th, 8th, or junior high school students now. When I taught a (college) sophomore-junior statistics course years ago, one of my students complained on a teaching evaluation that I used "too big words". Or was it "two"?
Could be either, or is it ether? I saw the same thing as a manager in the hospitality industry and our HR department was at pains to make sure we didn't talk down to the kids who could barely write.
My daughter-in-law, who teaches art in high school, says the students can hardly sign their names, and that's not the worst of it.
And there doesn't seem to be a lot of pressure to improve it.
How much?
Happy Birthday, Janet!
Happy Happy Birthday, Janet!!
Simple but profound
"if only" indeed.
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday, Janet!
For me, the most moving monument in Washington, D.C. is the Lincoln Memorial. The Gettysburg Address appears on one wall; Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on another. I don’t know how anyone with a heart can stand there and read these without becoming teary eyed.
I love that monument! We took our kids there when they were very young on a frigid spring break. Their dad explained how important it was to know about Lincoln and that this was a monument for all people. It belonged to all of us.
One of those parenting moments he got right!
I couldn’t.
I agree, Mark. I consider it the most worthy pilgrimage destination. Then there's Delicate Arch in Utah, too
At night, the Lincol Memorial is illiminated, a good spot to sit and quietly reflect ....
Our son-in-law proposed to our daughter there one spring night in the early spring. Recent graduates of UC Santa Barbara, he was going through Quantico and she was working in D.C. as paralegal. The Memorial remains very special to them.
Took both of my daughters there in 2019 when we went to the Women’s March. I think it is one of the most astounding places to visit. There sits Lincoln, towering over the land in majestic glory. His gaze is set ahead for the future that he never got to see or experience. Reminds us all how fragile life is.
David, Delicate Arch is harder to hike to but is definitely worth the effort.
I couldn't. It was incredibly powerful to stand there and read those words.
I cry every time I visit the Lincoln Memorial...
I am reading with dismay the responses on FB that are attacking Lincoln, who was, when all is said and done, a man of his times with all the shortcomings that entails, at the same time he was an idealist dedicated to the promise and potential of a country founded on consent of the governed. it does not take perfection, nor even pure intention, to do the right thing. Do you agree with Mitt Romney on everything? Yet he voted to impeach. Do you agree with Liz Cheney’s voting record? Yet, she, too, has acted in the best interests of the country in her committee work. John McCain voted down repeals to Obamacare. And after years of hiding in silence to protect his political future, Mike Pence is one of the lynch pins, if not the central figure, in defending the Constitution on January 6, 2021. Those are just a few of the imperfect, probably or definitely biased, humans who have chosen at one critical moment after another, to act in favor of the country and the principles on which it stands. No one is all good, and no one is all bad, and recognizing that duality of human nature is critical to the type of dialogue on which democracy and equality of each person’s voice and vote must stand. It is not a bad thing, indeed it is paramount, to put preserving the country above one’s personal views, for without that Union there is no future country to become “a more perfect Union.” It makes all the more alarming those rabid Republican voices who are willing to default on debt, excuse the insurrectionists, and defy our courts. But I digress…
KEM, I hate to see so many people attacking Lincoln for being a person of his time. In the book The Persuaders, Anand Giridharadas discusses activist Loretta Ross who says that, far too often, we attack those who are not as “pure” as we see ourselves. An example is demeaning those concerned with climate change unless they go meatless. She says that we turn away possible helpers when we require an unrealistic level of purity. All too often, “the perfect is the enemy of the good”.
Thank you for this reminder, who has been what they are in their best moments, every other moment of their lives. Not a one of us. As George Saunders said in an Oscar acceptance speech “what seems other is not other at all, but just us on a different day.”
Very appropriate that autocorrect changed linchpin to lynch pin
Wow!
Ha! The perils of responding to HCR's late night missives! Your observation is so perfect that I am not going to correct the autocorrect...absurdity at its best, eh?
EquALLity. Pass it on.
Government of (all) the people, by (all) the people, for the (all) people, just to be sure.
Lincoln did, indeed, tell us to “Pass it on”. Thank you John, for your comment.
Love this!
Wow. Lincoln was remarkable and truly singular. He represents the best of the United States. Coming from a background of poverty in a remote setting, he committed to develop himself to the best he could be, and thus self-educated so he grew and grew in stature and character. The wonderful simplicity of his approach, his attitude. I visited the cabin in Kentucky where he was born and lived a few years. I've been to the cabin in the dark forests of Southern Indiana where he grew from ages 7 to 21. And I've been to his home in Springfield, Illinois where he matured into adulthood; always searching for a portion of his spirit developed in each location.
And then he gave us the Gettysburg Address. What a person! Needless to say, we could use a few of his breed today.
I would love to visit all of those places! My family was from Illinois and always claimed Lincoln wholeheartedly and didn’t think others could claim him.
I have to say, I went to several rallies for our Texas governor candidate Beto O’Rourke. Of course it’s a very different time! Very different topics! But he did remind us of Lincoln a bit. He wanted to unite our very divisive state. He listened to people who didn’t agree with him. He took pictures with everyone in the room and asked you face to face what concerned you. But alas with 9.6 million registered voters not voting, we got Abbutt again. Beto moved the needle a bit towards a different future. People just didn’t show up. Very sad indeed!
The “voter integrity” crap is legal cheating. Beto should not disappear, he is the future, even if Texas is in the thrall of evil in 2022
So very true, when people look back at Beto’s speeches he will be remembered as a genuine unifier. Not sure what his role will be, but there still is a place for him in Texas leadership.
As for the approximately 55% of Texas voters who did NOT vote, I believe many democratic leaning people bought into the constant Republican polling data released showing Abbott in the lead, falsely believing their vote wouldn’t matter, hence lower than expected turnout. The views of our current state executive branch do not align with the majority of Texans and are not sustainable. Reasonable minded people in our state legislature need to step up and do what’s right for Texas and hold accountable those who try to further divide us.
We need voter reform so desperately! Especially at the local school board level! Patriot Mobile poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into these elections is turning our public schools into fascists dream schools! The most recent information I’ve heard is Stephen Miller is behind the christian nationalist movement supported with Patriot Mobile money. The school district I live in just banned gay and gender fluid books. Next up is Guardianship Law to put guns in teachers hands in the classroom. A woman at the board meeting told me as a teacher if you’re not willing to die for my child you shouldn’t be a teacher. What?! I told her she should homeschool. She said she was lucky enough to be raised in a Christian home, I said I was too. I guess mine was more focused on the teachings of Jesus. It’s really getting divided in our classrooms! But that’s what Republicans want, no more public schools. I’m ready to move!
Agree and a big, bold part of voter reform should be “Statewide, Citizen-Led Ballot Initiatives.” If Texas were one of the 26 states that allow citizen ballot measures, then issues like no book banning, reasonable reproductive rights and common sense gun legislation could be put on the ballot for a direct vote by Texans — who overwhelmingly support these issues! Contact your state representative and senator and ask them to file a bill endorsing this, the next legislative session begins January 10, 2023. When a state legislature is unresponsive to the will of the majority, citizens need a more direct voice in our democracy.
Exactly! But our overwhelming Republican politicians wouldn’t support such a measure. The recent information coming from Austin is hopeful. On the list is abortion reforms for cases of rape, incest, medical when the mother’s life is endangered. Also giving money back to education. Right now all federal funds marked for education go into Abbutt’s slush fund. So I think Republican are seeing some value in Beto’s campaign.
Yes, some hopeful bills are being filed and it’s true Republicans are unlikely to support this ballot measure, but the first step to ever getting it is asking for it — recent citizen led ballot measures are how Idaho passed Medicaid expansion and Florida raised the minimum wage! I want to hear Abbott, Paxton and Patrick explain why Republican led states like Idaho and Florida give their citizens a direct say in democracy but Texas does not.
I’m sorry. I saw these decisions being made I’m in utter shock
Yes it has been very sad. I cannot look at my neighbors without disgust.
The entire Texas election needs to be investigated.
From my perspective as a poll worker in Bexar County, the election process went extremely smoothly and our county level election administrators do a great job.
What really needs to be investigated are the multitude of voter suppression efforts at the sate level. Sec of State John Scott should explain why other states seamlessly offer user-friendly voting processes but Texas does not. For example: no online registration, must register at least 30 days in advance, no limited ballot voting on Election Day - only in early voting, limited and confusing mail ballot options, and what exactly AG Ken Paxton is doing with all of the "Reasonable Impediment Forms" voter forms he collects ....
We sure could, and also, it is for us the living to be dedicated to the unfinished work he pursued.
Heydon, here is the link to the wonderful Gettysburg Address and the rendition by Sam Waterston: https://youtu.be/W3TgkH7VGSk.
Thank you for this link of Sam Waterston reciting the Gettysburg Address, Elizabeth. In addition to his emphasis on 'the PEOPLE', I thought Sam Waterson's pacing and tone so simple and unfancy that I could see Abraham Lincoln as I listened.
Thank you for that link, Ms. Iler. I had not heard Sam Waterston's recitation of the Gettysburg Address.
You are welcome, Mr.Ms. Mills. It was mentioned here, so I looked it up. Beautifully done, no?
Indeed it is...I have always liked Waterston's work. His recitation is slow enough to give time to ponder those each of those meticulously chosen words and phrases to form such a simple but stunning invocation.
PS. It's Ms. btw
Ms. Mills, I also liked that he did not try to “sound like” Abe Lincoln. His voice and diction is perfect in this recitation. I loved it also. 💕
Excellent.
Today, “lawmakers” of a certain ilk are not worthy to speak his name. ..he would have told Rupert Murdoch to piss off, in perfect prose, of course.
Hendon, the closest examples that come to mind are the current POTUS and Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and so many Democrats in Washington and state governments, it would take a book to list them all. Please add your own choices.
I am incredibly moved by those who are standing in the breach for us--imperfections and all--direct links of discipleship to Democracy going back to Abraham Lincoln.
These are the heroes we desperately wanted and waited for, in our misery during the four years of wanton evil in the White House. Remember?
And now we watch and pray with exultant hearts for the heroes and the People in Ukraine, Iran, and so many other places where Democracy struggles to be born and reborn--our brightest hope as we struggle together.
Slava Ukraine!
Hi Gus, when I think of true selfless character and commitment to the U.S. ideals, the first American who comes to mind is General George C. Marshall. His integrity and abilities were beyond question in any regard. His clarity of mind and purpose left people in awe. During WWII, he was probably the single most respected person in the country. He never had a political agenda. He was completely committed to serving his country. President Roosevelt chose and entrusted Marshall with the preparation and training of the U.S. WWII army and military as a whole. Congressmen of both political parties trusted Marshall implicitly when he requested supplies from them. A character study of Marshall in the Feb. 1944 issue of Reader's Digest demonstrates how thoroughly Congress, the President, and the American people trusted Marshall. He gave Eisenhower every opportunity to rise to command leadership. Marshall mentored a number of other army leaders also (e.g., Omar Bradley, Mark Clark, et al). And then, as Secretary of State, he developed the Marshall Plan which saved millions of people worldwide from starvation.
Something went wrong in the post-WWII U.S.; something which allowed an evil presence like Senator Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism. (I could go further on this subject but not now.) We need to review our post-WWII policies and correct our course. Ref. the issue of Iran, we have to review why we allowed the CIA to destroy democracy in Iran and then install the dictator Shah whose oppressive rule led to the Islamic Revolution which we're still facing today. The U.S. government has instigated a lot of the problems we find ourselves faced with. We have to do much better if we really believe in democracy.
Our country and the world are desperately in need of a George C. Marshall today.
Why are so many people in this day and age choosing to ignore that equality is for all......not just them and their white neighbors?
Carole, loving your neighbor as yourself is often very difficult. I am having trouble feeling a kindred spirit with many Americans these days. However, I was raised by incredible, loving and progressive parents. I think that is where we learn about “the equality is for all” philosophy. It is not inborn, but neither is hatred. We learn these values at our mother and father’s knees. The good AND the bad...
Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein may have said it best in South Pacific's song "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught"
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
You've got to be carefully taught!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf6ITsjsgk&list=PLycQGoRl0aEzvm56UeXJO-YrFw7ZUUETy&t=12s
Thanks for the full lyrics to this. I remember the first time I saw South Pacific, and I was stunned at hearing those lyrics.
Karen, Thanks for the lyrics and the link. It has always been one of my favorite songs because of its simple power.
I understand they were encouraged to remove this piece from their musical. Thanks be to God that they refused. The entire play was making a point about racism - remember the children of the man the female lead fell inlove with - she was going to marry him until she saw that they were biracial.
I am on the liberal side now, but was raised by loving conservative parents. We had a great conversation (including politics) over playing cribbage this evening. I forwarded HCR's post to all of my family, as all will agree and find common ground with it this Thanksgiving!
Elisabeth, I, too, had parents who were committed to the condition of equality. Prejudice was not taught in our home nor was it tolerated. The song "Jesus loves the little children..." not only served as a reminder of what's right but further as a doctrine of how life is to be lived. My parents felt the same equality for all religions, as long as they proposed equally humanitarian values.
My father looked at issues from multiple angles. On the issue of "Love your neighbor as yourself," my father would say, "The problem in achieving this is that most people do not really love themselves." Now, that is something to consider.
Beautifully said. Thank you, Heydon....
What Elisabeth said. It is taught. Hatred for African Americans and anyone non white or non "Christian" has been and is being taught by millions who were taught by their parents. It is inevitable that this evil bigoted thinking would seep into our political institutions.
I too am appalled that in this "day and age" that more than a handful of people still think very much as they did when Lincoln gave that speech.
My parents moved to South Carolina for employment. It was a cultural shock. They felt as if they had landed in a swamp of hate. Eventually they found tolerant friends. But they were few.
If I were to post about the Gettysburg Address today on my Facebook page, I'm guessing close to all of my friends would "like" it; those who are rabid MAGAts believe with all their hate-filled hearts that what is said there calls liberals to task for supporting civil rights for all. It is freaking mind blowing.
Ally, mind blowing and ineffably sad.
In 1990 our daughter married a young serviceman who was from Mississippi. We are from Washington state. We flew there, were greeted by his parents at the airport. Our first stop was a fast food place to get something cold to drink. The young man at the counter was black. His accent though was northern. So, I asked him where he was from (Chicago). His dad had transferred for work. We had a very nice, short conversation. I could see the inlaws backing further and further away. Evidently, I had committed the ultimate sin of conversing with a black person. That was my first quick lesson in how blacks are treated in the deep south.
Fear
FEAR
It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
Khalil Gibran
Great poem. I was ready to praise the poet after a couple of lines. Then, seeing the poet's name at the end, I was to praise him once again, as I've done over the past 58 years since I first learned his name while reading "The Prophet". His intellect and soulful understanding, plus his clarity in thought and expression, make Khalil Gibran one of a kind. Thanks for the pick-me-up from a wise presence of the past.
Ron Boyd, many thanks for this deep and moving [apologies, couldn't resist] poem from Khalil Gibran!
Ron, My first spiritual teacher was Khalil Gibran. Just beautiful to read....thank you so much!
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
I come to this letter each day knowing that I will be educated. I never had a good history teacher, and I never developed an interest in history whatsoever. Had HCR been my teacher, I would always have been enthralled by history as I am becoming now. The comment section furthers my education as well. I enjoy your comments, your knowledge, and your humor. And I am happy at age 70 to be learning something important every single day. Thanks to all of you.
It's been my experience as a public historian that most people don't appreciate history until they have one themselves; that is, they can see themselves in the stream of the events that they personally experienced.
Hi Kathleen, you've confirmed my thoughts about having to have some 'seasoning' sprinkled on your life for most people to be able to have an appreciation for history. For me, growing up in central Pennsylvania and having so much of our US history geographically close at hand, it wasn't really until my 30's onward that my curiosity kicked in. As my life progressed another 20+ years, I met and worked with people from around the globe, and started realizing the incredible depth of content and context that was skimmed over during my school years. I've regretted that I didn't have that spark ignite earlier, but I'm grateful that I've been learning so much more these last handful of years due to this community and people like HCR, and yourself, who educate beyond the lecture hall. My gratitude to you. 💞
I like to call this "Letters From an American" "LFAAU" (adding the word "University" at the end of it.) I feel like both the letters and the comments are as good as auditing a history class taught by Professor Richardson.
I, too, am "still learning."
It's been my experience as a public historian that most people don't appreciate history until they have one themselves; that is, they can see themselves in the stream of the events that they personally experienced.
"Still Learning" - I could have written what you have written verbatim! At my very advanced age (far older than you), I am soooo happy and grateful to be finally learning history.
On the advice of a comment here, I'm reading Dr Richardson's book How the South won the Civil War. I bought it, but I think you may find it in your library. Since I don't already know it all, it's really fun to finally put all those pieces into a clearer picture of the past. Here's to learning something every day ✋☺️!
Beautiful. For the first time in six years, I have hope that Lincoln's inspired words of profound dedication may yet inspire us to long endure.
Lincoln combined empirical clarity with poetic delivery, on this and many occasions. A very beneficial trait for a democratic leader.
The gulf between the motivation behind Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the motivation behind Trump’s self-centered social media posts is staggering. The likes of Trump must never again be elected president.
Lincoln said if you want to know the measure of a man’s character, give him power.
And he will reveal all, and have the likes of Rupert Murdoch spin and lie and make him out to be other than he is
My Great Grandfather fought in Hooker's army. He enlisted at the outset of the war, and mustered out at the end. However the dying didn't end with Lee's surrender. I found a gazetteer of the reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic. In it was listed the whereabouts and current situation of the soldiers. About every fourth member was listed as "Suicide" PTSD is as old as war.
We lost my nephew to suicide after he fought in Afghanistan. People aren’t meant to be killing machines. We’re way more wired to love than to hate and do harm.
I try to instill this in my students. As the Art teacher, we do a gratitude project every thanksgiving to show others our appreciation for them. Hoping to plant a little seed of caring in each child! I feel outnumbered in my efforts but I keep trying!
Really good teachers plant “seeds.” The product just takes years to sprout. Keep doing it.
I'm sorry for your loss. I have dear friends whose son suicided after his service in "The Sandbox" (he was the only survivor from his platoon in an engagement they called "The House" and could not live with himself.)
I hope that you are right in that we are "more wired to love than to hate and do harm"; I have seen far, far too much evidence to the contrary in the evil that humans do to each other.
Medical treatment during the Civil War and during World War I was not so then advanced that the suffering has to have been unimaginable. These stats, if true, don’t surprise me that many could not live with the aftermath. Those who have seen this level of carnage can rarely be made to talk about it. The horror of it. Lincoln urges us to never forget these sacrifices.
Always stirring words. The crafting of such eloquence and impact in brevity masterful.
Thanks for bringing them to us today to savor.
Heather,
First let me say how much I enjoy your daily letters in the perspective that you bring to the volatility uncertainty chaos ambiguity of our world.
Also, please forgive this long missive, and, the need to be thorough in sharing this correction, With all due respect, to today’s letter.
I just had the privilege of taking my 93 or old mother. Phoebe, to the Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg in September, where we sang ‘let it be’ to her great great great … grandmother Elizabeth McConaughy, 1610 to 1706, and the rest of our ancestors buried 100 feet from where the cemetery hosted Abraham Lincoln and the platform for the Gettysburg Address. As our national park guide, Mr. Ed Guy, shared with us at the beginning of our tour, the renowned local lawyer who founded both the Evergreen Cemetery itself and the National Cemetery, and the national war memorial park, was not Judge David Wills, but rather David McConaughy Jr, who practiced law in Gettysburg from 1850 to 1900, after his father who practiced from 1800 to 1850.
He founded the Evergreen Cemetery by subscription, starting in 1852, formally opening in 1854. The 24-inch high stone wall along the crest of cemetery ridge that the union soldiers fell over at the end of the first day was created by the digging of graves in the Evergreen Cemetery, which yielded many rocks with every grave. The founding of the cemetery was accomplished under a great deal of local church resistance headed up by none other than Judge Wills, whom you credited today. Further fact is that 18 months before the battle, David McConaughey optioned the 9 acres next to Evergreen toward town specifically for a Civil War cemetery.
David hosted the Abraham Lincoln to speak on the Evergreen Cemetery property, facing the crowd on the 9 acres that he had optioned 18 months earlier. I would appreciate knowing the source where you got the information crediting David Wills, so our family can have an opportunity to correct the record in that case, as we are so thrilled has now happened very thoroughly at the Gettysburg Foundation, the Museum and on the Tours.
Thank you for always being so clear and productive. And thanks again for the consistent daily context. I find it very helpful.
Respectfully,
Jahn Ballard, www.commons.org
Cell: 707-548-6796
ps. All of this was explained to my grandmother, my mother and myself by President Eisenhower’s caddy when he was president, and golf partner of Ike’s in Gettysburg, Art Kennel, who died 11/9/2013. His son Brian runs Evergreen today.
Art related to us that David McConaughy had been spying for Pinkerton and the army of the Potomac for the months leading up to the battle, going around Pennsylvania trying to find Lee’s army. He said it was David who met the Army of the Potomac in the middle of the night after the first day and placed all the Union Canyon wheel-to-wheel along cemetery ridge in the pitch dark so that the union had command of the high ground on the second day.
Art believed that David had been standing next to General Crouch and General Meade on the third day and had seen pickets charge happened right in front of his eyes, in which 8 to 10,000 men died in 56 minutes of continuous firing of grapeshot. David was impacted, began buying up pieces of the battlefield the next day, personally purchasing pieces of Culps Hill, Picket’s charge and Little Round Top. As Mr. Guy explained to us at the beginning of our tour, David then assembled a group to begin the development of the cemetery and national memorial, which then purchased back the option and property from him at the prices that he paid for them. He made no money on the deal. As Mr. Guy was very clear to point out.
David and the group then invited officers, ultimately of both sides to come back to the field to identify the fallen, which they did for decades after that.
The head of the historical society gave us a letter for our file in which general Robert E Lee respectfully declined invitation to the picnic. As an oral historian of this country I am continually saddened at the way the actual work that people of great character have done to build the great comments of this country.
Working as a cultural architect, cultural anthropologist an applied sociologist, I have been conducting many dozens of participatory democratic experiments through action research, and collecting what I called the greatest stories never told about the true history of this country and what it really is, not all the BS that we are fed Through the mass perceptual monopoly.
At www.commons.org we hold record of the many, many, people who actually did the work, who have been written out of the story because they weren’t trying to get the credit they were just trying to get it done. You have likely never heard the names of some others who were written out of the story until recently, James Wilson, according to Mitchener and Hancock, the architect of this country. It was Wilson who said, “ I wish for vigor in the government, but I wish that vigorous authority to flow from the legitimate source of all authority, the people. The government are to possess not only the force but the mind or sense of the people at large”.
George Reed, his partner consensus builder for processes from the Declaration of Independence to the drafting of the constitution, James McKay, Whose Indian office map and introductions to all the indigenous tribes along the Missouri river enables Lewis and Clark to be successful after he had tried and failed twice to go overland to the Pacific, David McConaughy Jr, Founder of the Evergreen Cemetery and the Gettysburg national monument, and his son David McConaughy, Founder of the world stewardship Council and early innovator of systematic giving in modern philanthropy, and last but certainly not least, unknown to many, the astonishing Walter Russell, appropriately known as the Leonardo da Vinci of America and yet almost unknown to vast majority Americans.
The number of indigenous, black, immigrants, and people of color who have literally created our modern world with their technical inventions, only to have the acknowledgment for what they did be nonexistent (see Indian Givers book). They and so many thousands of other stewards who have made great contributions to benefit all because their character drove them to do it.
This is the true triumphant story of this country and the levels of trust and exchange of mutual benefit never before seen in the history of humanity as we know it.
How can the citizens of this country possibly be more successful when we don’t know the actual story of what created what we have today?
I hope HCR sees your comment, so important! Please find a way to get it to her attention, if not here, maybe send her an actual letter. I think she would want to know about this. Good luck!!
Thanks for telling this story-so many “ordinary” people who are never recognized as heroes and sheroes for their dedication, genius and sacrifices. One other correction-characterizing enslaved Black people as “neighbors” is a stretch.
Like so many school children, I was required when very young to memorize Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I had no idea then what it meant, nor the postscript to battle it powerfully punctuated, but I managed to rattle it off acceptably.
Over the years, it’s meanings have filtered down, so that I eventually achieved understandings of racism, slavery, economies, war, diplomacy, and the substantial difficulties of democratic institutions!
Democracy, real democracy, is not for adolescents, which is why we have a minimum voting age. It is neither for immature adults, of which we have far too many; adults who cannot tolerate the seeming lack of control, or chaos of differences and diversity, the slowness to politically get somewhere.
Perhaps mothers who have the patience for their children is my most poignant metaphor. Children need time to explore, develop agency and mature in their empathy for others, and their resilience to how difficult a world we live in. And the future is about our children, grandchildren and the world we will leave them, isn’t it?
Very much so!
Maybe a dose of Gettysburg Address would do us all good. Instead of twisting the meaning of The Constitution to fit warped interpretations.