Hello
everyone –
This
week, in addition to Independence Day, our nation remembers the Battle of
Gettysburg – the turning point of the Civil War – which took place in
Pennsylvania (July 1-4, 1863). Here are some historical reflections, centered
on the memory of our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln, to remind us that we
ourselves, in the present day, are shaping the future course of our nation, even
though we may be unaware of it.
“The
Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, 16th President of the United
States)
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us —
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Leo
Tolstoy (1828-1910) on Abraham Lincoln
Printed
in the New York World – 1909
“Of
all the great national heroes and statesmen of history Lincoln is the only real
giant. Alexander, Frederick the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Gladstone and even
Washington stand in greatness of character, in depth of feeling and in a certain
moral power far behind Lincoln. Lincoln was a man of whom a nation has a right
to be proud; he was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity, whose name will
live thousands of years in the legends of future generations. We are still too
near to his greatness, and so can hardly appreciate his divine power; but after
a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we
do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common
understanding, just as the Sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.”
“Abraham
Lincoln Walks at Midnight” (1914)
By
Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)
It
is portentous, and a thing of state
That
here at midnight, in our little town
A
mourning figure walks, and will not rest,
Near
the old court-house pacing up and down,
Or
by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He
lingers where his children used to play,
Or
through the market, on the well-worn stones
He
stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.
A
bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black,
A
famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl
Make
him the quaint great figure that men love,
The
prairie-lawyer, master of us all.
He
cannot sleep upon his hillside now.
He
is among us: — as in times before!
And
we who toss and lie awake for long
Breathe
deep, and start, to see him pass the door.
His
head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings.
Yea,
when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?
Too
many peasants fight, they know not why,
Too
many homesteads in black terror weep.
The
sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.
He
sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main.
He
carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now
The
bitterness, the folly and the pain.
He
cannot rest until a spirit-dawn
Shall
come; — the shining hope of Europe free:
The
league of sober folk, the Workers’ Earth,
Bringing
long peace to Cornland, Alp and Sea.
It
breaks his heart that kings must murder still,
That
all his hours of travail here for men
Seem
yet in vain. And who will bring white peace
That
he may sleep upon his hill again?
Happy
4th of July –
Rob
J
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