OCR Text |
Show Severn YemsM:4 Pi i1 ; Hip tell-- I-' '.ui ' " . t a j r- i'SS;fiSS3r; the people, sliall not perish from the earth." As fisJUo tr- WflW(W(- .feS:ElNgCT "1: lie silt down there was but very lit tie applause UMUfZr, uee a'Q'"-4tcB'ff Tj'1fft- 3lif.l Jfcg"J and that was apparently for the President and not 4)- -j&o arvrMi 'fei!TJgjgr-Agcjj for the words he had uttered. "People were dis- . . j-S . j 11 .f.tr-t -gg:;SSSgJasSi; appointed." says Doctor Harton, "After Everett's f-, feS oration the 'resident's speech seemed almost no tiS riwAvp . . siieech at nil. . . . That niiilit they told of SgZT3SiSssy' hearing Everett and of seeing the President. -isuH i&MC&, jiE Incidentally some of them mentioned that the . 4 C-Xo-VV, JS President had uttered a few remarks; yes, they 'rtv' 'f' ml " . had heard the I'resident. But wliile they were "'- -SAjf'sV glad to have heard him. not many of them at the nxrMAjmsavpraFttB , . 'V.1. very mudl abollt t,,e lresiden,'s (&TTY3IR3 ' of record about it. And yet there prevails a speecn. ..nnn,.tn k.. nnopin atraro I fi innn h n rpporftpft that r.incoln rnllpd flip (Pictures trom Barton's "Lincoln at Gettysburg," courtesy, cour-tesy, Bobbs-Merrill Company.) 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ' 1IH1CE score and seven years ago a f tall, gaunt Ainerlcau stood upon a y platform overlooking a battlefield and In a high -pitched, thin voice delivered de-livered n speed) of exactly 272 yiJVjk words. The day was November 19, s4fa 'SO.'!; the man was Abraham Lincoln; saJA the place was Gettysburg, Pa; and '"WtoxM tlie sI,eecu wus "ie Gettysburg - - IwWi A(llll'ess- WMh )ne resu" ' "lat sI'eecn was t0 vjjl determine the man who undoubtedly illy may fairly be called "the world's j worst prophet." His name Is forgotten, If It was ever known, but he was the editorial writer on t lie llarrisburg (Pa.) Patriot and Union who said of the speech: "The President Presi-dent succeeded on this occasion because he acted without sense and without constraint In a panorama pano-rama that was gotten up more for the benefit of Ids party than for the glory of the nation and the honor of the dead. . . . We pass over the silly remarks of the President; for the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall 110 more be repeated or thought of." Fifty years later Lord Curzon of England, In a lecture nt the University of Cambridge, said: "I escape the task of deciding which Is the masterpiece master-piece of modern English eloquence by awarding the prize to an American. The Gettysburg Address Ad-dress Is far more than a pleasing piece of occasional occa-sional oratory. It Is a marvelous piece of English . composiflon. It is a pure well of English undented. unde-nted. (Ills words) are among the glories and treasures of mankind." And another Englishman, Lord t'barnwood, once rated It as "a classic which will endure as long as the English language lan-guage Is spoken." And those estimates of the Gettysburg Address, the ultimate in praise though they may seem to he, are modest indeed compared to other eulogies, uttered in praise of the words which Lincoln uttered, which have run through the whole scale of superlatives. lint for all the extravagant praise which has been lavished upon the Gettysburg Address since It wus delivered G7 years ago. there reninined one tlnal gesture of appreciation. And now that gesture ges-ture has been made. This year witnessed the hitherto unheard-of fact of a 254-page hook being devoted exclusively to a 272-word speech! The book Is "Lincoln at Gettysburg." written by the most prollllc of contemporary Lincoln scholars, Pr. William E. Harton, and published by the liobbs-.Merrill company. Declaring that "the evidence evi-dence Is practically all In. We are now able to assemble It all, to select .all that appears to be significant and to tell the whole story of Lincoln's Lin-coln's speech at Gettysburg." Doctor liarton has said what appears to be the last word about a historic his-toric event and a historic document. Quite aside from the Importance of the Gettysburg Speech as an Imperishnhle treasure of English literature, the story of it, as Doctor Barton tells It In his book, Is one of absorbing Interest, especially In the way In nhlch It Illustrates out of what materials history his-tory may be made. For around this historic document there diners an amazing mass of misinformation under circumstances cir-cumstances which add to the uniqueness of the Address. "The Gettysburg Address was one of t lie most conspicuous events in Lincoln's entire career." writes Doctor Barton in his foreword to the volume. "It was heard by many thousands of people. It was reported in all the prominent dews-papers dews-papers of the country. It would seem that It should he very easy to relate Just what he s;Id uud bow he said It, and all else that should be of record about it. And yet there prevails a very considerable uncertainty ubout nearly every detail of that address." It was no small feat for Doctor Barton to accomplish ac-complish to reconcile all these contradictions and to give an account of the events of that historic day which probably comes as close to the truth as can ever be done. Lincoln had desired to go to Gettysburg ever since the battle because he believed that Meade bad failed to take advantage of an opportunity to crush Lee and end the war then and there, and lie wanted to see if his belief was correct. Then, too, a political quarrel between Republican leaders lead-ers in Pennsylvania might be healed by a visit to that state from the President, tie bad not been formally invited to attend the ceremonies which were arranged for the dedication of the cemetery there. He did not receive the written Invitation which was sent to Edwnrd Everett, who had been chosen as the orator for the occasion, occa-sion, and to others. His only Invitation was a printed circular sent out generally and "when Mr. Wills informed his fellow officials of Mr. Lincoln's acceptance, that group was very greatly surprised sur-prised and they cannot be said to have been overjoyed." over-joyed." So their decision to ask Lincoln "to set apart formally these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks after the oration" was an afterthought. Lincoln evidently gave some thought as to what he would say from the time he accepted the invitation, invi-tation, for ideas and expressions that were to be found in his Address appear In vague form in his Fourth of July speech of that year. He wrote a part of his first draft some time before he went to Gettysburg and finished it that night nt the home of Mr. Wills. He carried it over to Mr. Seward before be retired and copied it In the morning to serve as the manuscript which he held in his hand while speaking. In the parade to t lie cemetery Lincoln was dressed In black, wore a tall hat and white gauntlets. gaunt-lets. He was mounted on a horse and at first he sat erect, but as t fie procession moved on bis body moved forward, his arms hung limp and his head was bent. The appearance of the President of the United States in this procession was scarcely scarce-ly one which could he called "distinguished"! Nor was his nppearance while making the speech itself one which impressed the crowd greatly. Edward Everett had studied his speech carefully care-fully and was prepared to make the oratorical effort of his lifetime. He was the ideal American orator, commanding in appearance, precise in utterance ut-terance and having a rare gift of eloquence eloquence elo-quence in tlie terms of the wordy forensics in which the people of that time seemed to find delight. de-light. For an hour and 52 minutes the crowd listened lis-tened to "the flowing sentences of Everett, pulsating pulsat-ing like the endless tides of the sea." There Is no doubt that bis audience was much impressed. There is no doubt also tha it was worn out with his long-windedp.ess. So when Lincoln arose to speak his hearers were duily receptive. Lincoln started his speech in a high-pitched voice which he always used to make people hear. The Impression on his audience is well described by one of those who heard him. quoted in Doctor Kurtnn's hook. S. S. Warner of Ohio lelis of his surprise at Lincoln's Kpp.tuckian intonation: "1 remember espe-ial'v tiie long '0' in his preposition prep-osition to.' He said 'dedicated toe the proposition.' proposi-tion.' 'we hr.ve come tee dedicate a portion of that field.' My next feeling was one of complete surprise a! his slopping, p seemed to me. and I think to the audience generally, that he had lust begun. I sho:!d ray that he sr.'pPl'J before Ills audience was in fuii sympathy with him. hef.re they bad got p. ".st r.nticinr the little oddities. oddi-ties. ..." la iess than t' ror? iv.'.rmtes af:er I.inc.-In hrnl bcL-im to st'C::k 0 : c.'iiri uile v.iiii Lis in.:it-r tal "governmcjt of tue i eople, by tiie people, fo the people, shall not perish from the earth." As lie sat down there was but very little applause and that was apparently for the President and not for I lie words he hud uttered. "People were disappointed." dis-appointed." says Doctor Harton, "After Everett's oration the 'resident's speech seemed almost no speech at nil. . . . That night they told of hearing Everett and of seeing the President. Incidentally some of them mentioned that the President had uttered a few remarks; yes, they had heard the I'resident. But while they were glad to have heard hi m. not many of them at the time said very much about the President's speech." Lnmon has recorded that Lincoln called the speech "a flat failure," and added after he returned re-turned to Washington: "1 tell you, that speech fell on the audience like a wet blanket. I am distressed dis-tressed about it. I ought to have prepared it with more care." Nor did tlie speech make much more impression impres-sion upon the country as a whole than it did upon those who heard It. Only one or two newspapers pronounced It good and most papers Ignored It. reflecting somewhat the attitude of the Harrls-burg Harrls-burg Patriot and Union, it, remained for a later generation to appreciate the greatness of its Sim plicity. A few saw its merits early and the congratulations con-gratulations of Everett and the request that a manuscript copy be bound with his and sold at the New York Sanitary fair set Lincoln at the task of putting it in the form In which he wished he had delivered It. ' In all, five new copies were made for different purposes and slight changes brought the Address into the final form in which It is now known to the world 272 words, of which 204 are of seven or less letters and of a single syllable and 226 of Anglo-Saxon derivation. In comparing the wording In the different copies, cop-ies, Doctor Barton has discovered that Lincoln omitted the word "poor" In "our poor power," when he spoke; also omitted it In his second copy, nnd wrote it in above the line. The phrase "of the people, by the people, and for the people," was used by Theodore Parker in speeches in Boston Bos-ton which Lincoln read in Springfield, and which lie underlined. It also occurs, with slight modifi cations, in Webster's reply to Ilayne ( 1 S..0 ) which Lincoln studied in preparation for his first inaugural. inau-gural. The phrase "under God" seems to have been put into the text by Lincoln as he spoke, for it does not occur in the two rough drafts made before his speech, in which he said, "we here highly re solve that the Nation shall have a new birth of freedom." Doctor Barton lias traced this direct to Lincoln's earlier reading, his "stock of phraseology." phrase-ology." The phrase "under God." even in association asso-ciation with nation, is used by none other than Parson Weems, and by no one else that Lincoln read. Lincoln read Weem's Washington as a boy. took him seriously and digested the hook thoroughly. thor-oughly. In the final manuscript (owned by W. J. A. Bliss) there is no "and" lu tlie famous conclusion, conclu-sion, "of the people, by the people, for the people." peo-ple." This draft, in the words of Doctor Barton is what Lincoln wished he, had said. His actual words were slightly different. But so confused are some of tlie authorities that duric.'t tlie ("oolidge administration an organization left a tablet with the Gettysburg Address on it at the White House. It contained, says Doctor I'.arton. only 28 errors. In some respects. Lincoln shares with the llarrisburg llar-risburg editorial writer In being a very poor prophet. For. as Doctor Barton has observed "ilinihara Lincoln said at Gettysburg, The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.' lie was never more mistaken in ail his life. The men who fought on that red field did more than they knew while they were fighting; more than they understood after they bad won the victory. They did more even than Lincoln realized four mont'is later as lie stood on the spot and paid tribute to their sacrifice. "But memurable as were the deeds they wrought there, the world will longer remember the words he spoke there. The Gettysburg Address will be printed and recited and translated and cast In durable bronze long after it shall have become ne-ess;irj 10 append fnotnotes fo explain that Get-lytiij: Get-lytiij: was neither a battle in fhe Revolutionary w.'i r :-r i: held svmewhere amid the poppies of l-'iai;d'. 1 a." ,c? by Wcste'rNewspaDer L'nlun.1 i |