Show lei w ON n 1 xa a 9 V ark g Y V ae 0 R 1 VV 0 q Q ak V c 0 f AA 6 k 4 M 1 44 X 3 e aih I 1 R 4 w 01 Q ak Z X X 11 vv 1 X S ekx A LINCOLN at GETT A more than seventy years ago a gaunt unhandsome man whose face was careworn and whose figure was stooped revealing the agony that was almost smothering him delivered a speech of only about three hundred words in length kcf cely any attention was paid to that man or to the words that he uttered at the time it was because he was the nations ruler that he had been given the opportunity to tu make any remarks on this occasion on not abraham lincoln president of the united states but another man edward everett a noted orator had been chosen as the principal speaker and he spoke first lie held the crowd crow spellbound two hours arid and newspapers the next nest day devoted much space to a report of his masterly effort of the other mans speech most newspapers made no mention beyond saying that he also spoke A few of the larger larer lar er papers printed what he said but w without t comment about everybody forgot what the man who spoke two hours nad said the other mans utterance because of its brevity and manner of delivery began bean ft to be recalled by its hearers and for decades it has been classed amen among the worlds literary masterpieces F and seven year fears ago our fatlich brought forth upon till tire continent a new nevy nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the he prop proposition that all men are created equal now NOT we ire are arc engaged in a grent great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so 0 o conceived a and id so no dedicated can long endure endore we are met on a great battlefield of that hat nur jar we have come to dedicate a portion ot of it as a final resting place for those idled died here that the nation might me I 1 it la Is altogether 1 I t t nr and proper trial I 1 we ve should hould do this ahls but in it a larger larcer sense we cannot dedicate we cannot conner rate we c cannot hall this hl ground the brave men gllnn lit ing and dead mho struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to 0 o add or detract the orld nil ill little note nor long remember what ne e may here bere but it can never forget drbal they did here it in rather tor for us an the billu lil li ilni lu to fe be dedicated here to the unfinished nork brij they obey have thus hu tar far so nobly carried on 0 o it Is rather for us u to be here drill titled to lie he great task tak remaining before oil an that from these obese honored dead we take lake increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave lie be last full measure of devoil devoll oril nn that chat we here highly renolie these dead shall not have died in vain that thin nation under onder god shall hall have a ne near birth of freedom and that government of the people by the people and for the people shall hall not perish from the be earth the occasion ot of the masterpiece of 0 oratory and the scene was that of the dedication of the lie burial wace for union soldiers who died in battle a field over which a part of the battle of gettysburg had raged it was only by chance that prest dent lincoln spoke at all for had the original date chosen for the dedication been observed it is likely that tie boull have pronounced only the he simple formula of official dedication the date set was october 23 but everett advised that he could not conveniently be then the dedication was postponed to november 19 no invitation was sent to the president until november 2 then he was very formally told that lion ilon edward everett will deliver the oration it Is the desire after the oration you as chief executive of the nation formally set apart these rounds grounds to their sacred use by a fW few appropriate remarks with the invitation went a note from an off official iclal of the soldiers national Nation 11 cemetery board telling the president the writer hoped mr air lincoln would feel it his duty to lay aside pressing business for a day and come to td gettysburg to perform this late sad rite to our brave soldiers tims thus the president virtually was commanded to attend a dedication ceremony that had been postponed for the convenience of another it was rather hoped by the co committee in charge of f the arrangements e that old abe would not attempt to make a speech the members bers feared his uncouth appearance and nd homely vernacular would not make a good impression on the rich and cultured supporters of the cemetery project lincoln seemed not to notice the slight light and accepted the invitation ills his anxiety was not that two weeks was too LOO short a time in which to prepare a speech but that uncertain train connections mi might ht cause him to be late and thus delay the dedication some still are living who heard him bilm speak and they can have no morr precious us memory observes a writer in the washington star the martyred marty red presidents words have become a world classic their immortality guaranteed by their majestic but simple beauty spoken for a particular moment intended to serve hut but an instants need the nobility of both the thought and the utterance was so compelling that multitudes far removed from the ori original occasion feel the power of the message and respond to its appeal no other oration of modern times has been its equal it stands alone an unparalleled expression of the grandeur of a master spirit the elemental splendor of an illuminated soul critics have declared that the text test may be scanned and it frequently has been printed in the typographical graphical arrangement ranger ran gement nent of poetry to the question as s to the source of its music analysts have replied by citing the psalms and shakespeare but it is not exclusively a mechanical trick of rhythm which gives it its ita mystic character of limpid and harmonious prose in point of fact the address may be explained only in terms of aspiration it Is like a fragment of opalescent sky a flash of climbing flame a scrap of verdant windswept wind swept hillside or a mighty wave of the illimitable sea it Is dynamic as these things are natural and authentic as the universe Is the address then must have bave come out of the infinite and it was america that spoke at gettysburg so viewed the emancipators phrases signify the dedication not merely ot of a battlefield but of a nation consecration Is in them patriotism and loyalty shine from them and love arid mercy reach rach out through them to touch the hoart hart of mankind one by one in an unending sequence I 1 the curtain of the ages will fall and I 1 lincoln and his vision will remain |