One hundred fifty-four years ago on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln stood up to say a few words on a battlefield in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. He said “the world would little note nor long remember what we say here.” But that is not true. President Lincoln’s speech is still studied not only in history books but in literature books. He also said that “we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground.”
He was right, of course. Mere words can never really dedicate or consecrate any place which has already been dedicated and consecrated by the blood and sweat of those who gave their lives there and those who fought there did. So President Lincoln called upon his fellow Americans to honor the living and dead soldiers by “being dedicated here to the unfinished work… 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.”
Today let us take some time to reflect on what those words meant on a blood-soaked battlefield to a young country torn apart with its young experiment in government teetering on the brink of failure. The war had been waging for over two years with no end in sight. A war President Lincoln accepted on behalf of the United States because he believed that the country must remain whole. he asked his fellow Americans to hold on and to fight on to preserve that “noble experiment” the founders dared to create.
Let us ponder what those words continued to mean to the United States in the years after the Civil War as the country tried to come back together though forever changed by the bloody battles and division. Reconstruction was not easy nor was the struggle for equal rights. Fights for equal rights have continued throughout all these years.
Let us then ask ourselves, do the words of the Gettysburg Address mean anything to us today?
