"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
The only one who could possible compete with Lincoln's oratory is Lincoln, who also said:
"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." (That's the Library of Congress' handwritten Gettysburg Address you see here.)
I just love the resurgence Abe is enjoying -- on the best seller list, on TV and in the movie theater. I'm proud that he's from Illinois and I've been able to walk where he walked. He totally rocks.
As it is my sister's birthday and she also has an affinity for Lincoln, I gifted her the book The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. I loved it and I hope/know she will, too!
ReplyDeleteIt's also my granddaughter's birthday. She's too young to really understand the impact of Mr. Lincoln, but I'm sure she'll grow into it.
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