Historically yours – The true meaning of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

The Chicago Times tore into Abraham Lincoln for his Gettysburg address dedicating the battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863, saying that Lincoln had betrayed the Constitution, the very instrument he took an oath to defend. In truth, the Chicago Times was not correct because Lincoln was walking on a tightrope to preserve a Union for which soldiers had died, remade America from the flaws of the Founders who drew the Constitution. Lincoln understood that our country was founded upon two documents which went in opposite directions. The Declaration of Independence soared in the cause of liberty and equality, whereas our Constitution was an unfortunate compromise with several southern states. It was a “pact with death,” which held millions of human beings in bondage and cost the lives of 600, 000 Americans in the Civil War. When our new nation sought independence from England in 1776, Thomas Jefferson, in his immortal Declaration of Independence, stated our pledge that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As soon as we obtained our independence, the moneyed interests took over. The noble pledge of Jefferson was quickly forgotten in 1787 by the framers of our Constitution. In our Constitution, we created a document which lacked any reference to equality. It not only legalized slavery, but declared a slave, for purposes of taxation and representation, to be 3/5 of a human being. Slaves were treated as property—the same as horses.

The meaning of what Lincoln said at Gettysburg was as follows: By the Declaration of Independence in 1776 we created a new nation based upon the noble purposes of liberty and equality for all people. We are now fighting a Civil War questioning whether a nation based upon those principles can survive. A country divided half-slave and half-free, as provided in our Constitution, should not survive. We are here to dedicate this cemetery as a final resting place for those brave soldiers who gave their lives so that the noble purposes of this nation might live. We, the living, should dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work for which they died. We pledge that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, by amending our Constitution, eliminate slavery and, in accordance with our Declaration of Independence, all men should be free with equal rights, with a government of, by and for the people, which “shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln spoke less than three minutes, yet his words will live forever. Lincoln was assassinated fighting for the cause of liberty and equality. Our 13th Amendment to our Constitution, ratified shortly after the death of Lincoln, forever ended slavery. Our 14th and 15th Amendments gave the freed slaves the equal rights of all Americans, as Lincoln requested in his immortal words at Gettysburg.

Sources: Dearborn Media Group, “Gettysburg Address Analysis & Meaning For All American”: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Gettysburg Address”: Homes-The Central Contract-Gettysburg Address Analysis & Meaning For All, Posted By Edwin Dearborn on Nov 8, 2012: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, “Can You Explain Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in Words That a Teen Can Understand?: Abraham Lincoln Research Site, “Abraham Lincoln’s Invitation to Speak at Gettysburg and the Meaning of the Gettysburg Address.”


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