Lincoln's Gettysburg Address -- November 19, 1863

UPDATE BELOW


One hundred and fifty years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the greatest speeches ever given in the history of our Republic.




"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

 But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 

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." 

Abraham Lincoln 
November 19, 1863



UPDATE: On this day when we Americas should be celebrating by reading and reciting one of the greatest speeches any president ever delivered to the America people, what has spread like fire through the conservative blogsphere is a lie.  And speaking of "swamp-fevered" [as I do below] is there any conservative blog more infested with reptilian minds than the execrable Breitbart?  

Here's what a friend found on a conservative blog and sent me via email:


Anonymous said... "Gaffe" or Purposely? "President Obama joined a cast of 61 "noted lawmakers, politicians, news anchors and celebrities, including every living President, in reciting the Gettysburg Address" for PBS star Ken Burns, who made "The Civil War" documentary series. 

 Everyone else delivered the address as Lincoln had written it, including the phrase, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom." 

But in his version of the address, President Obama omitted the words "under God." Will the networks notice this gaffe? 

How could he omit this? It's clear to me it's on purpose and tells us much more about this guy then he lets's on." 




Too many hysterics on the Right will look for anything to prove their swamp-fevered fantasies about Obama--that he hates his country and he hates God. The above ignoramus eagerly reported this to his other low-information friends:   HE LEFT OUT GOD! 

The reason? The truth! Don't bother to tell these trouble makers, it doesn't fit their preconceived prejudices about the black guy in "their" White House. 

Conservatives flip out after Obama reads original Gettysburg Address without ‘under God’ 

The jerk who reported the lie, I'm sure, will not bother to go back to the blog where he spread it and correct his "gaffe."  And it tells us much more about him and the people like him who live to destroy, demean, and defame President Obama and his wife and daughters.