His
speeches and writings derive their power and distinction from no tricks
of oratory, felicity of diction, or nimbleness of mind. They are the vocal
results of the beatings of his great heart.
He led his people to war in the manner of a prophet of Israel; with an
awful austerity, majestic, invincible, and with hand uplifted in sure
appeal to the God of battles. On the field of Gettysburg, where was
waged the most tremendous of all combats of the war, he came to
dedicate a cemetery to the innumerable dead, and these were his few
and noble words:--
"Fourscore-and-seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon 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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate,
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add of
detract.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131