Prologue

Abraham Lincoln came to Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery and to consecrate hallowed ground.

In the course of three days many thousands had died there and the surrounding countryside had been transformed into a blighted landscape of death and destruction. Though we can view images of the battle's aftermath, the devastation is beyond the realm of our imaginations. One does not even want to think how bad the smell was. There was great need for a cemetery.

And a greater need for healing and recovery and restoration.

Garry Wills tells us Lincoln came to Gettysburg four months later "to sweeten the air." We are about to explore how Lincoln "transformed the ugly reality into something rich and strange" with his 272 word speech. Lincoln would eulogize and memorialize the dead and tell a disheartened country why it was fitting and proper to keep fighting a war that was inflicting so much pain and suffering.

If Gettysburg the battle was a sobering reminder of what the cost of preserving the Union and the cost of freedom and equality were to be, then Gettysburg the address was transcedent. As Wills proclaims, "The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration." (p. 20)

[Image of the Gettysburg Cemetery is from the brighterworlds flickr site.]

Comments

[Dean Lyon]

I graduated from Cornell in 2004 and now am a Captain in the US Army stationed in Afghanistan. I work with and mentor an Afghan Company Commander. In looking at the war we are fighting here I can't help but think that the Afghans need a leader who can say "words to complete the work of the guns." Someone who can transform the violence and horror of this country's last quarter century into a nation. The only Afghan that might have played that role would have been Ahmed Shah Massoud who was killed by Al Qaeda two days before 9/11. Sometimes I wonder if our continued and increasing presence only lowers the chance that another strong Afghan leader will rise.