“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,”
Ten score and three years ago, on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in the hill country of Kentucky which had been a state a mere seventeen years itself. When he was seven his family lost their sizable land holdings due to title claims, and they moved across the Ohio River into Indiana Territory that would become a state later that year.
“conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition all men are created equal.”
With little formal schooling he grew to be a lawyer, Illinois Legislator, and won a term in the United States House of Representatives. While he was not elected in two Senate attempts, he was elected to the United States Presidency in 1860 as America’s 16th man ever to have received that great honor.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war,”
During his Presidential term the United States tested whether it could survive as a single nation. Four years of internal warfare temporarily split the population, but in the long run strengthened their bond. Lincoln, one of the greatest of American orators, in his 1863 Gettysburg Address, dedicating a cemetery gave one of his all-time perfectionist speeches. It has become the most quoted speech of all time.
“ testing whether that nation, or any nation”
His assassination six days after the cessation of hostilities between the states, was the first such atrocity in our great country. His record stands as it is, naming him one of the top Presidents that our nation has yet known.
“so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
No comments:
Post a Comment