Gettysburg Address

[Eva Elisabeth]

(11-20-2015 06:08 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  While Abraham Lincoln may have gotten ideas from the Bible, or other sources (which is legitimate), I think he composed and dedicated this speech to the occasion, and not v.v.

Just to add - the political topic ("the capacity of a people to govern themselves") already occurred as early as in his 1838 speech at the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, and in his special message to Congress on July 4, 1861, Lincoln said that the war involved "the question whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy – a government of the people, by the same people – can, or cannot maintain its territorial integrity, against its own domestic foes". Also on Nov. 17, he told James Speed his address was but half-finished (in writing).