Gettysburg Address

[RJNorton]

(11-17-2015 12:25 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  The use of 1776 rather than 1787 is very important in Lincoln's mind as it refers to the Declaration of Independence and "all men are created equal" and his concept of a "New Birth of Freedom" being initiated through the Civil War. I would suggest that analyses of the Gettysburg Address "line by line" can be found in Garry Wills, "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America" and Gabor Boritt, The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows."

Mark Neely writes of this also. He says, "He (Lincoln) always thought the Declaration of Independence of 1776 the fundamental document of the nation's history..."