Gettysburg Address

[maharba]

Over the years, a few folks have suggested that Lincoln might have picked up the phrase Fourscore from a speech by 1861 Speaker of the House, Galusha A. Grow. It always surprises me that this is not looked at more closely. Here's a portion of House Speaker Galusha Grow's July 4 1861 speech,

"Four-score years ago, fifty-six bold...representatives of a few feeble colonists ...met in convention to found a new empire, based on the inalienable rights of man. Seven years of bloody conflict ensued, and the Fourth of July, 1776, is canonized....Three-quarters of a century have passed away, and...have spanned a whole continent with a great empire of free States...Representatives are convened in the council chambers of the republic to deliberate on the means for preserving the Government under whose benign influence these grand results have been achieved. A rebellion, the most causeless in the history of the race, has developed..."

Rep Grow claimed there that a new country (empire) was formed by the Declaration of Independence (fourscore years ago), and not actually at the ratification of the U.S. Constitution --just as Lincoln would appear to claim, with nearly the same terms. Click to a search and see the longer version of Galusha Grow's address. Grow later dissolves into more of a long rant, but he makes the point of expressing part of the meaning of Psalm 90, Fourscore: "a period but little exceeding the allotted lifetime of man". Lincoln, in picking up the same phrase, which he must have known came also from Psalms, did not follow through with any of the parallel meanings of the Psalm. Which makes me consider that as far as the Bible, Lincoln had read it and memorized many passages, but lacked an understanding of context. Later in life, after seeing Shakespeare and talking to more worldly folks, Lincoln could do more than just parrot sonnets and fragments of Shakespeare dialog. There, he knew and appreciated the context of what was being said. At Gettysburg, who put those countless thousands in their early graves? Few or none of those thousands of dead had attained their threescore and ten. They had been told they were dying for preserving the Union. None of the young men had been told they cut their lifespan short for 'a new birth of freedom".

The July 4 1861 Address by Galusha A. Grow accepting as Speaker of the House appears certain to be the template that Abraham Lincoln had decided to build a later speech upon, to me. The fortunate win at the later Battle of Gettysburg furnished Lincoln a time and place to use the Speech. If not Gettysburg, it would have filled some other slot. Lincoln shrewdly appraised Speaker Grow's over-long and shriller speech. He shrank that down, and tacked on in places a few glowing phrases from other varied sources.