My "150th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address"

[irshgrl500]

(12-05-2013 09:40 PM)Gene C Wrote:  I don't think we are going to agree, except perhaps that more than one approach needs to be taken, because there are different reasons why a school or class is not reaching desired objectives. From poor teachers to poor home environment, from hungry kids to ones that are over weight, no one single approach will solve the problems.

I personally think the parents are frequently a bigger part of the problem than the children. Maybe we need to focus on that.

Oh, I definitely agree with you, on parent participation. And true, there is not one single approach to address a miriad of problems or issues. I think that Common Core Standards, attempts to standardize solutions to a variety of unique issues, and has failed.

[Rob Wick]

Interesting review of two educational positions. I especially like the point that there has been no "golden age" of American education.

Best
Rob

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives...tion=false

[LincolnMan]

(12-04-2013 11:31 PM)irshgrl500 Wrote:  

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(12-04-2013 06:39 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  When Lincoln was on his way to the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, an old gentleman told him that his ony son fell on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and he was going to look at the spot.

Mr. Lincoln replied:

"You have been called on to make a terrible sacrifice for the Union, and a visit to that spot, I fear, will open your wounds afresh.

"But, oh, my dear sir, if we had reached the end of such sacrifices, and had nothing left for us to do but to place garlands on the graves of those who have already fallen, we could give thanks even amidst our tears; but when I think of the sacrifices of life yet to be offered, and the hearts and homes yet to be made desolate, before this dreadful war is over, my heart is like lead within me, and I feel at times like hiding in deep darkness."

--E. W. Andrews in "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln" at pages 510-11.

And, yet, President Abraham Lincoln carried on to save democracy for the world!

Question: Did this chance encounter on the train to Gettysburg lead President Lincoln to add the profound last paragraph of the Gettysburg Address?

"It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated, here, to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

[Plutarch: "So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out truth of anything by history."]

I know I am jumping in here without the least bit to back me up on this very issue, that is, as far as a sourced reference is concerned. As far as opinions go, I think the experience might have had an impact on President Lincoln. He was a man who LOVED his literary experiences, so much, as a teenager, he'd recite and rewrite words from the few books he had read, over and over. He realized too, at a young age, he was a FANTASTIC orator, as he loved to speak or give speeches, as a teen, while working outside. He was such a distraction, capturing an audience from neighboring farms, and others near by, his father annoyed, told him, he was not allowed to give talks or speeches, when laboring for money, and his distractions were not appreciated (at least, not by Thomas). Though being sensitive, and aware of people's emotions, was something that he did possess, and had an effect on him. So, I would bet that the experience had an impact on him, to the point, of including a change in his address.
We'll actually likely never know, as President Lincoln shared very little of his own thoughts and actions, with others, (except that he was "working" on the address, after receiving the invitation from Wills), and that is why, (I believe), there has been so much research, and analysis on the address, itself. There is quite a bit, in fact a lot, which is shrouded in mystery behind the address, and events around it.
David, you seem to be highly adept at research, if someone here doesn't know the answer, (with the members of this group, I'd be surprised if one did not.) and there is an actual answer, ie. something on record, you could certainly find it.

The story sounds apocryphal to me.

[David Lockmiller]

Though being sensitive, and aware of people's emotions, was something that he did possess, and had an effect on him. So, I would bet that the experience had an impact on him, to the point, of including a change in his address.

David, you seem to be highly adept at research, if someone here doesn't know the answer, (with the members of this group, I'd be surprised if one did not.) and there is an actual answer, ie. something on record, you could certainly find it.
[/quote]

I thank you for your compliment.

If the paragphah was added, it was most likely done on the morning of Lincoln's address.

"It is not clear when and how Lincoln composed his Gettysburg Address. He told close friends like James Speed and Noah Brooks that he began composing it in Washington and finished it in Pennsylvania. John G. Nicolay, who accompanied the president to Gettysburg, testified that he saw him revise the address on the morning of its delivery. Nicolay emphatically denied that Lincoln composed or revised it on the train ride from Washington. That seems plausible, for the train jerked and bumped along so vigorously that writing was virtually impossible. (Professor Michael Burlingame, "Abraham Lincoln: A Life," Vol II, pages 569-70)

I recall from watching some of the video on the 150th anniversary of the event, that Lincoln read the address from two pages of different type paper. Perhaps the addition of a final paragraph necessitated a larger page upon which to write. Otherwise, he could have merely penciled in any last minute, minor revisions to his Washington draft.

One of the characteristics that has most impressed me about Lincoln is his willingness to accept well-reasoned suggestions. One prime example occurred with Lincoln's reading to his cabinet of his original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, which he had intended to promulgate immediately. The circumstances were described in detail, in Lincoln's own words, by the "Emancipation Proclamation" painter Francis B. Carpenter.

"Various suggestions were offered. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks. Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy, on the ground that it would cost the Administration the fall elections.

"Nothing, however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in substance: 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help; the government stretching forth it hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government,' His idea," said the President, "was that it would be considered our last shriek, on the retreat." (This was his precise expression.) "'Now, continued Mr. Seward, ' while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war!'"

Mr. Lincoln continued: "The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had entirel overlooked. The result was that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory. From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and there, anxiously watching the progress of events." ("The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln, Six Months at the White House, F.B. Carpenter (1879) pages 212.)

Returning to my original question, perhaps Lincoln thought that evening and/or in his sleep about this conversation with the old man on the train and determined the next morning that he should add to his address a paragraph about the necessity of preserving this government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

In my opinion, it was this final paragraph that rendered President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address profound. In Professor Michael Burlingame's text of the Gettysburg Address (Vol II, pages 574), he noted only four [applause] interruptions to the speech, with the last occurring at the end of the next-to-last paragraph. The final paragraph of Lincoln's speech was not interrupted with applause, but rather ended with [Long-continued applause.]