by Gary W. Gallagher
Artists have dramatized the presentation of Abraham Lincoln’s famous November 1863 speech, but the powerful resonance of its message remains constant.
FOR THE
PEOPLE THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS STRUCK A CHORD IN 1863 AND CONTINUES TO RESONATE 16
SIX YEARS AGO, I devoted
an essay in Civil War Times to how Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was received in 1863. I will now focus on the substance of what the president said, beginning with the admonition that sheer familiarity can conspire against serious consideration of his rumination on the meaning of the war. Lincoln conveyed insights about the value and promise of the republic that struck a chord in 1863 and continue to resonate today. His words illuminate why the nation’s loyal citizenry believed they had a unique political system worth great sacrifice to preserve. Claims that the United States is an exceptional country are currently suspect among many Americans, but the generation that waged our most all-encompassing war fully embraced the idea that they lived in, and profited from, a singular nation that gave individuals a direct say in their governance and offered the possibility of economic advancement. They believed the cherished republic bequeathed by the Founders was at stake and also that the war would settle the future of democracy in the Western world. They were on to something. Although obviously restrictive by our standards, the franchise extended to almost all White men, which put the United States far ahead of any other major nation in the Western world. As for the economic dimension of what the Founders’ Union promised, Lincoln himself personified how someone could rise from poverty to economic success. In other words, the United States, unlike the European nations, did not trap citizens in a rigid class framework that barred social and economic mobility. The failed revolutions of the 1840s demonstrated to lovers of the Union that democracy was in retreat across Europe, with monarchism, aristocracy, and oligarchy on the march. Necessary to protect the work of the Founders, Union victory over the slaveholders’ rebellion also represented, as Lincoln had put it in December 1862, the “last best hope of earth” to save democracy. Lincoln opened and closed his remarks at Gettysburg with allusions to
CHRONICLE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
A LIFE OF ITS OWN
CIVIL WAR TIMES APRIL 2022
CWTP-220400-INSIGHT.indd 16
1/18/22 1:54 PM