Opinion : \'Dishwatery\' words: Remembering the \'little-noted\' Gettysburg Address

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here…”

The very first harsh comment concerning the Gettysburg Address – uttered on Nov.19 1863, 150 years ago tomorrow – came from its author.

Abraham Lincoln’s first 1,000 days in office –it was actually 990 according to my count, from his inauguration to his most famous speech on Nov. 19, 1863– were tougher than any American Presidents.

Between the time he won office and his inauguration, six states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Texas and Alabama left the Union.

Just how divided America had become over slavery is evident, even in these two election numbers: 39, and 1. In the four way race, he received less than 40 percent of the popular vote; in Kentucky, where he was born, only about 1 percent of the voters chose Lincoln.

By the time he delivered his Gettysburg Address, about 250,000 soldiers from both sides had died in battles. Tens of thousands more had died of disease.

Americans who remember the more recent protests about Iraq or Vietnam can have an idea of the anti-war fervor that often challenged Lincoln and his administration. The north was often divided, and losses in battles – of which there were many – led to countless calls to let “the erring sisters depart in peace.”

In the fall of 1863, Lincoln’s chances at re-election didn’t look so good. Despite the close victory at bloody Gettysburg, 1863 had been a tough year for the Union.  If the South had won at Gettysburg, the nation would probably have been divided for decades, if not longer.

Lincoln attended the dedication of what they then called the Gettysburg Cemetery, and uttered these words:

Four scoreand seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal."

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow, this ground—The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be 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 these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln was not alone in thinking that his speech would not become famous or beloved by millions of American for 150 years, and beyond.

Here are just a couple samples of what opposition editors wrote about the Gettysburg Address:

Chicago Times: "The cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances."

The Patriot & Union, a Pennsylvania newspaper, had this to say: “We pass over the silly remarks of the president. For the credit of the nation, we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of.”

I wonder what those editors would think if they saw how famous and popular the Gettysburg Address has become.

So, as we mark the 150th anniversary of this unique and surprisingly memorable speech, Remember.

Remember the words of Lincoln. Remember the challenges he (and every other American) faced as our nation struggled so intensely over the questions of slavery and union.

Click HERE for one historical review of that speech, and that event.