1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,560 Speaker 1: Hi, This is newt Twenty twenty is going to be 2 00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: one of the most extraordinary election years of our lifetime. 3 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:08,080 Speaker 1: I want to invite you to join my Inner Circle 4 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 1: as we discuss each twist and turn in the presidential race. 5 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:16,120 Speaker 1: In my members only Inner Circle Club, you'll receive special 6 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: flash briefings, online events, and members only audio reports from 7 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: me and my team. Here is a special offer for 8 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 1: my podcast listeners. 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The cemetery was 20 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 1: established to bury the fallen Union soldiers from the Battle 21 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: of Gettysburg in July eighteen sixty three. At only two 22 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 1: hundred and seventy two words, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address 23 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 1: in a few minutes, but it would become one of 24 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:39,520 Speaker 1: the greatest and most influential speeches in American history. For 25 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:43,280 Speaker 1: Lincoln was not just using the occasion to dedicate the cemetery. 26 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: Lincoln wanted to remind the country torn abart by Civil War, 27 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: and his words quote that these dead shall not have 28 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: died in vain, that this nation, under God shall have 29 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: a new birth of freedom in the government of the 30 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: people by the people, for the people shall not perish 31 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: from the earth close quote. I'm pleased to welcome as 32 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 1: my guests two of the country's leading authorities in Abraham Lincoln, 33 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: doctor Allen C. Guelzo, Senior Research Scholar in the Council 34 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:14,799 Speaker 1: of the Humanities and Director of the Initiative on Politics 35 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:19,080 Speaker 1: and Statesmanship in the James Madison Program at Princeton University, 36 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: and Harold Holtzer, winner of the two thousand and fifteen 37 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: Guilder Lehman Lincoln Prize, who serves as the Jonathan F. 38 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:42,560 Speaker 1: Phantom Director of Hunter Colleges, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. 39 00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 1: I think that the Gedisburg addresses both this amazing historic 40 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: document but was also an amazingly clever campaign kickoff, and 41 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: as somehow the two together need to be understood to 42 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:03,160 Speaker 1: really understand what a genius Lincoln was. When I first 43 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:05,640 Speaker 1: read it, I had to stop because I've given a 44 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:08,320 Speaker 1: fair number of speeches in my career, and I began 45 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: to realize it. Can you see this in the Gettysburg Address, 46 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: which is only a very very short document, right, two 47 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,679 Speaker 1: hundred and seventy two words, I think, total of ten sentences. 48 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,639 Speaker 1: But it was okay because what Lincoln is doing, he's saying, look, 49 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,800 Speaker 1: don't leap past the last sentence until they've had time 50 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:31,160 Speaker 1: to think about it, and then go to the next sentence. 51 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: But each of these sentences has enormous meaning. Yeah, So 52 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 1: I don't want you to rush past any of these things, 53 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: because I didn't put anything in to be rushed past. 54 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: Lincoln is not a man of superfluous words. He is 55 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 1: not one of these orators who lets himself loose in 56 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: long flights, as many orators in the nineteenth century did. 57 00:03:54,760 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: Of classical allusions of long winded digression into what the 58 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,000 Speaker 1: Romans and the Athenians did. I love the Romans, I 59 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 1: love the Athenians. But Lincoln was right. That would have 60 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: gone way way past the understanding of the hearers who 61 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: needed to hear the message that Lincoln was trying to 62 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,040 Speaker 1: get across. Lincoln had been a trial lawyer for twenty 63 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: four years. He knew how to communicate with a jury, 64 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,760 Speaker 1: and he knew that to do that, you want to 65 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: use the simplest language, the most direct language, and the 66 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:37,839 Speaker 1: most persuasive language. If there's one word which characterizes all 67 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: of Lincoln's public utterances and writings, it is the word persuasion. 68 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: He is always the lawyer in front of the jury box, 69 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 1: always persuading people. This is a jury box which in 70 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: Lincoln's day in Illinois would normally have been filled from 71 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:58,599 Speaker 1: bystanders plucked from the back of the courtroom. In other words, 72 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: you wouldn't be having an elite audience of, let us say, 73 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: clergy or lawyers or professionals. You want to be having 74 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:11,560 Speaker 1: ordinary farmers, clerks, what have you. You are going to 75 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: have to speak to them in a way that they 76 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:17,360 Speaker 1: can understand, so that they do not feel that they 77 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: are being talked down to. Well, Lincoln understands how people 78 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:23,600 Speaker 1: in the jury box are going to be thinking, so 79 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: he's not going to talk down to them. But at 80 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:27,760 Speaker 1: the same time he's not going to go below them 81 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: and insult their intelligence. He learns through twenty four years 82 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: of this how to find exactly the right wavelength on 83 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 1: which to speak to people and persuade them. Well, it 84 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:44,479 Speaker 1: seems to me you have a craftsmanship with Lincoln that 85 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:48,039 Speaker 1: I think of the mythology that he dashed this off 86 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: on the back of an envelope. He had been thinking 87 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,760 Speaker 1: about ideas. And I know in one study I read, 88 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 1: for example, that there are pieces of the Second Inaugural 89 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:01,919 Speaker 1: that he first drafted to himself right after the Second 90 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: Battle of Manassas, so two years earlier he's thinking and 91 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: pulling things together. And similarly at Gettysburg. This is a 92 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: amazingly tightly edited explanation of the moral circumstance in which 93 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,839 Speaker 1: we find ourselves. And he must have thought about it 94 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: a great deal. Oh he did. And you see how 95 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:27,600 Speaker 1: early he begins thinking about it in that July seventh event. 96 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:30,920 Speaker 1: On the seventh of July, when the news finally has 97 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 1: come into Washington, over the weekend, because even then in 98 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: Washington nothing happens on weekends. The news has finally come 99 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: has been made public. It's July seventh. A big crowd 100 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: with bands comes to the White House to serenade Lincoln, 101 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:46,520 Speaker 1: and Lincoln comes out and speaks to them, and he 102 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: starts off by saying, how long ago was it? Eighty 103 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,360 Speaker 1: odd years ago. Well, what you're hearing in those comments 104 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: is really the first draft of the Gettysburg Address. He's 105 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: doing it off the cuff, but that whole mindset is 106 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:04,919 Speaker 1: obviously already starting to come together. He's already thinking in 107 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: the terms that will result in four score and seven 108 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,880 Speaker 1: years ago on the nineteenth of November. He also pulls 109 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: things from a variety of sources that very phrase four 110 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,520 Speaker 1: score and seven years ago. People look at that and 111 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 1: they say, well, here Lincoln was thinking about Psalm ninety, 112 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: verse ten, which talks about the lifespan of ordinary people 113 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:31,240 Speaker 1: three score years and ten. Well, yes, but in eighteen 114 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: sixty one, the newly elected Speaker of the House, Galusha 115 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: grow of Pennsylvania, delivered a speech which was a thank 116 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:41,560 Speaker 1: you speech for his election, and he starts off with 117 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: this four score years ago, our fathers created this empire 118 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:49,720 Speaker 1: of liberty. Now, this became a very famous speech and 119 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 1: was anthologized in a number of school textbooks. Why it's 120 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:58,120 Speaker 1: stuck in Lincoln's mind, we don't know. But that opening 121 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: paragraph of the Gettysburg Address is in large measure pulled 122 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: from the structure of Galusha Groves speech in eighteen sixty one. 123 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 1: So he's very conscious of sources. He's very conscious of 124 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 1: pulling things from a variety of places. He pulls that 125 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:19,680 Speaker 1: famous triplet of the people, by the people for the people, 126 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:23,160 Speaker 1: probably from Daniel Webster. Some people have argued that it 127 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:26,600 Speaker 1: might have come from Theodore Parker. But wherever it came from, 128 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 1: Parker or Webster, even at that moment, at a rhetorical moment, 129 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: Lincoln is thinking sources, sources, sources. So the Gettysburg address 130 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:39,960 Speaker 1: is not an accident. It's not the product of some 131 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:44,080 Speaker 1: spontaneous moment on the train. And frankly, how could it 132 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:46,280 Speaker 1: have been, I mean, how could he have written something 133 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:50,040 Speaker 1: He couldn't probably have written a birthday card on a 134 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 1: train in the eighteen sixties, because these trains are these 135 00:08:54,640 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 1: horrendously underpowered locomotives, spewing out soot and cinders, speeds not 136 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:05,560 Speaker 1: even coming up to thirty miles an hour, lurching back 137 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: and forth like drunks with delirium tremens. You got on 138 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:11,640 Speaker 1: the train not because you enjoyed it, but because it 139 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: was faster and more direct than any other means. And 140 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:16,560 Speaker 1: one thing you certainly didn't try to do was to 141 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:19,719 Speaker 1: write a speech on it. In fact, Lincoln gave up 142 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: writing a speech out on a train when he was 143 00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:29,199 Speaker 1: leaving Springfield on February eleventh, eighteen sixty one. He gives 144 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 1: this off the cuff speech at the rear of the 145 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: car that is taking him away from Springfield. That's a 146 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:39,320 Speaker 1: very emotional Farewell's speech where he talks about how he 147 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:43,839 Speaker 1: growned manhood amongst them, and his children had been born 148 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:46,760 Speaker 1: here and one of them is buried here, and now 149 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,920 Speaker 1: he's going with this task resting on his shoulders greater 150 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,880 Speaker 1: than that of Washington. That's all done spontaneously. The train 151 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:57,239 Speaker 1: leaves and he sits down and tries to start writing 152 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: out what he said. He gives up because he can't 153 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 1: do it. He hands it to John Nicolay and says, 154 00:10:02,559 --> 00:10:05,080 Speaker 1: when you have a chance, you write it out. So 155 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:07,160 Speaker 1: the idea that he was going to write the Gettysburg 156 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:12,119 Speaker 1: Address out on a lurching nineteenth century train is physically 157 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:15,720 Speaker 1: improbable at the very best. But we do know, in 158 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,960 Speaker 1: fact that he had a full text of the Gettysburg 159 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,560 Speaker 1: Address in hand before he left Washington, and we know 160 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: that because he said it himself, and because what he 161 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:30,560 Speaker 1: brings to Gettysburg is material written on executive mansion stationery, 162 00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:33,880 Speaker 1: which betrays no sign whatsoever of having been written on 163 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: a train. He had this all prepared and he was 164 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:39,320 Speaker 1: ready to go with it. So whatever he was looking 165 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,400 Speaker 1: at on the train, and the story really has its 166 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:46,840 Speaker 1: origins in one of his cabinet members, John Usher, who 167 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,640 Speaker 1: said he observed with Lincoln with a Manila envelope in 168 00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:54,040 Speaker 1: his hands, and from that Usher thinks, well, maybe he 169 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,599 Speaker 1: was writing something. Well, I'm sure he did have a 170 00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:59,160 Speaker 1: Manila envelope in his hand. I'm sure he was bringing 171 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,160 Speaker 1: state papers with him to read and to review. Maybe 172 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:06,520 Speaker 1: even that's the envelope in which the Gettysburg Address was contained. 173 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:09,000 Speaker 1: But he didn't write it on the train. As soon 174 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,080 Speaker 1: as you think about it, that's an act which is 175 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:14,640 Speaker 1: is simply incomprehensible what it does do. And this I 176 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: think as what accounts for the popularity and the endurance 177 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: of the story is it makes the Gettysburg Address sound 178 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:27,280 Speaker 1: like look like it's almost divine revelation, because here it 179 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,480 Speaker 1: comes to Lincoln at the last moment, and you can 180 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:33,280 Speaker 1: almost see the shaft of light from the clouds moving 181 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:36,600 Speaker 1: along with the train to enlighten Lincoln as he's going along. 182 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:40,480 Speaker 1: Even in its own silly way, the story is a 183 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:45,840 Speaker 1: backhanded compliment to the extraordinary quality of the Gettysburg Address. 184 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:47,760 Speaker 1: One of the things that he must have been aware 185 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:53,120 Speaker 1: of was that Everett was going to give a classic, long, 186 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:56,960 Speaker 1: long speech, and that that was inevitable, right, I mean, 187 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 1: he knew that was coming. That was simply the rule 188 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:02,440 Speaker 1: of the day. I mean, Lincoln is invited to give 189 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:07,240 Speaker 1: what the creator of the event, David Wills, described as 190 00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:12,600 Speaker 1: a few appropriate remarks, and literally what Lincoln is supposed 191 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:15,600 Speaker 1: to do is to deliver a kind of benediction. He's 192 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:19,280 Speaker 1: going to say, all right, we're now officially dedicating this cemetery. 193 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:21,839 Speaker 1: He probably could have done it in about two sentences. 194 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 1: It's Edward Everett who is invited to deliver the oration 195 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:32,600 Speaker 1: the real Gettysburg Address, as sure enough, Edward Everett complies 196 00:12:32,679 --> 00:12:36,760 Speaker 1: with a two and a half hour, thirteen thousand word 197 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:40,520 Speaker 1: doozy of an address. And this is coming from a 198 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:44,079 Speaker 1: man who's been governor of Massachusetts, who was briefly senator 199 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,240 Speaker 1: from Massachusetts. He was appointed his civil of vacancy, he'd 200 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:51,720 Speaker 1: be a member of Millard Fillmore's cabinet. He'd been professor 201 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:55,320 Speaker 1: of Greek literature at Harvard, he had been president of Harvard. 202 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:59,200 Speaker 1: In fact, what the curiosities is that in eighteen sixty 203 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:03,560 Speaker 1: he ran the vice presidential candidate on the Constitutional Union 204 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:09,520 Speaker 1: Party ticket against Lincoln and Hamlin. Now this was something 205 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:12,080 Speaker 1: that Lincoln did not hold against him, because once the 206 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:16,120 Speaker 1: war broke out, Everett came out firmly and squarely on 207 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:20,040 Speaker 1: behalf of the Union cause. But when Everett shows up, 208 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: everyone expects, everyone knows he is going to deliver one 209 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:30,319 Speaker 1: of these three Decker involved complicated, ornate Latin orations. And 210 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:32,520 Speaker 1: that's really what he gives. He gives you a history 211 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 1: of the whole war. He gives you a history of 212 00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:38,680 Speaker 1: the Battle of Gettysburg, and it's full of Athens and 213 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:44,240 Speaker 1: Marathon and Paracles and Thucydides. And in fact, he even 214 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 1: ends it by quoting Pericles oration from the Peloponnesian Wars. 215 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:54,600 Speaker 1: It's your typical classical speech of the nineteenth century. The 216 00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:58,880 Speaker 1: problem is it's all length and no SoundBite. There's really 217 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: nothing you can pull out of it. There's no phrases 218 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 1: that you can pull out of it that have any 219 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: kind of memorable quality to them. Lincoln himself once said 220 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,960 Speaker 1: about Everett as an orator, he didn't much care for 221 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:17,280 Speaker 1: Everett as a public speaker. He referred to an occasion 222 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:20,680 Speaker 1: in which Everett was speaking at Fanniel Hall in which 223 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:26,000 Speaker 1: Everett turned to a bust of John Adams and said, 224 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:31,280 Speaker 1: teach us the love of liberty constrained by law. And 225 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 1: Lincoln said, yeah, that was a nice sentiment, but that's 226 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: all it was. And Lincoln came away very unimpressed by this. 227 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:43,280 Speaker 1: Lincoln wanted to do something very different than Edward Everett did. 228 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 1: And what Lincoln did is what we remember, not whatever 229 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: it Everett spoke. I always thought it was ironic that 230 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:54,320 Speaker 1: the Harrisburg Patriot and Union wrote about five days afterwards, 231 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:58,240 Speaker 1: we pass over the silly remarks of the President for 232 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: the credit of the nation, where willing that the veil 233 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: of oblivion shall be dropped over them, and that they 234 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:06,560 Speaker 1: shall be no more reacted or thought of. And the 235 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:09,560 Speaker 1: Chicago Times came back and said, the chiefs of every 236 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, 237 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:20,640 Speaker 1: flat and dishwatery utterances. Were those just his partisan opponents. Absolutely, 238 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:23,520 Speaker 1: the Harrisburg Patriot Union, in a way has never quite 239 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:27,040 Speaker 1: recovered from that, because if anybody knows the Harrisburg Patriot 240 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,240 Speaker 1: Union for anything, they know it for that comment about 241 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 1: the Gettysburg address. The thing you have to understand is 242 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:36,800 Speaker 1: that in the nineteenth century, in Lincoln's time, American newspapers 243 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:41,320 Speaker 1: made no pretense whatsoever to anything that we would today 244 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:49,200 Speaker 1: call journalistic objectivity. Newspapers were generally functions of the political parties. 245 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: In other words, you had party functionaries and they established newspapers, 246 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:59,240 Speaker 1: and the newspapers reflected the party point of view. And 247 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:02,840 Speaker 1: then these news papor editors would also hold down patronage 248 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,960 Speaker 1: jobs as a reward for running the paper that they did, 249 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:09,120 Speaker 1: and they would get a patronage appointment as a postmastership 250 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: here or some other political jobs somewhere else, because in 251 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:15,480 Speaker 1: those days there's no civil service. It's all purely appointed. 252 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:21,000 Speaker 1: The newspapers are all wildly and unashamedly political in nature, 253 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: and you can read a Republican paper and a Democratic 254 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: paper describing the same event and really not have much 255 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 1: sense that you're reading about the same event. You can 256 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:35,560 Speaker 1: really see this in dramatic form during the Lincoln Douglas 257 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: debates in eighteen fifty eight, when Illinois is deeply split, 258 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:45,040 Speaker 1: and you read Democratic newspapers describing a Lincoln speech in 259 00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 1: a particular town in Illinois, you read the Republican paper 260 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:51,000 Speaker 1: describing it and it doesn't even sound like the quoting 261 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: the same text. And some respects they aren't. Some of 262 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: them are just making it up. But that was the 263 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,440 Speaker 1: way newspapers functioned in those days, and both the Patriot 264 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:05,240 Speaker 1: Union and the Chicago Times were deeply dyed democratic newspapers. 265 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: And the Times had been a democratic newspaper in Chicago 266 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:12,080 Speaker 1: way back into the eighteen fifties. It had been the 267 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,639 Speaker 1: chief organ of Stephen A. Douglas, and the editors of 268 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:19,160 Speaker 1: the Times hated Abraham Lincoln. In fact, in the spring 269 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:22,480 Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty three they had been briefly shut down 270 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:26,920 Speaker 1: by one of Lincoln's generals, Ambrose Burnside, so they had 271 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:29,920 Speaker 1: no love for Lincoln. There was no way they were 272 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:34,080 Speaker 1: going to find Lincoln's Gettysburg address extorting any kind of 273 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:38,040 Speaker 1: praise from them. They probably had their condemnation of Lincoln 274 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:42,240 Speaker 1: written in advance before they even knew what the text 275 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:45,080 Speaker 1: of the thing was. This is how the newspapers operated 276 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:47,560 Speaker 1: in those days. And in some sense you might say 277 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:51,159 Speaker 1: that what but today we call fake news was actually 278 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 1: invented in the nineteenth century. It's not exactly a novelty. 279 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,000 Speaker 1: People were practicing it in the most unashamed fashion back 280 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:02,159 Speaker 1: in Lincoln's day. Next, Lincoln honors the thirty five hundred 281 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:05,960 Speaker 1: soldiers who died on the battlefield of Gettysburg in July 282 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:17,320 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three. This is week nine of my profile 283 00:18:17,359 --> 00:18:20,359 Speaker 1: Planned Journey, and Debbie and I are discussing dealing with 284 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:24,960 Speaker 1: a progress plateau with our profile Coach Abby hi Newton. Debbie, 285 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,600 Speaker 1: so what do I mean by a progress plateau? With 286 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: our weight last journey, we typically see significantly last in 287 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:36,359 Speaker 1: the beginning, but sometimes after several weeks or months, we 288 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:39,760 Speaker 1: can sometimes flow down a little bit with our progress 289 00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:42,240 Speaker 1: and we're not maybe seeing that weight come off as 290 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:45,600 Speaker 1: quickly as we would like. But that's where your profile 291 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: coach can really help you work through this a progress plateau, 292 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:52,159 Speaker 1: or what I would call not being as successful as 293 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:54,600 Speaker 1: I would like. It can be really frustrating. But I'm 294 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:57,360 Speaker 1: actually talking to you with a certain sense of happiness 295 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,440 Speaker 1: because I was on the road for fourteen straight days 296 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,360 Speaker 1: and because I followed your advice, I not only did 297 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: not gain any weight, but I lost a tiny event. 298 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:09,600 Speaker 1: I do find it's very challenging to really stay focused 299 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:13,280 Speaker 1: when I travel extensively. Talking with you about it consistently 300 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,240 Speaker 1: has been a big help to address these challenges for me. 301 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,359 Speaker 1: I got super charged up when I saw the weight 302 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,680 Speaker 1: come off so quickly in the beginning. And this is 303 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: always the part for me on previous plans where I struggle, 304 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,120 Speaker 1: where I get a little cocky and I hit that plateau, 305 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: and then I get right back on it and the 306 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,240 Speaker 1: weight comes off. I think for a lot of us, Yeah, 307 00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:37,520 Speaker 1: if you get off your daily routine. In my case, 308 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 1: about half of my life is off my daily routine, 309 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:42,879 Speaker 1: it kind of throws you a little bit, and you 310 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:45,680 Speaker 1: have to stop and take a deep breath and remind 311 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 1: yourself what you're trying to accomplish. Reminding yourself what you're 312 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,680 Speaker 1: wanting to accomplish is key. There's a lot of things 313 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:54,360 Speaker 1: that can influence our lives that can cause that plateau. 314 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 1: So we really want to take a look at our 315 00:19:57,680 --> 00:19:59,920 Speaker 1: day to day schedules. Are we more stressed than normal? 316 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,800 Speaker 1: Are we sleeping less? Are we drinking enough water? And 317 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,600 Speaker 1: that's where your profile coach can help you think through 318 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:10,200 Speaker 1: any of these lifestyle changes and help you create strategies 319 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,720 Speaker 1: to overcome the plateau. When we are going through our 320 00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:16,679 Speaker 1: journey and we're frustrated at different times, we have to 321 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:20,200 Speaker 1: take the time to reflect on those and celebrate all 322 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:22,639 Speaker 1: those changes that we've made. You really have to be 323 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,239 Speaker 1: patient with yourself. Sometimes when we make a change, it 324 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:28,440 Speaker 1: takes a few weeks after trying something new to actually 325 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:31,560 Speaker 1: see those results. Keep up the great work. Next week, 326 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:34,280 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about managing eating in the holidays, 327 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,240 Speaker 1: plus some resources that are available to help you navigate 328 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:41,440 Speaker 1: these important parts of life. Sign up now to start 329 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:43,960 Speaker 1: losing weight today. You can do it with a profile 330 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:46,800 Speaker 1: coach like Abbey guiding you every step of the way. 331 00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:51,200 Speaker 1: Go to profile plan dot com slash newt Right now 332 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:54,520 Speaker 1: News World listeners can get an exclusive offer one hundred 333 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:58,440 Speaker 1: dollars off a one year Profile membership by visiting profile 334 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,920 Speaker 1: plan dot com slash news. Get your health journey started 335 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:05,280 Speaker 1: today with a free Profile coach consultation at your nearest 336 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:09,280 Speaker 1: Profile location, or by visiting profile plan dot com slash 337 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:24,560 Speaker 1: n EWT. I want to quote a famous historian and 338 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,160 Speaker 1: get you to sort of expand on this Vieta mind. 339 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 1: This historian said quote, perhaps in the end, the greatness 340 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: we have not suspected in the Gettysburg address lies in 341 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:40,320 Speaker 1: its humility, in its reminder that the question of democracy's 342 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:44,240 Speaker 1: survival rested ultimately in the hands not of csars, but 343 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:49,280 Speaker 1: in those of citizens, citizens who saw in democracy something 344 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: worth dying for. I understand that there was Allan C. 345 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:56,280 Speaker 1: Guelzo speaking at Cornell University. I think it's right at 346 00:21:56,280 --> 00:22:00,920 Speaker 1: the heart of why this speech has asted so long 347 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,879 Speaker 1: and is so central to the American experience. There's notion 348 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:09,400 Speaker 1: that it comes down to centering everything on the citizen 349 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: and the obligation of the citizen to defend their own 350 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:17,640 Speaker 1: freedom and the freedom of their country in a way 351 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:21,480 Speaker 1: which was a dramatic break from the world of monarchs 352 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,480 Speaker 1: and czars. Can you expand on that great quote? And 353 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:27,400 Speaker 1: I was delighted to run across it. When you think 354 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,840 Speaker 1: about the Gettysburg address and you think about the Civil 355 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: War and the way the Civil War has often talked 356 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:37,200 Speaker 1: about people, and this is true of historians and Republican 357 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:39,560 Speaker 1: general We tend to talk about the Civil War in 358 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:43,479 Speaker 1: terms of this kind of bloodless shorthand. We talk about armies, 359 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:47,440 Speaker 1: we talk about generals. We have maps with rectangles and 360 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:51,400 Speaker 1: squares that move across the landscape, and it can all 361 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,919 Speaker 1: seem very antiseptic after a while, and we forget that 362 00:22:55,160 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: the Civil War cost something close to seven hundred fifty 363 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:05,040 Speaker 1: thousand lives over the course of its four years. And 364 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:07,879 Speaker 1: of course, some of those deaths in that seven hundred 365 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,320 Speaker 1: and fifty thousand will occur after the war as people 366 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,439 Speaker 1: succumb to wounds that they sustained during the war. And 367 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:20,119 Speaker 1: this is a staggering blow to the United States, and 368 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:25,440 Speaker 1: rare is the nation that could sustain that and persevere. 369 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:28,919 Speaker 1: But what Lincoln does is something very different. Ever, it 370 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,000 Speaker 1: is the one who gets up and talks about the 371 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: grand strategy and the great generals. Lincoln gets up and 372 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:39,640 Speaker 1: talks about these honored dead. He throws all the attention 373 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 1: in the direction of the thirty five hundred Union soldiers 374 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,320 Speaker 1: who are buried in the cemetery, in factors still in 375 00:23:47,320 --> 00:23:49,919 Speaker 1: the process of being buried in the fall of eighteen 376 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,520 Speaker 1: sixty three. They actually had not completed all the interments 377 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,800 Speaker 1: by the time the cemetery dedication ceremonies take place. So 378 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:03,920 Speaker 1: Lincoln is looking out over this enormous semicircle of graves 379 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,720 Speaker 1: that are surrounding the platform from which he's speaking, and 380 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,679 Speaker 1: what he is seeing there is the life of the nation, 381 00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,360 Speaker 1: the ordinary life of the nation, not the generals, not 382 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,720 Speaker 1: the politicians. I mean, one third of those who are 383 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,680 Speaker 1: buried there are unknowns. There was no identification. We didn't 384 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 1: know who they were. We don't know to this day 385 00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:27,320 Speaker 1: who many of the people who are buried in that 386 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:30,240 Speaker 1: cemetery are. But he looked at that, and he said, 387 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: these are the people who gave the last full measure 388 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:38,399 Speaker 1: of devotion. They were not like the professional armies of 389 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:42,720 Speaker 1: the European monarchies, the armies the Duke of Wellington after 390 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:47,320 Speaker 1: Waterloo described as the scum of the earth, the armies 391 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,879 Speaker 1: that Housman and his poem once described as having taken 392 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,440 Speaker 1: their shilling and died. Yet these were people who came 393 00:24:55,680 --> 00:25:03,439 Speaker 1: from farms, from lawyers, offices, clerks, from merchandise houses, the 394 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:08,760 Speaker 1: most ordinary people imaginable, the very kinds of people who 395 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: in Europe the monarchs and the counts and the dukes 396 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:22,160 Speaker 1: all despised as being worthless peasants. These people left their jobs, 397 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,960 Speaker 1: left their businesses, left their families, and came to fight 398 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,600 Speaker 1: for the preservation of the American Union. They came to 399 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:34,000 Speaker 1: fight for it because they knew that the American democracy 400 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: really was the last real hope of Earth, as Lincoln 401 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:43,119 Speaker 1: himself had said. They understood the experiment which began in 402 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:48,200 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, which looked for twenty five years after 403 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,280 Speaker 1: that like the coming thing. I mean, we have the 404 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,280 Speaker 1: French Revolution, which, as people think, is going to be 405 00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:56,800 Speaker 1: the beachhead of American principles in America. All those notions 406 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,600 Speaker 1: of popular government, all of them go down in flames 407 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,399 Speaker 1: one by one. The French Revolution descends into the reign 408 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:08,240 Speaker 1: of terror and then into the tyranny of Bonaparte. It's 409 00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:12,600 Speaker 1: succeeded by the Congress of Vienna and the reimposition of 410 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:17,720 Speaker 1: monarchical rule all over Europe. By the eighteen sixties, the 411 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:23,640 Speaker 1: United States is the one last large scale working democracy 412 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,160 Speaker 1: and the world. If the United States goes down, then 413 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:31,600 Speaker 1: the entire democratic project goes down with it, because it 414 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:34,920 Speaker 1: disgraces democracy so much. I mean, if the Americans can't 415 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,720 Speaker 1: make this thing work, nobody will be able to make 416 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:41,080 Speaker 1: it work. And Lincoln knows that. Lincoln says in May 417 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,080 Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty one to John Hay, what this war about. 418 00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:48,440 Speaker 1: It's a test of whether popular government can really hold 419 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:52,160 Speaker 1: together under pressure, or whether when we meet a moment 420 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 1: of political stress, everything flies to pieces. So what Lincoln 421 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,680 Speaker 1: saw when he stood on that platform was how the ordinary, 422 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,520 Speaker 1: well the country had rallied to the call of preserving 423 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:08,760 Speaker 1: that democracy. And we're willing to make that sacrifice, willing 424 00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:13,400 Speaker 1: to give that last full measure of devotion. And that's 425 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,600 Speaker 1: why he says, you know, it's really cheeky for us 426 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:18,879 Speaker 1: to come here and say that we're dedicating a cemetery. 427 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,760 Speaker 1: No no, no no, no, no. They have dedicated the cemetery 428 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,720 Speaker 1: far above our poor power to add or detract. It's 429 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: up to us here, the living, to be dedicated to 430 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,800 Speaker 1: that cause for which they gave the last full measure 431 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,720 Speaker 1: of devotion. And if we'll do that, he adds, If 432 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,920 Speaker 1: we'll do that, then the principles of the American Republic, 433 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,960 Speaker 1: the principles of the Constitution, of the Declaration of Independence, 434 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:50,399 Speaker 1: of everything the founders fought for, all of that will 435 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:55,240 Speaker 1: thrive and survive. It'll be like a religious revival, because 436 00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:58,200 Speaker 1: there will be, he says, a new birth of freedom 437 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:01,280 Speaker 1: and government of the people, by the people and for 438 00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,320 Speaker 1: the people will not perish from the earth. You know, 439 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,480 Speaker 1: part of what struck me looking at this over the 440 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:11,320 Speaker 1: years is that in a way it puts the burden 441 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: of defeating Lincoln on a willingness to have had these 442 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:20,360 Speaker 1: men die in vain. Yes, it does. And you see 443 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:23,680 Speaker 1: here's where the humility part of this enters in. It's 444 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,920 Speaker 1: not simply that Lincoln is paying tribute to the dead 445 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,119 Speaker 1: to get his bird. I think in these terms, in 446 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,639 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, things are starting to look good for Lincoln, 447 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:36,639 Speaker 1: especially in the fall of eighteen sixty three. But you 448 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:40,920 Speaker 1: move into eighteen sixty four and everything seems to go awry. 449 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,480 Speaker 1: All the wheels come off. Grant gets bogged down in 450 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:48,880 Speaker 1: the overland campaign Sherman gets bogged down trying to reach Atlanta. 451 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 1: The casualty lists are beyond belief, and the rumblings for 452 00:28:54,280 --> 00:29:00,320 Speaker 1: peace are becoming so audible that even the heir of 453 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,960 Speaker 1: the Republican National Committee is suggesting to Lincoln, you know, 454 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,920 Speaker 1: maybe we better make an overture to Jefferson Davis, and 455 00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,560 Speaker 1: Lincoln refuses to do that. But at the same time, 456 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,360 Speaker 1: Lincoln also knows that they are in great peril. If 457 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,520 Speaker 1: things had not turned out otherwise, If in fact, Grant 458 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:21,240 Speaker 1: had not taken Richmond, if Sherman had not taken Atlanta 459 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,320 Speaker 1: at above all, if Lincoln had not been reelected in 460 00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 1: November of eighteen sixty four, then what you would have 461 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:30,240 Speaker 1: had was an entirely different result. You would have had 462 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:35,240 Speaker 1: an independent confederacy which would have extended itself imperialistically into 463 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,080 Speaker 1: Central America and the Caribbean. You would have had the 464 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: Northern States become this shrunken rump of a country as 465 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,240 Speaker 1: irrelevant as Scandinavia. Other parts of the country would have 466 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,880 Speaker 1: hived off in their own confederacies. Probably in the Northwest 467 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,480 Speaker 1: would have gone its way. The Pacific Coast would have 468 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:57,000 Speaker 1: become a separate confederacy. And at a moment like that, 469 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:01,560 Speaker 1: everything would have, as he described in the Gettysburg Address, 470 00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,120 Speaker 1: have gone down the drain, and those who died at 471 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,320 Speaker 1: Gettysburg would indeed have died in vain. It really was 472 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 1: up to the soldiers. It was up to the soldiers, 473 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,360 Speaker 1: not only those who had fought at Gettysburg, but those 474 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:17,520 Speaker 1: who would continue to fight who made the Gettysburg address real. 475 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:22,440 Speaker 1: Because if these other contingencies had taken place, and God 476 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,120 Speaker 1: be thanked they didn't. But if those other contingencies I've 477 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:29,400 Speaker 1: described had taken place, we'd look back on the Gettysburg 478 00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: address now as merely an example of political huff and puff. 479 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,360 Speaker 1: If Lincoln had failed to be reelected, if the war 480 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,360 Speaker 1: had ended with an independent Confederacy, who would think of 481 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,520 Speaker 1: the Gettysburg address as being anything else but a bad 482 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:48,080 Speaker 1: moment by a bad president. It was the soldiers fighting 483 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,520 Speaker 1: on from eighteen sixty three into eighteen sixty four to 484 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 1: victory at eighteen sixty five who really redeem and justify 485 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,920 Speaker 1: everything Lincoln said at Gettysburg in eighteen sixty three. The 486 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:05,160 Speaker 1: fact that Lincoln puts the attention draws the finger in 487 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:09,560 Speaker 1: the direction of the soldiers, not the generals, not the politicians, 488 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,040 Speaker 1: but the soldiers. That's an act of humility on his part, 489 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: and it's an act of humility that is justified by 490 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,840 Speaker 1: how the soldiers win the war in eighteen sixty five, 491 00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:24,800 Speaker 1: how the ordinary soldiers are the real heroes of our 492 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:30,560 Speaker 1: republican democracy. Those very soldiers vote overwhelmingly to re elect 493 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:34,720 Speaker 1: Lincoln when their ballots come in. The very people who 494 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: he is going to commit to battle are voting for 495 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:42,360 Speaker 1: him to continue the war. Exactly over seventy of the 496 00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:46,680 Speaker 1: soldier vote in November of eighteen sixty four goes to 497 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:51,560 Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln. Because the soldiers understand, and they understand far 498 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:56,760 Speaker 1: better than the hair brained politicians who gather at Chicago 499 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: in the Democratic National Convention to adopt a an immediate 500 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,040 Speaker 1: peace platform and elect a milk and water candidate who 501 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:08,240 Speaker 1: had already failed, and that was General George McClellan. The 502 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:12,280 Speaker 1: soldiers understand very very well what is at stake, and 503 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 1: they indicate that with their votes and with their bayonets 504 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:19,320 Speaker 1: on the field of battle. Well, in a sense, it 505 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:25,000 Speaker 1: is to the courage of these everyday people that Lincoln 506 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:29,520 Speaker 1: is dedicating the Gettysburg Address. That's really it. Because what 507 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,440 Speaker 1: he speaks to in the Gettysburg Address he begins by 508 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 1: invoking the past, so we get the Declaration of Independence, 509 00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,480 Speaker 1: the proposition on which we're dedicated. Then he moves to 510 00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:44,200 Speaker 1: the present. We're gathered here on a great battlefield of 511 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,200 Speaker 1: the Civil War, which is testing whether this nation, or 512 00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 513 00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:54,120 Speaker 1: And they turns the attention to those who suffered here, 514 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:56,480 Speaker 1: those who died here, those who are buried here, and 515 00:32:56,520 --> 00:33:00,640 Speaker 1: he says, we cannot consecrate, we cannot dedicate, we cannot 516 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:05,280 Speaker 1: hallow this ground. It's really significant that he uses that 517 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:09,360 Speaker 1: triplet there. The Gettysburg address is very terse, it's very 518 00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 1: short and to the point. It's just those two hundred 519 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:16,080 Speaker 1: and seventy two words, it's just those ten sentences. He 520 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: stops and slows down and does this elaborate triplet because 521 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:26,120 Speaker 1: he wants to make the point in people's hearing that 522 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:31,040 Speaker 1: we can't do this. The soldiers have done it, they dedicated, 523 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:35,120 Speaker 1: they consecrated, they hallowed. He will stop, and he'll waste 524 00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,680 Speaker 1: some extra words ramming that point home, and he'll do 525 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:40,480 Speaker 1: that one other time at the very end, when he 526 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,360 Speaker 1: does another triplet of the people, by the people, for 527 00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:46,960 Speaker 1: the people. He wants to get that message as clearly 528 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,719 Speaker 1: as possible into the minds of his hearers. Well, in 529 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,600 Speaker 1: a sense that I'm always done by in dealing with Lincoln. 530 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:59,600 Speaker 1: He had a knack for finding the words that would 531 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,320 Speaker 1: capture you so that they were irrefutable. Oh, he is 532 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:09,920 Speaker 1: a genius of vocabulary that way. His law partner of 533 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:14,840 Speaker 1: fourteen years, William Herndon, described how in their law office, 534 00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:20,319 Speaker 1: Lincoln would almost not himself up trying to find exactly 535 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:24,399 Speaker 1: the right word or exactly the right phrase to communicate 536 00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:28,800 Speaker 1: his meeting. His very first law partner and his mentor 537 00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:33,440 Speaker 1: in the legal profession, John Todd Stewart, said that Lincoln's 538 00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:40,600 Speaker 1: mind was of a mathematical, logical cast. He wanted precision. 539 00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:45,720 Speaker 1: He wanted exactly the jewel like phrase that would capture 540 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:49,600 Speaker 1: an entire idea, a whole range of ideas, and do 541 00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:52,480 Speaker 1: it in such a way that the most ordinary farmer 542 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:57,520 Speaker 1: fresh from the plow could understand and appreciate. Marcolet, I 543 00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,640 Speaker 1: want to thank you, and as always you are a 544 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:05,279 Speaker 1: remarkable reconteur, a great historian, and somebody that I just 545 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:10,400 Speaker 1: I admire very very deeply. Well, I will reciprocate because 546 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,560 Speaker 1: it's wonderful to talk to you and wonderful to see 547 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,160 Speaker 1: all the things that you're doing. Thanks so much. Next, 548 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,640 Speaker 1: how they get us forg address change the course of 549 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:30,720 Speaker 1: American history? Hi, this is new Gingwig. After I served 550 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:34,240 Speaker 1: as Speaker the House, I opened my own business, Gingridge 551 00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:37,800 Speaker 1: three sixty. As a small business owner, I am profit 552 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:42,680 Speaker 1: focused and budgeting, income, staff, marketing, and sales is key 553 00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,360 Speaker 1: to my success. As the adage goes, you get what 554 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:50,080 Speaker 1: you inspect, now what you expect. 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I'm joined by 574 00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,840 Speaker 1: Harold Holzer, winner of the two thousand and fifteen Guilder 575 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,800 Speaker 1: Lehrman Lincoln Prize, who serves as the Jonathan F. Phantom 576 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:34,560 Speaker 1: Director of hundred Colleges Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. In 577 00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:40,400 Speaker 1: your mind, what makes Lincoln's Gettysburg Address so important and 578 00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:44,600 Speaker 1: so worth remembering all these years later? So the Gettysburg 579 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,919 Speaker 1: Address has a role in our history. Both as the 580 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:52,440 Speaker 1: purest piece of American scripture ever written. Lincoln created a 581 00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:58,759 Speaker 1: new way of addressing audiences with this extraordinarily brief and compact, 582 00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,440 Speaker 1: two and a half minute address in an era in 583 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:08,200 Speaker 1: which purple overtunned stemwinders were the order of the day, 584 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:12,960 Speaker 1: and of course, famously the principal orator who preceded him 585 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:16,880 Speaker 1: to the platform at Gettysburg, spoke for two hours, but 586 00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:19,760 Speaker 1: it was more, of course, because had it been only 587 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:22,800 Speaker 1: brief and not memorable, it wouldn't make much of a difference. 588 00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:28,400 Speaker 1: But in fact, it crystallized the America that Lincoln believed 589 00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:33,520 Speaker 1: so deeply was worth fighting for, worth saving, and most importantly, 590 00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:39,200 Speaker 1: worth perfecting. It explained the war, It explained the sacrifice. 591 00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:45,000 Speaker 1: It explained the mission to redefine who belonged in America 592 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:49,520 Speaker 1: and who had aspirational rights to enjoy the fruits of 593 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:54,839 Speaker 1: their own labor. It celebrated American democracy and the American origins, 594 00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:58,440 Speaker 1: but it recalibrated them to include a wider number of 595 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:01,000 Speaker 1: people than had ever been touched by it since been. 596 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:04,360 Speaker 1: There are two parts here. One is the extraordinary insights 597 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:08,680 Speaker 1: and commitment, both morally and politically, and the other is 598 00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:14,040 Speaker 1: the art of trendslitting it into a permanent documentar around 599 00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:17,160 Speaker 1: which so much has revolved now for well over a 600 00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:21,600 Speaker 1: hundred years. How do you feel or see Lincoln in 601 00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:26,080 Speaker 1: that context? I think what makes Lincoln remarkable, and of 602 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,640 Speaker 1: course it's just the combination of talents and experience that 603 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:34,160 Speaker 1: is so unmatched in the American experience is that Lincoln 604 00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:38,440 Speaker 1: not only was able to express the American dream in 605 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,920 Speaker 1: such a magical way, but he also lived the American dream. 606 00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:45,799 Speaker 1: So he brought experience and talent to the endeavor of 607 00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:50,680 Speaker 1: explaining it to a weary and battle scarred country. Having 608 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:55,040 Speaker 1: risen himself from obscurity, he really believed so deeply that 609 00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:58,800 Speaker 1: such opportunities should exist for everybody if they worked hard 610 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:03,040 Speaker 1: and taught themselves what they needed to know. And the 611 00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:07,600 Speaker 1: rest is magical. What's so remarkable is and of course 612 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:12,000 Speaker 1: how he does it in a prayer like fashion is unfathomable. Again, 613 00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:15,560 Speaker 1: mysterious is that he talks about sacrifice, and he talks 614 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:17,719 Speaker 1: about the future, he talks about the past, and he 615 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:21,400 Speaker 1: talks about what's needed next, and he does it in 616 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:25,520 Speaker 1: this series of triads and couplets. You know, it's just 617 00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:27,839 Speaker 1: if you think about it, you could try to write 618 00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:30,719 Speaker 1: that one hundred different ways for a hundred years and 619 00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:35,160 Speaker 1: it would not come out so perfectly. I totally agree, 620 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:39,480 Speaker 1: both the artistry of the words and the authenticity of 621 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:43,319 Speaker 1: the thoughts combine in a way that is astounding and 622 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:45,960 Speaker 1: worthy of being studied. For as long as humans care 623 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,120 Speaker 1: about freedom, all we know about Lincoln's creative process is 624 00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:52,000 Speaker 1: that it was more painstaking than he liked to let on. 625 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,799 Speaker 1: The one description I've seen about his writing style is 626 00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:59,640 Speaker 1: that he wrote very slowly, and he did not if 627 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:02,439 Speaker 1: you can believe this, I mean I can't, because I'm 628 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:06,759 Speaker 1: an inveterate rewriter, and you play with everything until I 629 00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,680 Speaker 1: think it's right, and it often isn't. Isn't. He sort 630 00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:11,880 Speaker 1: of wrote pretty cleanly and did not have to go 631 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,720 Speaker 1: back and rearrange things. He worked carefully, He worked slowly. 632 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,360 Speaker 1: He also had a extraordinary memory for his own earlier 633 00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:23,040 Speaker 1: thoughts and obviously didn't even in the age before fact 634 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:25,280 Speaker 1: checking in computers. He did not want to say anything 635 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:29,839 Speaker 1: that violated the previous literature that he'd assembled. But when 636 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:34,080 Speaker 1: the GETTYS brook address was concerned, he was photographed in Washington, 637 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,160 Speaker 1: which was a big deal then no White House photographer 638 00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:39,640 Speaker 1: on call. You had to go to a gallery and 639 00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:44,000 Speaker 1: sit for formal poses one after another, and there were 640 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,760 Speaker 1: long exposures. But a journalist was there, a pro Lincoln 641 00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,160 Speaker 1: journalist from California named Noah Brooks, and Brooks had a 642 00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:54,640 Speaker 1: good sense to say, have you finished your speech? And 643 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:57,960 Speaker 1: Lincoln gives a clue and says, I not yet, Well, 644 00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:01,720 Speaker 1: what will it be? And Lincoln said, short, short, short. 645 00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:04,920 Speaker 1: As amusing as that is, and as modest as he 646 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,600 Speaker 1: made it, we at least know that he was working 647 00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:10,799 Speaker 1: on it did not come to him in this legendary 648 00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:17,279 Speaker 1: burst of last minute inspiration, because many people, including Andrew Carnegie, 649 00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:20,040 Speaker 1: spread the rumor that Lincoln had written it at the 650 00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:23,520 Speaker 1: last minute on the train, which of course makes it 651 00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:26,600 Speaker 1: part of that wonderful myths and legend. But it's just 652 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,160 Speaker 1: just ain't true. He had a great filing system as 653 00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,560 Speaker 1: a fellow who was so often on the road. He 654 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,839 Speaker 1: would write things down on scraps and then store them 655 00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:38,120 Speaker 1: in the inside room of his hat under the hat band. 656 00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:42,000 Speaker 1: Not the best system, but it worked. We do know 657 00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:46,320 Speaker 1: that he had lived under God, probably at the last minute. 658 00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,359 Speaker 1: We don't have the reading copy of the speech, which 659 00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,279 Speaker 1: is pretty vexing and disappointing, but we do know that 660 00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:56,240 Speaker 1: the phrase under God was not in the last text. 661 00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:59,480 Speaker 1: We know that he wrote worked on his host's home 662 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,359 Speaker 1: the night before the speech, and he made sure that 663 00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:06,360 Speaker 1: when he subsequently wrote copies that he included the phrase, 664 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,879 Speaker 1: and of course continued to work on it every time 665 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,200 Speaker 1: someone asked for a souvenir of the speech, So the 666 00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:14,680 Speaker 1: one that is accepted as the final text was not 667 00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,560 Speaker 1: written until about a year and a half after the speech. 668 00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,640 Speaker 1: Is that right? So just kept evolving around the edges. 669 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,239 Speaker 1: He didn't change the meaning, but he did clean up 670 00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:27,960 Speaker 1: some little things. And I remember I once got a 671 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,680 Speaker 1: tour of the Lincoln bedroom from President Clinton and he 672 00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:34,640 Speaker 1: showed me the White House copy that sits there under 673 00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:36,920 Speaker 1: a window, which drives me crazy because the light is 674 00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:40,120 Speaker 1: not so good for it. And I said, miss President, 675 00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:44,480 Speaker 1: you know why this is here, and it's because Lincoln 676 00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:46,759 Speaker 1: was asked to write a copy out so it could 677 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:50,600 Speaker 1: be sold for charity. And then he did so. But 678 00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,440 Speaker 1: he wrote it on both sides of one sheet, and 679 00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:55,879 Speaker 1: he got a sheepish letter from the host saying that 680 00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:58,680 Speaker 1: she was sorry, but this isn't it's going to be 681 00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:01,200 Speaker 1: mounted in an album, so we really have to ask 682 00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:03,759 Speaker 1: you to do it one more time. And that's why 683 00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:06,680 Speaker 1: we have this final copy, because he did it yet again, 684 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:09,759 Speaker 1: and this time he wrote address delivered at the cemetery, 685 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,000 Speaker 1: and make it very formal. I thought that story was fascinating. 686 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,880 Speaker 1: He writes both a very short speech but also a 687 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,680 Speaker 1: speech that is eternal, and one of the great issues 688 00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:22,000 Speaker 1: is wondering what he thought of it at the beginning 689 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,759 Speaker 1: of what he thought it had accomplished, because allegedly he 690 00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:29,600 Speaker 1: had turned to his longtime pal Ward Lamon, who was 691 00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:32,480 Speaker 1: by then a US Marshall in Washington and had not 692 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:35,200 Speaker 1: only accompanied him to Gettysburg, but was serving as the 693 00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:38,880 Speaker 1: MC for the event, and he lam insists that he 694 00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:42,200 Speaker 1: turned to him and said that it's a flat failure. 695 00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:46,759 Speaker 1: It won't scour, which is a great farm term. Allegedly, 696 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:49,640 Speaker 1: he was disappointed by it. He didn't get any applause. 697 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,680 Speaker 1: People were either stunned at the brevity or the magnificence 698 00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:56,160 Speaker 1: of it, and it was almost as if they had 699 00:44:56,200 --> 00:45:00,480 Speaker 1: heard a prayer to which it was not appropriate cheer 700 00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:03,600 Speaker 1: or applause, although the ape said he was interrupted a 701 00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:06,279 Speaker 1: few times for applause. So he goes back to Washington 702 00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:10,840 Speaker 1: and he reads the press. The appraisals of the Gettysburg 703 00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:14,680 Speaker 1: address ran strictly along party lines, and to add to 704 00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:18,759 Speaker 1: the mix, the European press thought it was an absurdity 705 00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:22,399 Speaker 1: and a mockery, and that Lincoln was grotesque in not 706 00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:26,320 Speaker 1: only delivery, but in the words the Republican press loved 707 00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:30,279 Speaker 1: the speech. The Democratic press thought it was embarrassing. So 708 00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:34,000 Speaker 1: welcome to the world of twenty nineteen. But it was 709 00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:38,000 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty three very partisan response. And I think 710 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:41,840 Speaker 1: that's all because Congress is coming, new majorities, new alignments, 711 00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:45,880 Speaker 1: and also there's a presidential election coming, and everybody is 712 00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:50,320 Speaker 1: highly partisan. Coming up next, Lincoln comes now with a 713 00:45:50,360 --> 00:46:04,560 Speaker 1: case of smallpox. Immediately following the Gettysburg address, Hi, this 714 00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:07,239 Speaker 1: is newt If you like my podcast, I encourage you 715 00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:11,280 Speaker 1: to sign up for my free twice weekly newsletter. In fact, 716 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,040 Speaker 1: if you sign up today, you will be undered to 717 00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:17,120 Speaker 1: win a free one year membership to Newt Center Circle. 718 00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:21,239 Speaker 1: That's an eighty five dollars annual value. In my newsletter, 719 00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:25,160 Speaker 1: I address events in news, politics, or other areas of 720 00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:27,839 Speaker 1: interest to me. It is intended for those who want 721 00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:30,359 Speaker 1: to be well informed from the issues of the day. 722 00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:33,520 Speaker 1: As a listener of Newtsworld. You can sign up for 723 00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:35,960 Speaker 1: my free newsletter and be nered to win a one 724 00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:40,359 Speaker 1: year membership at Newt Center Circle at newtsworld dot com, 725 00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,680 Speaker 1: but you have to enter by November thirty. Sign up 726 00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:46,160 Speaker 1: for my newsletter today and be innered to win at 727 00:46:46,239 --> 00:47:00,879 Speaker 1: Newtsworld dot Com look to get back to the White House. 728 00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:04,000 Speaker 1: He's sick if that address had been postponed one more day, 729 00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:06,879 Speaker 1: and it was Edward Everett, the principal artor, who had 730 00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:09,760 Speaker 1: postponed it from a much earlier day because he was busy, 731 00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:13,440 Speaker 1: so it was finally scheduled for November nineteenth. By the 732 00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:16,799 Speaker 1: afternoon of November nineteenth, Lincoln was lying down in the 733 00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:20,200 Speaker 1: train heading back to Washington with a wet cloth over 734 00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:23,319 Speaker 1: his head, and it was learned that he had smallpox, 735 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,239 Speaker 1: a mild case, but it was enough to kill the 736 00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:29,080 Speaker 1: valet who took care of him, an African American man 737 00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:33,480 Speaker 1: named William Johnson, who later died of smallpox. And one 738 00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:37,400 Speaker 1: wonders his son had had the same illness before Gettysburg, 739 00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:39,600 Speaker 1: and Lincoln almost canceled because he wanted to be with 740 00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,680 Speaker 1: the little boy, having lost his son the year before 741 00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:45,680 Speaker 1: to another disease. So here he is about to get sick, 742 00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:48,800 Speaker 1: and he gets back to Washington and he's feeling terrible. 743 00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:51,680 Speaker 1: He takes to his bed for a few days, but 744 00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:54,680 Speaker 1: Edward Everett writes him a letter and saying I wish 745 00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:57,719 Speaker 1: I could say that I came as near to the 746 00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:01,319 Speaker 1: central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you 747 00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:04,839 Speaker 1: did in two minutes. And I think that cheered him up, 748 00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:09,920 Speaker 1: didn't make him better. The cheered him up somehow in 749 00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:16,319 Speaker 1: three short paragraphs, he's captured the heart of the crossroads 750 00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:19,640 Speaker 1: who were at and not just as meaning for America, 751 00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:22,920 Speaker 1: but its meaning for the entire human race. That's part 752 00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:26,799 Speaker 1: of a sudge, an extraordinary document. Lincoln believed that the 753 00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:30,400 Speaker 1: American example would be emulated around the world, but the 754 00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:33,920 Speaker 1: divine right of kings would yield to our form of 755 00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:37,239 Speaker 1: self government if the American democracy succeeded. And that was 756 00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:40,440 Speaker 1: the key. When he was in Trenton rout to his 757 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:44,000 Speaker 1: inauguration a couple of years before Gettysburg. He gets to Trenton, 758 00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:48,000 Speaker 1: walks to the state House and sees the Hessian barracks 759 00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:50,440 Speaker 1: which were still standing, and so as the state House 760 00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:52,840 Speaker 1: by the way, and he is deeply moved, and he 761 00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:57,560 Speaker 1: talks about George Washington and why they fought. And then 762 00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:00,080 Speaker 1: he says he will consider his life of success and 763 00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:03,839 Speaker 1: here I paraphrase, and his presidency success if he can 764 00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:08,680 Speaker 1: say that he preserved the government of this almost chosen people, 765 00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:12,760 Speaker 1: meaning America. And so there is a little hint about 766 00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:16,359 Speaker 1: how exceptional he does think the American experiment is. I 767 00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:19,880 Speaker 1: do think in that sense that he really did, in 768 00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:24,279 Speaker 1: a sense, recenter us from the legal language of the 769 00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:29,440 Speaker 1: Constitution to the moral emotional language of Jefferson's document in 770 00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:32,680 Speaker 1: a way that we've never actually backed off from. I 771 00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:34,960 Speaker 1: think that's absolutely right, and I think it was awfully 772 00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:37,279 Speaker 1: clever of him, because by the time he gets to 773 00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:40,799 Speaker 1: Washington and has to finish as an argument address, he's 774 00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:43,960 Speaker 1: back on the Constitution a bit because he says to 775 00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 1: the crowd that the rebels don't have an oath registered 776 00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:49,799 Speaker 1: in heaven to destroy the Union, but I have a 777 00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:52,640 Speaker 1: sacred one to preserve, protect, and defend it. That's out 778 00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:55,320 Speaker 1: of the presidential oath in the Constitution. Of course, he 779 00:49:55,440 --> 00:50:00,000 Speaker 1: then cites the fact that the states cannot separate as 780 00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:04,000 Speaker 1: institutional guarantee. But of course it's always about the Declaration, 781 00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:06,839 Speaker 1: Otherwise he would not have said four score and seven 782 00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:10,840 Speaker 1: years ago in eighteen sixty three. There is a very specific, 783 00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:15,440 Speaker 1: if melodic reference to seventeen seventy six. So I agree 784 00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:18,959 Speaker 1: that's what Lincoln says, is the beginning, not seventeen eighty 785 00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:22,479 Speaker 1: seven or seventeen eighty nine listen. Thank you for doing 786 00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:25,560 Speaker 1: this and I really appreciate you taking the time. I 787 00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:32,239 Speaker 1: enjoyed talking to you. Thank you to my guests, doctor 788 00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:35,879 Speaker 1: Allen C. Guelzo and Harold Holzer. You can read more 789 00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:39,440 Speaker 1: about the history of Lincoln's presidency, the Civil War, and 790 00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:44,160 Speaker 1: the Gettysburg Address on our show page at newtsworld dot com. 791 00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:47,960 Speaker 1: Newts World is produced by Westwood One. Our executive producer 792 00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:51,719 Speaker 1: is Debbie Myers and our producer is Garnsey Slow. Our 793 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,800 Speaker 1: editor is Robert Boroski, and our researcher is Rachel Peterson. 794 00:50:56,440 --> 00:51:00,440 Speaker 1: Our guest booker is Tamara Coleman. The artwork the show 795 00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:04,640 Speaker 1: was created by Steve Penley. The music was composed by 796 00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:08,680 Speaker 1: Joey Selvin. Special thanks the team at Gingwich three sixty 797 00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:13,640 Speaker 1: and Westwood One's John Wardock and Robert Mathers. Please email 798 00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:17,360 Speaker 1: me with your comments at newt at newtsworld dot com. 799 00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:20,200 Speaker 1: If you've been enjoying news World, I hope you'll go 800 00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:23,600 Speaker 1: to Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars 801 00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:26,200 Speaker 1: and give us a review so others can learn what 802 00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:35,960 Speaker 1: it's all about. On the next episode of news World, 803 00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:39,800 Speaker 1: Thanksgiving as truly the holiday at the heart of the 804 00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:44,120 Speaker 1: American experience. The statement that describes Thanksgiving best of all 805 00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:48,080 Speaker 1: is won by the Lates. Historian Samuel Elliott Morrison. The 806 00:51:48,200 --> 00:51:52,640 Speaker 1: Pilgrims are as the spiritual ancestors of all Americans, whatever 807 00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:56,400 Speaker 1: their stock, race, or creed, and that is a statement 808 00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:59,960 Speaker 1: that should hold true today but is increasingly being questioned 809 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:03,319 Speaker 1: and as we become a lot more divisive and there's 810 00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:06,680 Speaker 1: a greater focus on what divides us rather than what 811 00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:18,920 Speaker 1: unites us. I'm new Kangridge. This is News World, the 812 00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:21,200 Speaker 1: Westwood One podcast network.