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THE AFTERMATH
Lessons Learned
From the Veterans of Gettysburg...
"Gettysburg has many lessons--- that of national unity, that of
economic progress, that of eventual reconciliation. But perhaps the best
lesson to learn from any war is how it might have been avoided by a little
more good-will, a little more compromise, little more of a liberal attitude
of the minds that see only in terms of logical conclusions, the minds
to which white is white and black is black, and there is no gray. For
us who have grown in wisdom with the years we can see that change is inevitable,
that there must also be continuity. We will never reach any point where
our national life can afford to remain static."
"Neither can there be any complete break with the past. Between
those who see only the need for change and those who resist change, I
have come to the conclusion that any nation will be torn asunder if they
persist in fighting it out as in the Civil War. At this last day we can
see that Gettysburg is a good illustration of irrepressible conflict which
exist with those who do not have the patience and imagination to progress
thro' compromise."
And the President of the United States...
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The Gettysburg
Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedication
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 battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who
here gave their lives that nation might live. It is altogether fitting
and proper that we should do this.
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 consecrated it, far above our poor power to
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what
we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for
us the living, 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 gave the last full measure
of devotion- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain-that this nation, under God, 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.
Abraham Lincoln.
November 19, 1863.
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