Fourth of
July Message
By McHenry Daniel
US
On Independence Day this year let us take a moment
in our busy day to reflect on this cherished Nation
and the price paid for Independence. I can think
of no other words more potent or appropriate to
this celebration than those spoken by the great
American patriot, our 16th President, Abraham
Lincoln at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November
19, 1863.
On June 1, 1865, Senator Charles Sumner commented
on what is now considered the most famous speech
by President Abraham Lincoln. In his eulogy on
the slain president, he called it a "monumental
act." He said Lincoln was mistaken that "the
world will little note, nor long remember what
we say here." Rather, the Bostonian remarked,
"The world noted at once what he said, and
will never cease to remember it.”
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on 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 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 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, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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 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.
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