The 4th Of July Is A Good Day To Ponder Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

On July 4, 1776, the day the Continental Congress finally voted for Independence from Great Britain, future president, John Adams, wrote his wife, telling Mrs. Adams that today "ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore..."

In 1776 how did John Adams know that America would one day span the continent? It was over a quarter century later that Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase from France and sent Lewis and Clark to check out the new land, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Those Founding Fathers, including John Adams, were very smart, very forward thinking, coming up with a democratic republic that was the first on earth.

Less than a century after those Founding Fathers founded America the world's first democratic republic was in dire straits, due to rebellious Southern states thinking they could leave the Union to start up their own new nation so as to preserve their odious practice of making slaves of fellow human beings.

Four months after the most deadly battle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln journeyed to the battle site to participate in the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg.

The principle orator at that Gettysburg dedication was not Mr. Lincoln. It was a guy few remember today named Edward Everett, a politician, pastor, educator, diplomat, senator and governor, known for his stirring orations.

Well, Edward Everett's Gettysburg oration lasted over two hours. And was not memorable.

And then it was President Lincoln's turn to speak, a three minute address in which Lincoln predicted "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here."

Mr. Lincoln was wrong. His Gettysburg Address is the most quoted speech in American history. And is known by democracy loving people the world over.

Most of us know the Gettysburg Address by heart, with its iconic opening line of  "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", so I won't repeat the entire three minute speech here.

The Wikipedia article about Abraham Lincoln has a real good summing up of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address that I will repeat here....

In 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln asserted the nation was born not in 1789, but in 1776, "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". He defined the war as an effort dedicated to these principles of liberty and equality for all. The emancipation of slaves was now part of the national war effort. He declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery would end as a result of the losses, and the future of democracy in the world would be assured, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". Lincoln concluded that the Civil War had a profound objective: a new birth of freedom in the nation.

A new birth of freedom, with actual freedom for all the people living in America. A war to preserve what was then the world's one and only democratic republic.

Now I am wondering if people in the states which were part of the Confederacy actually do grow up knowing Lincoln's Gettysburg Address?

Lately I think we have learned the majority of the people who live in the states which made up the Confederacy now realize those state's rebellion against the Union, to preserve slavery, was not a noble cause, not then, and certainly not now, a century and a half later.

Anyway, have a safe and fun 4th of July doing what President John Adams suggested a long time ago, with hot dogs added, because I am sure if John Adams knew hot dogs were in America's future, he would have mentioned that in his 4th of July suggestions to his wife....

A Blue Melancholy Monday Brewing Tea While Channeling My Inner Abraham Lincoln

In the picture we are looking at my swimming pool hours after I got wet in it this morning.

You can not tell it by looking at this picture, but it is a clear sky, blue Monday in North Texas.

I am also blue this Monday. With a bout of my chronic melancholy. Bouts of chronic melancholy are just one more thing I have in common with Abraham Lincoln, along with being tall and lanky, with a scraggly beard and the frequent wearing of a stovepipe hat.

I think I had myself a sleep walking incident last night. The evidence of this is that this morning the patio blinds were open, with the patio door slightly open. Both are closed when the sun goes down.

Currently I am leaning towards the idea of returning to the Tandy Hills today to see if the Tandy Turtle is still stuck in its little puddle.

I am also leaning towards the idea of going up to Washington this summer. On July 20 it will be 4 years since I last flew north. I have 2 new nephews and a niece I have not yet met, who I am told are a lot of fun.

I've got some sun tea busy brewing out on the aforementioned patio. In the brewing mix are ginseng, green tea, chamomile, spearmint, lemongrass, blackberry leaves, orange blossoms and rosebuds.

I am hoping this potent herbal mix will give me some temporary relief from my chronic melancholy.

Michele Q's George Washington Update On Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving

This morning Michele Q reminded me that 51 weeks ago today I blogged about Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of October 18, 1863 proclaiming the "last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

Lincoln had such a poetic way with words.

Below is this morning's comment from Michele Q....

MicheleQ has left a new comment on your post "Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation":

Actually it was president George Washington who issued a proclamation on October 3, 1789 naming Thursday, November 26, 1789 as an official holiday of “sincere and humble thanks.” After that different states celebrated on different days until Lincoln’s proclamation on October 3, 1863 when he made Thanksgiving a national holiday to be celebrated specifically on the last Thursday of November.

In 1939 FDR moved it to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy still recovering from the Depression. That move, which set off a national debate, was reversed in 1941 when Congress passed and President Roosevelt approved a joint house resolution establishing, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.)

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy still recovering from the Depression. This move, which set off a national debate, was reversed in 1941 when Congress passed and President Roosevelt approved a joint house resolution establishing, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

Source: The National Archives

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

From the time the Indians cooked turkey for the Pilgrims until October 3 of 1863, America celebrated Thanksgiving Day. But not on the same day.

Then, in the midst of the Civil War, a well known magazine writer, Sarah Josepha Hale, sent a letter to President Lincoln in which she suggested that Lincoln have "the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival. You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."

Mr. Lincoln apparently agreed with Ms. Hale and so the President issued one of his many Proclamations. Lincoln loved making Proclamations. Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, penned the Proclamation, which Lincoln then signed, forever making the last Thursday of November a National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.

Below is Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation....

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

Feeling Like Lincoln In Texas

Today I am having a bout of Abraham Lincoln's lifelong problem, as in, woeful, mournful melancholy. I don't know what has brought this bout on, other than the little annoying details of this hell I'm living.

Maybe it's a new book I'm reading that has brought on the woeful, mournful melancholy. The Queen of Wink sent me a book called Ghost Rider: Travels On The Healing Road by Neil Peart.

Neil Peart was the drummer in Canada's most successful rock band. Rush. I'm not sure if I remember Rush or not. Apparently they were quite popular. Recently I found I did not know who Boz Scaggs is. I'm not much of a music aficionado, apparently.

In the course of a year, Neil Peart lost his daughter in a car wreck and his wife to cancer. This had him totally wiped out. After a year, he willed himself to hit the road on his big motorbike. The book is the story of his coming back to life during the course of thousands of miles of motorbiking. So far, I've ridden with him from eastern Canada to Alaska.

I've never ever wanted to ride a motorbike. But, now I'm thinking it seems like something I might like. I am very susceptible to random input altering my pre-conceived notions, apparently.

I was in the pool, again, before the sun lit the place up, this morning. Swimming did nothing to lighten my melancholy mood.

Due to it being almost 11 in the morning, and me not blogging, I've gotten the regular "are you all right" messages. So, I thought I'd blog about how I'm not all right, to let those who are concerned about my "rightness," know that I'm all right.

I love writing convoluted sentences.