Abraham Lincoln gave one of his most memorable speeches on this day. It is rather weird that the president’s invitation to the cemetery’s dedication was an afterthought. Sure, he wasn’t terribly popular due to the (American) Civil War dragging out into its third year; it would manifest as some rather nasty opposition at home from his inner circle (Chase and McClellan).
I think Lincoln took some major chances with the speech. Many in the North weren’t very concerned about the slaves, others were willing to make peace with the Confederacy and few knew the war had hit a turning point four months earlier. Since running for the presidency, Lincoln had been rather reluctant to discuss slavery as a political issue. Now he risked his political fortunes by saying why the 45,000 casualties didn’t suffer in vain. Certain “D minus” students of History try to make similar comparisons with the worst US-president in History justifying his invasion of Iraq, hence the “D minus” label for Busheviks.
Being a Yankee in Texas makes the event’s anniversary a source of pride, especially when hearing the racist prattling of the Neo-Confederates I live amongst. They keep forgetting they lost and they worship the banner of General Lee’s traitorous army. I see this practically every day with their bigoted “Impeach Obama” bumper stickers, “Keep Texas Red” banners and the antics of the Young Conservatives.
It’s become ironic how the first Republican president is now someone the modern GOP calls a dictator, “Socialist” and/or “Communist.”