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His moving speech offers heartfelt appreciation for those who left their families and the comforts of their homes for the sake of preserving the Union. Lincoln respectfully refrains from disparaging the secessionists. The President of the nation could do no less, considering that the main Union goal was to reunite North and South into one United States. Isolating or insulting the South would have been a dreadful political move for Lincoln. Unfortunately, the President did not live long enough to forge meaningful alliances with his political enemies and Reconstruction failed miserably.
Ironically, Lincoln imagines a world that would forget the speech, saying: "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here." In fact, the first few lines or more of the Gettysburg Address is memorized by American school children well over a century after Lincoln spoke it in Pennsylvania. The speech remains relevant for several reasons. One, American soldiers are united throughout history. No matter whether they fought during the Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, the Vietnam War or the War in , and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Wars, economic distress, and social strife can and should be viewed as tests of the American character and spirit. Trials and struggles are like opportunities to reaffirm a mutual commitment, a dedication to American ideals.
References
Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address." Retrieved Dec 8, 2008 at http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html
Gettysburg Address." Lillian Goldman Law Library. Yale Law School. Retrieved Dec 8, 2008 at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/gettyb.asp
The Gettysburg Address." Library of Congress Eshibition. Retrieved Dec 8, 2008 at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/
Gettysburg Address: Abraham Lincoln." Retrieved Dec 8, 2008 at http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/learn/gettysburg_address.html
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln." Abraham Lincoln Online. Retrieved Dec 8, 2008 at http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
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