Faith Works 7-1-17
Jeff Gill
Lincoln's parenthesis
___
Actually, it's between em dashes.
And it includes a phrase not in the original draft, but shown in enough contemporary transcripts to be present in the speech as given, plus Lincoln himself added it when re-copying the manuscript later.
"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom"
That phrase comes between these two statements: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain" and the closing affirmation "and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln was reflecting on what it meant to dedicate a place of memorial for thousands of soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, which began 154 years ago today. He wanted to recruit the listeners that following November, on that great battlefield of the Civil War, to resolve with him that the nation learn something from all this, to grow in unity, to turn away from warfare to some better, less lethal way to sort out questions that divide the country.
Slavery would be ended, that much was clear. But Lincoln was too astute a politician not to realize that we would have future dissention that would raise voices, but should not end up raising armies. So he asked his audience to commit with him that these burial plots and soldiers' headstones not be placed here in vain.
If there were future civil conflicts, after the harsh example of the war of rebellion now surely heading to conclusion, if future generations would not learn from their tragedy but add more bodies to national cemeteries through armed dispute, this nation may well not survive. This was what was on the president's mind as he worked from his prepared text to the delivered speech.
Lincoln's drafts do not include "under God," but his re-copied texts in his own hand, and transcripts by journalists, all agree that Lincoln said those two words. They put either an anchor or a prayer into the phrase that he had hammered out in advance: "That this nation shall have a new birth of freedom." His hope was that out of the conflict and pain and sorrow we might realize where we had gone wrong, and turn in a better direction.
Of course, for 87 years we had managed as a nation, again and again, to sidestep those realizations, to avoid a new possibility to be born in our midst. What would it take for the United States to undergo some form of turning, or repentance, from the path we had been on, to a better way? It would take a power greater than force, more than guns, even bigger than a country already stretching from sea to shining sea.
Lincoln's em dash framed, parenthetical remark, was in a sense the heart of his address. His personal prayer that this nation might have a new birth of freedom once this war was concluded and when peace prevailed. He reasoned his way into the basis for that hope, and he cast a vision leading forward from that hope if fulfilled. It was what had to happen, lest our form of self-government perish from the earth.
So in the actual delivery, two words found themselves added to an already sublime speech. Lincoln said them, spoke them in the moment, almost as an act of grace itself, making real and possible and true the rest of what he was speaking: "That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom." Two little, simple words, whose rhythm fit the pattern he was seeking, and whose meaning said what he hoped we would hear, as a nation, as citizens, as souls seeking healing after a long season of conflict.
Two words which offer the willing hearer a path to possibility and transformation and peace:
"Under God."
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he loves to visit Gettysburg, but he loves a good Fourth of July parade even more! Wave at him in a passing parade, or contact him at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
Drafts of the Gettysburg Address:
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment