Are We Still One Nation Conceived in Liberty? Meaning of the Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago…. Well, maybe a little longer than that. It was on Nov 19, 1863 that Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech, even though he said the world would not remember it, which is remembered and will be for a long time.

What is the point I am trying to make? Maybe, if you have read, or heard, the Gettysburg Address you would somehow come to the answer. Do you know what Abraham Lincoln said that day? Let’s remember that speech together. Here is the Bliss copy:

“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.”

What, exactly, is Lincoln saying here? Why was the Civil War even fought that the President of the United States of America should give such a speech? What happened because of the Lincoln Administration and his policies? First of all, you have to understand that, as far as I know, Abraham Lincoln was the first President to shred the Constitution. You see, the Civil War was not fought because of slavery. In fact, the North had just as many slaves as the South. No, the war was fought over States Rights. The right to secede in particular.

So, what does this speech actually mean? In it, Lincoln states that 87 years before, the Founding Fathers brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the ideal that everyone is created equal. That is part of the Constitution now. Everyone has the same rights, privileges and freedoms. Funny that it was said over 143 years ago and today there are those that are still arguing about it.

The Civil War tested our nation. It tested our resolve to stay one nation and not divide ourselves. He further states that those that died for that cause, the ability to stay one great nation, were heros and the living were not worthy to even dedicate the ground those men died upon. Going further he said that we, the living, had to finish the work those brave men started so that they did not die in vain. We are one nation, under God and that the government is of, by, and for the people and that it should not perish.

So, what is the point of this? Let’s see, today we have the liberals that are doing everything they can to destroy the Republican Party and the Trump Administration. They seem to believe that Donald J. Trump, the current President of the United States, is out to destroy our country. How? According to the Democratic Party, Mr. Trump is going to bankrupt the nation, pollute our air and water to the point of not being able to use it, do away with all social programs that the liberals have set up to support able-bodied people that refuse to work, do away with programs set up to kill unborn children because said children have no rights and are an inconvenience to the mother, undo all legislation pertaining to equal rights for minorities (even though those rights are guaranteed by the Constitution), increase racism and downgrade women.

It seems to me that the Democratic Party, the liberals (or progressives as they like to call themselves) are trying to further divide this country than it is since the advent of the Obama Administration in 2008. All that this nation has gone through in the last 240 years, all the progress we have made in civil rights, freedoms for all, lessening racism, increasing coexistence with other nations, losing thousands of young men to several wars, several of which were not our own, etc. has been set back 50 years in the last eight. What those men died for on that battlefield at Gettysburg were in vain if the liberals, progressives, could have their way.

We are a divided nation. This time it isn’t the northern states against the southern. It is one political party against the other. It is neighbors against neighbors, and it has escalated exponentially over the last year. Why just over the last year? The only reason that I have been able to comprehend is that the Democratic Party needed their candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to win the election so that she could finish the job that Barack Hussein Obama started. Since she did not win and Donald J Trump did, they are not happy.

Trump has started to fulfil all his campaign promises, which is unique for a political candidate. Most will promise the stars but only deliver mud. Trump started fulfilling his promises the day he was inaugurated. The thing the liberals don’t like is that his biggest promise was to undo as much of what Obama had done as he legally could. This is, in my humble opinion, the biggest reason the liberals are dividing our country as much as they can with violent protests, cries of ‘Not my President,” and the most ludicrous of all: “Impeach Trump!” That last one was being screamed by the liberals everywhere in the country, including the Congress.

Yeah. Those soldiers that fought to keep our country together died in vain. The men that fought against the English in 1776 died in vain. Our servicemen and women who have fought in two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now all over the Middle East have all fought and died in vain.

The Founding Fathers set up an experimental government, one that had never been tried before; a democratic republic where the people were the owners of government, not the other way around. It was a government that was of, by and for the people. Could this type of governing endure the test of time and survive throughout the centuries? They hoped so. The Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to debate what kind of Constitution should be written, what to put in it, what rights, freedoms, responsibilities should be guaranteed and set as the Law of the Land. It took months to get it down on parchment so that everyone would be happy, albeit with a lot of compromise. Some representatives wanted to keep the tyrannical rule they had just fought to overcome while others wanted too much free rein.

In the end, after much debate, those men had down by ‘iron pen’ the Law of the Land and the 13 colonies agreed to it, thus creating the greatest nation on Earth. Now, 240 years later, because of the differences between parties, this once great nation is divided again. Only this time there is no debates, no compromising. All we have is divisiveness, hatred, intolerance and a lack of moral code. Abraham Lincoln’s famous speech has become nothing more than a bunch of words that were spoken over 143 years ago and the liberals don’t think it applies anymore any more than they believe the Constitution is set in stone instead of a ‘living document meant to adhere to the political ideology of whatever time period it is.”

I, for one, believe that it is time to go back to our roots of a common goal. The common goals of one nation, under God, indivisible, dedicated to freedom and equality of every citizen that resides within our borders and call themselves American. The common goal of patriotism, pride in being American, respect for our flag and all it stands for, gratitude to the men and women who have fought for, and in more cases than should be, died for our freedoms. To once again be that nation that is conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. The common goal of a country that cannot be defeated by any enemy, foreign or domestic, respected and feared by all other nations. To be America.