Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

Abraham LincolnThe rhythms and pacings of the phrases in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Addressand in the last paragraph of The Second Inaugural Address, the repetitionsand restraints—never overwording or dwelling on sentiment—produce inhis listeners a throb of the heart, the very stuff itself of selfless dedicationwhich the mere meaning of the word can only coolly convey—a silence thatthunders.THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESSFour score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on thiscontinent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to theproposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether thatnation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have cometo dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for thosewho here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogetherfitting and proper that we should do this.But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we can not consecrate—wecan not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living anddead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poorpower to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long rememberwhat we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It isfor us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished workwhich they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It israther for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining beforeus—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to thatcause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that wehere highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—thatthis nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and thatgovernment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall notperish from the earth.THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, last paragraphWith malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness inthe right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish thework we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him whoshall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—todo all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace amongourselves, and with all nations.236