Gettysburg 1863: Gettysburg Address

It begins with the search for hallowed ground, the exact place from which Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. In bleak November, Kent Gramm makes a pilgrimage to the most famous battleground in American history and over the course of a month transforms his search into a discovery of the meaning of Lincoln's elegy for America's identity. For Gramm, the century that began with Lincoln's address and ended with the assassinations of the 1960s saw the destruction of the 'modern' world and with it America's sense of purpose. The book reflects on the November anniversaries of public events such as the Armistice that ended World War One, Kristallnacht, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the death of C. S. Lewis, the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and the publication of Robert F. Kennedy's To Seek a Newer World, and also on private events in Gramm's family history, provide the occasions for Gramm's meditations on public and private heroism, on modernism's hopes and postmodern despair. In November, he asks us to seek a path toward the 'new birth of freedom' that Lincoln envisioned at Gettysburg. "The month begins with things that perish. But ultimately, November is a journey of hope, as was Lincoln's journey to Gettysburg. So too I will journey to Gettysburg in these pages. Like Lincoln's fellow citizens, I go there to assuage personal grief, to find answers; and I hope, for me as for them, that my personal sorrows become a vehicle for larger answers and a larger purpose. Lincoln addressed their grief, why not mine; he gave his generation purpose, why not ours."

The "House Divided" speech helped to win Lincoln the presidency; the Gettysburg Address made him an icon. How did Lincoln come to speak the words that would change a nation? Analyzing the ideas and rhetoric in these two crucial speeches, Carl F. Wieck argues that the radical abolitionist movement exerted a significant influence on Lincoln's thought and moral development. One of the most famous phrases in the Gettysburg Address—"government of the people, by the people, for the people"—was previously associated with Unitarian minister and radical abolitionist Theodore Parker, and Wieck argues that Lincoln's debt to Parker extends far beyond borrowing these few words. Establishing a clear connection between Lincoln and Parker through their mutual friend and Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon, Wieck traces the similarities between Lincoln's key speeches and the philosophy, rhetoric, logic, and ideas found in writings by Parker and other abolitionists. Ever the cautious politician, Lincoln sought to hide his intellectual and personal connections to the maligned and unpopular abolitionists. The usefulness of such subterfuge became apparent when, after John Brown's attempt to incite a slave revolt, Lincoln could truthfully state that he had no direct contact with radical abolitionists. In the meantime, Lincoln not only drew from Parker's abolitionist propaganda but also was influenced by Daniel Webster, a fervent nationalist who had advocated compromise over slavery in order to preserve the Union. Combining these seemingly contradictory political traditions, Lincoln created a contested middle position that ultimately brought him to the White House. Tracing the Great Emancipator's political ideology from the antebellum era and culminating at Gettysburg, Lincoln's Quest for Equality sheds new light on the intellectual development of the president who reshaped American political culture.