Abraham Lincoln's Address Following the Battle of Gettysburg

In the words of H.L. Mencken, "The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history.... It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense" (quoted by Charles Adams, When in the Course of Human Events [2000], page 198). More to the point, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is one of the best examples of propaganda to ever have been foisted upon the American people. That it has survived for so long in the popular opinion as a speech of great statesmanship aptly demonstrates the power which words, however speciously strung together, have to effect the emotions and minds of those who hear them.

The only photograph taken of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.

However, the Address, when delivered on 19 November 1863, did not receive the admiring reception by its original audience as it does in our day. In fact, some evidence exists that the now-familiar words contained in what we know as the Gettysburg Address were not actually spoken by Lincoln on that day in Pennsylvania. Ward Lamon, who was a close companion of Lincoln during his years as President and who sat beside him on the platform, testified that the Address "is not the speech Mr. Lincoln made at Gettysburg.... I state it as a fact and without fear of contradiction, that this Gettysburg speech was not regarded as a production of extraordinary merit, nor was it commented on as such until after the death of Mr. Lincoln." He then recalled Lincoln's words to him after he had delivered the speech and resumed his seat: "Lamon, that speech was like a wet blanket on the audience. I am distressed about it" (Recollections of Abraham Lincoln [1895], page 173). John Nicolay, who was Lincoln's personal secretary during the war also said of the speech that "it was revised" (A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln [1911]). continued...

Why Is Heritage Defense Important?

Immediately following the events of the War for Southern Independence, the Southern States (the former States of the Confederacy) went into a period of Reconstruction, which is commonly said to have lasted until 1876. This is because that is the time when the actual federal troops were removed from the Southern States. Prior to that time, the Southern States were imposed to martial law, and a rule by the federal army.

During the period of time that the South was under direct Reconstruction (with the actual presence of federal troops), the Southern people were subjected to heavy abuses in the Northern-controlled Congress. In addition to confiscatory taxation rates, which fully benefited Northern interests at the expense of the Southern people, there were also strict rules concerning former Confederate high-ranking officials. Those who were in the Confederate government could no longer serve in elected positions, nor could they even vote.

Meanwhile, during this same time period, there were restrictions on depictions of the Confederacy. For instance, it was routine that men wearing Confederate army jackets were arrested. Also, flags used by the Confederacy were expressly forbidden. This was all a heavy-handed attempt by the Northern-controlled government to replace the Southern people’s devotion to the Confederacy (and the causes for which they fought) with a new reverence for the symbols of the United States (the very government that these people had chosen to separate themselves from).

While the federal troops were there, constant venom was spewed by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner (among others of their ilk) against the Southern people. These people had an unhidden hatred for the South and their customs, and could not understand why the Southern people held so hard onto what they believed in—including their devotion to the Confederacy, its symbols and flags, and its former leaders. Stevens and the other radical Republican leaders in Congress raged at the fact that the Southern people would give up their heritage, no matter how oppressive the federal government’s Reconstruction programs were on them. continued...

That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression. - Alabama State Constitution

The South's Burden: The Curse of Sectionalism
by Benjamin Franklin Grady
originally published in 1906
paperback; 167 pages

The devastation of the Southern Confederacy in 1865, the imperious and aggressive demeanor of its conquerors, and the submissive spirit dictated by the prudence of their victims, conferred upon the winning side almost a monopoly of the book market. For over a century, the so-called "histories" have magnified the virtues of the North and the imperfections of the South and have misrepresented the facts behind their historical animosities. The author of this little book seeks to set the record straight on such subjects as slavery, secession, Andersonville prison, and the true character of Abraham Lincoln. order...

The bicentennial observance of the birth of Confederate President Jefferson F. Davis will take place throughout this year, with the highlight being the reopening of Beauvoir, his final home, in Gulfport, Miss., on June 3. The magnificent Southern shrine, which survived a pre-emptive strike by Hurricane Camille in 1969, was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The cost of the restoration is expected to exceed $4.1 million for the house alone; the total restoration will run about $20 million, and donations are still being accepted. The reopening ceremonies will feature a keynote address by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. more...

The Sons of Confederate Veterans have declared 2008, the "Year of Jefferson Davis." Remembrance events will include the re-opening of "Beauvoir" on Jefferson Davis' 200th birthday---June 3, 2008. This was Davis' last home that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum will be rebuilt and re-open about two years after the house. Beauvoir is located on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. See more at: www.beauvoir.org more...

In the midst of the Civil War centennial in 1962, the South Carolina legislature voted the Confederate flag up to the dome of the Statehouse, adding to a long list of indelicately handled commemorations across the nation highlighting racial divides and old resentments. With about three and a half years until the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, state history buffs are gearing up for the bevy of historic milestones from 2011 to 2015 tied to the bloody four-year conflict. more...

1864: U.S. General William Tecumseh Sherman orders the evacuation of Atlanta, Georgia.

Northern anti-slavery books and novels were generally compiled and written by people who had never seen for themselves the atrocities they described with such vivid detail. George Lunt noted that "very few of those who thus drew upon their imaginations for their descriptions and illustrations had ever stepped an inch over Mason and Dixon's line.... When they discoursed upon this subject they dilated upon what might have been, in other nations and other times, as if it were applicable to our own citizens and our own day" (Origin of the Late War [New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1866], page 182). The testimony of eye-witnesses was quite different from that of these fanatical visionaries. Kenneth Stampp, by no means a pro-Southern historian, wrote, "Visitors often registered surprise at the social intimacy that existed between masters and slaves in certain instances" (The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956], page 323). For example, James S. Buckingham, an Abolitionist from Great Britain who toured the Southern States in 1839, stated, "...[T]he prejudice of color is not nearly so strong in the South as in the North. It is not at all uncommon to see the black slaves of both sexes, shake hands with white people when they meet, and interchange friendly personal inquiries; but at the North I do not remember to have witnessed this once; and neither in Boston, New York, or Philadelphia would white persons generally like to be seen shaking hands and talking familiarly with blacks on the streets" (The Slave States of America [London: Fisher, Son and Company, 1841], Volume II, page 112). Ironically, the most devastating rebuttal of Abolitionist anti-slavery propaganda to be published in the Nineteenth Century was written by one of their own number — A Southside View of Slavery (Boston: T.R. Marvin and B.B. Mussey and Company, 1854), by Nehemiah Adams. After touring the South for three months in 1854, what Adams found was a well-ordered society in which the Negroes were mainly content, well-cared for by their masters, and even evangelized.

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