Trying to stay ahead of the news spin today!!! Some news services are reporting that the President omitted the words Under God from his recitation of the Gettysburg address at the remembrance of the 150th anniversary of the battle... Abby Ohilheiser reports that the President was reading from the speech as prepared by President Lincoln in first draft, at the request of Ken Burns who asked several people including Bill OReilly to read from the various drafts of the speech for this special film project... She reports, ...its categorically not accurate to say that Obama removed or left out the words from his recitation. Thats because there are five different copies of the Gettysburg Address penned by Lincoln himself. Three of them, versions of the speech provided by Lincoln to various fundraisers after he delivered the speech, include the phrase under God. Those are the Everett Copy, the Bancroft Copy, and the Bliss copy. The two manuscripts believed to be written down in preparation for the speech itself omit it. Obama was reading from one of those two earlier versions, the Nicolay Copy, better known as the first draft. The projects website now clarifies that Obama read the Nicolay copy at the request of filmmaker Ken Burns, in part because of the speechs historical significance. Its one of two manuscripts of the speech held by the Library of Congress. Here it is: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon 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 come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. 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 hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here. It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, 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. The remaining version that omits under God is the Hay Copy, which the Gettysburg Foundation pegs as probably the closest in phrasing to what Lincoln actually said. It was either written down just before or just after the speech itself. Many of the Burns projects participants, however, read from the Bliss copy, which is undoubtedly the most popular of the five. That copy is in the Lincoln Bedroom. The Bliss version reads: 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. No one really knows what the exact version of Lincolns brief speech was that day. Plus, Lincoln intentionally revised and refined the speech after its actual delivery for future use. But there is some evidence that he added the words under God into the finale on the fly: as the AP notes, three newswires of the speech included it in their versions. Thats enough for many experts to posit that Lincoln said those words, and added them to the record later.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 22:36:49 +0000
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