Tuesday, November 20, 2007

144 years ago yesterday

Brad Delong's blog reminds me that this was spoken:



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.


Gary Wills' book on the Gettysburg Address is among my all-time favorites. Lincoln used the occasion to replace the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence as the document that declared our principles (as opposed to out legal structure). We have been better as a country ever since. The Declaration declared that all men are created equal, while the Constitution as is existed at that time condoned slavery. It was only when the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments came into being that our laws began to match our aspirations.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

David lindahl scam reports that the most common way to buy a property with no money down is to use owner financing. This occurs when the current owner agrees to finance either all or some part of the purchase price, instead of getting the cash now.
You’ll be surprised how many people own their properties free and clear, and are willing to finance the entire amount or a good portion of the mortgage. Usually, though, you will be getting secondary financing from the owner. That means you will get the majority of the money from another source, like a bank, and the seller will give you the rest in the form of a second mortgage.