In the first week of November of 1863, President Lincoln received an invitation to attend the dedication of the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and to, “as Chief Executive of the nation, formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.” The main speaker for the dedication was to be Edward Everett, the famed orator from Massachusetts.

Lincoln accepted the invitation at once, as he had been looking for an opportunity, since the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg the previous summer, to speak about the purpose of the war, to highlight the central importance of the words in the Declaration of Independence as guidance for the young Republic, to acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of fallen soldiers who “gave the last full measure of devotion” in a noble cause, and to ask the present and future generations to rededicate themselves to “the unfinished work” that remained. In the afternoon, on November 19, 1863, after the conclusion of Everett’s two-hour oration, Lincoln delivered “a few appropriate remarks,” a two-minute speech, that soon become known throughout the world as the Gettysburg Address.

Lincoln began the Gettysburg Address using metaphors of birth and making it clear that the new nation was formed with the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “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 were created equal.” But as Lincoln stood before the crowd at Gettysburg, he didn’t know whether, after three years of bloody civil war, the young Republic or any government based on the consent of the governed would survive. He knew that throughout history a long list of Republics had eventually succumbed to anarchy and despotism. He continued: “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

Although the main purpose of the event was to dedicate the cemetery at Gettysburg, he told his listeners that “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.” He modestly added that, “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

The direction of the speech then turned to the obligations of the present and future generations: “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.” Lincoln asked 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.”

One hundred and thirty-nine years later, we are fortunate in the fact that we, unlike Lincoln’s generation, don’t face the prospect of a bloody civil war and we live in one of the most resilient and long-lasting Republics that the world has ever known. We certainly should count our blessings. But should we be satisfied? Shouldn’t we strive to create “a more perfect Union?” I believe that we, and every generation that follows us, has a solemn obligation to continually work to ensure that we do, in fact, in the fullest sense, have “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

As we celebrate Lincoln’s birthday in a few days and get ready to vote in the March 5th election, I think it’s a good time to ask ourselves whether our elected officials and their challengers are dedicated to solving public policy problems and improving the process in which decisions are made.

In my observation, the central challenge that we face is that the infection of money and the quest for personal power by elected officials is slowly poisoning what should be a noble and open process. I have seen too often the once-vaunted courage and independence of a legislator shrink and disappear once a particular special interest group takes a position on a bill. I have seen entrenched incumbents use their campaign funds to build vast political machines for the sole purpose of building -- as did Caesar-- a Praetorian Guard of those who will be anointed and placed in power. And before you know it, there are no more candidate debates and it takes a $1,000 political contribution to see your “representative.” Lincoln wouldn’t have put up with this erosion of our cherished institutions.

When I step into the voter’s booth on March 5th, I will make my choices based on which candidates are working on “the unfinished work” of building “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Copyright 2002 The Auburn Sentinel