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The Fourth of July and the Gettysburg Address
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July 02, 2009 | 12:35 PM
A few weeks ago I attended a Memorial Day service that included a middle school student reading Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address with its beginning phrase, "Four score and seven years ago." I was reminded that soon our nation would also be celebrating the year 1776 and its Declaration of
Independence.
For Lincoln, however, 1776 was not about independence. Rather, this was the year when "our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." It was not until I read Garry Wills' "Lincoln at Gettysburg" that I came to appreciate the audacity of that statement and how its acceptance by the American people "remade America," to quote the subtitle of that volume.
Usually we think of 1787 as the year that Americans joined together to form a united nation, that being the year when the Constitution was ratified by the "free and independent states," to quote the Declaration. For Lincoln, however, the country was born in 1776 when "our fathers brought forth" a nation dedicated to the ideal of equality. Lincoln saw the Constitution adopted in 1787 as a necessary but flawed document tainted by its countenance of slavery. Now, Lincoln told the crowd at Gettysburg, the civil war was "testing" whether "any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
Lincoln's critics pounded on the speech for its historical and legal flaws, pointing out that the Constitution affirmed the practice of slavery, did not mention equality and that Lincoln had sworn to uphold that document.
But, Wills concludes, their arguments were no match for Lincoln's eloquence, and Americans' understanding of their heritage came to be guided by Lincoln's interpretation. The adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868 with its "equal protection" clause was a logical consequence.
Today, as the Senate examines the judicial philosophy of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, it is useful to recall that even Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who insists that the Court must interpret the Constitution guided by "the original intent of the framers," includes as "framers" the authors of the Declaration.
Howard Scarrow is a political science professor emeritus at Stony Brook University. He writes an occasional column on the political scene.
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