11/19/2024
Today marks the 161st anniversary of the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, on November 19, 1863. On that date, President Lincoln delivered his famed Gettysburg Address, reminding a weary nation that the victory at Gettysburg was part of a broader war to secure freedom and democracy for all.
100 years after Lincoln's famed speech, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the former President of the United States, was the keynote speaker for the centennial commemoration of the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1963. Eisenhower used his remarks to highlight the same message which Lincoln gave a century before, noting:
"We read Lincoln’s sentiments, we ponder his words - the beauty of the sentiments he expressed enthralls us; the majesty of his words holds us spellbound - but we have not paid to his message its just tribute until we - ourselves - live it. For well he knew that to live for country is a duty, as demanding as is the readiness to die for it. So long as this truth remains our guiding light, self-government in this nation will never die."
"True to democracy’s basic principle that all are created equal and endowed by the Creator with priceless human rights, the good citizen now, as always before, is called upon to defend the rights of others as he does his own; to subordinate self to the country’s good; to refuse to take the easy way today that may invite national disaster tomorrow; to accept the truth that the work still to be done awaits his doing."
(Eisenhower NHS Image: General Eisenhower stands on a podium, surrounded by seated dignitaries, facing a large crowd seated in front of him)
