The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-02-09
BRAHAM LINCoLN,s Gettysburg ad.

rostrums of the centers of learning the Gettysburg
address has been repeated times without number
and doubtless will continue TO be as long as the
spirit of democracy lives on.
Yet, with the strangely limited view of those at
hand, the great address was considered a failure by
many at the time it was delivered. Lincoln him
self believed that he had failed to speak anything
worthy of the occasion and was greatly doWncast.
The sense of his failure at such a momentous event
added no little to the intolerable burdens that
weighed upon him in 1863.
The daily newspapers Of the North generally
took little notice of Lincolus words at Gettysburg,
but were lavish in their praise of the long address
delivered by Edward Everett, the great Boston
orator, on the same occasion. The Patriot and
Union, an Influential newspaper published at Har-
risburg, Pa with an ability for misiudgment al
most beyond all belief, said Of the address:
"The president succeeded on this occasion be-
cause he acted without sense and without con-
straint in a panorama that was gotten up for the
benefit of his party more than for the glory of the
Nation and the honor of the dead. We pass
over the silly remarks of the president, for the
credit of the Nation we are willing that the veil of
oblivion be dropped over them and that they shall
no more be repeated or thought Of"
Even the usually keen-visioned John Hay, then
Mr.. Lincoln's assistant secretary, erred In his judg-
ment of the comparative Importance of the adj
dresses made that November day at Gettysburg.
Said Hay In his diary:
Everett spoke, as he always does, perfectly;
and the president, in a firm, free way, with more
grace than is his wont, said his half dozen lines of
conservation"
In Mr.. Hays mind, as in the minds of nearly all
present, Edward Everett's address overshadowed
all else ON the program. Yet who today remembers
a half dozen lines of the two-hour long speech
made by the Massachusetts orator?
Edward Everett, almost alone Of all the thou
SANDS who had gathered at Gettysburg that doy.
caught the deathless purport of the presidents
words. He wrote to Mr.. Lincoln a congratulatory
note, saying:
Il should be glad if 1 could fatter myself that I
came as near TO the central idea of the occasion in
my two hours as you did in two minutes"
Even this praise from the man who was consid-
cred the master speaker of his day did not wholly
convince Mr.. Lincoln that his own utterances had
not fallen short. In his reply to Mr.. Everett he
said:
In our respective parts yesterday you could not
nave been excused to make n short address, nor 1
a lorg one. l am pleased to know that. in your
Judgment, the little l did say was not entirely a
failure"
There Is every evidence that the president wrote
his address hurriedly and at the scant moments
of leisure given him In those troubled DAYS. That
he did not complete 1t until a few hours before it
was delivered is certain. In fact, he did not know
until about two weeks before the date that he
was expected to talk at all. The committee that
had charge OF the arrangements for the consecra-
ton of the national cemetery at Gettysburg asked
MT everett a long time In advance and had post
poned the date of the conservation from October
10 to November 10 at Mr.. Everett's request.
David Wills. q public-spirited citizen of Gettys-
burg and the originator of the idea of a national
cemetery there, wrote to President Lincoln on'No-
vember 2, six weeks after MI. Everett had been in.
vited to speak, as follows:
"The states having soldiers who were killed at
Gettysburg have procured grounds on a prominent
part of the field for n cemetery and are having
the dead removed to them and properly buried.
These grounds will be consecrated and set apart
to this sacred purpose by appropriate ceremonies
on the 10Th. Hon. Edward Everett will deliver the
Grafton. l am authorized by the governors of the
different states to invite you to be present and par
ticipate In these ceremonies, which will be very
imposing end solemnly impressive. 1t is the de
sire that, after the Grafton, you, as chief executive,
Pet apart these, grounds to their sacred use by a
rev appropriate remarks. . :"