Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1933-11-08

LiuCulns sLhuuliS UU tile DdllicucIu UI
Gettysburg. made q speech of exactly
- 272 words that has been called "a clas-
sic which will endure as long as the
0c 3I English language Is spoken" And that
is one of the mildest tributes amid the
x shower of extravagant praise which
I'M has been lavished upon q speech In
which the speaker himself said THE
- world will little note nor long remem-
Der what we say here" thereby proving
himself a poor prophet indeed, no matter how
great he was In nearly every other respect.
SO much has been said about Lincoln's Gettys-
burg address and so much has been written
about 1t (includlng a 254-page book about a 272-
word speech y 1t would seem that we Americans.
who are proud TO claim this masterpiece OF mod
ern English eloquence as the product of one of
our own kind, would know everything about 1t
even down to the minutest detail. But It is prob
able that most Of us know little more about 1t
than the fact that Lincoln did deliver an Inn
mortal speech at Gettysburg a few months after
the battle, and we have a more or less clear re-
membrance of some of the phraseology Of the
speech, beginning with the sonorous -Four score
and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
upon this continent a new nation, conceived In
Liberty. and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal' and continuing to the
SANS thlhA8 " LndL EQfGA tlGIt vi III
people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the EARTH But beyond those things,
the average American knows very little about
some of the facts connected with the speech
which make it one of the most amazing para
doxes In history.
Most Americans know that Lincoln was some
thing of an "also ram so far as the choice Of the
committee In charge of the celebration at Get
tysburg that day was concerned. They remem-
Der that the honor of being the Orator of the
day" fell to Edward Everett and that his one
hour-and-hfty-minute speech has been forgotten,
while the three-minute speech of Lincoln seems
destined to Immortality. But even though Ever
ett's speech has been forgotten, how many of his
fellow-countrymen know that the man himself
was important enough In American history to de-
serve escaping the oblivion that has engulfed his
speech7 SO 1t seems worth while to devote a lit
tie space to him before continuing the narrative
of the event In which he played a leading part
even though the honors of the day went to an
other man.
Everett was born In Dorchester, Mass, april
IL, 1794, q member Of one of the leading antilles
of New England. After several years OF travel
In Germany and England he returned to this
country to occupy the chair of Greek literature
at Harvard and to become the editor of the
North American Review. One of the earliest ex-
amples of the scholar In politics. Everett be-
came successfully congressman, governor of
Massachusetts. minister plenlpotentiary to Eng
land and, after a brief interim as president of
Harvard, secretary of state In President Fill
more's cabinet.
But his chief claim to fame lies in his being a
vigorous champion Of American institutions when
1t was the fashion In Europe to sheer at our de-
mocracy, and an equally vigorous champion Of
honesty In public affairs and of social Justice.
Hs was a resolute opponent of white occupation
of Indian lands without the consent of the red
man. To him also was due the preservation of a
sound currency In the panic of 1887 and the es-
tablIshment of the first board OF education In the
United States. No mean record OF accomplish
msnt, this, and when there la added to them the
fact that at the time he was the greatest orator