The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1948-02-12

article By John W. Vance de-
scriptive of Lifcoln's Gettysburg
address appeared originally in
the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
It was bright day for Novembr
and the crowd that stood on the hill
side near the new graves rustled IN
comfortable appreciation as Edward
Everett doomed thru his polished
peroration.
The gaunt man in the black suit |
who sat restlessly on the platform
put on his spectacles, rustled his man
uscript nervously and waited for
Everett to finish. He knew the
people out yonder had not come to
hear hin-even the casualness of
his invitation showed him that-but
he wanted to get it over and get back
to Washington, to the White House
where hs son Tad was i'll and his wife
was having mysteries.
Everett, unbelievably, was done at
last after an hour and 81 minutes.
A voice said, as the gaunt man arose:
Ladies and gentlemen, the Presi-
dent of the United States"
Abraham Lincoln stepped forward
that afternoon on November 19, 1868,
spread his big feet slightly and look
ed at the crowd gathered for dedica-
tion of the cemetery at Gettysburg.
Speaks Slowly
He began to speak in the high,
thin, metallic voice which was his
} when he talked outdoors, voice too
small for his great body.
"Fourscore and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth on this conti-
nent a new nation, conceived IN lib
erty and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal.
"Now we are engaged in great
/, civil war, testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived and dedi-
Gated, can long endure. We are met
on great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion
of that field as final resting place
for those who here have faiien that
the nation might live. 1t is altogeth-
er fitting and proper that we should
do this.
p "But in a larger sense, we cannot
dedicate-we cannot conservative
. cannot hallow this ground. The brave
men, living and dead, who struggled
, here have consecrated it far above
our poor power to add or detract.
!, "The world will little note nor long
, remember what we saw here, but it
: can never forget what they did here.
! 1t is for us, the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work
which they who fought here have so
nobly advanced
at is rather for us to be here ded-
= icated to the great task remaining
before us-that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to
=. that cause for which they gave the
: last full measure of devotion-that
:, this nation, under God, shall have a
" new birth of freedom-and that the
government of the people, by the
people and for the people, shall not
perish from the earth"
f Crowd Merely Surprised
1t took less then three minutes for
him slowly to pronounce those 267
y words. There was some little crowd
: movement as he finished. You could
MT rightly call it applause.
Years later, people would say the
crowd was too greatly moved. But
the crowd wasn't. 1t was surprised
that he had quit when he should have
been just getting started. The news
g paper correspondents filed his speech
/ by telegraph at the end of their
: stories on the dedication. One or
V two of them, in friendly fashion in
t dicated applause where there had
It been none.
Lincoln went back to his train. He
V lay down on the seat with a wet
It towel over his eyes and his head.
G Why had he come, anyway? He
a didn't quite know. 1t had been a
hard summer, that summer Of 1863.
n The end Of The war was not in sight.
c He had thot it was, after Gettys-
8 burg in July, but Meade had fumbled.
q He conferred instead Of marching,
2 Still, good man, Meade, he had won
his battle. Not so much could be
q said for Rosecrans. He had dwadled
q the summer away, and then, two
months ago, had been badly mauled
h at Chickamauga, altho he was saved
e by Thomas.
s Politically, the future was dark
>. There were no volunteers for the
army now, and the draft had been
unpopular. There had been riots,
" Out in Indiana and the neighboring
states the Knights of the Golden Cir
T Gle had sprung up to aid the south
( and resist the draft.
l Not Very Popular
Z He was not a popular president
2 The very Abolitionists were turning
5 against him. They thought he should
7 have signed the EMANCIPATION procla-
4 nation sooner than he had. The
- Democrats were sure to nominate