Lincoln was asked simply to make some dedicatory remarks, and i think he saw this as an opportunity. The declaration of independence can widely be interpreted and seen as a much more radical document than the constitution. It allows the states to reopen the transatlantic slave trade until 18 o eight. And lincoln is harking back to that original document, saying, our founding fathers pisale,. written by thomas jefferson, who, of course, was a slave owner er. This is the sort of ideal we should be thinking back and this is a continuity of what we're doing.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, ten sentences long, delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg after the Union forces had won an important battle with the Confederates. Opening with " Four score and seven years ago," it became one of the most influential statements of national purpose, asserting that America was "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Among those inspired were Martin Luther King Jr whose "I have a dream" speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial 100 years later, echoed Lincoln's opening words.
With
Catherine Clinton
Denman Chair of American History at the University of Texas and International Professor at Queen's University, Belfast
Susan-Mary Grant
Professor of American History at Newcastle University
And
Tim Lockley
Professor of American History at the University of Warwick
Producer: Simon Tillotson.