Lincoln also sought a religious counce when he himself experienced the death of his children. Mary l Lincoln had begged him not to go to gettysburg, because there was an echo of his son falling ill which reminded her of their son willie in 18 62. He received a telegram late at night saying his son was doing better. So i think he went on his journey to get sburg against the wishes of his family, worrying about his own child. And his son was restored. But it could have brought him back to the echoes of trying to comfort those who were dealing with loss and sadness.
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.