Happy Friday Otterites! Francis here again.
My original intention for today’s posting was to congratulate Robert on completing his NaNoWriMo journey. If you study fiction writing like we do, you’ll know that he has accomplished a rare and beautiful thing. Millions want to “have written” but never begin the journey beyond fantasizing about it, so to have a concrete accomplishment like getting 50,000 true words written (a little Hemingway there) is a fantastic thing. We raise a glass of Basil Hayden bourbon to Robert and will do so again when he finishes that first draft here shortly.
Today, however, is a very special day on the calendar, and one which deserves remembrance. On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave one of the most memorable speeches in human history – the Gettysburg Address. Schoolchildren still memorize these 272 words and they have been reprinted and idolized ever since that cool November day in Pennsylvania 158 years ago.
Lincoln worked for days on the text, writing most of it in Washington and not on the train to Gettysburg as the popular myth says, and he was not the headliner for the event. That dubious honor went to the well-known orator Edward Everett, who famously spoke for two hours and whose words are essentially forgotten today. Indeed, Everett’s biggest contribution to history is that he preceded Lincoln and gave a long, boring-ass speech, even though such a length was common and expected at the time.
The story is still told that Lincoln himself thought the address a failure at the time, supposedly telling his bodyguard Ward Laman when he sat down after giving it, “That speech won’t scour”, referring to a plow that would not turn over dirt properly. The accuracy of that story is debated today, although Laman stood by if throughout his lifetime. The truth, it seems, just like Lincoln himself in Edwin M. Stanton‘s words at Lincoln’s deathbed, belongs to the Ages.
Lincoln’s speech is a sublime work of brevity and power, profundity and emotion, patriotism and grief all rolled together into something magical. Lincoln’s voice was high and his Kentucky accent noticeable but his skill at rhythmic delivery and strategic pauses, inflections and emphases won over the crowd that day. He was interrupted by applause five times during his speech of just over two minutes.
And the beauty of all this, as we Snakes and Otters guys always remind everyone, is in the craft. Lincoln wrote this speech himself and by his mastery of words and the emotions brought about by their skillful arrangement and delivery, it has stood the test of time as one of the greatest American compositions ever put on paper. (There are five existing copies of the address in Lincoln’s hand, although each one is slightly different from the others and from the final version given.)
No posting about the Gettysburg Address would be complete without a performance of it, and one of the very best was done by actor Jeff Daniels in conjunction with the 1993 movie Gettysburg, (one of our favorites) where Daniels played Union General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.
