Gettysburg At 150

From USA Today:
"150th anniversary of Gettysburg Address draws thousands"

The site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War was host to a solemn tribute to history Tuesday as thousands gathered in Gettysburg, Pa., to mark the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Lincoln's iconic speech came four months after a fierce, three-day battle in July 1863 left more than 7,000 soldiers dead and 40,000 wounded. Rolling farm fields were turned into graveyards, and Lincoln's visit was part of the ceremonies dedicating the Soldiers' National Cemetery. The area remains home to Gettysburg National Cemetery and Gettysburg National Military Park.  The event Tuesday on a sunny but chilly morning included naturalization ceremonies led by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for 16 new citizens. Scalia, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and National Park Service Director John Jarvis were among those presenting memorial wreaths. Jewell drew applause for promising to keep her speech as short as Lincoln's two-minute oration, adding that his words "remind us of what it means to be an American." "Lincoln's words stand at the vortex of our national consciousness," Jewell told the crowd. "Hearing them, we are reminded of the sacrifice of so many for freedom." Casey said the nation must recommit itself to unfinished business. "The cause then was the Civil War and the future of the country," Casey said. Today's causes, he said, must include "increased devotion to our veterans." In 1963, Martin Luther King, kicking off his "I Have a Dream" speech before a crowd of 250,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, noted that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect "five score years ago." The phrase invoked the Gettysburg Address, whose words were etched into the interior of the monument just a few steps behind the civil rights icon. The address includes the line, "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here" — and that may have rung true back then. It was ridiculed at first in some prominent quarters: The Chicago Times, for one, cited "silly, flat and dish-watery utterances."

^ I have always wanted to go to the Gettysburg Battlefield in PA. It's nice that a speech that most didn't think would be great as withstood for 150 years. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/19/gettysburg-address-anniversary/3641483/