Can We Keep It Going?
American Documents, #20
2026 is America’s 250th birthyear. To celebrate, I’m highlighting 50+ significant American documents from our history. So far I have covered The Mayflower Compact, Patrick Henry’s Speech, The Lee Resolution, The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Treaty of Paris, the Virginia Plan, The Northwest Ordinance, The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Louisiana Purchase, the Star-Spangled Banner, the Monroe Doctrine, the Indian Removal Act, the Knickerbocker Baseball Club rules. and Lincoln’s ‘House Divided’ Speech, the Emancipation Proclamation, Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address, the Appomattox Surrender Letters and the Homestead Act.
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This’ll be the last of the Civil War-era documents for the year; we’re through the election cycles in Electoral Brawlage, and we’ve got some great documents on deck, but I couldn’t rightly close this chapter without the Gettysburg Address.
When Words Don’t Matter
The Battle of Gettysburg took place from July 1-3 in 1863, more than two years into the Civil War. Around 33,000 men were wounded and 7,000-8,000 died, including from their injuries in the coming days. Although the war would grind onward for almost another two years, Gettysburg when when the North finally started to stack wins against the South.
Four months after the battle, Lincoln arrived to deliver a brief speech—less than 300 words—that captured the true meaning of the battle in the larger context of the American experiment. Truly it is an experiment, an ongoing one, and it has been altered over the years, even modified in some ways contrary to its original design; nevertheless, the experiment was constructed by wise and sober men who then handed it off to their descendants to see if “government of the people, by the people, for the people” could endure.
As beautiful as the language of the address is, Lincoln knew that his words meant nothing when compared to the loss of life that hallowed the battlefield. Every life spent in the pursuit of the nation’s continuity is either an investment or a waste; “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
We, as inheritors of the experiment, have the responsibility placed upon us to decide whether their lives were spent successfully or in vain. To succeed in this we have to understand our origins and live up to the vision of our Founders.
We get to enjoy the world that many of them died to build. Protect it. Grow it. Don’t piss it away. I may very well never tire of writing this theme into my work.
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