QotD: Presidential Attributes
What makes a good President of the United States?
There is a lot of emotion that goes into my answer for this. I truly believe in our political system and desire very much for it to work in our lives, our families and our hearts. On Sunday I read the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln gave these dedicatory remarks after over two hours of oration by the famed speaker Edward Everett. President Lincoln was asked to give a few brief remarks to dedicate the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg Pennsylvania.
The battle at Gettysburg was both grand and bloody. No foreign foe was being driven back in this battle. Over 160,000 American soldiers, brothers, fought each other intensely for causes rooted deep in their hearts. over 7,500 were left in the trampled meadows of Gettysburg. This decisive battle broke open the path to Union success.
This battle was epic. Yes, there have been greater battles both before and since but few with such ideology interred in its rubble. This is the epic scene that was the background and seting for President Abraham Lincolns now iconic address. Lincoln stood at the dedication cermony as the President of the United States of America. If ever "United" had carried so much meaning in our name it was then. Lincoln knew however, that with the scarring effects and emotions of the civil war still smoldering in the ashes of the country the task of uniting the great states was long from over. The battle of states rights vs. federal power continued for many years and arguably will persist forever.
I believe President Abraham Lincoln is one of the best presidents we have had and will ever have. Who can argue with that. I believe this because I believe that he belived in what he said that fall day. He understood what it meant to be American. Not in a patriotic way but in a recognition of the solemn blessing, opportunity and responsibility of the American ideology.
This type of Conviction is what I expect from an American President. Not just in speech or in rhetoric but in action and in the heart.
Take a minute to read the Presidents address. It is only 10 sentences, 272 words, but it contains some of hte most influential and governing principles of American doctrine
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 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. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—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.
Comments
Lovely, well expressed thoughts, Wells.
I had an "at home day" today...an open house/open invitation to anyone who wanted to stop by. I made a birthday cake for George Washington. Kai was so excited about this. (It was a cherry pecan pound cake, from a colonial recipe). He insisted we sing happy birthday. It was actually quite sweet.