The Pueblo Chieftain
Page 4B Friday, May 13, 2011
!Pueblo, Colorado
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address recalled
There was no cheering
or clapping following one
of the most memorable
presidential speeches in
American history.
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was short
— only two minutes long
— and was delivered like
an invocation.
“It came out more like a
prayer than a speech and
you don’t applaud after a
prayer,” James Humes, a
noted author and former
presidential speech writer,
told a crowd of 35 Wednesday gathered at the Center
for American Values.
Humes’ presentation
was titled, “Abe Please
Don’t Go to Gettysburg!
The Inside Story of the
there’s no picture of it,”
Humes said. “But the very
brevity of the talk,
enhanced its beauty. Yet it
took a shot in a theater, a
showdown at Appomattox
and the freeing of a million
slaves to make the Gettysburg Address eternal.”
Lincoln relied heavily
on Bible verses in authoring his speech, which his
family pleaded with him to
not deliver. There had
been several recent deaths
in Lincoln’s family, Humes
said, and at the time of the
speech Lincoln’s son was
ill with a 103-degree fever.
Still, Lincoln wanted to
go and he worked tirelessly at finding the right
words for the event,
Humes said.
“He wrote seven drafts.
Lincoln wanted majestic
words, so he used words
from the King James version of the Bible.”
Humes said the part,
“Brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty . . .”
comes from passages in
Genesis, and the ending
“shall not perish from the
earth” comes from
Proverbs.
‘‘He used (‘shall not perish from the earth’) for
impact. What he was saying was that if we as Americans don’t adhere to its
values . . . We will die as a
nation,’’ Humes said.
Also at the event, the
Center for American Values gave out its HIP (Honor, Integrity and Patriotism) Awards to local
students. Winners
included:
First: Bryan Romer,
Centennial High School,
for his project, “Not Everyone Can Be a Hero.”
Second: Bradley Davenport, Centennial, for his
project “Hero.”
Honorable mentions:
Erin Bogard, Centennial,
“Jay Vargas and My Mother: One in the Same;”
Chelsea Canada, Centennial, “My Hero;” Ryan
Patterson, Centennial,
“Medal of Honor;” and
Kaylene Khosla, Roncalli
Middle School, for “The
Cost of Serving Your
Country.”
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Gettysburg
Address.”
Lincoln’s
f a m o u s
words on
Nov. 19, 1863,
on the Pennsylvania
g r o u n d
where 51,000 James
A m e r i c a n s Humes
died in the decisive battle
of the Civil War, caught
those in attendance by
surprise.
For one, Lincoln’s
address at the national
cemetery dedication followed a two-hour speech
by Massachusetts politician
Edward Everett, the event’s
orator.
“It was so short, the
photographers weren’t
even ready. That’s why
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THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
2116315
By NICK BONHAM