One hundred and fifty-six years ago today, on Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered an address at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., that is as stirring a call for reflection and action in the 21st-century United States as it was in the 19th. Using a mere 272 words and lasting all of two minutes, the 16th president evoked the meaning and purpose of America In the midst of a deadly Civil War that has particular relevance to today’s polarized, diminished and adrift America under President Trump.
The context of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address underscores its relevance. Union armies had defeated the Confederates four months earlier in the decisive Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest in the Civil War. Haunted by grief at the war’s toll, Lincoln nevertheless saw himself as the guardian of the nation’s soul in abolishing slavery and preserving the republic. He warned the gathering of 15,000 that the Civil War — which would last for another 17 months — was testing whether the nation that was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal … can long endure.”
Yet the nation had to endure even if the war was threatening to tear it apart. “We are met on a great battlefield of that war,” said Lincoln. “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.” Evoking transcendent words like liberty, dedicate, consecrate, hallow, devotion, birth, freedom and God, Lincoln rallied the Union forces to persevere until the Confederates surrendered and the nation could emerge intact and stronger. He was also using the moral force of his presidency to put principle over privilege, pluralism over tribalism.
America has fallen far since Trump took the oath of office in 2016 through his solipsism and his brazen acts to preempt and pervert the constitution. While the list is long, the words he uses at rallies and in tweets to attack individuals and institutions opposing his maleficence indicate the extent of his transgressions: fake, suck, savages, shifty, liar, lowlife, human scum, go back.
Yet we also hear the echo of Lincoln’s message of duty, honor and warning in the words of public servants speaking out against Trump and his cabal. One such is Marie Yovanovitch, former ambassador to Ukraine, forced out for refusing to play along with Trump’s foreign policy shenanigans. In her deposition to the House impeachment investigators, she said: “I have served this nation honorably for more than 30 years. I, like my colleagues at the State Department, have always believed that we enjoyed a sacred trust with our government. We frequently put ourselves in harm’s way to serve this nation. And we do that willingly, because we believe in America and its special role in the world. We also believe that our government will protect us if we come under attack from foreign interests. That basic understanding no longer holds true.”
As we prepare to vote in the presidential election in less than a year, we should remember the concluding words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address containing the most profound definition of democracy: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Donald Trump is determined to turn the United States into a “government of me, by me, for me.” On Nov. 3, 2020, we will vote not only for candidates but also for the heart, mind and soul of America, for truth, accountability and rule of law so that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Hasan Zillur Rahim is a professor of mathematics and statistics at San Jose City College.
