November 4, 2024
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Did you know that not every version of this speech contains the words “under GOD?”
But this one – referred to as the “Bliss Copy,” is the one most often reproduced and recited, and the only one signed and dated by President Lincoln.
“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.”
Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863
Did you know that it wasn’t until 1954 that those words – “under GOD,” were added to our national pledge?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Listen to those words.
“one nation” – a united nation /
“under GOD” having faith in GOD /
“with liberty and justice for all” – personal freedom and fair treatment for all.
I think we need to be reminded of those words.
On February 7, 1954, with President Eisenhower sitting in Lincoln’s pew, at the church Lincoln had attended. The church’s pastor, George MacPherson Docherty, delivered a sermon based on the Gettysburg Address titled “A New Birth of Freedom.” He argued that the nation’s might lay not in arms but its spirit and higher purpose. He noted that the Pledge’s sentiments could be those of any nation, that “there was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life.” He cited Lincoln’s words “under God” as defining words that set the United States apart from other nations.
Somebody said that America is not any different or better than any other nation in the world. I beg to differ.
It will be a dark day if and / or when anyone tries to remove the words “under GOD” from the pledge.
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