MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
and seven
years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation,
conceived in
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 here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it 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 can never forget what they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. 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 here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html
The Gettysburg Address is one of my favorite documents, timeless and so reflective of the values I treasure as an American.
Lefty and TheraP, asked me to post an essay concerning this masterpiece of American Literature and since it is one subject that I can never shut up about, I agreed.
Where did this come from? What made
My favorite book on this subject is by Garry Wills. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. Touchstone Books, 1993.
There are tomes on this subject, really. Hundreds. I take most of my ideas from Wills.
Take a look at the first
few words of the speech. This is 1863. The Constitution of the
Or what about Plymouth Rock
or
and seven refers to one thing and one thing only (although poetically many things), and that is the Declaration of Independence:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life,
"All men are created equal comes from the Declaration of
...that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
And from whence did
The new birth refers to the time of the Declaration as the time of our
birth. And as the Declaration provides, it is the right of the people to alter
or abolish that government. So
It all fits so neatly. Why a hundred books must be dedicated to such a simple concept, is beyond me.
The Declaration of Independence carried no legal applications, then or
now. Yet
THE DECLARATION IS YOUR DOCUMENT, TAKE TIME AND READ IT, not just translations by experts. http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm.
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS IS YOUR DOCUMENT, TAKE TIME AND READ IT, not just translations by experts. http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION IS YOUR DOCUMENT, TAKE TIME AND READ IT, not just translations from experts. http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/text.html
As a direct result of the deaths of over 600,000 soldiers and of
AMENDMENT XIII
Passed by Congress
Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment.
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Passed by Congress
Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment.
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the
Passed by Congress
Section 1.
The right of citizens of the
Section 2.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html
It is only through the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
that the Bill of Rights, discussed by TheraP apply to all individuals citizens
and cannot be contravened by the States or other local governments. It took a hundred years to put these rights into our hands. I suppose nothing happens over night.
And in the 14th Amendment, the words: ...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
You see now the connection between the Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg Address and the 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution.
THESE ARE YOUR DOCUMENTS, NOT JUST THE DOCUMENTS OF JUDGES, LAWYERS OR POLITICIANS.
THE END.