Gettysburg Address Reflection

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Throughout the length of this course, I’ve come to realize the global impact of many documents that I perceived only affected the country in which they were written, and on the off-hand chance, would be spread to countries that were “overcome” or allied by the country. The idea that so many of the events that have occurred in our country and countries on the other side of the ocean is astounding to me, as many of the ideologies and goals of societies have been exchanged for the ones created by people who do not even live on the same continent. The United States has both been the country who has spurred radical beliefs in strangers from abroad and been stimulated by strangers elsewhere. There are those in the U.S. who make the obtuse effort …show more content…
He was able to reiterate key points in the Declaration and equated them to the freedom and “true equality” that would be achieved after the Civil War was won, all within three minutes. Lincoln stressed the importance of the representative democracy America had adopted, saying that “…government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln giving this address, and signing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st of the same year, shows that his fight for not only freeing slaves but giving people their freedom, displays his genuine belief of allowing all Americans their rights to freedom. Many people in his time could have easily echoed the things Lincoln said but do nothing in helping the cause, which is very similar to what happens in the present day: many politicians and people in power claim that they feel bad for marginalized groups, but they either don’t mean it or don’t care enough or do enough to cause any change in the situation. Some go even further and claim to fight for a certain groups rights on talk shows or in interviews, but make active efforts behind the scenes that harm the group. Lincoln was different, and his actions and speeches have done so much not only for minorities, but truly representing a good moral interpretation of the Declaration and executing it. Many other rights were given to blacks, and then women, because of him starting this trend of giving a group of citizens’ rights as a law because the majority didn’t want them to have any, whether for profit or

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