Way back when, in a small school in out in Real Texas, the students there were required to memorize the Gettysburg Address. My teacher in charge of that task was Coach James Bird. Coach Bird was a school favorite. I still have many fond memories of Coach Bird and can sit with my old friends for hours and tell ‘Coach Bird stories.’
So here you have 50-60 small town Texas sixth or seventh graders reciting portions of the Gettysburg Address all over school, all over town, at home, in front of mirrors, late at night, early in the morning….during that time of learning. We had to stand and recite the Address from memory in front of the class.
Those of that age and time can probably still recite the words…..but for us it went something like this.
Fo-er scoa-er a-yund seven years ah-go, ow-er fahthers brawt forth, on this cont-nint, a noo nation, con-seeved in liburty, ahyund dedcated to thu propa-sition thayut awl meyun aw-er……
Well, you get the idea. I would love to transport those recitations from back then to any present day 
Eastern school and watch the horrified reaction of the educators and parents.
Sorry, but that’s just how we talked. I call it Texas Tawk and have been working on a set of lessons on the subject for a while now. I’ll tell you when I get that all finished up.
Today is the anniversary of that famous speech. I have been to Gettysburg and probably many of you have also and it is an impressive place to visit.
Yes, I remember the significance of the day, but it was because of Coach Bird that I know the words still to this day.
President Abraham Lincoln delivered the famous words to about 15,000 people seated at a new national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Here’s the story…..It was a foggy, cold morning. Lincoln arrived about 10 a.m. Around noon, the sun came out as the crowds gathered on a hill overlooking the battlefield. A military band played, a local preacher offered a long prayer, and the headlining orator, Edward Everett, spoke for more than two hours. At that time, a two-hour speech was quite normal. Everett described the Battle of Gettysburg in great detail, and he brought the audience to tears more than once.
When Everett was finished, Lincoln got up and pulled his speech from his coat pocket. It consisted of 10 sentences, a total of 272 words. Lincoln did not mention any of the specifics of the war or any of the details of the battle of Gettysburg. He did not mention the North or the South. He did not mention slavery. Instead, he explained, in ordinary language, that our nation was founded on the idea that all men are created equal, and that we must continue to fight for that principle, in honor of those who have died fighting for it.
Unfortunately for Lincoln, the audience was distracted by a photographer setting up his camera, and by the time Lincoln had finished his speech and sat down the audience didn’t even realize he had spoken. Lincoln was disappointed in his performance, but the next day Edward Everett told the president, “I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.” The speech was reprinted in newspapers around the country, and it went on to become one of the most important speeches in American history.
The Gettysburg Address begins:
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…..
Thanks Coach Bird….I can finish the rest silently to myself, in a Real Texas accent.
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I memorized the Gettysburg Address when I was a kid growing up in the public schools of Tennessee and assumed the things it said were true. That's when I was a child.
Dishonest Abe Lincoln was a master of political spin, whose words were the polar opposite of his deeds. Government of the people, by the people and for the people was exactly the thing he was trying to crush in his unconstitutional and brutal attack on the Confederate nation.
Lincoln's words are a mockery when one considers that he held 13,000 northern political prisoners, without trial or due process of law – just because they disagreed with his illegal war.
Famous American writer H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), said of the Gettysburg Address: “The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination – that government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.”
And yet here we stand, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
ELW Sr.
It would be nice if some of the useless bloats in Austin and Washington D.C. would re-read this magnficent speech and perhaps "take it to heart".
We memorized the Gettysburg Address in Uvalde Tx too, something I doubt kids are doing in today's schools. Today I live a little more than 2 hours from Gettysburg Battlefield. I've all but lost my Texas accent, but when I go "home" I find myself "tawking" that way again!
I'm surprised to see that people are still "fighting" Great Grandpa's war! We have much more important issues to worry about as our nation is being led in the wrong direction and our freedoms are dimished.