“”¦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”¦”
–Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863
How about Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer and the Four Freedoms? Although Roosevelt’s thoughts are never expressed with the purity and depth of Lincoln’s, I’m increasingly convinced that he belong next to him both as a spokesperson for democracy and as a statesman with a view to the long term.
The Gettysburg Address was quoted and alluded to by the US Charge d’Affaires in Britain at the Memorial Day exercises yesterday at the American Cemetery in Madingley, just outside Cambridge. It was a stirring ceremony, the speaker was Gen. Jimmy Doolittle’s granddaughter, and was complete with the Missing Man being done by a flight of F-15s from Lakenheath — been watching them practicing over the Fens for the last week!