What did Mr. Jefferson mean by this?

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, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What did Mr. Jefferson mean by this?

The Gettysburg Address By Abraham Lincoln

On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Lincoln delivered what would become the most famous speech in American history. His dedicatory remarks began by going back in time, not to the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, or even back to the framing of the U.S. Constitution, which was now under attack from rebellious forces. He returned his audience to what he considered the true birth of the nation, July 4, 1776.

Even though the President fought the war to defend the Union and Constitution, the fact that it was a civil war indicated that all Americans no longer agreed about the true meaning of their constitutional union. For Lincoln, its meaning centered on the birth of an idea, expressed most clearly in the Declaration of Independence, that "all men are created equal." The union of the American states was thus born of a united belief in human equality as the basis of legitimate self-government.

Although Lincoln believed America was "conceived in liberty," this conception did not produce liberty for all; the Civil War was testimony to that. In 1776 Thomas Jefferson said that “all men are created equal” was a self-evident truth… Lincoln calls it a “proposition,” meaning that it is something that needed to be approved or denied.

By invoking the Declaration, Lincoln is saying that the country did not begin with the Articles of Confederation, with the victory over Great Britain, or with the ratifying of the Constitution. It began with an idea.

Upholding the practice of slavery, Lincoln thought, undermined the future of freedom for whites as well as blacks, for if race could be used as a reason for some to enslave others, what would prevent a future majority from enslaving a minority on the basis of some other arbitrary characteristic or interest?

The Battle of Gettysburg took place July 1-3, 1863. It is widely considered the turning point of the American Civil War. There were 50,000 casualties in the three-day battle. More people were killed at Gettysburg than had been killed in all the battles of the Civil War fought up to that time put together.

At the outset, Lincoln prosecuted the war only to preserve the Union, but abolitionists hoped the war would free the slaves. As commander-in-chief, Lincoln waited until emancipation became "a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion" before issuing the liberating decree on January 1, 1863.

Given the controversy about the Emancipation Proclamation, even in the North, Lincoln did not spell out in detail that a successful war for “union” had to be a war for “emancipation”; his Gettysburg Address, therefore, never mentions the Emancipation Proclamation or slavery. He also never actually uses the word "union," choosing instead to speak of a "nation."

To "save the union" was to save what Lincoln called "the last best hope of earth," for the union's survival entailed the survival of the Constitution and the rule of law. In Lincoln's mind, defending the American union from those who sought to divide it was the urgent business of every true lover of liberty, and thus the highest tribute the living could render the dead who were buried at Gettysburg.

Thus Lincoln turned a cemetery dedication into a dedication of the living to a certain course of action: "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." For the dead not to have died in vain, Lincoln exhorts his audience to pursue that "new birth of freedom" by defending the Union and securing the equal liberty for which it stands.

Lincoln was invited to make some “remarks” at the dedication ceremony for the new federal cemetery at the battleﬁeld site. The main oration, however, was delivered by Edward Everett, a well-known and much admired speaker. It was two hours long. President Lincoln spoke for two minutes. His speech contained 272 words, and he read it aloud, rather than speak it from memory. Later, Everett wrote Lincoln to say, “I should be glad, if I could ﬂatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

Not everyone was enthralled with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, even in the North. The Chicago Times, a Democratic newspaper and longtime critic of Lincoln, thought he exploited the cemetery dedication for political purposes.

Although we revere Lincoln today as one of our country’s greatest leaders, many of the people of his time did not see things that way.

YOUR TASK: First, AS A GROUP, READ THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS AND ANSWER THE THINKING QUESTIONS. Second, AS A GROUP, READ THE EDITORIAL FROM THE CHICAGO TIMES AND ANSWER THE THINKING QUESTIONS.

IN YOUR JOURNAL ANSWER THE FOLLOWING: DO YOU AGREE WITH PRESIDENT LINCOLN? OR DO YOU AGREE WITH THE CHICAGO EDITORIAL? HOW DOES READING OPPOSING POINTS OF VIEW HELP US TO MAKE A DECISION ABOUT WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE TRUE?

What did Mr. Jefferson mean by this?