Today in 1863

President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19th 1863. In it he said, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." The world does remember what President Lincoln said there that day, but, let us also never forget what the occasion was.

President Lincoln gave the speech at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery. The civil war was still in progress and many soldiers would still lose their lives. I have been to that great battlefield in Gettysburg. There is a special feeling there where so many gave their lives. Let us, on this day, remember the sacrifices that those soldiers made to make this country great. Let us never forget the final words of the Gettysburg Address, "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 -- 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."