[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 3, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. TODD RUSSELL PLATTS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, November 2, 2009

  Mr. PLATTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 
736, which honors the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's 
Gettysburg Address as ``Dedication Day'' on November 19, 2009. I am 
proud to have introduced this resolution as we celebrate the 
bicentennial of President Lincoln's birthday in 2009 and remember the 
words of this most remarkable speech.
  Arriving by train to Gettysburg on the evening of November 18, 1863, 
few knew the impact Lincoln's words would have on the future of our 
Nation and its citizens. The Address' message was one of paying tribute 
to those who lost their lives while at the same time affirming a belief 
that democracy may prevail despite the immeasurable losses suffered by 
both the North and South.
  Lincoln's speech was just over two minutes in length, but its meaning 
has long endured. Nearly 63 years ago, Congress passed a joint 
resolution designating November 19, 1946, the anniversary of the 
Gettysburg Address, as Dedication Day and declaring the Gettysburg 
Address to be ``the outstanding classic of the ages.'' The resolution 
suggested that the Gettysburg Address ``be read on that day in public 
assemblages throughout the United States and its possessions, on our 
ships at sea, and wherever the American flag flies.'' Additionally, 
lines from the Gettysburg Address can be found in Martin Luther King 
Jr.'s ``I Have a Dream'' speech, and its entirety is marked a short 
distance from where we stand today, on the south wall of the Lincoln 
Memorial.
  During this bicentennial year of Lincoln's birth, the National 
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and the Pennsylvania Abraham 
Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, which have both endorsed this 
resolution, are holding numerous events celebrating the life and legacy 
of our sixteenth President. On November 19, 2009 the Pennsylvania 
Abraham Lincoln Commission is hosting ``Dedication Day,'' with events 
occurring at the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania, the site of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. As we 
celebrate Lincoln's bicentennial, I urge my fellow Members of Congress 
and constituents to take time to read the words of this remarkable 
speech:

       Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, 
     upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and 
     dedicated to the proposition that `all men are created 
     equal.' Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
     whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so 
     dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle 
     field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, 
     as a final resting place for those who died here, that the 
     nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in 
     a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--
     we can not hallow, this ground--The brave men, living and 
     dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our 
     poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor 
     long remember what we say here; while it can never forget 
     what they did here.
       It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to 
     the great task remaining before us--that, from these honored 
     dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they 
     here, gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here 
     highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that 
     the nation, 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.

  Two centuries after his birth, the message of the Gettysburg Address 
is as significant as ever. As such, please join me in paying tribute to 
one of our Nation's most important speeches and support House 
Resolution 736.

                          ____________________