Synthesize the following documents and answer the questions that follow.

Document 1
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address,
given November 19, 1863
on the battlefield near
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

“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 battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate ... we cannot consecrate ... we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ... 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 this earth.”

Document 2
Megan Taber
March 6, 2012

Lincoln’s short speech to the soldiers at Gettysburg was given shortly after he pushed through a limited proclamation, emancipating slaves in confederate states. Thus, it is no coincidence that the chin-strap bearded President uses trendy words like “liberty” and “freedom” to get everyone’s attention and conveniently remind them of why they were there. Almost everyone knows the first line, “Four score and seven years ago,” though it isn’t just when your grandma was born; this is when the Declaration of Independence was written. Lincoln is throwing back to 87 years prior to that moment, speaking to a half illiterate crowd about the founding documents in order to prove his point about rights for all men. I’m sure if he had the opportunity to throw this little presentation into a PowerPoint and give out candy for a pop quiz, he would have, but since he was in the middle of a battlefield with tired, hungry, and scantly bathed men he had to keep it brief and to the point; they weren’t dying for giggles. There was a reason for the many already dead and the many soon to be; Abe was just being honest.

This does sound a bit like any rousing battle speech in a movie given before the slow-motion deaths with some really nice instrumental music behind it, but Lincoln was the American Classic. There are some anti-Lincoln commentaries out there. Many believe Lincoln was a liar and a hypocrite at these words; they claim that the speech was a dedication for only those fighting for his cause of a united nation, and therefore mocked the Southern states’ fallen soldiers. The last lines of his speech beg the question of whether he was truly giving a loaded address or if he was attempting to state that these men have died and will die in the name of government for its own sake (for the people, by the people, yadda yadda…). The jury on Lincoln’s rep is currently out with many in the anti-Abe camp hoping to sully his good name as it is ingrained Americana. Perhaps a break from the hatred and a look at the man’s breadth of work would be in order.