Ideas are always more than battles
Contemporary Reactions
On the day following the Gettysburg dedication, many of the nation’s newspapers reprinted the speech, along with the one given by Edward Everett. Reaction to Lincoln’s address was frequently divided along political lines. Newspapers critical of the President had snide things to say about the speech’s brevity and inappropriateness to the occasion. Lincoln supporters, on the other hand, published glowing reviews and noted the classical elegance and heartfelt emotion of the address.
Chicago Tribune: "The dedicatory remarks by President Lincoln will live among the annals of man."
Chicago Times: "The cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dishwatery utterances."
Springfield (Mass.) Republican: "Surprisingly fine as Mr. Everett’s oration was in the Gettysburg consecration, the rhetorical honors of the occasion were won by President Lincoln. His little speech is a perfect gem; deep in feeling, compact in thought and expression, and tasteful and elegant in every word and comma. Then it has the merit of unexpectedness in its verbal perfection and beauty… Turn back and read it over, it will repay study as a model speech. Strong feelings and a large brain are its parents."
Harrisburg Patriot and Union: "We pass over the silly remarks of the President; for the credit of the Nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall no more be repeated or thought of."
Providence Journal: "We know not where to look for a more admirable speech than the brief one which the President made at the close of Mr. Everett’s oration… Could the most elaborate and splendid oration be more beautiful, more touching, more inspiring than those thrilling words of the President? They have in our humble judgment the charm and power of the very highest eloquence."
Goldwin Smith: "Not a sovereign in Europe, however trained from the cradle for state pomps, and however prompted by statesmen and courtiers, could have uttered himself more regally than did Lincoln at Gettysburg."
Horace Greeley: "I doubt that our national literature contains a finer gem than that little speech at the Gettysburg celebration, November 19, 1863… after the close of Mr. Everett’s classic but frigid oration."
Charles Sumner: "That speech, uttered at the field of Gettysburg… and now sanctified by the martyrdom of its author, is a monumental act. In the modesty of his nature he said ‘the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.’ He was mistaken. The world at once noted what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech. Ideas are always more [important] than battles."
The Thirteenth Amendment
Cornell University Library's manuscript memorial of the Thirteenth Amendment is signed by President Lincoln and the members of Congress who voted for the joint resolution.
The amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery was passed by the Senate in April, 1864, but in June, 1864, failed to get the two-thirds vote required to pass in the House. The Thirteenth Amendment was later passed by the House on the afternoon of January 31, 1865. The vote was Yeas 119, Nays 56, not voting 8.
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States . . ."