♠ ACE SPORTS PAGE ♠
AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE EXCEPTIONALISM SPORTS PAGE
From the Kerosene Cowboy’s Sports Journal
By: Charles W. Boatright
Abraham Lincoln The Man that Changed America– by signing the Emancipation Proclamation and gave one of the most Exceptional Speeches in 1863. Abraham Lincoln didn’t just influence a Nation; but the life of a 9th grader in a Civics Class.
In October of 1973, my 9th grade Civics Class teacher, Ms Austin, wanted to recognize the impact that President Abraham Lincoln had on America during 1863.
This assignment was to start with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation up to The Gettysburg Address, that Lincoln gave on November 19th, 1863. This was during the same year that Battle of Gettysburg was fought, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant. For extra credit, we could report on the period of Reconstruction, which I did.
As a bonus, we could recite the Gettysburg Address before the class which I thought was a no-brainier, because it was a speech that I didn’t have to write from scratch. President Abraham did that for me in one of the most famous speeches in American History. I was accustomed to giving speeches, since my grandfather was a member of the Toastmasters.
Guys, this might seem awkward to you junior and high school students today, but in 1973, we had to go to the Library to do our research and check out books for school assignments. There was no internet or Yahoo, or Google to help do your research. It wasn’t as easy as cut and pasting for your references for writing up your report. I just had a Bic pen to transcribe my notes for typing it out on my Royal typewriter, actually shown below that I still have.
As I did my research at the age of 13 in 1973 in 9th grade, I read about a man that was a part of the Abolitionist Movement that later helped head the Republican Party that we know of today. Their main objective was to end the Transatlantic slave trade and bring the end to slavery in the United States to an end and prevent slavery moving westward.
As a young Jewish man of 13, not having any political preferences or identification at the time, I became a Republican after reading about President Abraham Lincoln. This started with Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation and ending with the concept he had of Reconstruction of the south.
These two bookends that took enormous courage by Lincoln to conceive, to believe what was possible, and to be able to achieve even if it was a partial victory for him. What Lincoln started wasn’t finally achieved for another 100- years, that we are still working at. Singing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln was signing his own death warrant in the middle of the Civil War.
Just a Brief Review on Major impacts during 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln
Emancipation Proclamation January 01st, 1863
Lincoln wanted to sign the Emancipation Proclamation in July of 1862 but he actually signed on January 01st, 1863. The reason for the delay was Lincoln wanted a significant victory by the Union forces that up until then were loses to General Robert E. Lee.
The Union forces won their first major battle at Antietam in Maryland in September 1862. Lincoln first proposed the emancipation of slaves on July 22nd, 1862. There were still members in his cabinet that wanted him to wait until the Civil War was over before signing the proclamation.
Signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln did sign his own death warrant that was executed on April 15th, 1865. Lincoln didn’t have much of an opportunity to see and enjoy what pain that he endured of a free and unified country when the Civil War ended on April 09th, 1865.
The Battle of Gettysburg ended on July 3rd, 1863
The bloodiest battle of the Civil War was where over 50,000 soldiers were killed in just three days. That is just under the number of Americans that were killed in Vietnam over 10- years. The Civil War was fought with single shot and in some cases breach loaded weapons and not the fully automatic weapons of today.
The number of Americans killed on both sides was what brought Lincoln to travel to commemorate this sacred ground in Pennsylvania where these men on the Confederate and Union side were laid to rest. What was odd about particularly the Confederate soldiers that died at the Battle of Gettysburg was that the majority of them didn’t even own slaves.
The Siege of Vicksburg ended on July 4th, 1863
I live about 45-miles east of Vicksburg where I’m retired from Entergy Mississippi after 35- years as a Grid Engineer. I have visited and flown over the Vicksburg cemetery many times working on projects and performing aerial patrols. What is unique about Vicksburg Cemetery is that every state that took part in the Civil War has built a monument in the cemetery.
President Lincoln called Vicksburg the Key to the South due to the command of navigation it could impose on traffic on the Mississippi River. Vicksburg was considered almost an impenetrable city by many military strategist of the time. General Grant realized the only way to take Vicksburg was with a siege that lasted 47- days starting on May 18th, 1863 and ended on July 4th, 1863.
I am a member of a hangar wing that has airshows where some of our members were descendants of the citizens of Vicksburg during the siege that ended on July 4th, 1863. Up until World War II, Vicksburg citizens didn’t even celebrate July the 4th because of the bitterness from the siege by the Union.
President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address given on November 19th 1863
What is interesting about President Lincoln’s 271 word Address at Gettysburg that took less than 3- minutes to give, Lincoln wasn’t even the Keynote Speaker. The Keynote Speaker honors was given to Edward Everett, a famous orator of that day. Can you imagine inviting the President of the United States and not even scheduling the President as your main speaker.
What took less than 3- minutes for President Lincoln to give that wasn’t to be the main Gettysburg Address has become one of the most notable speeches in American History. Below is the Gettysburg Speech that should inspire us even today that I have carved in a wooden plaque in my home office:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 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 that 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 the earth.
What is fascinating about Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was how short it was that became a fabric of our history as a nation. This shows intelligence is often assessed in concise words used to present and idea!
Reconstruction after the Civil War from 1865 – 1877
Just before the Civil War ended in April of 1865, President Lincoln laid plans with General Grant for Reconstruction. Reconstruction was proposed and implemented to provide the former slaves with basic rights that they had been denied for decades; this was in addition to rebuilding the south that was controlled by the Democratic Party up until the early 1970’s.
For 12- years, Black-Americans saw the prosperity of ownership, running for office under the banner of the Republican Party, and the privilege of obtaining an education and having a voice in their government under Reconstruction. This was only possible with enforcement under the occupation force of Union Soldiers up until 1877 when Southerners protested the Union occupation.
Two interesting stories to read are from two (2) former slaves named- Jeremiah Haralson from Selma, Alabama and Booker T. Washington from Tuskegee, Alabama The report that I handed in to my Civics teacher, Ms. Austin on November 01st, 1973 was why I decided to become a Republican.
In the feature photograph, above, I traveled to Washington in 2018 on business when I got my photograph taken inside the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln is the face of the Republican Party.
This can be posted by individuals on their media platforms as Public Domain.