JFK PAYS TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 19, 1963, President John F. Kennedy paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address* on the 50th anniversary of its delivery at the battlefield in Pennsylvania.
President Kennedy said...
"From the past man obtains the insights, wisdom and hope to face with confidence the uncertainties of the future. On this solemn occasion let us rededicate ourselves to the perpetuation of those ideals of which Lincoln spoke so luminously. As Americans, we can do no less."
Thurston Clarke writes that Press Secretary Pierre Salinger dropped by the Oval Office later in the day to say goodbye before leaving for Honolulu.
The President looked up and said... 'I wish I weren't going to Texas.'"
*Lincoln gave his short address at the dedication of the soldier's national cemetery on the battlefield of Gettysburg, PA on Nov 19 1863. The 271 word speech, one of the most famous in history, begins with the words "Four score & seven years ago" & concludes "that these honored dead shall not have died in vain--and that government of the people, by the people, & for the people shall not perish from the earth."
SOURCES
"JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President," by Thurston Clarke, The Penguin Press, New York, 2013.
"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 19, 1963, President John F. Kennedy paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address* on the 50th anniversary of its delivery at the battlefield in Pennsylvania.
President Kennedy said...
"From the past man obtains the insights, wisdom and hope to face with confidence the uncertainties of the future. On this solemn occasion let us rededicate ourselves to the perpetuation of those ideals of which Lincoln spoke so luminously. As Americans, we can do no less."
Thurston Clarke writes that Press Secretary Pierre Salinger dropped by the Oval Office later in the day to say goodbye before leaving for Honolulu.
The President looked up and said... 'I wish I weren't going to Texas.'"
*Lincoln gave his short address at the dedication of the soldier's national cemetery on the battlefield of Gettysburg, PA on Nov 19 1863. The 271 word speech, one of the most famous in history, begins with the words "Four score & seven years ago" & concludes "that these honored dead shall not have died in vain--and that government of the people, by the people, & for the people shall not perish from the earth."
SOURCES
"JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President," by Thurston Clarke, The Penguin Press, New York, 2013.
"Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy, 1963," United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1964.
"President Lincoln's Address"
New York Times
November 20, 1863
Cornell University Library
