Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address vs. Bush’s 9/11 Address

Some interesting fundamental differences I wrote about for a class essay a little while back:

(ENJOY.)


On November 19th, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech on the Civil War battleground of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania after the bloodiest battle on American soil. It was short, poignant, powerful, studied, and remembered. On September 11th, 2001, America suffered a rare, crippling terrorist attack; an attack unlike we have seen in years, and President George W. Bush delivered a speech to the world. It was longer than Lincoln’s.

Americans looked for comfort in Bush’s words on that fateful day, some sort of reassurance that the United States would be alright, that our freedoms were not in jeopardy. President Bush concluded that our country had been attacked “because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world." He was hopeful in his words, calling upon our nation’s strength. “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America." His words unified America as a people, “from every walk of life… for justice and peace…we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world."

Lincoln spoke in honor of those who had fought on the battlefield, praising their determination and cause. He spoke of America’s ideals, “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." President Lincoln himself was humbled through the actions of those who had struggled on those grounds, and he called for those whose lives had been sacrificed not to have been so in futility. Lincoln’s methods of preserving America were a calling to “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." In other words, in order to keep our precious freedom and way of life, Lincoln speaks of determination and showing, by example, what this country is capable of, idealistically, and to remember this battle forever; not in anger, but in reverence and honor through living for what they who died yearned to live for.

Bush too spoke of our country’s ideals. He spoke of the necessary preservation of our freedom and our way of life, and the means by which we would preserve them. “I’ve directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice." President Bush emphasized the need for vengeance to prevent repeats of the day’s events. “Our military is powerful, and it’s prepared… America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism." At this point, the president has declared war… but upon whom? “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." He has declared war upon the people in this world who do not approve of our way of life; not a nation, but an idea, and ideas aren’t geographical locations.

Bush’s methods for preserving America’s ideals seem less reasonable than Lincoln’s. Lincoln is excited and eager to continue to foster the growth of our young nation, while remaining strong and true to the principles upon which it was founded. He believes that only through living as Americans may we continue to be America. He believes that living righteously, in and of itself, is enough to preserve our way of life. Bush is not so confident. He does not believe in the inborn power and goodness of the people to overcome evil. He appeals to force to frighten the terrorists, just as they had appealed to force to frighten the citizens of our country. Whether knowingly or not, Bush employs the very same tactics the terrorists are using against America. Bush spoke of fear, anger, sadness, and revenge. “The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings," he said, “fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger." This is what the terrorists wanted. They were searching for a reaction, something that would strengthen their cause and numbers. I’m sure they would have been more impressed, more baffled, and more likely to consider this country a great nation if we sat back, grieved the incredible losses incurred upon us, and went on with our lives as free individuals. But Bush played along, appealing to emotion, stating that “our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts," and saying that no one was safe; “The victims were…secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors."

But must we become terrorists to defeat terrorism? Through our country’s actions over the past five years since the 9/11 attacks, we have lost support from other nations worldwide. Were we wrong in starting a “war on terror"? It seems our actions have further incited hatred against the U.S. and our allies. Would it have been better if Bush had taken Lincoln’s advice- lived for the sake of living, showing through example what our great country is made of, rather than tricking our own countrymen with fear and paranoia into supporting hypocrisy? What if Lincoln had taken Bush’s stance? Would he have combed the confederate states with military rule, hanging every slave-owner he found? Wouldn’t the slave-owners have only gotten angrier and revolted against the North again? So why are we surprised that the “terrorists" do not succumb to our democratic government and surrender to our way of life when we try to beat them into submission? Ethnocentric actions, such as those implemented by President Bush and his war on terror, will not prevail. Culture is a large identity of any human being, and attempting to impose our nation’s government and way of life upon countries that are so fundamentally, morally, socially, politically, and idealistically different than our own is not only naïve and ineffective, its useless. Why should we try to make everyone else like us, when doing so will only decrease the base of knowledge from which humanity can draw, ultimately decreasing our species chance of survival?

Some say Bush’s 9/11 speech was politically partisan, and that he used these horrific events to gain support for his own agendas through fear-mongering. Others continue to support the ongoing battles America fights in the “war on terror". Through the emotional haze which followed these attacks, Bush was able to gain bipartisan support for war against Iraq, a country which was believed to harbor terrorists, and the Patriot Act, an act which was implemented to increase the power of the Department of Justice, protecting the security and safety of Americans through infringing on personal liberties and privacy.

On the other hand, Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation in lieu of the end of the Civil War. This act gave unbridled freedom to a group of individuals who had not experienced freedom before in America. There were no strings attached. This freedom which President Lincoln catalyzed for slaves in the United States was not given at the expense of any personal liberties nor did it infringe upon individual privacies. For Lincoln, it seems freedom was given for free, while Bush gave freedom at a cost.

I remember exactly where I was on that day in 2001, and I’m sure most Americans do, too. I have come to terms with the attacks against our country, and I have resolved within myself the paranoia those attacks bestowed upon this nation. If we let this war on terror drop right now, President Bush is afraid that it will portray our country as weak- because we have not eliminated all of the terrorists in the world. But every day that we continue to pursue these terrorists, more people become terrorists. This war will never end unless we come home and live as our forefathers intended, as true Americans in peace and liberty and happiness and equality, and forgive the attacks upon us. We will never forget- we will remember that grave day forever; but not in anger, instead in reverence and honor through living for what they who died yearned to live for.