In the beginning, the United Sates was divided sectionally between free states and states where slavery was lawful. But the border eventually became blurred, then obliterated.
After the war with Mexico, slave owners sought to expand their power into the territories Mexico ceded to the United States in 1848. Then in 1857, they saw their power substantially increased by the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision that declared slave owners could take “their property” wherever they wanted throughout the United States. The stage was set. “All hell,” to use General William Tecumseh Sherman’s description of war, soon broke loose.
The carnage in the Civil War was beyond mind-numbing. The approximate 623,000 battle deaths exceeds the total of all other wars in American history. Many combatants died of malnutrition, disease, and brutality in prisoner-of-war camps, like the infamous Andersonville, which presaged the Nazi concentration camps. Stark images of the dead in contorted positions, of the wounded, many having endured amputations, lying in makeshift hospitals, and of emaciated prisoners of war, along with images of the amputated arms and legs dumped by wheelbarrows in pits, shock the sensibilities and unsettle consciences of the morally sound.
In the midst of the carnage on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered what would become known as the Gettysburg Address. In it, Lincoln unequivocally affirmed that the words of the Declaration of Independence were more than philosophical musings. They were the supreme law of the land.
In his Pulitzer Prize winning Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, Garry Wills, professor emeritus of Northwestern University and one-time contributor to William F. Buckley’s National Review, writes that Lincoln’s words at the dedication of the battlefield were to “sweeten the air of Gettysburg” and to “clear the infected atmosphere of American history itself, tainted with official sins and inherited guilt.”
Wills holds that Lincoln cleansed the Constitution from within by appealing not to its letter but to its spirit. In so doing, Lincoln brought the Constitution “to its own indictment” and “revolutionized the Revolution, giving people a new past to live with that would change their future indefinitely.”
Throughout the text, Lincoln works magic with the English language. By not speaking in the first person singular, he pulls his audience—including us—into the proceedings and reminds them/us that, even if they/we aren’t wearing a uniform and carrying a weapon, they/we are part of the drama.
Lincoln opens with a subtle allusion to the Lord’s Prayer—“our fathers”—and uses the first person plural, we, throughout: “we are engaged in a great civil war,” “we are met on a great battlefield,” and “we have come to dedicate.” He masterfully integrates the concepts of birth and death as motifs, broadens the specific purpose of the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield, and globalizes the struggle.
He declares “our fathers brought forth…a new nation, conceived in liberty.” Next, he universalizes the movement for liberty by elevating the struggle from America to the world by stating the war is a test to see “whether that nation (America), or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” Toward the end, he loops back to the conception idea when he declares the nation “shall have a new birth of freedom.”
Lincoln does not speak directly about the shocking carnage by citing statistics, naming names, or use descriptive language about the horror. Nor does he differentiate between the dead. By not focusing on the literal, on that which was obvious to all who attended, Lincoln elevated the proceedings to the transcendental. What the “honored dead” who gave “the last full measure of devotion” did was profoundly mystical.
By stating in his conclusion, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain,” Lincoln assigns the responsibility for keeping the fire of liberty lit to every American, past, present, and future.
Like how the Revolution continues to this day, so too does the Civil War. Maintaining a “government of the people, by the people, for the people, [that] shall not perish from the earth” is a never-ending struggle.
In addition to being divided between free and slave states in the beginning, the United States was often referred to in the plural: “The United States are…” The Civil War along with the Thirteenth Amendment, which constitutionally banned slavery, changed that. Forever after, the country would be referred to in the singular: “The United States is the land of…”
What? Each of us must decide.
Note: Even if you watched Ken Burns’ Civil War series before, I encourage you to view it again. If you do, you might need to do so quickly though. From what I can ascertain, the series might not be available on PBS in 2026.
Glenn Blanco
November 20, 2025 at 5:10 pmI have seen much of Ken Burn’s creations and saw part one of his American Revolution series. I always enjoy his format where voices speak and then give their names. As a Vietnam Vet, I especially related to that series.
As to this “continuing revolution” to insure the continuing health of America I say put down the signs and admit that we just have to give ourselves another enema once again.