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The Gettysburg Address has become an authoritative expression of the American spirit — as authoritative as the Declaration itself, and perhaps even more influential, since it determines how we read the Declaration. For most people now, the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it. It is this correction of the spirit, this intellectual revolution, that makes attempts to go back beyond Lincoln to some earlier version so feckless. The proponents of states’ rights may have arguments, but they have lost their force, in courts as well as in the popular mind. By accepting the Gettysburg Address, its concept of a single people dedicated to a proposition, we have been changed. Because of it, we live in a different America.  Jefferson's famous preamble:

The Gettysburg Address has become an authoritative expression of the American spirit — as authoritative as the Declaration itself, and perhaps even more influential, since it determines how we read the Declaration. For most people now, the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it. It is this correction of the spirit, this intellectual revolution, that makes attempts to go back beyond Lincoln to some earlier version so feckless. The proponents of states’ rights may have arguments, but they have lost their force, in courts as well as in the popular mind. By accepting the Gettysburg Address, its concept of a single people dedicated to a proposition, we have been changed. Because of it, we live in a different America.  Jefferson's famous preamble:

<blockquote>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Letters_I-VII%2C_Mr._Jefferson_Returns:_American_Mentor_and_Prophet life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness].</blockquote>

<blockquote>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Letters_I-VII%2C_Mr._Jefferson_Returns:_American_Mentor_and_Prophet life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness].</blockquote>

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence Full Wikipedia Article]

#[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence Full Wikipedia Article]

#[https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Letters_I-VII%2C_Mr._Jefferson_Returns:_American_Mentor_and_Prophet#A_Declaration_of_Interdependence Declaration of Interdependence]

[[Category: General Reference]]

[[Category: General Reference]]

[[Category: History]]

[[Category: History]]

[[Category: Political Science]]

[[Category: Political Science]]