Memorial Day, 2026
In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln praised those who’d given “the last full measure of devotion” on the bloody battlefields of the Civil War. What does this perilous moment require of us?
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But first, your moment of Zen … President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863. He is seated, hatless, below and to the right of the flag.
Monday, May 25, 2026
“What the people want is very simple,” said Barbara Jordan. “They want an America as good as its promise.”
These are tough times for the American Promise. The Department of Defense War is systematically removing from command officers who are women or minorities in the name of exalted whiteness, draining our armed forces of centuries of leadership experience. The President is blatantly stealing from American taxpayers to reward insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol and beat police officers on January 6th, seeding buy-in for future insurrections. The United States Counterterrorism Strategy document lists “violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists,” as among the three greatest terror threats the country faces, reminding the Administration’s supporters who the real enemies are. (The document mentions Russia and China once each, in passing, and not as threats.)
Sadly, many Americans are not attuned to these threats because they are too busy gassing up their cars, buying groceries, and keeping a roof over their heads. Meanwhile, we seem trapped in an unwinnable war with Iran, and ready to start another pointless war with Cuba, Greenland, or both.
It is time to remind ourselves of what the American Promise means, and requires.
I have been suggesting for the last four years that the Gettysburg Address ranks with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as the greatest invocations of the American Promise, and that Memorial Day ought to be the time for every American to read and meditate upon the Address. After all, Memorial Day is when we honor those who have fallen while defending the American Promise, and is there any greater meaning to their sacrifice than this?
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.
Here is the full text of the Gettysburg Address. Below that, for those who would rather listen, is Johnny Cash’s haunting elocution of the Address.
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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not 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.
While you’re at it …
… please read my friend Holly Berkley Fletcher’s exquisite meditation, “Democracy Is Love,” on her A Zebra Without Stripes Substack.
… please read my friend Jim Bob Moore’s masterful call to action, “Burn Down the Mission,” on his Texas to the World Substack.
Man, there is no better time and no better day than this one to read and hear the Gettysburg Address, is there? I'd never heard the Cash rendition, which is extraordinary. His speaking voice was greater than his singing voice. Thanks for this reminder of who and what we truly are, when we are paying attention to what we've always wanted to be as a nation.
There is always refuge in Lincoln's writings and speeches, where wit, elegance, and devotion reach the pinnacle of prose.