Lincoln and "one nation under god"

[Friar]

With all the flap over the graven image in Alabama it's been mention by several pundits that the phrase "one nation under God" first appeared in the Gettysburg address. Well, suprise suprise, they were lying.

from the Amazing Randi website:

The Gettysburg address by Abraham Lincoln, delivered November 19, 1863, is often given as the source of the addition to the Pledge of Allegiance that we often hear, that phrase, "under God." Wrong. The version that we have in our history texts says, in part, ". . . 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 this earth."

Now take a glance at the original, in Lincoln's own handwriting:

(Oops. No HTML. I'm such a loser. Anyway what followed is the original draft showing no such phrase. Follow the link and check it out at http://www.randi.org/jr/101003.html )



This is from one of the first two original drafts he made. Many months later, he wrote out new copies in which "under God" does appear, and those references have of course been seized upon as "legitimate," while the originals are ignored...

[wtmusic]

1. So which did he actually recite at Gettysburg?

Probably will never know...

[Friar]

6. I learned in school

that he wrote it on the train while traveling to Gettysburg so it would seem he delivered either of the first two drafts. Randi says he re-wrote/revised the speech months later.

[Az]

2. Keep in mind that Lincoln has some interesting hidden history

He is suspected of having been an atheist and possibly gay as well. On his atheism it is suspected that his early days were free of god but that he did start to soften his stance in the later years.

As to the homosexuality that Log Cabin republicans get their name from this notion.

[wtmusic]

3. He was clinically depressed

but then again if you were married to Mary Todd and running a war it would be hard to keep a smile on your face :-(

[sybylla]

4. Sounds like arguing semantics

If Lincoln wrote the later versions himself, I have a hard time believing that such a stand-up guy like Lincoln would have changed it for any reason but to change it for accuracy as delivered. If the drafts didn't include "under god" then all you can be sure to say is that he didn't intend to say "under god" but perhaps found himself including it entirely unintentionally at the time of the address.

Given several speeches myself where my draft and what I actually delivered were not exactly the same as I made minor changes to more appropriately meet the circumstances I found myself speaking in.

The bigger point will always be, that no matter what our representatives say at any given moment in time, no matter what the misguided religious right says now, we are not a christian nation nor are our laws based upon biblical law.

on edit: spelling

[damnraddem]

5. Lincoln was a great president, but he didn't ...

write the Pledge of Allegiance. That was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy: http://history.vineyard.net//pledge.htm. "One nation indivisible" was his -- whatever Lincoln might have said. The only commonalities: 1. both used the word 'nation,' and 2. 'under God' was later inserted. At least in the case of the Gettysburg Address, the author himself did the insertion, and soon after -- not someone sixty years later, as with the Pledge.

And the original Pledge also lacked the phrase 'of the United States of America' -- that was added in the 1920s, lest someone pledge to the wrong flag. ;-)

(Edited to add stuff.)

[AP]

7. Great Lincold quote: it doesn't matter if god's on our side. It matters...

...whether we're on god's side.