Evening Star Newspaper, November 18, 1923, Page 73

Part 5—8 Pages To mark the sixtleth anniversary of Lincoln’s delivery of his Gettysburg ad reatest of speeches language, The Sunday Star pres following authentic history of t Ing and delivery of the addre: which various mythical account disproved. BY WILLIAM WEBSTER ELLS- WORTH. HE 19th of November, 1923, is the sixtleth anniversary of the dedication of the Gettys- burg cemetery and the de- lvery by Abraham Lincoln of what has gone down into history as the most perfect address of its kind ever delivered in the English-speaking world. Without attempting to throw any Dew light upon the subject (nor at this time’and after“all the research that has been put upon it can any | new light be thrown) the writer has Eathered together some of the mos! @uthentic accounts that have been printed, dealing with the preparation &nd dellvery of the address. There are many storles of it, varying from & meditation of many days to the dashing off of the speech amid the week at Gettysburg. As I stood one morning on the corner of the main street near Judge Wills' house (in which Lincoln wrote a part of the ad- dress) a fairly intelligent young khaki-clad soldler (the Tank Corps was drilled at Gettyeburg) came up to me with the query, “Say, wasn't some battle of the Spanish war fought around here * K ok ¥ O get the facts in regard to the Gettysburg address one has only to go back to the story of it, told by John G. Nicolay, his faithful secre- tary, who was close to Mr. Lincoln in every working hour of every work- | WILLIAM WEBSTER ELLSWORTH. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. talk and confusfon and violent rock- ing (train beds in 1863 were not what they are now) of the trip from ‘Washington to Gettysburg. Recently there came to me a pamphlet throwing a new (and some- what lurid) light upon the subject. It was entitled, “The South Must Have Her Rightful Place in History,” and therein I read that “Lincoln’s blographers pose him as a highly educated literary personage, and the Gettysburg - speech, which Seward wrote afterward, is put into every collection of great speeches and at- tributed to Lincoln, not Seward.” This will be news to Miss Tarbell and Jesse Welk and Lord Charnwood, as it will be to the casual reader of this article. Doubtless the fact that Mr., Seward suggested the ending of the first inaugural address, offering to Mr. Lincoln a passage which he amended and put into its present ex- quisite form (“I am loath to close. ‘We are not enemies, but friends,” ete.) is the basis of the idea that Mr. Seward “wrote afterward” the still more famous Gettysburg address. The tendency to such mistakes wan borne in upon me in the summer of 1918, when I had occasion to spend a LINCOLN BUST RECENTLY UNVEILED IN LON'RON. ing day from a period beginning af- ter his nomination and before his election until his death. Mr. Nicolay contributed an article to the Century Magazine for February, 1894, supple- menting the “Life" which he and Mr. Hay wrote togther and which had ap- peared serlally In that magasine, and in the article he tells the story with great detall. There can be no higher authority. It wad David Wills of Gettysburg who suggested the creation of a na- tional cemetery on the battlefield. The ground purchased and the pre- liminary arrangements made, Edward Everett was asked to dellver the ora- tion, and October 23, 1863, was the day set for the occasion. But as Mr. Everett had engagements at that time it was postponed to November 19. On November 2 Mr. Wills wrote President Lincoln a formal invitation to take part in the ceremonles. It will be seen that Mr. Lincoln was given only two weeks in which to prepare his speech, but there was nothing unusual about this, as Mr. Everett was to make the great speech, and what the President might say would doubtless be of the customary perfunctory nature. It would be In- teresting to know the working of Mr. Lincoln's mind which led him to give 50 much thought to his own remarks, for the Gettysburg address seems the result of a lifetime of preparation. It Was a very busy time with him, for Congress would meet in early Decem- ber and the preparation of his mes- sage was on his mind. It was not certain that the Presi- dent could go to Gettysburg at all, and up to two days before the cere- monies no definite arrangements had been made for the journey, although the cabinet had been Invited. Late on November 17 Mr. Stanton sent to Mr. Lincoln a note saying that the train was to leave Washington for ,Gettysburg at 6 o'clock on the morning ) of the day of the dedication, return- Ing that same evening, but Mr. Lin- coln notifled Mr. Stanton that the ar- rangements did not please him: “I do mot wish to so go that by the slightest accident we fall entlrely; and, at the best, the whole to be a mere breathless running of the gant- let” It was then arranged that the special train should leave Washing- ton at noon on the 18th. * x % % R. NICOLAY says there s no de- clisive record of when Mr. Lin- coln wrote the first sentences of the address, but he thinks that he molded his phrases mentally, as was his habit, waiting to reduce them to writ- Ing untll they had taken satisfactory form. Now we will call in Noah Brooks, a newspaper man and writer of books, who was close to Mr. Lin- coln at the time and who, in all probability, would have become his private secretary later, when, in the second administration, M and Mr. Hay might be advanced to higher office. The as nation pre- vented this. Mr. Brooks tells us that one November Sunday he had an ap- pointment to go with President Lin- coln to a photographer. “Just as we were going down the stairs of the White House the Presi- dent suddenly remembered that he wanted a paper, and, after hurrying back to his office, soon rejoined me with a long envelope in his hand. When we were falrly started he sald that the envelope held an advance copy of Edward Everett's address to be delivered at the Gettysburg ded!- catlon on the following Tuesday. ® ¢ * When I exclaimed at fits! length the President laughed and quoted the line, ‘Solld men of Boston make no long orations,’ which he satd he had met somewhere in & speech by Daniel Webster. He sald that there was no danger that he should get upon the lines of Mr. Everett's oration, for what he had ready to say was very short, or, as he emphatically expressed it, ‘short, short, short.’ “In reply to a question as to the speech having been already written, he sald that it was written, ‘but not finished.” He had brought the paper with him, he explained, hoping that a few minutes of leisure while waiting for the movements of the photogra- pher and his processes would give him a chance to look over the speech. But we did not have to walt long between the sittings and the President, l\av-' ing taken out the envelope and lald It on the little table at his elbow, be- came so engaged In talk that he falled to open it while we were at the studio. A disaster overtook the neg- ative of that photograph, and after a very few prints had been made from it no more were possible. In the copy which the President gave me the en- velope containing Mr. Everett's ora- tion is seen on the table by the side of the sitter.” James Speed, an old friend of Lin- coln’s, In an interview printed in the Louisville Commercial in November, 1879, said that the President told him that “the day before he left Washington he found time to write about half of his speech.” * % X % N arrival at Gettysburg Mr. Lin- coln went to the house of Judge Wills. Serepades were in order In the evening in the crowded streets of Gettysburg, and Mr. Lincoln, when the crowd persisted in calling him out, made a few commonplace ex- cuses, which were Interrupted by one unpleasant note. He sald that he had no speech to make, adding, ¥In my position it is somewhat im- portant that I should not say foolish ings.” A voice here called out: f you can help it” Mr. Lincoln pald no attention to this but merely ked to be excused from further speaking. Mr. Nicolay says: “It was after the breakfast hour on the morning of the 19th that the writer, Mr. Lin- {coln’s private secretary, went to the upper room In the house of Mr. Wills which Mr. Lincoln occupled, to report for duty, and remained with the President while he finished writing the Gettysburg address, during the short leisure he could utilize for this purpose before being called to take his place in the pro- cession, which was announced on the program to move promptly at 10 o'clock. “There is neither ricord evidence nor well-founded tradition that Mr. Lincoln did any . writing, or made any notes, on the journey between Washington and Gettysburg. Mr. Lincoln carried in his pocket the autograph manuscript of so much of his address as he had written at Washington the day before. * * * It fills one page of the letter-paper at that time habitually used in_the Executive Mansion, containing the plainly printed blank heading. * * * “This portion of the manuscript begins with the line TFour score and seven years ago' and ends with ‘It is rather for us the living,' eto The whole of this first ine- teen lines—is written In ink in the President’s strong clear hand, with- MAGAZINE SECTION The Sundlay . St WASHINGTON, D. -C, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 18. 1923, ufwfifichhm, A (rear IGTTEN, CoMERUA M/ W%'MdMfi%W 20l (Phews OO CrLGTV Myths Which Surround Record of Preparation of Speech Cleared Away by Testimony From Those Who Were With Mar- tyr President—Full Story of Greatest Public Utterance in English Presented—Not Written on Train on Way to Ceremony, Says Student of Lincoln—Classic Which Put Great Leader on Level With Pericles—Came to Weary Assemblage at Close of Long Program of Dedication for Cemetery on Battlefield. Cxecutive Maunsion, Weskisngto, A o Lot Lo arfelBos HETT (hiTCas, 07 Gry (haTTI o CoONtbans oD 8D, n~7fi.-[~«a IEos 10 (e, v 020 prafioniTy ole, V3Tl . o Cow neTT ' who "o o £, T o gony £ fuing b Fom “_\‘.4/4640. ' THE ABOVE IS THE PORTION OF THE ADDRESS WRITTEN ON A WHITE HOUSE LETTERHEAD, o s e Lo bl pusctis Hm ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS HELD IN HIS HAND BY LINCOLN DURING ITS DELIVERY. THE FIRST PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT WAS WRITTEN IN INK ON A PAGE OF THE WHITE HOUSE LETTER PAPER, AND WAS CARRIED BY LINCOLN IN HIS POCKET WHEN HE WENT TO GETTYSBURG. HE DID NO WRITING ON THE TRAIN. THE SECOND PART WAS WRIT- TEN WITH A PENCIL ON A BLUISH-GRAY FOO LSCAP PAPER, AT GETTYSBURG, IN THE HOUSE OF JUDGE WILLS, ON THE MORNING OF THE DAY THE ADDRESS WAS DELIVERED. AS LINCOLN SPOKE, HE MADE SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE WORDING. out blot or erasure; and the last line s In the following form: Wt is rather for us the living to stand here,’ the last three words being, like the rest, in ink, From the fact that this sentence is Incomplete, we may infer that at the time of writing it in Washington the remainder of the sentence was also written in Ink on another plece of paper. Bu when, at Gettysburg on the morning of the ceremonies, Mr. Lincoln finished his manuscript, he used a lead penctl, with which ‘he crossed out the last three words of the first page, and wrote above them in pencil, “We here be dedica—' at which point he took up a new half sheet of paper—not white paper as before, but a bullish- gray foolscap of large size with wide lines, habitually used by him for long or formal documents—and on this he wrote, all in pencll, the remainder of the word and of the first draft of the address, comprising a total of nine lines and a half. wrhe time oocupied in this finas writing was probably about half an hour.” ERE R HE procession arrived about 11 o'clock at the platform. A half hour later came Mr. Everett, and It is the impression of the specta- tors that he did not read from the written pages; at any rate, he made a few changes in the wording of his address, the most notable being the interpolation of the words, “Un- der God” (“that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of free- dom"). It is not the general consensus of opinion that the address, at the time, made a very great Impression upon the audience, tired (most of them were standing) after Mr. Everett's long speech. An old lady who as a young girl of fifteen stood in front just under the platform, told the present writer a few years afo that “the homellest man I ever saw, got up and spoke & few words and ‘we all went home. As is well known, the first real appreciation of the beauty of the Gettysburg address came from across the seas, when the Edinburgh Review stated that no other address, except that of Pericles made in eulogy of the heroes of the Peloponnesian wa ocould compare with it. The London Saturday Review, the Spectator and other English periodicals spoke of it in the highest terms. Gen. James B. Fry, who rode in the there was further delay, so it was|car with the President on the journey noon before the orator of the day to Gettysburg, says (In Ben: Perley arose to make his address. It was carefully memorized, dellvered with every oratorical effect, and it held e sssembled multitude in rapt at- tention for two hours. When the band had played an in- terlude Mr. Linooln stepped forward, holding in his hand the two pleces of paper described in the foregoing. {3 Poore’s “Reminiscencies of of Abra- ham Lincoln”): ¥1 have no recollec- tion of seelng him writing, or even reading his speech during the Journsy; In fact, there was hardly any opportunity for him to read or write” Judge Wills of Gettysburg belleves that the address was written in his house, and it is probable that at least a part’ of it was written there, as stated so particularly by Mr. Nicolay. EE EN: PERLEY POORE, in his “Reminiscences,” states that Mr. Lincoln's remarks at.Gettysburg “‘were ‘written in the car on the way from ‘Washington to the battlefleld, upon a plece of pasteboard held on his knee,” and this story has appeared in many books on Lincoln. I think its origin can be traced to Isaac N. Arnold’s “Life.” This is his story: “President Lincoln, while in the cars on his way from the White House to the battlefield, was noti- fled that he would be expected to make some remarks also. Asking for some paper, s rough sheet of foolscap was handed to him, and, re- tiring to & seat by himself, with a pencil, he wrote the address. . . . Describing the delivery, Mr. Arnol says: “The vast audience ‘was in- stantly hushed, and hung upon every word’' and syllable . . . all his hearers realized that the words he was speaking would live as long as the language. . . . As he closed. and the tears and sobs and cheers which expressed the emotion of the people subsided, he turned to Everett and, grasping his hand, sald: ‘T congratulate you on your success.” The orator grace. fully replied: “Ah, Mr, President, how gladly would I exchange all my hun- dred pages to have been the author of your twenty lines.'" There are 80 many inscouracies in this that It is not difficult to class the story of the writing of the address on the train as one of them. Mr. Lincoln did not first hear of the fact that he was expected to make some remarks “while in the cars.” Nor was It apparent to many people in the audience that “the words he was speaking would live as long as the language.” In fact, Mr. Seward was disappointed, and sald so. Nor | did Mr. Lincoln, after the “tears and sobs,” turn to Mr. Everett with con- gratulatory remarks, nor did Mr. Everett pass on the poetical thought which is to be found in Armold's “Life.” He could hardly have done 80 and then sent to Mr. Lincoln on Lincoln’s Immortal Gettysburg Address Delivered Sixty Years Ago once.) “Herndon told me” (quoting from Welk's “The Real Lincoln") “that these pamphlets were sent to him by Parker and that he was €o deeply Impressed by chem that he turned them over to Lincoln. The latter folded and carried them in his pocket to read. ‘That he did read them,' said Herndon, after he had opened the packages, ‘is shown by the fact that he indorsed them by marking several paragraphs with his pen’ He then called my attention to two paragraphs around which Lin- coln had drawn his pen. In one of them, Parker sald: ‘Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.’ In another place which Lin- coln had underscored, he satd: ‘Slavery is in flagrant violation of the institutions of America—direct government, over all the peopls, by all the people, for all the people.’ Herndon insisted it was from this source that Lincoln drew the inspira- tion for the closing paragraph of his famous Gettysburg address.” Everything that has to do with Lincoln is of interest to vast num- bers of the American people. All THIS.IS THE PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN MENTIONED IN MR, ELLS- WORTH'S ARTICLE. ON THE TABLE AT LINCOLN'S SIDE'IS THE ENVELOPE WHICH CONTAINED “EDWARD EVERETT'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. THE PORTRAIT IS VERY RARE, FOR THE NEGATIVE WAS DESTROYED AFTER ONLY A FEW PRINTS WERE MADE. IT IS FROM THE FAMOU: TION. the following day this letter, printad‘ by Mr. Nicolay: “My Dear Sir: “Not wishing to intrude upon your privacy when you must be much en- gaged, I beg leave In this way to thank you very sincerely for your great thoughtfulness for my daugh- ters accommodation on the plat- form yesterday, and much kindness to me and mine at Gettysburg. Per- mit me also to express my great appreciation of the thoughts ex- pressed by you with such eloquent simplicity and appropriateness at the consecration of the cemetery. I should be glad if I could flatter my- self that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did In two minutes. My son, who parted from me at Baltimore, and my daughter concur in this state- ment.” Of course, the basis for the remark attributed by Mr. Armold to Mr. Everett at the close of the address is in this letter. — Lord Charnwood, in his recent| study of Lincoln, wherein he has so | admirably summed up the facts of that great life, with the deductions of a clear-thinking student of states- manship as seen from across the water and at a distance of sixty yoars, says this of the Gettysburg address: “The few words of Abraham Lin- coln were such as perhaps sank deep but left his audience unaware that a classic had been spoken which would endure with the English lan- guage. The most literary man pres- ent was also Lincoln’s greatest ad- mirer, young John Hay. To him it | seemed that Mr. Everett spoke per- fectly and %the old man' gracefully for him.” * % xx 'R. Nicolay, in his Century arti- cle, refers to four possible sources from which the closing phrase might have been drawn, “that government of the people, by the people, for the peopls, shall not perish from the earth,” one of them a speech by Theodore Parker “de- livered at the New England Anti- Slavery Convention, Boston, May 29, 1850." In Jesse Welk's recently fssued book, “The Real Lincoln,” based on much research and chiefly on infor- mation furnished by Mr. Welk over many years by Mr. Herndbn, Lin- coln’s law partner from 1843 to the end (the partpership was never dis- solved, except, in the language of Mr. Herndon, “by the bullet of John Wilkes Booth in April. 186 he tells the following story: Mr. Weik and Mr. Herndon, searching through Mr. Lincoln's papers, came across a bundle with the famous “When you can’t find it anywhere else look into | his utterances, this” in Lincoln’s handwriting, on the wrapper. Among the contents were two printed sermons by Theo- dore Parker, delivered, says Mr. Welk, *“in the summer of 1858." (Mr. Nico- lay says at a convention in 1850—per- haps both are right, as sermons have sometimes been delivered more than MESERVE COLLEC- the minutiae of his life are of value, and espectally 1 that bears upon of all hls utter- ances the Gettysburg address ranks the highest. For thirty years Lin- coln had been a thinker and an orator, the putting together of effect- ive phrases came easy to him, but never had he so effectively grouped words as In this great speech, de- livered in a few moments, its echo undying, Its rhythmical cadences still iingering in the hearts of the people. (Copyright, 1923, In Unite tes and Great Britain by North Ame:ican Newspsper Alliance. A ts reserved.) The Odor of Bees. AT the entrance of every beehive, during the season of the honey flow, stand guards to prevent the in- vasion of strange bees. Half a dozen of the nectar-laden Insects fly to the tiny door. To the human eye they look exactly alike, but one among them is not allowed to pass the sen- tries, who recognize him as an en- emy. The sense by which they de- tect him, according to an Investigator oconnected with the Smithsonian In- stitution, s not sight, but smell In the course of his studles the man of sclence has trained his nose until he can recognize the three castes of bees—queens, drones and workers— merely by their odor. His experi- ments show that the bees themselves recognize one another by individual odors and use the sense of smell for as many purposes as human beings use thelr eves and ears. Worker bees, he says, returning to the hives from the flelds, pass the guards un- molested, because they carry the proper sign, although the hive odor they convey ls fainter than when they left the hive, and Is also to & very large degree masked by the odors of the neotar and the pollen with which they have loaded them~ selves. Growing Grapes on Sand. A SAND dune {s about tne last place on earth one would expect to see as the base for a vineyard, yet such an extraordinary sight s pre- sonted In parts of southern France. In the neighborhood of Blarrits there may be seen flouristisZ ‘vineyards that grow on the dunes of quarts sand cast up by the ocean and driven by the windsa These vineyards are protected by palisades and produce great quanti- tles of excellent grapes. They are a modern outgrowth of the ancient Brittany shore vineyards, in which the plants were simply buried in the warm sand and the grapes were de- veloped almost on the surface of the soll. At that time no means had been devised to protect the vines, and when the wind bverwhelmed them with sand the plants were removed to another locality, from which prac- tice arose a local law that treated vineyards as movable property.