Dedication Day in Gettysburg

By Leon Reed · Originally published January 2023 · pp. 6

by Leon Reed GETTYSBURG, Pa.—A collection of Gettysburg royalty: Park Superintendent Steve Sims, Gettysburg College President Robert Iuliano, Gettysburg Foundation President Wayne Motts, Lincoln Fellowship President the Reverend Steve Herr, and Gettysburg Forum chair Harold Holzer, together with superstar historians John Meacham and Dr. Allen Guelzo, gathered in the National Cemetery on November 19 to celebrate the 159th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Dedication Day in Gettysburg The event took place at the Rostrum and was attended by several hundred people, many of whom arrived an hour or more before the ceremony started. Gettysburg was hit by a cold snap, but the weather on the 19th was in the upper 30s and sunny. Mercifully, the wind, which put on a real show the next day, was relatively still on Saturday. The Dedication Day ceremony is one of Gettysburg’s most durable traditions, dating back to 1938. Past speakers have included presidents Truman and Eisenhower, Supreme Court

Gettysburg Park superintendent Steve Sims. (Destination Gettysburg)

John Meacham recited Gettysburg Address. (Destination Gettysburg)

justices Scalia and O’Connor, authors Carl Sandberg, Shelby Foote, Gary Gallagher, and TV and film personalities Ken Burns, Stephen Spielberg, LeVar Burton. The ceremony started with a wreath laying at the Soldiers National Monument with musical accompaniment by the Federal City Brass Band. The wreath laying featured historical comments by Ranger Christopher Gwinn, chief of interpretation and education for Gettysburg National Military Park. The event continued at the Rostrum. In brief remarks, Sims commented that “national cemeteries have a protected atmosphere of peace, calm, and reflection. We ensure the dignity of the final resting place of those who gave their lives for their country.” Motts commented that “Each soldier who died here has a story and we should not ever forget those stories…Their sacrifice had meaning and continues to have meaning.” Iuliano noted with pride that the college community has been involved since the first day of the battle. “On July 1, 1863, our college stood in the midst of two armies’ great battle. After the battle, our alumnus, David Wills invited the president to come make ‘a few appropriate remarks’ and “our students and faculty walked to the square and walked with the president for the ceremony.” In his featured presentation, Guelzo extolled Lincoln’s speech and pointed to its present day relevance. “In 272 terse and simple words, he laid out the past (‘four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth…’), present (‘now we are engaged in a great civil war…’), and future (“we here highly resolve…’), and it was a sensation from the beginning.” He went on to note that Lincoln also “laid out three fundamental elements of a democracy: consent (‘government of the people’),… people’s voice in the affairs of the nation (‘by the people’),… and that a government serves the interests of the people (‘for the people’)…Without these three distinctions, you have no democracy.” “Lincoln’s address was a huge consecrated essay on why the American democracy had been founded, why it was worth sacrificing to preserve, and what

we could anticipate if it emerged whole from the conflict. It would be a ‘new birth of freedom.’” “But we today are not sure that we are equal to the task of preserving democracy…We here hold the power and bear the responsibility…Lincoln reminded us that it is we who must dedicate ourselves, we who must highly resolve, we who must decide if a democracy can survive the forces that despise it.” In brief remarks before he recited the Gettysburg Address, Meacham observed that “Lincoln kept the American experiment in self-government alive when all seemed lost…Ordinary people black and white, sacrificed to preserve the Union…Many of those are buried here. We are here to commemorate their deeds. We pray for the repose of their souls and the strength to be worthy of their sacrifices and to be worthy stewards as well of Lincoln’s ultimate vision of the nation that the Declaration of Independence must be paramount and that democracy must survive and thrive…Abraham Lincoln and the honored dead of this place have shown us the way…making that is the unlimitable work of our times.” An especially moving part of the

elebration was the naturalization ceremony for 16 brand new U.S. citizens, symbolizing Lincoln’s position as the 16th president. The new citizens were a literal United Nations, coming from Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, China, Mexico, Moldova, Peru, the Philippines, and Vietnam. After the simple ceremony and administration of the oath, a recorded greeting from President Biden, and congratulatory remarks by Shelly Lowe, a proud Navajo and Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the several hundred audience members rose together and gave an enthusiastic round of applause to greet their newest fellow Americans. Besides the Federal City Brass Band, other musical accompaniment was provided by the Gettysburg Area High School Ceremonial Band (National Anthem and America the Beautiful), Wayne Hill (Battle Hymn of the Republic), and Federal City Brass Band leader Jari Villanueva (Taps). The colors were presented by the 11th Pennsylvania Fife and Drum Corps Color Guard. The Reverend Dr. Guy Erwin, President of the United Lutheran Seminary, gave the Invocation.