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Bet you never knew this, but there are three
presidents who have a connection to Gettysburg...
Four score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth upon 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 battlefield 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 this nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate
- we cannot 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 this government of the people, by the people,
and for the people shall not perish from this earth. |
 Abraham
Lincoln is the most well known, even though he only spent one night
there. He did give a memorable dedication at the Soldiers’ National
Cemetery. His Gettysburg Address only lasted a few minutes, yet will
always be remembered as the heart of what our country is all about.
It certainly meant a lot during the Civil War and still is fitting today...
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 But,
did you know that President Dwight D. Eisenhower purchased a farm on the
west side of Seminary  Ridge
during the 1950s. While he was in office, he had a heart attack and for
a time, this farm was considered the White House while he recovered. President
Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, then retired
 to
this farm, now owned by the Park Service. You can go on a tour
of the house and grounds. The view from the patio looks out on Seminary
Ridge. The first time my BMC and BFC toured the house, they started calling
each other Mike and Amy (Ike and Mamie). (In case you haven’t already
figured it out, my BMC and BFC are just a little peculiar!)
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And finally, President Richard M. Nixon’s great grandfather, George,
died of his wounds at Gettysburg on July 14, 1863, and he is buried
in the National Cemetery.
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