The Reformed Advisor

Robert P. George: What Lincoln Really Said at Gettysburg

Posted on November 22, 2013 in Religious Freedom by

If you’re not familiar with the writings of Robert P. George, you should be. The brilliant professor of law at Princeton is well respected in most circles for his keen insight into matters of law and public policy. But he is also respected as a man of faith that believes in the conservative, traditional values America was founded upon.

After President Obama removed the words “under God” from his recitation of the Gettysburg address this year an article of Dr. George’s surfaced in which he addressed the issue. Defenders of the president claim that Obama was merely quoting one of the “other copies” of the Gettysburg address in which the words “under God” do not appear. Indeed at least five copies of the address exist and at least two o those copies do not have the words “under God” in them. But this excuse is not acceptable, as Dr. George explains:

“Of course, none of these copies is actually the Gettysburg Address. The Gettysburg Address is the set of words actually spoken by Lincoln at Gettysburg. And, as it happens, we know what those words are. (The Bliss copy nearly perfectly reproduces them.) Three entirely independent reporters, including a reporter for the Associated Press, telegraphed their transcriptions of Lincoln’s remarks to their editors immediately after the president spoke. All three transcriptions include the words “under God,” and no contemporaneous report omits them. There isn’t really room for equivocation or evasion: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address—one of the founding texts of the American republic—expressly characterizes the United States as a nation under God.” Click here for original article.

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