This is a lecture course that will use two short YouTube videos reciting the Gettysburg Address (one of them a song) and a slideshow to explain the significance of the Gettysburg Address, when it was given, and its importance for our own time. The course will fall into 5 parts:
1.	What, Where, When, and Why did the Gettysburg Address happen? This part will include a video (2 minutes and 48 seconds in length) reciting the speech. The battle of Gettysburg will be described and its context in the American Civil War will be explained.
2.	What was Lincoln’s agenda when he was elected and how had it changed by the time he gave the Gettysburg Address? This part will explain the basic principles of Lincoln Republicanism as: (1) defending free labor in the North and extending it into the West by supporting business, industry, and family farms; (2) supporting a national economy based on industry, business, and farming by building roads, railroads and other infrastructure, and by giving land to establish “land grant” universities, and by giving 160 acres of federal land to Homesteaders who farmed their land at least 5 years; and (3), after two years of bloody war led to the Emancipation Proclamation, to ensuring that slavery was replaced by democracy and rights of citizenship as part of a generous reconstruction period to restore rights to Southern states.
3.	What did Lincoln mean by “new birth of freedom?”  Lincoln appealed to the ideal of equality and freedom in the Declaration of Independence, as opposed to features in the constitution that favored state governments even as they weakened democracy and rights of citizenship. His phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people” summed up his view of democracy and the national will as opposed to regional power centers or privileged groups. Thus he opposed the power of bankers and industrialists in the North and plantation owners in the South when they opposed equality and democracy.
4.	How was the “new birth of freedom” implemented? (1) The Homestead Act and support for the Transcontinental Railroad (to benefit the West) were followed by the 13th amendment and the Freedman’s Bureau to benefit the South—using federal tax revenues to benefit common people, not just the rich. (2) After his death and because of Southern resistance to the 13th amendment, Congress enacted the 14th and 15th amendments to define citizen’s rights and enforce the 13th amendment. (3) Under President Grant, the Department of Justice was created in 1870 to enforce a civil rights act and the 14th and 15th amendments against the KKK and other violent, illegal forms of resistance. (4) Defense of constitutional civil rights remains a central task of the U.S. Justice Department today.
5.	Conclusion with a singing version of the Gettysburg Address. A 3 minute 34 second video of a song by Sherri Boekweg will conclude the course as a fun way of summarizing.