Lincoln Portrait Lyrics

Aaron Copland Lincoln Portrait

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history." That is
what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said.
"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this
congress and this administration will be remembered in
spite of ourselves. No personal significance or
insignificance can spare one or another of us. The
fiery trial
through which we pass will light us down in honor or
dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here,
hold
the power and bear the responsibility." [Annual Message
to Congress, December 1, 1862]
He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived
in Illinois. And this is what he said. This is what Abe
Lincoln said:
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with
difficulty
and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new,
so we must think anew and act anew. We must
disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our
country." [Annual Message to Congress, December 1,
1862]
When standing erect he was six feet four inches tall,
and this is what he said.
He said: "It is the eternal struggle between two
principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It
is the same
spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread, and
I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether
from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the
people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of
their labor,
or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving
another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."
[Lincoln-Douglas debates, October 15, 1858]
Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and a
melancholy man. But when he spoke of democracy,
this is what he said.
He said: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be
a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the
difference, is no democracy."
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of these United
States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen.
For on the battleground at Gettysburg, this is what he
said.
He said: "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 government of the people, by the people, and for
the people shall not perish from the earth."
[Gettysburg Address]