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Gettysburg Address Dbq

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The Civil War and the Gettysburg Address are two of the most major events in American history regarding slavery/racism which are constantly used as a reference to look back at how the country has developed and changed since then. The Civil War and the Gettysburg Address represent an old America with flaws, and although we have undoubtedly changed since then, many people have differing beliefs on how we have changed (either for the better or for the worse). For example, the excerpt by Robert Hicks, from Why the Civil War Still Matters, reflects on America's past attitudes in the War and the Gettysburg Address to emphasize how we have become a more accepting, united, and multiethnic country. On the other hand, the excerpt by Charles M. Blow, …show more content…

By referring back as support to Abraham Lincoln’s opening words in his Gettysburg Address speech, Blow states how the country of unity and equality which Lincoln ever so dreamed of back then is not an existing reality even today. “Those are the opening words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and they seem eerily prescient today because once again this country finds itself increasingly divided and pondering the future of this great union and the very ideas of liberty and equality for all.” Blow begins his excerpt by introducing his opinion on the contradicting topic by stating how even though Lincoln dreamed and strived for a united country as seen in his speech, the America seen today is still separating and dividing itself in its own modern ways, creating for itself a future that may not contain the stable equality and unity which Lincoln expressed in his Gettysburg Address speech. Blow seems to strongly support his claim of a modern divided America by using many modern political divisions in today’s America that display this idea of a diverging and separated nation. “The gap is growing between liberals and conservatives, the rich and the not rich, intergenerational privilege and new-immigrant power, patriarchy and gender equality, the expanders of liberty and the withholders of it.” Blow explains how over the past years, the country has separated through a widening of the gaps between different types of groups of people in the country which have very different ideas and beliefs that clash against each other. Blow strengthens his evidence by giving specific examples of the gaps seen in modern America such as the occurrence of secessions in both the

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