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Copland: Lincoln Portrait
Lyrics
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
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
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 fruits of their labor, or from
One race of men as an apology for enslaving another race
It is the same tyrannical principle."
Lincoln was a quiet man
Abe Lincoln was a quiet and 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, 16th 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
And 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