GETTYSBURG, PA., Aug. 19, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Late August means college students are returning to campuses around the U.S., but at Gettysburg College, especially this year, there will be a tradition that brings attention to the most famous speech in American history, a speech that experts say today's leaders in Washington and all Americans would do well to heed.
The 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address is approaching. In 1863, Gettysburg College students walked with President Lincoln to the newly opened Gettysburg National Cemetery, where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.
On August 22, faculty, staff, students and community members will escort the 709 first-year students at the college through the streets of historic Gettysburg, recreating the original procession.
The walk begins at 6:30 p.m. Upon arrival at the National Cemetery at Gettysburg National Military Park, Susan Eisenhower, chair emeritus of the Gettysburg College Eisenhower Institute and granddaughter of the former president, will deliver a reading of the address.
Media covering the event can view the walk, the speech, the battlefields and national cemetery, the town and the campus. Interviews with townspeople, Eisenhower, political leaders, college students and Lincoln experts will be available.
New York Times best-selling author Allen Guelzo, who is the Henry R. Luce III Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College and director of the Civil War Era Studies Program, says, "In this short speech, Lincoln answered the basic question of whether democracy works. He pointed to the graves of the brave soldiers to prove that ordinary people are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Today, what is going to rescue this nation from our economic woes and make us more secure globally? We need a new birth of freedom. Who will call us to it? Lincoln showed us the way we must govern with liberty and power working together. Power must serve liberty. Our Founding Fathers knew that. Are we still singing that song? This re-enactment, and especially the participation of young students who will be tomorrow's leaders, gives me hope. But we need leaders to pay attention and call all of us to sacrifice now."