TOPICS > Nation  Lincoln’s words to honor loss spark debate and
dedication to American freedom  November 19, 2013 at 12:00 AM
EST President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address articulated a
powerful message 150 years ago that endures today. How did a
speech with so few words come to effect such great meaning in
American history? Drew Gilpin Faust of Harvard University and
Richard Norton Smith of George Mason University join Jeffrey
Brown to offer reflections.   JEFFREY BROWN: And joining me now,
Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University, historian
and author, whose books include “This Republic of Suffering:
Death and the American Civil War,” and NewsHour regular
presidential historian Richard Norton Smith of George Mason
University. He’s formerly director of the Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library and Museum in Illinois.  And, Drew Faust, I
want to start with you.  By the fall of 1863, the toll, the
suffering, it was all very clear. Set the context for thinking
about this speech. What was Lincoln out to do