Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama's First Inaugural (revisited)

Obama stated that, "... we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents."

Which of our founding documents informed Obama's Inaugural Address?

Only two texts were cited explicitly:
The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, 13:11 ["... set aside childish things"]
and
Thomas Paine's The American Crisis ["Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).]"
Tho' Paine's pamphlet could be considered a "founding document", to do so is a stretch. Few would argue that St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians is one of our founding documents.

The standard list of "founding documents" is short: The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
A third document, much later than these two, frequently informs our understanding of our country: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Obama references the Declaration directly:
"The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."
which paraphrases the Declaration's assertion that
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
He alludes to the Constitution:
"Our founding fathers ... faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations."
BUT... he quotes only the Preamble, and that only twice, referencing "we the people, and "common defense".

Obama's mention of the "rights of man" is somewhat ambiguous - it could plausibly reference either another Paine pamphlet (The Rights of Man, 1791), or the Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789 - a French Revolutionary document.
Given that Obama elsewhere quotes Paine's American Crisis, the Paine pamphlet seems the likely target of Obama's reference - and could more legitimately be considered a (minor) "founding document".

Obama once obliquely references Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, when he speaks of
"... the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."
That rhetorical flourish, "their full measure of happiness," is reminiscent of Lincoln:
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—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... for the people... shall not perish from the earth."
I suggest that Obama's debt to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address goes beyond this brief rhetorical flourish.

Indeed - reading Obama's First Inaugural and then reading Lincoln's above-cited passage suggests that it is Lincoln's sentiment that Obama tried to capture throughout his Address:
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work..."
Does anyone else see this?

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