Video
Ranger Reflections: Responding to Lincoln's Second Address
Transcript
I grew up in Tennessee, raised in a little tiny mountain town called Elizabethtown Tennessee which is in the peaks of the Smokies. I was not raised that Lincoln was a hero, not in family circles or even academic circles. When I was a child the south was still recovering from the civil war so when I went to school they didn't have too many positive things to say about him.
So actually when I started working here about 11 years ago, I didn't have any heritage feelings toward Lincoln because he just wasn't really taught to us on positive terms or even as a part of the south. I had ancestors there at Appomattox so when I started here 11 years ago, I will never forget the first night I ever worked at the Lincoln Memorial. Standing in there, I felt like I was literally in hostile territory and when you're standing there and you've got this heritage and here's this big statue looming over you, I felt very uncomfortable. The first time I started working there and you look over on the south wall- there's the Gettysburg Address. You look over on the north wall- there's the second inaugural and the first time I read it, it made me angry because he does state in there, he does lay blame on the south. And that part of it kind of made me feel a little resentful because it's like not all of it was the south's fault.
Not too long after I started working here I accepted an assignment in which I would be working on the second inaugural and trying to understand what Lincoln was trying to accomplish with this speech. From doing this assignment I got a better understanding of Lincoln, a better understanding of what he was trying to accomplish, why he did the things that he did. It also gave me a better appreciation of him in which seeing him in a better light, the fact that he was trying to really accomplish the healing of the nation, and he did want the south treated generously. He wanted them brought into the union and to help them recover so that both sides could come together and move on. Just put the war behind them, forgive each other, and to help rebuild and move on. And because of all this because seeing where he was going with this, this kind of helped me have a better appreciation of him, and it also made me feel a lot better about him, so that whenever now when I work in the Lincoln Memorial, I have become friends with him. And it is like working in a place where an old friend lives.
Description
Join Ranger Kathryn Williams as she shares her changing experience with the Lincoln Memorial. She grew up in the South and was affected by the Civil War more than 100 years later, which influenced her initial feelings about the memorial. She discusses her journey with Lincoln’s story through the words of the second inaugural address as she discovers meaning and, eventually, a sense of friendship.
Duration
3 minutes, 2 seconds
Credit
NPS Video
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