During the American Civil War, invading Confederate forces came within four miles of the White House. Citizens of the Capitol fled the city, and a steamboat was prepared for President Lincoln in case he had to depart down the Potomac River.

Instead of a boat ride away from danger, Lincoln rode out to Union lines forming at Fort Stevens to withstand the assault. There, wounded Union veterans of previous battles, new recruits rushed to the fort and rear-echelon soldiers were all that stood before the approaching rebel army. Lincoln was so close to the fighting, a surgeon standing next to him was hit. At the last minute, tough Union combat reinforcements arrived and the United States Army defeated the onslaught against our nation’s capital city. It would be another 157 years before an invading Confederate flag was carried into the Capitol.

As an Owl who appreciates holidays, the 4th of July is special. It falls on a month which is quite significant in American history. It commemorates the day in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed. Abraham Lincoln referred to this document when he commemorated the fallen at the Battle of Gettysburg which happened in July 1863. He addressed those assembled at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave this short, immortal speech.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 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.”

Lincoln reminded his listeners of simple truths about America. We are a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. He once again advanced the American foundation principle which bends ever so slowly, but ever so surely, toward freedom and fairness for all. After Lincoln reminded us what the Declaration said when published that long ago July 4, no dukes, dictators or slave drivers could ever say they didn’t understand what America was about. Every American who reads Lincoln’s speech, which will forever describe our country’s ideals, can rightly claim a share of this land of liberty. This declaration, this dedication, speaks for all of us.

I’ve flown over the Gettysburg battlefield. Today it is almost unnaturally peaceful. I imagine the hope of simply being alive in a quiet, serene, free land helped inspire those who fought for our country those many years ago.

Let’s always be proud of a land where our touchstone is that all men are created equal.