 The cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont company maker of better things for better living through chemistry Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is the cavalcade of America sponsored by DuPont This week three men everywhere honor the birthday of Abraham Lincoln So tonight cavalcade brings to you a new version of an American classic It is a story beloved by millions a story of Lincoln and a wounded Confederate soldier The perfect tribute by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrew Tonight's play was especially written for cavalcade by Rachel Hayes Our star portraying Abraham Lincoln is Edwin Jerome The perfect tribute with Edwin Jerome as Lincoln on the cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont company Who shall recognize and measure the stature of emperor of minister president? Who shall weigh such high matters of firmness? First they must be placed in time In this case, it is the morning of November 18th 1863 It is the president we seek to measure and so it is in the White House among those statesmen closest to him That we look for clues to his greatness to know his moods from day to day His high status But death complicates all studies The democratic dream is reached by torturous roots Journeying its twisted miles up through the jungles of the years Grant trapped the Chattanooga Burnside the siege at Knoxville one of his sons buried the other ill a message to Congress to be prepared And only a handful of victors And in the White House in the anti-roam of the president's office Let us look at seekers for power men with little delures men with hidden fears Looking with their whiskers and massive heads like statesmen the president will be down on the moment gentlemen He's saying goodbye to young master Pat taking his time about it. Isn't that master Pat has been very ill, Mr. Steven he's Mr. Lincoln's favorite child as you know, I tell me hey, do you think the President is angry because we begged off going to get it back. Well, he didn't mention it Between you and me I think a very poor strategy on the part of Lincoln and Stuart going to get it back at a time like this reminding the country of our Enormous losses Lincoln and Stuart are dead cards politically. Anyway, both of them the dead going to eulogize the dead I'm not bad. I tell you Oh here's old aid now You'll you'll take care of those matters for me starting won't you I have a lot of them, Mr. Mr. Chase, Mr. Morning. Good morning, Mr. President. It was good of you gentlemen to come and see me off About this Union Pacific franchise, Mr. President Mr. Stanton will speak for me in all these matters, Mr. Chase. We are keeping them waiting down at the station About your speech at Gettysburg, Mr. President We've thought it expedient to advise you that I wish you would advise me gentlemen. I Can't think what to say there For months now I've been searching my soul for words humble enough to say over those heroic dead Words to embrace what all of them fought for them blue and gray Or they're all of them are dead, you know, I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you, Mr. President We can count on Edward Edward to say the right thing. He's never failed yet And this one ought to be good taking him close on to six months, right? Or so he would have us believe I must say I think the man has a bit of gall putting off these Dedication ceremonies from June to November just so he could polish up his speech Man like Edward ever gets things pretty much his own way if he's a mind too I believe he intends to speak at some length, too and That's why we thought it might be well if the president would restrict his address to a few well-chosen words Cold and get his burger November and they won't be in a mood to hear two-line lengthy orations, you know I quite agree with you gentlemen And now shall we go? I take it Mrs. Lincoln has decided to remain here with Master Tad She had intended to leave Tad in the care of his excellent doctors, but She got some bad news recently. Oh really? Of other words reported killed in action the fourth Kentucky You see gentlemen how they're dead. They're all so ours Well, there'll be time a little time on the train to give this matter further thought You gentlemen mark my words Grant will break through at Chattanooga soon of everything but Mr. Hey, I understand Grant in extremely dangerous position. Isn't that so Mr. President? Well, sir, I can only repeat what they say about General Grant Where that man goes things seem to get that with the Tennessee River at his back and brags men in front of him on the height Submissionary Ridge, isn't it possible? He's bitten off more than he can chew Well now General Grant isn't exactly alone with his back to the river in his front to the ring You must have an army somewhere out there Sir Sander boys in the spoke are asking for you like the game of whiskey in the way Well, I'm uncommon found a twist. Mr. Blair. You coming with the president No, thank you. You gentlemen go right ahead. I have a few things to do myself May I borrow a sheet of paper and a pencil from you, Mr. Certainly, Mr. President. Yes, a pencil. Thank you, sir. I'll tell the boy to fetch you a sample of paper Don't bother the back of this portfolio will do just a few notes for my address to the people at Gettysburg He sits there alone A creaking wooden coach of a train skirting the chest He lets the end of the borrowed pencil seems to write The word during the weeks before still comes slow slow What can a man say to those who are buried dead dead? Words about wooden things mere labels of feelings Capturing only the farthest echoing the part in mind What can a man say seeing his city smolder And the hopes of men crying out in the agony of twisted steel He does not even dare to hope he knows what to say But when the presidential train rolls into Gettysburg station Abraham Lincoln has written down 266 words on a torn scrap of paper with a borrowed pencil Gettysburg, Gettysburg This way, Mr. President. Here's your carry. Well, Lieutenant, if there are any telegrams for me, bring them to the wheel's house. Oh, Mr. Everett. Mr. Everett. Yes, Mr. President. I'm glad to see you, sir. I understand both of us are staying at Mr. Wheel's house and Mr. Seward staying at the harbour Why don't you share my carry? All right. Thank you, Mr. President. I am honored. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening, Judge Wheel. Welcome to Gettysburg. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Your trip must have been tiring, Mr. President. You follow me. I'll show you to your room. Supper will be ready in an hour. Thank you, sir. Gettysburg seems to be full of activity tonight. Yes, that's so, Mr. Everett. Those bands have been going all day and there's a stump speech on every street corner. One would think it's a political convention we're holding. Here we are. This is your room, Mr. President. Uh, won't you gentlemen come in for a few moments? I think I'll leave early with your permission, Mr. President. My voice, you know. I must save it for my oration at the battlefield tomorrow. Yes. Well, then, good night, Mr. Everett. Good night, Mr. President. Well, good night, sir. Well, I hope you'll be comfortable here, Mr. President. Well, I'm glad to see the bed has no footboard. I'll be able to sleep stretched out for a change. You have your excellent secretary, Mr. Hay, to thank for that, Mr. President. I had no idea you were quite so tall. Uh, come in. These two telegrams just arrived for you, Mr. President. Oh, thank you, Lieutenant. Hmm. Both from the Secretary of War, I see. I hope to be one for Mrs. Lincoln. This one's good news, right? Grant is starting battle at Chattanooga. Good. And this, thank God. Mrs. Lincoln reports your son's health is a great deal better. Thank God. In the morning the bands began again. And Lincoln and tall silk hat and white gloves rode a chestnut horse up to the cemetery. There a multitude stood above the dead. Troops, old men, boys, politicians, statesmen, the ambassadors of empires waited like a heavy and silent sea. Behind them stretched the long, slow-running slopes of land back to the dim bulk of the Allegheny. Above them, the November sun glitted like steel. Edward Everett spoke for two hours. His chiseled sentences delighted the crowd down to the very last word. Through the latest period of recorded time in the glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page than that which relates to the battle of Gettysburg. And seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent the 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. As Abraham Lincoln speaks these words, his eyes look out over the men and women who have come to Gettysburg on this day to honor the dead who fell here in the bloodiest battle in recorded history. Promoters are here. Men with dollar cigars and heavy gold watch chains. It is for us to living, the president is saying, but they don't hear him. The local politicians, the judges, ladies in black crinolines, black lace parasols. Their parasols bobbing up and down as they talk animatedly to one another and nod smilingly to the beaver-headed gentleman who weaved in and out among the crowd. It is rather for us to be dedicated here. He doesn't even see the bored and distracted faces before him. He doesn't see a young man in a Czech suit, a dizzily bracket from oil city. In that crowd Lincoln does not see John Wilkes Booth. Death complicates all strategies. Lincoln is speaking to history. Let we hear highly resolved 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. In silence, in the spatter of the floor, no more. Then his long gone figure turns and he walks back to his seat. Following day in Washington, work to be done, bills to be signed, senators to be heard, army chiefs to be met, and the sense of failure at Gettysburg, buried deep in the corridors of his mind. Mr. Herry is in the outside office, Mr. President. Oh, come in, John. And what is it? I thought you might be interested in seeing the reactions of the press to the Gettysburg speech. And you have a new one there? Yes. Will you read it, sir? Yeah, let's see. We know not where to look for a more admirable speech than the brief one, which the President made at the close of Mr. Everett's oration. I can tell them where to look. Could the most elaborate and splendid oration be more beautiful, more touching, more inspiring, and the thrilling words of the President? They had now a judgment, the charm and power of the very highest eloquent. Wow, sir. Well, it's a very generous opinion, Mr. Hay. I'm grateful to the gentlemen who is its author. But, Mr. Hay, have you read this? We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation, we are willing that the veil of oblivion be dropped over them, but they shall no more be repeated as thought of. Well, Mr. Hay, someone with a political grudge, I'd say. No, John, I have made many successful speeches in my day, campaign speeches, dumb speeches, lectures, but I know I'm no great Shakespeare, the public speaker. Ever it has the silver tongue, mine's brass. Yesterday's must have been pretty poor stuff. Yet somehow I felt I wanted to speak for all the boys, blue and gray, who were sleeping there at Gettysburg. And what time is it, Mr. Hay? Near four. I think I'll take a walk before supper. Will you excuse me, please? Yes, of course. Sometimes I wonder when will they understand. You are listening to Edwin Jerome as Abraham Lincoln in a new radio version of The Perfect Tribute on the Cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont Company. The day drops quickly in November, trains brightness from the arching sky leading the Elms as fragile as coal. The avenues are broad and hurried gestures. Wide as the day was wide, as broad, as slow. And the monuments. The stiff, mute monuments poison their marble drink. Abraham Lincoln walks along avenues in the shadow of the great new hospitals, where the wounded rise silent in pain. Oh, that was a close one. You scared the daylight out of me, son. Running like General Grant was after you. Must be you. Oh, I'm sorry, son. I guess I am too big for these walks. Didn't hurt yourself, did you? No. Well then, what's wrong? Wrong. Everything's wrong. Everything. Yeah, you've worked. Go ahead, son. Go ahead and cry. Every little bit helps. I'm in a hurry. I want a lawyer. I've got to have one now, or it'll be too late. Well, what do you want with a lawyer? I want to draw a will. My brother's going to die, they say. Well, I used to practice law now and again, son. Maybe I could help you. Maybe you wouldn't want to. Why? We're rebels. Oh. My brother's catching Carter Blaine in the first Alabama. I see. He's over there in the prison hostel. Oh. Well, tell me, do you think you'll have any difficulty getting me into that building? Well, don't worry about the letting you in. And you all know me there. Well, then you just go right on ahead, son. I'll follow. Here's my brother's cop, sir. Carter, wake up. I've got a lawyer for you. A lawyer? Oh. Oh, if you were. You brought the lawyer? Good boy. Thank you for coming, sir. I-I expect... I think we'd better begin. Why, there's hand ink on the table. Tell me, Mr. Er... I'm sorry, but my brother didn't tell me a name. Well, your brother and I met informally, Captain. I should say, uh, more on the physical level than the social. He charged into me like a young steward. My name's Lincoln. Lincoln. All right. That's a good name from your standpoint. You are a northerner, I take it. Yes, I'm on that side of the print. You may call me a Yankee if you like. Well, sir, my name's Carter Hampton Blair. You shake hand? With pleasure, Captain Blair. Well, now then, shall we begin? I'm afraid I don't know the proper form. And what I want to say is, I want to leave what's left of my worldly goods to Miss Sally Maxfield. Miss Salamander. All right, you will now. You rest a moment. We'll write it this way. All right. Carter Hampton Blair, in right and sober mind, to hereby bequeath to Miss Sally Maxfield. Captain, now all you have to do is sign it. I expect that now your recovery will be mighty fast. Wills are the best tonics in the world. All right. I've got to be running along. So please don't go. I'd like to talk. Well, I have a little time, Captain. I'd be glad to spend it with you if it won't be too tiring. No, it won't. Right now I feel very strong. I'd like to talk about that other Lincoln. Do you mean Abe Lincoln? Yes. Now, don't misunderstand me, sir. I believe with all my soul in the cause that I fought for. But I've come to thank that president of yours. He's inspired by principle, not animosity. Have you read that speech of his yesterday? They want to get his brother. No, I'm afraid I haven't. But oh, by the way, Mr. Lincoln, is the president any team of yours? Well, now he's a kind of connection through my maternal grandfather. But I know all the gossip about his side of the family, so you can say what you like. Well, what I'd like to say is yesterday he made one of the great speeches of history. But I heard the speech didn't even bring forth a cheer from the audience there. Well, you might as well cheer for Lord's Prayer, sir. There would have been sacrament. You really believe that? I do. I'd like to believe that. Oh, well, I forgot. You haven't read it. Warwick. Yes, Carter? Bring me the newspapers over there. I want the gentleman to read the speech. These are beautiful monumental words, sir. Yeah, you'll have to read it, sir. My eyes will be probably noticed. Yes. But shall I read it aloud? Yes, please do. For 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 and long endured. We are met on a great battlefield 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 all to get a fitting and proper that we should do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. We cannot consecrate. We cannot hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggle here have consecrated its power above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note no longer remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us to 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 honors 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 to freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from neglect. Shall not perish from neglect. He sits at a bedside in the prison hospital reading freedom's words and slowly he becomes aware the people are the touchstone for all fame. People are the ultimate historians of the great. He who is the human symbol of their democratic hope is great. In their monumental memory looms the true memorial of the great. There's is the reason really blooms. There's is the perfect cookie. Thank you, Edwin Jerome. Where is the doctor's first duty today? Is it to the people of his own community or is it on the field of battle? How one doctor made his decision is the subject of our Cavalcade play next week. Be with us then when Cavalcade presents the popular star of Green and Sade, Elliot Nugent, currently appearing on Broadway with Catherine Hepburn. Our play for next week, written especially for Cavalcade by Kevin Reifer, is The War Comes to Dr. Morgan. Be with us next week, ladies and gentlemen, when Cavalcade presents Elliot Nugent in The War Comes to Dr. Morgan. A dramatic story of a young physician in these strenuous times. Did you keep a penny bank when you were a youngster? Most everyone did and most of us were surprised to find how fast Penny's accumulated. War stamps are a means of saving regularly today. Just one 10-cent stamp buys five bullets for an Army 45 caliber pistol. Only eight 25-cent stamps buy two hand grenades. So think of war stamp books as saving banks for victory. And it is important to fill up your books and not leave them around partially filled because they start bearing interest only when they are turned in for box. The orchestra and musical score tonight were under the direction of Don Wury. Cavalcade is grateful to Charles Scribner's son for permission to base tonight's dramatization on the book, The Perfect Tribute by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews. This is Clayton Collier sending best wishes from our sponsor, The DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Program came to you from New York. This is The National Broadcasting Company.