The other 4th of July

The Fourth of July is a pivotal date in American history. No, not that Fourth, another one — 1776 created the union; 1863 saved it. The July of declaration was in Philadelphia; the July of destiny was in Gettysburg. The July of decision is now.

For three days in '63 at the height of the summer heat, the greatest military powers ever known to the world up to that point came together to fight to the death.

The Army of Northern Virginia had left its home and had moved into Pennsylvania, taking the war to the enemy. Previously it had been the North marching through the South.

On July 1, the forward elements of both sides encountered each other near the small junction of dirt roads, Gettysburg. Forced back through the streets of the county seat to Cemetery Hill, the Union forces formed a defensive perimeter along the stone ridge. On July 2, the Union regiments repulsed the flanking moves by Lee's men on either side of the line. In the afternoon of July 3, in the attack up the center, Pickett's charge nearly broke through the men in blue. His advance was only halted after heavy hand-to-hand combat between brothers, neighbors and former fellow countrymen.

July 4 brought rain, lightning, mud and retreat. The escape of Gen. Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy was not followed up by Gen. George Meade of the Army of the Potomac, and the war for the reunification of the states continued for another two years. However, after Gettysburg, the carnage would never leave the soil of the South.

The events in eastern Pennsylvania four score and seven years before had brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty. The actions in central Pennsylvania allowed it to long endure. The dead were not to die in vain. They fought for liberty and for the union. That divide is the universal challenge of freedom. The states in rebellion seceded in the name of the freedom to employ an economic system based on slavery of one person by another. The states they left maintained the Union was more important than the rights of the states.

On July 4, 2011, as a nation we seem less united than ever before. Our current polarization of parties has not turned to secession, but it is filled with boisterousness instead of quiet thoughtfulness. The middle ground of opinion is now a killing zone. The fractionation and void of a center of reason and political options diminish the notion of a government of the people, for the people and by the people.