At first glance you might think Battle of Gettysburg and philanthropy have nothing in common, but Tom Watson says that's where American tradition of charity was truly forged.
"And all around the battles, the growth of what would become American philanthropy, particularly in the North – the great nursing and human aid crusades to help the wounded, the vast fundraising campaigns to house and memorialize the dead. That was the cause that brought President Lincoln to Gettysburg three months after the Army of Northern Virginia was soundly defeated on these fields and fled south – the cause of assuring meaning in death of so many thousands. His short remarks – it was hardly an address – linked sacrifice to the preservation of the Union and its founding ideal of equality." -- Tom Watson, Forbes.com
