Letter
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet
20 May 2004
David Simpson says that the phrase used to describe the World Trade Center site, ‘sacred ground’, was first used at Gettysburg (LRB, 20 May). What Lincoln actually said at Gettysburg was: ‘We cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow this ground.’ As for who coined ‘sacred ground’, it isn’t clear. My own guess would be that it’s a paraphrase of Exodus 3.5, where,...
