Manisha Sinha: As a Civil War historian, I am appalled President Donald Trump announced recently that he would like to deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for the presidency either at the White House or the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania. It is no surprise that Trump is eager to overthrow all presidential norms and use his official residence, the White House, as a backdrop for his convention address. Trump has flouted the emoluments clause of the Constitution, and his family and administration officials have ignored the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using their public office for private gain, with impunity. That would be mild compared to the many potentially illegal and certainly unethical transgressions of the Trump administration in its efforts to bolster his chances for reelection. As a Civil War historian, I am however appalled at the idea that Trump is entertaining the idea of using the Gettysburg battlefield as a prop for his acceptance speech. One of the bloodiest battles of the war, it left over 40,000 dead and wounded, of whom nearly half died defending the Union and fighting against human bondage in July 1863. Often seen as one of the turning points in the war, Gettysburg pointed the path to Union victory and full emancipation for enslaved Americans. Seventy-two Medals of Honor went to Union Army soldiers after the battle. President Barack Obama awarded the last one posthumously in 2014 to 22-year-old Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing, who lost his life during the failed Confederate Pickett's Charge. The story of Gettysburg is inextricably linked with the story of American democracy. No one articulated that better than President Abraham Lincoln in his famous Gettysburg Address that sanctified the battlefield where so many Union soldiers gave their "last full measure of devotion" to the country. Second perhaps only to the Declaration of Independence's ringing endorsement of universal natural rights, Lincoln's memorable speech represented the second founding of the American republic. As he put it, "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." With these words, Lincoln bound the cause of the American slave, emancipation, with that of American democracy. Historians rank Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents, a position where Trump often ranks at the bottom, envies and criticizes. He has often said that he has done more for African Americans than any other president, a fantastical claim, with the exception of "old Abe Lincoln." No president, Trump claims, has been treated as unfairly as he has, forgetting all our assassinated presidents including Lincoln. Trump has already used the Lincoln Memorial for one of his incoherent and falsehood-laden interviews. Lincoln speaks to us across the ages with words that are timeless. In contrast, Trump's speeches are the butt of come