President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

by Lady Rachel

I am sure that most of you have heard of the Gettysburg Address. It was a speech made by Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the united States. It is one of the most quoted speeches in history. This speech was given at the Dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was given on Thursday, November 19th, 1863. The American Civil War was going on at this point, and 4 1/2 months after the Union gained victory over those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Gettysburg Address came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches made in American history. His speech was carefully crafted. In his speech, President Lincoln redefined the Civil War was not a struggle only for the Union, but also for a "new birth of freedom." It would bring a new realization to all of the people in America.

His historical speech begins with the phase that is familiar to many Americans, "Four score and seven years ago...". He also wanted to dedicate the living to ensure that a "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

The five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address all differ in details and also do the contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech. You can go to this page, and see the actual pages of the Gettysburg Address - Gettysburg Address.

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon 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. . . can long endure. 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 altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the 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 honored 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 of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth"