Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg

The battle of Gettysburg of 1863 changed American history but also changed world history. In an attempt to capture Harrisburg, a center of Union communications and supplies, General Lee did the unthinkable; he had his army invade the north. Both Union and Confederate armies met at the town of Gettysburg and a three day battle ensued, July 1 to July 3. General Lee, commenting to his officers on the third day of the battle, said that the outcome would occur that day and on the following day, July 4, the world would know how the war ended. he said that God had a sense of humor.

From the beginning of the battle, it was apparent that the Union army had all the advantages, even with the incompetent General George S. Meade in command. With the defeat of the Confederate army, the war continued in favor of the North until the complete defeat of the Confederacy in 1864.

Over 50,000 men were killed. It took 6 months to clear the battlefield of all the dead horses and mules. That they were there rotting through July, August, and September must have caused the residents of the town much grief.

President Lincoln spoke at a ceremony held at Gettysburg on November 19,1863, about four months after the Battle.

His speech was brief but magnificent. A myth has grown up that the people hearing the speech were not impressed. The fact is that the people who heard the speech were VERY impressed, and thereafter orators copied the simple, less flowery style of speech that Lincoln used in his address.

The received text of the speech is as follows:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not 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.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Until this time, many Americans thought that the most significant document that we possessed was the Constitution. Lincoln disagreed. He said that our real founding document was the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution is ever changing but the Declaration stands as an eternal pledge for all citizens. It is that document, NOT the Constitution, that we agree that all men are created equal.

All men are not only made equal but are endowed with unalienable Rights. And further, "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed".  

How can people who are slaves consent to anything? They can't. To have the power to consent is to have the power to be free. To grant power to the government, the power must also be JUST. A government cannot be just that countenances slavery.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

The Confederacy called the war a fight to establish their new nation, separated from the United States. Lincoln calls it a civil war. Civil War describes citizens of a single nation fighting each other. As far as Lincoln was concerned, the rebellious states were still part of the single nation of America and he was still president of those states.

We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

What was great about that battle-field? It was there that the final outcome of the war had been determined. When the Confederate army lost that battle, it effectively had already lost the war. Lee's adventurous invasion of the North had proved his undoing.

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.

The cemetery is dedicated to all who fought there, both northerners and southerners. They all gave their lives to create a NEW America.

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

All who fought were brave in Lincoln's estimation, both north and south.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

This is ironic. Most Americans cannot tell you what the battle of Gettysburg was all about but we all have had to learn Lincoln's dedicatory speech in school.

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

Again Lincoln refuses to cast blame on the south; all who died are honored, and with the will to finish the horror of the war, which Lincoln believed was God's punishment on the nation - the whole nation - for allowing slavery, these soldiers, north and south, 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.

The nation shall be reborn; it shall not perish as a result of rebellion, and it shall be created anew by all the people for all the people.

Abraham Lincoln changed the country we live in and his speech at the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg he showed that he was more interested in the whole nation more than in the separate states. Up to this time the federal government had been rather weak, thus allowing the separation of states. He realized that the federal government had to become stronger than all the states, and he accomplished it. Never again would the states tell the federal government that because they didn't like some of its policies that it would withdraw from the Union. Before the Civil War, people said "these United States"; after it, people said, "this United States".

Lincoln's greatness was cut short by assassination; had he continued to live, the country would have had a far better future.