Perhaps the most memorable oratory ever uttered by an American president The Gettysburg Address was given in tribute to the thousands of souls lost on the field of battle only months before.
The battle of Gettysburg was the bloody tuning point of the Civil War. Fought over a period of three days just before the Fourth of July in 1863 it turned out to be the last major offensive of the Confederacy in the war. The cost for both sides was heavy. In three days the Union Army suffered casualties in excess of 3000 and over 20000 wounded and captured. The Confederates lost almost 2600 men with over 15000 wounded and captured.
The speech was given at the declaration of The Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19 1863. Lincoln's brief two minute speech followed a two hour oration by one of the most famous speakers of the time, Edward Everett. In the newspapers the following day Everett's speech was prominently featured on the front pages while Lincoln's address was relegated to an inside page. Everett was so moved by Lincoln's words that he wrote him this note on the following day: "I wish that i could flatter myself that i had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."
Everett's speech has been nearly forgotten by history while Lincoln's perhaps can never be. Here below is the complete speech President Lincoln gave that day:
"Fourscore 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 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."
The battle of Gettysburg was the bloody tuning point of the Civil War. Fought over a period of three days just before the Fourth of July in 1863 it turned out to be the last major offensive of the Confederacy in the war. The cost for both sides was heavy. In three days the Union Army suffered casualties in excess of 3000 and over 20000 wounded and captured. The Confederates lost almost 2600 men with over 15000 wounded and captured.
The speech was given at the declaration of The Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19 1863. Lincoln's brief two minute speech followed a two hour oration by one of the most famous speakers of the time, Edward Everett. In the newspapers the following day Everett's speech was prominently featured on the front pages while Lincoln's address was relegated to an inside page. Everett was so moved by Lincoln's words that he wrote him this note on the following day: "I wish that i could flatter myself that i had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."
Everett's speech has been nearly forgotten by history while Lincoln's perhaps can never be. Here below is the complete speech President Lincoln gave that day:
"Fourscore 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 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."
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