The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

From MisguidedChildren.com

About eighty years after the Declaration of Independence, the United States was plunged in a bloody Civil War. Eleven states in the South separated from the Union and declared themselves as the “Confederate States of America”. The issue at hand was slavery of the Negro people: The northern states were “free states” where slavery was not allowed. Meanwhile, the states in the South were “slave states” which saw slaves as an important part of the economy. The Civil War raged from 1861 to 1865, leaving hundreds of thousands dead. It was the bloodiest war fought on American soil, ahead of the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

In July 1863, more than 94,000 Union soldiers and 72,000 Confederate soldiers fought the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. By the time the battle ended between 46,000 to 51,000 died. The Union victory at Gettysburg was seen as the turning point of the Civil War.

On November 19, 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln dedicated a part of the field as a resting place to those who died in the battle. The President was invited to give a “few appropriate remarks” after a two-hour speech of orator Edward Everett. Lincoln's speech lasted only a few minutes, but it eventually became among the most-well known speeches in history. He began by referring to the Declaration of Independence: “Four score and seven years ago [eighty-seven years], our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation...”. He extolled the sacrifice of the soldiers at Gettysburg and exhorted the listeners to ensure the survival of a democratic country: “...that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Until today, the Gettysburg Address is considered as among the most well-known speeches in the world; memorized by millions and alluded to in countless speeches.

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

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 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 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.

A video clip from the movie Saving Lincoln (2013), directed by Salvador Litvak (via YouTube.com)