November 19, 2013 was the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” What was the Gettysburg Address? Why was it significant?
At the time, America was in the midst of a civil war, and in July of 1863, there had been a major battle in which the Union armies had defeated the Confederate armies at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There was massive loss of life, with nearly 8000 dead from both sides. Since it was the height of summer, these dead needed to be buried quickly. Consequently, some bodies were buried in existing graveyards, but many were simply buried at battlefield sites where they fell. Later, the decision was made to create a cemetery for the Union casualties of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg (circled)
Although reburial of Union soldiers had already begun in October, the Soldier’s National Cemetery was formally dedicated that November, and it was at this dedication that President Lincoln delivered his now-famous address. Perhaps surprisingly to us, Lincoln was not the main speaker; Edward Everett—who had served in public life as Governor of Massachusetts and president of Harvard, among other things—had a reputation as a great public speaker, and was scheduled to give the main oration. His speech was over 13,000 words long, and took two hours to deliver.
Lincoln’s address, in contrast, was a mere ten sentences, and was over in a matter of minutes. The next day, Everett wrote to Lincoln, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.” In his speech, Lincoln reminded the listeners of the principles upon which the country was founded, and set those ideals in the context of the civil war. He then gave honor to those soldiers who had died in defense of those principles, and exhorted his listeners to continue the fight so the American republic would endure through its time of trial. Here is the full text of Lincoln’s 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.
The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous of American historical speeches. Its brevity and eloquence serve as a reminder that it is not length nor fanciful words that make a classic speech timeless; rather, its timelessness comes from reminding us of these timeless ideals, and inspiring us to live by those ideals.