paraphrasing quoting and summarizing the gettysburg address

A Summary and Analysis of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Here’s a question for you. Who was the main speaker at the event which became known as the Gettysburg Address? If you answered ‘Abraham Lincoln’, this post is for you. For the facts of what took place on the afternoon of November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated Confederate forces in the Battle of Gettysburg, have become shrouded in myth. And one of the most famous speeches in all of American history was not exactly a resounding success when it was first spoken.

What was the Gettysburg Address?

The Gettysburg Address is the name given to a short speech (of just 268 words) that the US President Abraham Lincoln delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery (which is now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on 19 November 1863. At the time, the American Civil War was still raging, and the Battle of Gettysburg had been the bloodiest battle in the war, with an estimated 23,000 casualties.

Gettysburg Address: summary

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.

The opening words to the Gettysburg Address are now well-known. President Abraham Lincoln begins by harking back ‘four score and seven years’ – that is, eighty-seven years – to the year 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed and the nation known as the United States was founded.

The Declaration of Independence opens with the words: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’. Lincoln refers to these words in the opening sentence of his declaration.

However, when he uses the words, he is including all Americans – male and female (he uses ‘men’ here, but ‘man’, as the old quip has it, embraces ‘woman’) – including African slaves, whose liberty is at issue in the war. The Union side wanted to abolish slavery and free the slaves, whereas the Confederates, largely in the south of the US, wanted to retain 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. 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.

Lincoln immediately moves to throw emphasis on the sacrifice made by all of the fallen soldiers who gave their lives at Gettysburg, and at other battles during the Civil War. He reminds his listeners that the United States is still a relatively young country, not even a century old yet.

Will it endure when it is already at war with itself? Can all Americans be convinced that every single one of them, including its current slaves, deserves what the Declaration of Independence calls ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’?

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.

Lincoln begins the third and final paragraph of the Gettysburg Address with a slight rhetorical flourish: the so-called rule of three, which entails listing three things in succession. Here, he uses three verbs which are roughly synonymous with each other – ‘dedicate’, ‘consecrate’, ‘hallow’ – in order to drive home the sacrifice the dead soldiers have made. It is not for Lincoln and the survivors to declare this ground hallowed: the soldiers who bled for their cause have done that through the highest sacrifice it is possible to make.

Note that this is the fourth time Lincoln has used the verb ‘dedicate’ in this short speech: ‘and dedicated to the proposition …’; ‘any nation so conceived and so dedicated …’; ‘We have come to dedicate a portion …’; ‘we can not dedicate …’. He will go on to repeat the word twice more before the end of his address.

Repetition is another key rhetorical device used in persuasive writing, and Lincoln’s speech uses a great deal of repetition like this.

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.

Lincoln concludes his address by urging his listeners to keep up the fight, so that the men who have died in battles such as the Battle of Gettysburg will not have given their lives in vain to a lost cause. He ends with a now-famous phrase (‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’) which evokes the principle of democracy , whereby nations are governed by elected officials and everyone has a say in who runs the country.

Gettysburg Address: analysis

The mythical aura surrounding the Gettysburg Address, like many iconic moments in American history, tends to obscure some of the more surprising facts from us. For example, on the day Lincoln delivered his famous address, he was not the top billing: the main speaker at Gettysburg on 19 November 1863 was not Abraham Lincoln but Edward Everett .

Everett gave a long – many would say overlong – speech, which lasted two hours . Everett’s speech was packed full of literary and historical allusions which were, one feels, there to remind his listeners how learned Everett was. When he’d finished, his exhausted audience of some 15,000 people waited for their President to address them.

Lincoln’s speech is just 268 words long, because he was intended just to wrap things up with a few concluding remarks. His speech lasted perhaps two minutes, contrasted with Everett’s two hours.

Afterwards, Lincoln remarked that he had ‘failed’ in his duty to deliver a memorable speech, and some contemporary newspaper reports echoed this judgment, with the Chicago Times summarising it as a few ‘silly, flat and dishwatery utterances’ before hinting that Lincoln’s speech was an embarrassment, especially coming from so high an office as the President of the United States.

But in time, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address would come to be regarded as one of the great historic American speeches. This is partly because Lincoln eschewed the high-flown allusions and wordy style of most political orators of the nineteenth century.

Instead, he wanted to address people directly and simply, in plain language that would be immediately accessible and comprehensible to everyone. There is something democratic , in the broadest sense, about Lincoln’s choice of plain-spoken words and to-the-point sentences. He wanted everyone, regardless of their education or intellect, to be able to understand his words.

In writing and delivering a speech using such matter-of-fact language, Lincoln was being authentic and true to his roots. He may have been attempting to remind his listeners that he belonged to the frontier rather than to the East, the world of Washington and New York and Massachusetts.

There are several written versions of the Gettysburg Address in existence. However, the one which is viewed as the most authentic, and the most frequently reproduced, is the one known as the Bliss Copy . It is this version which is found on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. It is named after Colonel Alexander Bliss, the stepson of historian George Bancroft.

Bancroft asked Lincoln for a copy to use as a fundraiser for soldiers, but because Lincoln wrote on both sides of the paper, the speech was illegible and could not be reprinted, so Lincoln made another copy at Bliss’s request. This is the last known copy of the speech which Lincoln himself wrote out, and the only one signed and dated by him, so this is why it is widely regarded as the most authentic.

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The Gettysburg Address

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 20, 2023 | Original: August 24, 2010

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered remarks, which later became known as the Gettysburg Address, at the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on the site of one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the Civil War. Though he was not the featured orator that day, Lincoln’s brief address would be remembered as one of the most important speeches in American history. In it, he invoked the principles of human equality contained in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of the Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom,” as well as the all-important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and its ideal of self-government.

Burying the Dead at Gettysburg

From July 1 to July 3, 1863, the invading forces of General Robert E. Lee ’s Confederate Army clashed with the Army of the Potomac (under its newly appointed leader, General George G. Meade ) in Gettysburg, some 35 miles southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania . Casualties were high on both sides: Out of roughly 170,000 Union and Confederate soldiers, there were 23,000 Union casualties (more than one-quarter of the army’s effective forces) and 28,000 Confederates killed, wounded or missing (more than a third of Lee’s army) in the Battle of Gettysburg . After three days of battle, Lee retreated towards Virginia on the night of July 4. It was a crushing defeat for the Confederacy, and a month later the great general would offer Confederate President Jefferson Davis his resignation; Davis refused to accept it.

Did you know? Edward Everett, the featured speaker at the dedication ceremony of the National Cemetery of Gettysburg, later wrote to Lincoln, "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."

As after previous battles, thousands of Union soldiers killed at Gettysburg were quickly buried, many in poorly marked graves. In the months that followed, however, local attorney David Wills spearheaded efforts to create a national cemetery at Gettysburg. Wills and the Gettysburg Cemetery Commission originally set October 23 as the date for the cemetery’s dedication, but delayed it to mid-November after their choice for speaker, Edward Everett, said he needed more time to prepare. Everett, the former president of Harvard College, former U.S. senator and former secretary of state, was at the time one of the country’s leading orators. On November 2, just weeks before the event, Wills extended an invitation to President Lincoln, asking him “formally [to] set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.”

Gettysburg Address: Lincoln’s Preparation

Though Lincoln was extremely frustrated with Meade and the Army of the Potomac for failing to pursue Lee’s forces in their retreat, he was cautiously optimistic as the year 1863 drew to a close. He also considered it significant that the Union victories at Gettysburg and at Vicksburg, under General Ulysses S. Grant , had both occurred on the same day: July 4, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence .

When he received the invitation to make the remarks at Gettysburg, Lincoln saw an opportunity to make a broad statement to the American people on the enormous significance of the war, and he prepared carefully. Though long-running popular legend holds that he wrote the speech on the train while traveling to Pennsylvania, he probably wrote about half of it before leaving the White House on November 18, and completed writing and revising it that night, after talking with Secretary of State William H. Seward , who had accompanied him to Gettysburg.

The Historic Gettysburg Address

On the morning of November 19, Everett delivered his two-hour oration (from memory) on the Battle of Gettysburg and its significance, and the orchestra played a hymn composed for the occasion by B.B. French. Lincoln then rose to the podium and addressed the crowd of some 15,000 people. He spoke for less than two minutes, and the entire speech was fewer than 275 words long. Beginning by invoking the image of the founding fathers and the new nation, Lincoln eloquently expressed his conviction that the Civil War was the ultimate test of whether the Union created in 1776 would survive, or whether it would “perish from the earth.” The dead at Gettysburg had laid down their lives for this noble cause, he said, and it was up to the living to confront the “great task” before them: ensuring that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The essential themes and even some of the language of the Gettysburg Address were not new; Lincoln himself, in his July 1861 message to Congress, had referred to the United States as “a democracy–a government of the people, by the same people.” The radical aspect of the speech, however, began with Lincoln’s assertion that the Declaration of Independence–and not the Constitution–was the true expression of the founding fathers’ intentions for their new nation. At that time, many white slave owners had declared themselves to be “true” Americans, pointing to the fact that the Constitution did not prohibit slavery; according to Lincoln, the nation formed in 1776 was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” In an interpretation that was radical at the time–but is now taken for granted–Lincoln’s historic address redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality.

Gettysburg Address Text

The full text of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address 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.”

Gettysburg Address: Public Reaction & Legacy

On the day following the dedication ceremony, newspapers all over the country reprinted Lincoln’s speech along with Everett’s. Opinion was generally divided along political lines, with Republican journalists praising the speech as a heartfelt, classic piece of oratory and Democratic ones deriding it as inadequate and inappropriate for the momentous occasion.

In the years to come, the Gettysburg Address would endure as arguably the most-quoted, most-memorized piece of oratory in American history. After Lincolns’ assassination in April 1865, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts wrote of the address, “That speech, uttered at the field of Gettysburg…and now sanctified by the martyrdom of its author, is a monumental act. In the modesty of his nature he said ‘the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.’ He was mistaken. The world at once noted what he said, and will never cease to remember it.”

HISTORY Vault: The Secret History of the Civil War

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Course: US history   >   Unit 5

• Slavery and the Missouri Compromise
• Increasing political battles over slavery in the mid-1800s
• Start of the Civil War - secession and Fort Sumter
• Strategy of the Civil War
• Early phases of Civil War and Antietam
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• Significance of the battle of Antietam
• The battle of Gettysburg
• The Gettysburg Address - setting and context
• Photographing the Battle of Gettysburg, O'Sullivan's Harvest of Death

The Gettysburg Address - full text and analysis

• Later stages of the Civil War - 1863
• Later stages of the Civil War - the election of 1864 and Sherman's March
• Later stages of the Civil War - Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination
• Big takeaways from the Civil War
• The Civil War

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Video transcript

• Lesson Plans
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Lesson 3: The Gettysburg Address (1863)—Defining the American Union

Photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg dedication. Lincoln is highlighted in this image in the middle of the crowd at the dais.

Library of Congress

"It is the desire that, after the Oration, you, as Chief Executive of the Nation, formally set apart these grounds to their Sacred use by a few appropriate remarks." So read the invitation to Abraham Lincoln to speak at the dedication of a national cemetery on the site of a pivotal Union victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. But contrary to popular belief, Lincoln did not give the keynote address. That oration was delivered by Edward Everett, a Massachusetts statesman, vice-presidential candidate of the Constitutional Union Party in 1860, and the most famous orator of his day. Everett spoke to the crowd of 15,000 without notes for over two hours. The president used only 272 words in his dedication of the cemetery grounds, with most American newspapers taking little notice of the now famous speech. But the day after the ceremony, Everett wrote Lincoln to say, "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

This lesson will examine the most famous speech in American history to understand how Lincoln turned a perfunctory eulogy at a cemetery dedication into a concise and profound meditation on the meaning of the Civil War and American union.

This lesson will especially benefit teachers of AP U.S. History classes by deepening student understanding of the momentous themes of freedom, equality, and emancipation, listed in the Course Description as "Emancipation and the role of African Americans in the war," a subtopic under "Civil War." The learning activities will strengthen the higher order thinking skills students will need to do well on the AP exam, particularly the DBQ and essay part of the exam, by guiding them through an analysis of the themes that animate the Gettysburg Address, as they evaluate and judge Lincoln's enduring speech in light of an example of contemporary criticism that it drew.

Guiding Questions

How did Lincoln see the Civil War as an opportunity for the nation to bring forth a "new birth of freedom" (or liberty for all), and why was this necessary for the survival of American self-government?

Learning Objectives

Explain why some Northern Democrats criticized Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Explain why Lincoln thought July 4, 1776, was the birthday of the United States.

Articulate the connection Lincoln made between emancipation and preserving the Union.

Describe the "unfinished task" that Lincoln presented to the American people at Gettysburg.

Lesson Plan Details

On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Lincoln delivered what would become the most famous speech in American history. His dedicatory remarks began by going back in time, not to the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, or even back to the framing of the U.S. Constitution, which was now under attack from rebellious forces. He returned his audience to what he considered the true birth of the nation, July 4, 1776. Even though the President fought the war to defend the Union and Constitution, the fact that it was a civil war indicated that some Americans had forgotten the true meaning of their constitutional union. For Lincoln, its meaning centered on the birth of an idea, expressed most clearly in the Declaration of Independence, that "all men are created equal." The union of the American states was thus born of a united belief in human equality as the basis of legitimate self-government.

Although Lincoln believed America was "conceived in liberty," this conception did not produce liberty for all; the Civil War was testimony to that. What began as a "self-evident" truth in 1776 had become by 1860 a "proposition" to be demonstrated. As Lincoln put it in an 1855 letter, "On the question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been." At the Founding, most white Americans tolerated slavery as a necessary evil, while they tried to establish the institutions and practices of self-government for most, if not all, of America's inhabitants. But once cotton became "king" as the South's chief export, Southerners began defending the black slavery that produced it as "a positive good." This eventually led some Americans in the North, helped by Stephen Douglas's "popular sovereignty" policy, to be indifferent towards black slavery and hence its spread into federal territories. This shift in public opinion about the evil of slavery, Lincoln thought, undermined the future of freedom for whites as well as blacks, for if race could be used as a reason for some to enslave others, what would prevent a future majority from enslaving a minority on the basis of some other arbitrary characteristic or interest?

So in the midst of a war that could very well destroy the Union and spell the end of self-government (if secession were to succeed), Lincoln presents "the great task remaining before us": a fight to secure "government of the people, by the people, for the people." The three-day battle at Gettysburg doubled the losses of any of the major conflicts of the war up to that point: Union army casualties totaled 23,000—over a quarter of Gen. George G. Meade's men—while the Confederate dead, wounded, or missing have been estimated at 24,000 to 28,000-about a third of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army. Thus, Lincoln saw the Civil War as a severe test of whether or not self-government "so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."

At the outset, Lincoln prosecuted the war only to preserve the Union, but abolitionists hoped the war would free the slaves. As commander-in-chief, Lincoln waited until emancipation became "a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion" before issuing the liberating decree on January 1, 1863. This made 1863 the Year of Jubilee, with freedom proclaimed to slaves throughout the rebellious sections of the country. Emancipation thus became the backdrop for Lincoln's Gettysburg Address later that year. (For additional information about the Emancipation Proclamation, see Section VIII below, "Extending the Lesson," and a related lesson plan, The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom's First Steps .)

With Emancipation declared for the vast majority of American slaves, Lincoln asked Americans to see that the fight to defend the Constitution and Union had become, as well, a fight to defend the freedom of the former slaves of the rebel states. Given the controversy about the Emancipation Proclamation, even in the North, Lincoln did not spell out in detail that a successful war for union had to be a war for emancipation; his Gettysburg Address, therefore, never mentions the Emancipation Proclamation or slavery. Nevertheless, he also never uses the word "union," choosing instead to speak of a "nation" dedicated to liberty at its birth, a "nation" tested for that belief, and hence a "nation" he hopes will experience a "new birth of freedom." No longer will the war be fought simply to preserve "the Constitution as it is, the Union as it was"—a popular slogan of Northern "peace Democrats." As Lincoln put it in his December 1, 1862 State of the Union address, "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

In his Address to Congress in Special Session (July 4, 1861), Lincoln said the attempt of certain states to secede raised profound questions for America: "Is there, in all republics, this inherent, and fatal weakness?" "Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" He declared that "this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic, or a democracy—a government of the people, by the same people—can, or cannot, maintain its territorial integrity, against its own domestic foes." His use of the phrase, "a government of the people, by the same people," which he repeats later in the Gettysburg Address, indicates his abiding concern for the viability of self-government.

To "save the union" was to save what Lincoln called "the last best hope of earth," for the union's survival entailed the survival of the Constitution and the rule of law from the anarchic principle of secession, what Lincoln called "rebellion sugar-coated." In Lincoln's mind, defending the American union from those who sought to divide it was the urgent business of every true lover of liberty, and thus the highest tribute the living could render the dead who were buried at Gettysburg. Thus Lincoln turned a cemetery dedication into a dedication of the living to a certain course of action: "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." For the dead not to have died in vain, Lincoln exhorts his audience to pursue that "new birth of freedom" by defending the Union and securing the equal liberty for which it stands.

Ironically, Lincoln does so by depreciating the value of words in the face of deeds: "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Of course, the world can best remember the deeds of the dead precisely through the eloquence of words, something the keynote speaker Edward Everett conceded to Lincoln when he said that he "should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes." Imagine if subsequent generations had to rely upon Everett's oration to recall the feats of those who died at Gettysburg! Words do make a difference, and in a way that belies a superficial reading of Lincoln's confession of an orator's "poor power to add or detract."

Not everyone was enthralled with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, even in the North. The Chicago Times , a Democratic newspaper and longtime critic of Lincoln, thought he exploited the cemetery dedication for political purposes. In an editorial written a few days after the Gettysburg ceremony, the Times argued that Union soldiers fought only to defend the Constitution and Union against rebellious citizens, and not, as Lincoln asserted, to inaugurate "a new birth of freedom" for blacks as well as whites. Most northern, Democratic newspapers simply ignored the president's brief remarks or joined the Chicago Times in criticizing Lincoln for his partisanship and for siding with the "negro" as the equal of whites.

• This lesson makes use of written primary source documents and worksheets, available both online and in the Text Document that accompanies this lesson. Students can read and analyze source materials online, or do some of the work online and some in class from printed copies.

If students need practice in analyzing primary source documents, excellent resource materials are available at the EDSITEment-reviewed Learning Page of the Library of Congress. Helpful Document Analysis Worksheets may be found at the site of the National Archives.

The goal of this lesson is for students to decide if Lincoln can answer the criticism of a Chicago Times editorial, which claimed that his Gettysburg Address misrepresented the purpose of the Civil War and the cause for which Union soldiers had died. Students will evaluate primary source documents, analyze the claims that are made in each, and then decide how well Lincoln can answer the charges made against him.

Activity 1. Evaluating the Gettysburg Address

This lesson is built around the following sequence of tasks:

• Students read the primary text of this lesson: Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address" (November 19, 1863).
• Chicago Times Editorial, "The President at Gettysburg" (November 23, 1863);
• Abraham Lincoln, "Response to a Serenade" (July 7, 1863).
• Students re-read and analyze the primary text: Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address" (November 19, 1863).
• Students interrogate Lincoln with questions of their own making and then evaluate whether or not Lincoln's answers stand up to the criticism of the editorial.

The Gettysburg Address: An Initial Reading

Have students read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to gain context for the criticism that follows. A link to the text of the Gettysburg Address can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site The Gettysburg Address of the Library of Congress . The Gettysburg Address is also included in the Text Document on page 1 , and can be printed out for student use. Later in the lesson, students will answer questions about the address, available in worksheet form on pages 7-8 of the Text Document .

After students have read the Gettysburg Address, divide the class into groups of three or four for collaborative work on the following documents and accompanying questions.

Chicago Times Editorial, "The President at Gettysburg" (November 23, 1863)

The document analysis begins with a November 23rd editorial in the Chicago Times , a Democratic newspaper long critical of Abraham Lincoln. This editorial was published a few days after Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address and excoriated Lincoln for his interpretation of the war.

Have students read the Times editorial to gain perspective and ideas to interrogate Lincoln on his purposes for his Gettysburg eulogy. A link to the full text of the editorial can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site Teaching American History . The relevant excerpt is also included in the Text Document on pages 2-3 , and can be printed out for student use. While in their groups, have students work together on the answers to the following questions, which are also available in worksheet form on page 4 of the Text Document :

• In the second paragraph of the editorial, what were the author's criticisms of Lincoln's address?
• What subject is being addressed in the passages from the Constitution included by the author?
• What does the author want to show when he quotes passages from the Constitution and then derides Lincoln for talking about equality of all human beings in his Gettysburg remarks?
• What disagreements over 'the cause for which they died' between Lincoln and the author can you infer from the editorial? For what cause does the author think the Union soldiers died at Gettysburg? For what cause does Lincoln think they died?
• What words would you use to describe the tone of the author in the editorial?

After answering the questions, instruct the students in each group to collaborate in writing a paragraph summarizing the criticisms leveled against Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by the writer of the editorial. They should refer to the worksheet questions and their answers in writing the paragraph.

Then have the group synthesize the criticisms into two or three questions which they will use to interrogate Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address. If students need help with this exercise, guide them through the process of turning a criticism into a question. For example, the Chicago Times editorial interprets the Constitution not as presuming the equality of men but rather the preservation of slavery, so the following question for Lincoln could be constructed: How can Lincoln say that our forefathers dedicated this nation to "the proposition that all men are created equal" when the Constitution assumes the inequality of men by permitting and safeguarding slavery?

After they have framed two or three questions, tell students to put the questions aside for use later in the lesson.

Abraham Lincoln, "Response to a Serenade" (July 7, 1863): A Trial Run for Lincoln's Official Dedicatory Remarks

A few days after the Battle of Gettysburg, the president was serenaded at the White House. Lincoln preferred not to give extemporaneous remarks, but the recent victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which led to Robert E. Lee's retreat on July 4th, put the President in a good mood. Lincoln indulged the gathered crowd with a brief reflection on the significance of July 4th, what he called "a glorious theme, and the occasion for a speech." But he hastened to add that he was "not prepared to make one worthy of the occasion." He did, however, mention a few ideas that eventually found their way into his remarks at Gettysburg four months later.

Have students read Lincoln's "Response to a Serenade" (July 7, 1863), and then answer the questions below, which are also available in worksheet form on page 6 of the Text Document . A link to the text of the Response to a Serenade can be found at the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln , accessible via the EDSITEment-reviewed site Lincoln/Net . Lincoln's "Response to a Serenade" is also included in the Text Document on page 5 , and can be printed out for student use.

• Why does Lincoln call July 4, 1776 "the birthday of the United States of America"? Given that the War for Independence would not be over until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, what was introduced on July 4th that Lincoln views as the start of a new nation?
• Lincoln calls the Southern attempt at secession "a gigantic Rebellion." What did Lincoln say was its fundamental aim?
• What does Lincoln say was the fundamental aim of the federal military throughout the Civil War?

The Gettysburg Address: Analysis of Lincoln's "Few Appropriate Remarks"

Have students re-read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and answer the questions that follow below, which are available in worksheet form on pages 7-8 of the Text Document . A link to the text of the Gettysburg Address can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site The Gettysburg Address of the Library of Congress. The Gettysburg Address is also included in the Text Document on page 1, and can be printed out for student use .

• Why does Lincoln begin his eulogy to the soldiers buried at Gettysburg with a reference to "Four score and seven years ago"? (Hint: What significant event happened in America eighty-seven years before 1863?)
• The Declaration of Independence says "all men are created equal" is a "self-evident" truth, suggesting that human equality is obvious to any unbiased person. Why does Lincoln at Gettysburg call human equality a "proposition," meaning something that needs to be proven? (Hint: What does the Civil War suggest about American convictions in the 1860s regarding human equality?)
• What does Lincoln mean by calling the Civil War a test of the ability of the nation to "long endure"?
• What does Lincoln say is the best way for the living to honor the dead at Gettysburg? (Hint: How does Lincoln use the idea of dedication to shift his audience from the ceremony at the battlefield cemetery to the audience's responsibility once the ceremony is over?)
• What is "the unfinished work" or "great task remaining before" his audience, the American people?
• What is "the cause" for which the soldiers buried at Gettysburg "gave the last full measure of devotion"?
• What is "the new birth of freedom" Lincoln calls for, and how does it differ from the nation's original birth? (Hint: Who were the main beneficiaries of the original birth of freedom in 1776, and who does Lincoln think will experience the new birth of freedom if the federal military wins the war?)

Put Lincoln in the Hot Seat

Direct each group to retrieve the questions they framed after their reading of the Chicago Times editorial and use them to take aim at Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. They are to pose their questions to Lincoln's Address as a prosecutor would do, and then they are to switch positions by taking the stand and answering each of their questions as they think Lincoln would answer, based upon the knowledge they gained from their analysis of his speech.

Students Decide: Did Lincoln's Answers Pass the Test?

Each student will now make a decision, independent of the other members of his or her group: Do Lincoln's answers stand up to the criticism of the editorial? Ask students to rate Lincoln's response to the editorial on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 representing a least favorable opinion of his ability to answer the criticism, and 5 representing a most favorable opinion. Then have students write a paragraph justifying why they chose the number they did.

Instruct students to discuss and/or write a response to the following questions:

• For what causes did Lincoln believe the soldiers were fighting in the Civil War?
• Why date the nation's birth or origin to the Declaration of Independence and not the ratification of the Constitution?
• How does a nation ensure that free government "shall not perish from the earth"? What is "the great task remaining before" any free people?
• What were the main differences between the editorialist from the Chicago Times and President Lincoln on the purpose of the Civil War?
• Count how often Lincoln uses the word "nation" in his Gettysburg Address. Why do you think he uses "nation" repeatedly, and not the word "union" at all? What might "nation" suggest or make clear that "union" does not?
• Lincoln never mentions slavery in his Gettysburg Address. Why not? How is it implied in his dedicatory remarks?

Abraham Lincoln, "Final Emancipation Proclamation" (January 1, 1863): An Introduction to the "Central Act" of Lincoln's Presidency

When the Union army stopped Lee's invasion of Maryland at the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), Lincoln thought he could hasten the war to a close by attacking the support that slavery was giving the rebel cause. On September 22, he issued a Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that on January 1, 1863, the slaves in any state or part thereof where the people "shall then be in rebellion against the United States" shall be "then, thenceforward, and forever free." Although Lincoln worried that his executive order might be overturned by a Supreme Court still headed by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, he believed that as "Commander-in-Chief . . . in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure," Lincoln had the authority and occasion to free the slaves of the rebellious South.

Have students read Abraham Lincoln's "Final Emancipation Proclamation" and answer the questions that follow below, which are available in worksheet form on page 10 of the Text Document . A link to the full text of the Emancipation Proclamation can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site Emancipation Proclamation of the National Archives. The relevant excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation are also included in the Text Document on page 9 , and can be printed out for student use.

• The Constitution required that fugitive (or escaped) slaves be returned to their masters, a mandate that was enforced by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. What effect does Lincoln's Proclamation have on "persons held as slaves" in rebellious areas of the United States?
• Besides protecting their efforts to "labor faithfully for reasonable wages," what additional opportunity does the Emancipation Proclamation offer the freed slaves?
• What reasons does Lincoln give to justify the Emancipation Proclamation? (Recall that at his presidential inauguration, Lincoln declared no intention "to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.")

Abraham Lincoln, "Final Emancipation Proclamation" (January 1, 1863): Further Consideration of the "Central Act" of Lincoln's Presidency

Lincoln once said of the Emancipation Proclamation that "as affairs have turned, it is the central act of my administration and the great event of the nineteenth century." This remark came after the House of Representatives finally approved the Thirteenth Amendment in January 1865 (the Senate had passed it in April 1864), an amendment Lincoln worked hard to get passed. Although Lincoln has been referred to as the Great Emancipator, some question if the Emancipation Proclamation was even a legitimate exercise of presidential authority. Moreover, given that the Proclamation came a year and a half after the war had begun, and after Lincoln had revoked two emancipation declarations by his generals, others wonder if Lincoln's decision to liberate American slaves was more a reluctant decision than a sincere strike against the peculiar institution. Students can begin to answer these questions by reading the complete text of Lincoln's "Final Emancipation Proclamation" and answering additional questions about the Proclamation and how it compares with Lincoln's aim in the Gettysburg Address.

Have students read the full text of Abraham Lincoln's "Final Emancipation Proclamation" and answer the questions that follow below, which are available in worksheet form on pages 13-14 of the Text Document . A link to the text of the Emancipation Proclamation can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site The Gettysburg Address of the National Archives. The full text of the Emancipation Proclamation is also included in the Text Document on pages 11-12, and can be printed out for student use .

• Which slaveholding states did the Emancipation Proclamation apply to, and which slaveholding states were not included in this proclamation? (Hint: Ten slaveholding states were covered by the Emancipation Proclamation and five slaveholding states were not covered.)
• Why did the Emancipation Proclamation not apply to all the slaveholding states? What did a slaveholding state have to do (by January 1, 1863) to avoid having their slaves freed under the Emancipation Proclamation?
• According to the Emancipation Proclamation, what authority did Lincoln have to free certain slaves and for what constitutional purpose?
• Contrasting the Emancipation Proclamation with the Gettysburg Address, which sounds more eloquent? What explains this difference? (Hint: think about the different aims of the documents and different occasions that moved Lincoln to write them.)

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• Gettysburg Address
• Response to a Serenade, July 7, 1863
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Chicago Times Editorial, "The President at Gettysburg"

Materials & Media

The gettysburg address (1863): worksheet 1, related on edsitement, lincoln on the american union: a word fitly spoken, lesson 1: fragment on the constitution and union (1861)—the purpose of the american union, lesson 2: the first inaugural address (1861)—defending the american union, lesson 4: the second inaugural address (1865)—restoring the american union.

The Gettysburg Address

Abraham lincoln, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Lincoln begins the Gettysburg Address by reminding the audience of their country’s ancestry, specifically the founding fathers who established a nation dedicated to the ideals of liberty and equality, and that the current Civil War threatens the survival of the nation and everything for which it stands. Lincoln spends the middle part of his speech addressing the matter at hand, dedicating the new national cemetery at Gettysburg and commemorating the lives lost in battle. However, Lincoln asserts that, in a sense, commemoration is futile, as the soldiers themselves have already dedicated the site by sacrificing their lives. Instead, Lincoln implores the audience to honor the soldiers’ sacrifices by committing themselves to supporting the war, the survival of the nation, and the nation’s defining democratic values.

The New York Times

The learning network | text to text | the gettysburg address and ‘why the civil war still matters’.

Text to Text | The Gettysburg Address and ‘Why the Civil War Still Matters’

American History

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

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Updated: Nov. 20, 2013

We honor the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address this month by matching it with two opinion pieces that offer opposing perspectives on the legacy of Abraham Lincoln’s famous speech.

In this Text to Text , one author celebrates how far we have come since the Civil War; the other bemoans how divided we still are.

Background: One hundred and fifty years ago this month, President Abraham Lincoln addressed the nation at the site where the Civil War’s deadliest battle had occurred. In just 272 words that took him a bit more than two minutes to deliver, Lincoln declared:

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.

We suggest two very different perspectives to pair with Lincoln’s famous speech. Robert Hicks in “Why the Civil War Still Matters” considers this year’s anniversary as a testament to how much we have changed as a country. Even more important, he believes the war “sealed us as a nation” and consecrated “the ‘unfinished work’ to guarantee ‘that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.'”

Charles Blow takes a different view in “Lincoln, Liberty and Two Americas.” He makes the case that “this country finds itself increasingly divided,” and that the growing gap between liberals and conservatives, or rich and not rich, for example, has “geographic contours” that reveal “two Americas with two contrasting — and increasingly codified — concepts of liberty.” He concludes his piece by asking, “Can such a nation long endure?”

Key Questions: What is the legacy of the Gettysburg Address and the Civil War? Does it still matter today?

Activity Sheets: As students read and discuss, they might take notes using one or more of the three graphic organizers (PDFs) we have created for our Text to Text feature:

• Comparing Two or More Texts
• Double-Entry Chart for Close Reading
• Document Analysis Questions

Excerpt 1: From “Why the Civil War Still Matters,” by Robert Hicks

…Does the Civil War still matter as anything more than long-ago history? Fifty years ago, at the war’s centennial, America was a much different place. Legal discrimination was still the norm in the South. A white, middle-class culture dominated society. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act had not yet rewritten our demographics. The last-known Civil War veteran had died only a few years earlier, and the children and grandchildren of veterans carried within them the still-fresh memories of the national cataclysm. All of that is now gone, replaced by a society that is more tolerant, more integrated, more varied in its demographics and culture. The memory of the war, at least as it was commemorated in the early 1960s, would seem to have no place. …What meaning does the war have in our multiethnic, multivalent society? For one thing, it matters as a reflection of how much America has changed. Robert Penn Warren called the war the “American oracle,” meaning that it told us who we are — and, by corollary, reflected the changing nature of America. Indeed, how we remember the war is a marker for who we are as a nation. In 1913, at the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, thousands of black veterans were excluded from the ceremony, while white Union and Confederate veterans mingled in a show of regional reconciliation, made possible by a national consensus to ignore the plight of black Americans. Even a decade ago, it seemed as if those who dismissed slavery as simply “one of the factors” that led us to dissolve into a blood bath would forever have a voice in any conversation about the war. In contrast, recent sesquicentennial events have taken pains to more accurately portray the contributions made by blacks to the war, while pro-Southern revisionists have been relegated to the dustbin of history — a reflection of the more inclusive society we have become. As we examine what it means to be America, we can find no better historical register than the memory of the Civil War and how it has morphed over time. Then again, these changes also imply that the war is less important than it used to be; it drives fewer passionate debates, and maybe — given that one side of those debates usually defended the Confederacy — that’s a good thing. But there is an even more important reason the war matters. If the line to immigrate into this country is longer than those in every other country on earth, it is because of the Civil War. It is true, technically speaking, that the United States was founded with the ratification of the Constitution. And it’s true that in the early 19th century it was a beacon of liberty for some — mostly northern European whites. But the Civil War sealed us as a nation. The novelist and historian Shelby Foote said that before the war our representatives abroad referred to us as “these” United States, but after we became “the” United States. Somehow, as divided as we were, even as the war ended, we have become more than New Yorkers and Tennesseans, Texans and Californians. …True, we have not arrived at our final destination as either a nation or as a people. Yet we have much to commemorate. Everything that has come about since the war is linked to that bloody mess and its outcome and aftermath. The American Century, the Greatest Generation and all the rest are somehow born out of the sacrifice of those 750,000 men and boys. None of it has been perfect, but I wouldn’t want to be here without it.

Excerpt 2: From “Lincoln, Liberty and Two Americas,” by Charles M. Blow

“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.” Those are the opening words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and they seem eerily prescient today because once again this country finds itself increasingly divided and pondering the future of this great union and the very ideas of liberty and equality for all. The gap is growing between liberals and conservatives, the rich and the not rich, intergenerational privilege and new-immigrant power, patriarchy and gender equality, the expanders of liberty and the withholders of it. And that gap, which has geographic contours — the densely populated coastal states versus the less densely populated states of the Rocky Mountains, Mississippi Delta and Great Plains — threatens the very concept of a United States and is pushing conservatives, left quaking after this month’s election, to extremes. Some have even moved to make our divisions absolute. The Daily Caller reported last week “more than 675,000 digital signatures appeared on 69 separate secession petitions covering all 50 states,” according to its analysis of requests made through the White House’s “We the People” online petition system. According to The Daily Caller, “Petitions from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas residents have accrued at least 25,000 signatures, the number the Obama administration says it will reward with a staff review of online proposals.” President Obama lost all those states, except Florida, in November. The former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul took to his Congressional Web site to laud the petitions of those bent on leaving the union, writing that “secession is a deeply American principle.” He continued: “If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it.” The Internet has been lit up with the incongruity of Lincoln’s party becoming the party of secessionists. But even putting secession aside, it is ever more clear that red states are becoming more ideologically strident and creating a regional quasi country within the greater one. They are rushing to enact restrictive laws on everything from voting to women’s health issues…. We are moving toward two Americas with two contrasting — and increasingly codified — concepts of liberty. Can such a nation long endure?

For Writing or Discussion

• What is Lincoln saying in the Gettysburg Address? What is the significance he sees in the great battle that was fought on that very site? What is he asking of the nation?
• Is this speech still relevant today? If so, how? Can you find something in this week’s Times to which the words or ideas in it might still apply?
• Why does Mr. Hicks say the Civil War still matters? What does he see as the most important legacy of the war?
• What relevance does Mr. Blow see in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? Why does he say Lincoln’s words “seem eerily prescient today?”
• Compare these two Opinion pieces. On what points do they agree? Where do they disagree? Cite evidence from the texts to support your answer.
• What do you think is the legacy of the Gettysburg Address and the Civil War? Does the war still matter today? Does the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address show how much our nation has progressed since the Civil War? Does it show how strong our democratic values are? Or does it remind us how divided we still are as a nation?

Going Further

After reading the original speech and the two articles cited above, students can write an argumentative essay using evidence from the three texts to support what they think is the legacy of Gettysburg Address today.

Below, we provide additional resources for further exploration:

1. Disunion: The Times’s Disunion blog provides a trove of essays that revisit and reconsider the Civil War period, such as “The Name of War,” which documents how the Civil War got its name. The blog also features its own Civil War timeline that provides a guide both to relevant Times resources and to the history of the war itself.

The Disunion essay, “What Gettysburg Proved,” by Allen C. Guelzo, feels especially relevant to the text-to-text dialogue between Mr. Hicks and Mr. Blow, and can easily be added as an additional perspective. Here is an excerpt:

… In November, when Lincoln came to dedicate a national cemetery for over 3,500 of the battle’s Union dead, it seemed to him that the willingness to lay down life in such numbers simply to preserve a democracy was all the evidence needed to illustrate democracy’s transcendent value. In their sacrifice, “the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here” had shown that democracy was something more than opportunities for self-interest and self-aggrandizement, something that spoke to the fundamental nature of human beings itself, something that arched like a rainbow in the political sky.

2. Bottomless Treasure: Tony Horowitz offers yet another reason the Civil War is still relevant today that also can be paired with the texts above. He writes:

The Civil War isn’t just an adjunct to current events. It’s a national reserve of words, images and landscapes, a storehouse we can tap in lean times like these, when many Americans feel diminished, divided and starved for discourse more nourishing than cable rants and Twitter feeds.

Writing in 2010, he views the war as a “bottomless treasure” of history, “much of it encrusted in myth or still unexplored,” for us investigate and remember even 150 years later.

3. Images: The Civil War was one of the earliest wars caught on camera. Students can view some of the war’s images in the slide show “The Battle of Gettysburg” and in the Library of Congress’s Civil War catalog . For another way of viewing the Battle of Gettysburg, students can look through two slide shows of this year’s 150th anniversary re-enactments: “A Quest for Authenticity in a Gettysburg Re-Enactment” and “Gettysburg, Readdressed.”

4. The Speech: The Library of Congress’s Gettysburg Address Exhibit provides digital access to the original copy of Lincoln’s address, along with other useful features, such as this video with curator Dr. John R. Sellers and this photograph of Lincoln at the speaker’s platform.

Students can also watch the six minute clip above about the Gettysburg Address from Ken Burns’s documentary, “The Civil War.” And they can read the original New York Times front page article about the event. What was the context for Lincoln’s speech? How was it received at the time? How did The Times report on it?

5. Public Speaking: Generations of children have memorized the Gettysburg Address in school, and recently, the documentarian Ken Burns has asked everyone in America to do the same — and to record themselves on video reciting it. The Times reported on the project , which includes many well-known political leaders and celebrities performing their own renditions. Students can join in as well.

Updated : Here, for instance, is Stephen Colbert’s version:

6. And Public-Speaking Satire: Lincoln’s two-minute speech has set a standard in the history of American oratory for the potential power of public speaking. Peter Norvig makes a commentary on the state of public speaking today in his online satire, “The Gettysburg Power Point Presentation.” Students can consider: What do you think the author is saying about our world today through his piece? Why? (Read more about the making of this spoof .)

Updated: Nov. 20: For more Gettysburg Address humor, students might enjoy New York Magazine’s “How the Media Would Have Covered the Gettysburg Address” if publications like BuzzFeed, Upworthy and HuffPost Celebrity had been around “in olden times.”

More Resources:

Learning Network Resources | Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War

This resource may be used to address the academic standards listed below.

Common Core E.L.A. Anchor Standards

1   Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2   Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

4   Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

6   Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

8   Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

9   Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice

1   Understands ideas about civic life, politics, and government.

United States History

14   Understands the course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

I am disappointed in you Charles Blow. You missed the two key points in Lincoln’s speech.

1-To preserve the first major democracy in 2,500 yrs. 2-To end slavery.

The country will never be “equal” as you point out but Lincoln gave us the tools to continue to strive for it as he also said in this speech and in his 2nd inag. and I am paraphrasing…it is up to us the living to continue the unfinished work and do the right thing as God as given us the ability to see it.

The points you bring up today about two nations are true and important to discuss but are a joke compared to what Lincoln went thru in the Civil War.

You can thank him for that.

Well thought out and relevant to Common Core. However some of the focus questions are very low level. A vocabulary component would be wise for teachers to incorporate

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Gettysburg Address

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“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.” 

Eighty-seven years before Lincoln’s speech, the founders of the United States had declared their independence from Great Britain and begun an experiment in representative government based on a free and equal citizenry. Lincoln presents this view of America at the outset, essentially declaring that these are the values at issue—the purpose for which the audience has gathered that day. Few among his listeners would disagree. With that as a consensus, Lincoln can make his points to a sympathetic audience.

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

In 1863, two years into the US Civil War, the very ideals on which the nation was based were in peril. If the South had won and broken away from the Union, the compact between the states—to hold together and protect each other, their ideals of freedom and equality, and their national government—would have been broken, perhaps never to be restored. Lincoln highlights these existential stakes early in his speech while also laying the groundwork for his eventual call for a national rebirth; there is a play on the word “conceived,” which can refer either to devising an idea or to the literal event of conception.

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Writing the Gettysburg Address

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Writing the Gettysburg Address, Journal of American History , Volume 101, Issue 3, December 2014, Pages 938–939, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jau576

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It is not enough to say that Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is the single most famous utterance of an American president. Almost from the hour of its delivery, it has been the source of admiration and commentary until we have now accumulated nine free-standing scholarly explorations of the address, not to mention a legion of essays and even an academic “elegy.” Yet Martin Johnson's Writing the Gettysburg Address easily outdistances them all for the sheer depth of his detective work and the persistence with which he has pieced together a story that has been so fully taken for granted that we were scarcely aware of how many unconnected pieces existed.

Johnson's study is not, like those by Garry Wills, William E. Barton, Louis Warren, or Gabor S. Boritt, a commentary on the historical sources and meaning of the address. He is focused instead on one overriding question: Which of the five surviving versions of the address was the one he read on the platform on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg? Although Johnson strenuously argues that it was the so-called Nicolay copy that Lincoln produced from his frock-coat pocket as he rose to speak, there are two major complications that prevent him from merely leaving it at that. First, the Nicolay copy is a composite—one page being half of a two-page draft Lincoln had prepared in ink before leaving Washington, D.C., on November 18, and the other being a “foolscap” page written in pencil in Gettysburg on the evening of the same day. In other words, Lincoln came prepared with one version already written out (and so we may quietly junk all those hoary tales about him writing the address on the train on the back of an envelope) but then substituted a rewritten second page for the final delivery. Even then, Johnson adds, the Nicolay copy does not quite capture what Lincoln actually said. Between the first page in ink and the “pencil page” is a grammatical gap which Lincoln evidently bridged extemporaneously as he was reading. That was not the only improvisation; the most famous was the insertion of the phrase “under God” (which does not appear in the Nicolay copy but which Lincoln included in three subsequent versions of the address, including the semi-official “Bliss copy,” on display at the White House.)

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