|
The Battle of Gettysburg occurred over three hot summer days, July 1 to July 3, 1863, around the small market town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It began as a skirmish but by its end involved 160,000 Americans and effectively decided the fate of the Union. Read more about the Battle of Gettysburg On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln went to the battlefield to dedicate it as a National Cemetery. The main orator, Edward Everett of Massachusetts, delivered a two-hour formal address. The president then had his turn. He spoke in his high, penetrating voice, and in a little over two minutes delivered this speech, surprising everyone by its brevity and leaving many quite unimpressed at first. Over time, however, this speech with its ending - government of the People, by the People, for the People - has come to symbolize the definition of democracy itself. |
|
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 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.
President Abraham Lincoln - November 19, 1863
The History Place - Great Speeches Collection
See also: The History Place - Abraham Lincoln Timeline
The History Place - YouTube Channel
[ The History Place Main Page | American Revolution | American Civil War | Child Labor in America 1908-1912 | U.S. in World War II in the Pacific | John F. Kennedy Photo History | Vietnam War | First World War | The Rise of Adolf Hitler | Triumph of Hitler | Defeat of Hitler | Hitler Youth | World War II in Europe | Holocaust Timeline | 20th Century Genocide | Irish Potato Famine | This Month in History | Books on Hitler's Germany | History Videos | Hollywood's Best History Movies ]
Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place.