The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

About the Author (Abraham Lincoln)

• Presided over the United States during the Civil War.
• Opposed slavery as "injustice and bad policy," but was not an abolitionist, even though he's the one who abolished slavery (preferred freeing slaves gradually).
• Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, at a ceremony dedicating a national cemetery on the battle site of the Battle of Gettysburg.
• The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863. The victory for Union forces marked a turning point in the Civil War, but the losses on both sides were staggering: 28,000 Confederate soldiers and 23,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded.

Summary

• Begins by taking the audience back to "four score and seven years ago" (87 years ago), when the founding fathers created the nation.
• Conceived in liberty
• Dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal
• Lincoln says it is "fitting and proper" they dedicate the field as a final resting place for those who gave their lives so the nation could live.
• However, he says, in a larger sense, they cannot consecrate the land, as the brave men (living and dead) who fought there already did so.
• He urges the people to follow through with their unfinished work (maintaining the Union by winning the war) so these men did not "die in vain."
• They are fighting for liberty, a cause they (and the whole nation) believe in.
• He highly resolves that:
• these dead shall not have died in vain
• this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom
• the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth
• Those who are still alive must:
• take increased devotion, so the nation will have a new birth of freedom
• ensure the government of, by, and for the people that’ll never perish from the Earth
• achieve freedom from slavery (after Emancipation)
• those who are responsible are not only those alive in that moment, but every American after them (us included)