November 19, 1863: Lincoln’s address was so short that photographer Alexander Gardner only had time to take this photo after the speech was delivered.
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.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
Abraham Lincoln was not the featured speaker at the dedication of the National Cemetery of Gettysburg on November 19, 1863. That honor went to Edward Everett, a noted orator of the day. Everett spoke for two hours to a crowd of about 15,000 before Lincoln rose to give what many consider to be the finest speech in American history.
The day came a little more than four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, which proved to be the turning point of the war for the Union. It was delivered at a time when the Civil War was still being fought and soldiers were dying in great numbers. At Gettysburg, an estimated 51,000 soldiers on both sides were killed, wounded, missing, or captured, giving this battle the highest number of casualties of any during the Civil War. Lincoln’s speech went a long way to remind the crowd of what all the horrible sacrifices were for.
Lincoln called for the country to live up to the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence, written 87 years earlier (a score = 20 years), mainly the values of liberty and that “all men are created equal.” Although he doesn’t directly mention slavery, the address is meant to be a blueprint for an America without slavery. Lincoln believed the Civil War was a great test of whether our country, “or any other,” was willing to fight to preserve freedom for all people. He called for “a new birth of freedom” for the country to ensure that America maintained a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” The best way to honor those who gave their lives was to recommit to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, absent slavery and as one country.
There is still some disagreement over the exact number of words Lincoln spoke that day, but the address is between 269 and 273 words long. He used the word “we” ten times. Many of the phrases Lincoln used in the address have become a lasting part of the American experience, and the address remains as relevant today as it was then.
The Gettysburg Address is best summed up by a letter from Edward Everett to Lincoln after the address was delivered. “I wish I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.”