Throwback Thursday: Gettysburg Address 1863
One hundred, fifty-seven years ago, today, President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech at the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg had just been 4 1/2 months prior. Lincoln was in the early stages of a mild case of small pox.
Library of Congress
Photographer: Carol Highsmith 2007
Image Credit: Wikipedia & Wikimedia
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.
Additional Reading:
Speeches & Writings (Abraham Lincoln Online)
Britannica
History Channel
National Geographic
National Park Service
November 19, 2020 at 4:53 PM
I wish certain politicians got the “for the people” part of Lincoln’s address. A good reminder of a true patriot.
November 19, 2020 at 5:15 PM
“For the people” has been forgotten by most politicians.
November 19, 2020 at 6:42 PM
For the people. I guess these days that means for ourselves. Politicians thinking anything else are a rarity.
November 19, 2020 at 8:56 PM
Amen, brother Gary!
November 20, 2020 at 8:52 AM
amen
December 2, 2020 at 3:27 PM
“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here”…he was wrong on that part. It’s the most famous address of that period….I would think.
December 2, 2020 at 4:18 PM
Heh. The world didn’t remember Everette’s droning. Lincoln did far better with pithiness and humility.
People forget (or weren’t taught) that Lincoln desperately wanted to keep his country intact. If that meant keeping slavery, OK. If it meant doing away with slavery, OK. He didn’t want to punish the South for slavery, he just didn’t want them to secede.
There is a LOT about the Civil War that has been hidden and/or ignored.
December 2, 2020 at 4:43 PM
Yea people just took it on face value but it was complicated…