Gettysburg Address

President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the site of The Battle of Gettysburg. The United States was still in the midst of the American Civil War and Lincoln's speech was an attempt to instill hope and renew confidence in Civil War soldiers and their families.http://sites.google.com/site/anewbirthoffreedom/abraham-lincoln-s-gettysburg-address

The speech is called the Gettysburg Address because it was given by the President at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It is the most renowned speech of President Abraham Lincoln and the most quoted speech in United States history.http://sites.google.com/site/anewbirthoffreedom/abraham-lincoln-s-gettysburg-address The Gettysburg Address had fewer then 300 words and took about two minutes to read aloud. It tells the story of the Civil War in ten sentences.http://www.newsmild.com/gettysburg-address

The theme of the Gettysburg Address was not new, though President Lincoln used it to make his patriotic utterance. Daniel Webster had made a statement in 1830 about the origin and power of the American government. He said,” the people’s constitution, the people’s government; made for the people, made by the people and answerable to the people.”http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html These words were similarly used by Rev. Theodore Parker in 1858 when he define democracy as “a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people."http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html

Although some believe that the speech was quickly prepared on the way to Gettysburg, correspondent Noah Brooks said that the President had told him many days before the dedication that his speech was going to short and was written, though not finished. Lincoln was a man that was cautious of words written or spoken in public. His normal habit was to ponder over his words.http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html

Today, two of the drafts of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address are located in the Library of Congress collections. They are preserved in two different environmental cases with one document in each case. Although the cases allow viewing, they are filled with inert argon gas instead of oxygen as this eliminates some of the deterioration. Gaskets materials and valves prevent leaking. The Plexiglass filters out ultraviolet rays. The permanent storage is in a low temperature vault.http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html

"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."http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm