I’ll start this blog with a question. What exactly is the Gettysburg Address? We know President Lincoln gave his famous speech at the military cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but what was the significance of his address? It was made during the Civil War and considered one of the greatest speeches in American History. It’s known for its statement of purpose and brevity. He wrote the 272 word speech himself. According to historians, the stand on which President Lincoln stood on November 19, 1863 was 12 ft. wide and 20 ft. long. It faced the North West and was located 40 ft. North East of the outer circle of Soldiers Graves. Apparently tourists visiting the military cemetery almost always ask where President Lincoln was standing.
According to the book, Lincoln At Gettysburg, The Words That Remade America, by Garry Wills, President Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome Civil War battle. Instead he gave the whole nation a new birth of freedom by tracing its first birth to the Declaration of Independence (which called all men equal) rather than to the Constitution (which tolerated slavery). At the beginning of 1863, Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all enslaved people were free. This had caused the war to be in favor of the Union, and former enslaved people flocked to join the war against the Confederates.
At the time of the speech, President Lincoln was the 16th President and was presiding over a divided Union. Many Southern States seceded from the Union after he was elected. They formed the Confederacy.
The Battle of Gettysburg in early July of 1863 was one of the major battles of the Civil War. The Confederate Army was led by General Robert E. Lee. He had led his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania because he wanted to invade the North and cut off Pennsylvania from the Union forces. He encountered resistance from Major General George Meade’s Union Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. Over the next three days, General Lee tried to break through Union lines but Major General Meade held them off. On the last day of the battle, General Lee launched a suicidal attack on the Union forces with a group of 12,500 men known as Pickett’s Charge. The Union forces beat them back, and Lee and his men had to retreat. Over three days at Gettysburg, close to 50,000 soldiers from both sides were killed. This was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
President Lincoln had come to power to preserve the Union and prevent the Southern states from seceding. He went to war to stop the disintegration of the United States. He wanted to unite the nation, but the Confederate states resisted. President Lincoln realized that both the Confederacy and slavery had to be defeated and destroyed to reunite the country. He believed the Confederate forces were retreating, and it was a matter of time before the Union was victorious.
After the Battle of Gettysburg, a new national cemetery was to be set up at that location to house the graves of soldiers fallen in battle. President Lincoln was invited to speak at the cemetery’s inauguration. Large crowds gathered for the occasion. His speech was short but included ten sentences that would go down in history. He gave his view of the war and why it was necessary to fight it. The Gettysburg Address was given to give meaning to the sacrifice that the Confederate and Union soldiers had made with their lives.
According to historians, the main message of the Gettysburg Address is that ideals are worth dying for. It is up to the living to carry on their work. The ideals of equality and freedom are the bedrock of the United States. The United States had to stand as a country where all men are created equal, therefore, should be treated as equals.
“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 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.”
-Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg Address does not mention Gettysburg, slavery, or the Union. The other major message of 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation, was not mentioned either. The “great task” mentioned is not emancipation, but the preservation of self-government. We assume it meant for all races, but at the time, President Lincoln was obviously not advocating or acknowledging the suffrage of Black Americans.
Francie Mae. November 12, 2022.
References
Gettysburg Address Summary, Significance & Analysis. . Study.com. Web. Accessed November 13, 2022. Updated March 2, 2022.
Wills, Gary. 1992. Lincoln At Gettysburg, The Words That Remade America. New York, New York. Simon & Shuster. UN 21, 2019