The Gettysburg Address is a short dedication speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on 19 November 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Speaking for only about two minutes after the featured orator Edward Everett's two-hour address, Lincoln reframed the war as a test of whether a nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" could endure, and called on his listeners to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Despite its brevity, the speech has come to be regarded as one of the most famous and most frequently quoted speeches in American history, and it reshaped how many Americans understood the purpose of the war and the meaning of the founding principles of the republic.
Facts
Document Type Creation Year Origin PlaceGettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States 1 Current LocationFive manuscript copies survive: the Nicolay and Hay copies are held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the Bliss copy is displayed in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House; the Everett copy is held by the Illinois State Historical Library; and the Bancroft copy is held by Cornell University. 1 Original Language Document Type
Document Type (category) FAQs
Why does the Gettysburg Address say the audience cannot dedicate the ground?
Lincoln says the soldiers who struggled there had already consecrated it, and he turns the living toward their unfinished work.
The speech begins by saying the audience has come to dedicate part of the battlefield as a final resting place for those who died there. Lincoln then says that in a larger sense they cannot dedicate, consecrate or hallow the ground, because the brave men, living and dead, who struggled there had already consecrated it far above the power of the speakers to add or detract. He says the world will little note nor long remember what is said there but can never forget what the soldiers did. He then turns to the living, who are to be dedicated to the unfinished work the soldiers so nobly advanced.
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Source Wikipedia: Gettysburg Address
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1. Wikipedia: Gettysburg Address
WikipediaLead section
The Gettysburg Address is a dedication speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, following the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
Manuscripts section
There are five known manuscript copies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Lead
is a dedication speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln
In Era: The Late Modern Period, lead paragraph and infobox, date
Lincoln delivered the speech on the afternoon of November 19, 1863, during a formal dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery, now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery, on the grounds where the Battle of Gettysburg had been fought four and a half months earlier, between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
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