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Copyright 2001. The Lazy 'C' - All rights reserved.
history
The 'Gettysburg Address' is a short speech that Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, delivered on Nov. 19, 1863, at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. He delivered the address at ceremonies to dedicate a part of the battlefield as a cemetery for those who had lost their lives in this American Civil War battle. Lincoln chose his simple, noble words with such care that, ever since that day, they have stirred the deepest feelings of Americans.
Lincoln made five handwritten copies of the speech. He wrote most of the first version in Washington, before travelling to Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, he probably revised the first version, and then made a second. Lincoln planned to read the second version, and he held it in his hand while speaking. But he made several changes as he spoke. The most important change was to add the phrase "under God" after the word "nation" in the last sentence.
Historians are reasonably sure they know which version of the speech Lincoln actually gave at Gettysburg. Several reporters were present at the ceremonies and took down his words while he spoke. Although the reports vary somewhat, they all include the phrase "under God." Lincoln added that phrase to the copies of the address that he later made after the ceremonies at the Gettysburg battlefield.
Lincoln made the last copy of the address in 1864. This was the only copy he signed. This fifth version is the one carved on a stone plaque in the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C.
Many false stories have grown up about this famous speech. One story says that the president wrote it in pencil on the back of an old brown envelope while on the train going to Gettysburg. According to another story, the people of Lincoln's time did not appreciate his speech. But Edward Everett, who was the principal speaker at the dedication ceremony, wrote to Lincoln: "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes." Many newspapers also immediately recognized the inspired nobility of the president's brief remarks.
Lincoln made five handwritten copies of the speech. He wrote most of the first version in Washington, before travelling to Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, he probably revised the first version, and then made a second. Lincoln planned to read the second version, and he held it in his hand while speaking. But he made several changes as he spoke. The most important change was to add the phrase "under God" after the word "nation" in the last sentence.
Historians are reasonably sure they know which version of the speech Lincoln actually gave at Gettysburg. Several reporters were present at the ceremonies and took down his words while he spoke. Although the reports vary somewhat, they all include the phrase "under God." Lincoln added that phrase to the copies of the address that he later made after the ceremonies at the Gettysburg battlefield.
Lincoln made the last copy of the address in 1864. This was the only copy he signed. This fifth version is the one carved on a stone plaque in the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C.
Many false stories have grown up about this famous speech. One story says that the president wrote it in pencil on the back of an old brown envelope while on the train going to Gettysburg. According to another story, the people of Lincoln's time did not appreciate his speech. But Edward Everett, who was the principal speaker at the dedication ceremony, wrote to Lincoln: "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes." Many newspapers also immediately recognized the inspired nobility of the president's brief remarks.
'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 battlefield 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 honoured 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.'