Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most quoted speeches in American history. The  text is brief, just three paragraphs amounting to less than 300 words. It only took Lincoln a few minutes to read it, but his words resonate to the present day. It’s unclear how much time Lincoln spent writing the speech, but analysis by scholars over the years indicates  that Lincoln used extreme care. It was a heartfelt and precise message he very much wanted to deliver at a moment of national crisis. The dedication of a cemetery at the site of the Civil Wars most pivotal battle was a solemn event. And when Lincoln was invited to speak, he recognized that the moment required him to make a major statement. Lincoln Intended a Major Statement The Battle of Gettysburg had taken place in rural Pennsylvania for the first three days of July in 1863. Thousands of men, both Union and Confederate, had been killed. The magnitude of the battle stunned the nation. As the summer of 1863 turned into fall, the Civil War entered a fairly slow period with no major battles being fought. Lincoln, very concerned that the nation was growing weary of a long and very costly war, was thinking of making a public statement affirming the country’s need to continue fighting. Immediately following the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July, Lincoln had said the occasion called for a speech but he was not yet prepared to give one equal to the occasion. And even before the Battle of Gettysburg, famed newspaper editor, Horace Greeley had written to Lincoln’s secretary John Nicolay in late June 1863 to urge Lincoln to write a letter on the â€Å"causes of the war and the necessary conditions of peace.† Lincoln Accepted an Invitation to Speak at Gettysburg At that time, presidents did not often have the opportunity to give speeches. But the opportunity for Lincoln to express his thoughts on the war appeared in November. Thousands of Union dead at Gettysburg had been hastily buried after the battle months earlier and were finally being properly reburied. A ceremony was to be held to dedicate the new cemetery and Lincoln was invited to offer remarks. The main speaker at the ceremony was to be Edward Everett, a distinguished New Englander who had been a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and president of Harvard College as well as a professor of Greek. Everett, who was famed for his orations, would talk at length about the great battle the previous summer. Lincoln’s remarks were always intended to be far briefer. His role would be to provide a proper and elegant closing to the ceremony. How the Speech Was Written Lincoln approached the task of writing the speech seriously. But unlike his speech at Cooper Union nearly four years earlier, he did not need to undertake extensive research. His thoughts about how the war was being fought for a just cause had already been set firmly in his mind. A persistent myth is that Lincoln wrote the speech on the back of an envelope while riding the train to Gettysburg, as he didn’t think the speech was anything serious. The opposite is true. A draft of the speech had been written by Lincoln in the White House. And it’s known that he also refined the speech the night before he delivered it, at the house where he spent the night in Gettysburg. Lincoln put considerable care into what he was about to say. November 19, 1863, the Day of the Gettysburg Address Another common myth about the ceremony at Gettysburg is that Lincoln was only invited as an afterthought and that the brief address he gave was nearly overlooked at the time. In fact, Lincoln’s involvement was always considered a vital part of the program, and the letter inviting him to participate makes that evident. The official invitation explained to Lincoln that the idea was always to have a featured orator and that it would be meaningful for the chief executive to then offer remarks. David Willis, a local attorney who was organizing the event, wrote: It is the desire that, after the Oration, you, as Chief Executive of the Nation, formally set apart these grounds to their Sacred use by a few appropriate remarks. It will be a source of great gratification to the many widows and orphans that have been made almost friendless by the Great Battle here, to have you here personally; and it will kindle anew in the breasts of the Comrades of these brave dead, who are now in the tented field or nobly meeting the foe in the front, a confidence that they who sleep in death on the Battle Field are not forgotten by those highest in Authority; and they will feel that, should their fate be the same, their remains will not be uncared for. The program that day began with a procession from the town of Gettysburg to the site of the new cemetery. Abraham Lincoln, in a new black suit, white gloves, and stovepipe hat, rode a horse in the procession, which also contained four military bands and other dignitaries on horseback. During the ceremony, Edward Everett spoke for two hours, delivering a detailed account of the great battle which had been fought on the ground four months earlier. Crowds at that time expected long orations, and Everett’s was well received. As Lincoln rose to give his address, the crowd listened intently. Some accounts describe the crowd applauding at points in the speech, so it seems that it was well-received. The brevity of the speech may have surprised some, but it seems that those who heard the speech realized they had witnessed something important. Newspapers carried accounts of the speech and it began to be praised throughout the north. Edward Everett arranged for his oration and Lincoln’s speech to be published in early 1864 as a book (which also included other material related to the ceremony on November 19, 1863). What Was the Purpose of the Gettysburg Address? In the famous opening words, Four score and seven years ago, Lincoln does not refer to the United States Constitution, but to the Declaration of Independence. That is important, as Lincoln was invoking Jeffersons phrase that all men are created equal as being central to the American government. In Lincolns view, the Constitution was an imperfect and always evolving document. And it had, in its original form, established the legality of slavery. By invoking the earlier document, the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln was able to make his argument about equality, and the purpose of the war being a new birth of freedom. Legacy of the Gettysburg Address The text of the Gettysburg address was widely circulated following the event at Gettysburg, and with Lincolns assassination less than a year and a half later, Lincolns words began to assume iconic status. It has never fallen out of favor and has been reprinted countless times. When President-elect Barack Obama spoke on election night, November 4, 2008, he quoted from the Gettysburg Address. And a phrase from the speech, A New Birth of Freedom, was adopted as the theme of his inaugural celebrations in January 2009. Of the People, By the People, and For the People Lincolns lines at the conclusion, that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth has been extensively quoted and cited as the essence of the American system of government. Sources Everett, Edward. Address of Hon. Edward Everett, at the Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, 19Th November, 1863: With the Dedicatory Speech of ... by an Account of the Origin of the Under. Abraham Lincoln, Paperback, Ulan Press, August 31, 2012. Santoro, Nicholas J. Malvern Hill, Run Up To Gettysburg: The Tragic Struggle. Paperback, iUniverse, July 23, 2014. Willis, David. Gettysburg Address: The Formal Invitation. Library of Congress, November 2, 1863.