Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States when the Civil War broke out. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer in Illinois during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the Congress during the 1840s. With very little support in the slave states, Lincoln swept the North and was elected president in 1860. The slave states were in the south of the U.S. and there were very few slaves in the north. The Southern economy was dependent on the slaves to help harvest cotton which was one of the South’s primary exports along the side of Tobacco and sugar. After being elected, during his inaugural address, he publicly expressed his supports of the abolishment of slavery. Which led to seven southern states to form the Confederacy, the seven states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. The civil war culminated in the battle of Gettysburg where the army of northern Virginia led by Robert E lee was defeated at Gettysburg Pennsylvania where after one of the most costly battles in the civil war Abraham Lincoln gave the speech known as the the Gettysburg address. Beginning with the iconic four score and seven years ago which is a reference to the American revolution Abraham lincoln explained Americas founding principals and their context with in the civil war and gave his condolences to the families of the soldiers who had died there both union and confederate it is regarded as one of the finest speeches in north American history and is repeated on many occasions with one of the most memorable being after pearl harbor when it was spoken on the USS Indiana after the bombing of pearl harbor. It is also spoken on Gettysburg every November 19th by Gettysburg's mayor .
"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."
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States when the Civil War broke out. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer in Illinois during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the Congress during the 1840s. With very little support in the slave states, Lincoln swept the North and was elected president in 1860. The slave states were in the south of the U.S. and there were very few slaves in the north. The Southern economy was dependent on the slaves to help harvest cotton which was one of the South’s primary exports along the side of Tobacco and sugar. After being elected, during his inaugural address, he publicly expressed his supports of the abolishment of slavery. Which led to seven southern states to form the Confederacy, the seven states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. The civil war culminated in the battle of Gettysburg where the army of northern Virginia led by Robert E lee was defeated at Gettysburg Pennsylvania where after one of the most costly battles in the civil war Abraham Lincoln gave the speech known as the the Gettysburg address. Beginning with the iconic four score and seven years ago which is a reference to the American revolution Abraham lincoln explained Americas founding principals and their context with in the civil war and gave his condolences to the families of the soldiers who had died there both union and confederate it is regarded as one of the finest speeches in north American history and is repeated on many occasions with one of the most memorable being after pearl harbor when it was spoken on the USS Indiana after the bombing of pearl harbor. It is also spoken on Gettysburg every November 19th by Gettysburg's mayor .
"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."
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863