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The Gettysburg Address

Morgan Seals
HIST-1700
The topic I have chosen is THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS (1863) page A29. The Gettysburg Address is a document written as a speech by Abraham
Lincoln on November 19, 1863 to commemorate a cemetery to those who
gave their lives fighting for America. The speech discusses Lincolns feelings
about the ongoing civil war in America and the sacrifices given to protect the
nation and the rights of the people.
I chose the Gettysburg Address, the famous Four score and seven
years ago speech written by Abraham Lincoln, because I have always heard
about it but have not actually read it. I wanted to learn more about this
speech, why it was written, and what made it so memorable and important
to American history. In this document I appreciate that you can tell how
deeply the President feels about this country and what its people have been
through to preserve the ideals of liberty and equality. After reading the
Gettysburg Address it reminded me of what we fight for as a nation and the
hopes of those who first came to America.
A turning point for America was when the Gettysburg Address speech
was given. It was a reminder of what our nation was going through because
of the war. The speech gave the people of America a reason to think about

what was intended for this country and realize that we should not be divided
as a nation.
Abraham Lincoln, elected the sixteenth president of the United States
of America in 1861, was the first republican to win presidency. One of his
accomplishments was the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves
in the Confederacy. This shows his dedication to the idea that All men are
created equal.
Lincoln wanted peace for the nation and he has been described as
flexible and generous as a president with unwavering integrity and great
empathy. Lincoln believed that the nation should be based on ideas that
would unify the people, ideas focusing on democracy and liberty. This shows
his compassion and deep concern for the well-being of the country which he
expresses in the Gettysburg Address.
The Gettysburg Address first addresses what our nation was created
for and what our founding fathers originally envisioned for the country. It
then moves on to discuss the sacrifices the people have made and inquires
how long our nation that was so dedicated to liberty can endure this war and
protect what we believe in. Lincoln proceeds to discuss why they are
dedicating a portion of the battle field of Gettysburg to those who have fallen
while fighting for the country because, as he says, the cemetery is a final
resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
He concludes his speech by stating that the only way we can honor those

who died is for us to dedicate ourselves to the cause in which those lives
were lost so that the nation can become unified.
Lincoln wrote this for those who came to the dedication of the
cemetery and lost someone to the war. It was also written for the nation as
whole, who care for their country. Lincoln stated in his speech that The
world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, not knowing that
The Gettysburg Address would come to be considered Lincolns finest speech
given, lasting less than three minutes. While giving his speech the audience
interrupted five times to give him applause which shows how much they
agreed with what he was saying and proved that they also wanted to reunify
the nation as much as Lincoln.
At the time this speech was given America was in the middle of the
Civil war that divided the people of the north and south. Both sides were
fighting for what they considered to be liberty, Lincoln once stated in his
Address at a Sanitary Fair that we all declare for libertybut in using the
same word we do not all mean the same thing. Lincoln knew that he had to
remind the people that our nation should be acting as a whole and should be
united in our pursuits of liberty, not divided.
People in the United States at the time had a lot of emotional
investment in the country and the war with roughly fifteen to twenty
thousand people in attendance of the Gettysburg Address. You can tell from
the document that there was a lot of grief from the loss of life from those

fighting and those who have lost someone to the war and by the end of the
Civil War an estimate of 750,000 were dead. It also shows how involved
Lincoln was in the war and his efforts to create peace and rally the nation by
trying to recreate the sense of unity that the country once had. An example
of how he tries to create a sense of unity is the frequent use of the word
we throughout his entire speech. By continuously using the word we
Lincoln constantly invites the idea of community and unity to the audience.
Lincoln wrote this remembering the vision our forefathers had for this
new nation as stated in this documents famous first line, 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. This reminds the people that eighty seven years earlier we
won our freedom from the British while pressing the idea that we were
founded in liberty and equality. Lincoln realized that he had to lift the spirits
of the people brought down by the war and inspire them to persevere and
continue to fight. He wanted to impress upon the people the reasons why
those who gave their lives for America should be remembered. Lincoln
challenged the people to dedicate themselves and continue to fight for the
rights of the nation. The message that the people must continue the fight
for the nation is further reinforced in the following quote from the Gettysburg
Address. 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.

A reason why this document has been so iconic throughout the years
has to do with the fact that Lincoln was very talented at making his words
personable to the audience. The style in which he wrote the Gettysburg
Address was very poetic and appealing to the people and he is able to reach
them on an emotional level that we can still recognize today. For example
his choice to use the phrase Four score and seven years ago is a much
more poetic way of saying eighty seven years ago. Lincoln also used the
repetition of words like we which is one of the basic aspects of being a
great public speaker. The use of repetition in his speaking gives his speech
life and increases the impact and ability to effectively make key points in his
speech. The style of wording Lincoln uses in his speech and his ability to
effectively convey his ideas is what makes this speech appealing and
interesting which engages the audience.
The Gettysburg Address was written as a short speech with the intent
to quickly grab the attention of the people present and to more easily reach
the people in an emotional and inspirational way. Lincoln was able to
express his feelings about the event and present it in a way that gets those
points across to the audience which would have been more difficult if it had
been written in a different way. This speech was able to fulfill its purpose
and remind the nation of what it stands for and why it should not be divided.