   #copyright

Gettysburg Address

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: North American History

   Selection from the "Nicolay Copy" of the Gettysburg Address,
   handwritten by Lincoln himself.
   Enlarge
   Selection from the "Nicolay Copy" of the Gettysburg Address,
   handwritten by Lincoln himself.

   The Gettysburg Address is the most famous speech of U.S. President
   Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in United States
   history. It was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National
   Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, during the
   American Civil War, four and a half months after the Battle of
   Gettysburg.

   Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations
   that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in
   American history. In fewer than 300 words delivered over two to three
   minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by
   the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a
   struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that
   would bring true equality to all of its citizens.

   Beginning with the now-iconic phrase "Four score and seven years ago,"
   Lincoln referred to the events of the American Revolution and described
   the ceremony at Gettysburg as an opportunity not only to dedicate the
   grounds of a cemetery, but also to consecrate the living in the
   struggle to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for
   the people, shall not perish from the earth."
   The only known photo of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg (seated, center),
   taken about noon, just after Lincoln arrived and some three hours
   before he spoke. To Lincoln's right is his bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon.
   Enlarge
   The only known photo of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg (seated, centre),
   taken about noon, just after Lincoln arrived and some three hours
   before he spoke. To Lincoln's right is his bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon.

   Despite the speech's prominent place in the history and popular culture
   of the United States, the exact wording of the speech is disputed. The
   five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address differ in a number of
   details and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the
   speech.

Background

   Union dead at Gettysburg, photographed by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, July
   5–6, 1863.
   Enlarge
   Union dead at Gettysburg, photographed by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, July
   5– 6, 1863.
   David Wills's letter inviting Abraham Lincoln to make a few remarks,
   noting that Edward Everett would deliver the oration.
   Enlarge
   David Wills's letter inviting Abraham Lincoln to make a few remarks,
   noting that Edward Everett would deliver the oration.

   The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) forever changed the little
   Pennsylvania town. The battlefield contained the bodies of more than
   7,500 dead soldiers and several thousand horses of the Union's Army of
   the Potomac and the Confederacy's Army of Northern Virginia. The stench
   of rotting bodies made many townspeople violently ill in the weeks
   following the battle, and the burial of the dead in a dignified and
   orderly manner became a high priority for the few thousand residents of
   Gettysburg. Under the direction of David Wills, a wealthy 32-year-old
   attorney, Pennsylvania purchased 17 acres (69,000 m²) for a cemetery to
   honour those lost in the summer's battle.

   Wills originally planned to dedicate this new cemetery on Wednesday,
   September 23, and invited Edward Everett, who had served as Secretary
   of State, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, Governor of Massachusetts,
   and president of Harvard University, to be the main speaker. At that
   time, Everett was widely considered to be the nation's greatest orator.
   In reply, Everett told Wills and his organizing committee that he would
   be unable to prepare an appropriate speech in such a short period of
   time, and requested that the date be postponed. The committee agreed,
   and the dedication was postponed until Thursday, November 19.

   Almost as an afterthought, Wills and the event committee invited
   Lincoln to participate in the ceremony. Wills' letter stated, "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." Lincoln's role in the event was secondary, akin
   to the modern tradition of inviting a noted public figure to do a
   ribbon-cutting at a grand opening.

   Lincoln arrived by train in Gettysburg on November 18, and spent the
   night as a guest in Wills' house on the Gettysburg town square, where
   he put the finishing touches on the speech he had written in
   Washington. Contrary to popular myth, Lincoln neither completed his
   address while on the train nor wrote it on the back of an envelope. On
   the morning of November 19 at 9:30 A.M., Lincoln joined in a procession
   with the assembled dignitaries, townspeople, and widows marching out to
   the grounds to be dedicated astride a chestnut bay horse, between
   Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the Treasury
   Salmon P. Chase.

   Approximately 15,000 people are estimated to have attended the
   ceremony, including the sitting governors of six of the 24 Union
   states: Andrew Gregg Curtin of Pennsylvania, Augustus Bradford of
   Maryland, Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, Horatio Seymour of New York,
   Joel Parker of New Jersey, and David Tod of Ohio. The precise location
   of the program within the grounds of the cemetery is disputed.
   Reinterment of the bodies buried from field graves into the cemetery,
   which had begun within months of the battle, was less than half
   complete on the day of the ceremony.

Program and Everett's "Gettysburg Oration"

   Edward Everett delivered a two-hour Oration before Lincoln's few
   minutes of Dedicatory Remarks.
   Enlarge
   Edward Everett delivered a two-hour Oration before Lincoln's few
   minutes of Dedicatory Remarks.

   The program organized for that day by Wills and his committee included:

          Music, by Birgfield's Band
          Prayer, by Reverend T.H. Stockton, D.D.
          Music, by the Marine Band
          Oration, by Hon. Edward Everett
          Music, Hymn composed by B.B. French, Esq.
          Dedicatory Remarks, by the President of the United States
          Dirge, sung by Choir selected for the occasion
          Benediction, by Reverend H.L. Baugher, D.D.

   What was regarded as the "Gettysburg Address" that day was not the
   short speech delivered by President Lincoln, but rather Everett's
   two-hour oration. Everett's now seldom-read 13,607-word speech began:

          Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields
          now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty
          Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren
          beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor
          voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. But the
          duty to which you have called me must be performed; — grant me,
          I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy.

   And ended two hours later with:

          But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell
          to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout
          the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read,
          and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious
          annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page
          than that which relates the Battles of Gettysburg.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

   Monument of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.
   Enlarge
   Monument of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.
     * Gettysburg Address —
          + A recording of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
     * Problems playing the files? See media help.

   Not long after those well-received remarks, Lincoln spoke in his
   high-pitched Kentucky accent for two or three minutes. Lincoln's "few
   appropriate remarks" summarized the war in ten sentences and 272 words,
   rededicating the nation to the war effort and to the ideal that no
   soldier at Gettysburg had died in vain.

   Despite the historical significance of Lincoln's speech, modern
   scholars disagree as to its exact wording, and contemporary
   transcriptions published in newspaper accounts of the event and even
   handwritten copies by Lincoln himself differ in their wording,
   punctuation, and structure. Of these versions the Bliss version has
   become the standard text. It is the only version to which Lincoln
   affixed his signature, and the last he is known to have written:

          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.

Content and themes

   Lincoln used the word "nation" five times (four times when he referred
   to the American nation, and one time when he referred to "any nation so
   conceived and so dedicated"), but never the word "union," which might
   refer only to the North—furthermore, restoring the nation, not a union
   of sovereign states, was paramount. Lincoln's text referred to the year
   1776 and the American Revolutionary War, and included the famous words
   of the Declaration of Independence, that " all men are created equal".

   Lincoln did not allude to the 1789 Constitution, which implicitly
   recognized slavery in the " three-fifths compromise," and he avoided
   using the word "slavery". He also made no mention of the contentious
   antebellum political issues of nullification or states' rights.

   In Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America, Garry Wills
   suggests the Address was influenced by the American Greek Revival and
   the classical funereal oratory of Athens, as well as the
   Transcendentalism of Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore
   Parker (the source of the phrase "of all the people, by all the people,
   for all the people") and the constitutional arguments of Daniel
   Webster.

   Civil War scholar James McPherson's review of Wills' book addresses the
   parallels to Pericles' funeral oration during the Peloponnesian War as
   described by Thucydides, and enumerates several striking comparisons
   with Lincoln's speech. Pericles' speech, like Lincoln's, begins with an
   acknowledgment of revered predecessors: "I shall begin with our
   ancestors: it is both just and proper that they should have the honour
   of the first mention on an occasion like the present"; then praises the
   uniqueness of the State's commitment to democracy: "If we look to the
   laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences";
   honours the sacrifice of the slain, "Thus choosing to die resisting,
   rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour, but met
   danger face to face"; and exhorts the living to continue the struggle:
   "You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a
   resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier
   issue."

   Craig R. Smith, in "Criticism of Political Rhetoric and Disciplinary
   Integrity", also suggested the influence of Webster's famous speeches
   on the view of government expressed by Lincoln in the Gettysburg
   Address, specifically, Webster's "Second Reply to Hayne", in which he
   states, "This government, Sir, is the independent offspring of the
   popular will. It is not the creature of State legislatures; nay, more,
   if the whole truth must be told, the people brought it into existence,
   established it, and have hitherto supported it, for the very purpose,
   amongst others, of imposing certain salutary restraints on State
   sovereignties."

   Some have noted Lincoln's usage of the imagery of birth, life, and
   death in reference to a nation "brought forth," "conceived," and that
   shall not "perish." Others, including Allen C. Guelzo, the director of
   Civil War Era studies at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, suggested
   that Lincoln's formulation "four score and seven" was an allusion to
   the King James Version of the Bible's Psalms 90:10, in which man's
   lifespan is given as "threescore years and ten".

   Writer H. L. Mencken criticized what he believed to be Lincoln's
   central argument, that Union soldiers at Gettysburg "sacrificed their
   lives to the cause of self-determination." Mencken contended, "It is
   difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the
   battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the
   Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern
   themselves."

The five manuscripts

   The five known manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address are each
   named for the associated person who received it from Lincoln. Lincoln
   gave a copy to each of his private secretaries, John Nicolay and John
   Hay. Both of these drafts were written around the time of his November
   19 address, while the other three copies of the address; the Everett,
   Bancroft, and Bliss copies; were written by Lincoln for charitable
   purposes well after November 19. In part because Lincoln provided a
   title and signed and dated the Bliss Copy, it has been used as the
   source for most facsimile reproductions of Lincoln's Gettysburg
   Address.

   The two earliest drafts of the Address are associated with some
   confusion and controversy regarding their existence and provenance.
   Nicolay and Hay were appointed custodians of Lincoln's papers by
   Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln in 1874. After appearing in facsimile
   in an article written by John Nicolay in 1894, the Nicolay copy was
   presumably among the papers passed to Hay by Nicolay's daughter Helen
   upon Nicolay's death in 1901. Robert Lincoln began a search for the
   original copy in 1908, which spurred Helen to spend several years
   unsuccessfully searching for Nicolay's copy. In a letter to Lincoln,
   Helen Nicolay stated, "Mr. Hay told me shortly after the transfer was
   made that your father gave my father the original ms. of the Gettysburg
   Address." Lincoln's search resulted in the discovery of a handwritten
   copy of the Gettysburg Address among the bound papers of John Hay—a
   copy now known as the "Hay Draft", which differed from the version
   published by John Nicolay in 1894 in the paper used, number of words
   per line, number of lines, and editorial revisions in Lincoln's hand.
   It was not until eight years later in March 1916 that the manuscript
   known as the "Nicolay Copy", consistent with both the recollections of
   Helen Nicolay and the article written by her father, was reported to be
   in the possession of Alice Hay Wadsworth, John Hay's granddaughter.
   (op.cit.)

Nicolay Copy

   The Nicolay Copy is often called the "first draft" because it is
   believed to be the earliest copy that exists. Scholars disagree over
   whether the Nicolay copy was actually the reading copy Lincoln held at
   Gettysburg on November 19. In an 1894 article that included a facsimile
   of this copy, Nicolay, who had become the custodian of Lincoln's
   papers, wrote that Lincoln had brought to Gettysburg the first part of
   the speech written in ink on Executive Mansion stationery, and that he
   had written the second page in pencil on lined paper before the
   dedication on November 19. Matching folds are still evident on the two
   pages, suggesting it could be the copy that eyewitnesses say Lincoln
   took from his coat pocket and read at the ceremony. Others believe that
   the delivery text has been lost, because some of the words and phrases
   of the Nicolay copy do not match contemporary transcriptions of
   Lincoln's original speech. The words "under God", for example, are
   missing in this copy from the phrase "that this nation (under God)
   shall have a new birth of freedom…" In order for the Nicolay draft to
   have been the reading copy, either the contemporary transcriptions were
   inaccurate, or Lincoln uncharacteristically would have had to depart
   from his written text in several instances. This copy of the Gettysburg
   Address apparently remained in John Nicolay's possession until his
   death in 1901, when it passed to his friend and colleague John Hay, and
   after years of being lost to the public, it was reported found in March
   1916. The Nicolay copy is on permanent display as part of the American
   Treasures exhibition of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Hay Copy

   The Hay Copy, with Lincoln's handwritten corrections.
   Enlarge
   The Hay Copy, with Lincoln's handwritten corrections.

   With its existence first announced to the public in 1906, the Hay Copy
   was described by historian Garry Wills as "the most inexplicable of the
   five copies Lincoln made." With numerous omissions and inserts, this
   copy strongly suggests a text that was copied hastily, especially when
   one examines the fact that many of these omissions were critical to the
   basic meaning of the sentence, not simply words that would be added by
   Lincoln to strengthen or clarify their meaning. This copy, which is
   sometimes referred to as the "second draft," was made either on the
   morning of its delivery, or shortly after Lincoln's return to
   Washington. Those that believe that it was completed on the morning of
   his address point to the fact that it contains certain phrases that are
   not in the first draft but are in the reports of the address as
   delivered and in subsequent copies made by Lincoln. It is probable,
   they conclude, that as stated in the explanatory note accompanying the
   original copies of the first and second drafts in the Library of
   Congress, that it was this second draft which Lincoln held in his hand
   when he delivered the address. Lincoln eventually gave this copy to his
   other personal secretary, John Hay, whose descendants donated both it
   and the Nicolay copy to the Library of Congress in 1916.

Everett Copy

   The Everett Copy, also known as the "Everett-Keyes" copy, was sent by
   President Lincoln to Edward Everett in early 1864, at Everett's
   request. Everett was collecting the speeches given at the Gettysburg
   dedication into one bound volume to sell for the benefit of stricken
   soldiers at New York's Sanitary Commission Fair. The draft Lincoln sent
   became the third autograph copy, and is now in the possession of the
   Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield, Illinois, where it is
   currently on display in the Treasures Gallery of the Abraham Lincoln
   Presidential Library and Museum.

Bancroft Copy

   The Bancroft Copy of the Gettysburg Address was written out by
   President Lincoln in April 1864 at the request of George Bancroft, the
   most famous historian of his day. Bancroft planned to include this copy
   in Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors, which he planned to sell
   at a Soldiers' and Sailors' Sanitary Fair in Baltimore. As this fourth
   copy was written on both sides of the paper, it proved unusable for
   this purpose, and Bancroft was allowed to keep it. This manuscript is
   the only one accompanied both by a letter from Lincoln transmitting the
   manuscript and by the original envelope addressed and franked (i.e.,
   signed for free postage) by Lincoln. This copy remained in the Bancroft
   family for many years, was sold to various dealers and purchased by
   Nicholas and Marguerite Lilly Noyes, who donated the manuscript to
   Cornell in 1949. It is now held by the Division of Rare and Manuscript
   Collectionsin the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University. It is
   the only one of the five copies to be privately owned.

Bliss Copy

   Discovering that his fourth written copy (which was intended for George
   Bancroft's "Autograph Leaves") could not be used, Lincoln wrote a fifth
   draft, which was accepted for the purpose requested. The Bliss Copy,
   once owned by the family of Colonel Alexander Bliss, Bancroft's stepson
   and publisher of "Autograph Leaves", is the only draft to which Lincoln
   affixed his signature. It is likely this was the last copy written by
   Lincoln, and because of the apparent care in its preparation, and in
   part because Lincoln provided a title and signed and dated this copy,
   it has become the standard version of the address. The Bliss Copy has
   been the source for most facsimile reproductions of Lincoln's
   Gettysburg Address. This draft now hangs in the Lincoln Room of the
   White House, a gift of Oscar B. Cintas, former Cuban Ambassador to the
   United States. Cintas, a wealthy collector of art and manuscripts,
   purchased the Bliss copy at a public auction in 1949 for $54,000, at
   that time the highest price ever paid for a document at public auction.

   Garry Wills, who won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
   for Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America, concluded the
   Bliss Copy "is stylistically preferable to others in one significant
   way: Lincoln removed 'here' from 'that cause for which they (here)
   gave…' The seventh 'here' is in all other versions of the speech."
   Wills noted the fact that Lincoln "was still making such improvements,"
   suggesting Lincoln was more concerned with a perfected text than with
   an 'original' one.

Audio recollections of an eyewitness

   William R. Rathvon, a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College in
   Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is the only known eyewitness of both Lincoln's
   arrival at Gettysburg and the address itself to have left an audio
   recording of his recollections. Rathvon, whose mother's family was from
   the town of Gettysburg, and whose parents had met and married at the
   Lutheran Seminary in town, spent his summers in Gettysburg. After the
   battle he and his childhood friends roamed the area collecting small
   artifacts; even finding abandoned muskets in a pond. During the battle,
   his grandmother's home was briefly used as a headquarters for
   Confederate general Richard Ewell. She also provided temporary refuge
   to Union soldiers who were running from the pursuing Confederates.

   Rathvon was nine years old when he and his family personally saw
   Lincoln speak at Gettysburg. Growing up, he would become a Colorado
   businessman, an excellent public lecturer and served as a teacher,
   treasurer and director of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in
   Boston, Massachusetts. One year before his death in 1939, Rathvon's
   reminiscences were recorded on February 12, 1938 at the Boston studios
   of radio station WRUL, including his reading the address, itself, and a
   78 rpm record was pressed. The title of the 78 record was "I Heard
   Lincoln That Day - William R. Rathvon, TR Productions." A copy wound up
   at National Public Radio during a "Quest for Sound" project in the
   1990s. NPR continues to air them around Lincoln's birthday. To listen
   to a 6 minute NPR-edited recording, click here and for the full 21
   minute recording, click here. Even after almost seventy years,
   Rathvon's audio recollections remain a moving testimony to Lincoln's
   transcendent effect on his fellow countrymen and the affection which so
   many ardent unionists in his day held for him.

Myths and trivia

     * One persistent myth is that Lincoln composed the speech while
       riding on the train from Washington to Gettysburg and wrote it on
       the back of an envelope. This story is at odds with the existence
       of several early drafts and the reports of Lincoln's final editing
       while a guest of David Wills in Gettysburg.

     * In an oft-repeated legend, after completing the speech, Lincoln
       turned to his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon and remarked that his
       speech, like a bad plow, "won't scour." According to Garry Wills,
       this statement has no basis in fact and largely originates from the
       unreliable recollections of Lamon. In Wills' view, "[Lincoln] had
       done what he wanted to do [at Gettysburg]."

     * The only known photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg, taken by
       photographer David Bachrach was identified in the Mathew Brady
       collection of photographic plates in the National Archives and
       Records Administration in 1952. While Lincoln's speech was short
       and may have precluded multiple pictures of him while speaking, he
       and the other dignitaries sat for hours during the rest of the
       program. Given the length of Everett's speech and the length of
       time it took for 19th Century photographers to get "set up" before
       taking a picture, it's quite plausible that the photographers were
       ill prepared for the brevity of Lincoln's remarks.

     * The copies of the Address within the Library of Congress are
       encased in specially-designed, temperature-controlled, sealed
       containers with argon gas in order to protect the documents from
       oxidation and continued degeneration.

     * The New York Times coverage of the speech referred to the site of
       Lincoln's address as "Gettysburgh" (with an 'h' at the end).

In popular culture

   The words of the Gettysburg Address can be seen carved into the south
   wall of the Lincoln Memorial on the inside.
   Enlarge
   The words of the Gettysburg Address can be seen carved into the south
   wall of the Lincoln Memorial on the inside.

   The importance of the Gettysburg Address in the history of the United
   States is underscored by its enduring presence in American culture. In
   addition to its prominent place carved into a stone cella on the south
   wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Gettysburg
   Address is frequently referred to in works of popular culture, with the
   implicit expectation that contemporary audiences will be familiar with
   Lincoln's words.

   Some examples include Meredith Willson's 1957 musical, The Music Man,
   in which the Mayor of River City consistently begins speaking with the
   words "Four score . . ." until his actual speech is handed to him. In
   the 1967 musical Hair, a song called "Abie Baby/Fourscore" refers to
   Lincoln's assassination, and contains portions of the Gettysburg
   Address delivered in an ironic manner. In the 1989 movie Bill and Ted's
   Excellent Adventure, Abraham Lincoln is snatched from the past by the
   time-traveling title characters, and addresses the students of San
   Dimas High School with the words, "four score and seven minutes ago."
   Pop-punk group Yellowcard's 2003 album, Ocean Avenue, features a track
   titled "Believe" which incorporates a band member reciting the line
   beginning with "The world will little note, nor long remember..."
   towards the end. In the 1999 movie Dick, the characters Betsy and
   Arlene say "four score and seven years ago our forefather did something
   I don't know…" an example of how Lincoln's actual words, "our fathers,"
   are frequently misquoted and misused.

   In another case, Martin Luther King, Jr., began his " I Have a Dream"
   speech, itself one of the most-recognized speeches in American history,
   with a reference to Lincoln and an allusion to Lincoln's words: "Five
   score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand
   today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation."

   Christian pop-punk band Relient K's new album is titled Five Score and
   Seven Years Ago.
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