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US history
Course: US history > Unit 5
Lesson 2: The Civil War- Slavery and the Missouri Compromise
- Increasing political battles over slavery in the mid-1800s
- Start of the Civil War - secession and Fort Sumter
- Strategy of the Civil War
- Early phases of Civil War and Antietam
- The Emancipation Proclamation
- Significance of the battle of Antietam
- The battle of Gettysburg
- The Gettysburg Address - setting and context
- Photographing the Battle of Gettysburg, O'Sullivan's Harvest of Death
- The Gettysburg Address - full text and analysis
- Later stages of the Civil War - 1863
- Later stages of the Civil War - the election of 1864 and Sherman's March
- Later stages of the Civil War - Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination
- Big takeaways from the Civil War
- The Civil War
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The Gettysburg Address - full text and analysis
A close reading of the Gettysburg Address.
Want to join the conversation?
- Who coined the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" ?(2 votes)
- It is unknown exactly, but a similar phrase did appear in the prologue of a Bible translation centuries earlier. However, one explanation that seems more likely is a similar phrase found in the sermon of a Massachusetts minister, who Lincoln's former law partner asserted was very inspiring to Lincoln.(12 votes)
- It doesn't sound like the deceased confederate soldiers were included in the speech; they were fighting for limiting the freedom of persons of African descent. How was this dealt with in political and practical terms?(2 votes)
- I think that Lincoln was including Confederate soldiers as well because they were testing the nation to see if democracy can endure long periods of time. And I really don't think any Southerners were there for the Gettysburg Address, since it was in Southern Pennsylvania.(7 votes)
- "The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech." -Senator Charles Sumner, June 1, 1865
Was Sumner's opinion, here given in a eulogy for Lincoln, representative of the opinion of those who heard the speech or read the speech in the weeks and months following the address? When had the time come to second guess Lincoln on "The world will little note nor long remember..."? Was Lincoln just being modest, or perhaps not meaning to refer solely to his own remarks that day?
Sumner's quote taken from Abraham Lincoln Online (see link below)
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm(3 votes) - why does Lincoln never call for a Northern victory in the speech?(1 vote)
- Maybe the purpose of the speech was to remember the dead, not to spur the living on to anything. Maybe also, having chosen to be brief, he had to leave some stuff out.(2 votes)
- where can I find the text of Everett's speech(1 vote)
- It wouldn't let me put the link in the reply section, but it's in the comments.(1 vote)
- Why was it on the second day the most expensive of the three?
And why is the battle bolstered badly sagging union morale of 7 important world battle?(1 vote)- I think you should take this question over to the lesson on the battle, rather than ask it in this one, about a speech given months later. You'll get a better answer over there.(1 vote)
- At Gettysburg Lincoln address is the people and he says that the cementry is for the people who died fighting for their nation. so did the union bury the dead bodies of the soldiers of the confederates?(0 votes)
- Actually a body rotting since 3 months is nearly unrecognisable. So it is most likely that they buried soldiers from both sides.
Secondly the bodies from either sides would have stinked! So to escape it, the people living their would have buried all bodies, regardless of who the soldier was; else they would have gotta tolerate the stench.(2 votes)
- Wasn't the Gettysburg Address exaggerating? It seems like the North would have continued to have a government of/by/for the people even if the South successfully seceded.(0 votes)
- At the time of the civil war the US was still a relatively young country and its future was uncertain. Lincoln wanted democracy to succeed and felt the US had to be one united country for that to happen and endure. In addition, Lincoln's attitudes and the attitudes of many Americans - certainly in the north which had a majority of the citizens - had evolved to consider slavery to be immoral and the war had become for many a crusade to end it. "One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."(2 votes)
- Does "contradistinction" mean "contrary"?(0 votes)
- Contradistinction is when you compare the qualities of two things. That is different from the definition of contrary(noun that means opposite).(3 votes)
- How should I memorize this speech. My homeschool teacher wants me to learn the whole thing(0 votes)
- I'd memorize it sentence by sentence, starting with the last sentence, then adding the sentence before it, and then the one before that.(3 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] So, we've been talking about the Gettysburg Address which was delivered by Abraham Lincoln on November 19th, 1863. And as were saying in the last video, it's been about three and a half months since the Battle of Gettysburg
when this speech is given and Lincoln himself is
not even the headliner at this ceremony of
dedicating this cemetery. He is just supposed to give
a few appropriate remarks while the famous orator
Edward Everett gives the really bombastic, two hour long speech that is going to rile up the crowd and make everyone understand
the importance of the battle and the importance of the
cemetery that is being dedicated. But, somehow, the 272 words
that Lincoln says here in the Gettysburg Address
has become one of the most famous and important pieces of rhetoric in American history. So, in this video, I'd like
to just take a little time to read the Gettysburg Address and to interpret it, line by line, to give a better sense of
what it's trying to say and why it's so important. All right, so let's see
if I can do this justice. 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. Wow, it gives me chills just reading this. And there's just something
about Lincoln's oratory, the way that he puts things,
that just rivets you, and this is why he was such a great leader and such a great politician. Because, he knew how to
use words to his advantage. And he knew how to touch people with what he had to say. Now, it's more than 150 years
later and we still read this and memorize it in
school and think about it on kind of a regular basis, because we frequently quote
the words the he said here. So, how did this get to be so important? Well, let's read it line by line and see what he's really saying. All right, so, 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. All right, well, this in
case you're wondering, means 87 years. Four score, a score is 20. In fact, some of the newspapers
that printed the text of this speech, just said 87 years ago, So, why doesn't Lincoln just say 87? Well, I think this fourscore
and seven years ago has this really strong, I
would even say Biblical ring, right? It has this importance
and eloquence of oratory. So, he's already setting
the tone to say here, in this nation, we are
measuring time almost Biblicaly. Like this is a sacred mission, and it's been a sacred amount of time since the founding of the nation. And I think it's really
interesting to note that it's only 87 years between 1776 and 1863. I know this is just basic math, but between the founding
of the United States and the Civil War, when the union fought
for its very survival, was less than 100 years. It's a very short period of time. Now, Lincoln as a young man,
would have known older men who had fought in the Revolutionary War, Andrew Jackson for example. So, Lincoln starts out by saying that less than 100 years ago, the United States was founded and it was founded on this principle, that all men are created equal. Now, if you contrast this
with the system of slavery, which the South is fighting to preserve, that is definitely in contradistinction to the concept that all
men are created equal. So, Lincoln reminds his
audience immediately that the founding principles
of the United States were equality and liberty. All right, so he moves on to say Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure. So in less than 100 years the idea that held the
United States together is now being tested, and he's reminding people
that the world is watching. They're saying, all right,
there's this upstart democracy in the Americas saying that monarchy, which has been the rule of
Europe for more than 1000 years is a silly proposition
and they can do better. Well, now look at them. They're fighting a civil
war because some folks want to be the masters of others and some folks don't
think that's all right. So, in a way, what Lincoln
is reminding people here is that they're engaged
in this grand experiment. Right, this grand experiment
of liberty and equality, where no one is the master of anyone else, where any person, like Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin, less than a year of
school in his entire life can become president. So, if the democracy of
the United States fails, if this union falls apart, then it will have proved
the doubters right, that democracy doesn't work. And then he continues: 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. I think there are two
important things here. So, he talks about the
concept of a nation. And this is really interesting because prior to the
civil war, it was frequent that people might say things
like these United States right? The idea that the states are the most prominent portion of the country and that
the individual states plural, were together in a union that was secondary to the idea of statehood. But, midway through the war,
Lincoln starts to use the word nation more and more. And afterwards, it will
always be known as The United States. So, Lincoln is signaling here that this is one united nation, not just a collection of
states and that is what the American forces are fighting for. That is what the forces
of the United States are trying to achieve, a united nation, not a united set of states. The other interesting thing
here is that he mentions it's altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this. Why wouldn't it be proper
to dedicate a cemetery? Well, a lot of people
thought that it wasn't proper for Lincoln to be speaking
at this ceremony dedication. They thought that it was kind of a cheap political maneuvering. Imagine today if the president
went to a soldier's funeral. Many people might say it's not
appropriate for the president to be there because it's
just a political opportunity, right? That you're trying to get votes from somebody else's tragedy. And it's kind of ironic,
because Lincoln's speech here is very sacred, very funereal, whereas Everett's speech
was very political, saying this was a great battle,
we have to remember that the Confederates are our enemies. But Lincoln's speech is much gentler, much kinder, much more
appropriate actually to a funeral perhaps
than Everett's speech. But, he feels it
necessary to remind people that it is appropriate
to gather here together to mark the dedication of this cemetery even though many might decry it as just political grandstanding. Now, I think it's this next paragraph that makes the Gettysburg
Address so powerful. So, let's read it. 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. So, he's drawing attention to the importance of the battlefield dead. He says this is not about us. It's about them. They have sacrificed. They have become martyrs for this cause, so we can not consecrate the cemetery, they have already consecrated
it with their blood and with their sacrifice. So, he's reminding
everyone of the sacrifice and the martyrdom of the battlefield dead. Now, here's the real power
of the Gettysburg Address. The last couple of sentences. Let's read them all together. 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. Well, what Lincoln does
here is so powerful because it's kind of a
rhetorical switcher-roo. He says we're not here
to dedicate the cemetery. The cemetery is here to dedicate us. Men have died here and we
must honor their martyrdom. We must honor their sacrifice for the experiment of liberty and equality by taking renewed
dedication to that cause. So, come to the battlefield of Gettysburg. Come to this cemetery and take renewed heart in the mission of continuing democracy,
continuing equality and continuing to fight for
a United States of America. And how the rest of
those battles play out, we'll get to in the next video.