Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Biographical synopses
- A note on sources and abbreviations
- Bibliographical note
- I Political Writings and Speeches
- 1 Autobiographical sketch
- 2 “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions”
- 3 Limits of Presidential Power
- 4 Speech on the Kansas–Nebraska Act
- 5 To Joshua F. Speed
- 6 Speech on the Dred Scott Decision
- 7 “A House Divided” Speech
- 8 Portion of a Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois
- 9 Seventh Lincoln–Douglas Debate
- 10 On Thomas Jefferson
- 11 Cooper Union Address
- 12 Speech at Indianapolis, Indiana
- 13 Speech at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 14 First Inaugural Address
- 15 Message to Congress in Special Session
- 16 Appeal to Border-State Representatives for Compensated Emancipation
- 17 Address on Colonization to a Committee of Colored Men
- 18 To Horace Greeley
- 19 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
- 20 Proclamation Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus
- 21 Second Annual Message to Congress
- 22 Final Emancipation Proclamation
- 23 To General John A. McClernand
- 24 To Erastus Corning and Others
- 25 To Matthew Birchard and Others
- 26 To James C. Conkling
- 27 The Gettysburg Address
- 28 Third Annual Message to Congress
- 29 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
- 30 Reply to the New York Working-men’s Democratic Republican Association
- 31 To Albert G. Hodges
- 32 To Charles D. Robinson
- 33 Reply to a Southern Woman
- 34 “With Malice toward None”
- 35 Speech on Reconstruction
- II Notes and Fragments
- Index
27 - The Gettysburg Address
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Biographical synopses
- A note on sources and abbreviations
- Bibliographical note
- I Political Writings and Speeches
- 1 Autobiographical sketch
- 2 “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions”
- 3 Limits of Presidential Power
- 4 Speech on the Kansas–Nebraska Act
- 5 To Joshua F. Speed
- 6 Speech on the Dred Scott Decision
- 7 “A House Divided” Speech
- 8 Portion of a Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois
- 9 Seventh Lincoln–Douglas Debate
- 10 On Thomas Jefferson
- 11 Cooper Union Address
- 12 Speech at Indianapolis, Indiana
- 13 Speech at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 14 First Inaugural Address
- 15 Message to Congress in Special Session
- 16 Appeal to Border-State Representatives for Compensated Emancipation
- 17 Address on Colonization to a Committee of Colored Men
- 18 To Horace Greeley
- 19 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
- 20 Proclamation Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus
- 21 Second Annual Message to Congress
- 22 Final Emancipation Proclamation
- 23 To General John A. McClernand
- 24 To Erastus Corning and Others
- 25 To Matthew Birchard and Others
- 26 To James C. Conkling
- 27 The Gettysburg Address
- 28 Third Annual Message to Congress
- 29 Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
- 30 Reply to the New York Working-men’s Democratic Republican Association
- 31 To Albert G. Hodges
- 32 To Charles D. Robinson
- 33 Reply to a Southern Woman
- 34 “With Malice toward None”
- 35 Speech on Reconstruction
- II Notes and Fragments
- Index
Summary
The shortest and deservedly most famous of Lincoln’s public addresses, the Gettysburg Address was written in response to David Wills’s invitation to make “a few appropriate remarks” at the dedication of the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The bloody Battle of Gettysburg had concluded only four months earlier, with a costly victory for the Union. Lincoln had come to believe that the Civil War was being fought not only to preserve the Union but to redeem the promise of the key “proposition” of the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal.”
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.
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- Chapter
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- LincolnPolitical Writings and Speeches, pp. 191 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
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