The full text of the Gettysburg Address, delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery at the scene of the Battle of Gettysburg of the American Civil War on November 19, 1863.
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 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.
A politician who gets to the point and doesn’t ramble on for an hout listening to the sound of his own voice.
He would never be successful today.
Gracie, shut up and sit down.
The "Rebels" armies were led by a slave holding General from Virginia.
So Lincoln is talking about an even where 13 slave states got free from an oppressive Union.
The briefness of the speech is one reason why there are no photographs of its being delivered. It was so short that most people hadn’t really settled in to listen to it. The speech before his, given by a famous orator, Edward Everett had lasted two hours, as most speeches of the time tended to do. Later, Everett supposedly told Lincoln that his speech (Lincoln’s) did a better job of marking the occasion.
My Wife and I read this aloud at a dusk visit to the Lincoln Memorial (we were both in Radio) by the end we were surrounded by children with a sense of awe on their faces. A few minutes later we visited “the Wall” and as we approached it, it started to sprinkle on what was a partly cloudy night... I will never forget that visit to DC..
“The last full measure of devotion.” Perhaps the most inspiring phrase ever spoken.
A year ago today, early in the morning, I stood at the very spot where Lincoln is purported to have read the address that day. The weather was cool and foggy. I was all alone in that cemetery, at by appearances.