This Day in History November 19,1863 President Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address

Various | 11/19/07 | President Lincoln

[mdittmar]

Delivered at Gettysburg on November 19,1863

"Fourscore 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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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."

[nmh]

My daughter recited that in first grade for Talent Day.

She did a great job - with good emotion.

[adopt4Christ]

I am teaching my four young homeschooled children to memorize it now also. We’re studying Lincoln and the Civil War. It’s only 11 sentences. They’ll do just fine.

[goldstategop]

The old America died with the Civil War. What passed away then was not extinguished; America was reborn with a new birth of freedom and it is from that event that we all are alive today. Just as President Lincoln foresaw in the Gettysburg Address, so it came to be in the fullness of time.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[leenie312]

My second great grand uncle, George Bosworth fought and died at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was part of the 76th NYSV Co. H. He was 23 years old when he died. I found this out when I started doing my family tree. He made the ultimate sacrifice so that our nation could be free....makes me quite proud to know that.

[Dog]

You might want to do a Google search...I saw on a recent newscast a new photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg has surfaced. Seems a researcher came across it by accident. This would be only the second photo....very rare.

[Dog]

Thank you.

[Dog]

Found it.

Rare photo...

[Red_Devil 232]

Lincolns speech may have lasted about 2 min. The speech before his lasted two hours.

[Dog]

See post 8..

[Red Badger]

In thirty minutes or less, or it’s free!..............

[Red_Devil 232]

Nancy and Harry do not understand these words! "The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

[BGHater]

[Don Corleone]

I am truly an old geezer. I once met a man who knew (met) Lincoln. He was, of course, a little boy at the time. I met him when he was a docent at the Lincoln Memorial in Springfield Il. right after it opened. Talk about “degrees of separation”.

[Verginius Rufus]

The two-hour-long speech was given by Edward Everett, a famous orator, who had been the VP candidate on the Constitutional Union ticket in 1860 (John Bell’s running mate). Bell and Everett were supported by former Whigs unwilling to join the Republican Party (which was virtually non-existent in the slaveholding states).

[Red_Devil 232]

See post #12

[Non-Sequitur]

As powerful as the Gettysburg address is, I think that Lincoln’s second inaugural address is the better speech.

[Red_Devil 232]

Thanks for that information ... Everett and his speech haven’t weatherd history very well.

[BGHater]

I'm you brought up degrees of separation. Robert Todd Lincoln has one of the weirdest links in American History. From wiki: Presence at assassinations

There is coincidence in regard to Lincoln and presidential assassinations. He was either present or was nearby when three of them occurred.

• Lincoln was invited to accompany his parents to the Ford's Theatre the night his father was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, but declined and remained behind at the White House. He was informed of the President's being shot just before midnight.

• At President James A. Garfield's invitation, Lincoln was at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C. where the President was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881 and was an eyewitness to the event. Lincoln was serving as Garfield's Secretary of War at the time.

• At President William McKinley's invitation, Lincoln was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York where the President was shot by Leon F. Czolgosz on September 6, 1901, though he was not an eyewitness to the event.

Of course, any other person with similarly close access to presidents and with such active involvement in the Federal government during that period of 36½ years would have had a similar likelihood of being "at or near" these assassinations. However, it is interesting that each time, his presence had been requested by the President in question.

In another odd coincidence, Robert Lincoln was once saved by Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, from possible serious injury or death. The incident happened at a railroad station in Jersey City in 1863, when Robert was traveling from New York City to Washington, and was recounted by Lincoln in 1909.

[BGHater]

BGHater

err-I’m glad you