ABRAHAM LINCOLN

THE SECOND GETTYSBURG ADDRESS THAT DAY

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted November 19, 2004)

There were actually two addresses given in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
The occasion was the dedication of the Soldier's National Cemetery during the American Civil War.

First to speak, and the day's main speaker, was Edward Everett, considered one of the country's finest orators.
He had served in both houses of Congress, as Secretary of State, Governor of Massachusetts, and President of Harvard University.

Everett spoke for more than two hours.... and his speech was well received.

Then Abraham Lincoln stepped forward, and spoke for just two minutes.
According to historians, the speech received only polite applause at the time.
And scholars still quibble over a few specific words that might or might not have been used in the actual speech.

But what Abraham Lincoln said in those two minutes has resonated through 141 years of American history. It was a speech for the ages, and well worth re-reading now in 2004:

"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."

_____________________________________

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted November 19, 2004)

There were actually two addresses given in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
The occasion was the dedication of the Soldier's National Cemetery during the American Civil War.

First to speak, and the day's main speaker, was Edward Everett, considered one of the country's finest orators.
He had served in both houses of Congress, as Secretary of State, Governor of Massachusetts, and President of Harvard University.

Everett spoke for more than two hours.... and his speech was well received.

Then Abraham Lincoln stepped forward, and spoke for just two minutes.
According to historians, the speech received only polite applause at the time.
And scholars still quibble over a few specific words that might or might not have been used in the actual speech.

But what Abraham Lincoln said in those two minutes has resonated through 141 years of American history. It was a speech for the ages, and well worth re-reading now in 2004:

"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."

_____________________________________