The+Gettysburg+Address

The Gettysburg Address Since there were so many people that died during the Battle of Gettysburg, a cemetery needed to be built. After this cemetery was build, there was a dedication day on November 19,1863. There was a parade, a choir to sing, and a few men to give speeches. The main speaker was Edward Everett. He was a clergyman in Massachusetts that was invited to give a speech. His speech explained the whole Battle of Gettysburg. Two other people who were asked to attend were General Meade, but he was still fighting the war so he was unable to make it, and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was also asked to say a few words. Here is his speech: “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedication 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 can not 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 her 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, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln – Gettysburg Address

Works Cited code Catton, Bruce. __The Battle of Gettysburg__. New York, New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., 1963. code