In just a few minutes and fewer than 300 words, Lincoln invoked the nation’s founding principles by referencing the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing that the United States was “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He framed the Civil War as a test of whether a nation founded on those ideals could endure.
Lincoln honored the soldiers who had fought and died at Gettysburg, suggesting their sacrifice had consecrated the ground far beyond any words. He then called on the living to rededicate themselves to the “unfinished work” of ensuring that those who died did not do so in vain.
The speech concluded with Lincoln’s aspiration for “a new birth of freedom” and his famous declaration that the government should remain “of the people, by the people, for the people,” and must not perish from the earth.
Although brief at the time and overshadowed by longer remarks from other speakers, the Gettysburg Address has since become one of the most celebrated speeches in American history, widely regarded for its concise articulation of national purpose and democratic ideals.
“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.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“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.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source• Title: The Gettysburg Address
• Author: Abraham Lincoln
• Type: Speech
• Publisher: n/a
• Publication time: November 19, 1863
• Publication place: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US
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