The Gettysburg Address
The battle of Gettysburg. The bloodiest battle that America has ever experienced. It was only right for president Lincoln to address the catastrophic outcome of a disagreement of such magnitude.
The battle and the cemetery
The crushing defeat of the Confederacy was accompanied by 23,000 Union casualties and 28,000 Confederate soldiers killed, wounded or lost. A national cemetery was created in Gettysburg in order to properly acknowledge the death of the brave soldiers that taught for an important cause. The orator selected for the cemetery's dedication was former senator and Secretary of State, Edward Everett. However, weeks before the event, Lincoln was invited to say a few words.
The preparation
Lincoln's preparation was thorough, but the actual writing of the speech took place in the strangest of occasions. He wrote part of his speech in the train on his way to Pennsylvania and half of it before leaving the White House. He wrote every single word of the speech with no help whatsoever.
This invitation was an opportunity he could not waste. In just a few words, he needed to present a huge statement; the enormous significance of the war. And he managed to do so.
The event
On the morning of November 19th 1863, Everett delivered, by memory, a two-hour speech accompanied by a hymn composed for the occasion by B.B. French. Everett addressed the significance of the Gettysburg battle in front of an approximate of 15,000 people. Succeeding Everett, Lincoln approached the podium of what now had become the National Cemetery. In a little bit more than two minutes, Lincoln invoked the image of the founding fathers and he new nation, argued that the Civil War was the ultimate test for the 1977 Union to survive, and that those who sacrificed their life in the Battle of Gettysburg had died for a noble cause. In total, Lincoln speech consisted of 272 words that were spoken eloquently as ever.
The radical aspects
In just a few words, Abraham Lincoln managed to impress the world. In the Gettysburg Address he emphasized the importance of the Declaration of Independence, because it is the Declaration of Independence the true expression of the nation, not the Constitution. Many Confederate citizens, had constantly argued that the Constitution never prohibited slavery. But the day of the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln Guanajuato made it clear; this nation was founded based upon the idea that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
The reaction
Since that day, newspapers have reprinted both speeches; Everett's' and Lincoln's.
To celebrate the Union's victory 2 years later after his speech, we leave the most significant phrases for you to marvel at...
"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 wether 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 have gave their lives that this nation might live."
"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."
"...that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"
Jamie White
Marketing&Advertising Expert
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