Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg Address

by Abraham Lincoln

Jn July 1863, it was not at all clear to President Abraham Lincoln or the rest of the nation whether the North or South would emerge victorious from the Civil War that threatened to destroy the country. In the midst of all the uncertainty and bloodshed, after a battle that claimed more lives than any until that time, Northerners held a solemn ceremony to consecrate a cemetery for their fallen. In a brief address at the occasion, Lincoln spoke of the larger cause to which both sides had been devoted when founding the nation. Referring to the country's Declaration of Independence (also covered in Literature and Its Times), his Gettysburg Address turned the idea of equality, rather than the separate causes for which each side fought, into the nation's primary focus.

Events in History at the Time of the Speech

The war prior to Gettysburg. Pitting the Northern states of the Union against the Southern states of the Confederacy, the Civil War was a sobering experience. At an enormous cost not only in money ($20 billion) but also in lives (600,000 killed or dead from disease), the four-year conflict forced the nation to confront issues that threatened its survival.

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