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The gettysburg address abraham lincoln

With the possible exception of the Declaration of Indepen­dence, no document in American history is as famous as Lin­coln 's speech dedicating the national cemetery at Gettysburg. The battle of Gettysburg was fought in the rolling countryside of southeastern Pennsylvania during the first three days of July 1863. We now know that it was the turningpoint of the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), one of the most be­loved of all presidents, delivered his now famous speech at the Gettysburg battlefield on November 19, 1863. Since then mil­lions of Americans have memorized it, countless others have quoted it or imitated its rhetoric for their own various purposes. It is illuminating to look again at the familiar words with their original context in mind to see how they served Lincoln's pur­pose, his sense of the occasion, and his larger sense of the na­tion s history and destiny.

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 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 so 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 so far nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolved 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.

Questions for study and discussion:

  1. To what issue of the Civil War is Lincoln referring in his two opening sentences?

  2. What specifically did the country's founders do 87 years be­fore the Gettysburg Address? What purpose is served by link­ing the Civil War with the acts and intentions of the founders of the USA?

  3. Lincoln's diction in the opening paragraph is calculated to achieve a certain effect on the listeners or readers. Discuss the nature of this effect by comparing the opening paragraph to the following one: "Eighty seven years ago our ancestors formed a new North American nation based on liberty.and the idea that all men are created equal".

  4. In the first sentence of p. 3 Lincoln uses the- words DEDI­CATE, CONSECRATE, HALLOW. Why do you think Lin­coln placed them in this particular order? In your opinion, why has the Gettysburg Address endured? What about this speech that makes it live on in the collective American mem­ory? What relevance does it have in the new millennium?