As the dust settled on the battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln would visit the cemetery to discuss the future of the war. Here he would give the famous Gettysburg Address. This short speech, with only 272 words, was written on the back of an envelope. This short letter reaffirmed America’s values of freedom and how this should be granted to all people beyond just white people, openly advocating the rights of slaves and calling for their freedom.
What Did The Gettysburg Address Mean for America?
Although the Battle of Gettysburg was a Union Victory, it was a devastating battle that ended with a pyrrhic victory for the government. This left many people questioning what they were fighting as the Civil War was tearing the country apart for almost two years. To reinvigorate the Union and remind them what it was fighting for, Abraham Lincoln decided to give a speech.
For this speech, Lincoln chose the town of Gettysburg in the national cemetery. This was done to honor those who fell during this battle which amounted to over 51,000 Americans on both sides. After a two-hour speech by the former secretary of state, Edward Everett, Lincoln gave his speech.
In contrast to the long speech given by his fellow speaker, Lincoln kept his words short. He wrote the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope. During the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln reaffirmed what they were fighting about and what America was built on.
In particular, he emphasized how America was built on the ideas of equality and freedom, regardless of race. He tied this to the belief that the slaves had every right to freedom and how the Union wasn’t just fighting to keep the country together but to ensure the freedom of those who didn’t have it. He showed how the only way to end the war is to unite the two warring sides and bring freedom across the country.
The Gettysburg Address was well-received by the people who were reinvigorated to continue fighting. Eventually, the Union would emerge victorious, defeating the Confederacy and freeing the slaves.
The Gettysburg Address can be found below.
“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 battle-field 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 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 far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 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, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
-Abraham Lincoln, Former President of the United States
The Gettysburg Address reminds us that the Battle of Gettysburg remains one of the most brutal days in American history and one of the most vicious events was Pickette’s Charge.
If you want to create vintage letters with your own or other people’s famous lines, our Vintage Letter service allows you to make and send them here.
