Transcript The Gettysburg Address: Abraham Lincoln

The Gettysburg
Address: Abraham
Lincoln
By Matthew Wright
Personal History
• Born February 12, 1809 in a one room log cabin
in the state of Kentucky
• On August the 4th 1834 Lincoln (24) is elected
to the Illinois General Assembly
On August the 3rd 1846 Lincoln is elected to the
US House of Representatives as a member of
the Whig Party
…Continued Personal History
• 1854 opposes the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska
Act
• 1857 Lincoln speaks against the Dred Scott decision
• November the 6th Lincoln is elected as the 16th
president of the US; and, he won the election over
Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckenridge in so
doing
• January the 1st 1863 issues and ratifies the
Emancipation Proclamation, thereby freeing all the
slaves
• November the 19th , 1863 delivers Gettysburg Address
• Intended audience: for the present and future
generations
The Battle of Gettysburg
• The actual battle lasted for two days from July 1- July 3, 1863
• Location was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in Adams County
• Commanders were: for the Union Gen. George G. Meade, for
the CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee
• The armies were: for the Union the Army of the Potomac, and
for the CSA the Army of Northern Virginia
• The Army of the Potomac had 93,921 soldiers, and the Army of
Northern Virginia had 71,699 soldiers
• Casualties: Union suffered 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531
wounded, 5,369 captured/missing; for, the CSA 22,231 (4,708
killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured/missing)
• Result: the Union is victorious
• Gettysburg incursion also halted the CSA’s invasion of the
North, and is seen as the focal point of the war
Main points
• Lincoln advocates the words of the Declaration
of Independence; and, Lincoln accentuated the
Civil War as not just a fight to preserve the
Union, but to bring equality to “all” of its
citizens: “…conceived in liberty, and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created
equal.”
• Lincoln also advocated the notion that the test
of equality and liberty is indispensable: “Now
we are engaged in a great civil war testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure.”
Main Points Continued…
• Lincoln’s speech also praises the soldiers, and their
deaths did not go in vain: “The world will little note nor
long remember what we say here but it can never
forget what they did here.”
• Lincoln believed that present and future generations
must take up the cause of defending the Union: “It is
rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us…that these honored dead shall
not have died in vain…”
• Lincoln advocates and espouses the writings of
Supreme Court Justice John Marshall and the
transcendental reverend Theodore Parker; for, they
both believed that the Union is a government of, by,
and for the people.
Main Points Continued…
• It is for this reason that Lincoln acknowledges
the sacrifice, but explains why the struggle is
important for future Americans to uphold and
defend the Union: “…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 to Consider
• Is the US a government of the people, or is it a
government of the states?
• What is the significance of the Gettysburg
Address, and why has it had such an profound
effect on the American way of life?