Remembering Gettysburg in the Greatest American Speech

Today marks the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered November 19, 1863.  Four months prior, Union and Confederate soldiers met in that small town to fight the bloodiest battle of the war.  The casualties on both sides were catastrophic, especially for the Confederates whose resources were small compared to the North, whose population more than doubled that of the South and whose industrial prowess would overwhelm the Confederate armies.

In the clip below you will hear the Gettysburg Address read by actor Jeff Daniels.  Daniels played Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in both Gettysburg (1994) and Gods and Generals (2002). 


I would like to take this greatest of American speeches and parse it out a bit.


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.

• It should be noted that Lincoln and most around him understood that the beginning of our country was in 1776 (fourscore and seven years equals 87 years; therefore 1863-87=1776) with the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence, not 1787 with the ratifying of the Constitution.  The “proposition that all men are created equal” was penned by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)—a man of enigma who, even though he held to this proposition, owned over 200 slaves.  It would take a great Civil War, Reconstruction, and a century more before this proposition would turn into more of a reality.

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.

• Keep in mind this was 1863—and the outcome of the Civil War was far from certain.  Lincoln’s popularity was low, the commanding generals were (to be kind) slow (George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, George Meade who lead them at Gettysburg), and lost significant battles during the first two years to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.  Lee took a significant gamble.  He knew Lincoln’s popularity was low, and if he could come into Pennsylvania and strike a victory, Lincoln would likely be out by the next election.  He banked that the North would grow tired of the war and would let the Confederacy have their independence.  Lee’s (over)confidence and questionable tactics (as brilliant as Lee was) along with the overwhelming resources of the North made Gettysburg a costly defeat for both, but especially for Lee who lost seven full divisions, six generals and 1/3 of his entire army.  Lincoln understood that this battle was the turning point of the war.  His “few appropriate remarks” made this clear.

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.

• Lincoln felt his words would be forgotten.  But it was not his words but the keynote speaker’s: the great orator Edward Everett.  He spoke for two hours (keep in mind that the American ear could and expected to endure speaking of this length.  The “new birth of freedom” is an interesting phrase.  The United States would be just that—united.  Although the policies of Reconstruction (1867-1877) left much to be desired in what many considered a second Civil War that many are still fighting even in 2010, James Robertson notes that prior to the Civil War, people would say, “The United States are… .”  After the Civil War, citizens would say, “The United States is… .”  This shift in mindset is significant, and speaks volumes that reverberate even to today.