Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous speeches in American history. The History Place indicates that on November 19, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln went to a battle field positioned in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where three dreadful days of battle occurred called the Battle of Gettysburg. While he was attending the battle field to dedicate it as a national cemetery, he read his speech to the public. After the main orator, Edward Everett of Massachusetts, delivered his speech that lasted about two hours, it was Lincoln’s turn. Everyone was shocked that it only lasted a little over two minutes. The speech talked about the men who fought in the Civil War to help create the nation people have today: that it is only fair to honor them

The tone and stage are set with the background of the great battle field of Gettysburg’s. Our nation is involved in a great civil war between its brothers with two different views and divisions. President Lincoln has the daunting task as the President of the United States to bring healing to this torn country; to remind the country that it was only 87 years earlier that this young country started on its great experiment. The thesis statement answers the question and reminds the audience that all men are created equal and that the basis on which our country was founded on was liberty and equality.

While the Gettysburg Address is fairly short in length at around 300 words, this famous speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1963 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is both enduring and meaningful for all Americans today, almost exactly 146 years later. The first paragraph of his speech sets the tone, in which Lincoln does not directly mention the bloody Battle of Gettysburg, in which 50,000 soldiers lost their lives. Instead, he refers in the opening phrase, “Four score and seven years ago,” to the founding of America through another important written document, the Declaration of Independence in 1776. I believe Lincoln wanted the country to focus on preserving this

On March 4, 1865 Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address as president of the United States. The inaugural address came at the very end of the American Civil War, and just a month before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Prior to this address, the United States had been split into two different independent states, the Union and the Confederacy. Throughout Abraham Lincoln’s first term and the very beginning of his second, Lincoln had to deal with the secession of the eleven states that made up the Confederacy. Also during the war, Lincoln competed in the 1864 presidential election in which his leadership was challenged by George B. McClellan. This inaugural address was important at the time, and remains a relic of Abraham Lincoln’s powerful speaking ability.

Mencken criticized Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, saying that it made no sense. To Mencken, the speech was just one of Lincoln’s political moves to gain more fame and win the people’s support, and Lincoln speech was untrue because Mencken believed that the speech was just mere words to soothe the listener. Mencken gave the opinion which he felt was right regarding the message Abraham Lincoln presented at the Gettysburg Address, by criticizing it as being “eloquent”, “poetry” and said that its “beauty” undercuts its “logic”, “sense” and “truth”.(Mencken 1920, 775). However, it was not true because during the speech in Gettysburg, Lincoln proved to the people that he was not just saying these things because they was “eloquent” and had “beauty”, but, because he had plans for the growth of the nation after the Civil War. Mencken presented Lincolns speech as “It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue” (Mencken 1920, 775).

“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.” The Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln explains that “all men are created equal,” thus they should have the freedom to pursue education, emancipation, and equal rights. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, who was a freed slave, despite the odds founded the Tuskegee Institute. The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas written by Fredrick Douglas is the story of his life as a slave, his courage and his escape. Their lives and stories inspired other African Americans to seek a better life. Booker and Fredrick were both authors, orators, freed slaves, and both men valued education. In addition, both men wanted personal freedom and the freedom of others. “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom,” stated George Washington Carver. Viewing education as the “key to unlock the golden door of freedom” they inspired others to seek education,

President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address clearly shows the cause for which the Union soldiers and officers bravely fought. The equality and freedom they fought for are easily misunderstood but not by President Lincoln. The equality he spoke of does not mean that each individual is completely the same, making their capability equal. Instead, it means that no individual is valued more than another because every citizen has the same value under God.

“The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration” (Edwin Louis Cole). Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” is a speech that highlights every point in Cole’s quote. He, Lincoln, talks about how the south manages to rebel, how their economy will be left in ruin, how they will repent and be forgiven by both God and the North, how the North and the South will reconcile, and finally he talks of how the nation will move on to restoration. Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” emphasizes the reconciliation of a torn apart nation by appealing to pathos, logos, and ethos and by using diction to appeal to the listener’s emotion.

The Gettysburg speech was short, sharp, powerful and one to remember. Still to this day it remains to a well known, well respected speech.

In Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum speech given in 1838, he instructs the audience how perpetuate our political institutions. How do we keep our country united? “The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty…swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.” But what about bad or unjust laws? “[I]f they exist, [they]should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should be religiously observed.”

It is my personal opinion that Lincoln Gettysburg address was the better speech. While both speeches are somewhat similar in that the setting of the speeches are similar. Both were written in the aftermath of a bloody battle, Lincolns at the battle of Gettysburg, and Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor. But this is where the similarity’s end. Lincoln speech is by far the better speech because he managed to keep his speech short and concise, but got his point across using broad terms. No one is ever impressed by the superior learning or verbal proficiency of an orator Lincolns eloquence arose from his simple words filled with significance. In less then 273 words he got his point across that all wars are wrong, that all losses are devastating

A speech giving by Abraham Lincoln called "Gettysburg Address" after the war in Gettysburg had ended, affected others passionately. In the time period of when this speech was given, people didn't realize that all men are equal. Men, young men, too, were at war not understanding why we had a war. Men lost their lives because they were committed to fighting in this war. They should not have passed just because they were protecting their home. Ultimately, Lincoln tried to change his listeners' minds about the idea "that all men are equal" by wanting to let others know that men are equal, and should be treated equal, no matter the skin, what they're worth, giving their life for dedication, or how rich they were.

Abraham Lincoln is known thru out history as the 16th president of the United States. He was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. On January 1, 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared forever free slaves with confederacy. One of Abraham Lincoln’s most popular speeches is Gettysburg Address.

Martin Luther King's, I Have A Dream, speech and Abraham Lincoln’s ,Gettysburg address, speech have been said to represent equality and freedom. Martin Luther King gave his speech so that black people could have equality and be treated and respected like a white person would be treated. Abraham Lincoln gave the speech at Gettysburg to symbolize freedom after all those people gave their life ,at the Battle of Gettysburg, to free all the slaves in the south. Today both of those speeches have impacted the lives of many people and gave them freedom and equality. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln have impacted America by causing people to protests for equality and free do today it also has given people the right to come into this country and

His speech forced people to question the validity of that government and those founding fathers. Lincoln endured extraordinary pressures during the civil war, like assassination threats, generals who weren’t ready to fight and huge loss of life on the battlefield. However Lincoln remained calm, brave and persevered, he didn’t give into the pressures on stopping the war early, but instead kept fighting until the Confederacy was defeated. There is a short video to help summaries the civil war.