Gettysburg Address Failure

Seven score and nine years ago, Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth President of the United States of America, set off for Gettysburg in order to consecrate Gettysburg National Cemetery. In an uncharacteristically short speech-at least for the 1860s-Lincoln was able to reaffirm the values our Founding Fathers had laid down in the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution, and painted a vision of a unified United States where freedom and democracy would be the rule for all citizens. Lincoln utilized various rhetorical devices to make the Gettysburg Address accomplish two tasks in one. The first is to bring remembrance to the principals and morals for which the United States was built upon, second is to honor the brave soldiers who fought and died at Gettysburg and consecrate the land upon which they stood and finally was to sway those attending into giving their “…last full measure of devotion-” to ensure a nation that would remain built upon the concepts of liberty and democracy and continues to gain support for the cause of the war.. Seeking only to honor the dead and inspire the living, Lincoln ended up delivering one of the most powerful speeches in American-if not world-history.

Today, the Battle of Gettysburg is considered one of the most important battles of the American Civil War. However, with 23,049 casualties on the Union side and 28,063 on the Confederate side, it can also be considered one of the bloodiest (Civil War Trust). Such heavy losses naturally rattled the entire nation and Americans on both sides began to question the war and what it stood for. As Americans gathered together at the consecration ceremony of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, the much acclaimed orator and politician Edward Everett delivered what was meant to be the Gettysburg Address. Yet, today, it is not Edward Everett’s Gettysburg Address that the world remembers, but Abraham Lincoln’s, who was invited to the ceremony almost as an afterthought. Lincoln’s 272 words helped remake America by giving hope to its citizens at a time when they were at their lowest.

In order for one to better understand the importance of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, one must first

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

In the third paragraph, President Lincoln stresses the important point that the words of his speech cannot actually bless or make holy the Battlefield of Gettysburg. Rather, he indicates the bravery of the men, both living and dead, has already made the ground of the battlefield sacred. Again, Lincoln is honoring the actions of all the soldiers, Union and Confederate, and trying to unite the nation instead of dividing it.

The Gettysburg Address was created by President Lincoln and is one of the most important speeches in American history. According to Barr, (2015) the Gettysburg Address was a remarkable endeavor for Lincoln and the president utilized it to his political advantage. Before he arrived at the Gettysburg cemetery to deliver it to the American people, Lincoln composed five different drafts of the Gettysburg Address.(Dirck, 2015) The Gettysburg Address came from a time of uncertainty, war, and change in U.S. history. It was just a time Americans were confused non the less. The old

Lincoln’s speech in the Gettysburg Address lasted about two minutes and only few from the large audience comprehended what he had stated (Cochran 1). It was over so quickly that the audience lacked an applause (Cochran 1). Lincoln was very self conscious of his speeches and with a lack of an applause from the large audience, it made lincoln believe that he had failed them. Though they hadn’t understood what he meant at that moment in time, from this day forward Lincoln’s speech had become one of the best speeches in American History that gave a purpose to the nation.

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).

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

President Abraham Lincoln gave a speech on the grounds where thousands of people died after the Gettysburg Address; the controversy lies whether the Gettysburg Address was significant or not. There are two sides to every story in this case there are the ones who believe the address was important and then there are ones who thought the address had no significance. The Gettysburg Address was full of logic and professionalism. This being the case some might argue against Lincoln saying the speech was more like good poetry, rather than a speech to the country.

Abraham Lincoln is arguably one of the United States greatest presidents and is well-known for writing one of the most iconic literary pieces in American history, the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is an outstanding 272-word oration, meant to have been a “few appropriate remarks” (Wills), yet it is considered to be one of the greatest speeches ever written, and rightly so. However, Lincoln was not the only one that gave a Gettysburg Address at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, nor was he “the star of the show” (Emberton). Today, many have forgotten the name of Edward Everett and the importance and value of his Gettysburg Address. Edward Everett was chosen as the main speaker at the ceremony and gave a 2-hour oration, preceding Lincoln’s 2-minute dedicatory remarks, that was highly praised among critics and the audience. Everett’s qualifications, his message within his speech, and his overall purpose have greatly contributed to the value of his Gettysburg Address. Today, it is clear to see that Lincoln’s Address has overshadowed Everett’s Address, but that wasn’t the case in 1863. The question left to answer, should Everett’s Gettysburg Address be considered just as valuable and praiseworthy as Lincoln’s speech?

Abraham Lincoln, who served as the 16th President of the United States gave The Gettysburg Address Four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg on November 19, 1863. The Thesis of this address to the nation was two-fold, the first was to dedicate a plot of land that would become as we know today as the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The second part of his speech was to inspire the nation to unite and for the union to continue the fight. He was able to turn the Civil War from a war about stat’s right into a war about slavery. Even though the speech is only 272 words long, his speech applied to the pathos and of not only the citizens of the nation but the soldiers as well.

Even though he naively believed that white men were the supreme race, he was staunchly against slavery as an institution and felt that the Declaration of Independence included black persons. In the same debate, Lincoln goes on to state that he “[does] not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the Negro should be denied every thing” (Lincoln). He believed that ‘the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ as outlined in the Declaration of Independence, applies to all men, regardless of their color, ethnicity, or culture. This may be attributed to the fact that he had not had many encounters with Black slaves until when he was in his late teens, where it had a profound impact on him (Foner 8).

The Gettysburg Address is a speech written by Abraham Lincoln. He delivered the speech on November 19, 1863. The Gettysburg Address is a dedication of a soldier’s national cemetery, a cemetery for the Union soldiers who fought for the North and killed at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Our fathers brought forward in this country, a new nation and dedicated to the propositions that all men are created equal.

The Gettysburg Address has a straightforward three part speech outline which is the past, present, and future. It begins eighty-seven years before 1863, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the formation of a new nation. It then goes on to explain their present time, the Civil War, the great battlefield, and a dedication ceremony for the soldiers that lay before them, who fought for the nations freedom. Then Lincoln explains a picture of the future he sees, one of freedom for all, and it will only come to pass with a healthy relationship between the government and the