Seven Score and Seven Years Ago
One November 19, 1863, 147 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln delivered what we now know today as the Gettysburg Address. It was delivered by Lincoln that afternoon at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union army defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln wasn't even the main speaker, he followed an address of over two hours by noted orator Edward Everett. But at the end of the day it was Lincoln's simple but effective tribute that everyone recalled.
The program for the afternoon was as follows:
Music, by Birgfield's Band
Prayer, by Reverend T.H. Stockton, D.D.
Music, by the Marine Band
Oration, by Hon. Edward Everett
Music, Hymn composed by B.B. French, Esq.
Dedicatory Remarks, by the President of the United States
Dirge, sung by Choir selected for the occasion
Benediction, by Reverend H.L. Baugher,
There is controversy among scholars about the exact words Lincoln spoke that day. Contemporary transcriptions published in newspapers and handwritten copies by Lincoln himself differ in their wording, punctuation, and structure. This is the only version to which Lincoln affixed his signature:
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.
Following is a youtube video of the address ready by actor Sam Waterston, who played the 16th President in Gore Vidal's Lincoln:
The program for the afternoon was as follows:
Music, by Birgfield's Band
Prayer, by Reverend T.H. Stockton, D.D.
Music, by the Marine Band
Oration, by Hon. Edward Everett
Music, Hymn composed by B.B. French, Esq.
Dedicatory Remarks, by the President of the United States
Dirge, sung by Choir selected for the occasion
Benediction, by Reverend H.L. Baugher,
There is controversy among scholars about the exact words Lincoln spoke that day. Contemporary transcriptions published in newspapers and handwritten copies by Lincoln himself differ in their wording, punctuation, and structure. This is the only version to which Lincoln affixed his signature:
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.
Following is a youtube video of the address ready by actor Sam Waterston, who played the 16th President in Gore Vidal's Lincoln: