The Gettysburg Address

¶ … Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln gave the speech called the "Gettysburg Address" on November 19, 1863. In it he tries to look into the future and justify the deaths of the soldiers he has been asked to honor. He sees the future of the "new nation" that his ancestors dreamed of when they arrived on the North American continent, seeking freedom and liberty, for once on an equal basis with everyone else who had just arrived in this virgin land; no one richer or poorer than or with any kind of unnatural advantage over anyone else. Each person was on an equal footing with everyone else who had just arrived. This was what they wanted and what they wanted for their children's future. He said that the soldiers lying in Gettysburg cemetery had died for this kind of nation, a nation dedicated to liberty, where all men (and women) are equal to everyone else.

He speaks of the civil war that he had seen come about because the South wanted to retain slavery. He speaks of civil wars in general, saying that a nation cannot endure a civil war for long. He said especially a nation conceived for the purposes of liberty cannot allow part of the people living in it to be enslaved to others living in that same nation. He said that the soldiers who had fought and died here struggled to preserve the ideal of liberty for every person. He said that their blood had been spilled because they had dedicated themselves to a cause in a way no living person could, that they gave their life for freedom, something that had not yet come about.