Topic Tuesday #70 2013/11/19 - "The Gettysburg Address, 150 Years Later"
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| Edward Everett |
November 19th, 1863, Thursday, about 1pm, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Four and a half months after the Union won the Battle of Gettysburg, while the Civil War raged on, the Soldiers National Cemetary was dedicated by two speakers, Edward Everett and President Abraham Lincoln, respectively. The seldom remembered Everett delivered an oration that lasted 2 hours and was composed of 13,607 words (not uncommon in the day for these type of ceremonies).
After Everett performed his role, a hymn by B.B French, Esq. played. Then it was time for the words that lured Lincoln to the podium, "It is the desire that, after the Oration, you, as Chief Executive of the nation, formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.", to bear fruit.
Four and a half months after the Union won the Battle of Gettysburg, while the Civil War raged on, the Soldiers National Cemetary was dedicated by two speakers, Edward Everett and President Abraham Lincoln, respectively. The seldom remembered Everett delivered an oration that lasted 2 hours and was composed of 13,607 words (not uncommon in the day for these type of ceremonies).
After Everett performed his role, a hymn by B.B French, Esq. played. Then it was time for the words that lured Lincoln to the podium, "It is the desire that, after the Oration, you, as Chief Executive of the nation, formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.", to bear fruit.
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| One of the only known photos of Lincoln, at the address. |
[Of the 5 known copies of the speech, the "Bliss Copy" has become standard text.]
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 here 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.
As with any political speech, the words were taken in with partisan support, and unwitting speculations. There were rumors of all manner. It is also suspected greatly, that the President had contracted small pox and was just being afflicted with symptoms when he gave the address.
In all things of the day, Everett was the best historian, having the honor of collecting the works and printing them in a book sold to benefit the cemetery (Address of the Hon. Edward Everett At the Consecration of the National Cemetery At Gettysburg, 19th November 1863, with the Dedicatory Speech of President Lincoln, and the Other Exercises of the Occasion; Accompanied by An Account of the Origin of the Undertaking and of the Arrangement of the Cemetery Grounds, and by a Map of the Battle-field and a Plan of the Cemetery).
Everett praised the President for his eloquent and concise speech, saying, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."
Lincoln replied that he was glad to know the speech was not a "total failure".
May we all be so humble.