More than 160,000 American solders fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. Lasting from July 1-3 1863, more than 7,500 men died, along with several thousand horses. Days later, the bodies were still out on the field, and were creating an overpowering stench.
A wealthy local attorney named David Willis was of the opinion that the state should purchase some land and create a national cemetery for the dead. After writing to the Governor of Pennsylvania, Willis received authorization to to purchase 17 acres for the purpose suggested.
David Willis had planned to dedicate the cemetery on October 23rd, and had invited famed orator Edward Everett to speak at the ceremony. However, Everett objected to such short notice and requested that the date be moved back roughly one month to Thursday, November 19th.
As a last minute idea, Willis also requested President Abraham Lincoln to say a "few appropriate remarks" at the ceremony as well. Although Pres. Lincoln was given only seventeen days notice for the event, he accepted the invitation and arrived in Gettysburg the day before.
At 9:30 AM on November 19th, a procession of dignitaries, townspeople and widows entered the cemetery and the ceremony began. Mr. Everett orated for two hours that morning, his first, humble sentences being:
"Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. But the duty to which you have called me must be performed; — grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy."
Mr. Everett's 13,607 word oration was well received and would probably have been remembered more in the annals of history were it not to be totally eclipsed a couple minutes later. After a hymn was sung, Abraham Lincoln slowly stood up, and delivered a short address. It was only ten sentences and 272 words long, but it has become to be one of the most famous speeches in American History:
The Gettysburg Address.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment