Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg address written and read by Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863 is one of the most famous and well-known speeches in history. Below is the actual text of the entire speech.

Fourscore 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 this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate…we cannot consecrate…we cannot 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.


After Lincoln read the speech, the crowd was silent, only a few people clapped. It was disbelief at how quick and to the point the speech was. Only lasting two minutes Lincoln was back in his seat before the crowd could even grasp what had occurred. The abruptness of this speech is why it is still remembered today.

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