From Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address (1863)

The text is a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln and called 'The Gettysburg Address' in honor to
a hononymous decisive battle. The speech took place in 1863, after rising a cementery to people
who died during the battle.

After the 1830s, in the North there was a growing abolitionist sentiment whereas in South states
feared that the existence of slavery was in danger. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act overturned the
Missouri Compromise, and the states had to decide throughout the popular sovereignty whether the
area became a free state or a slave trade. This provoked violence in order to get the control
(Bleeding Kansas).

Lincoln was elected president in 1860, supporting the anti-slavery system. Then, the Southern
Confederacy (eleven states) supporting anti-slavery. Seccession applied to the outbreak of the war
(Union – anti-slavery states - vs Confederacy). The Gettysburg Battle meant a turning point on the
civil war – General Grant won a decisive victory over Confederacy, led by General Lee. President
Lincoln's speech delivered on Nov. 19 at the dedication of a national cementery on the site of the
Battle of Gettysburg.

The speech can be divided in 3 parts. Part 1, the six first lines (US was a new nation but also an
old one and a mention to US Civil War as a necessary war); Part 2 (lines 6-15), Lincoln mentions
the people who dead during the war; and Part 3 (lines 15-21), what the speech promoted.

Lines 1 – 3 (Fourscore and seven years ago ... all men are created equal), refers to the American
Fathers who signed the American Declaration of Independence, promising Life, Liberty and the
Pursuit of Happiness to all men, including black men and slaves. The battle was necessary because
the goal of the Declaration of Independence was not got. When he refers 'We are met on a great
battlefield of that war', he is introducing that the place is a scenary when the battle took place, and
that's the reason for what the cementery has been built there.

From line 6 to 15, Lincoln says that the cementery was built as a 'resting-place'. But 'we cannot
dedicate ... we cannot hollow this ground' (9-10), meaning that people died for a better purpose and
the sacrifice that those men did for the country makes the place in a holy one, also he says it is
imposible to separate two soicieties coexisting in America. The work is not finished 'the unfinished
work' (l.14), so he is about to give us the main topics needed in order to close the episode according
to the basic principles 'The Declaration of Independence' advocated.

Finally, the last 7 lines refers what the speech promoted (spirit of national conciliation, appeal to
mutual forgivance and understanding, and agenda of national reconstruction). Lincoln says that the
principles of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happines, also the equality, and then the nation will get 'a
new birth of freedom' (l.20). He gives us a Locke's reference, in the last two lines 'that government
of the people ... from the earth'. Government needs to care the basic rights of people, if government
doesn't, people can depose the ruler. That's what American has to ensure.

After the War, the Reconstruction started. The triumph of the North marked the end of an era; the
abolition of slavery and further industrialization will determine the future of the nation. The
Southern states were required to ratify these amendments to be readmitted into the Union. Three
constitutional amendments were introduced, but their enforcement proved extremely polemical: The
13th Amendment abolished slavery in all states and territories. The 14th Amendment granted any
male citizen equal protection under the law, regardless of race. The 15th Amendment granted the
right to vote to African- American males.
 It might be curious how a country who fought for the equality (US Civil War as well as the War
of Independence) is still full of racist attitudes; they are supported a racist president who is
ingrained within patriarchal ideas.