The Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address

by Lindsay Johnson

The Gettysburg Address

by Lindsay Johnson

​Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address

​On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gives perhaps the most famous speech in American history. Evoking the spirit of the nation’s founding fathers, Lincoln stands beside the quiet Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and consecrates the hallowed ground to the sacrifice of the soldiers who fought and died there. Reasserting the commitment to preserve the Union and the pursuit of the principles for which it was founded, the elegant words of the Gettysburg Address stand as testament to the greatest challenge in American history.

​Speaker Before Lincoln: Edward Everett

​The speaker before Lincoln, famous orator Edward Everett, spoke before Lincoln for 2 hours. Yet Everett admitted to Lincoln, "I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

Open Ended

Even though Everett spoke for two hours, we remember Lincoln's speech most. RHETORICALLY: How can a speech that is just 2 minutes be more effective than one that is 2 hours?

​Read the Gettysburg Address in Google Classroom as you watch the video

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Open Ended

Describe what Lincoln felt the nation should do to prevent the fallen soldiers from having “died in vain”.

Open Ended

Lincoln said that “in a larger sense,” he and the others gathered at Gettysburg “cannot” do something. What was it that they could not do, and why not, according to Lincoln?

Multiple Choice

Which of the following best explains Lincoln’s purpose in this speech?

• To respect the Confederate dead

• To honor the Union dead and use their sacrifice to inspire the public to support the war effort

• To remind his audience that historical memories are pointless

• To re-imagine the national purpose from this point forward

Multiple Choice

Which of these inferences is most strongly supported by the text below?

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 battlefield 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.

• Lincoln feels he must explain the definition of a civil war.

• Only some of the dead will be memorialized where they fell in battle.

• Lincoln is not certain that the Union will be victorious.

• Lincoln wants to ease racial tensions in the South.

Multiple Choice

Which of these lines from the text best supports the correct answer to the previous question?

• “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure.”

• “We are met on a great battlefield 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.”