The Gettysburg Address

Our nation has a lineage of forefathers through which our nation was reborn, nay reconstituted, through the challenge and tumult of the American civil war. Abraham Lincoln our 16th President of these United States gave us a profound and timely reminder of the purpose of sacrifice and the significance of the effort.

First draft of the ‘Gettysburg Address’. The address was delivered at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863

Transcript of the “Nicolay Draft” of the Gettysburg Address

(Differences between the texts of the two drafts are indicated by emphasis type. Please note that the Nicolay and Hay versions of the Gettysburg Address differ somewhat from the generally printed Bliss version.)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon 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 it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. 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 hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they didhere.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be 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 these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, 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.

Transcript of the “Hay Draft” of the Gettysburg Address

(Differences between the texts of the two drafts are indicated by emphasis type. Please note that the Nicolay and Hay versions of the Gettysburg Address differ somewhat from the generally printed Bliss version.)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon 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 here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it 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, haveconsecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they didhere. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be herededicated 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 shall have a new birth of freedom; and that thisgovernment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Related Links

Library of Congress: The Gettysburg Address

Wikipedia: Gettysburg Address

Wikipedia: Abraham Lincoln