On a grim November morning, the citizens of Gettysburg along with all the prominent men and women of political and influential families and offices gathered to mark the turning point of the civil war and to give respect to the men and women of the Union armed who gave their lives. Thus on November 19th 1863, over 15,000 men and women turned up for the dedication of the Solider' National Cemetery in Gettysburg Pennsylvania.
The main organizer of the event, David Wills and his committee set the main speaker as Edward Everett - a prominent statesmen, community leader and the greatest orator of his time. The committee also invited numerous other guests including around 6 other Union state Governors and various other figures. Only just 17 days before the ceremony did the President of the United States get this invitation to participate in the dedication of a national memorial - an insult to the President and an indicator of his public opinion during that time. In his invitation, David Wills invites the President by saying “It is the desire that, after the Oration, you, as Chief Executive of the Nation, formally set apart these grounds to their Sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.” Thus, President Lincoln - the infamous President who started the war was invited to speak at the ceremony.
Edward Everett spoke throughout the better part of the day for over 2 hours while the President waited for his chance. Almost as an after thought, he was given the chance to speak and what he said shook the foundations of our nation. Below is President Lincoln's 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 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.”
“But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead.”
This speech of less than 2 minutes was scolded and frowned upon by his peers. Based on the standards of Lincoln's day, a proper speech is to last a few hours and the President did not even cut it close. However, today Lincoln's speech is the most memorized and discussed upon speech and is the most famous of all historical presidential speeches. He reiterated the ideals of freedom, liberty and democracy found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the very reason why the war must be fought against the greater axis of evil of his day. Even though the people hated President Lincoln for splitting the “union” and starting the war, he is today one of the most loved and respected Presidents of all time - and a Republican.
