This will be speech number eight of my great American speeches series. Even though this has been the shortest speech yet, I have written the most on it. I am especially intrigued by Abe Lincoln and the Civil War conflict more so than any other events in American history. I hope you are enjoying these speeches and the history behind them.

History

By the time Abraham Lincoln was innaugurated as our 16th president, the country had already been in turmoil for years. Some believe the Civil War that resulted was fought over nothing more than slavery. In all reality, the motivations for war were far more complex. Competing nationalisms, political turmoil, the definition of freedom, the preservation of the Union, the fate of slavery and the structure of our society and economy could all be listed as contributing factors.

Many people in the South felt the burden of an oppressive government. It was not one that represented them fairly, being controlled by Northern industrialists who were unresponsive to the problems in the Southern states. In 1928, Vice-President John C. Calhoun said if a state felt a federal law extended beyond the Constitutional rights of the government that state had the right to nullify the law. On the contrary, President Andrew Jackson felt the federal government was the highest authority and the states had to abide by its law.

Along with this age-old debate, the Southern states had become angry with new tariffs placed upon their imported goods. It was often cheaper for the agricultural states of the South to purchase their manufactured goods from other countries. In order to persuade the South to buy these goods from the North, Andrew Jackson slapped a tariff on their imports. In 1833, after South Carolina threatened to withdraw from the Union, Congress revised the Tariff of Abominations.

The conflict between States Rightists and Pro-Unionists became more and more intense. So much so, that feuds and literal fights often broke out in political arenas across the nation. Politics were evolving rapidly and spawning new parties like the Constitutional Union and Free-Soilers. By the time James Buchanan was elected in 1856, the country was torn down the middle on almost every issue, including slavery.

With the country divided as it was, any man elected President with a pro-Union stance was bound to be seen as a threat to the South. Especially, if they believed that man had intentions to abolish slavery (the abolition of slavery was seen as a threat to the Southern economy). Lincoln had no such intentions. He even made it clear in his inaugural address that he would not interfere with slavery where it existed. Even so, South Carolina, followed by six other Southern states, had already seceded from the Union. The war that ensued dropped hard upon the lap of Abraham Lincoln.

Compromise was impossible at this point. Leaders of the insurrection refused to rejoin the Union under any terms. Several among Buchanan’s cabinet also refused to accept secession. As any President would, Lincoln longed for a peaceful resolution. He decided to not take any action against the South unless the Unionists themselves were attacked first. This finally happened in April of 1861. War could no longer be avoided.

The war continued to rage on our own soil for more than two more years before the Gettysburg Campaign. This was an offensive battle being led by General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy. It was an incredible turnaround for the Union. Pennsylvania scrambled with desperation to pull enough men together to defend themselves. Amazingly, General Meade of the North defeated Lee in a three-day battle fought by 160,000 soldiers. This victory did not come without the terrible price of 51,000 casualties.

Lincoln saw the great decrease in the Union Army due to these casualties and began military drafts. The drafts were hated by many in the North and riots even broke out in New York because of them. Lincoln was warned that political sentiments were turning against him and the war effort. So, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, four months after the Battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln referred to the events of the war and described the ceremony as an opportunity, not only to dedicate the grounds of a cemetery, but also to consecrate the living in the struggle to ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Lincoln had a high-pitched voice and a bad habit of using excited gestures as he spoke. He was considered a poor public speaker. Even so, his passion in the Gettysburg Address speech far overshadowed his limited speaking ability. Speaking to a country tattered, beaten, tired, and ravaged by war, Lincoln gave what has been regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history.

The Speech

The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

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 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 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.