Seven Score and Ten Years Ago

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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not 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.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

The above is one of the shortest and most profound speech in the history of the United States. It is the Gettysburg Address, a speech made by President Abraham Lincoln at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. The President and others were there on that day to dedicate a portion of the battlefield as a cemetery for the tens of the thousands of Americans who had died during the battle. 

A little background though: The Battle of Gettysburg was the single bloodiest battle to have ever occurred in the Western Hemisphere. Between the two sides there were nearly 50,000 casualties, including 8,000 dead. It was the turning point of the Civil War, however; this battle coupled with the fall of Vicksburg along the Mississippi River spelled the eventual doom of the rebel Confederacy. 

A few months after the battle, on November 19th, 1863, which is 150 years ago today, the battlefield was dedicated and President Lincoln gave his speech. He spoke after the main orator of the day, Edward Everett. Everett spoke for two hours on the battle and after he was done, President Lincoln came up to deliver his closing remarks on the dedication ceremony.

In the very first sentence, he alludes to the past with that famous quote, "Four score and seven years ago," It had been 87 years since the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln started the address with this. He recalled how the nation had been "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." In the context of the Civil War, this had great meaning, as Lincoln went on to explain in the next sentence. 

In the next sentence, President Lincoln talks about the battle and why the ceremony was even occurring. He honors the men "that gave their lives that this nation might live." In the main portion of the address though, he says that they themselves could not consecrate the ground where the men who died would rest, instead he says, "the brave men who struggled here have consecrated it." He implores them to keep fighting so that the dead did not die in vain. 

It was a profound speech that still rings true today. As it is said, "Freedom is only a generation from being extinct." It is up to us to fight for it, so that these men, who died in the worst conflict in American history, did not die in vain. We must always strive to protect those unalienable right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and always recognize that all men are created equal. 

Robert