LAD #15: Gettysburg Address

The Declaration of Independence relates to the Gettysburg address in that it is specifically referenced throughout the entire speech.


Gettysburg Address Summary- Lincoln begins this address by using the ever so famous line "Four score and seven years ago...". This is referring to 87 years before he wrote the address our nation was founded based on liberty and they were dedicated to the idea that all men are created equal. He continues by saying that we are now in a civil war and that it is testing whether our nation can endure it. Where they are standing is even a battle-field of the war and a portion of the field was dedicated to those who gave their lives in hope that this nation could live on. He continues by saying that they cannot dedicate the ground upon where they stand, as the brave men who fought had already done so far above the power to add or detract. He claims that the world not note and not long remember this speech, but they can never forget what the soldiers did. It is for the people still living, however, to continue the unfinished work which the dead had so bravely fought for. It is for the living, to make sure that the ones that have died have not done so in vain, that this nation shall have renewed freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth.