Ch. 2.2. Primary Source: The Gettysburg Address, Nov. 19, 1863

Lincoln gave this extremely brief speech to commemorate the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was fought between the 1st and 3rd of July, 1863. Often seen as a turning point in the war, this bloody battle led to the death of approximately 8000 men and the wounding of up to 40,000 more.

Lincoln’s Use of the Declaration of Independence. From a constitutional point of view, a key feature of Lincoln’s address is the central importance it gives to Jefferson’s statement about human equality in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence of 1776. It is important to keep in mind that although the Declaration had always been seen as the United States’ first founding document, it merely declared the former colonies’ independence from Great Britain. It was neither a law nor a part of the Constitution.

The Declaration’s Long Eclipse. Moreover in the period between the founding and the Civil War the Declaration’s statement that “all men are created equal” did not feature prominently in discussions of the key principles of the American Republic. The lack of emphasis on this line was no doubt due to the continued existence of slavery and of the guaranties afforded by the Constitution to slave-owners. See especially the 3/5 clause, the slave trade clause, and the fugitive slave clause (C1.2.3, 1.9.1, and 4.2.3).

The Role of Abolitionists. The first group to seize on the Declaration’s line about all men being created equal as an expression of an American ideal in the way it is seen today were the abolitionists. Thorough-going abolitionists, who advocated for the immediate end of slavery throughout the country, emerged as a vocal group only in the 1830s. They remained a small, radical fringe in national politics until the Civil War.

In this sense the Gettysburg Address’s famous opening and closing sentences give eloquent expression to the constitutional changes spelled out more prosaically by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. It marks a key moment when what were formerly considered as overly radical, “abolitionist” ideas, first began to become ascendant–at least for many Americans.

For the text used here (the “Bliss copy”) and for additional information on the speech, see Abraham Lincoln Online, under the 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 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 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.