I have just completed listening to a course Abraham Lincoln, In His Own Words, which was taught by Professor David Zarefsky. I was so inspired by this course that I thought I would try to highlight some of the major points that Zarefsky felt Lincoln conveyed in the Gettysburg Address, which is appropriately considered one of the greatest speeches in the English Language.

Throughout the course, I remained entranced by Lincoln’s brilliance and persuasiveness. In a nutshell, Lincoln repeatedly showed a depth of understanding of a subject far beyond his peers.

Summary: The Gettysburg Address’s fundamental message was that a Union victory meant that the concept of equality of all men was a timeless message. The elevation of the common man of every race to equality with titled lords outweighed even the importance and significance of this Greatest Union Military Victory. Gettysburg was a watershed military event because henceforth the Confederacy fought only on the defensive until the war’s conclusion in May 1865.

 

Background

Edward Everett, the former President of Harvard University, delivered the major speech, some two hours. Everett recreated in his two hour speech a mental picture of the enormity of the Gettysburg battle. His efforts were to honor the memory of the Union soldiers who had sacrificed their lives to secure the greatest Union victory of the Civil War, July 1-3, 1863. That is, the Confederate defeat ended any diplomatic hope that either England or France would recognize the South.

The invitation to Lincoln to give a few remarks was a tribute to the President. That is, until 1863, federal officials were rarely invited to participate in celebratory state occasions.

 

Rhetorical features

With the exception of the words “what they did here” Lincoln made no reference to the battle itself. In essence, Lincoln’s few hundred words 

1. Moved from the past to the present to the future.

2. Conveyed that in order to truly honor “the fallen” the nation must take on a new mission—the rededication of our nation to the ideals that “all men are created equal.”

3. Immortalized the concept of “the equality of individuals.” 

 

Biblical, familial, and birth imagery

1. Lincoln used the term four score and seven (Biblical terminology) to underscore that America had existed for eighty-seven years. He wished to convey that our nation had already lived beyond the bible’s concept of a mortal’s life span. Stated differently, America possessed a maturity beyond the three or even four generations that the Bible conveyed was the expected maturity of an individual’s life.

2. Lincoln used the term “our fathers” to suggest a family relationship. In essence, splitting our nation would be as tragic as dividing a family

3. Lincoln used the term “brought forth, “new birth” to underline that the Civil War in one sense tested our nation, but also the union victory would lead to a renewal of the ideals that America represented.

 

Dedicate

Lincoln usage of the term “dedicate” had two meanings.

In one sense, Lincoln calls upon the nation to honor the dead by taking on the challenge of 1) attaining victory over the Confederacy and 2) providing a beacon of light and inspiration to the people of the world.   (“ that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.)

 

 

 

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 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.