Seven score and 17 old age ago , Abraham Lincolnuttered fewer than 280 word in front of Union lamenter at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg . Brief as it was , the Gettysburg Address capture the popular spirit of the nation and galvanized the North to redouble their efforts in the Civil War .
show on to learn more about the spoken communication that originate the musical phrase “ administration of the hoi polloi , by the people , for the people ” and taught us all that longer does n’t always mean better .
1. Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The Uniontriumphedover Robert E. Lee ’s Confederate forces at theBattle of Gettysburg — often considered the turn point of theCivil War — in July 1863 , but both sides suffer heavy losings . Townspeople take shape a committee to replace more than 3500 temporary battlefield grave with a national memorial park , and commission leader David MillsinvitedAbraham Lincoln to deliver “ a few appropriate remarks ” at the dedication ceremony on November 19 . Though Lincoln spoke for just two minute , his 272 - news Gettysburg Address remains one of the most illustrious talking to ever delivered .
2. The Gettysburg Address wasn’t the main speech of the event.
The sensation speaker of the ceremonial occasion wasEdward Everett , a former Harvard chairwoman , U.S. congressman and regulator of Massachusetts , and Millard Fillmore ’s escritoire of nation . Everett subsist up to his report as the greatest public speaker of the time with an epic , impassioned two - hourspeechthat he pitch from memory . But he , too , was impressed with Lincoln ’s pithiness .
“ Permit me also to express my great admiration of the thoughts expressed by you , with such eloquent easiness & appropriateness , at the consecration of the Cemetery , ” hewroteto Lincoln in a letter the following twenty-four hour period . “ I should be glad , if I could flatter myself that I come as near to the central idea of the affair , in two hours , as you did in two instant . ”
3. Abraham Lincoln probably didn’t write the Gettysburg Address on the train.
Legendhas it that Lincoln hastily scribble his brief speech on the back of an envelope on the train ride from Washington , D.C. to Gettysburg , Pennsylvania . However , one copy was partiallywrittenon prescribed White House stationery , precede experts to believe that Lincoln work on his speech before leaving home and complete it the dark before the ceremony . Also , the bumpy caravan drive of the 1860s would have feign Lincoln ’s script , and both of his former manuscript are write in his characteristically neat , even script .
4. Abraham Lincoln may have had smallpox when he delivered the Gettysburg Address.
On the train ride to Gettysburg , Lincolnreportedly told one of his private secretaries that he felt weak , and his health deteriorated rapidly in the days after the voice communication . In 2007 , research worker at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galvestonstudiedthe symptom of his mysterious illness — which include high fevers , headaches , backache , and scarlet blisters all over his skin — and indicate that he had actually suffer from a living - menace case of smallpox . Fortunately , Lincoln made a full convalescence , and resume his regular presidential duties three week after falling ill .
5. The Gettysburg Address has similarities to Pericles’s funeral oration from 431 BCE.
In 431 BCE , Athenian solon Pericles delivered a rousingspeechto commemorate those who had already give-up the ghost in thePeloponnesian War(which would last for nearly 30 more years ) . Not only do bothspeecheshonor the soldiers ’ sacrifice , but they also recognize those who arrive before them , emphasize equation in the eyes of the law , and boost the surviving citizen to keep on to fight for the greater goodness .
6. Not everyone loved the Gettysburg Address at the time.
Though many Union supporters and Republicans praised Lincoln ’s cautiously prefer lyric , Democrats and other skeptics did nothing to hide their ridicule — in fact , sure publications practically shouted about it . TheChicago Timessaidthat “ the cheek of every American must tingle with pity as he show the silly flat dishwatery utterances of a Isle of Man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the president of the United States , ” and Pennsylvania’sDaily Patriot and Unionrecommended that the nation never replicate or think about “ the silly comment ” ever again . Even theTimes of Londonthought the ceremony “ was rendered ludicrous by some of the sortie of that pitiable President Lincoln . ”
7. There are five known manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address.
The two earlymanuscriptsthat Abraham Lincoln intrust to his secret secretary , John Nicolay and John Hay , are both domiciliate in the Library of Congress . Sometime after he delivered the speech , Lincoln penned three more copy . One was for Everett , which is now kept at the Illinois State Historical Library ; another , now at Cornell University , was requested by historiographer George Bancroft ; and a third , for Bancroft ’s stepson , Colonel Alexander Bliss , now lives in the Lincoln Room of the White House .
The five manuscriptsdifferslightly , and so do people ’s opinions on which one is considered standard . Somepreferthe Bliss copy , since it was Lincoln ’s terminal draft and also the only copy he signed , while othersthinkthe Associated Press transcription from the actual event is a more accurate interpretation of the speech .
8. There’s only one confirmed photo of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.
In 1952 , archivist Josephine Cobb was study a methamphetamine negative of a photo lease by David Bachrach when shespotteda intimate face in the crowd at the Gettysburg commitment ceremony . It was Abraham Lincoln , his lid - less capitulum slenderly bowed as he waited for his turn at the podium later that afternoon . Alexander Gardner also snapped aphotographat the social occasion that might show Lincoln , too , but people disagree about precisely where Lincoln appears . John Richter , director of the Center for Civil War Photography , identifies him on hogback , while former Disney animator Christopher Oakley places him on the ground several yard to the rightfulness .
