THE SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG.
One of the most important and critical battles of the Civil War took
place on the soil of Pennsylvania. The battle of Gettysburg commenced on
the 1st day of July, 1863, and lasted for three days. The invasion of
Pennsylvania by Lee’s forces was a bold turning of the tables upon the
Federal forces, but fortunately they had a brave, cool, and skillful
commander in General Meade, who beat back the Confederates with terrible
loss.
It is needless to say that excitement, amounting to panic, prevailed
throughout the North. Had Lee been successful in his bold movement, he
would probably have continued his victories through the State, and
menaced more than one Northern city. The danger was averted, but the
victory was won at large cost. The Federal loss in dead, wounded, and
missing amounted to twenty-three thousand, though considerably less than
the losses on the other side. A piece of land adjoining the cemetery of
the town was given by the State as a last resting-place for the loyal
soldiers who had fallen in the battle, and on the 19th of November it
was dedicated. Two addresses were made--one by Hon. Edward Everett,
which was not unworthy of the eminent Massachusetts orator; but the
second, though brief, was a gem which will live longer than the stately
periods of Everett. It was by President Lincoln himself, and surprised
even those who best appreciated him. There are few of my readers to whom
it is not familiar, but I can not deny myself the pleasure of recording
it here:
“Four score and seven years ago,” said Mr. Lincoln, “our fathers brought
forth upon 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 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 the government of the
people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the
earth.”
Is there anything to be found in the addresses of any orator, ancient or
modern, more elevated in sentiment or admirable in expression? Yet the
speaker had been reared in the backwoods, a stranger to schools and
colleges, and his eloquence was neither acquired nor inherited. This
speech alone proclaims Abraham Lincoln a man of genius.