sv 
 
 END 
 PETERSEN 
 
 GETTYSBURG 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 THE STORY 
 OF TWO 
 ORATIONS 
 
 With Illustrations 
 
$4.50 
 
 Did the President have the ability to talk 
 on such a serious occasion? 
 
 The men who arranged the dedication 
 ceremonies for the soldiers' cemetery at 
 Gettysburg did not think so. And in the 
 procession to the dedication grounds on 
 the morning of November 19, 1863, the 
 lank, gangling figure, in a tall silk hat, 
 astride a horse which, though the largest 
 in Cumberland Valley, was too small lor 
 him, was not one to inspire solemnity. 
 
 The main speaker for the occasion was 
 the well-known orator Edward Everett. 
 Abe Lincoln was instructed to say "a few 
 appropriate words." 
 
 This unusual book is a tale of two 
 Gettysburg addresses: one that rose to 
 immediate prominence, then sank into 
 oblivion; the other, which, relegated by 
 many to obscurity at first, later burst the 
 bounds of fame to skirt the edges of noto- 
 riety. It is the story of the large and small 
 happenings, the public and private emo- 
 tions interwoven with the circumstances 
 of their delivery. 
 
 The texts of both speeches are here. 
 Everett's brilliant two-hour oration, too 
 long obfuscated in the shadow of Lin- 
 coln's two-minute masterpiece, is at last 
 brought into the light again. Lincoln's 
 address is presented in all its five versions: 
 two drafts and three copies. How fascinat- 
 ing to observe from version to version the 
 change of a word, or the removal of a 
 comma, as Lincoln sought to perfect his 
 oratorical effort. 
 
 Today there is no question that Abe 
 Lincoln could make a serious speech. His 
 ( Gettysburg Address exists on vellum in a 
 Latin translation in the Vatican Library 
 and in sculpture on the South Wall of 
 
 continued on bach flap 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/gettysburgaddresOOpete 
 
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESSES 
 
Alexander Gardner took this picture of Abraham Lincoln four days 
 before the Gettysburg Address. Courtesy, Library of Congress 
 
THE 
 
 GETTYSBURG 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 The Story of Two Orations 
 
 SVEND PETERSEN 
 
 With Illustrations 
 
 I 
 
 FREDERICK UNGAR PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
TO MARY 
 
 with love 
 
 Copyright © 1963 by 
 Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 Library of Congress Card Catalog No. 63-18512 
 
773. 7^3 
 
 Foreword 
 
 While this book deals with the speech that will probably 
 live longer than any other ever made in America, the Gettys- 
 burg Address of Abraham Lincoln, it is also concerned with 
 another oration that was made on the same occasion, the 
 Gettysburg Address of Edward Everett. Lincoln's brief remarks 
 have become immortal, but there is no reason for forgetting 
 Everett's classical effort. 
 
 Besides containing a detailed description of the Battle of 
 Gettysburg and the events that preceded and followed it, the 
 Everett speech includes a scholarly discussion of the question 
 of secession and the doctrine of states' rights. Of special in- 
 terest is the orator's optimism regarding the possibilities of 
 reconciliation between North and South. 
 
 Lincoln's words express the mood of the dedication in 
 matchless terms. Nevertheless, to get the complete story of 
 the battle and the dedication, the student of the Civil War 
 must read both Gettysburg Addresses. 
 
 The Lincoln speech has inspired not only imitations but, 
 particularly in the mid-twentieth century, many parodies 
 written by humorists, politicians, and journalists of all per- 
 suasions. Some of the best of these are included in this volume. 
 
 For an accurate record of the development of the orations, 
 all versions are given with exactly the punctuation used in 
 the originals. 
 
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Contents 
 
 I The Invitations to Gettysburg 9 
 
 II The Journey to Gettysburg 15 
 
 III The Dedication at Gettysburg 19 
 
 IV Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 27 
 
 V Tributes to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 53 
 
 VI Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 65 
 
 VII Everett's Gettysburg Address 95 
 Index 167 
 
Illustrations 
 
 Abraham Lincoln (taken jour days before the 
 
 Gettysburg Address) Frontispiece 
 
 Lincoln at Gettysburg 21 
 
 First Draft of the Gettysburg Address 30 
 
 Second Draft of the Gettysburg Address 36 
 
 First George Bancroft Copy of the Gettysburg Address 44 
 
 Soldiers' National Monument at Gettysburg 49 
 
 Gettysburg Address Memorial 57 
 
 Final Copy of the Gettysburg Address 61 
 
 How an English Instructor Might Have Graded the 
 
 Gettysburg Address 85 
 
 How the Gettysburg Address Serves to Illustrate Use 
 
 of Proofreaders' Marks 91 
 
 Edward Everett 97 
 
 Abraham Lincoln (seated; taken jour days be j ore the 
 
 Gettysburg Address) 115 
 
 Edward Everett Copy of the Gettysburg Address 135 
 
 A Postage Stamp and an Air Mail Stamp that Com- 
 memorate the Gettysburg Address 145 
 
 The Gettysburg Address as It Appears on the Gettys- 
 burg Address Memorial 159 
 
 The Gettysburg Address as it Appears on the South 
 
 Wall of the Lincoln Memorial 163 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 The Invitations to Gettysburg 
 
 During the first three days of July, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsyl- 
 vania, was the scene of the greatest, the most terrible, and the 
 most famous battle ever fought on American soil. It was great 
 because large numbers of men were engaged in what proved 
 to be the turning-point of a fratricidal struggle. It was ter- 
 rible because there was an appalling loss of life on both sides. 
 It was famous not only because of its military significance, but 
 because it provided the stage for the most famous speech ever 
 made in America. 
 
 On the fourth day of July, the Confederates under Robert 
 E. Lee began their retreat from Gettysburg and Vicksburg sur- 
 rendered to Ulysses S. Grant. These twin successes for the 
 Union signalled the beginning of the end for the Confederacy, 
 although the meeting of Grant and Lee at Appomattox was 
 almost two years away. 
 
 Three days after these important Northern victories, a crowd 
 gathered in front of the White House, where a brass band 
 serenaded the President. In response to this tribute, Abraham 
 Lincoln spoke briefly. His opening words are of interest, as 
 they found their way into his immortal address of the follow- 
 ing November: 
 
 Fellow-citizens. I am very glad indeed to see you 
 tonight, and yet I will not say I thank you for 
 this call, but I do most sincerely thank Almighty 
 
10 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 God for the occasion on which you have called. 
 How long ago is it? — eighty odd years — since on 
 the Fourth of July for the first time in the history 
 of the world a nation by its representatives, assem- 
 bled and declared as a self-evident truth that "all 
 men are created equal." That was the birthday 
 of the United States of America. 
 
 The events leading up to the dedication of the cemetery 
 began soon after the battle. Seventeen acres on Cemetery Hill 
 had been purchased by order of Governor Andrew G. Curtin 
 of Pennsylvania. The National Soldiers' Cemetery corporation 
 had been organized and through it the New England States, 
 Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, 
 New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, 
 and Wisconsin were to divide the expense of a burial place 
 for those who had fallen in the fighting at Gettysburg — both 
 the Blue and the Gray. Plots had been assigned to each of the 
 aforementioned states for its dead. The headstones were to be 
 uniform. 
 
 Invitations to attend the dedication were sent to the Presi- 
 dent, the members of his Cabinet, all members of both houses 
 of Congress, all governors of Northern states, members of the 
 diplomatic corps, and many others. General George G. Meade, 
 who led the Army of the Potomac to victory at Gettysburg, 
 declined the invitation. The war was not yet over and Meade 
 wrote the commissioners of the corporation, "This army has 
 duties to perform which will not admit of its being repre- 
 sented on the occasion." The venerable General Winfield 
 Scott, hero also of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, 
 was plagued by old age and its attendant infirmities and also 
 had to decline. 
 
 Others who did not accept invitations to attend the dedi- 
 cation were Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, Secre- 
 tary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and Secretary of the Navy 
 
The Invitations to Gettysburg 1 1 
 
 Gideon Welles. All were too busy with official duties to make 
 the journey to Gettysburg. 
 
 Lincoln, the busiest man in the nation, replying to the 
 printed invitation which he had received, told the commission- 
 ers that he would attend the ceremonies on November 19th. 
 The date had originally been set for October 23d, but it 
 was changed to almost four weeks later when Edward Everett, 
 at that time America's greatest orator, advised the corporation 
 that he would need more time for preparation. 
 
 Only Everett had been asked to speak, but Colonel Clark E. 
 Carr, the Illinois member of the Board of Commissioners of 
 the cemetery, suggested that the President also be asked. Carr 
 was about the only member of the board who had ever heard 
 Lincoln make a speech. The commissioners wondered whether 
 the President had the ability to talk on such a serious occasion. 
 
 "Besides," Carr wrote later, "it was said that, with his im- 
 portant duties and responsibilities, he could not possibly have 
 the leisure to prepare an address for such an occasion. In 
 answer to this, it was urged that he himself, better than anyone 
 else, could determine as to these questions, and that, if he 
 were invited to speak, he was sure to do what under the cir- 
 cumstances, would be right and proper." 
 
 On November 2d, more than six weeks after the invitation 
 had been sent to Everett, and just over two weeks before 
 the dedication ceremonies were to be held, the President was 
 asked to speak at Gettysburg. In a letter from David Wills, 
 Governor Curtin's special agent, who was also acting for the 
 eighteen states, Lincoln was informed that the states having 
 soldiers in the Army of the Potomac who were killed, or had 
 since died at hospitals in the vicinity, had procured a burial 
 place for their dead. 
 
 "These grounds will be consecrated and set apart to this 
 sacred purpose by appropriate ceremonies on Thursday, the 
 19th instant," Wills wrote. "I am authorized by the Governors 
 of the various States to invite you to be present and participate 
 in these ceremonies, which will doubtless be very imposing 
 
12 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 and solemnly impressive. It is the desire that after the oration, 
 you, as Chief Executive of the nation, formally set apart these 
 grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks." 
 
 At the Cabinet meeting on November 17th, the President 
 mentioned the Gettysburg dedication and asked Secretary 
 Stanton to arrange for a special train. Lincoln wrote a note 
 to Secretary Chase, who had been absent: 
 
 I expected to see you here at Cabinet meeting, 
 and to say something about going to Gettysburg. 
 There will be a train to take and return us. The 
 time for starting is not yet fixed; but when it 
 shall be, I will notify you. 
 
 That afternoon Stanton sent the following message to the 
 White House: 
 
 It is proposed by the Baltimore and Ohio road — 
 
 First, to leave Washington Thursday morning 
 at 6 A.M.; and 
 
 Second, to leave Baltimore at 8 A.M., arriving 
 at Gettysburg at 12 noon, thus giving two hours 
 to view the ground before the dedication cere- 
 monies commence. 
 
 Third, to leave Gettysburg at 6 P.M., and ar- 
 rive in Washington, midnight; thus doing all in 
 one day. 
 
 Mr. Smith says the Northern Central road 
 agrees to this arrangement. 
 
 Please consider it, and if any change is desired, 
 let me know, so that it can be made. 
 
 Later in the same afternoon Lincoln made this notation on 
 Stanton's timetable: 
 
The Invitations to Gettysburg 13 
 
 I do not like this arrangement. I do not wish 
 to so go that by the slightest accident we fail 
 entirely, and, at the best, the whole to be a mere 
 breathless running of the gauntlet. But, any way. 
 
 Still later on the seventeenth, Stanton sent the following 
 message to his chief: 
 
 The arrangement I proposed has been made. The 
 train will leave the Depot at 12 o'clock. I will 
 assign the Adjutant General or Col. Fry to ac- 
 company you as personal escort and to control the 
 train. A carriage will call for you at 12. Please 
 furnish me the names of those whom you may 
 invite that they may be furnished with tickets 
 and unauthorized intrusion prevented. 
 
 To travel from the White House to Gettysburg in Lincoln's 
 day required a journey of about six hours. Dwight D. Eisen- 
 hower, who moved to a farm near Gettysburg during his serv- 
 ice as President, made the trip by automobile in slightly over 
 an hour or in half that time by helicopter. In order to allow 
 sufficient time for the round trip and the ceremonies, Eisen- 
 hower's predecessor devoted two working days to the visit to 
 Gettysburg; his actual time away from the nation's capital 
 was thirty-six hours. 
 
 Not all of Abraham Lincoln's enemies were in the Con- 
 federate States. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, who was the 
 Republican floor leader in the House of Representatives, 
 wanted Secretary Chase to be the Republican presidential 
 nominee in 1864. When asked where Lincoln and Secretary 
 of State William H. Seward were going, Stevens replied, "To 
 Gettysburg." 
 
 "But where are Stanton and Chase?" 
 
 "At home, at work; let the dead bury the dead." 
 
14 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 On the evening before the trip, William Saunders, a land- 
 scape gardener, called at the White House at the President's 
 request. He brought along the plan which he had designed 
 for the cemetery at Gettysburg. The President, who had never 
 been to the battlefield, seemed to be familiar with the area, 
 and desired further information about Culp's Hill and Round 
 Top. 
 
 "He asked me if I was going up to Gettysburg tomorrow," 
 Saunders stated. "I told him I intended to be there and take 
 up the plan. He replied, 'Well, I may see you on the train.' " 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Journey to Gettysburg 
 
 Shortly before noon on November 18th, James B. Fry, a 
 special escort from the War Department, rode with the 
 President in a carriage from the White House to the station. 
 A four-car special train, decorated with flags and red-white- 
 and-blue bunting, was ready for the journey to Gettysburg. 
 The rear coach, which was a directors' car, had its back third 
 partitioned into a drawing-room. 
 
 Among others, the party included Secretary of State Seward, 
 Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Secretary of the In- 
 terior John P. Usher, the French and Italian Ministers, Lin- 
 coln's bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, and the President's sec- 
 retaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay. Lincoln sat in the 
 drawing-room with the notables. Others joined the party at 
 Baltimore and other stops, so the group with the chief execu- 
 tive changed from time to time. 
 
 Young Thomas Lincoln, more familiarly known as "Tad," 
 was sick — otherwise he would doubtless have accompanied his 
 father on the train ride to Gettysburg. 
 
 The train was switched to the Northern Central Railway 
 at Baltimore, which it reached at two o'clock. A group of 
 nearly two hundred was there and called for the President, 
 who spoke briefly and obliged several of the mothers in the 
 crowd by kissing their babies. 
 
 The train neared Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, where it 
 was to be switched to the Western Maryland tracks. Lincoln, 
 
 15 
 
16 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 who had been visiting with some of those in the forward sec- 
 tion of his car, said, "Gentlemen, this is all very pleasant, but 
 the people will expect me to say something to them tomorrow, 
 and I must give the matter some thought." He returned to 
 the rear section of the car, but had little time to himself. 
 
 A few miles to the west was Hanover, where a cavalry en- 
 gagement had been fought the day before the commencement 
 of the Battle of Gettysburg. The train stopped there to permit 
 an eastbound train to pass, whereupon the assembled throng 
 gathered around the President's car. Lincoln appeared on the 
 platform and the crowd laughed when he said, "Well, you 
 have seen me, and, according to general experience, you have 
 seen less than you expected to see." 
 
 "You had the Rebels here last summer, hadn't you?" he 
 asked. An affirmative response led to another question, "Well, 
 did you fight them any?" His question went unanswered as 
 some ladies presented him with flowers and placed a home- 
 made American flag in the rear of the car. 
 
 An elderly man, who had lost a son during the fighting 
 at Little Round Top, boarded the train at one of the Pennsyl- 
 vania stops. Lincoln told him that he feared a visit to the 
 scene would open fresh wounds, but if the end of sacrifice 
 had been reached "we could give thanks even amidst our 
 tears." 
 
 "When I think of the sacrifices of life yet to be offered, and 
 the hearts and homes yet to be made desolate before this 
 dreadful war is over, my heart is like lead within me, and I 
 feel at times like hiding in deep darkness," he told the be- 
 reaved man. 
 
 The principal conversation en route was said to have been 
 with Wayne MacVeagh, chairman of the Pennsylvania Repub- 
 lican Central Committee, with whom Lincoln discussed politi- 
 cal matters. 
 
 The journey ended about seven. Edward Everett, General 
 Darius Couch, and David Wills met the train and welcomed 
 the President to the city of Gettysburg. He rode in a carriage 
 
The Journey to Gettysburg 17 
 
 to the Wills house, where Governor Curtin and others joined 
 him and Everett at supper. 
 
 The weather on that November evening was clear and warm 
 and the moon shone brightly. The Fifth New York Artillery 
 band serenaded the President and he was called upon for a 
 speech. He said: 
 
 I appear before you, fellow-citizens, merely to 
 thank you for this compliment. The inference is 
 a very fair one that you would hear me for a little 
 while at least, were I to commence to make a 
 speech. I do not appear before you for the purpose 
 of doing so, and for several substantial reasons. 
 The most substantial of these is that I have no 
 speech to make. In my position it is sometimes 
 important that I should not say any foolish things. 
 
 At this point, someone in the crowd said: "If you can help 
 it." The speaker continued: 
 
 It very often happens that the only way to help 
 it is to say nothing at all. Believing that is my 
 present condition this evening, I must beg of you 
 to excuse me from addressing you further. 
 
 Lincoln went to his room between nine and ten, accom- 
 panied by William, his colored servant, who was soon sent 
 downstairs after Wills. The President questioned his host as 
 to the next day's program, including the role assigned to the 
 chief executive. 
 
 Wills went downstairs about ten o'clock. About eleven the 
 servant came down a second time and told Wills that the 
 President would like to see him again, whereupon Wills went 
 upstairs once more. Lincoln expressed a desire to confer with 
 
18 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 Secretary Seward, who was a guest in the Harper house next 
 door. 
 
 When Wills offered to go and bring him, Lincoln said, "No, 
 I'll go and see him." The President and his host went to- 
 gether to the neighboring house; the former carried the sheets 
 on which he had been writing. Wills soon took his leave of the 
 President and the Secretary. Lincoln returned with the manu- 
 script about half past eleven. 
 
 Wills said afterward, "The next day I sat by him on the 
 platform when he delivered the address, which has become 
 immortal, and he read it from the same paper on which I had 
 seen him writing it the night before." 
 
 It was midnight or later when Lincoln retired. He prob- 
 ably slept better because he had received a telegram from 
 Secretary Stanton. The message told him that there was no 
 important war news and "On inquiry Mrs. Lincoln informs me 
 that your son is better this evening." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Dedication at Gettysburg 
 
 About nine o'clock on the morning of the nineteenth, the 
 President rose from the breakfast table and went to his room. 
 Nicolay, who reported there for duty, saw him finish writing 
 the address which he was to deliver that afternoon. 
 
 Around ten Lincoln received another telegram from Stan- 
 ton. Along with the war bulletins was encouraging news: "Mrs. 
 Lincoln reports your son's health as a great deal better and he 
 will be out today." 
 
 The official order of march for the parade included places 
 in line for some who did not show up. Not all who were 
 present cared to march or ride, and so great a number found 
 it more pleasant to watch the parade go by that there was 
 danger that there would be no parade to watch. Most of the 
 people either watched the procession from the sidelines or 
 hurried to the cemetery so as to secure choice positions from 
 which to listen to the oratory. 
 
 At ten o'clock, when the procession was scheduled to start, 
 Lincoln emerged from the Wills house and mounted a young 
 and beautiful chestnut horse. The President was attired in 
 black, had on a tall silk hat, and wore white gauntlets. Even 
 though his horse was the largest in the Cumberland Valley, 
 the animal was too small for Lincoln. 
 
 When the crowd surrounded him, the President was forced 
 to hold a reception on horseback. Not until eleven did the 
 procession, which included a number of veterans of the War 
 
 19 
 
20 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 of 1812, get under way. Seward and Blair rode at Lincoln's 
 right and Usher and Lamon at his left. Carr, Nicolay, and 
 Hay rode behind them. 
 
 The United States Marine Band and several other bands 
 were in line and furnished music. Many flags were at half-mast. 
 Guns boomed while the parade moved to the cemetery, where 
 troops stood in salute to the President. The route of the 
 parade was but three-quarters of a mile long and the pro- 
 cession took less than twenty minutes. 
 
 Everett did not reach the cemetery until half an hour later. 
 Bands played till noon, when the exercises began, an hour 
 behind schedule. Fifteen thousand men, women and children 
 were present for the program of dedication. 
 
 The President sat in a rocking chair on the platform, with 
 Everett on his right and Seward and Blair on his left. Gov- 
 ernors on the platform besides Curtin were Bradford of Mary- 
 land, Seymour of New York, Parker of New Jersey, Tod of 
 Ohio, and Morton of Indiana. Secretary Usher also sat on the 
 rostrum. 
 
 The program began with music by Birgfield's Band from 
 Philadelphia. While the crowd stood with bared heads, Doctor 
 Thomas H. Stockton, chaplain of the United States House of 
 Representatives, offered the invocation, which he concluded 
 with the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 The Marine Band then played, just preceding the oration by 
 Everett. The speaker, who had spent three days at Gettysburg, 
 and had painstakingly studied the battlefield, spoke without 
 looking at his manuscript or consulting any notes. 
 
 Twice Everett inadvertently said "General Lee" when he 
 meant to say "General Meade." The President corrected him 
 in a loud voice both times, but the orator evidently did not 
 hear him the first time. When he was set right the second 
 time, he made a correction. (For Everett's speech in full, see 
 Chapter VII.) 
 
 When the orator of the day had finished, the Baltimore 
 Glee Club sang a hymn which had been composed for the 
 
The Dedication at Gettysburg 23 
 
 occasion by Benjamin B. French, who was the officer in charge 
 of buildings in the national capital. The words of the hymn 
 follow: 
 
 'Tis holy ground — 
 This spot, where, in their graves, 
 We place our country's braves, 
 Who fell in Freedom's holy cause, 
 Fighting for liberties and laws; 
 
 Let tears abound. 
 
 Here let them rest; 
 And summer's heat and winter's cold 
 Shall glow and freeze above this mould — 
 A thousand years shall pass away — 
 A nation still shall mourn this clay, 
 
 Which now is blest. 
 
 Here, where they fell, 
 Oft shall the widow's tear be shed, 
 Oft shall fond parents mourn their dead; 
 The orphan here shall kneel and weep, 
 And maidens, where their lovers sleep, 
 
 Their woes shall tell. 
 
 Great God in Heaven! 
 Shall all this sacred blood be shed? 
 Shall we thus mourn our glorious dead? 
 Oh, shall the end be wrath and woe, 
 The knell of Freedom's overthrow, 
 
 A country riven? 
 
24 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 It will not be! 
 We trust, O God! thy gracious power 
 To aid us in our darkest hour. 
 This be our prayer — "O Father! save 
 A people's freedom from its grave. 
 
 All praise to Thee!" 
 
 At about half past two, Lamon introduced the President 
 of the United States, who made "a few appropriate remarks." 
 A photographer was preparing to record the scene for pos- 
 terity, but before he was ready for an exposure Lincoln had 
 finished. A dirge was sung and Doctor H. L. Baugher pro- 
 nounced the benediction. 
 
 Immediately after the speech, Lincoln turned to his body- 
 guard and said, "Lamon, that speech won't scour! It is a flat 
 failure, and the people are disappointed." A day or two 
 earlier, he had told Lamon that he had no time to prepare 
 a speech and feared that he would be unable to live up to 
 expectations. 
 
 Soon after three o'clock, Lincoln, Everett, Curtin, and others 
 ate luncheon at the Wills house. The repast was cut short 
 at four by the desire of the multitudes to meet their President. 
 
 A century ago there lived in Gettysburg a seventy-year-old 
 gentleman named John Burns, who has a place in this book 
 because he made an honest effort to do the job for which he 
 had been hired. He was the town's constable during the 
 summer of 1863 and was therefore responsible for the mainte- 
 nance of peace and good order in Gettysburg. When he heard 
 that the Southern army was coming, he picked up his flint- 
 lock squirrel rifle and started out to quell the disturbance of 
 the peace. 
 
 John Burns fell in with the One Hundred and Fiftieth 
 Pennsylvania Volunteers. He helped them to hold the McPher- 
 son barn and the nearby woods for a while, but they were 
 
The Dedication at Gettysburg 25 
 
 eventually driven back. Instead of retreating with them, Burns 
 located the Iron Brigade and continued to fight the invaders. 
 The Brigade was also driven back, but the old man kept firing 
 at the enemy from beside a tree. He was finally taken prisoner 
 after having been wounded three times. 
 
 The Confederates did not take their captive a great distance 
 nor did his wounds prevent him from attending the dedica- 
 tion ceremonies at the cemetery. At five o'clock on the after- 
 noon of November 19th, the short constable of Gettysburg 
 and the tall President of the United States walked side by 
 side through the streets and down the aisle of the Presbyterian 
 Church. David Wills, an elder in the church, had planned a 
 patriotic meeting there and arranged for the President's 
 attendance. The chief executive and Burns sat together for 
 the service, but the former had to depart before it ended, 
 as the special train was due to leave at six-thirty. 
 
 Everett accompanied Lincoln on the trip back to Washing- 
 ton, which they reached after midnight. After the return to the 
 capital, Lincoln said to Lamon, "I tell you, Hill, that speech 
 fell on the audience like a wet blanket. I am distressed about 
 it. I ought to have prepared it with more care." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 
 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, like so many other famous 
 writings and speeches, exists in various forms. The chief 
 executive wrote two drafts before he made the speech and 
 made three more copies afterwards. Each of the versions in 
 Lincoln's handwriting differs from each of the other four. 
 
 The first page of the first draft was written in ink on 
 White House stationery, except for a penciled substitution, 
 "to stand here" having been lined through and "we here be 
 dedica-" inserted. All of the second page was written in pencil. 
 
 The text of the first draft follows: 
 
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, 
 conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposi- 
 tion 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 it, as a final resting place 
 for those who died here, that the nation might 
 live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a 
 larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not 
 
 27 
 
28 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 consecrate — we can not hallow, this ground. The 
 brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, 
 have hallowed it, far above our poor power to 
 add or detract. The world will little note, nor 
 long remember what we say here; while it can 
 never forget what they did here. 
 
 It is rather for us, the living, [to stand here,] 
 we here be dedicated to the great task remaining 
 before us — that, from these honored dead we 
 take increased devotion to that cause for which 
 they here, gave the last full measure of devotion 
 — that we here highly resolve these dead shall 
 not have died in vain; that the nation, 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. 
 
 (Lincoln deleted the words in brackets.) 
 
 John Hay, one of Lincoln's secretaries, received the first 
 two drafts from the President. His children, Helen Hay Whit- 
 ney, Alice Hay Wadsworth, and Clarence L. Hay, gave them 
 to the Library of Congress April 11, 1916. These manuscripts 
 have been in the Library ever since. 
 
 The second draft, which was also written on two pages, 
 differs in a number of instances from the first one: 
 
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought 
 forth, upon this continent, a new nation, con- 
 ceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposi- 
 tion that all men are created equal. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
 whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, 
 
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Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 33 
 
 and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met 
 here on a great battle-field of that war. We [are 
 met] have come to dedicate a portion of it as [the] 
 a final resting place [of] for those who here gave 
 their lives that that nation might live. It is alto- 
 gether 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 can never forget what they did here. It is for 
 us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the 
 unfinished work which they have, thus far, so 
 nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedi- 
 cated to the great task remaining before us — that 
 from these honored dead we take increased devo- 
 tion to [the] that cause for which they here gave 
 the last full measure of devotion — that we here 
 highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
 in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of 
 freedom; and that this government of the people, 
 by the people, for the people, shall not perish from 
 the earth. 
 
 (Lincoln deleted the words in brackets.) 
 
 While millions have committed the Gettysburg Address to 
 memory, the first person to memorize it was Abraham Lincoln. 
 According to some who heard him, he delivered it without 
 referring to the text, but others said that he looked at the 
 manuscript. 
 
 An important change from the second draft was the addi- 
 
34 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 tion of two words to the phrase "that this nation shall have 
 a new birth of freedom." By inserting "under God" after 
 "nation," Lincoln recognized that the United States of Amer- 
 ica could be preserved as a free nation only with the help 
 of the Almighty. 
 
 One of Massachusetts' three official representatives at Gettys- 
 burg was Charles Hale of the Boston Advertiser, a nephew of 
 Edward Everett. Hale took the address down in shorthand 
 for his paper; his version is probably a nearly accurate ac- 
 count of what Lincoln actually said: 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers 
 brought forth upon this continent a new nation, 
 conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi- 
 tion 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 are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final 
 resting-place of those who have given 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 power 
 to add or to detract. 
 
 The world will very little note nor long re- 
 member what we say here; but it can never forget 
 what they did here. 
 

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 Second Draft of the Gettysburg Address. Courtesy, Library 
 of Congress 
 
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Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 39 
 
 It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated, 
 here, to the unfinished work that they have thus 
 far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be 
 here dedicated to the great task remaining before 
 us; that from these honored dead we take in- 
 creased devotion to that cause for which they 
 here gave the last full measure of devotion; that 
 we here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
 have died in vain; that the nation shall, under 
 God, have a new birth of freedom, and that 
 government of the people, by the people, for the 
 people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 Three handwritten copies of the Gettysburg Address were 
 made by Lincoln after it had been delivered, the first one 
 being sent to Edward Everett. Mr. Everett wrote to the 
 President January 30, 1864: 
 
 I shall have the honor of forwarding to you by 
 Express, to-day or on Monday next, a copy of 
 the Authorized Edition of my Gettysburg Address 
 Sc of the Remarks made by yourself, & the other 
 matters connected with the Ceremonial of the 
 Dedication of the Cemetery. It appeared, owing 
 to unavoidable delays, only yesterday. 
 
 I have promised to give the Manuscript of my 
 address to Mrs. Governor Fish of New- York, who 
 is at the head of the Ladies' Committee of the 
 Metropolitan fair. It would add very greatly to its 
 value, if I could bind up with it the manuscript 
 of your dedicatory Remarks, if you happen to 
 have preserved them. 
 
40 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 I would further venture to request, that you 
 would allow me also to bind up in the volume 
 the very obliging letter of the 20 Nov. '63, which 
 you did me the favor to write to me. I shall part 
 with it with much reluctance, and I shrink a little 
 from the apparent indelicacy of giving some pub- 
 licity to a letter highly complimentary to myself. 
 But as its insertion would greatly enhance the 
 value of the volume when sold at the fair, I shall, 
 if I have your kind permission, waive all other 
 considerations. 
 
 The President wrote the following reply February 4th: 
 
 Yours of Jan. 30th. was received four days ago; 
 and since then the address mentioned has arrived. 
 Thank you for it. I send herewith the manuscript 
 of my remarks at Gettysburg, which, with my note 
 to you of Nov. 20th. you are at liberty to use 
 for the benefit of our soldiers as you have 
 requested. 
 
 (For Everett's letter to Lincoln of November 20, 1863, and 
 the latter's reply of the same day, see Chapter VII.) 
 
 The two manuscripts were bound in a volume and sold 
 at the New York Sanitary Fair for the benefit of the soldiers. 
 Later the Lincoln manuscript was owned by Senator Henry 
 W. Keyes of New Hampshire. It was eventually presented to 
 the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield by popular 
 subscription. 
 
 The text of the Everett copy of Lincoln's speech, which is 
 still in the Library's possession, follows: 
 
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 41 
 
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, 
 conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
 sition 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 
 here 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, 
 
42 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 government of the people, by the people, for the 
 people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 On February 5th, John P. Kennedy, an author, and Colonel 
 Alexander Bliss, who was on duty in Baltimore, sent a circular 
 to prominent American authors, soliciting from each a page 
 or two of autograph manuscript to be published in facsimile 
 in a small quarto volume, to be entitled Autograph Leaves 
 of Our Country's Authors, and to be sold for the benefit of 
 the Soldiers' and Sailors' Fair which was to open in Baltimore 
 April 18th. Some time in February, the historian George 
 Bancroft, who was Bliss' stepfather, asked Lincoln in person 
 for an autograph copy of the Gettysburg Address for inclusion 
 in the volume. The President's letter of transmittal, dated 
 February 29th, said simply, "Herewith is the copy of the 
 manuscript which you did me the honor to request." 
 
 This copy remained in the Bancroft family's custody until 
 1929, when Mrs. Nicholas H. Noyes of Indianapolis acquired 
 it. It was reportedly sold to her by autograph dealer Thomas 
 F. Madigan for about $90,000. Twenty years later she gave 
 it to the Cornell University Library of Ithaca, New York, 
 which still has it. 
 
 The text of this version follows: 
 
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, 
 conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
 sition 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 
 
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 First George Bancroft Copy of the Gettysburg Address. Courtesy, 
 Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York 
 
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Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 47 
 
 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 
 here 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. 
 
 On March 4th Kennedy wrote to explain that the copy 
 which Lincoln had made for Bancroft could not be used as 
 planned, as the President had written on both sides of the 
 paper. Lincoln therefore made another one which he sent to 
 Baltimore March 11th. 
 
 Bancroft had asked for permission to keep the first one 
 and the chief executive had agreed. The second copy even- 
 tually went to Bancroft's stepchildren, the Blisses. Colonel 
 Bliss received it from Bancroft and left it to his son, Doctor 
 William J. A. Bliss, also of Baltimore. The latter's widow 
 
48 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 and their daughter, Eleanor A. Bliss, sold it at auction on 
 April 27, 1949, for $54,000. 
 
 The purchaser, Oscar B. Cintas, who had been Cuba's 
 ambassador to the United States, died May 12, 1957. He had 
 willed his copy to the Lincoln Room of the White House; it 
 was turned over to the United States government July 14, 
 1959. 
 
 The text of the final holograph version, which is the only 
 one with a heading, the date, and the author's name — all in 
 Lincoln's handwriting — follows: 
 
 Address delivered at the dedication of the 
 Cemetery at Gettysburg. 
 Four score and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth on this continent, a new nation, 
 conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
 sition 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 
 
Soldiers' National Monument at Gettysburg. Courtesy, Lane Studio, 
 Gettysburg 
 
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 51 
 
 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 govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 November 19, 1863. 
 
 The Soldiers' National Monument, which commemorates 
 the Union men who fell at Gettysburg, stands on the spot 
 where Lincoln delivered the Address. It was erected by the 
 federal government at a cost of $50,000. Near the west entrance 
 to the National Cemetery is the Gettysburg Address Memorial, 
 which includes the Address itself, the text being that of the 
 final version, except that "The brave men, living and dead, 
 who struggled here, etc." has a dash instead of a comma 
 following "living and dead." 
 
 The final version also appears on the South Wall of the 
 Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C, entirely in capital 
 letters. Commas and the hyphen in the word "battle-field" 
 have been omitted and there is no new paragraphing at "But, 
 in a larger sense . . ." The heading, the date, and the author's 
 name have also been left out. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Tributes to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 
 
 There was mixed reaction to Abraham Lincoln's remarks at 
 the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg. His two-minute 
 talk followed the two hour oration by Edward Everett, so 
 the latter's efforts naturally received more attention from 
 the press. 
 
 Everett's speech filled more than a page of fine print in 
 metropolitan newspapers, while Lincoln's fewer than 300 
 words were buried in lengthy accounts of the ceremonies. 
 Some papers ran only the remarks the President made to the 
 serenaders the night before, while others ran none of his 
 words. Probably a good reason for the contrasting receptions 
 from the press was that the newspapers had received advance 
 copies of the Everett speech, while Lincoln's talk just after- 
 ward was not written out until shortly before it was to be 
 delivered. 
 
 Both men's Gettysburg Addresses deserve to be remembered, 
 but only the shorter speech has escaped oblivion. The several 
 generations of schoolchildren who have committed Lincoln's 
 words to memory would have had difficulty in merely locating 
 a copy of Everett's scholarly and lengthy talk. 
 
 Many of the newspapers that commented on Lincoln's 
 remarks spoke well of them, but there were also some sour 
 notes. The Chicago Tribune predicted that "The dedicatory 
 remarks by President Lincoln will live among the annals 
 
 53 
 
54 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 of men." A contrasting view was expressed by the Harrisburg 
 Patriot and Union, which said: 
 
 The President succeeded on this occasion because 
 he acted without sense and without constraint in 
 a panorama that was gotten up more for the bene- 
 fit of his party than for the glory of the nation and 
 the honor of the dead. . . . We pass over the silly 
 remarks of the President; for the credit of the 
 nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion 
 shall be dropped over them and that they shall no 
 more be repeated or thought of. 
 
 In a dispatch from New York, the correspondent of the 
 London Times declared: 
 
 "The inauguration of the cemetery at Gettysburg 
 was an imposing ceremony, . . . rendered . . . 
 ludicrous by some of the luckless sallies of that 
 poor President Lincoln." 
 
 Editorial comments from several daily newspapers show 
 that Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was immediately recognized 
 by the fourth estate as a masterpiece of oratory: 
 
 The rhetorical honors of the occasion were won 
 by President Lincoln. His little speech is a perfect 
 gem; deep in feeling, compact in thought and 
 expression, and tasteful and elegant in every word 
 and comma. Then it has the merit of unexpected- 
 ness in its verbal perfection and beauty. . . . This 
 shows he can talk handsomely as well as act 
 
Tributes to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 55 
 
 sensibly. Turn back and read it over, it will repay 
 study as a model speech. Strong feelings and a 
 larger brain were its parents — a little painstaking 
 its accoucheur. — Springfield (Massachusetts) 
 Republican 
 
 The President's brief speech of dedication is most 
 happily expressed. It is warm, earnest, unaffected 
 and touching. Thousands who would not read 
 the long, elaborate oration of Mr. Everett, will 
 read the President's few words, and not many 
 of them will do it without a moistening of the 
 eyes and a swelling of the heart. — Philadelphia 
 Bulletin 
 
 We know not where to look for a more admirable 
 speech than the brief one which the President 
 made at the close of Mr. Everett's oration. It is 
 often said that the hardest thing in the world 
 to do is to make a five minutes' speech. But could 
 the most elaborate and splendid oration be more 
 beautiful, more touching, more inspiring than 
 those few thrilling words of the President? They 
 had . . . the charm and the power of the very 
 highest eloquence. — Providence Journal 
 
 He who wants to take in the very spirit of the day, 
 catch the unstudied pathos that animates a sincere 
 but simple-hearted man, will turn ... to the brief 
 speech of the President. — Detroit Advertiser and 
 Tribune 
 
56 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 The periodical Harper's Weekly also recognized Lincoln's 
 oratorical ability: 
 
 The few words of the President were from the 
 heart to the heart. They cannot be read, even, 
 without kindling emotion. "The world will little 
 note nor long remember what we say here, but it 
 can never forget what they did here." It was as 
 simple and felicitous and earnest a word as was 
 ever spoken. 
 
 As time went on, critics continued to praise the speech. 
 In 1909, the centennial of Lincoln's birth, another famous 
 American orator, William Jennings Bryan, paid tribute to 
 the Civil War President's command of language: 
 
 His Gettysburg Address is not surpassed, if 
 equaled, in beauty, simplicity, force, and appro- 
 priateness by any speech of the same length of 
 any language. It is the world's model in elo- 
 quence, elegance, and condensation. 
 
 Half a century after the dedication ceremonies, a distin- 
 guished Englishman, Lord Curzon, selected the three "su- 
 preme masterpieces" of English eloquence. One of them was 
 the toast offered by William Pitt the younger following the 
 victory of the British fleet at Trafalgar. Both of the other two 
 were speeches by Abraham Lincoln — the Gettysburg Address 
 and the Second Inaugural. "They are among the glories and 
 treasures of mankind," declared the eminent British critic. 
 
 This is what Lord Curzon said on November 6, 1913, 
 regarding the remarks that Lincoln made at Gettysburg: 
 
 The Gettysburg Address is far more than a pleas- 
 ing piece of occasional oratory. It is a marvelous 
 
^ ^ a a 3 
 
 I— I c/5 
 
 5 1 .a r^ 
 
 J? S 8 S - 
 
 « 4! S o .2 
 
Tributes to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 59 
 
 piece of English composition. It is a pure well of 
 English undefiled. It sets one to inquiring with 
 nothing short of wonder "How knoweth this man 
 letters, having never learned?" The more closely 
 the address is analyzed the more one must con- 
 fess astonishment at its choice of words, the pre- 
 cision of its thought, its simplicity, directness and 
 effectiveness. 
 
 But it is more than an admirable piece of 
 English composition, it is an amazingly compre- 
 hensive and forceful presentation of the principles 
 for which the war then was waging. It was a 
 truthful recital of the events which lay behind 
 the gathering at Gettysburg, and an interpreta- 
 tion of the spirit of the occasion. It joined the 
 local to the national, the occasional to the per- 
 manent; it went straight at a declaration of the 
 purpose which animated the soul of Abraham 
 Lincoln, and for which the men buried at Gettys- 
 burg had given their lives. Above all it was a 
 declaration of America's fundamental principles. 
 It truthfully represented the spirit of that for 
 which men fought, not only at Gettysburg but at 
 Runnymeade, at Bunker Hill, and on the plains 
 of Flanders. The long, hard fought battle for the 
 liberation of humanity has been a struggle for the 
 rights and welfare of humanity. 
 
 It is easy to answer the inquiry propounded by Lord Cur- 
 zon, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" 
 It is true that Abraham Lincoln's academic background was 
 
60 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 all but nonexistent, as he had spent but one year of his life 
 in a classroom. He was, nonetheless, acquainted with great 
 literature. 
 
 His primary source of inspiration was the Word of God, 
 with which he became familiar in boyhood. His speeches 
 and writings contain numerous scriptural allusions. 
 
 Although the Gettysburg Address contains a number of 
 Biblical expressions, it includes no complete scriptural quota- 
 tion. While "four score and seven years" has an Old Testa- 
 ment ring, the closest Biblical approach to it is "four score 
 and six years," the age of Abram (!) when Ishmael was born. 
 
 The expressions "our fathers" and "brought forth" are 
 frequently used throughout the Bible, so it would be impos- 
 sible to cite a specific instance in either case that Lincoln 
 could have had in mind. "Resting place" is also scriptural, 
 but again there is no way to determine whether or not the 
 President had any certain verse in mind. 
 
 "This nation, under God" has a Biblical root in "Blessed 
 is the nation whose God is the LORD." Henry C. Schadeberg, 
 a congressman from Wisconsin, used Lincoln's phrase as the 
 title of a patriotic address delivered February 21, 1963. Con- 
 gressman Schadeberg has granted the author permission to 
 quote from his speech: 
 
 What was the task to which Mr. Lincoln insisted 
 they were to dedicate themselves? It was "that 
 this nation, under God," not merely a nation of 
 men believing only in themselves or in some ma- 
 terial ideal, but "that this nation, under God, 
 shall have a new birth of freedom — and that gov- 
 ernment of the people, by the people, for the 
 people, shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln said, "This nation, under 
 God, shall have a new birth of freedom," he was 
 
m 
 
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 < 
 
 E? 
 
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 q be 
 
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Tributes to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 63 
 
 not trying to be rhetorical. It was not a religious 
 gesture (a tipping of his hat, so to speak) to 
 Almighty God. He illustrated quite clearly his 
 belief in the origin and meaning of life — namely 
 that it was conceived by God and that, to find 
 fulfillment, life must be lived under God. 
 
 He was saying to the people he so deeply loved 
 and who had borne so heavy a burden that life 
 is not meaningless; that the universe is not like 
 a ship without a rudder, left to move aimlessly 
 over the sea, but that there is a divinity that 
 shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will. 
 In these immortal words Lincoln reveals that he 
 had a deep and abiding knowledge and under- 
 standing of truth. 
 
 "A new birth" is of New Testament origin and refers to 
 the near escape from destruction of the Union and its anti- 
 cipated renaissance as a nation after having been purged of 
 the terrible sin of slavery. 
 
 The word "perish" has a different meaning than "die" 
 when used scripturally. To die is to cease existing, with the 
 expectation of living again. As Jesus Christ told Martha, 
 one of the sisters of the Lazarus whom he restored to life, 
 "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live." To perish is to 
 suffer destruction or annihilation. 
 
 Bildad the Shuhite, in speaking of the wicked, told Job and 
 the others who were present, ''His remembrance shall perish 
 from the earth." Jeremiah tells us that "The gods that have 
 not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish 
 from the earth." 
 
 The Apostle Peter asserted that "the word of God . . . 
 
64 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 liveth and abideth for ever." In like manner, Lincoln ex- 
 pressed his faith in the permanence of popular government 
 by saying that it "shall not perish from the earth." Although 
 government of, by, and for the people, like freedom, has 
 often been temporarily subjugated, it has never been de- 
 stroyed. In the future, as in the past, it will doubtless suffer 
 numerous setbacks, but it will always have a rebirth. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was great primarily because he preserved 
 the Union. Many feel that the emancipation of the slaves 
 was his greatest contribution, but this was secondary to his 
 efforts to save the Union. 
 
 While he deserves to be enshrined in the hearts of the 
 people, both because he freed the bondmen and because he 
 kept the Union intact, he has yet another claim to fame. He 
 took the simplest words and brought out the beauty of the 
 English language. Those who have not ascended the steps 
 of the Lincoln Memorial, looked up into the face of the 
 Great Emancipator, and read in sculpture the deathless prose 
 of the Gettysburg Address and the magnanimous poetry of 
 the Second Inaugural, have not lived completely. 
 
 While we can become inspired by Lincoln's life and derive 
 benefit from perusing his speeches and writings, this is by no 
 means all. Our victory at Gettysburg, which came exactly 
 four score and seven years after the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, helped to preserve the United States of America, 
 both North and South, for another one hundred years. It is 
 up to all of us — North, South, East, and West — to preserve 
 it for at least another century. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Parodies of Lincoln s Gettysburg Address 
 
 A number of parodies of the Gettysburg Address have been 
 written, critics have enjoyed making humorous comments 
 about it, and it has been translated into Latin. The author 
 believes that Abraham Lincoln, who was as noted for his 
 sense of humor as for his command of the English language, 
 would have enjoyed reading these items. 
 
 Some of the items that appear below were politically in- 
 spired, but, in an endeavor to be impartial, this volume in- 
 cludes examples written during the Hoover, Roosevelt, 
 Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy Administrations. 
 
 The first one was read into the Congressional Record of 
 March 3, 1931, by Representative Jed J. Johnson of Okla- 
 homa, who died early in 1963. In order to give the background 
 that led to its writing Congressman Johnson's speech in the 
 House of Representatives is included: 
 
 Mr. Speaker, supplementing my remarks made 
 yesterday on the floor of this House concerning 
 the deplorable conditions in which the independ- 
 ent oil producers and royalty owners have been 
 placed because of the importation of foreign crude 
 I desire to add that I have actively supported a 
 tariff on oil for the past several years. 
 
 When the Hawley-Smoot-Grundy tariff bill, 
 
 65 
 
66 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 passed in 1930, was pending in Congress I made 
 a speech on the floor of this House pointing out 
 the inconsistencies of the tariff makers in writing 
 the most obnoxious tariff bill ever written, giving 
 the industrial East an increased high tariff on 
 everything it manufactures and sells to the South 
 and West, and at the same time refusing to give 
 the independent oil producers any consideration 
 whatever. 
 
 When the Capper-Garber embargo bill, pro- 
 posing to give the oil industry a measure of relief, 
 was recently pending here, I joined other Mem- 
 bers of Congress from the great oil-producing 
 States in an earnest effort to secure the adoption 
 of that legislation, and again addressed the House 
 in the interest of the independent oil producers 
 and royalty owners of America. But it is plainly 
 evident that Congress, under the present leader- 
 ship, has no thought of granting this much-needed 
 relief. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, under leave granted me I desire 
 to insert in the Record the following editorial 
 from the Daily Banner, of Duncan, Oklahoma: 
 
 "O FATHER OF ALL MERCIES—" 
 
 News item (Washington): "All embargo bills 
 before the House Ways and Means Committee, 
 including the compromise Capper-Garber oil re- 
 striction bill, were voted down for this session by 
 the committee Monday." 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 67 
 
 Another news item (Springfield, Illinois): 
 "Governor Wfilliam] H. Murray, from Okla- 
 homa, himself a man of the common people, self- 
 educated and rustic like the Great Emancipator, 
 stood Wednesday night in the shadow of the Civil 
 War President's tomb and uttered a prayer for 
 the coming of another Lincoln: 
 
 " O Father of all mercies, 
 Send us another Lincoln.' ' 
 
 When he comes — if he comes — this new Lin- 
 coln will have to make a speech somewhat differ- 
 ent from the Gettysburg address. It will be more 
 like this: 
 
 "Seven score and five years ago our fathers 
 brought forth upon this continent a new nation, 
 conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi- 
 tion that all men, except independent oil oper- 
 ators, are created equal. We are now engaged in a 
 great industrial combine, testing whether that 
 nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedi- 
 cated, can long endure. We are met before the 
 doors of Congress. We can not enter these doors. 
 We can not petition our Congressmen. The 
 Standard Oil and Gulf Petroleum have advised 
 them far above our poor power, and we are un- 
 able to add to or detract from that to which they 
 gave their full measure of influence. The world 
 will little note, nor long remember, what we say 
 here, but it can never forget what they did here. 
 
68 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 It is for us, the little fellows, to forget the idea 
 that all men are equal before Congress, so that 
 government of the people by the Gulf and 
 Standard Oil for the Gulf and Standard Oil shall 
 not perish from our country." 
 
 Another parody was inserted in the Record of September 25, 
 1940, by Representative Karl E. Mundt of South Dakota, who 
 is now serving in the United States Senate. It had previously 
 appeared in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader and was inspired 
 by Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaign for a third term in the 
 White House. 
 
 This version, of which E. L. Jay (a pseudonym for someone 
 whose initials were E. L. J.?) of Watertown, South Dakota, 
 was the author, follows: 
 
 Eight years and $40,000,000,000 ago there was 
 born on this continent a New Deal, conceived by 
 the Democratic Party and dedicated to the proposi- 
 tion that only one man in this country was big 
 enough to be President. 
 
 We are now engaged in a great political cam- 
 paign, testing whether this deal or any other deal 
 costing forty billions and dedicated to such a 
 proposition can long endure. 
 
 We are listening for the great crooner of that 
 campaign. We are listening to hear his explana- 
 tion of the forty billions, of W. P. A., A. A. A., 
 and N. R. A., and total defenselessness. His silence 
 on these subjects speaks loudly. 
 
 In a larger senselessness, he speaks loudly of 
 Hitler and Mussolini, impressing us that the 
 battle is between them and him; that he is the 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 69 
 
 only brave man, living or dead, who can lead 
 the opposition to them. 
 
 It is for us, as Americans, to dedicate ourselves 
 to the proposition that America is still the land 
 of opportunity. The American people will little 
 note nor long remember what he says this year, 
 but it can never forget what he has done the last 
 eight years. 
 
 And that from the memory of the pioneers of 
 this Nation and their stalwart sons who have 
 tramped the pages of history we take increased 
 devotion to those principles which have made us 
 a nation. That we may not become a government 
 of the Roosevelt, by the Roosevelt, and for the 
 Roosevelt until Roosevelt shall perish from this 
 earth. 
 
 The author of this book wrote the following version July 31, 
 1948. It appeared in the Chicago Tribune a few days later. 
 It shows how the Address would have sounded over the radio, 
 with constant annoying interruptions by the announcer: 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth on this continent a new nation, 
 [the President seems to be making an appeal for 
 the support of those who still cling to the idea of 
 narrow nationalism] dedicated to the proposition 
 that all men are created equal [Mr. Lincoln is 
 obviously making a thrust at the Dixiecrats] . . . 
 testing whether that nation, or any nation so con- 
 ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. [The 
 chief executive gives an indication of by-passing 
 
70 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 the United Nations] . . . The brave men, living 
 and dead, who struggled here [Mr. Lincoln is 
 evidently throwing a sop to the veterans, many 
 of whom will vote this fall for the first time] . . . 
 The world will little note, nor long remember 
 [the President unfortunately clings to the Re- 
 publican policy of isolationism] . . . the living, 
 rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work 
 [it is encouraging to learn that the President is 
 committed to the buy-partisan foreign policy] . . . 
 here dedicated to the great task [this is an obvious 
 reference to the necessity of having a substitute 
 plan ready for the day when ERP will have been 
 exhausted] ... we take increased devotion to that 
 cause [the chief executive is not unmindful of our 
 commitments under the Atlantic Charter] for 
 which they gave the last full measure [this seems 
 to us to constitute a deliberate ignoring of those 
 who served even though they did not put on a 
 uniform] . . . shall not have died in vain — that 
 this nation, under God [Mr. Lincoln is here defy- 
 ing Russia] shall have a new birth of freedom 
 [the President lapses into the terminology of the 
 days prior to the New Order and dismisses the 
 Four Freedoms] from the earth. 
 
 [ERP was the European Recovery Program.] 
 
 Those who are familiar with Dwight D. Eisenhower's an- 
 swers to questions asked at his presidential press conferences 
 and his off-the-cuff speeches will appreciate the following item. 
 An anonymous writer rewrote the Lincoln speech during the 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 71 
 
 1950's, entitling the new version "The Gettysburg Address, 
 as It Would Have Been Written by President Eisenhower." 
 The version attributed to Gettysburg's most famous citizen 
 follows: 
 
 I haven't checked these figures but 87 years ago, I 
 think it was, a number of individuals organized 
 a governmental setup here in this country, I be- 
 lieve it covered certain eastern areas, with this 
 idea they were following up, based on a sort of 
 national independence arrangement and the pro- 
 gram that every individual is just as good as every 
 other individual. 
 
 Well, now of course we are dealing with this 
 big difference of opinion, civil disturbance you 
 might say, although I don't like to appear to take 
 sides or name any individuals, and the point is 
 naturally to check up, by actual experience in the 
 field — see whether any governmental setup with 
 a basis like the one I was mentioning has any 
 validity — whether that dedication, you might say, 
 by those early individuals has any lasting values. 
 
 Well, here we are, you might put it that way, 
 all together at the scene where one of these dis- 
 turbances between different sides got going. We 
 want to pay our tribute to those loved ones, those 
 departed individuals who made the supreme sacri- 
 fice here on the basis of their opinions about how 
 this setup ought to be handled. It is absolutely in 
 order and 100 per cent O.K. to do this. 
 
 But if you look at the overall picture of this, 
 
72 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 we can't pay any tribute — we can't sanctify this 
 area — we can't hallow, according to whatever in- 
 dividual creeds or faiths or sort of religious out- 
 looks are involved, like I said about this particular 
 area. It was those individuals themselves, includ- 
 ing the enlisted men — very brave individuals — 
 who have given this religious character to the 
 area. The way I see it, the rest of the world will 
 not remember any statements issued here, but it 
 will never forget how these men put their shoul- 
 ders to the wheel and carried this idea down the 
 fairway. 
 
 Our job, the living individuals' job here is to 
 pick up the burden and sink the putt they made 
 these big eEorts here for. It is our job to get on 
 with the assignment and from these deceased fine 
 individuals to take extra inspiration, you could 
 call it, for the same theories about which they did 
 such a lot. 
 
 We have to make up our minds right here and 
 now, as I see it, they didn't put out all that blood, 
 perspiration and — well — that they didn't just 
 make a dry run here, that all of us, under God 
 that is, the God of our choice, shall beef up this 
 idea about freedom and liberty and those kind 
 of arrangements, and that government of all in- 
 dividuals, by all individuals and for the individ- 
 uals shall not pass out of the world picture. 
 
 The most recent parody appeared September 19, 1962, in 
 the New York Mirror. It was one of a number of items in- 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 73 
 
 eluded in Walter Winchell's column entitled "U. S. History 
 Revised," and is included in this book through the courtesy 
 of Mr. Winchell and the New York Mirror: 
 
 Four score and seven years ago our Harvard pro- 
 fessors brought forth on this continent, a new 
 notion, conceived in Social Security and dedicated 
 to the proposition that all men are fools and 
 unable to provide for themselves. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great civil debate, 
 testing whether that notion or any notion so con- 
 ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We 
 are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have 
 not come to dedicate a portion of that field as a 
 final resting place for those who gave their lives 
 so that this nation might live. We have come here 
 to bury those who believe in free enterprise and 
 freedom of the press. 
 
 The world will little note, nor long remember 
 what we say here, but it can never forget what 
 Bobby is doing. It is for us the living, rather, to 
 be dedicated here to the unfinished work ad- 
 vanced by Walter Reuther and others with So- 
 cialistic ideas. It is rather for us to be here dedi- 
 cated to the great task remaining before us — soak- 
 ing American taxpayers in order to aid overseas 
 ingrates and dictators. And here we highly resolve 
 that this nation, under God (if the Supreme Court 
 will allow us to use that word) shall have a new 
 birth of personal power — and that government 
 of the Kennedys, by the Kennedys, for the Ken- 
 nedys, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
74 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 The author of the next parody is unknown. It has appeared 
 in the Congressional Record in slightly varying forms a num- 
 ber of times, the first insertion having been made by Repre- 
 sentative Alvin F. Weichel of Ohio on March 16, 1950. He 
 referred to it as the "1949 Version." 
 
 This imitation of the Gettysburg Address was most likely 
 composed by someone who was struggling with his income tax 
 return: 
 
 One score and sixteen years ago, our fathers 
 brought forth upon this Nation a new tax, con- 
 ceived in desperation and dedicated to the propo- 
 sition that all men are fair game. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great mass of calcula- 
 tion, testing whether that taxpayer or any tax- 
 payer so confused and so impoverished can long 
 endure. We are met on Form 1040. We have come 
 to dedicate a large portion of our income to a 
 final resting place with those men who here spend 
 their lives that they may spend our money. 
 
 It is altogether anguish and torture that we 
 should do this. But in the legal sense we cannot 
 evade — we cannot cheat — we cannot underesti- 
 mate this tax. The collectors, clever and sly, who 
 computed here, have gone far beyond our poor 
 power to add and subtract. Our creditors will 
 little note nor long remember what we pay here 
 but the Bureau of Internal Revenue can never 
 forget what we report here. 
 
 It is for us, the taxpayer, rather, to be devoted 
 here to the tax return which the Government has 
 thus far so nobly spent. It is rather for us to be 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 75 
 
 here dedicated to the great task remaining before 
 us, that from these vanishing dollars we take in- 
 creased devotion to the few remaining; that we 
 here highly resolve that next year will not find us 
 in a higher income bracket; that this taxpayer, 
 underpaid, shall figure out more deductions, and 
 that taxation of the people, by the Congress, for 
 the Government, shall not cause our solvency to 
 perish. 
 
 The Congressional Record of March 15, 1962, contains a 
 parody written by Harry Kamish, editor of the Union Mail, 
 who entitled it "An Address for Postal Workers." Mr. 
 Kamish's parody, which was inserted by Representative Paul 
 A. Fino of New York, appears herewith: 
 
 A score and seven days ago, our nation's leaders 
 brought forth a pay reform proposal, conceived 
 in penury and dedicated to the proposition that all 
 postal workers are not deserving of fair and equal 
 treatment from their employer. 
 
 Now we are engaged in a great salary conflict 
 testing whether this proposal can be endured. 
 
 We are met in an arena of public discussion 
 where we have come to dedicate a portion of our 
 energies that that employer pay these postal work- 
 ers a decent living wage to enable them to hold 
 high their heads as employees of the U. S. govern- 
 ment and proudly and faithfully serve the Ameri- 
 can people. 
 
 It is altogether fitting and proper that we do 
 this for ourselves and for them to dispel the 
 
76 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 threat of unequal treatment and of fallacious 
 theories of comparability. 
 
 In a large sense, the dedication of brave men 
 and women working for the Post Office Depart- 
 ment, whose struggle for justice and economic 
 equality is the main power against opposing 
 forces, can help determine the grave issues at 
 hand. 
 
 Post office workers will note today and longer 
 remember what Congress does here. They will 
 not forget what is said here. They are dedicated 
 to the unfinished work whose cause must nobly 
 be advanced here. 
 
 In the great task before us, we must have in- 
 creased devotion and confidence and highly re- 
 solve that unfair plans shall not deny the postal 
 worker the measure of justice he needs now, that 
 efforts on his behalf shall not be in vain and that 
 the Fino bill, H. R. 9662, speaking for the people, 
 shall not perish on the legislative calendar. 
 
 The anonymous author of the following item lists the 
 suggestions that the executive departments and agencies would 
 have offered for incorporation in the Gettysburg Address, had 
 President Lincoln invited them to do so. It was placed in the 
 Congressional Record of August 11, 1954, by Senator H. 
 Alexander Smith of New Jersey. 
 
 Minutes of the Extraordinary Special Subcommittee 
 
 on Annual and Other Reports to Consider a Draft 
 
 Statement: The Gettysburg Address 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 77 
 
 November 25, 1951 
 
 The Budget Bureau said that it thought the 
 first draft was a good one, and agreed, in general, 
 with the conclusions which had been reached. It 
 objected, however, to the opening paragraph on 
 the grounds that it was too specific and committed 
 the program of the President when it was not 
 necessary to do so. In place of "four score and 
 seven," the Bureau suggested the words "a num- 
 ber of years ago." 
 
 The Bureau felt that "we cannot hallow this 
 ground" might be regarded by some to be in con- 
 flict with the Brannan farm plan, and pointed 
 out the similarity of the words "hallow" and 
 "harrow" when used with reference to the ground. 
 In general, the sentence was thought to be a 
 negative one and might easily be eliminated. 
 
 It was pointed out by the Bureau that "we here 
 highly resolve" is technically incorrect, in that 
 only Congress can resolve. It recommended in its 
 place the phrase "we here generally coordinate" or 
 "we generally coordinate here." 
 
 The Bureau noted several words and phrases, 
 such as "unfinished work," "increasing devotion," 
 "long remember," "great task remaining before 
 us," etc., which it felt were not good choices, in 
 view of the general administrative sensitivity 
 about the size of the national debt, and the pros- 
 
78 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 pects for fiscal 1953. It said that it would not 
 make an issue over them, however. 
 
 At the conclusion of its comments the Bureau 
 observed that it did not have a vote on the com- 
 mittee, and preferred that it be regarded only as 
 having made suggestions. It also noted that it 
 will have an opportunity later to make whatever 
 changes it sees fit, regardless of what the commit- 
 tee does. 
 
 The State Department commented that the 
 word "dedicate" appeared in the text five times. 
 As an editorial change, the Department suggested 
 that some other words be used, such as "apotheo- 
 size" for "dedicate." The Secretary said he would 
 attempt to do something about it. 
 
 State objected to the phrase "brought forth on 
 this continent" on the ground that, while tech- 
 nically correct, it gave the impression that we felt 
 the entire continent belonged to us, a position 
 in conflict with our present hemispheric policy. 
 It suggested as a substitute "brought forth in that 
 area bounded on the north by 49° north latitude, 
 on the south by 30° north latitude, on the west by 
 the Pacific Ocean, and on the east by the Atlantic." 
 
 State also pointed out that reference to "nation" 
 was in error since it is a popular term with no 
 basis in international law. It recommended in its 
 place "member state." There was also objection 
 to the phrase "our poor power" in view of the fact 
 that it gave the impression of unseemly modesty, 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 79 
 
 we really being a major power. State said, how- 
 ever, that it had no alternative language to suggest 
 and recommended that the staff work on it. 
 
 State said that it could not agree to the phrase 
 "the world will little note" because only the State 
 Department, as the statutory agency of foreign 
 policy, had authority to comment on what might 
 happen in the rest of the world. It said it would 
 be willing to agree, however, to some innocuous 
 phrase such as "There will probaby be only a few 
 people who will note," etc. 
 
 State said that there was strong objection in 
 the Department to the use of such phrases as "con- 
 ceived in liberty," "created equal," "birth of free- 
 dom," and "government of the people, by the 
 people, and for the people." These statements, 
 while they might be basically true, might offend a 
 number of member states which did not believe 
 in liberty, freedom, or equality, and it was felt that 
 in the interests of international harmony, it would 
 be better if they were eliminated. The same com- 
 ment was made with respect to "under God" be- 
 cause there are many countries which do not 
 officially acknowledge the existence of God. 
 
 State also objected to such suggestive words as 
 "conceived," "brought forth," "new birth," etc., 
 on the grounds that they might in view of the 
 Bergman-Rossellini incident embarrass friends in 
 Italy. 
 
 The Post Office Department said that it had no 
 
80 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 objection to the speech as it was written, but felt, 
 on hearing the comments of some of the other 
 Departments, that they were extremely well 
 taken. 
 
 Defense, in introducing its remarks, said that 
 great credit should be given to the working groups 
 which had prepared the draft. Its own comments 
 would be brief. 
 
 The phrase "engaged in a Great Civil War" 
 should be eliminated since mention of war made 
 many people think of the costs of war and this 
 was, unfortunately, often reflected in the military 
 budgets. In its place, Defense suggested "entered 
 upon a period of civil uncertainty involving fairly 
 full mobilization." Defense said that the phrase 
 "all men are created equal" was objectionable to 
 the Air Force but that, in the interest of unifica- 
 tion, it would not make an issue of it. 
 
 There was no objection by Defense to such 
 phrases as "brave men, living and dead," and 
 "honored dead" on the grounds that this un- 
 necessarily called attention to one of the by- 
 products of war to which many people still ob- 
 jected. Defense said that it felt that the tone of 
 the entire speech was slightly on the morbid side 
 and it would prefer that it be rewritten in a 
 lighter vein, although it had no specific language 
 to suggest. 
 
 The Treasury Department said it, like Post 
 Office, felt that the speech was a pretty good job 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 81 
 
 and had only one suggestion to make. The tone, 
 it felt, emphasized land operations which gave 
 the erroneous impression that the Civil War was 
 entirely a land war. As a matter of record, it 
 pointed out that there were a number of sea en- 
 gagements. Although it had no specific language 
 to suggest, it urged that mention be made of air- 
 sea rescue. 
 
 The Civil Aeronautics Board said that it felt 
 the speech was an excellent first draft for which 
 the working group was to be commended. It said, 
 however, that it had several general suggestions to 
 make. The Board reported that its general counsel 
 had had difficulty with the phrase "fitting and 
 proper" and recommended that "fair and reason- 
 able" be substituted. Note was made of State's 
 earlier objection to "government of the people," 
 etc., and the Board indicated that it would agree 
 with State to its elimination. If it were to be kept, 
 it recommended that it be toned down since there 
 was some question whether a quasi-judicial body, 
 such as the Board, could legally be included in a 
 government of, by, and for the people. 
 
 The Commerce Department said it regretted 
 that it had not had sufficient time to coordinate 
 fully all of the interested areas in the Department, 
 and, for that reason, would not be able to take 
 a position. Commerce said, however, that on the 
 basis of some of the comments already received, 
 it had a few editorial changes to suggest and 
 
82 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 turned over to the Secretary a paper containing 
 253 of them. 
 
 Decision: It was decided to recommit the ad- 
 dress to a working group for further study. In 
 addition to the Department of State, Defense, 
 Treasury, Post Office, and Commerce, the Civil 
 Aeronautics Board, and the Budget Bureau, the 
 following agencies will be invited to participate: 
 
 Agriculture, because of the possible implication 
 of such phrases as ' 'hallowed ground" and "perish 
 from the earth." 
 
 The American Battle Monuments Commission, 
 because of general interest in the field. 
 
 The Federal Power Commission, re "our poor 
 power." 
 
 Early in 1963, during the furor over alleged management of 
 news by the White House, syndicated columnist Art Buchwald 
 cleverly discussed President Lincoln's handling of the news 
 at Gettysburg. The following column appears through the 
 courtesy of Mr. Buchwald: 
 
 LINCOLN MANAGED NEWS 
 AT GETTYSBURG 
 
 There has been a lot of talk about news manage- 
 ment in the government these days, but if you go 
 through history you can find that every presiden- 
 tial administration tried to manage the press in 
 one way or another. We found an old transcript 
 the other day of a press briefing between Abraham 
 Lincoln's press secretary and White House re- 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 83 
 
 porters, which shows that even in those days at- 
 tempts were made to bottle up vital news of in- 
 terest to the public. 
 
 Here are excerpts from it: 
 
 Question: Mr. Nicolay, yesterday the President 
 gave a speech at Gettysburg, and he started it out 
 by saying, 'Tour score and seven years ago our 
 fathers brought forth on this continent a new na- 
 tion." Sir, would you mind telling us the names 
 of the fathers he was referring to? 
 
 Secretary: I'm sorry, gentlemen. I can't reveal 
 the names at this time. 
 
 Question: The Saturday Evening Post, which 
 is published in Philadelphia, said he was referring 
 to Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. 
 
 Secretary: That's just conjecture. The President 
 is not responsible for everything written by his 
 friends. 
 
 Question: The President said yesterday in the 
 same speech that the country was engaged in a 
 great civil war, testing whether that nation or any 
 nation so conceived and so dedicated can long 
 endure. He didn't say how he intended to win the 
 war. Does this mean he has a no-win policy? 
 
 Secretary: The President in his speech was only 
 concerned with the battle of Gettysburg, which 
 incidentally we won. The Department of War will 
 give you full details on other battles. 
 
 Question: The department refuses to give us 
 any information. We don't know how many troops 
 were used at Gettysburg, who commanded them, 
 
84 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 or how many casualties there were. All we were 
 given were some lousy photos of Confederate gun 
 emplacements. How can we be sure the Con- 
 federates still don't have artillery hidden in the 
 hills around Gettysburg? 
 
 Secretary: We have constant surveillance of the 
 hills. To the best of our knowledge all Southern 
 artillery pieces have been removed. 
 
 Question: What about Confederate troops? 
 There are an estimated 17,000 in the area. 
 
 Secretary: We have the South's promise they 
 will be removed in due course. 
 
 Question: Mr. Secretary, why didn't Mrs. Lin- 
 coln go with the President to Gettysburg? 
 
 Secretary: Mrs. Lincoln feels that her place 
 is at home with her children. But she did send a 
 telegram. 
 
 Question: In talking about the government of 
 the people, for the people, and by the people, did 
 the President have any particular group in mind? 
 
 Secretary: Not to my knowledge, gentlemen. 
 But I'll check it out just to make sure. 
 
 Question: Mr. Secretary, the President in his 
 speech yesterday indicated he intended to manage 
 the news. 
 
 Secretary: How did he do that? 
 
 Question: He said in the same speech, "The 
 world will little note nor long remember what was 
 said here." It seems to me in this phrase he was 
 intimidating the newspapermen who were there. 
 
/Zr C'fiilvjJt ' ~ —■ " ■— ~~»- 7 
 
 '^ , .' h ■> Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on / 
 2-7 <^^^s ^ <v _ / 
 
 •this oontlnent a new nation, oonoeived in(liberty, and dedicated 
 /if> . , * — 7"^ 
 
 to the ^proposition^ that all men arej created equ al. Nwr we are 
 
 engaged in a great civil war, testing whethar that nation, or any 
 
 nation so oonoeived and so ^dedioa.ted^ oan long "endure y fie are met a^-Ji~- «.-k^ 
 
 on a great battlefield of that war. We have^olSffl^—t^dfidj^te a portion 
 
 of that .field as affinal resting-place (Xor those who here gave their J £r (j£ l , 
 
 icf&ti+K* vliyesy ^hatjthat nation might ^Live., It is altogether(^itting~a^T " ^^U^^JU^x 
 
 proper that we should do this.~ffBut in a larger sense we cannot d\di bate , , 
 
 we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave Jtfen, 
 
 living and dead, who struggled here, have conseorated it *a"r above our ' 
 
 6/tK, >*x*~- power to add oxlaetract, The world will little note, .nor long remember, 
 
 t*M4G+Jr*- -^> s -" 7^ tt~ — T7^ zJ f^ Ltt ^ 
 
 
 what we say heraftfut it can never forget what tha'y did he re. j^tdST <-*»+■**&&- 
 It is for us, the living, rather to be ^dedicated, here to the unfinished 
 work which they who fought here ha ve thus far so nobly advanced.. 
 JT^/^/"/ ) It is rather for us to be here ^dedicate d, to the great task remaining 
 ^^m*^/ before us, that from (those /honored dead we take increased devotion /x*<&c *»*• 
 to that cause for which they v gave the last gull m easure of devotion; that 6 —7 
 we here highly resolve that (these^Jdead shall not have died in vain; 
 y#*i'*-e^ c that,, th is natio n,/ under God, shall have a new birth of( freedom, 
 /2&v±v*L.(i^s and that government v of the people, by the people, and for the people^ **"***C 
 
 shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 ENGLISH 2B **- '^m£ /UtA. a^tJ .^^t- / 
 
 ^.jm/* 
 
 A. LINCOLN 
 
 STUDENT UNION BLDG. C " 'x^f-'^^lf ^^ » 
 
 Copyright, 1955, by E. C. Publications, Inc. 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 87 
 
 Secretary: I don't think you have to interpret 
 the speech in that manner. The President's re- 
 marks, written on an envelope, were off the cuff, 
 and he felt there was no reason to be quoted. An 
 official version of his speech will be made available 
 to the press in due time, as soon as the President 
 has a chance to go over it again. 
 
 In 1955 MAD ran the Gettysburg Address as though it had 
 been handed in as a college English assignment and the in- 
 structor had added his criticisms of young Lincoln's efforts. 
 The MAD item is reproduced on page 85, through the 
 courtesy of E. C. Publications, Incorporated, publishers of 
 MAD. Note how the student's effort differs in details from 
 each of the President's handwritten copies. 
 
 In its section entitled "Preparation of Copy for the Press," 
 Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary uses Lincoln's Gettys- 
 burg Address to illustrate the use of proofreaders' marks. One 
 or more deliberate errors have been introduced in every line 
 and the proofreader's corrections written in the margins. The 
 corrected version of this marked copy (not shown), however, 
 differs from Lincoln's autograph copies in various details. 
 
 The proofreader's copy is reproduced on page 91, through 
 the courtesy of G. and C. Merriam Company, publishers of 
 the Merriam-Webster dictionaries. 
 
 On June 17, 1959, Monsignor Edwin Ryan gave a copy of 
 his Latin translation of the Address, engrossed on vellum, 
 to the apostolic delegate to the United States, Monsignor 
 Egidio Vagnozzi. The presentation was made at the apostolic 
 delegation in Washington, D. C, and was attended by repre- 
 sentatives of the United States government and foreign 
 diplomats. 
 
 Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, Chairman of 
 the Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission, made the follow- 
 ing presentation speech: 
 
88 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 During the year of 1959 our nation and, in fact, 
 the whole world, is honoring a great and good man 
 on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Abraham 
 Lincoln's wisdom and faith in his country enabled 
 him, as sixteenth President of the United States, 
 to lead the nation safely through a civil war which 
 united forever the people of our country. He led 
 a nation at war, but it has been said "he was the 
 only man in history who ever led an army into 
 battle loving his enemies more than he loved 
 himself." 
 
 We honor Lincoln today as the Lincoln Sesqui- 
 centennial Commission presents to you this classi- 
 cal translation in Latin of the historic Gettysburg 
 Address, to be added to other rare documents in 
 one of the world's largest and most unusual 
 archives — the Vatican Library. These words of 
 Lincoln, which speak of government by the peo- 
 ple, were translated into the Latin by the Right 
 Reverend Edwin Ryan of Stepinac School, White 
 Plains, New York, and are engrossed and illumin- 
 ated on fine parchment. 
 
 The address, made by President Lincoln on the 
 occasion of the dedication of the National Soldiers' 
 Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 
 19, 1863, is presented to the Vatican Library in 
 the hope that it will recall to all who view it, and 
 read it, the ideals and life of Lincoln. 
 
 His humanity and his humor, his humility born 
 in the hard struggles and disappointments of life, 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 89 
 
 his perseverance, have made the peoples of the 
 world remember Abraham Lincoln. They know 
 instinctively that he is one with them — that he 
 understood their sorrows, their struggles, and their 
 hope of better things. 
 
 Your Excellency, it is my honor as chairman of 
 the Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commission to pre- 
 sent this document to you for presentation to His 
 Holiness, Pope John XXIII, and the Vatican 
 Library. 
 
 The remarks of Monsignor Ryan follow: 
 
 In offering to the Vatican Library my Latin ver- 
 sion of Lincoln's immortal address, the Lincoln 
 Sesquicentennial Commission is seeking to demon- 
 state that America's consecration to freedom in 
 the order of nature is a prelusion to the belief in 
 freedom in the order of grace. Lincoln has ex- 
 pressed succinctly the truth that human freedom 
 is based upon human equality. While recognizing 
 the inequalities of bodily vigor, of intellectual 
 endowment, he reminds us that beneath those 
 inequalities lies a fundamental equality, an essen- 
 tial concomitant of human nature. He declares 
 that whatever be the diversity of gifts, "men are 
 created equal." 
 
 That is in perfect accord with the teaching of 
 Christ's church. She has ever insisted that the in- 
 equalities that are obvious, and even the inequali- 
 ties in the distribution of grace, do not contravene 
 
90 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 the essential equality of men, of all men, as human 
 beings. It is that doctrine that is the basis of the 
 church's insistence on human dignity. She reminds 
 us that when a man loses his freedom he loses 
 what makes him fully and completely a man, that 
 no man, no group of men, no government, has a 
 right to attack human freedom, that even God 
 Himself, though He goes to almost inconceivable 
 lengths to free us from sin, will not deprive us of 
 freedom, since the only service an intelligent 
 being can render to God is a service that is free. 
 It is our hope that this document in the 
 language of the Roman Patriarchate will remain 
 in the Eternal City as a testimony to the funda- 
 mental harmony that is heard when Abraham 
 Lincoln proclaims in the order of nature what 
 Saint Paul proclaims in the order of grace — that 
 the freedom for which the heroes at Gettysburg 
 gave the last full measure of devotion must ad- 
 vance hand in hand with that freedom for which 
 the church's martyrs, following their Master, have 
 laid down their lives, "the freedom wherewith 
 Christ has made us free." 
 
 Following these talks, Monsignor Vagnozzi accepted the 
 document in the following words: 
 
 I consider it a privilege and an honor to receive 
 today this copy of the Latin translation of the 
 famous Gettysburg Address by the American 
 President, Abraham Lincoln. The address is one 
 of the greatest documents ever issued by man. It 
 
Preparation of Copy for the Press 
 PROOFS OF LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS WITH CORRECTIONS 
 
 GO / C / © a 'Fourscore and (?) years ago our fathers brought fourth $ 
 j. J q onthis"con/inent a new nation, conceived in 4«- liberty, and ^^ 
 
 m.f. I ^ d/dicated to the proposition/ that all men are created equal, ur.f. 
 # qTI **■ Now we/reengaged in a gi M givil ^ ar A testi ng whethe r_j ^.cj^j — I 
 fo. that nation, or any nation |conceived\so) and fdedicated\so), pu. 
 ca n long endure.3 
 'UA/tt on C\Ve are met on a great battlefield of that war) ^e have 3 / W ~/ 
 
 that/ come to dedicate a portion of 4h*rfield A as a final resting/ tj Jl 
 f&ve/^ place for those who here have given Ltheir lives Lthat L-thjfr t&ot/ "| c 
 QJ? nation imight i_live//t is altogetherf pTofer |Landffitting)that ~ ft* I \ 
 */ * -' we should douthis. But A in a larger sense, Lwe Lcanjiot — /^ J 
 dedicate— we cannot consec/ate — we cannot fallow— this 9/^.c. 
 ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled ' ' 
 a - , &hl here, have have- consecrated it A far above our A power to -de- fiaox j <x ^ £ ^ 
 
 £/d£&iQ£t 4 * aet or - & ^- The world w / 11 little note > nor 4 on g remember, or. /. /# 
 
 what we say here, but it can never for^get what we- did 3 /t^jujAjOnn 
 
 q/S here A It is for us/ the living, rather, tolae dedicated here 
 
 / jaujt'A££Cop(j)^4. c. to the great ^ask remaining befojefcj us,— that from these ttt. 
 \J S> C honored dead we take increased devotion to^that cause #/ 
 W I for whichjthey gave the last l full J measure of devotion — that 1 — 1 
 rW&l AXet.Tuf.f. we - now highly re/olve that these dead shall not have di/d tur.f. 
 , / in vain— that this nation A under God, shall have a new 
 ^Jtkat/ol bfh of freedom— and A 0overnment of A the people, by the #/ M 
 X ' people, for the people, shall never perish from the earthy not/ y 
 
 From Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, copyright 1961 by 
 G. $c C. Merriam Co. 
 
Parodies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 93 
 
 is a great American document, it is a great human 
 document, and I might truly say that it is a great 
 Christian document. 
 
 I accept it with great pleasure from your hand, 
 Mr. Chairman, and I will send it to the Holy 
 Father to be kept in the Vatican Library. 
 
 I want to thank you, the Commission, and the 
 American people for this presentation. 
 
 The Latin translation appears below: 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN APUD 
 GETTYSBURG PRONUNTIATA CONTIO 
 
 Octoginta et septem abhinc jam annos rempub- 
 licam novam, libertate inceptam atque hominibus 
 natura paribus dedicatam, majores his in regioni- 
 bus ediderunt. Nunc bello intestino ac tremendo 
 illaqueatis oritur norbis percontatio num civitas 
 aliqua tali spiritu informata diutina perdurare 
 valebit. Loco insigni luctationis, ad partem campi 
 consecrandam in sepulcrum eorum qui animas ad 
 patriae vitam conservandam hie posuerunt, con- 
 fluximus. Congruit omnino decetque peragere 
 haec, sensu tamen altiore hanc terram dedicare, 
 consecrare, sanctificare, nobis non competit, 
 quoniam fortes qui hie proeliati sunt, sive super- 
 stites manent sive interfecti jacent, facultatem 
 exiguam nostram aut amplificandi consecrationem 
 aut imminuendi magnopere superaverunt. Effata 
 nostra haec paululum animadvertentur homines 
 atque ea brevi obliviscentur, id tamen quod hice 
 confecerunt nullo pacto de memoria dilabetur. 
 
94 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 Nobis adhuc in vita versantibus immo vero potius 
 incumbit operi incompleto dedicari quod in hac 
 pugna fortissimi hactenus tarn praeclare provex- 
 ere. Remanet ut huic penso nos conferamus, 
 nempe, ex his defunctis coronatis studium corro- 
 boratum haurire muneri fungendo cui illi ex imo 
 corde sese obtulerunt, hie mentibus elatis statuere 
 necem his observatis illatam non fore irritam. 
 Quo flet ut civitas haec Deo adjuvante libertati 
 renascetur, et ditio in populo fundata, a populo 
 gesta, ad populi salutem directa, nequaquam de 
 mundo tabescens interibit. 
 
 Lincoln enthusiasts will undoubtedly find many more ver- 
 sions, parodies, and translations than those that have been 
 included here. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Everett's Gettysburg Address 
 
 Edward Everett, who shared the platform with Abraham 
 Lincoln at Gettysburg, was also a distinguished statesman. He 
 represented a Massachusetts district in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, 1825-1835, was Governor of Massachusetts, 1836- 
 1840, Minister to Great Britain, 1841-1845, President of 
 Harvard University, 1846-1849, Secretary of State in the Cabi- 
 net of Millard Fillmore, 1852-1853, and a Senator from 
 Massachusetts, 1853-1854. He ran for Vice President on the 
 Constitutional Union ticket in 1860, the year of Lincoln's 
 first election. Four years later, as a Republican presidential 
 elector, he voted for Lincoln. 
 
 One of Everett's greatest accomplishments was his lecture 
 on the character of George Washington, which he delivered 
 129 times. He gave this lecture to large audiences all over the 
 nation, up to the eve of the Civil War. He contributed the 
 proceeds, $69,064, to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of 
 the Union, to be used to purchase and preserve Washington's 
 home as a national monument, and added $10,000 to this 
 sum by writing weekly articles for the New York Ledger for 
 a year. 
 
 As Everett's oration at Gettysburg includes an account of 
 the battle, it should interest students of the Civil War as 
 much as students of oratory. Here is its complete text from 
 the Official Report of the Cemetery Commission in 1864: 
 
 95 
 
96 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking 
 these broad fields now reposing from the labors 
 of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly 
 towering before us, the graves of our brethren 
 beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise 
 my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of 
 God and Nature. But the duty to which you have 
 called me must be performed; grant me, I pray 
 you, your indulgence and your sympathy. 
 
 It was appointed by law in Athens, that the 
 obsequies of the citizens who fell in battle should 
 be performed at the public expense, and in the 
 most honorable manner. Their bones were care- 
 fully gathered up from the funeral pyre, where 
 their bodies were consumed, and brought home 
 to the city. There, for three days before the inter- 
 ment, they lay in state, beneath tents of honor, 
 to receive the votive offerings of friends and 
 relatives — flowers, weapons, precious ornaments, 
 painted vases (wonders of art, which after two 
 thousand years adorn the museums of modern 
 Europe) — the last tributes of surviving affection. 
 Ten coffins of funeral cypress received the honor- 
 able deposit, one for each of the tribes of the city, 
 and an eleventh in memory of the unrecognized, 
 but not therefore unhonored, dead, and of those 
 whose remains could not be recovered. On the 
 fourth day the mournful procession was formed; 
 mothers, wives, sisters, daughters led the way, and 
 to them it was permitted by the simplicity of 
 
Edward Everett, who also made a Gettysburg Address. Courtesy, 
 Library of Congress 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 99 
 
 ancient manners to utter aloud their lamentations 
 for the beloved and the lost; the male relatives 
 and friends of the deceased followed; citizens and 
 strangers closed the train. Thus marshalled, they 
 moved to the place of interment in that famous 
 Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of Athens, 
 which had been adorned by Cimon, the son of 
 Miltiades, with walks and fountains and columns; 
 whose groves were filled with altars, shrines, and 
 temples; whose gardens were kept forever green 
 by the streams from the neighboring hills, and 
 shaded with the trees sacred to Minerva and coeval 
 with the foundation of the city; whose circuit 
 enclosed 
 
 the olive Grove of Academe, 
 Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird 
 Trilled his thick-warbled note the summer long, 
 
 whose pathways gleamed with the monuments of 
 the illustrious dead, the work of the most con- 
 summate masters that ever gave life to marble. 
 There, beneath the overarching plane-trees, upon 
 a lofty stage erected for the purpose, it was or- 
 dained that a funeral oration should be pro- 
 nounced by some citizen of Athens, in the pres- 
 ence of the assembled multitude. 
 
 Such were the tokens of respect required to be 
 paid at Athens to the memory of those who had 
 fallen in the cause of their country. For those 
 alone who fell at Marathon a special honor was 
 
00 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 reserved. As the battle fought upon that immortal 
 field was distinguished from all others in Grecian 
 history for its influence over the fortunes of Hellas 
 — as it depended upon the event of that day 
 whether Greece should live, a glory and a light 
 to all coming time, or should expire, like the 
 meteor of a moment; so the honors awarded to 
 its martyr-heroes were such as were bestowed by 
 Athens on no other occasion. They alone of all 
 her sons were entombed upon the spot which they 
 had forever rendered famous. Their names were 
 inscribed upon ten pillars, erected upon the 
 monumental tumulus which covered their ashes 
 (where after six hundred years, they were read 
 by the traveler Pausanias), and although the 
 columns, beneath the hand of time and barbaric 
 violence, have long since disappeared, the vener- 
 able mound still marks the spot where they fought 
 and fell: 
 
 That battle-field, where Persia's victim horde 
 First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword. 
 
 And shall I, fellow-citizens, who, after an inter- 
 val of twenty-three centuries, a youthful pilgrim 
 from the world unknown to ancient Greece, have 
 wandered over that illustrious plain, ready to put 
 off the shoes from off my feet, as one that stands 
 on holy ground — who have gazed with respectful 
 emotion on the mound which still protects the 
 dust of those who rolled back the tide of Persian 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 101 
 
 invasion, and rescued the land of popular liberty, 
 of letters, and of arts, from the ruthless foe — stand 
 unmoved over the graves of our dear brethren, 
 who so lately, on three of those all-important days 
 which decide a nation's history — days on whose 
 issue it depended whether this august republican 
 Union, founded by some of the wisest statesmen 
 that ever lived, cemented with the blood of some 
 of the purest patriots that ever died, should perish 
 or endure — rolled back the tide of an invasion, 
 not less unprovoked, not less ruthless, than that 
 which came to plant the dark banner of Asiatic 
 despotism and slavery on the free soil of Greece? 
 Heaven forbid! And could I prove so insensible 
 to every prompting of patriotic duty and affection, 
 not only would you, fellow-citizens, gathered many 
 of you from distant States, who have come to 
 take part in these pious offices of gratitude — you, 
 respected fathers, brethren, matrons, sisters, who 
 surround me — cry out for shame, but the forms 
 of brave and patriotic men who fill these honored 
 graves would heave with indignation beneath the 
 sod. 
 
 We have assembled, friends, fellow-citizens, at 
 the invitation of the Executive of the great central 
 State of Pennsylvania, seconded by the Governors 
 of seventeen other loyal States of the Union, to pay 
 the last tribute of respect to the brave men, who, 
 in the hard-fought battles of the first, second and 
 third days of July last, laid down their lives for 
 
102 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 the country on these hill-sides and the plains be- 
 fore us, and whose remains have been gathered 
 into the Cemetery which we consecrate this day. 
 As my eye ranges over the fields whose sods were 
 so lately moistened by the blood of gallant and 
 loyal men, I feel, as never before, how truly it was 
 said of old, that it is sweet and becoming to die 
 for one's country. I feel as never before, how 
 justly, from the dawn of history to the present 
 time, men have paid the homage of their gratitude 
 and admiration to the memory of those who nobly 
 sacrificed their lives, that their fellow-men may 
 live in safety and in honor. And if this tribute 
 were ever due, when, to whom, could it be more 
 justly paid than to those whose last resting-place 
 we this day commend to the blessing of Heaven 
 and of men? 
 
 For consider, my friends, what would have been 
 the consequences to the country, to yourselves, 
 and to all you hold dear, if those who sleep be- 
 neath our feet, and their gallant comrades who 
 survive to serve their country on other fields of 
 danger, had failed in their duty on those memor- 
 able days. Consider what, at this moment, would 
 be the condition of the United States, if that noble 
 army of the Potomac, instead of gallantly and for 
 the second time beating back the tide of invasion 
 from Maryland and Pennsylvania, had been itself 
 driven from these well-contested heights, thrown 
 back in confusion on Baltimore, or trampled 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 103 
 
 down, discomfited, scattered to the four winds. 
 What, in that sad event, would not have been 
 the fate of the Monumental city, of Harrisburg, 
 of Philadelphia, of Washington, the capital of the 
 Union, each and every one of which would have 
 lain at the mercy of the enemy, accordingly as it 
 might have pleased him, spurred by passion, 
 flushed with victory, and confident of continued 
 success, to direct his course? 
 
 For this we must bear in mind, it is one of the 
 great lessons of the war, indeed of every war, that 
 it is impossible for a people without military or- 
 ganization, inhabiting the cities, towns, and vil- 
 lages of an open country, including, of course, the 
 natural proportion of non-combatants of either 
 sex, and of every age, to withstand the inroad of 
 a veteran army. What defence can be made by the 
 inhabitants of villages mostly built of wood, of 
 cities unprotected by walls, nay, by a population 
 of men, however high-toned and resolute, whose 
 aged parents demand their care, whose wives and 
 children are clustering around them, against the 
 charge of the war-horse whose neck is clothed with 
 thunder — against flying artillery and batteries of 
 rifled cannon planted on every commanding emin- 
 ence — against the onset of trained veterans led by 
 skilful chiefs? No, my friends, army must be met 
 by army, battery by battery, squadron by squad- 
 ron; and the shock of organized thousands must 
 be encountered by the firm breasts and valiant 
 
104 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 arms of other thousands, as well organized and as 
 skilfully led. It is no reproach, therefore, to the 
 unarmed population of the country to say, that 
 we owe it to the brave men who sleep in their 
 beds of honor before us, and to their gallant sur- 
 viving associates, not merely that your fertile 
 fields, my friends of Pennsylvania and Maryland, 
 were redeemed from the presence of the invader, 
 but that your capitals were not given up to 
 threatened plunder, perhaps laid in ashes, Wash- 
 ington seized by the enemy, and a blow struck 
 at the heart of the nation. 
 
 Who that hears me has forgotten the thrill of 
 joy that ran through the country on the 4th of 
 July — auspicious day for the glorious tidings, and 
 rendered still more so by the simultaneous fall of 
 Vicksburg — when the telegraph flashed through 
 the land the assurance from the President of the 
 United States that the army of the Potomac, 
 under General Meade, had again smitten the in- 
 vader? Sure I am, that, with the ascriptions of 
 praise that rose to Heaven from twenty millions 
 of freemen, with the acknowledgments that 
 breathed from patriotic lips throughout the length 
 and breadth of America, to the surviving officers 
 and men who had rendered the country this in- 
 estimable service, there beat in every loyal bosom 
 a throb of tender and sorrowful gatitude to the 
 martyrs who had fallen on the sternly contested 
 field. Let a nation's fervent thanks make some 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 105 
 
 amends for the toils and sufferings of those who 
 survive. Would that the heartfelt tribute could 
 penetrate these honored graves! 
 
 In order that we may comprehend, to their 
 full extent, our obligations to the martyrs and 
 surviving heroes of the army of the Potomac, let 
 us contemplate for a few moments the train of 
 events, which culminated in the battles of the 
 first days of July. Of this stupendous rebellion, 
 planned, as its originators boast, more than thirty 
 years ago, matured and prepared for during an 
 entire generation, finally commenced because, for 
 the first time since the adoption of the Constitu- 
 tion, an election of President had been effected 
 without the votes of the South (which retained, 
 however, the control of the two other branches of 
 the government), the occupation of the national 
 capital, with the seizure of the public archives and 
 of the treaties with foreign powers, was an essen- 
 tial feature. This was, in substance, within my 
 personal knowledge, admitted, in the winter of 
 1860-61, by one of the most influential leaders 
 of the rebellion; and it was fondly thought that 
 this object could be effected by a bold and sudden 
 movement on the 4th of March, 1861. There is 
 abundant proof, also, that a darker project was 
 contemplated, if not by the responsible chiefs of 
 the rebellion, yet by nameless ruffians, willing to 
 play a subsidiary and murderous part in the trea- 
 sonable drama. It was accordingly maintained by 
 
106 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 the Rebel emissaries in England, in the circles to 
 which they found access, that the new American 
 Minister ought not, when he arrived, to be re- 
 ceived as the envoy of the United States, inas- 
 much as before that time Washington would be 
 captured, and the capital of the nation and the 
 archives and muniments of the government 
 would be in the possession of the Confederates. In 
 full accordance also with this threat, it was de- 
 clared, by the Rebel Secretary of War, at Mont- 
 gomery, in the presence of his Chief and of his 
 colleagues, and of five thousand hearers, while 
 the tidings of the assault on Sumter were traveling 
 over the wires on that fatal 12th of April, 1861, 
 that before the end of May "the flag which then 
 flaunted the breeze," as he expressed it, "would 
 float over the dome of the Capitol at Washington." 
 At the time this threat was made, the rebellion 
 was confined to the cotton-growing States, and it 
 was well understood by them, that the only hope 
 of drawing any of the other slaveholding States 
 into the conspiracy, was in bringing about a con- 
 flict of arms, and "firing the heart of the South" 
 by the effusion of blood. This was declared by the 
 Charleston press, to be the object for which Sum- 
 ter was to be assaulted; and the emissaries sent 
 from Richmond, to urge on the unhallowed work, 
 gave the promise, that, with the first drop of 
 blood that should be shed, Virginia would place 
 herself by the side of South Carolina. 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 107 
 
 In pursuance of this original plan of the leaders 
 of the rebellion, the capture of Washington has 
 been continually had in view, not merely for the 
 sake of its public buildings, as the capital of the 
 Confederacy, but as the necessary preliminary to 
 the absorption of the border States, and for the 
 moral effect in the eyes of Europe of possessing 
 the metropolis of the Union. 
 
 I allude to these facts, not perhaps enough 
 borne in mind, as a sufficient refutation of the 
 pretence, on the part of the Rebels, that the war 
 is one of self-defence, waged for the right of self- 
 government. It is in reality, a war originally levied 
 by ambitious men in the cotton-growing States, 
 for the purpose of drawing the slaveholding bor- 
 der States into the vortex of the conspiracy, first by 
 sympathy — which, in the case of Southeastern 
 Virginia, North Carolina, part of Tennessee and 
 Arkansas, succeeded- — and then by force and for 
 the purpose of subjugating Maryland, Western 
 Virginia, Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee and Mis- 
 souri; and it is a most extraordinary fact, consider- 
 ing the clamors of the Rebel chiefs on the subject 
 of invasion, that not a soldier of the United States 
 has entered the States last named, except to defend 
 their Union-loving inhabitants from the armies 
 and guerillas of the Rebels. 
 
 In conformity with these designs on the city of 
 Washington, and notwithstanding the disastrous 
 results of the invasion of 1862, it was determined 
 
108 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 by the Rebel Government last summer to resume 
 the offensive in that direction. Unable to force 
 the passage of the Rappahannock, where General 
 Hooker, notwithstanding the reverse at Chan- 
 cellorsville, in May, was strongly posted, the Con- 
 federate general resorted to strategy. He had two 
 objects in view. The first was by a rapid move- 
 ment northward, and by manoeuvering with a 
 portion of his army on the east side of the Blue 
 Ridge, to tempt Hooker from his base of opera- 
 tion, thus leading him to uncover the approaches 
 to Washington, to throw it open to a raid by 
 Stuart's cavalry, and to enable Lee himself to cross 
 the Potomac in the neighborhood of Poolesville 
 and thus fall upon the capital. This plan of opera- 
 tions was wholly frustrated. The design of the 
 Rebel general was promptly discovered by Gen- 
 eral Hooker, and, moving with great rapidity from 
 Fredericksburg, he preserved unbroken the inner 
 line, and stationed the various corps of his army 
 at all the points protecting the approach to Wash- 
 ington, from Centreville up to Leesburg. From 
 this vantage-ground the Rebel general in vain 
 attempted to draw him. In the meantime, by the 
 vigorous operations of Pleasanton's cavalry, the 
 cavalry of Stuart, though greatly superior in num- 
 bers, was so crippled as to be disabled from per- 
 forming the part assigned it in the campaign. In 
 this manner, General Lee's first object, namely, 
 the defeat of Hooker's army on the south of the 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 109 
 
 Potomac and a direct march on Washington, was 
 baffled. 
 
 The second part of the Confederate plan, which 
 is supposed to have been undertaken in opposition 
 to the views of General Lee, was to turn the 
 demonstration northward into a real invasion of 
 Maryland and Pennsylvania, in the hope, that, in 
 this way, General Hooker would be drawn to a 
 distance from the capital, and that some oppor- 
 tunity would occur of taking him at disadvantage, 
 and, after defeating his army, of making a descent 
 upon Baltimore and Washington. This part of 
 General Lee's plan, which was substantially the 
 repetition of that of 1862, was not less signally 
 defeated, with what honor to the arms of the 
 Union the heights on which we are this day assem- 
 bled will forever attest. 
 
 Much time had been uselessly consumed by the 
 Rebel general in his unavailing attempts to out- 
 manoeuvre General Hooker. Although General 
 Lee broke up from Fredericksburg on the 3d of 
 June, it was not till the 24th that the main body 
 of his army entered Maryland. Instead of crossing 
 the Potomac, as he had intended, east of the Blue 
 Ridge, he was compelled to do it at Shepherds- 
 town and Williamsport, thus materially deranging 
 his entire plan of campaign north of the river. 
 Stuart, who had been sent with his cavalry to the 
 east of the Blue Ridge, to guard the passes of the 
 mountains, to mask the movements of Lee, and to 
 
110 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 harass the Union general in crossing the river, 
 having been severely handled by Pleasanton at 
 Beverly Ford, Aldie, and Upperville, instead of 
 being able to retard General Hooker's advance, 
 was driven himself away from his connection with 
 the army of Lee, and cut off for a fortnight from 
 all communication with it — a circumstance to 
 which General Lee, in his report, alludes more 
 than once, with evident displeasure. Let us now 
 rapidly glance at the incidents of the eventful 
 campaign. 
 
 A detachment from Ewell's corps, under Jen- 
 kins, had penetrated, on the 15th of June, as far 
 as Chambersburg. This movement was intended at 
 first merely as a demonstration, and as a maraud- 
 ing expedition for supplies. It had, however, the 
 salutary effect of alarming the country; and vigor- 
 ous preparations were made, not only by the 
 General Government, but here in Pennsylvania 
 and in the sister States, to repel the inroad. After 
 two days passed at Chambersburg, Jenkins, anx- 
 ious for his communications with Ewell, fell 
 back with his plunder to Hagerstown. Here he re- 
 mained for several days, and then having swept the 
 recesses of the Cumberland valley, came down 
 upon the eastern flank of the South mountain, and 
 pushed his marauding parties as far as Waynes- 
 boro. On the 22d, the remainder of Ewell's corps 
 crossed the river and moved up the valley. They 
 were followed on the 24th by Longstreet and Hill, 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 111 
 
 who crossed at Williamsport and Shepherdstown, 
 and pushing up the valley, encamped at Cham- 
 bersburg on the 27th. In this way the whole rebel 
 army, estimated at 90,000 infantry, upwards of 
 10,000 cavalry, and 4,000 or 5,000 artillery, mak- 
 ing a total of 105,000 of all arms, was concentrated 
 in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Up to this time no report of Hooker's move- 
 ments had been received by General Lee, who, 
 having been deprived of his cavalry, had no means 
 of obtaining information. Rightly judging, how- 
 ever, that no time would be lost by the Union 
 army in the pursuit, in order to detain it on 
 the eastern side of the mountains in Maryland 
 and Pennsylvania, and thus preserve his communi- 
 cations by the way of Williamsport, he had, before 
 his own arrival at Chambersburg, directed Ewell 
 to send detachments from his corps to Carlisle and 
 York. The latter detachment, under Early, passed 
 through this place on the 26th of June. You need 
 not, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg, that I should 
 recall to you those moments of alarm and distress, 
 precursors as they were of the more trying scenes 
 which were so soon to follow. 
 
 As soon as General Hooker perceived that the 
 advance of the Confederates into the Cumberland 
 valley was not a mere feint to draw him away from 
 Washington, he moved rapidly in pursuit. At- 
 tempts, as we have seen, were made to harass and 
 retard his passage across the Potomac. These at- 
 
112 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 tempts were not only altogether unsuccessful, but 
 were so unskilfully made as to place the entire 
 Federal army between the cavalry of Stuart and 
 the army of Lee. While the latter was massed in 
 the Cumberland valley, Stuart was east of the 
 mountains, with Hooker's army between, and 
 Gregg's cavalry in close pursuit. Stuart was ac- 
 cordingly compelled to force a march northward, 
 which was destitute of strategical character, and 
 which deprived his chief of all means of obtaining 
 intelligence. 
 
 Not a moment had been lost by General Hooker 
 in the pursuit of Lee. The day after the Rebel 
 army entered Maryland, the Union army crossed 
 the Potomac at Edwards Ferry, and by the 28th 
 of June lay between Harper's Ferry and Frederick. 
 The force of the enemy on that day was partly at 
 Chambersburg, and partly moving on the Cash- 
 town road in the direction of Gettysburg, while 
 the detachments from Ewell's corps, of which 
 mention has been made, had reached the Susque- 
 hanna opposite Harrisburg and Columbia. That a 
 great battle must soon be fought, no one could 
 doubt; but in the apparent and perhaps real ab- 
 sence of plan on the part of Lee, it was impossible 
 to foretell the precise scene of the encounter. 
 Wherever fought, consequences the most momen- 
 tous hung upon the result. 
 
 In this critical and anxious state of affairs, Gen- 
 eral Hooker was relieved, and General Meade was 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 113 
 
 summoned to the chief command of the army. 
 It appears to my unmilitary judgment to reflect 
 the highest credit upon him, upon his predecessor, 
 and upon the corps commanders of the army of 
 the Potomac, that a change could take place in 
 the chief command of so large a force on the eve 
 of a general battle — the various corps necessarily 
 moving on lines somewhat divergent, and all in 
 ignorance of the enemy's intended point of con- 
 centration — and that not an hour's hesitation 
 should ensue in the advance of any portion of the 
 entire army. 
 
 Having assumed the chief command on the 
 28th, General Meade directed his left wing, under 
 Reynolds, upon Emmitsburg, and his right upon 
 New Windsor, leaving General French with 
 11,000 men to protect the Baltimore and Ohio 
 railroad, and convoy the public property from 
 Harper's Ferry to Washington. Buford's cavalry 
 was then at this place, and Kilpatrick's at Hanover, 
 where he encountered and defeated the rear of 
 Stuart's cavalry, who was roving the country in 
 search of the main army of Lee. On the Rebel 
 side, Hill had reached Fayetteville on the Cash- 
 town road on the 28th, and was followed on the 
 same road by Longstreet on the 29th. The eastern 
 side of the mountain, as seen from Gettysburg, 
 was lighted up at night by the camp-fires of the 
 enemy's advance, and the country swarmed with 
 his foraging parties. It was now too evident to be 
 
14 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 questioned, that the thunder-cloud, so long gather- 
 ing blackness, would soon burst on some part of 
 the devoted vicinity of Gettysburg. 
 
 The 30th of June was a day of important prepa- 
 ration. At half-past eleven o'clock in the morning, 
 General Buford passed through Gettysburg, upon 
 a reconnoissance in force, with his cavalry, upon 
 the Chambersburg road. The information ob- 
 tained by him was immediately communicated to 
 General Reynolds, who was, in consequence, di- 
 rected to occupy Gettysburg. That gallant officer 
 accordingly, with the First Corps, marched from 
 Emmitsburg to within six or seven miles of this 
 place, and encamped on the right bank of Marsh's 
 creek. Our right wing, meantime, was moved to 
 Manchester. On the same day the corps of Hill 
 and Longstreet were pushed still further forward 
 on the Chambersburg road, and distributed in the 
 vicinity of Marsh's creek, while a reconnoissance 
 was made by the Confederate General Pettigrew 
 up to a very short distance from this place. Thus 
 at nightfall, on the 30th of June, the greater part 
 of the Rebel force was concentrated in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of two corps of the Union army, the 
 former refreshed by two days passed in compara- 
 tive repose and deliberative preparation for the 
 encounter, the latter separated by a march of one 
 or two days from their supporting corps, and 
 doubtful at what precise point they were to expect 
 an attack. 
 
Alexander Gardner took this picture of Abraham Lincoln four days 
 before the Gettysburg Address. A copy of Edward Everett's oration is 
 in the envelope on the table. Courtesy, Library of Congress 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 117 
 
 And now the momentous day, a day to be for- 
 ever remembered in the annals of the country, ar- 
 rived. Early in the morning, on the 1st of July, 
 the conflict began. I need not say that it would be 
 impossible for me to comprise, within the limits 
 of the hour, such a narrative as would do anything 
 like full justice to the all-important events of these 
 three great days, or to the merit of the brave 
 officers and men, of every rank, of every arm of the 
 service, and of every loyal State, who bore their 
 part in the tremendous struggle — alike those who 
 nobly sacrificed their lives for their country, and 
 those who survive, many of them scarred with 
 honorable wounds, the objects of our admiration 
 and gratitude. The astonishingly minute, accurate, 
 and graphic accounts contained in the journals of 
 the day, prepared from personal observation by re- 
 porters who witnessed the scenes, and often shared 
 the perils which they describe, and the highly 
 valuable "notes" of Professor Jacobs, of the 
 University in this place, to which I am greatly 
 indebted, will abundantly supply the deficiency 
 of my necessarily too condensed statement.* 
 
 * Besides the sources of information mentioned in the text, I 
 have been kindly favored with a memorandum of the operations of 
 the three days, drawn up for me by direction of Major General 
 Meade (anticipating the promulgation of his official report), by one 
 of his aides, Colonel Theodore Lyman, from whom, also, I have 
 received other important communications relative to the campaign. 
 I have received very valuable documents relative to the battle from 
 Major General Halleck, Commander-in-Chief of the army, and 
 have been much assisted in drawing up the sketch of the campaign, 
 by the detailed reports, kindly transmitted to me in manuscript 
 
118 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 General Reynolds, on arriving at Gettysburg, 
 in the morning of the 1st, found Buford with 
 his cavalry warmly engaged with the enemy, whom 
 
 from the Adjutant General's office, of the movements of every 
 corps of the army, for each day, arter the breaking up from 
 Fredericksburg commenced. I have derived much assistance from 
 Colonel John B. Bachelder's oral explanations of his beautiful and 
 minute drawing (about to be engraved) of the field of the three 
 days' struggle. With the information derived from these sources, 
 I have compared the statements in General Lee's official report of 
 the campaign, dated 31st July, 1863; a well-written article, purport- 
 ing to be an account of the three days' battle, in the Richmond 
 Enquirer of the 22d of July; and the article on "The Battle of 
 Gettysburg and the Campaign of Pennsylvania," by an officer, 
 apparently a colonel in the British army, in Blackwood's Magazine 
 for September. The value of the information contained in this last 
 essay may be seen by comparing the remark under date 27th June, 
 that "private property is to be rigidly protected," with the statement 
 in the next sentence but one, that "all the cattle and farm horses 
 having been seized by Ewell, farm labor had come to a complete 
 standstill." He, also, under date of 4th July, speaks of Lee's retreat 
 being encumbered by "Ewell's immense train of plunder." This 
 writer informs us, that, on the evening of the 4th of July, he 
 heard "reports coming in from the different Generals, that the 
 enemy [Meade's army] was retiring, and had been doing so all day 
 long." At a consultation at headquarters on the 6th, between 
 Generals Lee, Longstreet, Hill, and Wilcox, this writer was told 
 by someone, whose name he prudently leaves in blank, that the 
 army had no intention, at present, of retreating for good, and that 
 some of the enemy's dispatches had been intercepted, in which the 
 following words occur: "The noble, but unfortunate army of the 
 Potomac has again been obliged to retreat before superior numbers!" 
 He does not appear to be aware, that in recording these wretched 
 expedients, resorted to in order to keep up the spirits of Lee's army, 
 he furnishes the most complete refutation of his own account of 
 its good condition. I much regret that General Meade's official 
 report was not published in season to enable me to take full 
 advantage, in preparing the brief sketch of the battles of the 
 three days contained in this address. It reached me but the morning 
 before it was sent to the press. 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 119 
 
 he held most gallantly in check. Hastening himself 
 to the front, General Reynolds directed his men 
 to be moved over the fields from the Emmitsburg 
 road, in front of McMillan's and Doctor Schmuck- 
 er's, under cover of the Seminary Ridge. Without 
 a moment's hesitation, he attacked the enemy, at 
 the same time sending orders to the Eleventh 
 Corps (General Howard's) to advance as promptly 
 as possible. General Reynolds immediately found 
 himself engaged with a force which greatly out- 
 numbered his own, and had scarcely made his dis- 
 positions for the action when he fell, mortally 
 wounded, at the head of his advance. The com- 
 mand of the First Corps devolved on General 
 Doubleday, and that of the field on General 
 Howard, who arrived at 11:30, with Schurz's and 
 Barlow's divisions of the Eleventh Corps, the latter 
 of whom received a severe wound. Thus strength- 
 ened, the advantage of the battle was for some 
 time on our side. The attacks of the Rebels were 
 vigorously repulsed by Wadsworth's division of 
 the First Corps, and a large number of prisoners, 
 including General Archer, were captured. At 
 length, however, the continued reinforcement of 
 the Confederates from the main body in the neigh- 
 borhood, and by the divisions of Rodes and Early, 
 coming down by separate lines from Heidlersberg 
 and taking post on our extreme right, turned the 
 fortunes of the day. Our army, after contesting the 
 ground for five hours, was obligated to yield to 
 
120 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 the enemy, whose force outnumbered them two to 
 one; and toward the close of the afternoon Gen- 
 eral Howard deemed it prudent to withdraw the 
 two corps to the heights where we are now 
 assembled. The great part of the First Corps 
 passed through the outskirts of the town, and 
 reached the hill without serious loss or molesta- 
 tion. The Eleventh Corps and portions of the 
 First, not being aware that the enemy had already 
 entered the town from the north, attempted to 
 force their way through Washington and Balti- 
 more streets, which, in the crowd and confusion 
 of the scene, they did with a heavy loss in 
 prisoners. 
 
 General Howard was not unprepared for this 
 turn in the fortunes of the day. He had, in the 
 course of the morning, caused Cemetery Hill to 
 be occupied by General Steinwehr, with the 
 second division of the Eleventh Corps. About the 
 time of the withdrawal of our troops to the hill, 
 General Hancock arrived, having been sent by 
 General Meade, on hearing of the death of Rey- 
 nolds, to assume the command of the field till he 
 himself could reach the front. In conjunction with 
 General Howard, General Hancock immediately 
 proceeded to post the troops and to repel an attack 
 on our right flank. This attack was feebly made 
 and promptly repulsed. At nightfall, our troops 
 on the hill, who had so gallantly sustained them- 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 121 
 
 selves during the toil and peril of the day, were 
 cheered by the arrival of General Slocum with 
 the Twelfth Corps and of General Sickles with a 
 part of the Third. 
 
 Such was the fortune of the first day, commen- 
 cing with decided success to our arms, followed 
 by a check, but ending in the occupation of this 
 all-important position. To you, fellow-citizens of 
 Gettysburg, I need not attempt to portray the 
 anxieties of the ensuing night. Witnessing, as you 
 had done with sorrow, the withdrawing of our 
 army through your streets, with a considerable 
 loss of prisoners — mourning as you did over the 
 brave men who had fallen — shocked with the 
 widespread desolation around you, of which the 
 wanton burning of the Harman House had given 
 the signal- — ignorant of the near approach of Gen- 
 eral Meade, you passed the weary hours of the 
 night in painful expectation. 
 
 Long before the dawn of the 2d of July, the new 
 Commander-in-Chief had reached the ever- 
 memorable field of service and glory. Having re- 
 ceived intelligence of the events in progress, and 
 informed by the reports of Generals Hancock 
 and Howard of the favorable character of the posi- 
 tions, he determined to give battle to the enemy 
 at this point. He accordingly directed the remain- 
 ing corps of the army to concentrate at Gettysburg 
 with all possible expedition, and breaking up his 
 
122 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 headquarters at Taney town at ten P.M., he ar- 
 rived at the front at one o'clock in the morning 
 of the 2d of July. Few were the moments given to 
 sleep, during the rapid watches of that brief mid- 
 summer's night, by officers or men, though half 
 of our troops were exhausted by the conflict of 
 the day, and the residue wearied by the forced 
 marches which had brought them to the rescue. 
 The full moon, veiled by thin clouds, shone down 
 that night on a strangely unwonted scene. The 
 silence of the graveyard was broken by the heavy 
 tramp of armed men, by the neigh of the war- 
 horse, the harsh rattle of the wheels of artillery 
 hurrying to their stations, and all the indescrib- 
 able tumult of preparation. The various corps of 
 the army, as they arrived, were moved to their 
 positions, on the spot where we are assembled 
 and the ridges that extend southeast and south- 
 west; batteries were planted and breastworks 
 thrown up. The Second and Fifth Corps, with the 
 rest of the Third, had reached the ground by 
 seven o'clock, A.M.; but it was not till two o'clock 
 in the afternoon that Sedgwick arrived with the 
 Sixth Corps. He had marched thirty-four miles 
 since nine o'clock on the evening before. It was 
 only on his arrival that the Union army ap- 
 proached an equality of numbers with that of the 
 Rebels, who were posted upon the opposite and 
 parallel ridge, distant from a mile to a mile and a 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 123 
 
 half, overlapping our position on either wing, and 
 probably exceeding by ten thousand the army of 
 General Meade. # 
 
 And here I cannot but remark on the providen- 
 tial inaction of the Rebel army. Had the contest 
 been renewed by it at daylight on the 2d of July, 
 with the First and Eleventh Corps exhausted by 
 the battle and the retreat, the Third and Twelfth 
 weary from their forced march, and the Second, 
 Fifth and Sixth not yet arrived, nothing but a 
 miracle could have saved the army from a great 
 disaster. Instead of this, the day dawned, the sun 
 rose, the cool hours of the morning passed, the 
 forenoon and a considerable part of the afternoon 
 wore away, without the slightest aggressive move- 
 ment on the part of the enemy. Thus time was 
 given for half of our forces to arrive and take 
 their place in the lines, while the rest of the army 
 enjoyed a much needed half day's repose. 
 
 At length, between three and four o'clock in 
 the afternoon, the work of death began. A signal 
 gun from the hostile batteries was followed by a 
 tremendous cannonade along the Rebel lines, and 
 this by a heavy advance of infantry, brigade after 
 brigade, commencing on the enemy's right against 
 
 * In the Address as originally prepared, judging from the best 
 sources of information then within my reach, I assumed the equality 
 of the two armies on the 2d and 3d of July. Subsequent inquiry 
 has led me to think that I underrated somewhat the strength of 
 Lee's force at Gettysburg, and I have corrected the text accordingly. 
 General Halleck, however, in his official report accompanying the 
 President's messages, states the armies to have been equal. 
 
124 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 the left of our army, and so onward to the left 
 center. A forward movement of General Sickles, 
 to gain a commanding position from which to 
 repel the Rebel attack, drew upon him a destruc- 
 tive fire from the enemy's batteries, and a furious 
 assault from Longstreet's and Hill's advancing 
 troops. After a brave resistance on the part of his 
 corps, he was forced back, himself falling severely 
 wounded. This was the critical moment of the 
 second day; but the Fifth and part of the Sixth 
 Corps, with portions of the First and Second, were 
 promptly brought to the support of the Third. 
 The struggle was fierce and murderous, but by 
 sunset our success was decisive, and the enemy was 
 driven back in confusion. The most important 
 service was rendered towards the close of the day, 
 in the memorable advance between Round Top 
 and Little Round Top, by General Crawford's 
 division of the Fifth Corps, consisting of two 
 brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves, of which 
 one company was from this town and neighbor- 
 hood. The Rebel Force was driven back with great 
 loss in killed and prisoners. At eight o'clock in the 
 evening a desperate attempt was made by the 
 enemy to storm the position of the Eleventh Corps 
 on Cemetery Hill; but here, too, after a terrible 
 conflict, he was repulsed with immense loss. Ewell, 
 on our extreme right, which had been weakened 
 by the withdrawal of the troops sent over to sup- 
 port our left, had succeeded in gaining a foothold 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 125 
 
 within a portion of our lines, near Spangler's 
 spring. This was the only advantage obtained by 
 the Rebels to compensate them for the disasters of 
 the day, and of this, as we shall see, they were 
 soon deprived. 
 
 Such was the result of the second act of this 
 eventful drama — a day hard fought, and at one 
 moment anxious, but, with the exception of the 
 slight reverse just named, crowned with dearly 
 earned but uniform success to our arms, auspici- 
 ous of a glorious termination of the final struggle. 
 On these good omens the night fell. 
 
 In the course of the night, General Geary re- 
 turned to his position on the right, from which 
 he had hastened the day before to strengthen the 
 Third Corps. He immediately engaged the enemy, 
 and, after a sharp and decisive action, drove them 
 out of our lines, recovering the ground which had 
 been lost on the preceding day. A spirited contest 
 was kept up all the morning on this part of the 
 line; but General Geary, reinforced by Wheaton's 
 brigade of the Sixth Corps, maintained his posi- 
 tion, and inflicted very severe losses on the Rebels. 
 
 Such was the cheering commencement of the 
 third day's work, and with it ended all serious at- 
 tempts of the enemy on our right. As on the pre- 
 ceding day, his efforts were now mainly directed 
 against our left center and left wing. From eleven 
 till half past one o'clock, all was still — a solemn 
 pause of preparation, as if both armies were nerv- 
 
26 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 ing themselves for the supreme effort. At length 
 the awful silence, more terrible than the wildest 
 tumult of battle, was broken by the roar of two 
 hundred and fifty pieces of artillery from the op- 
 posite ridges, joining in a cannonade of unsur- 
 passed violence — the Rebel batteries along two- 
 thirds of their line pouring their fire upon Ceme- 
 tery Hill, and the center and left wing of our 
 army. Having attempted in this way for two hours, 
 but without success, to shake the steadiness of our 
 lines, the enemy rallied his forces for a last grand 
 assault. Their attack was principally directed 
 against the position of our Second Corps. Succes- 
 sive lines of Rebel infantry moved forward with 
 equal spirit and steadiness from their cover on the 
 wooded crest of Seminary Ridge, crossing the in- 
 tervening plain, and, supported right and left by 
 their choicest brigades, charged furiously up to 
 our batteries. Our own brave troops of the Second 
 Corps, supported by Doubleday's division and 
 Stannard's brigade of the First, received the shock 
 with firmness; the ground on both sides was long 
 and fiercely contested, and was covered with the 
 killed and the wounded; the tide of battle flowed 
 and ebbed across the plain, till, after "a deter- 
 mined and gallant struggle," as it is pronounced 
 by General Lee, the Rebel advance, consisting 
 of two-thirds of Hill's corps and the whole of 
 Longstreet's — including Pickett's division, the 
 elite of his corps, which had not yet been under 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 127 
 
 fire, and was now depended upon to decide the 
 fortune of this last eventful day — was driven back 
 with prodigious slaughter, discomfited and broken. 
 While these events were in progress at our left 
 center, the enemy was driven, with a considerable 
 loss of prisoners, from a strong position on our 
 extreme left, from which he was annoying our 
 force on Little Round Top. In the terrific assault 
 on our center, Generals Hancock and Gibbon 
 were wounded. In the Rebel army, Generals 
 Armistead, Kemper, Pettigrew and Trimble were 
 wounded, the first named mortally, the latter also 
 made prisoner, General Garnett was killed, and 
 thirty-five hundred officers and men made 
 prisoners. 
 
 These were the expiring agonies of the three 
 days' conflict, and with them the battle ceased. 
 It was fought by the Union army with courage and 
 skill, from the first cavalry skirmish on Wednesday 
 morning to the fearful route of the enemy on 
 Friday afternoon, by every man and every rank 
 of the service, by officers and men, by cavalry, 
 artillery, and infantry. The superiority of num- 
 bers was with the enemy, who were led by the 
 ablest commanders in their service; and if the 
 Union force had the advantage of a strong posi- 
 tion, the Confederates had that of choosing time 
 and place, the prestige of former victories over 
 the army of the Potomac, and of the success of the 
 first day. Victory does not always fall to the lot of 
 
128 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 those who deserve it; but that so decisive a 
 triumph, under circumstances like these, was 
 gained by our troops, I would ascribe, under 
 Providence, to the spirit of exalted patriotism 
 that animated them, and the consciousness that 
 they were fighting in a righteous cause. 
 
 All hope of defeating our army, and securing 
 what General Lee calls "the valuable results" of 
 such an achievement, having vanished, he thought 
 only of rescuing from destruction the remains of 
 his shattered forces. In killed, wounded and 
 missing, he had, as far as can be ascertained, 
 suffered a loss of about 37,000 men — rather more 
 than a third of the army with which he is supposed 
 to have marched into Pennsylvania. Perceiving 
 that his only safety was in rapid retreat, he com- 
 menced withdrawing his troops at daybreak on 
 the 4th, throwing up field works in front of our 
 left, which, assuming the appearance of a new 
 position, were intended probably to protect the 
 rear of his army in retreat. That day — sad celebra- 
 tion of the 4th of July for an army of Americans — 
 was passed by him in hurrying off his trains. By 
 nightfall, the main army was in full retreat upon 
 the Cashtown and Fairfield roads, and it moved 
 with such precipitation, that, short as the nights 
 were, by daylight the following morning, notwith- 
 standing a heavy rain, the rear guard had left its 
 position. The struggle of the two last days resem- 
 bled, in many respects, the battle of Waterloo; 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 129 
 
 and if, in the evening of the third day, General 
 Meade, like the Duke of Wellington, had had the 
 assistance of a powerful auxiliary army to take up 
 the pursuit, the route of the Rebels would have 
 been as complete as that of Napoleon. 
 
 Owing to the circumstances just named, the 
 intentions of the enemy were not apparent on the 
 4th. The moment his retreat was discovered, the 
 following morning, he was pursued by our cavalry 
 on the Cashtown road and through the Emmits- 
 burg and Monterey passes, and by Sedgwick's 
 corps on the Fairfield road. His rear guard was 
 briskly attacked at Fairfield; a great number of 
 wagons and ambulances were captured in the 
 passes of the mountains; the country swarmed 
 with his stragglers, and his wounded were literally 
 emptied from the vehicles containing them into 
 the farm houses on the road. General Lee, in his 
 report, makes repeated mention of the Union pris- 
 oners whom he conveyed into Virginia, somewhat 
 overstating their number. He states, also, that 
 "such of his wounded as were in a condition to be 
 removed" were forwarded to Williamsport. He 
 does not mention that the number of his wounded 
 not removed, and left to the Christian care of the 
 victors, was 7,540, not one of whom failed of any 
 attention which it was possible, under the circum- 
 stances of the case, to afford them, not one of 
 whom, certainly, has been put upon Libby prison 
 fare — lingering death by starvation. Heaven for- 
 
130 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 bid, however, that we should claim any merit for 
 the exercise of common humanity. 
 
 Under the protection of the mountain ridge, 
 whose narrow passes are easily held even by a 
 retreating army, General Lee reached Williams- 
 port in safety, and took up a strong position op- 
 posite to that place. General Meade necessarily 
 pursued with the main army by a flank movement 
 through Middletown, Turner's Pass having been 
 secured by General French. Passing through the 
 South mountain, the Union army came up with 
 that of the Rebels on the 12th, and found it 
 securely posted on the heights of Marsh run. The 
 position was reconnoitered, and preparations made 
 for an attack on the 13th. The depth of the river, 
 swollen by the recent rains, authorized the expec- 
 tation that the enemy would be brought to a 
 general engagement the following day. An advance 
 was accordingly made by General Meade on the 
 morning of the 14th; but it was soon found that 
 the Rebels had escaped in the night, with such 
 haste that E well's corps forded the river where 
 the water was breast-high. The cavalry, which had 
 rendered the most important services during the 
 three days, and in harassing the enemy's retreat, 
 was now sent in pursuit, and captured two guns 
 and a large number of prisoners. In an action 
 which took place at Falling Waters, General Petti- 
 grew was mortally wounded. General Meade, in 
 further pursuit of the Rebels, crossed the Potomac 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 131 
 
 at Berlin. Thus again covering the approaches to 
 Washington, he compelled the enemy to pass the 
 Blue Ridge at one of the upper gaps; and in about 
 six weeks from the commencement of the cam- 
 paign, General Lee found himself on the south 
 side of the Rappahannock, with the probable loss 
 of about a third part of his army. 
 
 Such, most inadequately recounted, is the his- 
 tory of the ever-memorable three days, and of the 
 events immediately preceding and following. It 
 has been pretended, in order to diminish the mag- 
 nitude of this disaster to the Rebel cause, that 
 it was merely the repulse of an attack on a strongly 
 defended position. The tremendous losses on both 
 sides are a sufficient answer to this misrepresenta- 
 tion, and attest the courage and obstinacy with 
 which the three days' battle was waged. Few of the 
 great conflicts of modern times have cost victors 
 and vanquished so great a sacrifice. On the Union 
 side there fell, in the whole campaign, of generals 
 killed, Reynolds, Weed and Zook, and wounded, 
 Barlow, Barnes, Butterfield, Doubleday, Gibbon, 
 Graham, Hancock, Sickles and Warren; while of 
 officers below the rank of General, and men, there 
 were 2,834 killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,643 
 missing. On the Confederate side, there were 
 killed on the field or mortally wounded, Generals 
 Armistead, Barksdale, Garnett, Pender, Pettigrew 
 and Semmes, and wounded, Heth, Hood, Johnson, 
 Kemper, Kimball and Trimble. Of officers below 
 
132 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 the rank of general, and men, there were taken 
 prisoners, including the wounded, 13,621, an 
 amount ascertained officially. Of the wounded in 
 a condition to be removed, of the killed and the 
 missing, the enemy has made no report. They are 
 estimated, from the best data which the nature 
 of the case admits, at 23,000. General Meade also 
 captured three cannon and forty-one standards; 
 and 24,978 small arms were collected on the battle- 
 field. 
 
 I must leave to others, who can do it from 
 personal observation, to describe the mournful 
 spectacle presented by these hill-sides and plains 
 at the close of the terrible conflict. It was a saying 
 of the Duke of Wellington, that next to a defeat, 
 the saddest thing was a victory. The horrors of the 
 battle field, after the contest is over, the sights and 
 sounds of woe — let me throw a pall over the scene, 
 which no words can adequately depict to those 
 who have not witnessed it, on which no one who 
 has witnessed it, and who has a heart in his bosom, 
 can bear to dwell. One drop of balm alone, one 
 drop of heavenly, life-giving balm, mingles in this 
 bitter cup of misery. Scarcely has the cannon 
 ceased to roar, when the brethren and sisters of 
 Christian benevolence, ministers of compassion, 
 angels of pity, hasten to the field and the hospital, 
 to moisten the parched tongue, to bind the ghastly 
 wounds, to soothe the parting agonies alike of 
 friend and foe, and to catch the last whispered 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 133 
 
 messages of love from dying lips. "Carry this 
 miniature back to my dear wife, but do not take 
 it from my bosom till I am gone." "Tell my little 
 sister not to grieve for me; I am willing to die 
 for my country." "Oh, that my mother were here!" 
 When, since Aaron stood between the living and 
 the dead, was there ever so gracious a ministry 
 as this? It has been said that it is characteristic of 
 Americans to treat women with a deference not 
 paid to them in any other country. I will not 
 undertake to say whether this is so; but I will say, 
 that, since this terrible war has been waged, the 
 women of the loyal States, if never before, have 
 entitled themselves to our highest admiration and 
 gratitude — alike those who at home, often with 
 fingers unused to the toil, often bowed beneath 
 their own domestic cares, have performed an 
 amount of daily labor not exceeded by those who 
 work for their daily bread, and those who, in the 
 hospital and the tents of the Sanitary and Chris- 
 tian Commissions, have rendered services which 
 millions could not buy. Happily, the labor and 
 the service are their own reward. Thousands of 
 matrons and thousands of maidens have experi- 
 enced a delight in these homely toils and services, 
 compared with which the pleasures of the ball- 
 room and the opera house are tame and unsatis- 
 factory. This, on earth, is reward enough, but a 
 richer is in store for them. Yes, brothers, sisters 
 of charity, while you bind up the wounds of the 
 
134 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 poor sufferers — the humblest, perhaps, that have 
 shed their blood for the country — forget not Who 
 it is that will hereafter say to you, "Inasmuch as 
 ye have done it unto one of the least of these My 
 brethren, ye have done it unto Me." 
 
 And now, friends, fellow-citizens, as we stand 
 among these honored graves, the momentous ques- 
 tion presents itself: Which of the two parties to 
 the war is responsible for all this suffering, for this 
 dreadful sacrifice of life, the lawful and constitu- 
 tional government of the United States, or the 
 ambitious men who have rebelled against it? I say 
 "rebelled" against it, although Earl Russell, the 
 British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in 
 his recent temperate and conciliatory speech in 
 Scotland, seems to intimate that no prejudice 
 ought to attach to that word, inasmuch as our 
 English forefathers rebelled against Charles I and 
 James II, and our American fathers rebelled 
 against George III. These, certainly, are venerable 
 precedents, but they prove only that it is just and 
 proper to rebel against oppressive governments. 
 They do not prove that it was just and proper for 
 the son of James II to rebel against George I, or 
 his grandson Charles Edward to rebel against 
 George II; nor, as it seems to me, ought these dy- 
 nastic struggles, little better than family quarrels, 
 to be compared with this monstrous conspiracy 
 against the American Union. These precedents do 
 not prove that it was just and proper for the "dis- 
 
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Everett's Gettysburg Address 137 
 
 appointed great men" of the cotton-growing 
 States to rebel against "the most beneficent gov- 
 ernment of which history gives us any account," 
 as the Vice President of the Confederacy, in 
 November, 1860, charged them with doing. They 
 do not create a presumption even in favor of the 
 disloyal slaveholders of the South, who, living 
 under a government of which Mr. Jefferson Davis, 
 in the session of 1860-61, said that it "was the best 
 government ever instituted by man, unexception- 
 ably administered, and under which the people 
 have been prosperous beyond comparison with 
 any other people whose career has been recorded 
 in history," rebelled against it because their aspir- 
 ing politicians, himself among the rest, were in 
 danger of losing their monopoly of its offices. What 
 would have been thought by an impartial posterity 
 of the American rebellion against George III, if 
 the colonists had at all times been more than 
 equally represented in Parliament, and James Otis, 
 and Patrick Henry, and Washington, and Frank- 
 lin, and the Adamses, and Hancock, and Jefferson, 
 and men of their stamp, had for two generations 
 enjoyed the confidence of the sovereign and ad- 
 ministered the government of the Empire? What 
 would have been thought of the rebellion against 
 Charles I, if Cromwell, and the men of his school, 
 had been the responsible advisers of that prince 
 from his accession to the throne, and then, on 
 account of a partial change in the ministry, had 
 
138 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 brought his head to the block, and involved the 
 country in a desolating war, for the sake of dis- 
 membering it and establishing a new government 
 south of the Trent? What would have been 
 thought of the Whigs of 1688, if they had them- 
 selves composed the cabinet of James II, and 
 been the advisers of the measures and the pro- 
 moters of the policy which drove him into exile? 
 The Puritans of 1640, and the Whigs of 1688, re- 
 belled against arbitrary power in order to estab- 
 lish constitutional liberty. If they had risen against 
 Charles and James because those monarchs favored 
 equal rights, and in order themselves, "for the 
 first time in the history of the world," to establish 
 an oligarchy "founded on the corner-stone of 
 slavery," they would truly have furnished a prece- 
 dent for the Rebels of the South, but their cause 
 would not have been sustained by the eloquence 
 of Pym, or of Somers, nor sealed with the blood 
 of Hampden or Russell. 
 
 I call the war which the Confederates are wag- 
 ing against the Union a "rebellion," because it is 
 one, and in grave matters it is best to call things 
 by their right names. I speak of it as a crime, be- 
 cause the Constitution of the United States so 
 regards it, and puts "rebellion" on a par with 
 "invasion." The Constitution and law not only of 
 England, but of every civilized country, regard 
 them in the same light; or rather they consider 
 the rebel in arms as far worse than the alien 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 139 
 
 enemy. To levy war against the United States is the 
 constitutional definition of treason, and that crime 
 is by every civilized government regarded as the 
 highest which citizen or subject can commit. Not 
 content with the sanctions of human justice, of all 
 the crimes against the law of the land it is singled 
 out for the denunciations of religion. The litanies 
 of every church in Christendom whose ritual em- 
 braces that office, as far as I am aware, from the 
 metropolitan cathedrals of Europe to the humblest 
 missionary chapel in the islands of the sea, concur 
 with the Church of England in imploring the 
 Sovereign of the Universe, by the most awful ad- 
 jurations which the heart of man can conceive 
 or his tongue utter, to deliver us from ' 'sedition, 
 privy conspiracy and rebellion." And reason good; 
 for while a rebellion against tyranny — a rebellion 
 designed, after prostrating arbitrary power, to 
 establish free government on the basis of justice 
 and truth — is an enterprise on which good men 
 and angels may look with complacency, an unpro- 
 voked rebellion of ambitious men against a benefi- 
 cent government, for the purpose — the avowed 
 purpose — of establishing, extending and perpet- 
 uating any form of injustice and wrong, is an imi- 
 tation on earth of that first foul revolt of "the 
 Infernal Serpent," against which the Supreme 
 Majesty sent forth the armed myriads of His 
 angels, and clothed the right arm of His Son with 
 the three-bolted thunders of omnipotence. 
 
140 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 Lord Bacon, in "the true marshaling of the sov- 
 ereign degrees of honor," assigns the first place to 
 "the Conditores Imperiorum, founders of States 
 and Commonwealths"; and, truly, to build up 
 from the discordant elements of our nature, the 
 passions, the interests and the opinions of the in- 
 dividual man, the rivalries of family, clan and tribe, 
 the influences of climate and geographical position, 
 accidents of peace and war accumulated for ages — 
 to build up from these oftentimes warring ele- 
 ments a well-compacted, prosperous and powerful 
 State, if it were to be accomplished by one effort 
 or in one generation, would require a more than 
 mortal skill. To contribute in some notable degree 
 to this, the greatest work of man, by wise and 
 patriotic council in peace and loyal heroism in 
 war, is as high as human merit can well rise, and 
 far more than to any of those to whom Bacon 
 assigns this highest place of honor, whose names 
 can hardly be repeated without a wondering 
 smile — Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, Ottoman, Ismael 
 — is it due to our Washington, as the founder of 
 the American Union. But if to achieve or help to 
 achieve this greatest work of man's wisdom and 
 virtue gives title to a place among the chief bene- 
 factors, rightful heirs of the benedictions, of man- 
 kind, by equal reason shall the bold, bad men who 
 seek to undo the noble work, Eversores Imperi- 
 orum, destroyers of States, who for base and selfish 
 ends rebel against beneficent governments, seek 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 141 
 
 to overturn wise constitutions, to lay powerful re- 
 publican Unions at the foot of foreign thrones, 
 to bring on civil and foreign war, anarchy at home, 
 dictation abroad, desolation, ruin — by equal rea- 
 son, I say, yes, a thousandfold stronger shall they 
 inherit the execrations of the ages. 
 
 But to hide the deformity of the crime under 
 the cloak of that sophistry which strives to make 
 the worse appear the better reason, we are told by 
 the leaders of the Rebellion that in our complex 
 system of government the separate States are "sov- 
 ereigns," and that the central power is only an 
 "agency" established by these sovereigns to man- 
 age certain little affairs — such, forsooth, as Peace, 
 War, Army, Navy, Finance, Territory, and Rela- 
 tions with the native tribes — which they could not 
 so conveniently administer themselves. It happens, 
 unfortunately for this theory, that the Federal 
 Constitution (which has been adopted by the peo- 
 ple of every State of the Union as much as their 
 own State constitutions have been adopted, and is 
 declared to be paramount to them) nowhere recog- 
 nizes the States as "sovereigns" — in fact, that, by 
 their names, it does not recognize them at all; 
 while the authority established by that instrument 
 is recognized, in its text, not as an "agency," but 
 as "the Government of the United States." By that 
 Constitution, moreover, which purports in its pre- 
 amble to be ordained and established by "the Peo- 
 ple of the United States," it is expressly provided, 
 
142 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 that "the members of the State legislatures, and all 
 executive and judicial officers, shall be bound by 
 oath or affirmation to support the Constitution." 
 Now it is a common thing, under all governments, 
 for an agent to be bound by oath to be faithful 
 to his sovereign; but I never heard before of 
 sovereigns being bound by oath to be faithful to 
 their agency. 
 
 Certainly I do not deny that the separate States 
 are clothed with sovereign powers for the admin- 
 istration of local affairs. It is one of the most 
 beautiful features of our mixed system of govern- 
 ment; but it is equally true, that, in adopting the 
 Federal Constitution, the States abdicated, by ex- 
 press renunciation, all the most important func- 
 tions of national sovereignty, and, by one compre- 
 hensive, self-denying clause, gave up all right to 
 contravene the Constitution of the United States. 
 Specifically, and by enumeration, they renounced 
 all the most important prerogatives of independ- 
 ent States for peace and for war — the right to keep 
 troops or ships of war in time of peace, or to 
 engage in war unless actually invaded; to enter 
 into compact with another State or a foreign 
 power; to lay any duty on tonnage, or any impost 
 on exports or imports, without the consent of Con- 
 gress; to enter into any treaty, alliance, or confed- 
 eration; to grant letters of marque and reprisal, 
 and to emit bills of credit — while all these powers 
 and many others are expressly vested in the Gen- 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 143 
 
 eral Government. To ascribe to political com- 
 munities, thus limited in their jurisdiction — who 
 cannot even establish a post office on their own 
 soil — the character of independent sovereignty, 
 and to reduce a national organization, clothed 
 with all the transcendent powers of government, 
 to the name and condition of an "agency" of the 
 States, proves nothing but that the logic of seces- 
 sion is on a par with its loyalty and patriotism. 
 
 Oh, but "the reserved rights"! And what of the 
 reserved rights? The tenth amendment of the 
 Constitution, supposed to provide for "reserved 
 rights," is constantly misquoted. By that amend- 
 ment, "the powers not delegated to the United 
 States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it 
 to the States, are reserved to the States respec- 
 tively, or to the people." The "powers" reserved 
 must of course be such as could have been, but 
 were not delegated to the United States — could 
 have been, but were not prohibited to the States; 
 but to speak of the right of an individual State to 
 secede, as a power that could have been, though 
 it was not delegated to the United States, is simple 
 nonsense. 
 
 But waiving this obvious absurdity, can it need 
 a serious argument to prove that there can be no 
 State right to enter into a new confederation re- 
 served under a constitution which expressly pro- 
 hibits a State to "enter into any treaty, alliance, 
 or confederation," or any "agreement or compact 
 
144 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 with another State or a foreign power"? To say 
 that the State may, by enacting the preliminary 
 farce of secession, acquire the right to do the pro- 
 hibited things — to say, for instance, that though 
 the States, in forming the Constitution, delegated 
 to the United States and prohibited to themselves 
 the power of declaring war, there was by implica- 
 tion reserved to each State the right of seceding 
 and then declaring war; that, though they ex- 
 pressly prohibited to the States and delegated to 
 the United States the entire treaty-making power, 
 they reserved by implication (for an express reser- 
 vation is not pretended) to the individual States, 
 to Florida, for instance, the right to secede, and 
 then to make a treaty with Spain retroceding that 
 Spanish colony, and thus surrendering to a for- 
 eign power the key to the Gulf of Mexico — to 
 maintain propositions like these, with whatever 
 affected seriousness it is done, appears to me 
 egregious trifling. 
 
 Pardon me, my friends, for dwelling on these 
 wretched sophistries. But it is these which con- 
 ducted the armed hosts of rebellion to your doors 
 on the terrible and glorious days of July, and 
 which have brought upon the whole land the 
 scourge of an aggressive and wicked war — a war 
 which can have no other termination compatible 
 with the permanent safety and welfare of the coun- 
 try but the complete destruction of the military 
 power of the enemy. I have, on other occasions, 
 
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Everett's Gettysburg Address 147 
 
 attempted to show that to yield to his demands 
 and acknowledge his independence, thus resolving 
 the Union at once into two hostile governments, 
 with a certainty of further disintegration, would 
 annihilate the strength and the influence of the 
 country as a member of the family of nations; 
 afford to foreign powers the opportunity and the 
 temptation for humiliating and disastrous inter- 
 ference in our affairs; wrest from the Middle and 
 Western States some of their great natural outlets 
 to the sea and of their most important lines of 
 internal communication; deprive the commerce 
 and navigation of the country of two-thirds of our 
 sea coast and of the fortresses which protect it; not 
 only so, but would enable each individual State — 
 some of them with a white population equal to a 
 good sized Northern county — or rather the domi- 
 nant party in each State, to cede its territory, its 
 harbors, its fortresses, the mouths of its rivers, to 
 any foreign power. It cannot be that the people 
 of the loyal States — that twenty-two millions of 
 brave and prosperous freemen — will, for the temp- 
 tation of a brief truce in an eternal border war, 
 consent to this hideous national suicide. 
 
 Do not think that I exaggerate the consequences 
 of yielding to the demands of the leaders of the 
 rebellion. I understate them. They require of us 
 not only all the sacrifices I have named, not only 
 the cession to them, a foreign and hostile power, 
 of all the territory of the United States at present 
 
148 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 occupied by the Rebel forces, but the abandon- 
 ment to them of the vast regions we have rescued 
 from their grasp — of Maryland, of a part of 
 Eastern Virginia and the whole of Western Vir- 
 ginia; the sea coast of North and South Carolina, 
 Georgia, and Florida; Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
 Missouri; Arkansas, and the larger portion of Mis- 
 sissippi, Louisiana, and Texas — in most of which, 
 with the exception of lawless guerillas, there is 
 not a Rebel in arms, in all of which the great 
 majority of the people are loyal to the Union. 
 We must give back, too, the helpless colored pop- 
 ulation, thousands of whom are periling their 
 lives in the ranks of our armies, to a bondage 
 rendered ten-fold more bitter by the momentary 
 enjoyment of freedom. Finally, we must surrender 
 every man in the Southern country, white or 
 black, who has moved a finger or spoken a word 
 for the restoration of the Union, to a reign of 
 terror as remorseless as that of Robespierre, 
 which has been the chief instrument by which the 
 Rebellion has been organized and sustained, and 
 which has already filled the prisons of the South 
 with noble men, whose only crime is that they 
 are not the worst of criminals. The South is full 
 of such men. I do not believe there has been a 
 day since the election of President Lincoln, when, 
 if an ordinance of secession could have been fairly 
 submitted, after a free discussion, to the mass of the 
 people in any single Southern State, a majority of 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 149 
 
 ballots would have been given in its favor. No, not 
 in South Carolina. It is not possible that the ma- 
 jority of the people, even of that State, if permit- 
 ted, without fear or favor, to give a ballot on the 
 question, would have abandoned a leader like 
 Petigru, and all the memories of the Gadsdens, 
 the Rutledges, and the Cotesworth Pinckneys of 
 the revolutionary and constitutional age, to follow 
 the agitators of the present day. 
 
 Nor must we be deterred from the vigorous 
 prosecution of the war by the suggestion, continu- 
 ally thrown out by the Rebels and those who 
 sympathize with them, that, however it might 
 have been at an earlier stage, there has been en- 
 gendered by the operations of the war a state of 
 exasperation and bitterness which, independent of 
 all reference to the original nature of the matters 
 in controversy, will forever prevent the restora- 
 tion of the Union, and the return of harmony 
 between the two great sections of the country. This 
 opinion I take to be entirely without foundation. 
 
 No man can deplore more than I do the 
 miseries of every kind unavoidably incident to 
 war. Who could stand on this spot and call to mind 
 the scenes of the first days of July with any other 
 feeling? A sad foreboding of what would ensue, if 
 war should break out between North and South, 
 has haunted me through life, and led me, perhaps 
 too long, to tread in the path of hopeless com- 
 promise, in the fond endeavor to conciliate those 
 
150 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 who were predetermined not to be conciliated. 
 But it is not true, as is pretended by the Rebels 
 and their sympathizers, that the war has been 
 carried on by the United States without entire 
 regard to those temperaments which are enjoined 
 by the law of nations, by our modern civilization, 
 and by the spirit of Christianity. It would be quite 
 easy to point out, in the recent military history of 
 the leading European powers, acts of violence and 
 cruelty, in the prosecution of their wars, to which 
 no parallel can be found among us. In fact, when 
 we consider the peculiar bitterness with which 
 civil wars are almost invariably waged, we may 
 justly boast of the manner in which the United 
 States have carried on the contest. It is of course 
 impossible to prevent the lawless acts of stragglers 
 and deserters, or the occasional unwarrantable pro- 
 ceedings of subordinates on distant stations; but 
 I do not believe there is, in all history, the record 
 of a civil war of such gigantic dimensions where so 
 little has been done in the spirit of vindictiveness 
 as in this war, by the Government and command- 
 ers of the United States; and this notwithstanding 
 the provocation given by the Rebel Government 
 by assuming the responsibility of wretches like 
 Quantrell, refusing quarter to colored troops and 
 scourging and selling into slavery free colored 
 men from the North who fall into their hands, by 
 covering the sea with pirates, refusing a just ex- 
 change of prisoners, while they crowd their armies 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 151 
 
 with paroled prisoners not exchanged, and starv- 
 ing prisoners of war to death. 
 
 In the next place, if there are any present who 
 believe that, in addition to the effect of the mili- 
 tary operations of the war, the confiscation acts 
 and emancipation proclamations have embittered 
 the Rebels beyond the possibility of reconciliation, 
 I would request them to reflect that the tone of the 
 Rebel leaders and Rebel press was just as bitter 
 in the first months of the war, nay, before a gun 
 was fired, as it is now. There were speeches made 
 in Congress in the very last session before the out- 
 break of the Rebellion, so ferocious as to show 
 that their authors were under the influence of a 
 real frenzy. At the present day, if there is any 
 discrimination made by the Confederate press 
 in the affected scorn, hatred and contumely with 
 which every shade of opinion and sentiment in the 
 loyal States is treated, the bitterest contempt is 
 bestowed upon those at the North who still speak 
 the language of compromise, and who condemn 
 those measures of the administration which are 
 alleged to have rendered the return of peace 
 hopeless. 
 
 No, my friends, that gracious Providence which 
 overrules all things for the best, "from seeming 
 evil still educing good," has so constituted our 
 natures, that the violent excitement of the passions 
 in one direction is generally followed by a reaction 
 in an opposite direction, and the sooner for the 
 
152 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 violence. If it were not so — if injuries inflicted 
 and retaliated of necessity led to new retaliations, 
 with forever accumulating compound interest of 
 revenge, then the world, thousands of years ago, 
 would have been turned into an earthly hell, and 
 the nations of the earth would have been resolved 
 into clans of furies and demons, each forever war- 
 ring with his neighbor. But it is not so; all history 
 teaches a different lesson. The Wars of the Roses 
 in England lasted an entire generation, from the 
 battle of St. Albans in 1455 to that of Bosworth 
 Field in 1485. Speaking of the former, Hume 
 says, "This was the first blood spilt in that fatal 
 quarrel, which was not finished in less than a 
 course of thirty years; which was signalized by 
 twelve pitched battles; which opened a scene of 
 extraordinary fierceness and cruelty; is computed 
 to have cost the lives of eighty princes of the 
 blood; and almost entirely annihilated the ancient 
 nobility of England. The strong attachments 
 which, at that time, men of the same kindred 
 bore to each other, and the vindictive spirit which 
 was considered a point of honor, rendered the 
 great families implacable in their resentment, and 
 widened every moment the breach between the 
 parties." Such was the state of things in England 
 under which an entire generation grew up; and 
 when Henry VII, in whom the titles of the two 
 Houses were united, went up to London after the 
 battle of Bosworth Field, to mount the throne, he 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 153 
 
 was everywhere received with joyous acclama- 
 tions, "as one ordained and sent from Heaven to 
 put an end to the dissensions" which had so long 
 afflicted the country. 
 
 The great rebellion of England of the seven- 
 teenth century, after long and angry premonitions, 
 may be said to have begun with the calling of 
 the Long Parliament in 1640, and to have ended 
 with the return of Charles II, in 1660 — twenty 
 years of discord, conflict and civil war; of confisca- 
 tion, plunder, havoc; a proud hereditary peerage 
 trampled in the dust; a national church over- 
 turned, its clergy beggared, its most eminent pre- 
 late put to death; a military despotism established 
 on the ruins of a monarchy which had subsisted 
 seven hundred years, and the legitimate sovereign 
 brought to the block; the great families which ad- 
 hered to the king proscribed, impoverished, 
 ruined; prisoners of war — a fate worse than 
 starvation in Libby — sold to slavery in the West 
 Indies; in a word, everything that can embitter 
 and madden contending factions. Such was the 
 state of things for twenty years; and yet, by no 
 gentle transition, but suddenly, and "when the 
 restoration of affairs appeared most hopeless," 
 the son of the beheaded sovereign was brought 
 back to his father's bloodstained throne, with such 
 "unexpressible and universal joy" as led the merry 
 monarch to exclaim, "he doubted it had been his 
 own fault he had been absent so long, for he saw 
 
154 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 nobody who did not protest he had ever wished 
 for his return." "In this wonderful manner," says 
 Clarendon, "and with this incredible expedition 
 did God put an end to a rebellion that had raged 
 near twenty years, and had been carried on with 
 all the horrid circumstances of murder, devasta- 
 tion and parricide that fire and sword, in the 
 hands of the most wicked men in the world (it 
 is a royalist that is speaking) could be instruments 
 of, almost to the desolation of two kingdoms, 
 and the exceeding defacing and deforming of the 
 third. ... By these remarkable steps did the 
 merciful hand of God, in this short space of time, 
 not only bind up and heal all those wounds, but 
 even made the scar as indiscernible as, in respect 
 of the deepness, was possible, which was a glorious 
 addition to the deliverance." 
 
 In Germany, the wars of the Reformation and 
 of Charles V, in the sixteenth century, the Thirty 
 Years' war in the seventeenth century, the Seven 
 Years' war in the eighteenth century, not to speak 
 of other less celebrated contests, entailed upon 
 that country all the miseries of intestine strife 
 for more than three centuries. At the close of the 
 last named war — which was the shortest of all, and 
 waged in the most civilized age — "an officer," 
 says Archenholz, "rode through seven villages in 
 Hesse, and found in them but one human being." 
 More than three hundred principalities, compre- 
 hended in the Empire, fermented with the fierce 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 155 
 
 passions of proud and petty States; at the com- 
 mencement of this period the castles of robber 
 counts frowned upon every hill-top; a dreadful 
 secret tribunal, whose seat no one knew, whose 
 power none could escape, froze the hearts of men 
 with terror throughout the land; religious hatred 
 mingled its bitter poison in the seething caldron 
 of provincial animosity; but of all these deadly 
 enmities between the States of Germany scarcely 
 the memory remains. There are controversies in 
 that country, at the present day, but they grow 
 mainly out of the rivalry of the two leading 
 powers. There is no country in the world in which 
 the sentiment of national brotherhood is stronger. 
 In Italy, on the breaking up of the Roman 
 Empire, society might be said to be resolved into 
 its original elements — into hostile atoms, whose 
 only movement was that of mutual repulsion. 
 Ruthless barbarians had destroyed the old organi- 
 zations, and covered the land with a merciless 
 feudalism. As the new civilization grew up, under 
 the wing of the church, the noble families and 
 the walled towns fell madly into conflict with each 
 other; the secular feud of Pope and Emperor 
 scourged the land; province against province, city 
 against city, street against street, waged remorse- 
 less war with each other from father to son, till 
 Dante was able to fill his imaginary hell with the 
 real demons of Italian history. So ferocious had 
 the factions become, that the great poet-exile him- 
 
156 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 self, the glory of his native city and of his native 
 language, was, by a decree of the municipality, 
 ordered to be burned alive if found in the city 
 of Florence. But these deadly feuds and hatreds 
 yielded to political influences, as the hostile cities 
 were grouped into States under stable govern- 
 ments; the lingering traditions of the ancient 
 animosities gradually died away, and now Tuscan 
 and Lombard, Sardinian and Neapolitan, as if to 
 shame the degenerate sons of America, are joining 
 in one cry for a united Italy. 
 
 In France, not to go back to the civil wars of 
 the League, in the sixteenth century, and of the 
 Fronde, in the seventeenth; not to speak of the 
 dreadful scenes throughout the kingdom, which 
 followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes; we 
 have, in the great revolution which commenced at 
 the close of the last century, seen the bloodhounds 
 of civil strife let loose as rarely before in the his- 
 tory of the world. The reign of terror established 
 at Paris stretched its bloody Briarean arms to every 
 city and village in the land, and if the most deadly 
 feuds which ever divided a people had the power 
 to cause permanent alienation and hatred, this 
 surely was the occasion. But far otherwise the 
 fact. In seven years from the fall of Robespierre, 
 the strong arm of the youthful conquerer brought 
 order out of this chaos of crime and woe; Jacobins 
 whose hands were scarcely cleansed from the best 
 blood of France met the returning emigrants, 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 157 
 
 whose estates they had confiscated and whose 
 kindred they had dragged to the guillotine, in the 
 Imperial antechambers; and when, after another 
 turn of the wheel of fortune, Louis XVIII was 
 restored to his throne, he took the regicide Fouche, 
 who had voted for his brother's death, to his 
 cabinet and confidence. 
 
 The people of loyal America will never ask 
 you, sir, to take to your confidence or admit again 
 to a share in the government the hard-hearted men 
 whose cruel lust of power has brought this desolat- 
 ing war upon the land, but there is no personal 
 bitterness felt even against them. They may live, 
 if they can bear to live after wantonly causing 
 the death of so many thousands of their fellow- 
 men; they may live in safe obscurity beneath the 
 shelter of the government they have sought to 
 overthrow, or they may fly to the protection of the 
 governments of Europe — some of them are already 
 there, seeking, happily in vain, to obtain the aid of 
 foreign powers in furtherance of their own trea- 
 son. There let them stay. The humblest dead 
 soldier, that lies cold and stiff in his grave before 
 us, is an object of envy beneath the clods that 
 cover him, in comparison with the living man, I 
 care not with what trumpery credentials he may 
 be furnished, who is willing to grovel at the foot 
 of a foreign throne for assistance in compassing 
 the ruin of his country. 
 
 But the hour is coming and now is, when the 
 
158 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 power of the leaders of the Rebellion to delude 
 and inflame must cease. There is no bitterness 
 on the part of the masses. The people of the South 
 are not going to wage an eternal war, for the 
 wretched pretext by which this Rebellion is 
 sought to be justified. The bonds that unite us as 
 one people — a substantial community of origin, 
 language, belief, and law (the four great ties that 
 hold the societies of men together); common na- 
 tional and political interests; a common history; a 
 common pride in a glorious ancestry; a common 
 interest in this great heritage of blessings; the very 
 geographical features of the country; the mighty 
 rivers that cross the lines of climate and thus 
 facilitate the interchange of natural and industrial 
 products, while the wonder-working arm of the 
 engineer has leveled the mountain-walls which 
 separate the East and West, compelling your own 
 Alleghenies, my Maryland and Pennsylvania 
 friends, to open wide their everlasting doors to 
 the chariot-wheels of traffic and travel; these 
 bonds of union are of perennial force and energy, 
 while the causes of alienation are imaginary, facti- 
 tious, and transient. The heart of the people, 
 North and South, is for the Union. Indications, 
 too plain to be mistaken, announce the fact, both 
 in the East and the West of the States in rebellion. 
 In North Carolina and Arkansas the fatal charm 
 at length is broken. At Raleigh and Little Rock 
 the lips of honest and brave men are unsealed, 
 
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Everett's Gettysburg Address 161 
 
 and an independent press is unlimbering its artil- 
 lery. When its rifled cannon shall begin to roar, 
 the hosts of treasonable sophistry — the mad de- 
 lusions of the day — will fly like the Rebel army 
 through the passes of yonder mountain. The 
 weary masses of the people are yearning to see the 
 dear old flag again floating upon their capitols, 
 and they sigh for the return of the peace, pros- 
 perity, and happiness, which they enjoyed under 
 a government whose power was felt only in its 
 blessings. 
 
 And now, friends, fellow citizens of Gettysburg 
 and Pennsylvania, and you from remoter States, 
 let me again, as we part, invoke your benediction 
 on these honored graves. You feel, though the 
 occasion is mournful, that it is good to be here. 
 You feel that it was greatly auspicious for the 
 cause of the country, that the men of the East and 
 the men of the West, the men of nineteen sister 
 States, stood side by side, on the perilous ridges 
 of the battle. You now feel it a new bond of union, 
 that they shall lie side by side, till the clarion, 
 louder than that which marshaled them to the 
 combat, shall awake their slumbers. God bless the 
 Union; it is dearer to us for the blood of brave 
 men which has been shed in its defense. The spots 
 on which they stood and fell; these pleasant 
 heights; the fertile plain beneath them; the thriv- 
 ing village whose streets so lately rang with the 
 strange din of war; the fields beyond the ridge, 
 
62 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 where the noble Reynolds held the advancing foe 
 at bay, and, while he gave up his own life, assured 
 by his forethought and self-sacrifice the triumph of 
 the two succeeding days; the little streams which 
 wind through the hills, on whose banks in after- 
 times the wondering plowmen will turn up, with 
 the rude weapons of savage warfare, the fearful 
 missiles of modern artillery; Seminary Ridge, the 
 Peach Orchard, Cemetery, Culp, and Wolf Hill, 
 Round Top, Little Round Top, humble names, 
 henceforward dear and famous — no lapse of time, 
 no distance of space, shall cause you to be forgot- 
 ten. "The whole earth," said Pericles, as he stood 
 over the remains of his fellow citizens, who had 
 fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian war, 
 "the whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious 
 men." All time, he might have added, is the 
 millenium of their glory. Surely I would do no 
 injustice to the other noble achievements of the 
 war, which have reflected such honor on both 
 arms of the service, and have entitled the armies 
 and the navy of the United States, their officers 
 and men, to the warmest thanks and the richest 
 rewards which a grateful people can pay. But they, 
 I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell 
 to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that whereso- 
 ever throughout the civilized world the accounts 
 of this great warfare are read, and down to the 
 latest period of recorded time, in the glorious an- 
 nals of our common country, there will be no 
 
n; 
 
 
 .Jf*z»iL., 
 
 1 
 
 MM 
 
 FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN YEARS 
 AGO OUR FATHERS BROUGHT FORTH 
 ON THIS CONTINENT A NEW NATION 
 CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY AND DEDICA- 
 TED TO THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL 
 MEN ARE CREATED EQJJAL • 
 
 NOW WE ARE ENGAGED IN A GREAT 
 CIVIL WAR TESTING WHETHER THAT 
 NATION OR ANY NATION SO CON- 
 CEIVED AND SO DEDICATED CAN LONG 
 ENDURE • WE ARE MET ON A GREAT 
 BATTLEFIELD 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 FIT- 
 TING 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 LIV- 
 ING 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 HERETO 
 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-THATTH1S 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- 
 
 frf ff- f^ 
 
 The Gettysburg Address as it appears on the south wall of the 
 Lincoln Memorial. Courtesy, National Park Service, U. S. Depart- 
 ment of the Interior 
 
Everett's Gettysburg Address 165 
 
 brighter page than that which relates The Battles 
 of Gettysburg. 
 
 The following is from a letter that Everett wrote to the 
 President the day after the ceremonies at Gettysburg: 
 
 Not wishing to intrude upon your privacy, when 
 you must be much engaged, I beg leave, in this 
 way, to thank you very sincerely for your great 
 thoughtfulness for my daughter's accommodation 
 on the Platform yesterday, & much kindness 
 otherwise to me 8c mine at Gettysburg. 
 
 Permit me also to express my great admiration 
 of the thoughts expressed by you, with such elo- 
 quent simplicity & appropriateness, at the conse- 
 cration of the cemetery. I should be glad, if I 
 could flatter myself that I came as near to the 
 central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you 
 did in two minutes. My son who parted from me 
 at Baltimore & my daughter, concur in this 
 sentiment. . . . 
 
 I hope your anxiety for your child was relieved 
 on your arrival. 
 
 Lincoln told his friend James Speed that he had never 
 received a compliment he prized more highly. He replied to 
 Everett the same day; his answer is given in full: 
 
 Your kind note of to-day is received. In our respec- 
 tive parts yesterday, you could not have been 
 excused to make a short address, nor I a long one. 
 I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the 
 little I did say was not entirely a failure. Of course 
 
166 The Gettysburg Addresses 
 
 I knew Mr. Everett would not fail; and yet, while 
 the whole discourse was eminently satisfactory, 
 and will be of great value, there were passages in 
 it which transcended my expectation. The point 
 made against the theory of the general government 
 being only an agency, whose principals are the 
 States, was new to me, and, as I think, is one of 
 the best arguments for the national supremacy. 
 The tribute to our noble women for their angel- 
 ministering to the suffering soldiers, surpasses, in 
 its way, as do the subjects of it, whatever has gone 
 before. 
 
 Our sick boy, for whom you kindly inquire, we 
 hope is past the worst. 
 
 Edward Everett's last speech, which was made in Boston 
 January 9, 1865, was a plea to the people of the North to 
 send food to Savannah, Georgia, which had surrendered to 
 General Sherman December 21st: 
 
 Savannah wants our pork and beef and flour; and 
 I say, in Heaven's name, let us send it to them 
 without money and without price. . . . Let us 
 offer it to them freely, not in the spirit of alms- 
 giving, but as a pledge of fraternal feeling, and 
 an earnest of our disposition to resume all the 
 kind offices of fellow-citizenship with our return- 
 ing brethren. 
 
 This oratorical effort brought on the illness from which 
 Everett died January 15, 1865. Exactly three months later, 
 the man who had shared the platform with him at Gettysburg 
 went to his final resting place. 
 
Index 
 
 Adams, John, 137 
 
 Adams, Samuel, 137 
 
 Aldie, Virginia, 110 
 
 Appomattox, Virginia, 9 
 
 Archenholz, Johann Wilhelm Von, 
 154 
 
 Archer, General James J., 119 
 
 Armistead, General Lewis A., 127, 
 131 
 
 Athens, 96, 99 
 
 Autograph Leaves of Our Coun- 
 try's Authors, 42 
 
 Bachelder, Colonel John B., 118 
 (footnote) 
 
 Bacon, Francis, 140 
 
 Baltimore, 15, 109 
 
 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 12, 
 113 
 
 Baltimore Glee Club, 20 
 
 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, 120 
 
 Bancroft, George, 42, 47 
 
 Barksdale, General William, 131 
 
 Barlow, General Francis C, 119, 
 131 
 
 Barnes, General James, 131 
 
 "Battle of Gettysburg and the Cam- 
 paign of Pennsylvania, The," 
 Blackwood's Magazine, 118 
 (footnote) 
 
 Baugher, Doctor H. L., 24 
 
 Berlin, Maryland, 131 
 
 Beverly Ford, Virginia, 110 
 
 Bible, influence of on Gettysburg 
 Address, 60, 63, 64 
 
 Blackwood's Magazine, 118 (foot- 
 note) 
 
 Blair, Postmaster General Mont- 
 gomery, 15, 20 
 
 Bliss: Colonel Alexander, 42, 47; 
 Eleanor A., 47, 48; Doctor Wil- 
 liam J. A., 47; Mrs. William J. 
 A., 47, 48 
 
 Board of Commissioners, Gettys- 
 burg cemetery, 11 
 
 Bosworth Field, Battle of (Wars 
 of the Roses), 152 
 
 Bryan, William Jennings, 56 
 
 Buchwald, Art: "Lincoln Man- 
 aged News at Gettysburg," 82 to 
 84, 87 
 
 Buford, General John, 113, 114, 118 
 
 Burns, John L., 24, 25 
 
 Butterfield, General Daniel, 131 
 
 Cabinet meeting, 12 
 Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 111 
 Carr, Colonel Clark E., 11, 20 
 Cashtown, (Pennsylvania) road, 
 
 112, 113, 128, 129 
 Cemetery Hill, 10, 120, 124, 126, 
 
 162 
 
 167 
 
168 
 
 Index 
 
 Centreville, Virginia, 108 
 
 Ceramicus, 99 
 
 Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 110 
 
 to 112, 114 
 Charles I (England), 134, 137, 138, 
 
 153 
 Charles II (England), 153, 154 
 Charles V (Holy Roman Empire), 
 
 wars of, 154 
 Chase, Secretary of the Treasury 
 
 Salmon P., 10 to 13 
 Chicago Tribune, 53, 54; parody 
 
 from, 69, 70 
 Cimon, 99 
 
 Cintas, Ambassador Oscar B., 48 
 Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 
 
 154 
 Columbia, Pennsylvania, 112 
 Conditores Imperiorum, 140 
 Cooper, Senator John Sherman 
 
 (chairman, Lincoln Sesquicenten- 
 
 nial Commission), 87 to 89 
 Cornell University Library, 42 
 Couch, General Darius N., 16 
 Crawford, General Samuel W., 124 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 137 
 Culp's Hill, 14, 162 
 Curtin, Governor Andrew G. 
 
 (Pennsylvania), 10, 11, 20, 24 
 Curzon, George Nathaniel, Lord, 
 
 56, 59 
 
 Dante, 155, 156 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, President of the 
 Confederacy, 106, 137 
 
 Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, 55 
 
 Doubleday, General Abner, 119, 
 126, 131 
 
 Duncan (Oklahoma) Banner, par- 
 ody from, 66 to 68 
 
 Early, General Jubal A., Ill, 119 
 Edwards Ferry, Maryland, 112 
 
 Eisenhower, D wight D., 13, 70 to 
 
 72 
 Eleventh Corps, 119, 120, 123, 124 
 Emmitsburg, Maryland, 113, 114, 
 
 119, 129 
 Everett, Edward, 11, 16, 17, 20, 24, 
 
 25, 39, 53, 55; correspondence 
 
 with Lincoln, 39, 40, 165, 166; 
 
 career, 95; Gettysburg speech, 95 
 
 to 166; Boston speech, 166; 
 
 death, 166 
 Ever sores Imperiorum, 140 
 Ewell, General Richard S., 110 to 
 
 112, 118 (footnote), 124, 125, 130 
 
 Fairfield, Pennsylvania, 128, 129 
 Falling Waters (Potomac River), 
 
 130 
 Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, 113 
 Fifth Corps, 122 to 124 
 Fifth New York Artillery band, 17 
 Fino, Representative Paul A. (New 
 
 York), 75 
 First Corps, 114, 119, 120, 123, 124, 
 
 126 
 Fish, Mrs. Hamilton, 39 
 Fouche, Joseph, 157 
 France, 156 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 137 
 Frederick, Maryland, 112 
 Fredericksburg, Virginia, 108, 109 
 French, Benjamin B., hymn by, 20, 
 
 23, 24 
 French (a Union General), 113, 130 
 Fry, James B., 13, 15 
 
 Gadsden, James, 149 
 
 Garnett, General Richard B., 127, 
 
 131 
 Geary, General John W., 125 
 George I (England), 134 
 George II (England), 134 
 George III (England), 134, 137 
 
Index 
 
 169 
 
 Germany, 154, 155 
 Gettysburg, movement toward be- 
 fore battle, 112 to 114, 118 
 (footnote) 
 Gettysburg Address: first draft, 27, 
 28; second draft, 28, 33; short- 
 hand account, 34, 39; Everett 
 copy, 41, 42; first Bancroft copy, 
 42, 47; final copy, 48, 51 
 Gettysburg Address Memorial, 51 
 Gibbon, General John, 127, 131 
 Graham, General Charles K., 131 
 Grant, General Ulysses S., 9 
 Gregg, General David McM., 112 
 
 Hagerstown, Maryland, 110 
 
 Hale, Charles (Boston Advertiser 
 
 reporter, 34 
 Halleck, General Henry W., 117 
 
 (footnote), 123 (footnote) 
 Hampden, John, 138 
 Hancock, John, 137 
 Hancock, General Winfield S., 120, 
 
 121, 127, 131 
 Hanover, Pennsylvania, 16, 113 
 Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, 
 
 15 
 Harman House, Gettysburg, 121 
 Harper house, Gettysburg, 18 
 Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 112, 
 
 113 
 Harper's Weekly, 56 
 Harrisburg, 112 
 
 Harrisburg Patriot and Union, 54 
 Hay, Clarence L., 28 
 Hay, John, 15, 20, 28 
 Heidlersbe (u)rg, Pennsylvania, 119 
 Henry VII (England), 152, 153 
 Henry, Patrick, 137 
 Heth, General Harry, 131 
 Hill, General Ambrose P., 110, 111, 
 
 113, 114, 118 (footnote), 124, 126, 
 
 127 
 
 Hood, General John B., 131 
 Hooker, General Joseph, 108 to 113 
 Howard, General Oliver O., 119 to 
 
 121 
 Hume, David, 152 
 
 Illinois State Historical Library, 40 
 Income tax parody, 74, 75 
 Iron Brigade, 25 
 Italy, 155, 156 
 
 Jacobs, Doctor M., professor at 
 
 Pennsylvania College, 117 
 James II (England), 134, 138 
 Jay, E. L., parody by, 68, 69 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 137 
 Jenkins, General Albert G., 110 
 John XXIII, Pope, 89, 93 
 Johnson, General Edward, 131 
 Johnson, Representative Jed J. 
 (Oklahoma), 65, 66 
 
 Kamish, Harry (editor, Union 
 Mail), parody by, 75, 76 
 
 Kemper, General James L., 127, 131 
 
 Kennedy Administration: subject 
 of parody, 73; alleged news man- 
 agement by, 82 
 
 Kennedy, John P., 42, 47 
 
 Keyes, Senator Henry W. (New 
 Hampshire), 40 
 
 Kilpatrick, General Judson, 113 
 
 Kimball (a Confederate General), 
 131 
 
 Lamon, Ward Hill, 15, 20, 24, 25 
 
 Latin translation, Gettysburg Ad- 
 dress, 87 to 90, 93, 94 
 
 Lee, General Robert E., 9, 108 to 
 113, 118 (footnote), 123 (foot- 
 note), 126, 128 to 131 
 
 Leesburg, Virginia, 108 
 
170 
 
 Index 
 
 Library of Congress, 28 
 Lincoln, Abraham: 
 
 Bancroft, letter to, 42 
 
 Burns, John L., meets, 25 
 
 Cabinet meeting, 12 
 
 Chase, letter to, 12 
 
 death, 166 
 
 Everett, corrected during ora- 
 tion, 20; correspondence with, 
 39, 40, 165, 166 
 
 Gettysburg, Battle of, messages 
 pertaining to, 123 (footnote) 
 
 Gettysburg, invitation to, 10, 11; 
 journey to, 15, 16 
 
 Lamon, comments to on Ad- 
 dress, 24, 25 
 
 Saunders, William, talks with, 14 
 
 serenaders, at White House, 9, 
 10; at Wills house, 17, 53 
 
 Stanton, correspondence with, 12, 
 13; telegrams from, 18, 19 
 Lincoln, Mrs. Mary, 18, 19 
 Lincoln Memorial, 51, 64 
 Lincoln Room, White House, 48 
 Lincoln Sesquicentennial Commis- 
 sion, 87 to 89, 93 
 Lincoln, Thomas (Tad), 15, 18, 
 
 19, 165, 166 
 Little Round Top, 16, 124, 127, 
 
 162 
 London Times, 54 
 Long Parliament, 153 
 Longs treet, General James, 110, 
 
 111, 113, 114, 118 (footnote), 124, 
 
 126, 127 
 Louis XVIII (France), 157 
 Lyman, Colonel Theodore, 117 
 
 (footnote) 
 
 MacVeagh, Wayne, 16 
 MAD, parody from, 87 
 Madigan, Thomas F., 42 
 Manchester, Maryland, 114 
 
 Marathon, Battle of, 99, 100 
 
 Marsh Creek, Pennsylvania, 114 
 
 Marsh Run, Maryland, 130 
 
 McMillan's, 119 
 
 McPherson barn, 24 
 
 Meade, General George G., 10, 104, 
 112, 113, 117 (footnote), 118 
 (footnote), 120, 121, 123, 129 to 
 132 
 
 Middletown, Maryland, 130 
 
 Minutes of the Extraordinary Spe- 
 cial Subcommittee on Annual 
 and Other Reports to Consider a 
 Draft Statement: The Gettysburg 
 Address, 76 to 82 
 
 Monterey, Pennsylvania, 129 
 
 Morton, Governor Oliver P. (In- 
 diana), 20 
 
 Mount Vernon Ladies' Association 
 of the Union, 95 
 
 Mundt, Representative Karl E. 
 (South Dakota), 68 
 
 Murray, Governor William H. 
 (Oklahoma), 67 
 
 National Soldiers' Cemetery cor- 
 poration, 10 
 New Windsor, Maryland, 113 
 New York Mirror, parody from, 72, 
 
 73 
 New York Sanitary Fair, 40 
 Nicolay, John G., 15, 19, 20 
 Northern Central Railway, 15 
 Noyes, Mrs. Nicholas H., 42 
 
 One Hundred and Fiftieth Penn- 
 sylvania Volunteers, 24 
 Otis, James, 137 
 
 Parker, Governor Joel (New Jer- 
 sey), 20 
 Pausanias, 100 
 
Index 
 
 171 
 
 Peach Orchard, 162 
 
 Peloponnesian War, 162 
 
 Pender, General William D., 131 
 
 Pennsylvania Reserves, 124 
 
 Pericles, 162 
 
 Petersen, Svend, parody by, 69, 70 
 
 Petigru, James L., 149 
 
 Pettigrew, General J. Johnston, 114, 
 
 127, 130, 131 
 Philadelphia Bulletin, 55 
 Pickett, General George E., 126, 
 
 127 
 Pinckney, Charles Cotesvvorth, 149 
 Pitt, William (the younger), 56 
 Pleasanton, General Alfred, 108, 
 
 110 
 Poolesville, Maryland, 108 
 Post Office employees, subject of 
 
 parody, 75, 76 
 Potomac, Army of the, 102, 104, 
 
 105, 113, 118 (footnote), 127 
 Presbyterian Church, Gettysburg, 
 
 25 
 Providence Journal, 55 
 Puritans (England), 138 
 Pym, John, 138 
 
 Quantrell, William C, 150 
 
 Reformation, wars of the, 154 
 Reynolds, General John F., 113, 
 
 114, 118 to 120, 131, 162 
 Richmond Enquirer, 118 (footnote) 
 Rodes, General Robert E., 119 
 Roosevelt Administration, subject 
 
 of parody, 68, 69 
 Roses, Wars of the, 152 
 Round Top, 14, 124, 162 
 Russell, Earl John, 134 
 Russell, William, 138 
 Rutledge, John, 149 
 Ryan, Monsignor Edwin, Latin 
 
 translation by, 87 to 90, 93, 94 
 
 St. Albans, Battle of (Wars of the 
 Roses), 152 
 
 Saunders, William (landscape gar- 
 dener), 14 
 
 Savannah, Everett's speech on be- 
 half of people of, 166 
 
 Schadeberg, Representative Henry 
 C. (Wisconsin), 60, 63 
 
 Schmucker, Doctor (perhaps Beale 
 M. or Samuel S.), 119 
 
 Schurz, General Carl, 119 
 
 Scott, General Winfield, 10 
 
 Second Corps, 122 to 124, 126 
 
 Second Inaugural address, 56, 64 
 
 Sedgwick, General John, 122, 129 
 
 Seminary Ridge, 119, 126, 162 
 
 Semmes, General Paul J., 131 
 
 Seven Years' War, 154 
 
 Seward, Secretary of State William 
 H., 13, 15, 18, 20 
 
 Seymour, Governor Horatio (New 
 York), 20 
 
 Shepherdstown, Maryland, 109 to 
 111 
 
 Sickles, General Daniel E., 121, 124, 
 131 
 
 Sioux Falls Argus Leader, parody 
 from, 68 
 
 Sixth Corps, 122 to 125 
 
 Slocum, General Henry W., 121 
 
 Smith, Senator H. Alexander (New 
 Jersey), 76 
 
 Soldiers' and Sailors' Fair, 42 
 
 Soldiers' National Monument, 51 
 
 Somers, John, 138 
 
 Spangler's Spring, Pennsylvania, 
 125 
 
 Speed, James, 165 
 
 Springfield (Massachusetts) Repub- 
 lican, 54, 55 
 
 Stannard, General George J., 126 
 
 Stanton, Secretary of War Edwin 
 M., 10 to 13, 18, 19 
 
172 
 
 Index 
 
 States' Rights doctrine, 141 to 144, 
 166 
 
 Steinwehr, General Adolph von, 120 
 
 Stephens, Alexander H., Vice Presi- 
 dent of the Confederacy, 137 
 
 Stevens, Representative Thaddeus 
 
 Stockton, Doctor Thomas H. (chap- 
 Pennsylvania), 13 
 lain, House of Representatives), 
 20 
 
 Stuart, Charles Edward, the Young 
 Pretender, 134 
 
 Stuart, General James E. B., 108, 
 112, 113 
 
 Stuart, James Francis Edward, the 
 Old Pretender, 134 
 
 Sumter, Fort, 106 
 
 Taneytown, Maryland, 122 
 
 Third Corps, 121 to 125 
 
 Thirty Years' War, 154 
 
 Tod, Governor David (Ohio), 20 
 
 Trimble, General Isaac R., 127, 131 
 
 Turner's Pass, Maryland, 130 
 
 Twelfth Corps, 121, 123 
 
 Union Mail, parody from, 75, 76 
 United States Marine Band, 20 
 Upperville, Virginia, 110 
 Usher, Secretary of the Interior 
 John P., 15, 20 
 
 Vagnozzi, Monsignor Egidio (apos- 
 tolic delegate to United States), 
 receives Latin translation, Gettys- 
 burg Address, 87 to 90, 93 
 
 Vatican Library receives Latin 
 translation, Gettysburg Address, 
 88, 89, 93 
 
 Vicksburg, fall of, 9; Everett refers 
 to, 104 
 
 Wadsworth, Alice Hay, 28 
 Wadsworth, General James S., 119 
 War, Confederate Secretary of, 106 
 Warren, General Gouverneur K., 
 
 131 
 Washington, George, 137, 140; 
 
 Everett's lecture on, 95 
 Washington, D. C, Confederate 
 
 drive toward, 107 to 109 
 Washington Street, Gettysburg, 120 
 Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, 110 
 Webster's New Collegiate Diction- 
 ary, 87 
 Weed, General Stephen H., 131 
 Weichel, Representative Alvin F. 
 
 (Ohio), 74 
 Welles, Secretary of the Navy Gid- 
 eon, 10, 11 
 Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 
 
 Duke of, 129, 132 
 Western' Maryland Railroad, 15 
 Wheaton, General Frank, 125 
 Whigs (England), 138 
 Whitney, Helen Hay, 28 
 Wilcox, General Cadmus M., 118 
 
 (footnote) 
 William (Lincoln's servant), 17 
 Williamsport, Maryland, 109 to 
 
 111, 129, 130 
 Wills, David, 11, 12, 16 to 18, 25 
 Winchell, Walter, parody by, 72, 73 
 Wolf Hill, 162 
 
 York, Pennsylvania, 111 
 
 Zook, General Samuel K., 131 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 Mark Twain and the Government 
 
 A Statistical History of 
 the American Presidential Elections 
 
continued from front flap 
 
 the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. 
 But Mr. Petersen delightfully follows its 
 career into less seemly places also— where, 
 of course, it goes in disguise. In the 
 shape of parody, it has appeared under 
 the byline of reformist newspaper col- 
 umnists and in comic books, as well as in 
 the Congressional Record. It has attacked 
 politicians and professors; monopolies, 
 the government and taxes. The parodies 
 reproduced here are amusing; no doubt 
 they would have made Abe chuckle. 
 
 The Gettysburg Addresses is generously 
 illustrated with photographs that em- 
 phasize the appeal of the subject. The 
 different copies of Lincoln's address are 
 included among them, so that the reader 
 can see the revisions in his own hand. 
 There are also striking photographs of 
 the speakers as they were at the time of 
 their joint contribution to history, ex- 
 actly one hundred years ago. 
 
 Brought to the United States from Den- 
 mark in 1912, when he was one year old, 
 Sven Petersen grew up in the Midwest. 
 In 1949 his lifelong interest in American 
 history and government took him to 
 Washington, D.C., where he became as- 
 sistant editor of the weekly newsletter 
 Human Events. Mr. Petersen is also the 
 author of Mark Twain and the Govern- 
 ment and A Statistical History of the 
 American Presidential Elections. 
 
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