The Gettysburg Address

History 2110 – Dr. Pedler

Writing Assignment #8

The Gettysburg Address

You have been given access to a copy of the Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19^th, 1863 by Abraham Lincoln at the dedication ceremony for a cemetery constructed to hold the bodies of the victims of the battle.  You should also review a short video in which a historical re-enactor, portraying Lincoln, delivers the address and offers a bit of commentary on its background.  The video may be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPzAZ5N-mtU&t=1s

Prepare responses to each of the questions below (10 points each, 20 points total).  Your response to each question should be one full paragraph (5-7 sentences) in length.  Your responses must be posted to the appropriate dropbox folder on the course web site in Pilot by no later than 11:00 pm on Friday, November 27^th.

1. The “fourscore and seven years” to which Lincoln refers in the opening of the Gettysburg Address dates to 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence. Why do you think Lincoln chose that year, rather than 1787, the year in which the U.S. Constitution was written, or 1789, the year in which it was ratified?

2. What was Lincoln’s purpose in delivering this address?

Story:

The Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863

Make sure all sentences are grammatically correct and fit the prompt. Please make sure to describe each point very concisely. You may need to do a little outside research to get an idea of where to start.