Remembering the Gettysburg Address - 150 Years Later

On this day 150 years ago President Abraham Lincoln visited Gettysburg to dedicate the Soldiers National Cemetery as a place of honor for the fallen Union soldiers from the July 1863 battle. In doing so he marked the dedication ceremony with a 272-word speech that has since been revered as a masterpiece. Lincoln’s brilliant speech, the Gettysburg Address, presented the human sacrifice of the Civil War as devotion to the struggle for freedom and a continuation of the noble principles established in the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln’s fervent dedication to preserve the Union and to secure freedom for all Americans situated the Union and the Confederacy on opposing sides during the four-year Civil War conflict. In honoring the sacrifice of the Union soldiers at Gettysburg Lincoln recognized that the Union cause must persevere and succeed to reconcile the divided nation, to establish a lasting freedom for all Americans, and to secure the Declaration of Independence as a cornerstone of democracy.