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{{Short description|1863 speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox historical event
| title = Gettysburg Address
| image = Lincolnatgettysburg.jpg
| partof = the [[Eastern theater of the American Civil War]]
| caption = One of only two confirmed photos of [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]]  at [[Gettysburg National Cemetery|Gettysburg]] (seated in center facing camera),<ref>{{cite news|title=Ultrarare photo of Abraham Lincoln discovered|url=https://www.foxnews.com/science/ultrarare-photo-of-abraham-lincoln-discovered/|access-date=September 25, 2013|newspaper=Fox News|date=September 24, 2013|archive-date=September 25, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925100344/http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/09/24/ultra-rare-photo-abraham-lincoln-discovered/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Lidz |first=Franz |date=October 2013 |title=Will the Real Abraham Lincoln Please Stand Up? |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Will-the-Real-Abraham-Lincoln-Please-Stand-Up-224911272.html |magazine=Smithsonian |access-date=October 3, 2013 |archive-date=September 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928041334/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Will-the-Real-Abraham-Lincoln-Please-Stand-Up-224911272.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Brian |first=Wolly |date=October 2013 |title=Interactive: Seeking Abraham Lincoln at the Gettysburg Address |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Interactive_Seeking_Abraham_Lincoln_at_the_Gettysburg_Address.html |magazine=Smithsonian |access-date=October 3, 2013 |archive-date=September 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929144857/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Interactive_Seeking_Abraham_Lincoln_at_the_Gettysburg_Address.html |url-status=live }}</ref> taken about noon on November 19, 1863; some three hours later, Lincoln delivered the famed address. To Lincoln's right is [[Ward Hill Lamon]], Lincoln's bodyguard.
| date = {{Start date and age|November 19, 1863}}
}}{{Abraham Lincoln series}}

The '''Gettysburg Address''' is a [[Public speaking|speech]] delivered by [[Abraham Lincoln]], the 16th [[President of the United States|U.S. president]], following the [[Battle of Gettysburg]] during the [[American Civil War]]. The speech has come to be viewed as one of the most famous, enduring, and historically significant speeches in [[history of the United States|American history]].

Lincoln delivered the speech on the afternoon of November 19, 1863, during a formal dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery, now known as [[Gettysburg National Cemetery]], on the grounds where the Battle of Gettysburg was fought four and a half months earlier, between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]]. In the battle, [[Union army]] soldiers successfully repelled and defeated [[Confederate States Army|Confederate forces]] in what proved to be the Civil War's deadliest and most decisive battle, resulting in more than 50,000 Confederate and [[Union army]] casualties in a Union victory that altered the war's course in the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]'s favor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Conant |first=Sean |date=2015 |title=The Gettysburg Address: Perspectives on Lincoln's Greatest Speech |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_bmyBwAAQBAJ&pg=PR9 |location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press |page=ix |isbn=978-0-19-022745-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Holsinger |first=M. Paul |date=1999 |title=War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oe4AOVHkJ9oC&pg=PA102 |location=Westport, CT |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=102 |isbn=978-0-313-29908-7}}</ref>

The historical and enduring significance and fame of the Gettysburg Address is at least partly attributable to its brevity; it has only 271 words and read in less than two minutes before approximately 15,000 people who had gathered to commemorate the sacrifice of the Union soldiers, over 3,000 of whom were killed during the three-day battle. Lincoln began with a reference to the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] of 1776: {{blockquote|Four [[20 (number)|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.}} He said that the Civil War was "testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure". Lincoln then extolled the sacrifices of the thousands who died in the Battle of Gettysburg in defense of those principles, and he argued that their sacrifice should elevate the nation's commitment to ensuring the Union prevailed and the nation endured, famously saying:

{{blockquote|that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom<ref name="america58">White Jr., Ronald C. ''The Words That Moved a Nation'' in: "[http://photos.state.gov/libraries/korea/49271/dwoa_122709/lincoln.pdf Abraham Lincoln: A Legacy of Freedom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923193718/http://photos.state.gov/libraries/korea/49271/dwoa_122709/lincoln.pdf |date=September 23, 2017 }}", Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State – Bureau of International Information Programs, p. 58.</ref>—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.<ref name="History20130222">{{cite web|title=The Gettysburg Address|date=August 24, 2010 |url=http://www.history.com/topics/gettysburg-address|publisher=[[History (U.S. TV channel)|History]]|access-date=February 22, 2013|archive-date=December 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206050226/http://www.history.com/topics/gettysburg-address|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Fox|first=Christopher Graham|title=A analysis of Abraham Lincoln's poetic Gettysburg Address|url=http://foxthepoet.blogspot.de/2008/09/poetical-analysis-of-abraham-lincolns.html|publisher=foxthepoet.blogspot.de|access-date=August 21, 2012|date=September 12, 2008}}</ref>}}

Despite the historical significance and fame that the speech ultimately obtained, Lincoln was scheduled to give only brief dedicatory remarks, following the main oration given by the elder statesman [[Edward Everett]]. Thus, Lincoln's closing remarks consumed a very small fraction of the day's event, which lasted for several hours. Nor was Lincoln's address immediately recognized as particularly significant. Over time, however, it came to be widely viewed as one of the greatest and most influential statements ever delivered on the American national purpose, and it came to be seen as one of the most prominent examples of the successful use of the [[English language]] and [[rhetoric]] to advance a political cause. "The Gettysburg Address did not enter the broader American canon until decades after Lincoln's death, following [[World War I]] and the 1922 opening of the [[Lincoln Memorial]], where the speech is etched in marble. As the Gettysburg Address gained in popularity, it became a staple of school textbooks and readers, and the succinctness of the three paragraph oration permitted it to be memorized by generations of American school children," the [[History Channel]] reported in November 2024.<ref>[https://www.history.com/news/gettysburg-address-lincoln-speech-impact "Why the Gettysburg Address Is One of the Most Famous Speeches in History"], the [[History Channel]], November 15, 2024</ref>

==Background==
[[File:Gettsyburginvitationpage2.jpg|thumb|The written invitation sent by [[David Wills (Gettysburg)|David Wills]], the primary organizer of the ceremonial dedication of [[Gettysburg National Cemetery|Soldiers' National Cemetery]], inviting Lincoln to speak at the event]]
[[File:Battle of Gettysburg.jpg|thumb|''[[A Harvest of Death]]'', a photo taken by [[Timothy H. O'Sullivan]] immediately following the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], showing [[Union army]] soldiers then laying dead on the Gettysburg battlefield]]
In inviting President Lincoln to speak at the ceremony, [[David Wills (Gettysburg)|David Wills]], a member of the committee for the November 19 [[Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg]], wrote, "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."<ref name="wills">Wills, Garry. ''Lincoln at Gettysburg''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, pp. 24–25, 34–36.</ref>

On November 18, 1863, Lincoln departed [[Washington, D.C.]] for [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania|Gettysburg]], accompanied by three of his cabinet members, [[William H. Seward|William Seward]], [[John Palmer Usher|John Usher]], and [[Montgomery Blair]], several foreign officials, his secretary [[John Nicolay]], and his assistant secretary, [[John Hay]]. During the trip, Lincoln told Hay that he felt weak. The following morning, on November 19, Lincoln mentioned to Nicolay that he felt dizzy. Hay noted during the speech that Lincoln's face had "a ghastly color" and that he was "sad, mournful, almost haggard". After the speech, when Lincoln boarded the 6:30{{nbsp}}pm train to return to Washington, D.C., he was feverish and weak with a severe headache. He was subsequently diagnosed with a mild case of [[smallpox]], which included a vesicular rash. Modern clinicians believe that Lincoln was likely in a [[Prodrome|prodromal]] period of smallpox when he delivered the Gettysburg Address.<ref>{{Cite journal
 | pmid = 17551612
| year = 2007
| last1 = Goldman
| first1 = A. S.
| title = Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg illness
| journal = Journal of Medical Biography
| volume = 15
| issue = 2
| pages = 104–110
| last2 = Schmalstieg
| first2 = F. C. Jr.
 | doi=10.1258/j.jmb.2007.06-14
| s2cid = 26513017
}}</ref>

Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg later that night, just as the city was beginning to fill with large crowds who had arrived to participate in it the following day. Lincoln spent the night in Wills' house, where a large crowd appeared, singing and wanting Lincoln to speak. Lincoln left Wills' house to meet the crowd, but did not deliver any formal remarks, instead speaking briefly and extemporaneously. The crowd then continued on to the house where Lincoln's [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[William Seward]] was staying that night. Seward spoke to crowd. Later that night, Lincoln wrote and briefly met with Seward before going to sleep around midnight.{{sfn|LaFantasie|1995|pp=77{{endash}}78}}

[[File:Edward Everett.jpg|thumb|[[Edward Everett]], who delivered the day's primary speech, a two-hour oration prior to Lincoln's much briefer remarks]]
While Lincoln's short address proved to be by far the most historically notable that day, and is often held up as an example of English public oratory, [[Edward Everett]]'s oration was slated to be the main speech of the day. His now seldom read speech was 13,607 words in length,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=toHtEecTeFkC&pg=PA5 |title=Long Road to Gettysburg |page=5 |author=Murphy, Jim |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-618-05157-1 |access-date=December 10, 2007 |archive-date=July 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707000621/http://books.google.com/books?id=toHtEecTeFkC&pg=PA5 |url-status=live }}</ref> and lasted two hours.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/edwardeverettuni00reid_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/edwardeverettuni00reid_0/page/192 192] |title=Edward Everett: Unionist Orator |others=Volume 7 |author=Reid, Ronald F. |year=1990 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |access-date=December 10, 2007 |isbn=978-0-313-26164-0}}</ref> During this era, lengthy dedication addresses of cemeteries, like the one delivered by Everett, were very common. The tradition began in 1831 when Justice [[Joseph Story]] delivered a lengthy dedication address at [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. Many of the lengthy addresses of the era linked cemeteries to the mission of the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]].<ref>Alfred L. Brophy, [https://ssrn.com/abstract=2304305] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122723/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2304305|date=May 3, 2021}} "These Great and Beautiful Republics of the Dead': Public Constitutionalism and the Antebellum Cemetery"</ref>

==Text==
Shortly after Everett concluded his lengthy speech, which was well received by the crowd, Lincoln rose and, from the speakers' podium, addressed the crowd for only approximately two minutes.<ref>Murphy, Jim (1992). ''The Long Road to Gettysburg'', New York: Clarion Books. p. 105, "with a pronounced Kentucky accent".</ref> His 271-word speech was ten sentences long.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Michael Clay |title=Lincoln's Ten Sentences: The Gettysburg Address: Instructor Manual}}</ref>

Despite the historical significance of Lincoln's speech, modern scholars disagree on the precise wording in Lincoln's speech, and contemporary transcriptions published in newspaper accounts of the event and several of Lincoln's handwritten copies of the address differ slightly in wording, punctuation, and structure.<ref name=Gopnik>{{cite news|author=Gopnik, Adam|url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/28/070528fa_fact_gopnik|title=Angels and Ages: Lincoln's language and its legacy|date=May 28, 2007|access-date=November 23, 2007|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122548/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/05/28/angels-and-ages|url-status=live}} Gopnik notes, "Gabor Boritt, in his book ''The Gettysburg Gospel'', has a thirty-page appendix that compares what Lincoln (probably) read at the memorial with what people heard and reported. Most of the differences are small, and due to understandable confusions&nbsp;... A few disputes seem more significant."</ref><ref>Also note [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala;view=text;rgn=main;idno=2629860.0024.203 Johnson's] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122550/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala&view=text&rgn=main&idno=2629860.0024.203 |date=May 3, 2021 }} reference that "In 1895 Congress had voted to place at Gettysburg a bronze tablet engraved with the address but had mandated a text that does not correspond to any in Lincoln's hand or to contemporary newspaper accounts. The statute is reprinted in [[Henry Sweetser Burrage]], Gettysburg and Lincoln: The Battle, the Cemetery, and the National Park (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1906), 211."</ref> Among these versions, the Bliss version, written by Lincoln after the speech as a favor for a friend, is viewed by many as the standard text.<ref name=Borrit>Boritt, Gabor. ''The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows'', Appendix B p. 290: "This is the only copy that&nbsp;... Lincoln dignified with a title: 'Address delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg,' a rare full signature, and the date: 'November 19, 1863.' ... This final draft, generally considered the standard text, remained in the Bliss family until 1949."</ref> Its text differs, however, from the written versions prepared by Lincoln before and after his speech. But it is the only version which includes Lincoln's signature, and the last version of the speech that he is known to have written.<ref name=Borrit/> 

The Bliss version is as follows: 
{{Quote box|width = 50%|align = center|style = padding: 20px 30px 20px 30px|fontsize = 100%|border = 1px|quote =
<!--THIS IS A DIRECT TRANSCRIPTION OF THE BLISS COPY OF THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS - PLEASE DO NOT ALTER SPELLINGS OR WORDING, E.G. "CANNOT" FOR "CAN NOT", OR "THAT NATION" FOR "THAT THAT NATION". THE BLISS COPY INCLUDES "UNDER GOD" AND DIRECT QUOTATIONS ARE NOT GIVEN WIKILINKS -->
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" is the historically correct version. Please do not modify it. It is also grammatically correct. Thank you!--> 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.
|source=—[[Abraham Lincoln]]
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| header        = As read by Britton Rea, 2006:{{Efn|This reading replaces "far so" with "so far", in "...thus far so nobly advanced.", compared to the Bliss copy}}
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==Lincoln's sources==
In ''Lincoln at Gettysburg'', [[Garry Wills]] notes the parallels between Lincoln's speech and [[Pericles' Funeral Oration|Pericles's Funeral Oration]] during the [[Peloponnesian War]], described by [[Thucydides]]. Pericles' speech, like Lincoln's:

* Begins with an acknowledgment of revered predecessors: "I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that they should have the honor of the first mention on an occasion like the present"
* Praises the uniqueness of the State's commitment to [[democracy]]: "If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences"
* Honors the sacrifice of the slain, "Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonor, but met danger face to face"
* Exhorts the living to continue the struggle: "You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue."<ref name="McPherson">{{cite magazine|author=McPherson, James M. |title=The Art of Abraham Lincoln|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2852|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711005933/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1992/jul/16/the-art-of-abraham-lincoln/|archive-date=July 11, 2011|access-date=November 30, 2007|magazine=The New York Review of Books|volume=39|issue=13|date=July 16, 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=The Constitution Society|year=2007|work=Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics|title=Pericles' Funeral Oration from Thucydides: Peloponnesian War|url=http://www.constitution.org/gr/pericles_funeral_oration.htm|access-date=November 30, 2007|archive-date=October 13, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013171544/http://constitution.org/gr/pericles_funeral_oration.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[James M. McPherson]] notes this connection in his review of Wills's book.<ref name=McPherson/> [[Gore Vidal]] also draws attention to this link in a [[BBC]] documentary about oration.<ref>{{cite news|title=Yes We Can! The Lost Art Of Oratory|date=April 5, 2009|publisher=[[BBC Two]]}}</ref>

In contrast, writer [[Adam Gopnik]], in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', notes that Everett's oration was explicitly [[Neoclassicism|neoclassical]], referring directly to [[Marathon]] and [[Pericles]]. "Lincoln's rhetoric is, instead, deliberately Biblical. (It is difficult to find a single obviously classical reference in any of his speeches.) Lincoln had mastered the sound of the [[King James Bible]] so completely that he could recast abstract issues of constitutional law in Biblical terms, making the proposition that [[Texas]] and [[New Hampshire]] should be forever bound by a single post office sound like something right out of [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]," Gopnik wrote.<ref name="Gopnik" />

Wills also observed Lincoln's usage of the imagery of birth, life, and death in the address, during which he referenced the nation as being "brought forth", "conceived", and saying that it shall not "perish".<ref>{{cite journal|author=Vosmeier, Matthew Noah|journal=Lincoln Lore|title=Lincoln and the 'Central Idea of the Occasion': Garry Wills's Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America.|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala;view=text;rgn=main;idno=2629860.0015.206|publisher=The Lincoln Museum|access-date=November 9, 2009|date=January–February 1992|volume=15|issue=2|archive-date=October 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002094813/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala;view=text;rgn=main;idno=2629860.0015.206|url-status=live}}</ref> A 1959 thesis by William J. Wolf suggested that the address had a central image of baptism, although Glenn LaFantasie, writing for the ''[[Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association]]'', believes that Wolf's position was likely an overstatement. Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. suggests that Lincoln was inspired by the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]''.{{sfn|LaFantasie|1995|pp=74{{endash}}75}}

Historian [[Allen C. Guelzo]]<ref>{{cite news|author=Guelzo, Allen C.|url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009279|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214002123/http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009279|archive-date=February 14, 2009|title=When the Court lost its Conscience|access-date=November 26, 2006|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=November 21, 2006}}</ref> and others have suggested that Lincoln's phrase, "four score and seven", was an indirect reference to the [[King James Version]] of the [[Bible]] {{sourcetext|source=Bible|version=King James|book=Psalms |chapter=90|verse=10}} in which man's lifespan is described as "threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years".<ref>{{cite web |author=McInerney, Daniel J. |title=Review of Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President |url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4542 |access-date=November 30, 2007 |work=H-Pol, H-Net Reviews |date=September 2000 |archive-date=May 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122618/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4542 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Allen C. |last=Guelzo |title=Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.]] |year=1999 |isbn=0-8028-3872-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnre00guel }}</ref> LaFantasie also connected "four score and seven years" with Psalms 90:10, and referred to Lincoln's usage of the phrase "our fathers" as "mindful of the Lord's Prayer". He also refers to Garry Wills's tracing of spiritual language in the address to the [[Gospel of Luke]].{{sfn|LaFantasie|1995|p=74}}

==="Government of the people, by the people, for the people"===
[[File:Government-Vedder-Highsmith-detail-2.jpeg|thumb|[[Elihu Vedder]]'s 1896 mural ''Government'', inscribed with Lincoln's famed phrase, "government of the people, by the people, for the people", now housed in the [[Library of Congress]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
Lincoln scholars have several theories about Lincoln's use of the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" in the Gettysburg Address. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no evidence that a similar phrase appears in the prologue of [[John Wycliffe]]'s 1384 English translation of the [[Bible]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Haney|first1=John L.|title=Of the People, by the People, for the People|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|date=November 7, 1944|volume=88|issue=5|pages=359–367|url=http://libill.hartford.edu:2110/stable/985609|access-date=July 24, 2017|archive-date=November 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118164638/http://libill.hartford.edu:2110/stable/985609|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In "A more probable origin of a famous Lincoln phrase",<ref>Shaw, Albert, ed. ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews''. Vol. XXIII, January–June 1901. New York: The Review of Reviews Company. p. 336.</ref> published in 1901 in ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'', [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] minister [[John White Chadwick]] observed that Lincoln's law partner [[William Herndon (lawyer)|William Herndon]] was known to have brought Lincoln several sermons by [[Theodore Parker]], an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]] from [[Massachusetts]], which proved inspiring and influential to Lincoln. Herndon wrote:

{{blockquote|I brought with me additional sermons and lectures of Theodore Parker, who was warm in his commendation of Lincoln. One of these was a lecture on "The Effect of Slavery on the American People"&nbsp;... which I gave to Lincoln, who read and returned it. He liked especially the following expression, which he marked with a pencil, and which he in substance afterwards used in his Gettysburg Address: "Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people."<ref>Herndon, William H. and Jesse W. Welk (1892). ''Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of A Great Life'' New York: D. Appleton and Company. Vol II., p. 65.</ref>}}

Craig R. Smith, in "Criticism of Political Rhetoric and Disciplinary Integrity", suggested that the views of government that Lincoln described in the Gettysburg Address were influenced by [[Daniel Webster]]. In his [[Webster-Hayne debate|"Second Reply to Hayne"]] speech of January 26, 1830, Webster said, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!"<ref>{{cite journal|author=Smith, Craig|journal=American Communication Journal|volume=4|issue=1|date=Fall 2000|title=Criticism of Political Rhetoric and Disciplinary Integrity|url=http://www.acjournal.org/holdings/vol4/iss1/special/smith.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505141447/http://www.acjournal.org/holdings/vol4/iss1/special/smith.htm|archive-date=May 5, 2009 |access-date=November 26, 2007 }}</ref> Webster described the [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]] as, "made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people", possibly influencing Lincoln's use of "government of the people, by the people, for the people".<ref name=Dartmouth>{{cite web |work=Daniel Webster: Dartmouth's Favorite Son |title=The Second Reply to Hayne (January 26–27, 1830) |url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwebster/speeches/hayne-speech.html |access-date=November 30, 2007 |publisher=Dartmouth |archive-date=December 3, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203094343/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwebster/speeches/hayne-speech.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> Webster, in turn, may have been influenced by an 1819 speech by [[John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton]], who said, "I am a man chosen for the people, by the people; and, if elected, I will do no other business than that of the people."<ref>See Broughton, John and Burdett, Francis. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=CrgHAAAAQAAJ&dq=by-the-people+for-the-people+government+%22of+the+people%22+date:1000-1825&pg=PA105 An Authentic Narrative of the Events of the Westminster Election, which Commenced on Saturday, February 13th, and Closed on Wednesday, March 3d, 1819] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503155530/https://books.google.com/books?id=CrgHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA105&dq=by-the-people+for-the-people+government+%22of+the+people%22+date:1000-1825&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=pACCSe2EIqGayASV-7GxAQ |date=May 3, 2016 }}'' p. 105 (Published by R. Stodart, 1819).</ref> In Webster's "Second Reply to Hayne" speech, he also said, "This government, Sir, is the independent offspring of the popular will. It is not the creature of State legislatures; nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, the people brought it into existence, established it, and have hitherto supported it, for the very purpose, amongst others, of imposing certain salutary restraints on State sovereignties."<ref name=Dartmouth/>

A 2018 article claims that Lincoln was influenced by an 1852 speech by [[Lajos Kossuth]], the leader of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]], given before [[Ohio General Assembly|Ohio legislature]], that included the phrase, "The spirit of our age is Democracy. All for the people, and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people – That is Democracy!"<ref>{{cite web | url=https://ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/archives/3834 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414134246/https://ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/archives/3834 | archive-date=April 14, 2019 | title="All for the People, and All by the People"–Lajos Kossuth's Fight for Hungarian Independence }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.americanhungarianfederation.org/FamousHungarians/kossuth.htm | title=The Hungary Page - Louis (Lajos) Kossuth: Father of Hungarian Democracy }}</ref>

== Manuscripts ==
[[File:Gettysburg Address Amalgamated Text.jpg|thumb|The five extant versions of Lincoln's remarks, presented as a single annotated text{{Ref label|Nicolay|a|a}}{{Ref label|Hay|b|b}}{{Ref label|Everett|c|c}}{{Ref label|Bancroft|d|d}}{{Ref label|Bliss|e|e}}]]
There are five known manuscript copies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Each manuscript is named for the person who received it from Lincoln. Lincoln gave copies to his private secretaries, [[John Nicolay]] and [[John Hay]].<ref name="johnson">{{cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Martin P. |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala;view=text;rgn=main;idno=2629860.0024.203 |title=Who Stole the Gettysburg Address |journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association |volume=24 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2003 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.5406/19457987.24.2.03 |access-date=April 20, 2012 |archive-date=May 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122721/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala&view=text&rgn=main&idno=2629860.0024.203 |url-status=live }}</ref> Both of these drafts were written around the time of his November 19 address, while the other three copies of the address, the Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss copies, were written by Lincoln for charitable purposes after November 19.<ref>{{cite web|author=Rao, Maya|work=Cornell Daily Sun|date=April 6, 2005|url=http://cornellsun.com/2005/04/07/c-u-holds-gettysburg-address-manuscript/|title=C.U. Holds Gettysburg Address|access-date=November 23, 2007|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122551/https://cornellsun.com/2005/04/07/c-u-holds-gettysburg-address-manuscript/|url-status=live}}: "Several months after President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address, renowned historian George Bancroft attended a reception at the White House. There, he asked Lincoln for a hand-written copy of the address, and that manuscript is now the highlight of Cornell University Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections." "[Visitors]&nbsp;... can also see the letter Lincoln enclosed when he mailed the copy to Bancroft, which is dated February 29, 1864."</ref><ref>White Jr., Ronald C. (2005). ''The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words.'' New York: Random House. {{ISBN|1-4000-6119-9}} Appendix 9, p. 390: "The Bliss copy&nbsp;... Lincoln made in March 1864&nbsp;... The Everett and Bancroft copies, both of which Lincoln made in February 1864."</ref> In part because Lincoln provided a title and signed and dated the Bliss copy, that version has become the standard text of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.<ref name="hand">{{cite news|author=Boritt, Gabor|title=In Lincoln's Hand|access-date=November 23, 2007|url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213222142/http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|archive-date=February 13, 2009|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=November 16, 2006}}</ref>
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?64095-1/gettysburg-address Discussion with Garry Wills on the Nicolay and Hay manuscript copies held by the Library of Congress, December 12, 1994], [[C-SPAN]]}}

In 1874, Nicolay and Hay were appointed custodians of Lincoln's papers by [[Robert Todd Lincoln]], Lincoln's son.<ref name="johnson" /> After appearing in [[facsimile]] in an article written by John Nicolay in 1894, the Nicolay copy was presumably among the papers given to Hay by Nicolay's daughter, Helen, following Nicolay's death in 1901. In 1908, Robert Lincoln began searching for the original copy of the Gettysburg Address, leading to his discovery of a handwritten copy that was part of the bound papers of John Hay, a copy now known as the "Hay copy" or "Hay draft".<ref name="johnson" />

The Hay draft differed notably from the version of the Gettysburg Address published by John Nicolay. It was written on a different type of paper, had a different number of words per line and number of lines, and included editorial revisions that were personally made by Lincoln to the speech.<ref name="johnson" />

Both the Hay and Nicolay copies of the Gettysburg Address are now housed at the [[Library of Congress]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], where they are encased in specially designed, temperature-controlled, sealed containers with [[argon]] gas designed to protect the documents from oxidation and continued deterioration.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Library of Congress|title=Preservation of the drafts of the Gettysburg Address at the Library of Congress|url=http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/GettysburgAddress/Pages/Preservation.aspx?sc_id=wikip|access-date=September 15, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141534/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/GettysburgAddress/Pages/Preservation.aspx?sc_id=wikip|archive-date=March 9, 2012}}</ref>

=== Nicolay copy ===
The Nicolay copy{{Ref label|Nicolay|a|a}} is often called the "first draft" of the Gettysburg Address because it is believed to be the earliest copy that exists of it.<ref name="nicolay">Nicolay, J. "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address", ''Century Magazine'' 47 (February 1894): 596–608, cited by Johnson, Martin P. "Who Stole the Gettysburg Address", ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 24(2) (Summer 2003): 1–19.</ref><ref name="GA drafts">{{cite web|url=http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/NicolayCopy.aspx?sc_id=wikip|title=The Gettysburg Address Nicolay draft|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=September 15, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141549/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/NicolayCopy.aspx?sc_id=wikip|archive-date=March 9, 2012}}</ref> Scholars disagree over whether the Nicolay copy was actually the copy Lincoln used at Gettysburg on November 19. In an 1894 article, which included a facsimile of the this copy, Nicolay, the custodian of Lincoln's papers, wrote that Lincoln brought the first part of the speech written in ink on [[White House|Executive Mansion]] stationery, and that he wrote the second page in pencil on lined paper before the ceremonial dedication on November 19.<ref name="nicolay"/> Matching folds are still evident on the two pages, suggesting that it could be the copy that eyewitnesses say Lincoln took from his coat pocket and read from at the ceremony.<ref name="GA drafts" /><ref>Sandburg, Carl (1939). "Lincoln Speaks at Gettysburg". In: ''Abraham Lincoln: The War Years'' New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. II, 452–457; cited by Prochnow, Victor Herbert. ed. (1944). ''Great Stories from Great Lives'' Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, {{ISBN|0-8369-2018-X}}, p. 13: "The ''Cincinnati Commercial'' reporter wrote 'The President rises slowly, draws from his pocket a paper&nbsp;... [and] reads the brief and pithy remarks.'"</ref> Others believe that the delivery text has been lost, because some of the words and phrases of the Nicolay copy do not match contemporary transcriptions of Lincoln's original speech.<ref>Wills, Garry. Appendix I: "this text does not have three important phrases that the joint newspaper accounts prove he actually spoke", and "there is no physical impossibility that this is the delivery text, but it is&nbsp;... unlikely that it is."</ref> The words "under God", for example, are missing in this copy from the phrase "that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom&nbsp;..." In order for the Nicolay draft to have been the reading copy, either the contemporary transcriptions were inaccurate, or Lincoln would have had to depart from his written text in several instances. This copy of the Gettysburg Address apparently remained in John Nicolay's possession until his death in 1901, when it passed to his friend and colleague John Hay.<ref name="johnson" /> The Nicolay version was on previously on display as part of the American Treasures exhibition at the Library of Congress.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr00.html Top Treasures.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122602/https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr00.html |date=May 3, 2021 }} American Treasures of the Library of Congress. Retrieved on December 10, 2007.</ref>

===Hay copy===
[[File:Haycopy-1.jpg|thumb|[[John Hay]]'s copy of the address, including Lincoln's handwritten corrections]]
The Hay copy of the address{{Ref label|Hay|b|b}} was first announced to the public in 1906, following a search for the original manuscript of the address. It was found among the papers of [[John Hay]].<ref name="johnson"/> The Hay copy differs somewhat from the manuscript of the address described by Nicolay in his article, and includes several omissions and insertions made by Lincoln, including omissions critical to the basic meaning of the sentence, not simply words that would be added by Lincoln to strengthen or clarify their meaning.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} In this copy of the address, like the Nicolay copy, the words "under God" are not present.

The Hay version has been described as "the most inexplicable" of the drafts and is sometimes referred to as the "second draft".<ref name="GA drafts"/><ref>David Mearns (1964). "Unknown at this Address", in ''Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address: Commemorative Papers'', ed. Allan Nevins. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, p. 133; Mearns and Dunlap, caption describing the facsimile of the Hay text in ''Long Remembered''; both cited in Johnson, "Who Stole the Gettysburg Address".</ref> The Hay copy was written by Lincoln either the morning before the event, or shortly after Lincoln's return to Washington, D.C.. Those who believe that it was completed the morning of his address point to the fact that it includes several phrases that are not present in the first draft, which do appear in media coverage of the address and in subsequent copies made by Lincoln. It is probable, they conclude, that, as the Library of Congress includes in an explanatory note accompanying the original copies of the first and second drafts, that this was the version that Lincoln read from when he delivered the address.<ref name="gnmp">{{cite web|publisher=United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service|title=Gettysburg National Military Park|url=http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm|access-date=December 3, 2007|archive-date=March 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306120405/http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm|url-status=dead}}
Historical Handbook Number Nine 1954 (Revised 1962), at the Gettysburg National Military Park Historical Handbook website.</ref> Lincoln eventually gave this copy of the speech to Hay, whose descendants donated it and the Nicolay copy to the Library of Congress in 1916.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/HayDraft.aspx?sc_id=wikip |title=The Gettysburg Address Hay draft |access-date=September 15, 2010 |date=September 15, 2010 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141609/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/HayDraft.aspx?sc_id=wikip |archive-date=March 9, 2012  }}</ref>

=== Everett copy ===
The Everett copy,{{Ref label|Everett|c|c}} also known as the "Everett-Keyes copy"{{why|date=April 2023}}, was given to [[Edward Everett]] by Lincoln in early 1864, after Everett  requested it.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peatman |first1=Jared |title=Writing the Gettysburg Address |journal=Civil War Book Review |date=2014 |volume=16 |issue=2 |page=3 |doi=10.31390/cwbr.16.2.10 |url=https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2231&context=cwbr |access-date=22 February 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref> Everett collected the speeches at the Gettysburg dedication into a bound volume, which was sold for the benefit of stricken soldiers at New York's [[United States Sanitary Commission|Sanitary Commission Fair]]. The draft Lincoln sent Everett is known as the third autograph copy, and is now held by the [[Illinois State Library]] in [[Springfield, Illinois]],<ref name="gnmp"/> where it is displayed in the Treasures Gallery of the [[Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum]].

=== Bancroft copy ===
The Bancroft copy{{Ref label|Bancroft|d|d}} of the Gettysburg Address was written out by Lincoln in February 1864, following the ceremonial dedication, at the request of [[George Bancroft]], a former [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]] and historian whose comprehensive ten-volume ''History of the United States'' later led him to be known as the "father of American History".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=George Bancroft|access-date=December 19, 2007|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/51366/George-Bancroft|date=|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122629/https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Bancroft-American-historian|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>See also: {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553688/George_Bancroft.html |access-date=December 19, 2007 |title=George Bancroft |encyclopedia=Encarta |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028222041/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553688/George_Bancroft.html |archive-date=October 28, 2009 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Bancroft planned to include this copy of the Gettysburg Address in ''Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors'', which he planned to sell at a Soldiers' and Sailors' [[Sanitary Fair]] in [[Baltimore]]. This copy, known as the fourth copy of the address, was written by Lincoln on both sides of the paper, and it ultimately proved unusable for this purpose, and Bancroft was allowed to keep it. This manuscript is the only one version accompanied  by a letter from Lincoln transmitting the manuscript and by the original envelope addressed and [[franking|franked]] by Lincoln.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause.htm|title=Gettysburg Address|publisher=Cornell University Library|access-date=December 19, 2007|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122626/https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The Bancroft copy was held by the Bancroft family for many years, and was later sold to various dealers and purchased by Nicholas and Marguerite Lilly Noyes,<ref>{{cite web|title=Founding Collections: Nicholas H. Noyes '06 and Marguerite Lilly Noyes|url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/footsteps/exhibition/foundingcollections/foundingcollections_5.html|publisher=Cornell University Library|access-date=November 28, 2007|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122646/https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/footsteps/exhibition/foundingcollections/foundingcollections_5.html|url-status=live}}</ref> who donated it to [[Cornell University]] in 1949. The Bancroft copy is now held by the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University.<ref name="gnmp" /> This is the only copy among the five that is privately owned.<ref>{{cite web |work=The Cornell Daily Sun |title=C.U. Holds Gettysburg Address Manuscript |url=http://cornellsun.com/node/14486 |date=April 6, 2005 |access-date=December 18, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111165322/http://cornellsun.com/node/14486 |archive-date=January 11, 2012  }}</ref>

=== Bliss copy ===
[[File:Gettysburg Address Bliss copy.jpg|thumb|[[Alexander Bliss]]' copy of the address, now on display in the [[Lincoln Room]] at the [[White House]]]]
Discovering that his fourth written copy could not be used, Lincoln then wrote a fifth and final draft, known as the Bliss copy{{Ref label|Bliss|e|e}} and named for Colonel [[Alexander Bliss]], Bancroft's stepson and publisher of ''Autograph Leaves''. It is the only copy of the address that is signed by Lincoln and the final version of the address that Lincoln is known to have written. Because of the care Lincoln used in preparing the Bliss copy and because this copy includes a title and is signed and dated by Lincoln, it is considered the standard version of the Gettysburg Address and the source for most facsimile reproductions of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It is the version that is inscribed on the South wall of the [[Lincoln Memorial]].<ref name="hand"/>

This draft is now displayed in the [[Lincoln Room]] of the [[White House]], a gift of [[Oscar B. Cintas]], former [[Cuba]]n Ambassador to the United States.<ref name="gnmp" /> Cintas, a wealthy collector of art and manuscripts, purchased the Bliss copy at a public [[auction]] in 1949 for $54,000 (${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|54000|1949|r=-3}}}} as of {{inflation/year|US}}), at that time the highest price ever paid for a document at public auction.<ref>{{cite web|title=About Oscar B. Cintas|publisher=Oscar B. Cintas foundation|url=http://www.cintasfoundation.org/about|access-date=September 23, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923150605/http://www.cintasfoundation.org/about|url-status=live}}</ref> Cintas' properties were claimed by the [[Fidel Castro|Castro government]] after the [[Cuban Revolution]] in 1959. Cintas, who died in 1957, willed the Gettysburg Address to the American people, provided it would be kept at the White House, where it was transferred in 1959.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Boritt|first1=Gabor|author-link=Gabor Boritt|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=November 16, 2006|page=D6|url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|title=Change of Address: The Gettysburg drafts|access-date=December 4, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213222142/http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|archive-date=February 13, 2009}}</ref>

Garry Wills concluded that the Bliss copy "is stylistically preferable to others in one significant way: Lincoln removed 'here' from 'that cause for which they (here) gave&nbsp;...' The seventh 'here' is in all other versions of the speech." Wills noted the fact that Lincoln "was still making such improvements", suggesting Lincoln was more concerned with a perfected text than with an "original" one.<ref>Wills,  Appendix I.</ref>

From November 21, 2008, to January 1, 2009, the Albert H. Small Documents Gallery at the [[Smithsonian Institution]] [[National Museum of American History]] hosted a limited public viewing of the Bliss copy, with the support of then [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Laura Bush]]. The museum also launched an online exhibition and interactive gallery to enable visitors to look more closely at the document.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/gettysburg_address_1.html|title=The Gettysburg Address|publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution|access-date=April 4, 2012|archive-date=December 1, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201083333/http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/gettysburg_address_1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Associated Press report===
Another contemporary source of the text is a dispatch by Joseph L. Gilbert, [[Associated Press]], transcribed from the shorthand notes taken by reporter Joseph L. Gilbert. It also differs from the drafted text in a number of minor ways.<ref>Bryan, William Jennings, ed. (1906). ''The World's Famous Orations'' Vol. IX. America: II. (1818–1865). {{cite web |title=V. The Speech at Gettysburg by Abraham Lincoln |url=http://www.bartleby.com/268/9/26.html#txt2 |access-date=December 18, 2005 |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013170813/http://bartleby.com/268/9/26.html#txt2 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=Associated Press.org|work=History/Archives: The Associated Press|title=1846–1900: The News Cooperative Takes Shape|url=http://www.ap.org/pages/about/history/history_first.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110729010041/http://ap.org/pages/about/history/history_first.html|archive-date=July 29, 2011 |access-date=November 30, 2007 }}</ref>

==Contemporary sources and reaction==
[[File:Gettysburg Address, New York Times.jpg|thumb|The November 20, 1863 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' covering the event reports that Lincoln's speech was interrupted five times by applause and was followed by "long continued applause".<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |work=The New York Times |date=November 20, 1863 |page=1 |title=The Heroes of July; A Solemn and Imposing Event. Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1863/11/20/archives/the-heroes-of-july-a-solemn-and-imposing-event-dedication-of-the.html |access-date=November 23, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613210727/https://www.nytimes.com/1863/11/20/archives/the-heroes-of-july-a-solemn-and-imposing-event-dedication-of-the.html |archive-date=June 13, 2018 |url-status=live }}<!-- https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1863/11/20/80292637.pdf --></ref>]]

Eyewitness reports vary on Lincoln's performance and delivery of the Gettysburg Address. In 1931, the printed recollections of 87-year-old Mrs. Sarah A. Cooke Myers, who was 19 when she attended the ceremony, suggest a dignified silence followed Lincoln's speech. "I was close to the President and heard all of the Address, but it seemed short. Then there was an impressive silence like our Menallen [[Quaker|Friends Meeting]]. There was no applause when he stopped speaking."<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Abraham Lincoln online|work=Recollections of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg|author=Hark, Ann|title=Mrs. John T. Myers Relives the Day She Met the Great Emancipator|url=http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/news/recollect.htm|access-date=November 30, 2007|archive-date=October 7, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007002311/http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/news/recollect.htm|url-status=live}} Citing the ''Philadelphia Public Ledger'' of February 7, 1932.</ref> According to historian [[Shelby Foote]], after Lincoln's presentation, the applause was delayed, scattered, and "barely polite".<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Shelby Foote |last=Foote |first=Shelby |title=The Civil War, A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1986 |orig-year=1958 |isbn=0-394-74621-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/civilwarnarrati000foot/page/832 832] |url=https://archive.org/details/civilwarnarrati000foot/page/832 }}</ref> In contrast, [[List of Governors of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania Governor]] [[Andrew Gregg Curtin]] says, "He pronounced that speech in a voice that all the multitude heard. The crowd was hushed into silence because the President stood before them&nbsp;... It was so Impressive! It was the common remark of everybody. Such a speech, as they said it was!"<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Abraham Lincoln Online |year=2007 |work=Lincoln at Gettysburg Photo Tour |title=Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg Cemetery |url=http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/tours/gettycem2.htm |access-date=December 18, 2005 |archive-date=October 5, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005182900/http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/tours/gettycem2.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In an often repeated legend, Lincoln is said to have turned to his bodyguard [[Ward Hill Lamon]] and remarked that his speech, like a bad plow, "won't scour". According to Garry Wills, however, this statement largely originates from Lamon's unreliable recollections and is not an accepted fact.<ref name="wills" /> In Garry Wills's view, "{{interpolation|Lincoln}} had done what he wanted to do {{interpolation|at Gettysburg}}".{{page needed|date=April 2021}}

In a letter to Lincoln written the day following his address in Gettysburg, Everett praised the President for the speech, saying, "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."<ref name=Simon41>Simon, et al., eds. (1999). ''The Lincoln Forum: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, and the Civil War''. Mason City: Savas Publishing Company. {{ISBN|1-882810-37-6}}, p. 41.</ref> Lincoln replied that he was glad to know the speech was not a "total failure".<ref name=Simon41/>

Other public reactions to the speech were divided along partisan lines.<ref name="History20130222" /> The [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]-leaning ''[[Chicago Times]]'' observed, "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=fwmoAAAAIAAJ&q=cheek Sandburg, Carl (1954). ''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years'', Harcourt, Brace & World,  p. 445.]</ref> The [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]-leaning ''[[The New York Times]]'', however, was complimentary of Lincoln's address, and printed the full text.<ref name="NYT" /> The ''[[The Republican (Springfield)|Springfield Republican]]'' in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] also printed the entire speech, calling it "a perfect gem" that was "deep in feeling, compact in thought and expression, and tasteful and elegant in every word and comma". The ''Republican'' predicted that Lincoln's brief remarks would "repay further study as the model speech".<ref>Prochow, Herbert Victor (1944). ''Great Stories from Great Lives''. Harper & Brothers, p. 17.</ref>

In 2013, on the sesquicentennial of the address, ''[[The Patriot-News]]'' in [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]], retracted its original reporting on the address, which it described as "silly remarks" deserving "the veil of oblivion", writing further that, "Seven score and ten years ago, the forefathers of this media institution brought forth to its audience a judgment so flawed, so tainted by hubris, so lacking in the perspective history would bring, that it cannot remain unaddressed in our archives.&nbsp;... the ''Patriot & Union'' failed to recognize [the speech's] momentous importance, timeless eloquence, and lasting significance. The ''Patriot-News'' regrets the error."<ref>{{cite news|title=Retraction for our 1863 editorial calling Gettysburg Address 'silly remarks': Editorial|url=https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2013/11/a_patriot-news_editorial_retraction_the_gettysburg_address.html|access-date=November 19, 2013|newspaper=Patriot-News|date=November 14, 2013|author=''Patriot-News'' Editorial Board|archive-date=November 18, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131118164600/http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/11/a_patriot-news_editorial_retraction_the_gettysburg_address.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/my-great-great-grandfather-hated-the-gettysburg-address-150-years-later-hes-famous-for-it-180947746/ |title=My Great-Great-Grandfather Hated the Gettysburg Address. 150 Years Later, He's Famous For It. |last=Stewart |first=Doug |date=November 18, 2013 |website=The Smithsonian's Past Imperfect |type=Blog |access-date=November 19, 2013 |archive-date=November 20, 2013 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20131120173213/http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2013/11/my%2Dgreat%2Dgreat%2Dgrandfather%2Dhated%2Dthe%2Dgettysburg%2Daddress%2D150%2Dyears%2Dlater%2Dhes%2Dfamous%2Dfor%2Dit/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Foreign newspapers also reported critically on Lincoln's address. In London, ''[[The Times]]'' reported, "The ceremony [at Gettysburg] was rendered ludicrous by some of the luckless sallies of that poor President Lincoln."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=wes_ttda&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS151297412&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 |title=The Civil War In America |newspaper=The Times |location=London |date=December 4, 1863 |page=9 |url-access=subscription  |access-date=June 3, 2014}}</ref>

[[United States House of Representatives|Congressman]] [[Joseph A. Goulden]], then an eighteen-year-old school teacher, was present and heard the speech. He served in the [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marine Corps]] during the Civil War, and was later elected to Congress as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]. Goulden was often asked about the speech, since the passage of time made him one of a dwindling number of individuals who were present for it. He responded that the event and Lincoln's remarks were met favorably, saying that Lincoln's address served as a factor that inspired him to enter military service. Goulden's recollections were summarized in remarks to the House of Representatives in 1914.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=United National Association of Post Office Clerks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uT02AQAAMAAJ&q=joseph+goulden+gettysburg+lincoln&pg=RA1-PA86 |title=The Post Office Clerk magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610050429/https://books.google.com/books?id=uT02AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA86&dq=joseph+goulden+gettysburg+lincoln&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oiUNUpr_H7HK4AO_h4GwAg&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=joseph%20goulden%20gettysburg%20lincoln&f=false |archive-date=June 10, 2016 |volume=13–14 |date=January 1914 |page=6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=United States House of Representatives |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egYqAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA97 |chapter=Memorial Addresses on Joseph A. Goulden |title=United States Congressional Serial Set |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610212622/https://books.google.com/books?id=egYqAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA97&dq=joseph+goulden+gettysburg+lincoln&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oiUNUpr_H7HK4AO_h4GwAg&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=joseph%20goulden%20gettysburg%20lincoln&f=false |archive-date=June 10, 2016 |year=1917 |page=97}}</ref>

=== Audio recollections ===
[[William R. Rathvon]] is the only known eyewitness of both Lincoln's arrival at Gettysburg and the address itself whose recollections have been recorded in audio format.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/1860-1865/2-sounds/2-historical/19380212_Gettysburg_Eyewitness_William_V_Rathvon.html|title=Gettysburg Eyewitness – Lost and Found Sound: The Boy Who Heard Lincoln|publisher=Historyonthenet.com|access-date=February 15, 2019|archive-date=February 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216040854/https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/1860-1865/2-sounds/2-historical/19380212_Gettysburg_Eyewitness_William_V_Rathvon.html|url-status=live}}</ref> One year before his death in 1939, Rathvon's reminiscences were recorded on February 12, 1938, at WRUL in [[Boston]], including his reading the address, and a 78 RPM record was pressed. The title of the 78 record was, "I Heard Lincoln That Day – William R. Rathvon, TR Productions". A copy of it was later aired by [[National Public Radio]] (NPR) during its "Quest for Sound" project in 1999.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1045619|title=Gettysburg Eyewitness – Lost and Found Sound: The Boy Who Heard Lincoln|newspaper=NPR.org|publisher=Historyonthenet.com|access-date=February 15, 2019|archive-date=April 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402161827/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1045619|url-status=live}}</ref>

Like most people who were present that day in Gettysburg, the Rathvon family was aware that Lincoln was going to offer some remarks to the assembled crowd. The family went to the town square where the procession formed and proceeded to the cemetery, which was then still under construction. At the head of the procession, Lincoln rode on a gray horse preceded by a military band, the first the young boy in the Rathvon family had ever seen. Rathvon describes Lincoln as so tall and with such long legs that they went almost to the ground; he also mentions the long eloquent speech given by [[Edward Everett]], who Rathvon described as the "most finished orator of the day". Rathvon described Lincoln stepping forward "with a manner serious almost to sadness, gave his brief address". During Lincoln's delivery, the young Rathvon boy and several others wiggled their way forward through the crowd until they stood within {{convert|15|ft|m}} of Lincoln, and looked up into what he described as Lincoln's "serious face". Rathvon later said that he listened "intently to every word the president uttered and heard it clearly", but "boylike, I could not recall any of it afterwards". However, he said, if any of his companions had said anything disparaging about "old Abe", there would have been a "junior Battle of Gettysburg then and there".

===Photographs===
[[File:Crowd of citizens, soldiers, and etc. with Lincoln at Gettysburg. - NARA - 529085 -crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|The [[David Bachrach|Bachrach]] photo, including a red arrow indicating Lincoln's presence, taken several hours before Lincoln rose and delivered the Gettysburg Address]]
The only known and confirmed photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg,<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Library of Congress|url=http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/LincolnOnPlatform.aspx?sc_id=wikip|title=The Only Known Photograph of President Lincoln at the dedication of the Civil War cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863|access-date=September 15, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111105105115/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/LincolnOnPlatform.aspx?sc_id=wikip|archive-date=November 5, 2011}}</ref> was taken by photographer [[David Bachrach]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Bachrach in the news|publisher=Bachrach photography|url=http://www.bachrachinc.com/html/in_the_news.html|access-date=December 3, 2007|archive-date=July 7, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707203611/http://www.bachrachinc.com/html/in_the_news.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Lincoln's presence in the photo was identified in 1952 by Josephine Cobb, an archivist who enlarged a mislabeled glass plate negative, which revealed Lincoln's presence in the photo that was then on display at [[Mathew Brady]]'s collection of photographic plates at the [[National Archives and Records Administration]].<ref>{{cite web | title=The Woman Who Found Lincoln at Gettysburg: Josephine Cobb of the National Archives | url=https://www.friendsofthelincolncollection.org/lincoln-lore/the-woman-who-found-lincoln-at-gettysburg-josephine-cobb-of-the-national-archives/ }}</ref>

While Lincoln's speech was short and may have precluded multiple pictures of him while speaking, he and the other dignitaries sat for hours during the rest of the program. A popular explanation for the Bachrach photo suggests that Lincoln's brief address, which followed a lengthy two hour speech by Everett, caught photographers by surprise. As a result, they supposedly were able to only take a photo of Lincoln after his speech had ended. This theory, however, has been questioned, since evidence exists suggesting that the photo was possibly taken before the Gettysburg Address and without any intention of photographing Lincoln from such a lengthy distance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Woman Who Found Lincoln at Gettysburg: Josephine Cobb of the National Archives |url=https://www.friendsofthelincolncollection.org/lincoln-lore/the-woman-who-found-lincoln-at-gettysburg-josephine-cobb-of-the-national-archives/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Friends of the Lincoln Collection |language=en}}</ref>

=== Usage of "under God" ===
The exact phrase "under God" does not appear in the Nicolay and Hay drafts. But it does appear in the three later copies held by Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss. This has led some skeptics to question whether the words "under God" were included in the remarks Lincoln gave that day.<ref>{{cite web|editor-last=Walker|editor-first=Cliff|publisher=Positive Atheism|date=September 2002|title=Lincoln's Gettysburg 'Under God': Another case of 'retrofitting'? (reply)|url=http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml8448.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021108025927/http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml8448.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 8, 2002|access-date=December 3, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Randi, James |publisher=James Randi Educational Foundation |date=October 10, 2003 |url=http://archive.randi.org/site/jr/101003.html |title=Lincoln Embellished |access-date=December 3, 2007 |author-link=James Randi |archive-date=December 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214202556/http://archive.randi.org/site/jr/101003.html |url-status=live }}: "The Gettysburg address&nbsp;... is often given as the source of the addition to the Pledge of Allegiance that we often hear, that phrase, 'under God.' Wrong."</ref> However, at least three reporters [[telegraph]]ed the text of Lincoln's speech on the day the Address was given with the words "under God" included. Historian William E. Barton argues that:<ref>Barton, pp. 138–139.</ref>

{{blockquote|Every stenographic report, good, bad and indifferent, says 'that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom.' There was no common source from which all the reporters could have obtained those words but from Lincoln's own lips at the time of delivery. It will not do to say that [Secretary of War] Stanton suggested those words after Lincoln's return to Washington, for the words were telegraphed by at least three reporters on the afternoon of the delivery.}}

Reporters present for Lincoln's Gettysburg Address included Joseph Gilbert with the [[Associated Press]], [[Charles Hale]] with the ''[[Boston Daily Advertiser]]'',<ref>Prochnow, p. 14.</ref> [[John Russell Young|John R. Young]] with the ''[[Philadelphia Press]]'', and reporters from the ''Cincinnati Commercial''<ref>Prochnow, p. 13.</ref> ''New York Tribune'',<ref name=Prochnow15>Prochnow, p. 15.</ref> and ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name=Prochnow15/> Hale, according to later reports, arrived at the event, and "had notebook and pencil in hand, [and] took down the slow-spoken words of the President".<ref>Sandburg, Carl (1939). "Lincoln Speaks at Gettysburg". In: ''Abraham Lincoln: The War Years''. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. II, 452–457; cited by Prochnow, p. 14.</ref> "He took down what he declared was the exact language of Lincoln's address, and his declaration was as good as the oath of a court stenographer. His associates confirmed his testimony, which was received, as it deserved to be, at its face value."<ref>Barton, p. 81.</ref> One explanation is that Lincoln deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he spoke. Ronald C. White, visiting professor of history at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] and professor of American religious history emeritus at [[San Francisco Theological Seminary]], wrote:

<blockquote>It was an uncharacteristically spontaneous revision for a speaker who did not trust extemporaneous speech. Lincoln had added impromptu words in several earlier speeches, but always offered a subsequent apology for the change. In this instance, he did not. And Lincoln included "under God" in all three copies of the address he prepared at later dates. "Under God" pointed backward and forward: back to "this nation", which drew its breath from both political and religious sources, but also forward to a "new birth". Lincoln had come to see the Civil War as a ritual of purification. The old Union had to die. The old man had to die. Death became a transition to a new Union and a new humanity.<ref name="america58"/></blockquote>

Prior to 1860, the phrase "under God" was used frequently, usually meaning "with God's help".<ref>{{cite web |author=Geoff Nunberg |title='(Next) Under God,' Phrasal Idiom |date=June 20, 2004 |work=Language Log |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001090.html |access-date=November 24, 2013}}</ref>

==Platform location==
{{Infobox designation list
| embed                   =
| designation1            = Pennsylvania Historical Marker
| designation1_offname    = Gettysburg Address
| designation1_type       = Roadside
| designation1_criteria   =
| designation1_date       = December 12, 1947<ref>{{cite web|title=Gettysburg Address|url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/PHMCWebSearch/ViewMarker.aspx?markerId=784|website=PHMC Historical Markers|access-date=March 27, 2017|archive-date=March 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327173830/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/PHMCWebSearch/ViewMarker.aspx?markerId=784|url-status=live}}</ref>
| delisted1_date          =
| designation1_partof     =
| designation1_number     =
| designation1_free1name  = Location
| designation1_free1value = PA 134 (Taneytown Rd.) at entrance to National Cemetery<br>Baltimore St. (old US 140) & PA 134 at entrance to National Cemetery
}}
[[File:LincolnGett.JPG|thumb|The ''Lincoln Address Memorial'', designed by Louis Henrick, featuring a bust of Lincoln by [[Henry Kirke Bush-Brown]]<!--appears to be by--><!-- rather than his uncle [[Henry Kirke Brown]]-->, erected at the Gettysburg National Cemetery in 1912<ref>{{cite book|last=Einhorn|first=Lois|title=Abraham Lincoln, the orator: penetrating the Lincoln legend|page=92|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0RB3AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Henry+Bush-Brown%22+lincoln|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1992|isbn=0-313-26168-7|access-date=April 20, 2012|archive-date=January 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125173219/https://books.google.com/books?id=0RB3AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Henry+Bush-Brown%22+lincoln|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Outside of both entrances to present-day [[Gettysburg National Cemetery]], there are two historical markers, which read:

<blockquote>Nearby, Nov. 19, 1863, in dedicating the National Cemetery, Abraham Lincoln gave the address which he had written in Washington and revised after his arrival at Gettysburg the evening of November 18.<ref>{{cite web|last=Historical Marker Database|title=Gettysburg Address Marker|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8025|access-date=June 11, 2012|archive-date=April 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403143639/http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8025|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Historical Marker Database|title=Gettysburg Address Marker|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=15129|access-date=May 30, 2021}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref></blockquote>

Directly inside the Taneytown Road entrance are the Lincoln Address Memorial and [[Gettysburg Rostrum]], where five U.S. Presidents have spoken. Lincoln, however, was not one of them, and a small metal sign near the speech memorial stirs remains somewhat controversial, reading:

<blockquote>The Address was delivered about 300 yards from this spot along the upper Cemetery drive. The site is now marked by the Soldiers' National Monument.<ref>{{cite web|last=Historical Marker Database|title=Lincoln Speech Memorial Marker|url=http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=90763|access-date=May 30, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709111230/https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=90763|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

Holding title as the "traditional site", the [[Soldiers' National Monument]] has been challenged by platform occupants in the distant past and by more recent photographic analyses. Based upon a pair of photographic analyses, the Gettysburg National Military Park has placed a marker near [https://www.google.com/maps/place/39%C2%B049'11.9%22N+77%C2%B013'50.4%22W/@39.819983,-77.230667,436m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d39.819983!4d-77.230667?hl=en 39°49.199′N 77°13.840′W], which states, "The location [of the platform] was never marked, but is believed to be in [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]], on the other side of the iron fence."<ref>{{cite web|last=Historical Marker Database|title=A Few Appropriate Remarks Marker|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=165776|access-date=May 30, 2021}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

This newer marker stands faces the fence, which separates the two adjacent cemeteries, the public Gettysburg National Cemetery and private Evergreen Cemetery. A second endorsement of this as the "traditional site", a bronze marker placed by Lincoln's native Kentucky section of the cemetery is nearby.<ref>{{cite web|last=Historical Marker Database|title=Kentucky Memorial Marker|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=16865|access-date=June 11, 2012|archive-date=November 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110041015/http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=16865|url-status=live}}</ref>

Absent an original and enduring marker, however, the location of the platform has largely been left up to interpretation. Brian Kennell, superintendent of Evergreen Cemetery,  endorses the location identified in the photographic evidence as the location where Lincoln stood as he delivered the Gettysburg Address.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kennell |first1=Brian |title=Beyond the Gatehouse |date=2000 |publisher=The Evergreen Cemetery Association |location=Gettysburg, PA |isbn=0-9664772-0-0 |page=42}}</ref>

===Pre-modern===
[[File:Gettysburg address 1863-11-19 looking ne.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|This photograph, taken the day of the Gettysburg Address, is suggested to rule out Soldiers' National Monument as the location for the speaker's platform the day of the address.]]
Colonel W. Yates Selleck, a marshal in the parade on [[Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg|Consecration Day]], was seated on the platform when Lincoln gave the address.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection|title=Lincoln at Gettysburg; Told by Eye Witness|url=https://archive.org/download/lincolnsg00linc/lincolnsg00linc.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013113259/http://archive.org/download/lincolnsg00linc/lincolnsg00linc.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-13 |url-status=live|access-date=June 13, 2012}}</ref> Selleck marked a map with the position of the platform and described it as "{{convert|350|ft|m|disp=sqbr}} almost due north of Soldiers' National Monument, {{convert|40|ft|m|disp=sqbr}} from a point in the outer circle of lots where [the] Michigan and New York [burial sections] are separated by a path".<ref>{{cite news|last=Lincoln National Life Insurance Company|title=Dispute Over Exact Location Where Lincoln's Speech Was Made of Great Interest To Many Gettysburg Visitors|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19691125&id=UE5AAAAAIBAJ&pg=1170,3493526|newspaper=Gettysburg Times|date=November 25, 1969|pages=7–9|access-date=October 17, 2020|archive-date=February 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204145737/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19691125&id=UE5AAAAAIBAJ&pg=1170,3493526|url-status=live}}</ref> A location which approximates this description is [https://www.google.com/maps/place/39%C2%B049'14.6%22N+77%C2%B013'52.1%22W/@39.8202202,-77.2315577,168m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d39.8207167!4d-77.23115?hl=en 39°49.243′N, 77°13.869′W].

In 1973, retired park historian Frederick Tilberg concluded the Selleck Site is {{convert|25|ft|m}} lower than the crest of Cemetery Hill, and that only the crest presents a panoramic view of the battlefield. A spectacular view from the location of the speech was noted by many eyewitnesses, is consistent with the traditional site at the [[Soldiers' National Monument]] and other sites on the crest, but is inconsistent with the Selleck Site.<ref>{{cite web|last=Pergus Project|title=Gettysburg Address|url=http://pergusproject.wordpress.com/tag/gettysburg-address/|access-date=June 11, 2012|archive-date=April 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418143406/https://pergusproject.wordpress.com/tag/gettysburg-address/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Tilberg|first=Frederick|title=The Location of the Platform From Which Lincoln Delivered the Gettysburg Address|url=http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=record&handle=psu.ph/1141406190|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212154705/http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=record&handle=psu.ph/1141406190|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 12, 2012|work=Pennsylvania History, Vol XL, No. 2|publisher=The Pennsylvania Historical Association|access-date=June 13, 2012|pages=179–191}}</ref>

The Kentucky Memorial, erected in 1975, is directly adjacent to the [[Soldiers' National Monument]], and states, "Kentucky honors her son, Abraham Lincoln, who delivered his immortal address at the site now marked by the soldiers' monument." With its position at the center of the concentric rings of soldiers' graves and the continuing endorsement of Lincoln's native state the [[Soldiers' National Monument]] persists as a credible location for the speech.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Library of Congress |title=The 1869 Soldiers' National Monument at Gettysburg National Cemetery |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2019690792/ |publisher=United States of America |access-date=30 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Groundspeak |title=Soldiers' National Monument – Gettysburg, PA |url=https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMEDK7_Soldiers_National_Monument_Gettysburg_PA |website=Waymarking |access-date=30 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Scott |first1=Brian |title=Lincoln Address Memorial |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=90763 |website=The Historical Marker Database |access-date=30 May 2021}}</ref>

In November 1863, in a written description of the layout for the Gettysburg National Cemetery, which was then under construction, a correspondent from the ''Cincinnati Daily Commercial'' described the dividing lines between the state grave plots as "the radii of a common center, where a flag pole is now raised, but where it is proposed to erect a national monument".<ref>{{cite web|last=Tilberg|first=Frederick|title=The Location of the Platform From Which Lincoln Delivered the Gettysburg Address|url=http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=record&handle=psu.ph/1141406190|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212154705/http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=record&handle=psu.ph/1141406190|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 12, 2012|work=Pennsylvania History, Vol XL, No. 2|publisher=The Pennsylvania Historical Association|access-date=June 13, 2012|pages=187}}</ref> With the inclusion of this quotation Tilberg inadvertently verifies a central principle of future photographic analyses—a flagpole, rather than the speakers' platform, occupied the central point of the soldiers' graves. In fact, the precision of the photo-analyses relies upon the coincidence of position between this temporary flag pole and the future monument.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frassanito |first1=William |title=Early Photography at Gettysburg |date=1995 |publisher=Thomas Publications |location=Gettysburg, PA |isbn=978-1-57747-032-8 |page=166}}</ref>

Confusing to today's tourist, the Kentucky Memorial is contradicted by a newer marker, which was erected nearby by the Gettysburg National Military Park and locates the speakers' platform inside [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Historical Marker Database|title=The Gettysburg Address Marker|url=http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=16869|access-date=June 11, 2012|archive-date=November 9, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109190159/http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=16869|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, outdated National Park Service documents, which pinpoint the location as being at [[Soldiers' National Monument]], have not been systematically revised since the placement of the newer marker.<ref>{{cite web |year=2004 |orig-year=1865–69 |title=Soldiers' National Monument |url=http://www.hscl.cr.nps.gov/insidenps/report.asp?PARK=GETT&RECORDNO=516 |work=(structure ID MN288, LCS ID 009949) [[List of Classified Structures]]: GETT p. 21 |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=June 22, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120917141118/http://www.hscl.cr.nps.gov/insidenps/report.asp?PARK=GETT&RECORDNO=516 |archive-date=September 17, 2012  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=National Park Service|title=FCIC: Gettysburg National Military Park|url=http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm|access-date=June 12, 2012|archive-date=March 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306120405/http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Miscellaneous web pages perpetuate the ''Traditional Site.''<ref>{{cite web|last=Stone Sentinels|title=Soldiers' National Monument|url=http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Other/Soldiers.php|access-date=June 19, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812130212/http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Other/Soldiers.php|archive-date=August 12, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Waymarking|title=Soldiers' National Monument|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9NW1_Soldiers_National_Monument_Gettysburg_PA|access-date=June 19, 2012|archive-date=September 23, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923004346/http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9NW1_Soldiers_National_Monument_Gettysburg_PA|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Flickr/Jericho_54|title=Gettysburg: Soldiers' National Monument|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/jericho_54/2590179174/|access-date=June 19, 2012|date=June 7, 2008|archive-date=September 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904074822/https://www.flickr.com/photos/jericho_54/2590179174/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Photo analysis===
====2D and optical stereoscopy====
[[File:Gaddress location summary.jpg|thumb]]
In 1982, Senior Park Historian Kathleen Georg Harrison analyzed photographs and proposed the location in [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]], but she has not published her analysis. Speaking for Harrison without revealing details, two sources characterized her proposed location as "on or near [the] Brown family vault" in [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Wills|first=Garry|title=Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America|url=https://archive.org/details/lincolnatgettysb00will|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|isbn=978-0-671-86742-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lincolnatgettysb00will/page/209 209–210]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=The Washington Times|title=Disproving Many Historical 'Facts'|website=[[The Washington Times]]|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/19/disproving-many-historical-facts/?page=1|access-date=June 17, 2013}}</ref>

In 1995, William A. Frassanito, a former military intelligence analyst, documented a comprehensive photographic analysis, which places the location of the platform with the position of specific modern headstones in [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]]. According to Frassanito, the extant graves of Israel Yount (died 1892)({{Coord|39|49.180|N|77|13.845|W| type:landmark_region:US-PA_dim:30|name=grave of Israel Yount (d. 1892)}}), John Koch (died 1913)({{Coord|39|49.184|N|77|13.847|W| type:landmark_region:US-PA_dim:30|name=grave of John Koch (d. 1913)}}), and George E. Kitzmiller (died 1874)({{Coord|39|49.182|N|77|13.841|W| type:landmark_region:US-PA_dim:30|name=grave of George E. Kitzmiller (d. 1874)}}) are among those which occupy the location of the 1863 speaker's stand.{{sfn|Frassanito|1995|p=160-167}}

====3D photo-rendering and -animation====
Over a course of many years, Christopher Oakley, an assistant professor of new media at the [[University of North Carolina at Asheville]] and his students have labored to produce and relentlessly perfect "a lifelike virtual 3-D re-creation of Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address" as part of the Virtual Lincoln Project.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/will-the-real-abraham-lincoln-please-stand-up-3431/ | title = Will the Real Abraham Lincoln Please Stand Up? | last = Lidz | first = Frank | publisher = Smithsonian Magazine | access-date  = 22 November 2022}}</ref> One result concluded, "Placing the Platform: Using 3D Technology to Pinpoint Lincoln at Gettysburg" was presented on November 18, 2022, at the Lincoln Forum XXVII in Gettysburg.<ref>{{cite conference |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?524210-2/2022-lincoln-forum-photo-lincoln-gettysburg |title=Photos of Lincoln at Gettysburg-Placing the Platform:Using 3D Technology to Pinpoint Lincoln at Gettysburg |last1=Oakley |first1=Christopher |date=November 18, 2022 |publisher=[[C-SPAN]] Video Library |location=Gettysburg, PA |conference=Lincoln Forum XXVII}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.thelincolnforum.org/2022-symposium-schedule | title = Lincoln Forum XXVII: "Lincoln in the Civil War White House: The Politics and Personalities of a Union Divided" | publisher = The Lincoln Forum | access-date = 22 November 2022 | archive-date = November 22, 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221122230821/https://www.thelincolnforum.org/2022-symposium-schedule | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Oakley's model shows the platform straddling the iron fence between the Soldiers' National Cemetery and Evergreen Cemetery. It increases the size of the platform and changes its shape from rectangular, as previous researchers have maintained, to trapezoidal. The speaker's position occupies a portion of the platform over the grounds of the Soldiers' National Cemetery.<ref name=Oakley>{{Cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=2022-11-18 |title=A Lingering Gettysburg Battle: Where Did Lincoln Stand? |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/arts/lincoln-gettysburg-address-oakley.html |access-date=2022-11-20}}</ref>

William Frassanito's analysis is based on two of the four photographic perspectives, which were employed by Oakley to validate his 3D model. Frassanito assesses one of his sources, saying, "This view [by Weaver] was probably not taken from the second-story window of the gatehouse itself."{{sfn|Frassanito|1995|p=160}} Via enlargement of a Gardner photograph (taken from the opposite direction), John J. Richter may have identified a photographer with a camera in this exact window, thereby weakening the contribution of the Weaver photograph to Frassanito's conclusions.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://abrahamlincolnatgettysburg.wordpress.com/finding-other-photographers-at-the-gettysburg-soldiers-cemetery-dedication-on-november-19-1863/| title = Abraham Lincoln At Gettysburg: Finding Photographers and their Equipment in Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery Photos| last = Heberton IV| first = Craig| date = November 17, 2013| publisher = WordPress| access-date = 22 November 2022}}</ref> Oakley's proprietary 3D model utilizes the position of Weaver's camera as suggested by Richter.

===Resolution===
[[File:gaddress frassanito.jpg|thumb|Frassanito's analysis places the dedicatory platform at the graves of George Kitzmiller, Israel Yount, and John Koch. Erroneous indicators are identified in the distant background.]]
The Gettysburg National Military Park marker, consistent with the findings of various historians, identifies the private [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]], rather than public [[Gettysburg National Cemetery|Soldiers' National Cemetery]], as the exact location where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. The [[National Park Service]], in its description of Gettysburg National Cemetery, also identifies this as the location where Lincoln spoke that day:
<blockquote>The Soldiers' National Monument, long misidentified as the spot from which Lincoln spoke, honors the fallen soldiers. [The location of the speech] was actually on the crown of this hill, a short distance on the other side of the iron fence and inside the [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]], where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address to a crowd of some 15,000 people.<ref>{{cite web|last=National Park Service|title=National Cemetery Walking Tour|url=http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/upload/National%20Cemetery%20brochure-2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215210613/http://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/upload/National%20Cemetery%20brochure-2.pdf |archive-date=2010-02-15 |url-status=dead|access-date=June 12, 2012}}</ref></blockquote>

Although Lincoln dedicated the Gettysburg National Cemetery, the monument at the center of the cemetery is unrelated to Lincoln or his famous speech. Intended to symbolize Columbia paying tribute to her fallen sons, its appreciation has been commandeered by the thirst for a tidy home for the speech.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pfanz|first=Harry W.|title=Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill|year=1993|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0-8078-2118-7|page=375}}</ref> Freeing the Cemetery and Monument to serve their original purpose, honoring of Union departed, is as unlikely as a resolution to the location controversy and the erection of a public monument to the speech in the exclusively private [[Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)|Evergreen Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Gettysburg Discussion Group|title=Afterwards and Afterthoughts|url=http://www.gdg.org/Research/BattlefieldHistories/encafter.html|access-date=June 19, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231903/http://www.gdg.org/Research/BattlefieldHistories/encafter.html|archive-date=December 2, 2013|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
[[File:Lincoln_Speech_Inscription.jpg|thumb|The words of the Gettysburg Address inscribed inside the [[Lincoln Memorial]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
[[File:Gettysburg Address, issue of 1948.jpg|thumb|In 1948, on the 85th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, the [[United States Post Office|U.S. Post Office]] issued a commemorative stamp honoring the event.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_1980.2493.4067 |title=Gettysburg Address issue of 1948 |publisher=Smithsonian National Postal Museum |access-date=September 30, 2024}}</ref>]]
The importance of the Gettysburg Address in the history of the United States is underscored by its enduring presence in American culture. In addition to its prominent place carved into a stone [[cella]] on the south wall of the [[Lincoln Memorial]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], the Gettysburg Address is frequently referenced in popular culture, with the implicit expectation that contemporary audiences are already familiar with the words Lincoln used .{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

In the many generations that have passed since the address, it has remained among the most famous speeches in American history<ref>{{cite web|publisher=[[United States Department of State]]|title=Outline of U.S. History|page=73|url=http://www.america.gov/st/educ-english/2008/April/20080407120920eaifas0.4535639.html|access-date=January 3, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020070127/http://www.america.gov/st/educ-english/2008/April/20080407120920eaifas0.4535639.html|archive-date=October 20, 2012}}</ref> and is often taught in classes about history or civics.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Dry | first1 = M. | title = Review of National Standards for Civics and Government | journal = PS: Political Science and Politics | volume = 29 | issue = 1 | pages = 49–53 | year = 1996 | doi = 10.2307/420193| jstor = 420193 | s2cid = 154778877 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is referenced in another famed oration, [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech.<ref>{{cite web|title=King: the March, the Man, the Dream|url=http://www.davidgarrow.com/File/DJG%202003%20AmHistMLKMOWAug.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923150611/http://www.davidgarrow.com/File/DJG%202003%20AmHistMLKMOWAug.pdf |archive-date=2017-09-23 |url-status=live|access-date=September 23, 2017|last=Garrow|first=David J.|work=American History|date=August 2003|pages=26–35|quote=[F]our days before the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March]] [King] told Al Duckett, a black journalist&nbsp;... that his August 28 oration needed to be "sort of a Gettysburg Address".}}</ref> 

Phrases from the Gettysburg Address are often used or referenced in other works. The current [[Constitution of France]] states that the principle of the [[French Republic]] is "''gouvernement du peuple, par le peuple et pour le peuple''{{-"}} ("government of the people, by the people, and for the people"), a literal translation of Lincoln's words.<ref>{{cite web|title=Constitution du 4 octobre 1958|url=http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/root/bank_mm/anglais/constiution_anglais_oct2009.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415061524/http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/root/bank_mm/anglais/constiution_anglais_oct2009.pdf |archive-date=2010-04-15 |url-status=live|access-date=October 18, 2009}}</ref> [[Sun Yat-Sen]]'s "[[Three Principles of the People]]" as well as the preamble for the 1947 [[Constitution of Japan]] were also inspired from that phrase.<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Sharman| first1 = Lyon| title = Sun Yat-sen: His life and its meaning, a critical biography | year = 1968 | publisher = Stanford University Press | page = 271 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=World Constitutions – A Comparative Study|last1=Bhagwan|first1=Vishnoo|last2=Bhushan|first2=Vidya|publisher=Sterling|year=2004|location=New Delhi|page=445}}</ref>

Following Lincoln's assassination, [[Charles Sumner]], a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1851 to 1874, described the enduring significance of the Gettysburg Address, saying, "That speech, uttered at the field of Gettysburg&nbsp;... and now sanctified by the martyrdom of its author," is a monumental act. In the modesty of his nature, he said, "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.' He was mistaken. The world at once noted what he said, and will never cease to remember it."<ref name="History20130222" />

In January 1961, then U.S. president [[John F. Kennedy]] tasked his speechwriter [[Ted Sorensen]] with studying the Gettysburg Address in an effort to assist Sorensen in authoring Kennedy's [[Inauguration of John F. Kennedy#Inaugural address|inaugural address]]. Sorensen drew many lessons from the Gettysburg Address, which according to Sorensen included rhetoric devices used by many speechwriters like [[alliteration]]s, [[rhyme]]s, repetitions, contrast, and balance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Education/Teachers/Curricular-Resources/~/media/assets/Education%20and%20Public%20Programs/Education/Lesson%20Plans/Analyzing%20the%20Inaugural%20Address.pdf |title=Analyzing the Inaugural Address |access-date=January 21, 2011 |author=JFK Library |author-link=JFK Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325164035/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Education/Teachers/Curricular-Resources/~/media/assets/Education%20and%20Public%20Programs/Education/Lesson%20Plans/Analyzing%20the%20Inaugural%20Address.pdf|archive-date= March 25, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author1=[[Ted Sorensen|Theodore C. Sorensen]] |title=Ted Sorensen on Abraham Lincoln: A Man of His Words |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ted-sorensen-on-abraham-lincoln-a-man-of-his-words-12048177/ |access-date=February 13, 2022 |publisher=Smithsonian Magazine |date=October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213183111/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ted-sorensen-on-abraham-lincoln-a-man-of-his-words-12048177/ |archive-date=February 13, 2022 |quote=Abraham Lincoln, the greatest American president, was also in my view the best of all presidential speechwriters. As a youngster in Lincoln, Nebraska, I stood before the statue of the president gracing the west side of the towering state capitol and soaked up the words of his Gettysburg Address, inscribed on a granite slab behind the statue. Two decades later, in January 1961, President-elect John F. Kennedy asked me to study those words again, in preparing to help him write his inaugural address. He also asked me to read all previous 20th-century inaugural addresses. I did not learn much from those speeches (except for FDR's first inaugural), but I learned a great deal from Lincoln's ten sentences.}}</ref>

In July 1963, Kennedy referenced the [[Battle of Gettysburg]] and Gettysburg Address during his own speech in Gettysburg, saying, "Five score years ago, the ground on which we here stand shuddered under the clash of arms and was consecrated for all time by the blood of American manhood. Abraham Lincoln, in dedicating this great battlefield, has expressed, in words too eloquent for paraphrase or summary, why this sacrifice was necessary."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx |title="Message from the President on the Occasion of Field Mass at Gettysburg, June 29, 1963, delivered by John S. Gleason, Jr." Box 10, President's Outgoing Executive Correspondence, White House Central Chronological Files, Papers of John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. |access-date=August 23, 2013 |archive-date=March 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307234227/https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2015, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation compiled ''Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address'', a book that challenges leaders to craft 272-word responses celebrating Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, or a related topic.<ref>{{Cite book
|title= Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address|publisher = Lyons Press|date=2015|isbn = 978-1493009121}}</ref> One reply by [[Neil deGrasse Tyson]], an astrophysicist, described Lincoln's greatest legacy as establishing, the same year of the Gettysburg Address, the [[National Academy of Sciences]], which had the longterm effect of "setting our Nation on a course of scientifically enlightened governance, without which we all may perish from this Earth".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq3UlgKjbZ8 Neil deGrasse Tyson's Gettysburg Reply – "The Seedbed"]</ref>

===Myths===
One myth about the Gettysburg Address is that Lincoln quickly authored the speech on the back of an envelope while on the train en route from Washington, D.C, to Gettysburg the day before the address.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/lincoln/exhibition/gettysburg/|title=The Myths of Gettysburg}}</ref> This widely held misunderstanding may have originated with ''The Perfect Tribute'', a 1906 book by [[Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews]], which was assigned reading for generations of schoolchildren, sold 600,000 copies,<ref>{{cite news | title=Mary S. Andrews, Author, is Dead | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=August 3, 1936 | page=15}}</ref> and was twice adapted into a movie.

Other lesser known claims include [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s inaccurate assertion that Lincoln composed the address "in only a few moments", and statements by industrialist [[Andrew Carnegie]], who wrongly said he personally supplied Lincoln with the pen with which he authored the address.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0025.205/--more-perfect-tribute?rgn=main;view=fulltext |title=A More Perfect Tribute |access-date=January 30, 2017 |author=Kent Gramm |journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association |volume=25 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2004 |pages=50–58 |doi=10.5406/19457987.25.2.05 |hdl=2027/spo.2629860.0025.205 }}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== See also ==
* [[Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg]]

== References ==
'''Informational notes'''
{{refbegin}}
:{{note label|Nicolay|a|a}} [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gettysburg-address/exhibitionitems/Assets/Nicolay1_enlarge.jpg The Gettysburg Address: Nicolay copy, page 1] (jpg), [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gettysburg-address/exhibitionitems/Assets/Nicolay2_enlarge.jpg page 2] (jpg). The Library of Congress.
: {{note label|Hay|b|b}} [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gettysburg-address/exhibitionitems/Assets/Hay1_enlarge.jpg The Gettysburg Address: Hay copy, page 1] (jpg), [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gettysburg-address/exhibitionitems/Assets/Hay2_enlarge.jpg page 2] (jpg). The Library of Congress.
: {{note label|Everett|c|c}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070614013718/http://www.virtualgettysburg.com/exhibit/lincoln/images/everettZ.jpg Everett copy] (jpg). virtualgettsyburg.com. Retrieved from internet archive 2007-06-14 version on 2007-12-10.
: {{note label|Bancroft|d|d}} [https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/letter_pic.htm Bancroft copy cover letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607080711/http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/letter_pic.htm |date=June 7, 2007 }} (pic), [https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/address_pic_p1_legible.htm Bancroft copy, page 1] (pic), [https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/address_pic_p2_legible.htm page 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050312043405/http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/address_pic_p2_legible.htm |date=March 12, 2005 }} (pic). Cornell University Library. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
: {{note label|Bliss|e|e}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20131126050458/http://papersofabrahamlincoln.org/documentimages/GABliss1.jpg Bliss copy, page 1] (jpg), [https://web.archive.org/web/20130825043549/http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/documentimages/GABliss2.jpg page 2] (jpg), [https://web.archive.org/web/20130825043604/http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/documentimages/GABliss3.jpg page 3] (jpg). Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
{{refend}}

''' Citations'''
{{Reflist}}

''' Bibliography '''
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?195790-1/after-words-gabor-boritt ''After Words'' interview with Gabor Boritt, January 13, 2007], [[C-SPAN]]}}
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last1=Barton |first1=William Eleazar |year=1950 |title=Lincoln at Gettysburg: What He Intended to Say; What He Said; What He Was Reported to Have Said; What He Wished He Had Said |place=New York |publisher=Peter Smith}}
* [[Gabor Boritt|Boritt, Gabor]] (2006). ''The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows''. Simon & Schuster. 432 pp.&nbsp;{{ISBN|0-7432-8820-3}}.
* Busey, John W., and Martin, David G. (2005). ''Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg'', 4th ed. Longstreet House, {{ISBN|0-944413-67-6}}.
* Conant, Sean, ed. (2015). ''The Gettysburg Address: Perspectives on Lincoln's Greatest Speech''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0190227456}}
* Frassanito, William A. (1995). ''Early Photography at Gettysburg''. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications. {{ISBN|978-1-57747-032-8}}.
* Gramm, Kent (2001). ''November: Lincoln's Elegy at Gettysburg''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|0-253-34032-2}}.
* [[Allen C. Guelzo|Guelzo, Allen C.]] (2013). ''Gettysburg: The Last Invasion''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. {{ISBN| 978-0307594082}}.
* Guelzo, Allen C. (2024). ''Voices from Gettysburg: Letters, Papers, and Memoirs from the Greatest Battle of the Civil War''. New York: Citadel Press. {{ISBN|978-0806543383}}
* {{cite book |last1=Herndon |first1=William H. |author-link1=William Herndon (lawyer) |last2=Weik |first2=Jesse W. |author-link2=Jesse W. Weik |year=1892 |title=Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of A Great Life |volume=2 |place=New York |publisher=D. Appleton and Company}}
* {{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Martin P. |year=2013 |title=Writing the Gettysburg Address |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0700621125}}
* Kunhardt, Philip B. Jr. (1983). ''A New Birth of Freedom: Lincoln at Gettysburg.'' Little Brown & Co. 263 pp.&nbsp;{{ISBN|0-316-50600-1}}.
* {{cite journal |last=LaFantasie |first=Glenn |title=Lincoln and the Gettysburg Awakening |journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association |date=1995 |volume=16 |issue= |pages=73–89 |doi=10.5406/19457987.16.1.08 |issn=0898-4212}}
* McGrath, Tim (November 18, 2025). ''Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle That Changed the War, the Speech That Changed the Nation''. Dutton Caliber.
* {{cite book |last1=McPherson |first1=James M. |author-link=James M. McPherson |year=1988 |title=Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era |place=Oxford, England |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-503863-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=McPherson |first1=James M. |author-link=James M. McPherson |year=1996 |title=Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War |location=Oxford, England |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-509679-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Jim |author-link=Jim Murphy (author) |year=1992 |title=[[The Long Road to Gettysburg]] |place=New York |publisher=Clarion Books |isbn=0-395-55965-0}}
* {{cite book |editor=Herbert Victor Prochnow |editor-link=Herbert V. Prochnow |year=1944 |title=Great Stories from Great Lives |place=Freeport |publisher=Books for Libraries Press |isbn=0-8369-2018-X}}
* {{cite book |last1=Rawley |first1=James A. |author-link=James A. Rawley |year=1966 |title=Turning Points of the Civil War |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0-8032-8935-9}}
* Reid, Ronald F. "Newspaper Responses to the Gettysburg Addresses". ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'' 1967 53(1): 50–60. {{Issn|0033-5630}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Sandburg |first1=Carl |author-link=Carl Sandburg |year=1939 |chapter=Lincoln Speaks at Gettysburg |title=Abraham Lincoln: The War Years |place=New York |publisher=Harcourt, Brace & Company |volume=2 |pages=452–457 |asin=B000BPD8GC}}
* Sauers, Richard A. (2000). "Battle of Gettysburg". In ''Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History''. Heidler, David S., and Heidler, Jeanne T., eds. W.W. Norton & Company. {{ISBN|0-393-04758-X}}.
* [[Diana Schaub|Schaub, Diana]] (2021). ''His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation''. New York: St. Martin's Press. {{ISBN| 978-1250763457}}.
* Schwartz, Barry. "The new Gettysburg Address: fusing history and memory". ''Poetics'' 33.1 (2005): 63–79. [http://www.barryschwartzonline.com/new%20gettysburg%20address.pdf online]
* Schwartz, Barry. "Rereading the Gettysburg Address: Social Change and Collective Memory". ''Qualitative Sociology'' 19.3 (1996): 395–422. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Schwartz-2/publication/226707182_Rereading_the_Gettysburg_Address_Social_Change_and_Collective_Memory/links/575f63fe08ae9a9c955fbd8e/Rereading-the-Gettysburg-Address-Social-Change-and-Collective-Memory.pdf online]
* {{cite journal |last1=Selzer |first1=Linda |title=Historicizing Lincoln: Garry Wills and the Canonization of the 'Gettysburg Address' |journal=Rhetoric Review |volume=16 |number=1 |year=1997 |pages=120–137 |doi=10.1080/07350199709389084}}
* {{cite book |last1=Simon |first1=John Y. |author-link1=John Y. Simon |last2=Holzer |first2=Harold |author-link2=Harold Holzer |last3=Pederson |first3=William D. |year=1999 |title=The Lincoln Forum: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, and the Civil War |place=Mason City, Iowa |publisher=Savas Publishing Company |isbn=1-882810-37-6}}
* {{cite book |last1=White |first1=Ronald C. Jr. |author-link=Ronald C. White |year=2005 |title=The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words |place=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=1-4000-6119-9}}
* Wieck, Carl F. (2002). ''Lincoln's Quest for Equality: The Road to Gettysburg.'' Northern Illinois University Press. 224 pp.&nbsp;{{ISBN|0-87580-299-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Wills |first1=Garry |author-link=Garry Wills |year=1992 |title=[[Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America]] |place=New York |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=0-671-76956-1}}
* {{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Douglas L. |author-link=Douglas L. Wilson |year=2006 |title=Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words |publisher=Knopf |isbn=1-4000-4039-6}}

===Primary sources===
* Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, ed. (2015). ''Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address'', {{ISBN|1493009125}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Wikisource|Gettysburg Oration}}
{{wikisource}}
{{commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120324084323/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/Pages/default.aspx?sc_id=wikip Library of Congress, Gettysburg Address exhibit]
* Gettysburg National Military Park (GNMP) [http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm Gettysburg Historical Handbook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306120405/http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm |date=March 6, 2016 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090210000843/http://abrahamlincoln200.org/for-kids/lincoln-coloring-book.aspx Online Lincoln Coloring Book for Teachers and Students]
* Cornell University Library exhibit on [https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/ideas_more/reactions_p1.htm#chicago_tribune Contemporary newspaper reactions.]
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/lincoln/ Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress]
* [http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/gettysburg_address_1.html The Gettysburg Address] An online exhibition from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
* {{librivox book | title=Gettysburg Address | author=Abraham Lincoln}}

{{Abraham Lincoln}}
{{Pennsylvania in the Civil War}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1863 in American politics]]
[[Category:1863 in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:1860s speeches]]
[[Category:1863 works]]
[[Category:American Civil War documents]]
[[Category:Battle of Gettysburg]]
[[Category:Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:November 1863]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Politics of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Presidency of Abraham Lincoln]]
[[Category:Speeches by Abraham Lincoln]]
[[Category:United States documents]]