Lincoln at Gettysburg: An Address

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A. C. McClurg & Company, 1906 - Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863 - 92 pages

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Page 68 - But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract.
Page 67 - 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 battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
Page 3 - 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 the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion, — that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Page 30 - The train consisted of four passenger coaches, and, either composition or writing would have been extremely troublesome amid the movement, the noise, the conversation, the greetings, and the questionings which ordinary courtesy required him to undergo in these surroundings; but, still worse would have been the rockings and joltings of the train, rendering writing virtually impossible. Mr. Lincoln carried in his pocket the autograph manuscript of so much of his address as he had written at Washington...
Page 78 - 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.
Page 60 - On the platform from which Mr. Lincoln delivered his address, and only a moment after it was concluded, Mr. Seward turned to Mr. Everett and asked him what he thought of the President's speech. Mr. Everett replied, " It is not what I expected from him. I am disappointed." Then in his turn Mr. Everett asked, " What do you think of it, Mr. Seward? " The response was, " He has made a failure, and I am sorry for it. His speech is not equal to him.
Page 86 - ... of long ago, when the autumn leaves were tinged with a thousand hues of beauty, upon an eminence in the midst of a great plain bounded by lofty mountains, I saw a vast concourse of men and women. I saw among them illustrious warriors, gifted poets, and profound statesmen. I saw ambassadors of mighty empires, governors of great commonwealths, ministers of cabinets, men of high position and power. I saw above their heads, upon every hand, a starry banner, drooping under the weight of sombre drapery....
Page 56 - A moment's reflection will convince any one that before the great multitude of people, nearly all of whom were standing, could have prepared themselves to listen intelligently — before they had, I may say, become poised, before their thoughts had become sufficiently centered upon the speaker to take up his line of thought and follow him, he had finished and returned to his seat. "So short a time was Mr. Lincoln before them that the people could scarcely believe their eyes when he disappeared from...
Page 23 - ... speak upon such a grave and solemn occasion as that of the memorial services. Besides, it was said that, with his important duties and responsibilities, he could not possibly have the leisure to prepare an address for such an occasion. In answer to this, it was urged that he himself, better than...
Page 24 - It was finally decided to ask President Lincoln "after the oration" (that is to say, after Mr. Everett's oration), as chief executive of the nation, "to set apart formally these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks." This was done, in the name of the governors of the States, as was the case with others, by Mr. Wills; but the invitation was not settled upon and sent to Mr. Lincoln until the second of November, more [24] than six weeks after Mr.

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