The Meaning of the Gettysburg Address

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Essay on the Meaning of the Gettysburg Address While the Gettysburg Address is fairly short in length at around 300 words, this famous speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1963 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is both enduring and meaningful for all Americans today, almost exactly 146 years later. The first paragraph of his speech sets the tone, in which Lincoln does not directly mention the bloody Battle of Gettysburg, in which 50,000 soldiers lost their lives. Instead, he refers in the opening phrase, “Four score and seven years ago,” to the founding of America through another important written document, the Declaration of Independence in 1776. I believe Lincoln wanted the country to focus on preserving this country, and in his speech reminded all American citizens that this nation was “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” I believe Lincoln wanted all Americans, Union and Confederate, to focus on preserving the nation, and he did not want to upset everyone by dwelling on the bloody Battle of Gettysburg t...

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