On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered remarks, which later became known as the Gettysburg Address, at the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on the site of one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the Civil War.
The full text of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is as follows:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Station HYPO 
19 November 2021 at 12:50
I purchased, many years ago, a copy of the National Inteligencer (Washington, D.C.) for Saturday. November 21, 1863. In it was the text of the address. The article contained the full text of the two hour long introductory speech by Secretary of State Edward Everett (now thankfully forgotten) and which was followed elsewhere in the paper by the President’s address. Mr. Everett’s speech was so very long that it took up about half the front page, and the President’s speech had the be placed on page two. Early in the article, however, before all the “speechifying”, there was mention of a visit by the reporter on the previous evening to the private home where the president was staying the night. Mr. Lincoln left the house, briefly, in response to requests from the crown outside, and he addressed them as follows:
“I appear before you, fellow citizens, merely to thank you for this compliment. The inference is a very fair one that you would hear me for a little while, at least, if I were to commence to make a speech. But I do not appear before you for the purpose of doing so, and for several very substantial reasons. The most substantial of these is that I have no speech to make. (Laughter) It is somewhat important in my position that one should not say any foolish things if he can help it, and it very often happens that the only way to help it is to say nothing at all. (Renewed laughter) Believing that that is my precise position this evening, I must beg of you to excuse me from saying one word.”
I would note that one reason there was not room for the President on the front page is that it contained a number of official government purchasing proposals, one of which was a Proposal for Manure from the Chief Quartermaster’s Office. The District of Columbia was then swamped by military personnel and their horses, and the government was seeking bids for the removal of manure from the city streets for a period of twelve months. Mr. Lincoln’s comments were displaced, it would seem, by horse s__t.
Fred Ames
To: fredames@nc.rr.com Subject: [New post] The Gettysburg Address
mariovulcano posted: ” On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered remarks, which later became known as the Gettysburg Address, at the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on the site of one of the bloodiest and mo”
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