address delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at gettysburg

It was here that Edward Everett, the great orator, statesman and main speaker for the event, spoke for more than two hours on remembrance of the past and of the dead. Because the Gettysburg National Cemetery was still being filled with fresh graves on November 19, 1863, the ceremonies actually took place on the eastern side of the hill and not within the confines of today’s National Cemetery boundaries. Evergreen, which had been the town cemetery since its creation in 1854, had played a pivotal role in the battle itself and now would be host to the speakers stand for the dedication of its new counterpart.

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.Since the fall of 1863, Cemetery Hill has been made up of not one, but two different cemeteries Evergreen Cemetery and the Gettysburg National Cemetery. 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. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.īut, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. 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. We are met on a great battle field of that war. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. Laura Bush, the White House completed refurbishing the Lincoln Bedroom and adjoining sitting room in 2005.Īddress delivered at the dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg.įour 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. Truman directed that Lincoln-era bedroom furnishings be placed there. The room, which had been President Lincoln’s office and cabinet room, has been called the Lincoln Bedroom since 1945 when President Harry S. 4, 2009 at the National Museum of American History) is normally kept on view in the newly restored Lincoln Bedroom on the second floor of the White House. The White House copy on display in the Albert H.

Address delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at gettysburg