The Gettysburg Address
In three short paragraphs at a cemetery dedication, Lincoln recasts the Civil War as a test of whether a nation founded on equality can survive.
📖 Read the full text on this pageEvery paragraph numbered, so you can cite itIn November 1863, months after three days of fighting at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, people gathered to dedicate a cemetery for the Union soldiers who died there. Edward Everett gave the main oration, and it lasted about two hours. President Abraham Lincoln followed with far shorter remarks. In three paragraphs he turned a ceremony for the dead into a pledge by the living, and into a question about whether a nation built on equality could last at all.
The claim
The living cannot make the battlefield sacred, because the soldiers who fought there already did. What the living can do is dedicate themselves to the unfinished work those soldiers advanced, so that the nation has a new birth of freedom and government of the people does not perish.
The rhetorical situation who, to whom, when, and why
Soldiers’ National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
A cemetery on the ground where the battle was fought from July 1 to 3, 1863. The speech calls it ‘a great battle-field of that war’ but never names the town.
November 19, 1863
The day of the dedication, months after the battle and while the Civil War was still being fought.
What The Gettysburg Address says
Lincoln begins by counting back ‘four score and seven years’, which is eighty-seven years, to the founding. He says that ‘our fathers’ created a new nation on this continent. It was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. In the second paragraph he turns to the present. The country is fighting a great civil war, and the war is testing whether this nation, or any nation built on the same ideas, can last. The listeners are standing on a battlefield of that war. They have come to set apart part of it as a final resting place for the men who gave their lives so that the nation might live. Lincoln says this is fitting and proper. The third paragraph reverses that idea. In a larger sense, Lincoln says, the people present cannot dedicate, consecrate or hallow the ground. The men who struggled there, living and dead, have already made it sacred, far beyond anything the speakers could add or take away. The world will pay little attention to what is said that day, he predicts, but it can never forget what the soldiers did. So the real task belongs to the living. They must dedicate themselves to the unfinished work that the soldiers advanced. Lincoln ends with one long sentence of resolutions. The living should take increased devotion from the dead, who gave ‘the last full measure of devotion’. They should resolve that these deaths will not be in vain. The nation, under God, should have a new birth of freedom. And government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the earth.
The line of reasoning how the argument moves
- Starts with the foundingParagraph 1 looks back eighty-seven years to the nation’s birth and names the principle it was dedicated to. Starting from a shared origin puts every listener on common ground before Lincoln asks anything of them.
- Names the present testThe first sentence of paragraph 2 recasts the war as a test of whether that founding idea can endure. The battle becomes part of a larger question instead of a local event.
- Approves the ceremonyThe rest of paragraph 2 explains why the crowd has gathered and calls the dedication ‘fitting and proper’. Lincoln affirms the ceremony first so that the reversal that follows has something to turn against.
- Reverses the dedicationParagraph 3 opens with ‘But’ and denies that the living can dedicate the ground at all, because the soldiers already consecrated it. Setting words against deeds lowers the speakers and raises the dead.
- Hands the work to the livingStill in paragraph 3, Lincoln turns ‘dedicated’ back on his listeners: they must be dedicated to the unfinished work. The duty moves from the cemetery to the audience, which is the call to action.
- Ends in the futureThe final sentence of paragraph 3 stacks resolutions and ends with a new birth of freedom and government of the people. The speech closes looking forward, completing a movement from past (paragraph 1) to present (paragraph 2) to future.
The full text paragraphs numbered for citation
¶1Four 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.
¶2Now 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.
¶3But, 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.
Text: Wikisource, the Bliss copy (1864), the fifth and last manuscript Lincoln wrote out and the only one he signed.
Paragraph by paragraph what each part does
- 1
Paragraph 1: The nation’s founding
Lincoln counts back eighty-seven years to the founders, who brought forth a new nation on the continent. He describes it as conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. The whole paragraph is a single sentence.
Why it mattersThe paragraph sets a shared starting point and a standard, equality, that the rest of the speech measures the war against. Its language of birth begins an image pattern that returns at the end.
- 2
Paragraph 2: A war that tests the nation
Lincoln says the country is engaged in a great civil war that tests whether a nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. He notes that the listeners are met on a battlefield of that war and have come to dedicate part of it as a resting place for the men who died so the nation might live. He calls this fitting and proper.
Why it mattersThe paragraph moves from the founding to the present and widens the stakes from one country to ‘any nation so conceived’. By approving the ceremony here, Lincoln prepares the reversal that opens the next paragraph.
- 3
Paragraph 3: The task for the living
Lincoln says the living cannot truly dedicate, consecrate or hallow the ground, because the brave men who struggled there already consecrated it. He predicts the world will little note the words spoken that day but never forget the soldiers’ deeds. He then asks the living to dedicate themselves to the unfinished work, and closes with resolutions that the dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation 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.
Why it mattersThis paragraph holds the turn and the call to action, as dedication moves from the ground to the listeners. Its long closing sentence builds through parallel ‘that’ clauses to the broadest claim in the speech.
Rhetorical choices what the writer does, and why it works
Allusion to the Declaration of Independence
In paragraph 1, ‘four score and seven years ago’ counts back to 1776, and ‘all men are created equal’ comes from the Declaration. The old counting word ‘score’, familiar from the King James Bible, gives the opening a solemn sound. By dating the nation from the Declaration, Lincoln makes equality the founding principle his audience is fighting to keep.
Extended metaphor of birth and death
The nation is ‘brought forth’ and ‘conceived’ in paragraph 1, the soldiers die ‘that that nation might live’ in paragraph 2, and paragraph 3 hopes for ‘a new birth of freedom’. The pattern treats the nation as a living thing whose survival the war will decide, and presents the soldiers’ deaths as part of its renewal.
Tricolon
In paragraph 3, Lincoln names three things the living cannot do, ‘dedicate’, ‘consecrate’ and ‘hallow’, three near-synonyms, each set after ‘we can not’, so the denial builds as the sentence goes on. The speech then ends on another set of three, government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’, which makes the idea of self-government easy to remember.
Antithesis
Paragraph 3 sets ‘what we say here’ against ‘what they did here’, and pairs ‘the living’ with the dead. The contrast between words and deeds lets Lincoln honor the soldiers above every speaker at the ceremony, himself included.
Parallel ‘that’ clauses
The final sentence of paragraph 3 lists the living’s resolutions in clauses that each begin with ‘that’. Each clause is larger in scope than the one before, moving from the dead to the listeners to the nation to government itself, so the sentence gathers force as it goes.
Inclusive first person
Lincoln never uses ‘I’. In paragraphs 2 and 3 he speaks of ‘we’ and ‘us the living’, placing himself among the listeners who owe a debt to the dead. The choice builds shared responsibility instead of relying on the authority of his office.
People & audiences
Abraham Lincoln
Speaker
The president during the Civil War. He speaks as one of ‘us the living’ and makes no reference to himself or to his office.
The listeners at the cemetery
Immediate audience
The people gathered for the dedication, described as ‘met on a great battle-field’ of the war. Lincoln asks them to take up the soldiers’ unfinished work.
Our fathers
The founders
The generation that ‘brought forth’ the nation in paragraph 1. Lincoln invokes them to establish equality as the nation’s starting point.
The brave men, living and dead
The soldiers
The men ‘who struggled here’. Lincoln says their actions, not the ceremony, consecrated the ground, and that the dead gave ‘the last full measure of devotion’.
The world
Wider audience
The audience beyond the battlefield, which Lincoln predicts will ‘little note, nor long remember’ the speech. Paragraph 2 extends the war’s meaning to ‘any nation so conceived and so dedicated’.
Big ideas in The Gettysburg Address
Equality as the founding idea
Lincoln defines the nation by a proposition, that all men are created equal, rather than by its land or its laws. The war becomes a test of that idea, so saving the nation means keeping the principle alive.
Words and deeds
The speech says the soldiers’ actions outweigh anything said about them. Lincoln plays down the power of words, his own included, in order to honor what the soldiers did.
The duty of the living
The dead cannot finish the work they began. Lincoln turns the ceremony into a pledge, so that honoring the dead means carrying on their cause.
Death and rebirth
The nation was born at the founding, is being tested by war, and may have ‘a new birth of freedom’. The soldiers’ deaths are framed as part of that renewal, so that they ‘shall not have died in vain’.
Government by the people
The closing words define self-government as government of, by and for the people. Lincoln presents the Union cause as a test of whether that kind of government can survive anywhere on earth.
Key images
The battlefield ground
The ground stands for the sacrifice made on it. Because the soldiers have already consecrated it, the ground becomes proof of their devotion, something no ceremony can improve.
Birth
Birth language in paragraphs 1 and 3 stands for the nation’s founding and its hoped-for renewal. It frames the war as a crisis in the life of the nation rather than only a military contest.
Repeated words and ideas
Dedication. Forms of ‘dedicate’ appear six times. The nation was dedicated to a proposition (paragraph 1), the listeners came to dedicate the field (paragraph 2), and in paragraph 3 the living must be dedicated to the unfinished work. The word moves from the land to the people.
Here. The word ‘here’ appears once in paragraph 2 and seven times in paragraph 3. It keeps attention on the battlefield even as Lincoln widens the meaning of the day to the whole nation.
Tensions and counterarguments
Words vs. deeds. A dedication ceremony is made of words, yet Lincoln says words cannot add to what the soldiers did. He resolves the tension by turning the speech into a pledge rather than a tribute.
Survival of the nation. The war is testing whether a nation founded on equality ‘can long endure’. The speech answers that it will endure only if the living carry on the work.
Key quotes
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
The conclusion of The Gettysburg Address, explained
The address ends inside one long sentence that begins ‘It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us’. Lincoln then spells out that task in clauses that each begin with ‘that’. The living should take increased devotion from the dead, who gave ‘the last full measure of devotion’. They should resolve that the dead ‘shall not have died in vain’. The nation, ‘under God’, should ‘have a new birth of freedom’. And government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the earth. The order matters. The clauses move from the soldiers, to the listeners’ resolve, to the nation, to government everywhere. Each step is wider than the last, so the sentence ends on the largest stakes in the speech. The ending also completes the birth imagery that began in paragraph 1, where the nation was ‘conceived’ and ‘brought forth’. Now Lincoln hopes for ‘a new birth’. Many readers take ‘freedom’ here to reach beyond the founders’ version of liberty, because the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect that January. The speech itself never mentions slavery, so that reading is an interpretation, not something the text states. Finally, the ending answers the reversal earlier in the paragraph. Lincoln said the living cannot dedicate the ground. The last sentence shows what they can dedicate: themselves. A ceremony that seemed to be about the dead ends as a charge to the living, and that charge is the purpose of the whole address.
Common misreadings
Myth‘Four score and seven years ago’ refers to the Constitution.
ActuallyEighty-seven years before 1863 is 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence, and paragraph 1 repeats the Declaration’s claim that all men are created equal. The Constitution was written in 1787.
MythThe speech describes the battle of Gettysburg.
ActuallyIt never names Gettysburg, a general, the Union, the Confederacy or slavery. Paragraph 2 calls the place only ‘a great battle-field of that war’, which keeps the focus on what the war means rather than on what happened in it.
MythThere is only one version of the address.
ActuallyFive manuscript copies in Lincoln’s hand survive, and their wording differs in small ways. This page prints the Bliss copy, the last one he wrote out and the only one he signed and dated.
AP practice a rhetorical analysis prompt in the exam's style
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of a national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, months after a Civil War battle was fought there. Read the address carefully. Then write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Lincoln makes to turn a ceremony for the dead into a charge to the living.
What a strong response notices
- The movement from past to present to future: the founding in paragraph 1, the war in paragraph 2, and the task ahead at the end of paragraph 3.
- The allusion to the Declaration of Independence in paragraph 1, which sets equality as the principle the war is testing.
- The reversal that opens paragraph 3, where Lincoln says the living cannot dedicate ground the soldiers have already consecrated.
- The antithesis in paragraph 3 between ‘what we say here’ and ‘what they did here’, which honors deeds over words.
- The inclusive ‘we’ in paragraphs 2 and 3 and the parallel ‘that’ clauses in the last sentence of paragraph 3, which turn listeners into participants.
Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Language free-response guide for how answers are scored.
Test yourself
1. What does ‘four score and seven years ago’ point back to?
Eighty-seven years before 1863 is 1776, and paragraph 1 repeats the Declaration’s words that all men are created equal.
2. According to paragraph 2, what is the war testing?
Lincoln says the war is ‘testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure’.
3. Why does Lincoln say the living cannot consecrate the ground?
Paragraph 3 says the brave men, living and dead, ‘have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract’.
4. Which pair shows the antithesis at the center of paragraph 3?
Lincoln sets the speakers’ words against the soldiers’ deeds to show which will be remembered.
5. What does Lincoln ask the living to do?
He says ‘It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work’.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
In 1863 the United States was fighting a civil war. After a huge battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a cemetery was made for Union soldiers who died there. President Lincoln gave a very short speech when the cemetery was dedicated. He said the country was started on the idea that all men are created equal. He said the soldiers had already made the ground special, and no speech could add to that. He told the living to finish the work the soldiers started. That way the country could have a fresh start at freedom and a government run by its people.
Compare & connect
The Declaration of Independence
Lincoln’s opening counts back to 1776 and repeats the Declaration’s claim that all men are created equal. Reading the source shows what he chose to build on.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Lincoln’s other famous short wartime speech, delivered in March 1865. Where the Gettysburg Address never mentions slavery, the Second Inaugural names it as the cause of the war and asks for a merciful peace.
I Have a Dream
King spoke at the Lincoln Memorial and opened with an echo of Lincoln’s ‘four score’. Like Lincoln, he measures the nation against its founding promise of equality.
Discussion and essay prompts:
💬 Discussion questions
- What is the main message of the Gettysburg Address
- What does four score and seven years ago mean
- Why did Lincoln say we can not dedicate this ground
- How does The Gettysburg Address explore the theme of equality as the founding idea?
- How does The Gettysburg Address explore the theme of words and deeds?
- What is the central conflict in The Gettysburg Address, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Abraham Lincoln develops the theme of equality as the founding idea in The Gettysburg Address. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of the battlefield ground in The Gettysburg Address. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Abraham Lincoln use allusion to the Declaration of Independence to shape the reader’s experience of The Gettysburg Address?
- Some readers assume that ‘Four score and seven years ago’ refers to the Constitution. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- What is the main message of the Gettysburg Address
- What does four score and seven years ago mean
- Why did Lincoln say we can not dedicate this ground
- What rhetorical devices are in the Gettysburg Address
- What does a new birth of freedom mean in the Gettysburg Address
- Who was the audience for the Gettysburg Address
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The full text and quotations follow the Bliss copy of the Gettysburg Address, the only copy Lincoln signed, as transcribed on Wikisource. The address is in the public domain.