Little Known Facts about the Gettysburg Address (and one big life lesson)
The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it did!
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of American history’s most notable and famous speeches. The Gettysburg Address was part of the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The speech came four and a half months after the Union armies defeated Confederate forces in the most pivotable battle of the Civil War.
Little Known Facts
- Lincoln was not the primary speaker that day; Edward Everett gave the oration that day.
- Everett’s oration was known as the Gettysburg Address at that time.
- Lincoln’s speech was 271 words; Everett’s oration was 13,607.
- Lincoln spoke for 2 minutes and many in the audience missed it.
- Lincoln’s remarks were considered a failure at the time.
- Lincoln was likely suffering from a minor case of smallpox when he delivered his address.
- Five known versions of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln’s hand differ slightly in some details. Contemporary newspaper accounts also differ slightly.
- Nevertheless, Lincoln’s now-famous Gettysburg Address is heralded as the most clear and concise piece of writing in the English language.
One Big Takeaway
I have been a fan of Lincoln and the American Civil War throughout my life. There’s a lot to say and understand about the Gettysburg Address.
The one big takeaway for me is that you never know when something you deem small or poor will be regarded as great or when something you consider great will not be long remembered. Life is indeed funny that way. As the Nike ad says, “Just Do It.”
The Gettysburg Address
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 battlefield 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.
— A. Lincoln
JD Solomon resides in the Carolinas, where he fishes, sails, and coaches baseball. Professionally, JD Solomon is the founder of JD Solomon, Inc., the creator of the FINESSE fishbone diagram®, and the co-creator of the SOAP criticality method©.
