today we're looking at the Gettysburg Address hello welcome to The Daily bellringer please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the questions down in the description so November of 1863 President Abraham Lincoln traveled from Washington DC to the small town of Gettysburg Pennsylvania about four months earlier the bloodiest battle of the Civil War occurred there with over 51,000 casualties combined between the Union and Confederacy Lincoln had been asked to give a speech to dedicate the new Cemetery at Gettysburg where the soldiers of that battle were buried Lincoln had been invited not as the featured speaker instead the featured speaker was Edward Everett who was the former president of Harvard a former Secretary of State and known as one of the greatest speakers of the time Lincoln was invited just two weeks before the event because we're gonna have just kind of thought to themselves they should probably have the President of the United States there but on November 19th 1863 approximately 15,000 people gathered at Gettysburg for the dedication ever got up and spoke for about two hours on the significance of the battle and the war a small orchestra then played to him as an interlude as President Lincoln rose to give his speech Lincoln spoke for less than two minutes with a speech that was only 272 words there was just a small smattering of applause as the president took a seat and many were kind of shocked that he was so brief in fact if you look at this picture from the event it is evident that the camera man thought the president would go on for a long time so he took his time setting up his camera but could barely get a picture taken before the president was already sitting down but despite the speech being short as people began reading what Lincoln said in the newspapers people began to realize that Lincoln had summarized everything the war was about and why the war had to be fought in this little speech so what I would like to do is go through this speech and break it down a little bit and then make an argument for why I think in my opinion Lincoln was our greatest president because of his persistence in fighting this war 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 arguably the most famous part of the speech but what Lincoln was saying here is is four score and seven years ago a score is twenty and so four score would be eighty plus seven would be eighty seven years ago and if you look at the year 1863 and subtract eighty seven you get 1776 so Lincoln was pointing to the founding of our nation specifically the Declaration of Independence that said all men are created equal this is exactly where Lincoln had gone during the lincoln-douglas debates to make a moral argument against the spread of slavery in hypocrisy of our Declaration while slavery was allowed to exist now we are engaged in a great Civil War testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure now we have to think about how the United States was founded as a democracy in an age of monarchies or Kings during the American Revolution too many especially European powers the United States was simply an experiment that they were waiting to see fail many thought the the Civil War was proof that a democracy could not stand 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 here he recognizes those that gave the ultimate sacrifice so that the nation might live again he is coming back to preserving the Union which was the primary objective but in a larger sense we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate we cannot 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 not note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here Lincoln stresses the importance of history and that we can not add or take away from history but we must learn from it and never lose it from our memories 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 Lincoln here puts full responsibility on Americans to not let these soldiers efforts and sacrifice be for nothing he says the great task remaining before us which could mean several things winning the war bringing the Union back together and when you think about the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation had just been issued in January of 1863 he's probably alluding to race relations as well something that is a great task that still stands before us as a nation then he ends with a famous line 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 he again goes to the founding of the nation with with religious principles that were stressed by the founding fathers by saying under God and he goes on to say a new hearth of freedom where he's alluding to the new freedom that will be gained by enslaved people if the Union is victorious which again was a new focus ever since the Emancipation Proclamation then lastly a nation of the people for the people by the people shall not perish from the earth he's describing what democracy is about people having the power or a government of the people now this is where I argue why Lincoln is the greatest president Lincoln can recognize the eyes of the world were watching the United States and seeing whether or not a democracy could withstand a civil war and Lincoln knew if he did not preserve the Union it would show the world that democracies would fail and if that happened no other nation might even try democracy and so it's you know it might be it's very likely that if the Civil War had been won by the Confederacy our democracy might not exist today so he had to be persistent he had to continue fighting to save democracy for the future so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching you