Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address”
November 19, 1863; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
272 words. 3 minutes long. Yet, the Gettysburg Address is unarguably one of the greatest pieces of rhetoric in American history. Dr. J Rufus Fears (one of the great modern orators) argues that the Gettysburg Address, along with the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, form the three founding documents of American freedom. And I have to agree.
The Battle of Gettysburg left 8,000 men dead. The bodies were too numerous to bury properly and many were at first placed in shallow graves. Weeks after the battle, heads and arms were sticking up through the ground and the smell of rotting flesh was sickening.
Money was raised for a proper reburial, and it was decided that the new cemetery should be dedicated, to sweeten the air of Gettysburg, to solemnize this place of death. As was traditional, a great orator, in this case, Edward Everett, was asked to give a solemn and grand speech as a memorial to the fallen men. Lincoln was asked 2 months later, almost as a causal afterthought. He was to add a few remarks to Everett’s, a function much like the man with the ceremonial scissors who cuts the ribbon. Legends has it that Lincoln’s remarks were the product of pure inspiration, penned on the back of an envelope on the train chugging its way to the soon-to-be hallowed grounds of Gettysburg.
On the day of the dedication, Everett kept the crowd enthralled for a full two hours. Lincoln got up, gave his speech, and sat down even before the photographer had finished setting up for a picture. There was a long pause before anyone applauded, and then the applause was scattered and polite.
Not everyone immediately realized the magnificence of Lincoln’s address. But some did. In a letter to Lincoln, Everett praised the President for his eloquent and concise speech, saying, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”
And of course, in time, we have come to fully appreciate the genius and beauty of the words spoken that day. Dr. Fears argues that Lincoln’s address did more than memorialize the fallen soldiers at Gettysburg; it accomplished nothing short of transforming the entire meaning of the Civil War. There were no details of the battle mentioned in the speech, no mentioning of soldier’s names, of Gettysburg itself, of the South nor the Union, states rights nor secession. Rather, Lincoln meant the speech to be something far larger, a discourse on the experiment testing whether government can maintain the proposition of equality. At Gettysburg, the Constitution experienced a transformation. The first birth has been tainted by slavery. The men, of both North and South, lying in the graves at Gettysburg had made an atoning sacrifice for this great evil. And the Constitution would be reborn, this time living up to its promises of freedom and equality for all.
The Speech
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 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 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.
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A good read.
Most are American, but US was the most influential nation of last century so I think that’s justified.
@Brett
Kudos. A very ambitious and worthy undertaking this is. I will indeed be working my way through these speeches as the days pass.
In reading the above arguments and cacophony of “offended” dissension, my meager two-cents worth is that when someone runs a website, it’s their prerogative to voice their opinion. I disagree with several entries (It’s often a Teddy Roosevelt love fest here) but I feel that the ART of one’s Manliness is to gather the comments and not post angry retorts but concise examples as rebuttal. So that we can all look, as I have, at the suggestions and learn from each of us. I don’t mind clever arguments, but the whole “my orator is better than your orator” should be left to the debate club geeks. This forum should reinforce manliness/gentlemanliness and have proper point/counterpoint.
Missing in my opinion: Jesus/Confucius (same thing), MLK, Henry V, maybe Knute Rockne.
@Kaiseroze-
I appreciate your comments. As you said, what is lacking in many of the angry comments above are concrete examples of what we missed. I don’t mind dissension, but it needs to be backed up.
And I appreciate your suggestions, but please note that Jesus and MLK can both be found on page 3.
BTW,
@ those who ridicule American education:
Correct me if I’m wrong but, when it comes to our “government” education, don’t be surprised when all of us miss out on something that wasn’t in the “curriculum”. Government Education is opportunistic in relation to it’s cause. That goes for Social Europeans as well. Granted, our system isn’t spectacular, but overall this country allows us to find answers and confront the incorrect ones freely and openly, maybe a little more than others. Don’t knock it too much.
Sure, you put the list together, so you can call it anything you want. As long as you and I and the rest of the readers know the truth. While it is a nice littlle exercise to collect these speeches, it is frankly naive to give them the title of the greatest ever. You must have known that when you put the list together ad if you did not, I would then question your credentials and knowledge on the topic.
Correction:
Kennedy’s speech exhorting America to go to the moon was not delivered in Washington, D.C. It was delivered in Rice Stadium at Rice University, Houston, TX. You can clearly see this behind Kennedy in the picture.
That list is pure and brilliant.
Martin Luther King Jr and Winston Churchill I’ve always known, but these others are good to add.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is ironic, I think, in that it really is more remembered than the battle…
Good day!
It is very informative and has a very good quality in it.
I like it…
http://www.Squidoo.com/MPI
mliragana.blogspot.com
Thank you very much for your time.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/prophet/lastsermon.html
Delivered in the year 632 CE.
“All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over a white – except by piety and good action.”
One speech that I’m surprised is not here is David Lange’s speech as the Prime Minister of New Zealand, announcing that New Zealand was breaking a long-standing defense treaty with the United States over the issue of nuclear weapons. Entitled, “Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible”, he laid out the arguments of the title, and why therefore New Zealand must no longer be party to their relationship with the US and other powers. Here’s a powerful excerpt:
“The great strength of the West, in fact, lies not in the force of arms – although some would seek under the cover of a benign democracy to argue that it is in fact the force of arms – but it lies in its free and democratic systems of government.
That is why, in spite of all the difficulties and disagreements which we have amongst friends and allies, I am not disheartened. I came to Great Britain by way of the United States, where I put my case to the American people through the news media without any kind of hindrance from the United States Administration.
Members of Her Majesty’s Government have made it plain to me that they do not hold with the views I am committed to. I in fact have heard those before. The other night I heard them from Washington. They were compelling. They were a restatement of the United Kingdom position, and they were said with such candour and frankness that they seemed to persist even after the volume had been turned off. They were done with a strength and a purpose and a vigour.
I want to say that notwithstanding that difference, I have felt welcome here. I have been freely able to express my views. I can say freely whatever I please. Just as any member of Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom would be welcome in New Zealand to expound any line of argument in any forum she cared to use. That is the true strength of the West.
And that is a strength which is threatened, not defended, by nuclear weapons. The appalling character of those weapons has robbed us of our right to determine our destiny and subordinates our humanity to their manic logic. They have subordinated reason to irrationality and placed our very will to live in hostage. Rejecting the logic of nuclear weapons does not mean surrendering to evil; evil must still be guarded against. Rejecting nuclear weapons is to assert what is human over the evil nature of the weapon; it is to restore to humanity the power of the decision; it is to allow a moral force to reign supreme. It stops the macho lurch into mutual madness.
And for me, the position of my country is a genuine long-term affirmation of this proposition: that nuclear weapons are morally indefensible. And I support that proposition.”
Here’s a transcript, a recording, and some contextualizing notes:
http://www.publicaddress.net/default,1578.sm#post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Collins_(British_Army_officer)#Speech_excerpt
Speech given by Colonel Tim Collins of the First Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, on the eve of battle before they entered Kuwait in March 2003.
If it interests any one, check out his book Rules of Engagament, Life in Conflict.
Fantastic list, and while some were unknown to me, given the bona fides, I can’t argue with the selections.
As you’ve pointed out, simply arguing that the list is biased is intellectually lazy. If you think other orations are worthy, list them (as some have).
I’d have to include Patton’s speech. Also, I don’t put nearly as much stock in speeches which were written by others and merely delivered by the speaker. While I’m a Reagan supporter, I’d have to put him largely in that category. Speakers such as Churchill and Roosevelt penned their own words.
oration;science clubbing optimized;igniting and innovating
What? No Lincoln? The second inaugural address was amazing..
What? Hitler isn’t on here? I mean he was an awful man and all, but some of his speeches should at least be considered.
Mostly English speakers, and no African Americans–Where’s MLK, Malcom X, Obama…?
Please add Barack Obama’s victory speech and MLK’s “I Have A Dream”. Come on, if you’re going to list speeches, you should definitely have “I Have A Dream”
aaron you point is good
Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty of Give Me Death” speech. This is one of the greatest speeches the world can boost of.
Personally, I thought it was a fantastic list. Of course there are speeches missing that maybe are obscure to English speakers or lost to time. However, this is a very good list. I wish people would actually look at all of them before they said certain ones were missing. As much as I love my favorite two presidents, a little too heavy on TR and the Gipper.
the selection is good.but without the LAST SERMON SPEECH OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD the list is indeed incomplete
Frankly this list is very amerocentric. Feels like half the speeches on the list are American presidential speeches. And what is up with including Jesus? You can’t seriously consider the bible to have a correct transcript of a speech held 2000 years ago. Even if you are Christian you should still know the bible is written poetically, right?
I’m surprised that only two people made mention of the most beautiful speech ever made, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Wait which one is America? Is that the loud one? Or the one with a chip on its shoulder?
Great compilation! Obama’s 2004 speech, I thought, had a chance. But keep up the job man!
Very intresting collection,
but allow me to add one more.
The speech of the Greek Prime Minister, Xenophon Zolotas , 2nd October 1959
in Washington .
It has remain in history as a proof of the uniqueness of the Greek Language.
Kyrie,
It is Zeus’ anathema on our epoch and the heresy of our economic method and policies that we should agonize the Skylla of nomismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia.
It is not my idiosyncracy to be ironic or sarcastic but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize nomismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies should be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between economic strategic and philanthropic scopes.
In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological, but this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists.
Nomismatic symmetry should not antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and nomismatic archons is basic.
Parallel to this we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and nomismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political end economic barometer are halcyonic.
The history of our didimus organization on this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies.
Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism one or two themes with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and nomismatic policies.
I apologize for having tyranized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous aytochtons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you Kyrie, the stenographers.
I have always wanted something like this, it is true there isn’t anything worthy on the internet on history’s great orators and speeches. I will definetely continue to read this, I can only ask to expand it and add more memorable speeches. I know people have argued that Obama as a great orator is to early to say, but it is undeniable that the man has it, his 2004 speech truly makes you appreciate the art of oration.
Greatest speeches? More like Greatest pseudo-patriotic demagoguery, amirite?
I can’t believe so many people are so blind to Christianity . A brilliant speech is suppose to speak to you in ways others speeches can’t. They are suppose to compell
I can’t believe so many people are so blind to Christianity . A brilliant speech is suppose to speak to you in ways others speeches can’t. They are suppose to compel a person to take stand, to really give them a reason to do better or listen. If you have read the word of the bible you would understand the feeling Jesus and is words bring upon you. And for your critique of proof the words in the bible not by Jesus were spoken through those people by Jesus and from primary account. Once you have experienced the savior you will understand. By the way i believe your list is very informative and has incredible quality.
What about the greatest acceptance speech ever, given by Joe Pesci after winning Best Supporting Oscar for “Goodfellas”? I’ll include the entire text here:
“Thanks!”
the most intrestin speeches in lates histry are from hugos chaves in 2006 in UNand barak obama
If you’re including the Sermon on the Mount, I think you have to include the St. Crispin’s Day speech.
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