The Gettysburg Address

To respect the Confederate dead

To honor the Union dead and use their sacrifice to inspire the public to support the war effort

To remind his audience that historical memories are pointless

To re-imagine the national purpose from this point forward

Lincoln feels he must explain the definition of a civil war.

Only some of the dead will be memorialized where they fell in battle.

Lincoln is not certain that the Union will be victorious.

Lincoln wants to ease racial tensions in the South.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and 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.”