Dedication Ceremony - Gettysburg National Cemetery

Edward Everett,  an American politician and educator from Massachusetts is often remembered today as the featured orator at the dedication ceremony of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg in 1863.  He held the crowds attention with "eloquent description," "polished diction," and "practiced delivery."

The Reverend Thomas H. Stockton opened the program with a prayer and praised the slain soldiers:  "As the trees are not dead, though their foliage is gone, so our heroes are not dead, though their forms have fallen. In their proper personality they are with Thee. And the spirit of their example is here."

Everett blamed the Confederacy for the war.  They claimed to be defending the rights reserved to the people and the states under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. 

Now it was time for President Lincoln to speak.  His voice was steady but high pitched.  His Kentucky twang, with "thar" instead of "there" and "forgit" instead of "forget" may have sounded strange and unpleasant to some of his listeners. But, those in the back had no trouble hearing him.

His 272 word speech was over so quickly that a photographer failed in his attempt to record the moment for history.

Edward Everett was chosen to be main speaker because the commission questioned Abraham Lincoln's ability to speak upon such a grave and solemn occasion.   Lincoln was know to include humor and folksy stories in his public speeches so that ordinary citizens would better understand him.

Lincoln however had a national reputation as a talented speaker.  So, perhaps the commissioners were needlessly worried about his ability to speak.

Lincoln decided to go to Gettysburg to honor the nation's fallen soldiers.  It would also give him a chance to speak before widespread audience to remind them why the Civil War was being fought.  Plus, with the 1864 presidential election only a year away, here was an opportunity to rally important leaders of the Republican party.  The governors of 17 states would be present.

The reelection could not be taken for granted.  The political parties in the Northern states were split into feuding factions.  The Democrats had Copperheads who secretly supported the South. Peace Democrats, eager for a negotiated settlement and War Democrats wanting to go on fighting until the South was defeated.  (Kind of sounds familiar doesn't it?).

Republicans on the other hand, had Moderates who accepted the way the war was going, Radicals felt Lincoln was too lenient on the South and not encouraging his commanders to fight hard enough, and neglecting black civil rights.

John Forbes, a Radical Republican urged Lincoln to teach his great audience of plain people that the war was about the North against the South but, the people against the aristocrats.


Sources: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Four Score and More

Barbara Silberdick Feinberg
Twenty-First Century Books
Brookfield, Connecticut

http://www.millbrookpress.com/