The Gettysburg Address

In this section you will find press reports covering the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania which took place on Thursday, November 19, 1863. The first report is taken from the November 20, 1863 issue of the New-York Daily Tribune. The second report (a more detailed account) is taken from the November 21, 1863 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The New-York Daily Tribune, November 20, 1863

The following text is taken from a front-page article in the New-York Daily Tribune that covers the Consecration Ceremonies at the Gettysburg Cemetery. It contains the text of President Lincoln's address as recorded by the paper's correspondent, as well as Edward Everett's complete address (only a portion of which appears here).

Gettysburg, Thursday, Nov. 19, 1863.

This famous little town is overflowing with people assembled to witness the dedication of the National Cemetery.

Special trains have brought thousands of people, and other thousands have come in from the surrounding country by other modes of conveyance. The citizens are doing all in their power to accommodate the vast concourse.

President Lincoln and the distinguished party accompanying him arrived here yesterday afternoon, and soon after the special train from Harrisburg brought Gov. Curtin and several other Governors, together with numerous gentlemen of military and civil life.

The President's party arrived last evening, but the train which conveyed the Governors was delayed by a slight accident until nearly midnight, so that they were not able to participate in the proceedings of the night, which were of a marked character. The President, Secretary Seward, and Col. Forney were serenaded, and each replied to the compliment.

Serenade to the President – His Speech

After supper the President was serenaded by the excellent band of the 5th New-York Artillery. After repeated calls, Mr. Lincoln at length presented himself, when he was loudly cheered. He said:
I appear before you, fellow-citizens, merely to thank you for the compliment. The inference is a very fair one that you would hear me for a little while at least, were I to commence to make a speech. I do not appear before you for the purpose of doing so, and for several substantial reasons. The most substantial of these is that I have no speech to make. (Laughter.) In my position it is somewhat important that I should not say any foolish things.
A Voice - If you can help it.
Mr. Lincoln - It very often happens that the only way to help it is to say nothing at all. (Laughter.) Believing that is my present condition this evening, I must beg of you to excuse me from addressing you further.

The President retired amid loud cheers. The band then proceeded to where Mr. Seward was staying, and paid him the compliment of a serenade. He obeyed a call for a speech.

Gettysburg, Pa, Thursday, Nov. 19, 1863.
The ceremony attending the dedication of the National Cemetery commenced this morning by a grand military and civic display, under command of Major-Gen. Couch. The line of march was taken up at 10 o'clock, and the procession marched through the principal streets to the Cemetery, where the military formed in line and saluted the President.

At a quarter past 11 the head of the procession arrived at the main stand. The President and members of the Cabinet together with the chief military and civic dignitaries, took positions on the stand. The President seated himself between Mr. Seward and Mr. Everett, after a reception marked with the respect and perfect silence due to the solemnity of the occasion, every man in the immense gathering uncovering on his appearance.

The military were formed in line extending around the stand, the area between the stand and military being occupied by civilians comprising about 15,000 people, and including men, women and children. The attendance of ladies was quite large. The military escort comprised one squadron of cavalry, two batteries of artillery, and a regiment of infantry, which constitutes the regular farewell escort of honor for the highest officer in the service.

After the performance of a funeral dirge by Birgfield (by the band), an eloquent prayer was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Stockton (which appears in the article). (The article then gives the text of the speeches by Edward Everett and President Lincoln.)

Mr. Everett's Address

(Excerpts from the speech)

"It was appointed by law in Athens that the obsequies of citizens who fell in battle should be performed at the public expense, and in the most honorable manner. Their bones were carefully gathered up from the funeral pyre where their bodies were consumed, and brought home to the city. There, for three days before the interment, they lay in state, beneath tents of honor, to receive the votive offerings of friends and relatives – flowers, weapons, precious ornaments, painted vases (wonders of art which, after two thousand years, adorn the museums of modern Europe) – the last tributes of surviving affection. Ten coffins of funereal cypress received the honorable deposit, one for each of the tribes in the city, and an eleventh in memory of the unrecognized, but not therefore unhonored, dead, and of those whose remains could not be recovered. On the fourth day the mournful procession was formed; mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, led the way, and to them was permitted, by the simplicity of ancient manners, to utter aloud their lamentations for the beloved and the lost; the male relatives of the deceased followed; citizens and strangers closed the train. Thus marshaled they moved to the place of interment in that famous Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of Athens …."

"There, beneath the overarching plane trees, upon a lofty stage erected for the purpose, it was ordained by law, that a funeral oration should be pronounced by some citizen of Athens, in presence of the assembled multitude. Such were the tokens of respect required by law to be paid at Athens, to the memory of those who had fallen in the name of their country. To those alone who fell at Marathon, a peculiar honor was reserved. As the battle fought on that immortal field was distinguished from all others in Grecian history for its influence over the fortunes of Hellas – as it depended on the event of that day, whether Greece should live, a glory and a light to all coming time, or should expire, like a meteor of a moment; so the honors awarded to its martyr-heroes were such as were bestowed by Athens on no other occasion. They alone of all her sons were entombed upon the spot which they had forever rendered famous."

"We have assembled, friends, fellow-citizens, at the invitation of the Executive of the great Central State of Pennsylvania, seconded by the Governors of eighteen other loyal States of the Union, to pay the last tribute of respect to the brave men, who in the hard fought battles of the 1st, 2d and 3d days of July last, laid down their lives for the country on these hill-sides and plains spread out before us, and whose remains have been gathered into the cemetery which we consecrate this day. As my eye ranges over the fields whose sods were so lately moistened by the blood of gallant and loyal men, I feel as never before, how truly it was said of old that it is sweet and becoming to die for one's country. I feel as never before, how justly, from the dawn of history to the present time, men have paid the homage of their gratitude and admiration to the memory of those who nobly sacrifice their lives, that their fellow-men may live in safety. And if this tribute was ever due, when – to whom – could it be more justly paid, than to those whose last resting place we this day commend to the blessing of Heaven and of men."

The President then delivered the following dedicatory speech:

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Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (Applause.) 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 battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of 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 power to add or detract. (Applause.) The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. (Applause.) It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the refinished (sp) work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. (Applause.) 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 here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain (applause); that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom; and that Governments of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (Long-continued applause).

Three cheers were here given for the President and the Governors of the States.

After the delivery of this address the dirge and the benediction closed the exercises, and the immense assemblage separated at about 2 o'clock.