Paul Cooney
AP American
Mr. DeCarlo
15 November 2006


LAD 13- Gettysburg Address

Delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg, this was probably Lincoln’s most famous speech. The ceremony at Gettysburg served him as an opportunity to not only to dedicate the grounds of the cemetery, but also to consecrate the living in the struggle to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." He assured the people gathered at the ceremony that none of the soldiers died in vain. Lincoln uses the word “nation” repeatedly; moving away from the term “union” was used to describe the north pre-civil war.