Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Presidential speechwriter and former New York Times columnist, William Safire called “The Gettysburg Address” a poem. So, perhaps we should treat it as a poem. That is, put it up on the wall and point out the things you would do if you were analyzing a poem.

First of all, look at the precision with which he used the language to help convey the content. He didn’t start with “Eighty-seven years ago”; he started with “Four score and seven years ago”. It sounds archaic and biblical and that’s intentional because he is about to talk about the “Declaration of Independence” which he holds as precious as any sacred religious text. That religious-sounding language continues with the phrase “our fathers” which is the plural of the beginning of Christianity’s best-known prayer, The Lord’s Prayer.

The language suddenly changes in the second paragraph beginning with “Now we are engaged in a great civil war….” This is straightforward, plain English describing with no embellishment whatsoever the tragic situation the nation is in. With the succession of sentences beginning with “we” the language almost sounds as if it is coming out of a telegram and not some sacred text. Garry Wills talks about Lincoln’s telegraphic style in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Lincoln at Gettysburg.

Then the language style shifts again in the last sentence of that paragraph.” It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this”. This is reminiscent of the Latin phrase vere dignum et justum est(it is truly fitting and just…) in the Preface of the Catholic mass. Not that Lincoln was a religious person. Rather that he sought to use the language that would elevate and dignify what they were doing at Gettysburg. It was solemn language befitting the subject and the occasion, the death of so many men, and the re-consecration of the nation.

He continues with the religious wording in the next paragraph—“we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow….The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it,….” And comes back to it several sentences later when he uses “devotion” twice to link the work of the living with the cause of the dead. He is not just honoring the dead, but sanctifying them. And not just petitioning the living, but calling for their devotion to the task that remains—“that this nation, under God, should have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

In addition, the speech uses rhetorical devices like antithesis (“The world will little note nor long remember…”), anaphora (“we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate…”), parallel structure (“that we here highly resolve that…”), and the “Rule of Threes” (“of the people, by the people, and for the people”).

The speech advances from a document dedicated to a proposition, to a nation dedicated to that same proposition (equality), to the dedication of part of a battlefield to become a cemetery, to the role of the living (the listeners) to be dedicated to the unfinished work of those who fought and died and to the great task remaining before them. In all, dedicate is repeated six times in the speech, but used in different ways. Other important words are repeated: here—referring to place as well as time (eight times), nation (five times), dead (three times), people (three times), great (three times), consecrated (two times), devotion (two times). By far, the word he used most frequently (twelve times) was “that”. Like dedicate, he used different forms of the word.

But perhaps the most important word was “but.” Whenever we hear that word in a speech, we have to perk up and pay attention to what comes after it. In this case, it’s the phrase, “in a larger sense”. So, as quickly as Lincoln gets to the point of the ceremony—the dedication of the cemetery—he gets off of it by putting it into perspective. He pivots to something bigger. The speech is not about burying the dead; it’s about restoring the nation.

The speaker uses alliteration, biblical language, and balanced sentences. And creates a dramatic rhythm culminating in the stirring final line.

Lincoln, the poet, carefully places each word in its proper place, each purposefully selected for its sound as well as its sense.

Besides the carefully selected language, there’s the central image of birth, death, and resurrection or rebirth which forms the progression of the speech. Note the language that Lincoln used to create this figure of speech: for birth: fathers, brought forth, conceived (two times); for death: final resting place, gave their lives, dead (three times), died; for re-birth: new birth, (nation might) live, shall not perish from this earth. Note also the ongoing comparison between the living and the dead—we and they—each with a role to play.

The underlying structure of the speech is the passage of time: past, present, and future. He starts with the past (“Four score and seven years ago…”), proceeds to the present (“Now we are engaged…”), and then transitions to the future (…dedicated to the great task remaining before us…) ending with the memorable, “and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

There’s another bit of brilliance in Lincoln’s little speech and that’s his great “camera work”. In the second paragraph, he starts with the wide-angle view of the bloody civil war that the nation is engaged in, then he gets closer to the action by locating a great battlefield of that war, finally, he gets even tighter on a portion of that field that will be the cemetery for those who died in the battle. He narrows it down to a very specific spot only to zoom out again to encompass the future and the work that still needs to be done. Lincoln’s not just a great verbal artist, but a visual one as well.

Even though the Battle of Gettysburg had been fought in early July, it must have been a surprise for some members of the audience gathered for a cemetery dedication to hear Lincoln begin his remarks with a reference to the “Declaration of Independence.” But those more familiar with Lincoln’s earlier speeches opposing the expansion of slavery wouldn’t have been shocked by the reference. After all, in virtually all of his major speeches from 1854 through his debates with Senator Douglas, he cited the document and based his opposition to slavery on its assertion of human equality. In an August 1858 speech he referred to the Declaration as “the immortal emblem of humanity.”

At the same time, it might seem a little ironic for a man who tried to preserve the Union and now is trying to get the country back together to be citing a document that explained and sanctioned separation. But, then again, poets love irony and Lincoln was a poet.

But the echoes of the Declaration are real and they are intended.

It’s the document people refer to when they’re trying to convey this nation’s ideals and rally others around them. For example, Martin Luther King did it in his “I Have a Dream” speech. Not only does Lincoln point to it and quote from it (“all men are created equal”), but he also echoes the parallel construction found at the beginning and the end of the earlier document. And its rhythm as well. For example:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they…, that among…, that to…, that whenever…

We, therefore, the representatives of the united (sic) States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these…, that they…, that all…, and that…

Compare these with Lincoln’s last lengthy sentence in his speech:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead…, that we here highly resolve…, that this nation, under God…, and that government…

But perhaps the most startling thing about the speech is that it basically re-wrote America’s history. By linking the creation of the nation with the Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution, Lincoln by-passes the more pragmatic and problematic Constitution to focus on the ideal. And sets the stage for a different kind of nation once the Civil War is over. One is based on the proposition of equality—a word that’s not mentioned in the Constitution. The speech also gave new meaning to the carnage that was the Battle of Gettysburg. As Garry Wills says in Lincoln at Gettysburg, “He called up a new nation out of the blood and the trauma.” (p. 175). (In addition, historian John Diggins, according to his obituary in the New York Times (January 30, 2009), “was fascinated by a fault line in American thought: the great divide that he perceived between the Declaration of Independence, whose language of self-fulfillment presupposed the golden rule of civic virtue, and the Constitution, whose careful attention to property rights and the pursuit of gain reflected a harsher American value of “power, struggle, and self-assertion”. Diggins goes on to say “Lincoln’s mission, and a continuing challenge for Americans today is to revalidate the language of the Declaration.”)

Finally, in leaving the audience with a call to help reunite the nation, Lincoln accomplished the twin tasks of the great classical funeral orations: he offered praise for the dead and advice or encouragement to the living.