Gettysburg, November 19th, 1863; the cemetery dedication speeches

Lincoln's short - and he fears - disappointing speech: You must visit the site for the expert analysis.  Footnotes to Lincoln's address

Gettysburg Address | Click to enlarge

The speech as an historical exhibit.  "President Abraham Lincoln delivered an iconic speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the dedication of a military cemetery on November 19, 1863. In his brief remarks, now known as "The Gettysburg Address," Lincoln equated the catastrophic suffering caused by the Civil War with the efforts of the American people to live up to the proposition that "all men are created equal." This document featured here is presumed to be the only working, or pre-delivery, draft and is commonly identified as the "Nicolay Copy" because it was once owned by John George Nicolay, Lincoln's private secretary. The Library has two copies of the Address written in Lincoln's hand. This one was on view as part of The Civil War in America exhibition (Fall 2013)."

Edward Everett, the keynote speaker; "Gettysburg Address," Speech Text; The forgotten speech before Lincoln  Over two hours in length and the main speaker of the cemetery dedication. The entire speech is at the link above, but Mr. Everett closes with these words:

. . . "And now, friends, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania, and you from remoter States, let me again, as we part, invoke your benediction on these honored graves. You feel, though the occasion is mournful, that it is good to be here. You feel that it was greatly auspicious for the cause of the country, that the men of the East and the men of the West, the men of nineteen sister States, stood side by side, on the perilous ridges of the battle. You now feel it a new bond of union, that they shall lie side by side, till a clarion, louder than that which marshalled them to the combat, shall awake their slumbers. God bless the Union;–it is dearer to us for the blood of brave men which has been shed in its defence. The spots on which they stood and fell; these pleasant heights; the fertile plain beneath them; the thriving village whose streets so lately rang with the strange din of war; the fields beyond the ridge, where the noble Reynolds held the advancing foe at bay, and, while he gave up his own life, assured by his forethought and self-sacrifice the triumph of the two succeeding days; the little streams which wind through the hills, on whose banks in after-times the wondering
ploughman will turn up, with the rude weapons of savage warfare, the fearful missiles of modern artillery; Seminary Ridge, the Peach-Orchard, Cemetery, Culp, and Wolf Hill, Round Top, Little Round Top, humble names, henceforward dear and famous,–no lapse of time, no distance of space, shall cause you to be forgotten. “The whole earth,” said Pericles, as he stood over the remains of his fellow-citizens, who had fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian War,–“the whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men.” All time, he might have added, is the millennium of their glory. Surely I would do no injustice to the other noble achievements of the war, which have reflected such honor on both arms of the service, and have entitled the armies and the navy of the United States, their officers and men, to the warmest thanks and the richest rewards which a grateful people can pay. But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country there will be no brighter page than that which relates THE BATTLES OF GETTYSBURG."

Afterwards, Mr. Everett said of Lincoln's "few appropriate remarks", "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."