ESSAYRSS

"Four Score and Seven Years Ago...." These are some of the most qouted words to come out of Abraham Lincoln's mouth. On November 19, 1863 he gave one of the most famous speeches, the Gettysburg Address. Although there are five manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address, he wrote only one copy that was given to the public. In this essay, I am going to prove to you that the Gettysburg Address was one of the most impotant events in the Civil War.

The Gettysburg Address was spoken by one of the most famous people to ever live, Abraham Lincoln. He was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. He grew up in a one room log cabin and he had one brother and one sister. He was elected to be the 16th President of the United States on March 4, 1861. Thats when his life really started to get interesting.

The Battle of Gettysburg was where it all started. The Battle of Gettysburg was the battle with the most casualties in the Civil War. There were 7, 853 recorded deaths in this battle. The townspeople could not stand the oder of the dead bodies. So one wealthy man, David Wills, was authorized to purchase 17 acres for a cemetery. The cost was $2,475 for the land. He planned on dedicating this cemetery to the town on October 23, 1863 and invited Edward Everett to be the main speaker at the ceremony. Everett agreed to be the speaker on one condition, to have the date postponed, so he could have more time to write his speech. The speech was postponed until November 19, 1863. Then Wills wrote a note to president Lincoln asking if him if he could say a few words at ceremony. Lincoln was pleased.

On short notice, Abraham Lincoln wrote a short but meaningful speech. On the morning of November 19, 1863, Lincoln came riding on horseback, to the grounds that were going to be dedicated. There were about 15,000 people in attendence. Before Lincoln gave his famous speech, Edward Everett gave his two hour-long speech. Many poeple were restless after that. When Lincoln was giving his two minute speech, there was not one restless soul in the crowd. There were many long continued applauses during Lincoln's speech.

Abraham Lincoln's speech, The Gettysburg Address, was one of the most quoted speeches in United States history. Beginning with the phrase "Four score and seven years ago...", Lincoln referred to the events of the Civil War and described the ceremony at Gettysburg as a time not only to declare the grounds of a cemetery, but also to dedicate the living to the struggle to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

As you can see, the Gettysburg Address was one of the most important events in the Civil War. It changed the shape of the United States then and how it will be in the future. Abraham Lincoln worked hard at what he did and I also worked hard on this essay. I put as much effort into this as Abraham Lincoln put in the Gettyburg Address.