Gettysburg Address Speech Essay Examples

November 19, 1863

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

In just 271 words, beginning with the now famous phrase "Four score and seven years ago, "‍ referring to the signing of the Declaration of Independence 87 years earlier, Lincoln described the US as a nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, " and represented the Civil War as a test that would determine whether such a nation, the Union sundered by the secession crisis, could endure.

The Gettysburg Address was widely quoted and praised soon after Lincoln delivered it, and it came to be recognized as one of the masterpieces of prose poetry.