Gettysburg Address

Context

Gettysburg was the most famous battle of the Civil War. It marked a turning point in the fortunes of the two sides. Until Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee seemed virtually invincible. He had defeated several Union generals in major battles on the Confederacy's home ground, driven Union forces back toward the U.S. capital, and now he was prepared to take the war to the North, hoping that with a decisive victory he could hasten the end of the war and secure the Confederacy's independence.

Gettysburg was of serious concern to President Lincoln because he had yet to find a commander who could aggressively pursue Lee and put him on the defensive. The war had gone so badly for the North at times that Lincoln confronted calls to sue for peace and to allow the southern states to secede. He also confronted a divided cabinet in which some members were severely critical of Lincoln's prosecution of the war. At one point, in an effort spearheaded by the cabinet member Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln had to meet with a delegation of Republican senators insisting on changes in his cabinet. Although Lincoln remained steadfast, maneuvering Chase into a resignation, Lincoln's reelection in 1864 was in doubt; significant numbers of voters seemed prepared to turn to a candidate who could offer a speedy resolution of the war.

Even after the battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln faced formidable obstacles. General George Meade had diminished but by no means destroyed Lee's aura of indomitability. Meade had failed to pursue Lee, and the Union still did not have a commander in the field who could match Lee's boldness and tactical genius, although General Ulysses S. Grant's victory at Vicksburg suggested that he might be the leader to galvanize Union forces east of the Mississippi River. Lincoln's war aims to preserve and protect the Union had become endangered by the Union army's failure to take the initiative. Calls by abolitionists to immediately free the slaves threatened to alienate Union supporters in border states that had slave populations. Moreover, large numbers of men in the North resisted military service, resulting public disaffection that erupted, for example, in the New York City draft riots in July 1863.

At Gettysburg cemetery, where thousands of hastily buried men were being reinterred in proper graves, Lincoln's task was no less than to remind the nation that its very existence was at stake, a cause for which hundreds of thousands of men were fighting and dying. Although his surprisingly brief speech seemed to have no immediate impact, and even Lincoln himself doubted the effectiveness of his address, the power of his concise and graceful prose gradually marked a turning point in public consciousness that confirmed Lincoln's faith in the prospects of democracy. He redefined the war, making it an inspiring quest for liberty and equality.