Gettysburg Address

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Five copies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address survive in his own handwriting. He gave two copies to his secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay, at the time he delivered the speech. Another copy was later sent to Edward Everett and two copies to the historian George Bancroft, one of which came into the possession of Colonel Anthony Bliss's family and has become known as the “Bliss copy,” the one often used for facsimile reproductions of the Gettysburg Address. The Hay draft has editorial revisions in Lincoln's own hand. The Nicolay copy may be the first draft and perhaps even the one Lincoln read at Gettysburg, although newspaper accounts of Lincoln's speech differ slightly from the Nicolay copy. While the Hay copy includes phrasing quoted in contemporary newspaper accounts, it has missing words and seems to have been hastily copied. Most historians and biographers rely on the fifth copy, which Lincoln sent to Bancroft (the fourth copy being written on both sides of one paper and deemed unusable for a book the historian was planning to publish), because Lincoln signed the copy, gave it a title, and dated it. What do even slight changes and omissions reveal about Lincoln's style and purpose?
• 2. Compare the Gettysburg Address with the Emancipation Proclamation. The language of the two documents is quite different, reflecting Lincoln's different aims and purposes during the Civil War. What do these two documents reveal about Lincoln as a leader, writer, politician, and statesman?
• 3. Compare the Gettysburg Address with Lincoln's First Inaugural Address and Second Inaugural Address. How do Lincoln's two inaugural addresses put the case for the Union? What special power does the brevity of the Gettysburg Address bring to Lincoln's political rhetoric? What does biographer Thomas Keneally mean when he calls the speech an example of Lincoln's “humble augustness” (Kenealy, p. 151)?
• 4. Compare the Declaration of Independence with the Gettysburg Address. What aspects of America's founding document does Lincoln emphasize? In what sense is his speech a second declaration of independence?
• 5. The battle of Gettysburg ended the day before the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. How did Lincoln use this date to his advantage? How did phrases like a “new birth of freedom” reiterate what Lincoln saw as the national purpose?
• 6. Many commentators on the Gettysburg Address note that Lincoln uses the word nation five times. Why was this word especially useful for his purposes? What was Lincoln saying about the uniqueness of American nationhood?
• 7. The reception of Lincoln's speech depended on what listeners and readers made of his putting primary emphasis on the Declaration of Independence rather than on the U.S. Constitution. Lincoln seemed to be implying that the nation was more than the sum of its laws and political compromises. America stood for core principles that could not be understood without reference to the Declaration of Independence. Compare the Declaration to the Constitution. What aspects of American identity was Lincoln choosing to honor? What aspects did he decide not to acknowledge?