Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, as part of the history marked by America250.
Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four months after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. The main speaker was Edward Everett, whose lengthy oration preceded Lincoln’s brief remarks.
Lincoln’s speech reframed the Civil War as a test of whether a nation founded on equality could endure. He connected the cemetery dedication to the Declaration of Independence and described government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
There are five known manuscript copies associated with Lincoln, and historians identify them by the people who received them. The most famous version is the Bliss Copy, now at the White House. The address is often mistaken as the cemetery’s dedication date alone, but Lincoln’s remarks were one part of that larger ceremony.