The Gettysburg Address was the 1863 speech Abraham Lincoln delivered at the dedication of a Pennsylvania battlefield cemetery.
Lincoln spoke on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The cemetery honored Union soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg, a major battle fought from July 1 to 3 during the American Civil War.
The speech is brief, consisting of about 272 words in the commonly accepted Bliss manuscript. Lincoln connected the Civil War to the principles of equality and self-government expressed in the Declaration of Independence. He concluded by describing a “new birth of freedom” and a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Edward Everett, the principal featured speaker, delivered a much longer address before Lincoln spoke. Contemporary reactions were mixed, but the Gettysburg Address later became one of the most studied speeches in American history. It is not the same document as the Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863.