The Gettysburg Address Speech Text

Gettysburg Address speech analysis and the public speaking details of the most famous Abraham Lincoln speech as an example of organizing persuasive inspirational speech topics. It is one of the greatest short speeches in the history of the U.S. He honored the Union soldiers who died at the Battle of Gettysburg against the Confederates, and lift up the nations' hearts and minds.

The Gettysburg Address Speech Text
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

...dedicated to the great task remaining before us... Gettysburg Address Speech

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us: that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

As you can see this Abraham Lincoln famous speech has one simple speech thesis. The Gettysburg Address speech persuades that no soldier had died in vain, their sacrifices are needed to defend freedom and democracy. So, we must continue.

The speech topics to construct this central idea in the Gettysburg Address speech are:

• The American Civil War.
• Freedom and Democracy.
• Battle of Gettysburg.