Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was delivered to dedicate a cemetery, but its larger purpose was to honor the dead and redefine the Civil War as a fight for equality and democracy, calling for national unity and a new birth of freedom.
The famous speech quoted above is Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War. The purpose of the speech was to dedicate the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but it went much further.
It was a profound reflection on the principles of human equality endorsed by the Declaration of Independence and a redefinition of the Civil War as not just a fight for the Union, but as a struggle for a new birth of freedom that would ensure equality for all citizens and create a unified nation where 'government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'
Lincoln's address came at a time when the nation was weary from war and was a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made. It sought not only to consecrate the ground at Gettysburg, but also to reconcile and heal the nation's wounds, urging Americans to honor the fallen by continuing the fight for the principles they had died for.
Lincoln had always approached the question of the Civil War with a view to maintaining the Union and addressing the issue of slavery, which he had opposed. His Gettysburg Address highlighted both the urgency of the conflict and the broader purpose of the war: to ensure that democracy would not vanish from America.