The Gettysburg Address: Historical and Cultural Significance

The Gettysburg Address was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the Gettysburg Cemetery during the American Civil War. It holds great historical and cultural significance as it honored the martyred soldiers and upheld the values of liberty, equality, and unity.

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The Gettysburg Address was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the Gettysburg
Cemetery on 19th of November 1863, when the American Civil War was still going on (Lincoln,
2000). The occasion on which President Lincoln had been to the Gettysburg Cemetery was that
of honouring the martyred soldiers of the unionist forces who had laid their lives fighting against
the confederate forces led by General Robert E Lee, in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1863.
The Battle of Gettysburg is considered as the most violent war in the entire period ranging from
1861 to 1865, the period during which American Civil War had occurred. The Unionist forces
had emerged as victorious against the Secessionist Confederate forces of the South, and that us
considered as a noteworthy achievement for the Northern Unionist forces. The victory had
generated a great impact in boosting the morale of the Northern forces that the union of the states
that make up the nation shall not be fragmented. At the same time it was a significant setback for
the secessionist forces as their dream of separating the southern states favouring the continuation
of the slavery from the Union was almost dashed to the ground (Wills, 2018).
The Gettysburg Address is historically and culturally extremely significant in the history
of the United States of America. In the address President Lincoln had invoked the memory of the
1776 Declaration of America, the reference of which he had put in the beginning of his speech
when he said, “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.(Lincoln, 2000)” The opening lines are extremely significant as it is reflective of the
legacy of Americans rising against the oppressive British Imperialism in unison and proclaiming
their independence from the Crown. That American Independence from Britain is significant as
that was an echo of the values of the French Revolution, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and
also of the Unity of the States, which had become central to the history, culture and political

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tradition of the United States of America. Thus President Lincoln’s honouring the martyrs at the
Gettysburg Cemetery is historically and culturally significant as the soldiers have upheld the
values handed down by the founding fathers of the Nation by fighting against the system of
slavery which deprived a section of the society of their right to equality and also to maintain the
unity of the Nation (Christensen, 2016).

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References
Christensen, H. M. (2016). First In the Nation’s History: Gettysburg From Battlefield Memorial
Association to National Park.
Lincoln, A. (2000). The gettysburg address. Democracy: A Reader, 91.
Wills, G. (2018). Inventing America: Jefferson's declaration of independence. Vintage.