【11/19 今日美史】林肯的《葛底斯堡演讲》

今

日

美

史

每天一篇“今日美史”，提炼和总结历史在今天发生的重要事件：谁，在哪里，什么时候，做了什么，这件事为什么重要，以及在写关于什么主题的论文的时候可以作为潜在的论据引用。

每天30秒，轻松积累史实

为AP美国历史拿5分打下坚实基础

11/19

Gettysburg Address

When

Where

Who

What

When: 1863

Where: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Who：

President Abraham Lincoln

What：

Four months after the battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln attends the cemetery dedication ceremony.  He was preceded by Edward Everett who had delivered an oration lasting two hours concerning the solemnity of the battle and the importance of finishing the war.  Spectators settled in for another long speech when Lincoln took the podium and delivered his address.  Which was only about 270 words.  While many critics condemned it as being almost disrespectful to the thousands who had died and been buried there, many others remark that its conciseness is what makes it so pertinent and worthy of admiration.

葛底斯堡演讲

Why

significant

Everett himself praised Lincoln for saying so fully in a few moments what he had failed to convey in over two hours.  It is suggested that Lincoln’s brevity was actually the result of an illness along with his own misgivings about being able to satisfactorily justify the sacrifices of so many in a war where his country’s success was still in question.  Today it is recognized as the primary cause of the North’s commitment to the war, even though the abolition of slavery was never a formal Union war aim.

Tags

Battle of Gettysburg, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Cemetery