Gettysburg Address | Primary Source Essentials
How did President Lincoln outline his view of democracy in the Gettysburg Address? In this rapid-fire episode of BRI’s Primary Source Essentials, learn how President Lincoln appealed to all Americans to preserve and fulfill the ideals of liberty, equality, and self-government. Discover the main points discussed in the Gettysburg Address and how this document showcased President Lincoln's view on democracy.
0:00 Welcome to Primary Source Essentials. In this episode, we will briefly discuss the Gettysburg Address and use it to examine Lincoln’s view of democracy. During the summer of 1863, General Robert E Lee and his Confederate army invaded Pennsylvania. They clashed with Union forces under General George Meade
0:20 and the town of Gettysburg. From July 1st to July 3rd, the Union Army repulsed Confederate charges and won the Battle of Gettysburg, but at the cost of more than 50,000 casualties for the two armies. President Lincoln came to speak at the dedication of the military cemetery to honor the dead, but also used the occasion to reflect
0:43 on the larger moral purposes of the war and American democracy itself. Lincoln began his speech in the past with fourscore and seven years ago, tracing American democracy to the Declaration of Independence and the principles of 1776, which created a nation, as he said, conceived in liberty
1:04 and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Lincoln then moved to the present, noting that the Civil War is testing whether that democracy or any democracy can endure. He honors the war dead who gave, as he said, their last full measure of devotion, sacrificing their lives that that nation might live.
1:28 Lincoln then moved to the future with a pledge that the living might dedicate themselves to achieving a new birth of freedom for all Americans, and ensuring that American democracy as a model for all free government, shall not perish from the Earth. So Lincoln appeals to Americans to preserve and to realize that democracy on the timeless principles of liberty,
1:53 equality, and self-government to include all Americans in the Gettysburg Address. The Civil War raged for another two years, but Union forces won and preserved the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Thanks for watching and check out the other videos in Primary Source Essentials.
