The Gettysburg address is one of the most famous speeches in American history. President Abraham Lincoln delivered it on November 19, 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War. It was short and sweet consisting of only 271 words, but it exemplified America’s civil confession of faith. Public school students were even required to memorize it for hundreds of years after it was delivered. It reinforced the government’s view of the nation and that is why public schools pushed it on students. It expressed that America could get national salvation through warfare and that the union of the states was sacred. This is the confession of faith that is preached in the American church (i.e. the public schools).
In the public schools, students are taught that Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator, that he started the Civil War as a righteous crusade to free slaves. They are taught that the federal government is the “good guy” and any state or group of states that secedes from the Union is the “bad guy.” On these premises, students are lead to believe that the Union (i.e. the federal government) is sovereign or even sacred. The Gettysburg Address shoves this worldview down student’s throats. That is why for many years they were forced to memorize it.
Little did they know, Abraham Lincoln’s reasons for starting the war were not as righteous as we are lead to believe. Lincoln did not care about freeing the slaves he only cared about the preservation of the Union. His goal was to maintain the power and tax base of the federal government. He was was not in the war for the slaves; he only cared about power. His own words attest to this over and over again. Today, the war is used as propaganda to get people to support the federal government and the Gettysburg Address is used extensively in this way.
Lincoln’s Reasons for Starting the War
To give some background, Lincoln’s reason for fighting the Civil War was not slavery. He did not want to interfere in the South’s right to own slaves. He did want to limit its expansion into western states, however he did not believe in abolitionism. In his first inaugural address he affirmed this. He stated:
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”1
In a debate with his political opponent, Stephen A. Douglass, Lincoln said:
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”2
Lincoln said it himself, he did not want to abolish slavery and he did not want equality between the races. Lincoln’s true reason for starting the war was maintaining the Union or in other words, maintaining the strength of the federal government. He did not believe any State had the right to secede from the federal union. He also, like every politician, wanted to keep his tax base as large as possible and half of the country seceding obviously didn’t align with these goals. In his first inaugural address he affirmed this as well. He states:
“I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments… It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any state or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.”3
Lincoln’s reason for starting the war was the preservation of the Union. His goal was not to free slaves, but to maintain the power of the federal government through the preservation of the Union. This idea of the perpetuality and importance of the Union (i.e. the federal government) is the essence of the Gettysburg Address. Therefore the public schools used it to imbue students with this idea. They want them to forget that the federal government was never meant to be the sovereign agent in American society.
A Closer Look at the Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg address has masterful rhetoric, and it was carefully crafted to support the Union cause. Lincoln called people to support the federal government. He used the war and the deaths of the soldiers to call for the salvation of the nation (the Union). Lincoln even uses explicitly religious language in the Address. He states:
“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.”4
Lincoln claims that the deaths of the Union soldiers at the battle of Gettysburg made the battlefield sacred. (The definition of consecration is to make something sacred.) Here Lincoln expressed his religious commitment to the war and to the preservation of the Union. He wants people to think that fighting and dying for the federal government is a sacred thing. Lincoln goes on and continues to use the deaths of these soldiers to support the federal government. He says:
“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.”5
Lincoln uses the soldier’s deaths again to muster up support for the federal government. He claims that we must support the federal government or the soldiers deaths will be in vain. Lincoln also uses the same rhetoric as the founders of the Constitution; he invokes the name of the metaphysical people. During the drafting of the Constitution, the committee on style used the name of the “people” to justify their usurping of the government, but I digress.
Lincoln claims the nation “shall have a new birth of freedom,” if we support his war. He is calling for national salvation through warfare. He wants the public to believe the preservation of the federal government is sacred. For that reason, students are required to memorize it in public school. The Gettysburg Address is essentially used as a confession of faith/propaganda to support the federal government. That is its legacy.
- Washington, D.C. : U.S. G.P.O. : for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1989. (n.d.). The Avalon Project : First inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp ↩︎
- Fourth debate: Charleston, Illinois – Lincoln Home National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service (n.d.). https://home.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate4.htm ↩︎
- Washington, D.C. : U.S. G.P.O. : for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1989. (n.d.). The Avalon Project : First inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp ↩︎
- Gettysburg address delivered at Gettysburg Pa. Nov. 19th, 1863. [n. p. n. d.]. (n.d.). The Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.24404500/?st=pdf ↩︎
- Ibid ↩︎
Very informative article about the Gettsburg Address and Lincoln. Nicely written.
Wow I never knew why I had to memorize that. Good job