Introduction
The Battle of Gettysburg ended on July 3rd 1863 in victory for the Union against the Confederate South. On November 19th, US President Abraham Lincoln delivered an address at the battlefield cemetery. He rightly guessed that the battle had turned the American Civil War; but in thinking that ‘the world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here’ he was touchingly mistaken.
FOURSCORE and seven years ago* our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.* Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field of that war.* We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract.
That is 20×4 + 7, or 87 years. Lincoln is referring to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and using a slightly archaic way of counting, creating a sense of age and venerability. As a staunch Republican and conservative, he was upset that the South claimed tradition on slavery’s side, and had complained about it as long before as 1860. On the founding of the USA, see posts tagged American Revolutionary War (9).
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” runs the US Declaration of Independence of 1776, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” See also John Locke on The Servants of One Master.
Précis
A few months after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, US president Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the battlefield cemetery. He reminded his audience that some 87 years earlier, the American Declaration of Independence had committed the newly sovereign state to the equality of all people, and said that the Civil War was putting that principle to the test. (60 / 60 words)
A few months after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, US president Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the battlefield cemetery. He reminded his audience that some 87 years earlier, the American Declaration of Independence had committed the newly sovereign state to the equality of all people, and said that the Civil War was putting that principle to the test.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, despite, may, or, since, unless, whereas, whether.
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