“That these dead shall not have died in vain”, Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg address speech.
Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg where approximately 40,000 to 50,000 men were slaughtered in three days of mortal combat. Pictured here: the bloated carcasses of dead union soldiers laying on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
On November 19, 2013 Rep. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania was granted permission to address the carnage of the battle of Gettysburg and to remember Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address speech.
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of 278 simple words spoken a century and a half ago in a small town in my home state of Pennsylvania. When President Lincoln addressed the crowd assembled at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, he noted in his speech that his words were ones that, “the world will little note, nor long remember”. Yet, 150 years later, President Lincoln’s words of sacrifice and strength still ring true. Even amidst the fog of a still raging civil war, Lincoln promised 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.”
“Today, we recognize the commitment of President Lincoln to reunite and ensure the continued success of our nation. Furthermore, we reinforce our efforts to protect his solemn pledge of a free government for a free people”, Speech of Hon. Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives Tuesday, November 19, 2013 (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov).
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
“Fourscore 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. 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 battlefield 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 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. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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.”
Abraham Lincoln
See video: The Civil War: Gettysburg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsszvmuZBR4
See related video: The Civil War: The Gettysburg Address https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCXUbQ4JjXI
See also: Gettysburg address how it really sounded https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dlggkx6mks