USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Lincoln ends by stating his commitment “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The ideal he is expressing is democracy.

Detailed explanation-2: -He liked especially the following expression, which he marked with a pencil, and which he in substance afterwards used in his Gettysburg Address: ‘Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.’

Detailed explanation-3: -The stated purpose of Lincoln’s speech was to dedicate a plot of land that would become Soldier’s National Cemetery. However, Lincoln realized that he also had to inspire the people to continue the fight. Below is the text of the Gettysburg Address, interspersed with my thoughts on what made it so memorable.

Detailed explanation-4: -Lincoln described the Civil War as a struggle for “a new birth of freedom"–his vision for a nation that provides equality for all of its citizens, creates a unified nation no longer dominated by states’ rights, and defines democracy in terms of “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”