Why is President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address important?

0:05[MUSIC] In 1863, he gives the Gettysburg address at a dedication of a cemetery. It's not the main speech. The main speech is by Edward Everett, very eloquent speech, but his job is to survey the whole war up to this point and describe the battle, and he does it at great length and very well. Lincoln spoke for 2-3 minutes. It was so quick that the cameraman hadn't finished setting up by the time he'd finished his remarks. Although Everett wrote him afterwards and said, I wish I could have said in two hours what you said in two minutes. Lincoln manages in this little speech. He begins with the declaration because it's four score and seven years ago. Eighty seven from 1863 takes you to 1776. He's beginning with the declaration. All men are created equal.

0:57Then he ends with the preamble to the Constitution. Those phrases of John Marshall from McCulloch v. Maryland, which are based on the first words of the preamble, with the people, not the states, but we the people are instituting this government. Lincoln says it's a government of the people by the people and for the people. Then he's also saying that this is a test. This is a test before the world. We are testing whether such a government dedicated to equality and based upon the people and emanating from them, whether it can survive, because that's an open question. We're the only one. England has democratic features, but there's only been one reform bill. There's still lots and lots of Englishmen who can't vote. Most of Europe is monarchies.

1:59France has become an empire again since Napoleon III. Monarchies, despotisms. We're the only such government that we have, can it survive a rebellion of this kind? He said, "The soldiers who fought here gave their lives to say, yes, it can, and it will. But now we have to understand this and we have to maintain it."