On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered a powerful 272-word speech, later known as the Gettysburg Address, dedicating a new cemetery on the site of the bloody Civil War battlefield. While many schoolchildren used to memorize Lincoln’s speech, few of us today can get beyond “Four score and seven years ago …”

Indeed, in 2024, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that only 23 percent of college students could identify the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” It turns out Lincoln was prescient when he said that “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.”

In his address, Lincoln called on the assemblage to dedicate themselves to the “unfinished business” of ending the war, preserving the Union, and vanquishing slavery. He cal

See Full Page