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Gettysburg Address
This document -- familiarly known as "The Gettysburg Address" -- represents the earliest known of the five drafts of the speech President Abraham Lincoln delivered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the dedication of a military cemetery on November 19, 1863. Drawing inspiration from his favorite historical document, the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln equated the catastrophic suffering caused by the Civil War with the efforts of the American people to live up to the proposition that "all men are created equal." This document is presumed to be the only working, or pre-delivery, draft and is commonly identified as the "Nicolay Copy" because it was once owned by John George Nicolay, Lincoln's private secretary. The Library has two copies of the Address written in Lincoln's hand. |