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How did the Gettysburg Address alter the Civil War's nature and purpose?
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The Gettysburg Address fundamentally reshaped the Civil War's purpose by transforming it from a conflict over Union preservation and state versus federal rights into a moral struggle for equality and the abolition of slavery. Lincoln's brief but powerful speech redefined the war as a fight for human equality, aligning it with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. This shift emphasized a new vision for American freedom, where the Union victory would ensure the end of slavery and a "new birth of freedom."
The irony of our fond remembrance of Lincoln's address at the site of the
Battle of Gettysburg is that Lincoln was not even the featured speaker that
day. In the wake of a two-hour speech by Edward Everett, Lincoln himself only
spoke for two minutes. However, it is Lincoln's short speech that we remember
to this day as completely encapsulating the great turning point in the American
civil war. After this point, Union victory seemed all but assured, and Lincoln
used the opportunity to stress upon the nation his view that this was not only
a struggle for the Union of the United States, but one for the ideal of human
equality itself.
Until Lincoln's historic comments, the Civil War might have been seen by an outsider as a simple matter of federal law versus state rights. However, it struck Lincoln as significant that the Battle of Gettysburg had officially...
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ended in Union victory on July 4th, the day meant to commemorate independence. Lincoln held that the true document to look to for the American ideal was in fact the Declaration of Independence, and not the Constitution. He maintained that those historic words were still true, that all men are created equal, and slavery was in blatant violation of those rights. Thus, the Civil War became a matter of equality.
The Gettysburg Address changed the purpose and the nature of the Civil War. When the Civil War began, many people felt this was a war over whether or not the United States would or wouldn’t have slavery. There was also a debate regarding the power of the federal government in relationship to the power of the state governments.
The Gettysburg Address made it clear that those who died fighting for the preservation of the Union will have died fighting for a noble cause. These soldiers will not have died in vain. President Lincoln was going to see the Civil War to an end, culminating in a Union victory. This would result in preserving the Union and in ending slavery in the United States.
The Civil War was now being cast in somewhat idealistic or lofty terms. The Union was fighting to preserve the country that was created in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was issued. This independence was achieved as a result of the victory over Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. The Gettysburg Address also stressed the concept of equality for all, which also was embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
The Gettysburg Address changed the nature and the purpose of the Civil War.
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The main significance of the Gettysburg Address lies in the following words:
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.
In other words, the immense sacrifice of the Union dead, commemorated by this new National Cemetery, will have been in vain if the traditional understanding of American freedom remains unchanged. The Union Army is no longer simply fighting against Southern secession; it is also fighting for a radically different understanding of what constitutes freedom in the United States. With the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, there is now a new purpose to the Civil War.
This shift of emphasis is important because Lincoln wants Americans to think carefully about what kind of country the United States will become after the war is finally over. This will be a country no longer tainted by the sin of slavery. As such, the common understanding of freedom will change forever. The tradition of freedom bequeathed by the Founding Fathers was a negative freedom, a freedom from British rule. In some respects, this was the kind of freedom invoked by the Confederacy in their act of secession.
The tradition of negative freedom had served the United States well and still had an important role to play in guarding against the excessive involvement of government in people's lives. With slavery abolished, however, it was now necessary for government to give life to the freedom of former slaves and to add substance to the formal notion of liberty upon which the United States was originally founded.
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