Download Background to the Gettysburg Address

Background to the Gettysburg Address
US History and Government/Napp
Name: _________________
Analyze the Graphic Organizer Below (Questions will Follow!):
Sectionalism:
 Each section of the country had
developed its own special
characteristics
 Differences led to sectionalism or
the greater loyalty many
Americans felt towards their own
section (North/South)
Slavery in the New Territories:
 The addition of new Western
territories posed the problem of
whether an extension of slavery should
be permitted
 Southerners felt that extending slavery
would preserve the balance between
slave and free states in Congress
 Northerners opposed the spread of
slavery
 Between 1820 and 1850, national unity
was preserved only by admitting new
states in a series of compromises
 However, in the 1850s, those
compromises broke down –
* In 1854, Congress repealed the
Missouri Compromise (1820) with the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, which
introduced popular sovereignty in the
Kansas and Nebraska Territories
* In 1857, in the case of Dred Scott v.
Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled
that Congress could not prohibit
slavery in any U.S. territory
Slavery:
 Abolitionists wanted to
end slavery
 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
helped spread a sense of
moral outrage against
slavery in the North
 Former slaves, such as
Frederick Douglass and
Harriet Tubman, were
leading abolitionists
 Pro-slavery Southerners
argued that slaves were
better treated than
Northern factory workers
Causes
Of the
Civil
War
The Election of Abraham Lincoln:
 When Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln
was elected in 1860, most Southern states seceded
(withdrew from the United States); these
Southern states formed the Confederate States of
America

States’ Rights:
 Southerners
believed the
Union was an
agreement
among states,
and each state
had the power to
leave the Union if
it wanted to
 Northerners
argued that the
Constitution was
the work of the
American people,
and that states
had no right to
leave the Union
Lincoln refused to recognize the secession of the South and resolved to preserve the
Union. Fighting broke out in 1861, when Fort Sumter was attacked by the Confederacy
hoping to win a quick victory and force the North to accept their independence. However,
Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865. Ultimately,
the Union was preserved.
Questions for the Graphic Organizer:
1- Define sectionalism.
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2- Why did sectionalism develop?
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3- Provide one example of how the North differed from the South.
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4- What did abolitionists want?
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5- What book, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, increased anti-slavery sentiments in
the United States?
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6- Identify two similarities shared by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.
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7- How did Southerners defend the institution of slavery?
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8- Why did the addition of Western territories to the USA pose a problem?
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9- Why did Southerners want to extend slavery westward?
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10- Why did Northerners oppose this Southern view?
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11- How was national unity preserved between 1820 and 1850?
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12- What did Congress repeal in 1854?
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13- How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act address the issue of slavery (regarding the newly
admitted states to the Union)?
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14- What did the Supreme Court rule regarding slavery in the case of Dred Scott v.
Sandford?
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15- What did Southerners believe about the Union?
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16- What did Northerners believe about the Constitution?
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17- So, what did Northerners believe about the Union?
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18- What happened in 1860?
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19- Define secede.
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20- What did the seceding states form?
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21- So, what were the causes of the Civil War?
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Primary Source with Commentary: The Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)
Historical Context: “President Lincoln wasn’t even the featured speaker at the dedication
of the Soldiers; National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863.
Yet his Gettysburg Address, which lasted less than three minutes, is considered one of the
most important speeches in American history. The battle at Gettysburg that July was a
turning point of the Civil War. It helped pave the way for the Union’s victory over the
Confederacy, but it came at a high cost: 50,000 men dead, wounded, or missing on both
sides.” ~ scholastic.com
Notes
The year is 1776.
A score is 20: so
Lincoln is
counting back 4
times 20 years
plus 7, or 87
years.
Lincoln refers to
the primary goal
of the North in
the Civil War: to
preserve the
young nation in
the face if the
Confederacy’s
rebellion.
Consecrate and
hallow are
synonyms,
meaning “to
declare something
sacred or set it
apart for a holy
use.”
The Gettysburg
Address is
actually one of
the most
treasured and
quoted speeches
in history.
The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and
so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those
who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do
this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot
consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground. The
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what
we say here, but it can never forget what they did
here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced.
Notes
Lincoln uses
the word
nation five
times to drive
home his view
of the U.S. as
a unified
country under
a central
government,
not just a
loose alliance
of states.
All men are
created equal
– A quote
from the
Declaration of
Independence,
written in
1776.
About 3,500
Union soldiers
would be
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
buried at
task remaining before us – that from these honored
Gettysburg.
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
Most of the
which they gave the last full measure of devotion –
Confederate
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
dead were
have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall
buried at
have a new birth of freedom – and that government of Hollywood
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
Cemetery in
perish from the earth.
Richmond,
Without coming
right out and
saying it, Lincoln
makes it clear
that along with
preserving the
Union, ending
slavery is a key
goal of the Civil
War. At the start
of 1863, he had
issued the
Emancipation
Proclamation,
declaring the
South’s slaves
free.
1-
2-
3-
4-
5-
6-
7-
Source: Scholastic Magazine
Va.
In November
1863, a
Northern
victory was
far from
assured. The
Civil War
finally ended
after four
years in 1865,
following
General
Robert E.
Lee’s
surrender to
Union
General
Ulysses S.
Grant at
Appomattox,
Va.
Why had Americans gathered at Gettysburg, Pennslyvannia on November 19, 1863?
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Why was the battle at Gettysburg a turning point of the Civil War?
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What does President Lincoln mean when he says, “Four score and seven years
ago”?
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What was the goal of the Union during the Civil War?
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How does President Lincoln quote the Declaration of Independence?
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What was the Emancipation Proclamation?
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Why do you think the Gettysburg Address is one of the most treasured and quoted
speeches in history?
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COLUMBIA DEMANDS HER CHILDREN!
J. E. Baker, [published by Currier & Ives, 1864?]
Text from left to right:
Columbia: Mr. Lincoln, give me back my 500.000 sons!
Lincoln: Well the fact is – by the way that reminds me of a STORY!!!
Document: 500 THOUS[AND] MORE TROOPS [SIGNED] A. LINCOLN
Explain the meaning of the political cartoon.
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“In this lithograph, Lincoln's foot rests on a bound copy of the Constitution and the devil's
inkpot furnishes ink for his writing. On the wall hangs a portrait of John Brown, labeled
‘St. Ossawotomie,’ and a depiction of rioting and bloodshed in "St. Domingo" following the
abolition of slavery there.” ~ indiana.edu
Explain the meaning of the political cartoon. _______________________________________