Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
and Second Inaugural Address
Leadership
Dilemmas and Opportunities
By Jeff Duffany
Tyngsborough
The Civil War
by the numbers
• More than 620,000 people died. 2 Percent
of the population.
• In two days at Shiloh, more Americans fell
than in all previous wars combined.
• Antietam was the single bloodiest day in
American history: 23,000 casualties on
both sides
• At Cold Harbor, 7,000 men fell in twenty
minutes.
The Leader:
Abraham Lincoln
Elected in 1860
Republican
Vowed to stop the spread of slavery
into the territories.
His election sparked the South’s
secession in late 1860 and early
1861.
Initially, he would wage the war to
return the South to the Union.
Dilemmas
• Keep the Union together by bringing the
South back into the United States.
• Eventually, after enough people had died,
ending slavery.
• Keeping the country together through this
great trial. Leading the Union through the
war without losing the public’s trust.
Lincoln in 1860 and 1865
How did Lincoln age in just 5 years?
What do you notice about these two pictures?
Opportunity: Gettysburg Address
• Gettysburg was fought on July 1, 2, 3
1863.
• General Lee had invaded the North.
• Over three days of battle, nearly 175,000
troops engaged in combat.
• Nearly 50,000 casualties on both sides.
• Turning point. Lee would be on the
defensive from here on out.
Gettysburg
Gettysburg Address
• On November 19, 1863 Lincoln was asked to
make a speech dedicating a cemetery on a
portion of the battlefield.
• Edward Everett spoke for nearly two hours.
Lincoln spoke for a little over two minutes.
• 15,000 people attended the dedication.
• Lincoln’s speech attempted to bring meaning to
the war and all of the death it had brought.
Gettysburg Address
•
•
•
Video link to Jeff Daniels reading the Gettysburg Address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4bM9geY0do
Text of the speech
Primary Source Circles
Lincoln can be seen in the middle of this picture
marked with an arrow
Primary Sources Circles
• Groups of 5-7
• Each person is assigned a role.
• Team Facilitator manages the group and
gives out roles.
• Read the document as a group and
complete the roles.
• When finished, compile the information
and be ready to present and discuss.
• Primary Source Circles
Important Points
• The speech can be seen as a halftime
speech to the nation.
• He is trying to give meaning to the
thousands of lives lost.
– “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 -- and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth.”
Important Points cont.
• The men who have given their lives did so, so
that this nation might live.
• Lincoln’s tone was one of hope and promise.
Not one of despair or vengeance.
• He had used the opportunity presented to give
meaning to the war. All of the sacrifice was for a
purpose.
Opportunity: Second Inaugural
Address
• Lincoln is re-elected in 1864.
• The war is coming to a close.
Questions to consider:
• What would happen to the South and
those who had fought against the Union?
• What of the institution of slavery?
• Where does the nation go from here?
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
Address
• Delivered on March 4, 1865 just a few
short months before his assassination.
• Denounces slavery as a sin
• Brings further meaning to the cost of war:
the death of slavery and the continuation
of the Union.
Primary Sources Circles
• Groups of 5-7
• Each person is assigned a role.
• Team Facilitator manages the group and
gives out roles.
• Read the document as a group and
complete the roles.
• When finished, compile the information
and be ready to present and discuss.
• Primary Source Circles
Lincoln can be seen in the center of the picture delivering his
Second Inaugural Address
Key excerpts
• “Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would
make war rather than let the nation survive; and the
other would accept war rather than let it perish. And
the war came.”
• “Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same
Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes
His aid against the other. It may seem strange that
any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance
in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's
faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The
prayers of both could not be answered; that of
neither has been answered fully.”
Key Excerpts
• “Yet, if God wills that it continue, until
all the wealth piled by the bond-man's
two hundred and fifty years of
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until
every drop of blood drawn with the
lash, shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword”
Key Excerpts
• “With malice toward none; with charity
for all; with firmness in the right, as
God gives us to see the right, let us
strive on to finish the work we are in; to
bind up the nation's wounds; to care
for him who shall have borne the battle,
and for his widow, and his orphan--to
do all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace, among
ourselves, and with all nations.”
Second Inaugural Address
• Lincoln uses biblical terms such as God,
Divine, Bible, Prayers.
• He is comforting the nation.
• Lincoln is trying to make the wounds of
war heal with his words
• “With Malice Toward None” The South
would be forgiven.
• Slavery is done.
Lincoln as a Leader
• Kept the nation from falling apart.
• Lincoln took the nations pain and losses
upon himself. (Remember the earlier
picture.)
• He gave meaning to what had happened
in the war.
• His ultimate sacrifice was his own life.
Dilemmas and Opportunities
• Dilemmas
– Nation is at war, torn
apart.
– Slavery must be dealt
with.
– Leading the nation
through this
monumental war.
• Opportunities
– Gettysburg Address:
Make some sense of
the death. Halftime
speech.
– Second Inaugural:
War is nearly over.
The South must be
brought back into the
Union and slavery
ended for good.