Abstract

Abraham Lincoln's Address at the Dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery” is one of the most well known speeches in American history. The implications of this speech, however, go far beyond simply consecrating the battleground. The address at Gettysburg functions, most importantly, as a call to American citizenry to continue the work which Union soldiers died performing on that Pennsylvania battleground. This directly called its immediate audience; however, it directly calls its twenty-first century audience as well. The painstaking work of rewriting the text of the American republic belongs to all who would claim citizenship from her. Today, we are called to do our small but vital parts in rewriting the draft of the republic of 2011, just as Lincoln called at Gettysburg for those American citizens to do their small but vital parts in rewriting the draft of 1863. This is the ultimate legacy of Gettysburg