Gettysburg Address Reflection

The Gettysburg Address is definitely one of the most widely known speeches and one that reflects a time in history where the freedom of man divided an entire country into a Civil War. The Gettysburg Address was spoken by Abraham Lincoln after the Battle of Gettysburg a turning point in the war for the North. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here" (Lincoln 402). This line is a strong statement and gave people the motivation to finish the war and fight for the equal rights of the free man. The rights of everyone being equal was a theory that both Emerson and Thoreau shared and also Abraham Lincoln (Brugman). Abraham Lincoln was a man who stood up for what he believed in and was not going to conform to what everyone else wanted and this was another theory that was shared by Emerson. "The danger, he warns, is in conformity because through conformity, the individual is lost: "For non-conformity, the world whips you with its displeasure" (Brugman). This conformity to the people around you is what Emerson fears and believes destroys the man but Lincoln did not fall victim to this conformity. Emerson is all about individuality and doing what you believe in and not exactly following the government and their rules. Lincoln was a government official and he still remained his own person and avoided the most of the corruption of the society around probably mostly because he was dealing with a large scale war. "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract"(Lincoln). The greatest of the men who dead at Gettysburg are the real heroes of the war and Lincoln wants to honor that and show what they did for the nation and also what they did for the people they were freeing from the battles. The battles of the Civil War give hope for the slaves like Emerson did he gave a voice for the people who could not stand up for themselves and give them hope that maybe someday they could be free (Brugman).

Brugman, Patricia. "Nature in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Lincoln, Abraham. "The Gettysburg Address" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.402. Print.