It's high morning in the town of Gettysburg. Not even a week ago were the shells and shots of the Armies ringing through the streets and parlors. Now, the time has come to dedicate the field to the fallen. Everett has just finished his two-hour oration; up next is none other than President Abraham Lincoln. The next two-and-a-half minutes herald one of the most famous speeches in American history. But what made this legendary manuscript so effective?
President Lincoln knew what made the humand mind tick. Three words he repeated and emphasized in his speech - We, Here, and Now. 'We' brought the shaken survivors of Gettysburg together, binding them with him in responsibility for the Civil War thus far. 'Here' brought their attention to the destruction around them, to the air that still reeked of men freshly slain. 'Now' brought them to the realization that this was not something to be shoved aside and dealt with in some vaguely-defined 'later', but an immediate threat to the Union and the universal liberty for which it stood.
The president also knew his audience. They were hungry, tired, bereaved, and sick of the war that seemed to drag on and on forever. He knew that what they needed most from him was something to remind them of how much was at stake: The freedom of men, the ideals of the young nation, and even the Union itself. So he appealed to the crowd's pathos - their emotions. He implored them not to let those men die in vain, to carry on for the ideals, the nation, for which they fought.
And it worked! That speech marked the transition of war rhetoric from mere preservation of the Union to something much more noble: ensuring the freedom of all people in America. With a re-invigorated North, less than two years later the Confederacy was forced to capitulate, at long last ending slavery in it's final bastion.
Written August 23, 1996.