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Shaping the Nation and the Presidency
1863 Gettysburg Address & Emancipation Proclamation

1803
The Louisiana Purchase

1838-1839
The Trail of Tears

1850
The Fugitive Slave Law

1863
Gettysburg Address &
Emancipation Proclamation

1933
18th Amendment Repealed

1960
First Televised Presidential
Debate

1964
Civil Rights Act

1991
Persian Gulf

Make the connection between President Abraham Lincoln and two events of 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.

Abraham Lincoln
from American Presidents

Watch Clip

 On November 19, 1863 Abraham Lincoln dedicated the cemetery at the site of the largest Civil War battle, and one of the most decisive. What is now known as the Gettysburg Address was a short speech honoring those who died, emphasizing the importance of the cause they gave their lives for, and calling attention to the task still at hand. However short and simple the speech was, it advanced Lincoln's goals in the war. What made the speech successful? What specific impact did it have?

Frederick Douglass
from American Writers

Watch Clip

 Frederick Douglass was a black abolitionist well-known for his skills with language. At the start of the Civil War, Douglass was not impressed with Lincoln's stated reason for waging the war. Douglass felt the war, in addition to saving the Union, should result in an end to slavery. According to at least one scholar, both Douglass and Lincoln's views about the purpose of the war gradually evolved. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 signaled the president's conviction that slavery had no place in the Union.
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