Was given at the dedication of a National Cemetery for soldiers killed during the civil war battle. This hourlong talk was part of a conference hosted by the Gettysburg College civil war institute. Our first speaker to kick off our conference is martin johnson. He is an associate professor of history at university of miami in ohio, where he teaches courses on Abraham Lincoln, the civil war, and modern europe. He earned his ph. D in 1993 from brown university. He has devoted much of his career to studying the 16th president of the united states. He is also the author of a number of books. In fact his first two books are on european history. One is on the paris commune. And the other is on the triefis affairs. Very diverse intellectual interest. Unlike most of us, can only right between 1861 and 1865. Martin certainly is able to go into other fields and to succeed in doing so. In 2014, martin earned the distinguished lincoln prize, lincoln prize as many of you know, is sponsored by Gettysburg College. He received that prize for writing the gettysburg address. Writing the gettysburg address is a superb book and it is a book that takes readers on lincolns journey. To gettysburg. Again, i dont want to give away too much. But i will simply say this, that it reveals how lincolns intellectual process. And that he was revising, rethinking, as he was coming to gettysburg and once he arrived here. This book is a piece of detective work. And two years ago, i think that martin and i decided he came here, february, the dead of winter. Just absolutely miserable and snowy and he gave an outstanding talk. So i dont want to inflate expectations too much but it was fantastic. As soon as i heard it, i knew he needed to come here and talk about his Important Research and findings to the cwi audience. So lets all give a warm welcome to martin johnson. [ applause ] thank you very much. What a pleasure to be here. Such a large audience. I appreciate it. We are here to talk about the gettysburg address and the lincoln and gettysburg moment. I got started on studying the gettysburg address because i was thinking about, you know, we have these moments in our American History that we celebrate. Moments that make us in many ways who we are. But sometimes you wonder whether these are mythic, whether they are elements that are added, especially for the gettysburg address that lincoln stories of writing the gettysburg address on the train, sudden inspiration or the work of long months of labor. How did he write the gettysburg address . And its really an important story because its part of the journey that we have as americans to understanding who we are and the nature of this american experience, this journey that were on, really. How we tell the story of who we are makes us who we are. We are the stories that we tell ourselves. As we live those stories, and we live up to those stories, we make america and we can make a better america. And one way we can see that is we look at this slide of lincoln in the temple. I like the name, the word here. In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever. And as long as we have stories like stories of lincoln and stories of the civil war and the valor and courage of the soldiers of the civil war, we can become the americans that we aspire to be. And the story of the lincoln gettysburg address helps us make that journey. So lets go well we are at gettysburg, lets get to gettysburg, lincoln got on the train the day before, november 18th. These slides have little to do with lincoln exactly except the slide here is the old union terminal, i believe its called, in washington that lincoln did depart from. But this gives us the old timeframe. Took many hours to get to gettysburg, down the track and there are stories on the train of lincoln writing his speech. He stopped along the way. They had to pick up water. The train evidently engines had to rest. For example here at Hanover Junction which is just up the road here, if you havent been to Hanover Junction, a wonderful place to visit, the Railroad Junction there was an important place. Lincoln went through there several times. They have restored the old depot, too. You will see images of Hanover Junction sometimes associated with lincoln. And they say sometimes lincoln is here on the platform. Lincoln is probably not in these pictures. These pictures were probably taken in fact the day before lincoln was there. When a whole group of people, marshals for the parade and for the ceremonies at gettysburg were going up to gettysburg and they were stranded there for hours and hours and had nothing to do but take a lot of pictures. There is a tall man in a top hat in many of these photos, and most likely, it is not lincoln. Lincoln went to Hanover Junction and he rattled down the rails farther to get to gettysburg. We know that he didnt write on the train because in a sense he tells us that. And he told his attorney general the story of him being on the train and being at gettysburg. So i would like to organize my talk a little bit around that journey that lincoln took and the story that james speed, his attorney general, told. And speed came to washington after the gettysburg ceremony. About a year later in fact. He was not at the ceremony. He did not see anything. What he tells us is what lincoln told him. So listening to james speed we are listening to what lincoln said about his journey to the gettysburg address. And as james speed said, about a year after the ceremony in casual conversation one evening with lincoln, lincoln said he was very uncertain as to whether he could go, whether his duties would not detain him in washington. Anxious to go. Important note there, anxious to go. Desired to be prepared to say some appropriate things. The letter of invitation gave him expectations for a short speech but a speech that had to be appropriate to the occasion one of the most impressive ceremonies of the mid century. The gathering on a battlefield like this had never taken place. And lincoln, of course, rarely left washington, d. C. He never left washington, d. C. In order to give a speech, for example. This is major event. He did want to say some appropriate things because the organizers asked him to say some appropriate things, but he knew this was an important event. But he knew too he wasnt going to be the main speaker. It had to be short and appropriate. Here is the Lincoln White house. At the time of the civil war, you imagine lincoln busy here in the white house. Not sure he is going to gettysburg. In fact he only decided at the very last moment possible and most likely. Probably the very weekend before going to gettysburg is when he decided to go, because the monday before the ceremony, thats when the newspapers sent out the world that lincoln has finally decided to go to gettysburg. It wasnt until the next day that they had the Railroad Schedule set. It was really a lastminute decision he made that he would go. He wanted to go but wasnt sure he could go. And as he told speed, the day before he left, he found time to write about half a speech. Here we have images of lincoln in the, what was at that time his office. Today the lincoln bedroom. He is at the table where the emancipation proclamation was signed earlier that year. On new years day of that year. And i love the picture of him standing up for example. In some ways it is as close to a candid shot as you can get of lincoln. Hows standing at the desk there. You dont see it reproduced a lot because his face is obscured and some people sometimes try to retouch his face and it doesnt turn out too well. Its just beautiful the way it stands. You can see his desk and the famous pigeonhole desk behind him there where he kept his stories. He would say let me find the letter and rummage through his desk and always be able to find it somehow, but he had this amazing filing system. And probably at this desk then that night before leaving for gettysburg, as he told james speed, the day before he left, he found time to write about half the speech. Probably at that table. Probably in what today is called the lincoln bedroom. Very appropriate because now the lincoln bedroom has the honor of housing one of the five handwritten copies that lincoln wrote. There are only five handwritten copies of the gettysburg address. The last one, sometimes most important to people, the last one is in the lincoln bedroom. He wrote it there and now it is enshrined there. What does it mean to write about half of a speech . I think this is half of the speech he was talking about. Half of the speech today in which is the first page, nickel a copy of the gettysburg address. All in ink on executive mansion letterhead. Beautifully written. Bold hand, no hesitation whatsoever. This is a draft thats the result of thought and this is a final version in many ways or version that was intended to be final. As i note on the side, i call this the washington draft because this is the only fragment we have remaining of the speech as he wrote it in washington before coming to gettysburg. The washington draft, the first page of what is often called the nickel aide copy, all in ink. As you see the last page, it is rather for us, the living, to stand here. You never heard those words, to stand here, in the gettysburg address that you memorized or read. Because lincoln revises this speech when he gets to gettysburg. But he doesnt revise it on the train. We know that from what he told james speed. And from the rest of his journey. He came to gettysburg, arrived at the station which i hope you all get a chance to see and have seen. Its been beautifully remodeled and its now part of the National Park service, i understand. And he was whisked away from the station, greeted by Edward Everett who would be guest speaker the next day. David wills is hosting gettysburg is there. An enormous crowd, crowding around the station waiting for lincoln to come in. It was about 6 00 at night or so. It was november, so it was rather dark and the moon was already out and cloudy. It had been raining earlier the day, blustery and windy. Edward did not go outside that day because he wanted to preserve his voice and not catch a cold or something. They whisked him away to his home of, of course, his host in gettysburg. I dont have to tell many people here about david wills, but hes a very important man in the story of the gettysburg address and really the american story in many ways. He was a young lawyer at the time. Probably younger when lincoln was engaged. About 33 years old at that time. Lived in the grandest house on the main square, as you know. And he had been, for months and months, organizing the treatment of the wounded and the dying, the care for the battlefield and the soldiers. He had been commissioned by the governor of pennsylvania, andrew curtain, commissioned by the governor of pennsylvania, to take care of the battlefield dead. And he was then the person who is the main leader behind the Gettysburg Cemetery and behind the ceremony that lincoln was going to now attend. Possibly david wills was among those who at the time who thought that lincoln maybe was not going to traz the level of discourse. Lincoln before this had not given the gettysburg address. He was not known as the eloquent speaker in 1863 or so. He has not given the second inaugural. So lincoln at this time is still very much viewed as a western rube politician by many people. It is possible david questioned whether he could in fact rise to the occasion. At the wills house, there were greetings. There was individuals, notables from the town came to meet lincoln. A man who had been wounded shook lincolns hand there and said it was the proudest moment of his life. In the evening, at around 9 00 or so, arrived out in front of the house here, the front door here. Arrived out there, the band for the ninth new york infantry. That was a signal they were going to have a grand serenade. Its a charming 19th century ceremony where they would play music, they would demand the notable would say a few words, they would and demand that the notable would come out and say a few words, they would march around a little bit and the notable would go back inside and everyone would clap. Lincoln made them stand outside 45 minutes or so, yelling for him to come out. Thats very important to know for the story of the gettysburg address, because lincoln, it was after he was talking to the serenade, a brief word or two, that he went back inside and its after that that he went upstairs and started writing what we think of as the gettysburg address. Heres the man who made that possible. I show you this picture earlier. It turns out that i got the large version, thats actually david wills in his carriage and i think this picture was probably taken about 1892, just after david wills had written his account of how lincoln had written the gettysburg address. David wills, you notice this is a photograph not of the wills family. This isnt your standard 19th century family. This is a picture of a house. Because david wills wants you to know thats the house that lincoln wrote the gettysburg address in. He had just written his story about how that had happened. Signed it like an affidavit. Wills by this time was a judge. He wanted to make sure that this is where lincoln read the gettysburg address, up in the second floor window. If anybody knows who awe all the individuals in the photo are, id be very happy to know that. Thank you. He went upstairs then and heres what james speed told him. He took what he had written with him to gettysburg, the half a speech. He was put in an upper room. And asked to be left alone for a while. The upper room is interesting. Because remember speed only knows what lincoln told him. This is, he told the speed of in 187, this is 15 years after lincoln had told him. He remembered it was in the upper room, the upper room is in no other source as far as i can tell, if james speakle knows that lincoln had told him he would be housed in an upper room. We know this is a very reliable account. And lincoln is talking to us in many ways through james speed. He was put into an upper room. You can imagine serenaders are out front. Every notable in the county is coming to you. A dozen governors are expected in town that night. He needs to prepare a speech. He concluded shortly before he was delivered. And heres the earlier quote. You can visit the room today, it looks a little bit different. But. After revising for a time he says i want to talk to william stewart, my secretary of state. How do i get to him . And so you have this amazing story of david wills, his host, the governor of pennsylvania has arrived by that time. Andrew curtain. And several guards. Gathering in lincolns room and hustling lincoln out to the streets to go to the house where William Seward was staying. Lincoln was worried. He knew there was a huge crowd out there. He didnt like talking extemporaneously while he was president. He was afraid he would make a mistake or something. He told the governor of pennsylvania, you go out and keep the people from me and i will go see seward. So the governor of pennsylvania, curtain, stands up and gives one of those speeches that we know nobody said. Friends here, good to be here tonight and lincoln is going next door to see William Seward. William seward is staying at the house of a local important family, a newspaper owner and lincoln wanted to talk to him about his speech. Its probable, its likely i think that seward did help linken with his speech. Most likely the last few words of the speech, the poetry, you might say, we all know that stewart helped lincoln with the last few lines of the first inaugural. The mystic courts of memory. The idea came from stewart and the phrasing came from stewart. Lincoln made his own. Many people think its better than stewarts originally. But stewart did provide help on the first inaugural. Its probably just the same with the gettysburg address. Douglas wilson, a very fine scholar, one reason i think that might be the case, too, is that steward liked the word perish, he used exactly the phrase parish, in a speech before. Inken did not use parish that often, it was not a favorite word of his. But perish from the earth, i think is seward through and through, it does add a beautiful touch. Lincoln talks to steward, reads the speech to steward. After half an hour he talks to some of the people at the house where steward is staying. Then he has to have bodyguards have to take him through the crowds once again, back to the wills house. He returns to the wills house then and this again, speed had said, he concluded shortly so he would have time to memorize it. After talking to steward, he finished his revision. Wrote out what he thought was going to be the gettysburg address the next day. The speech that lincoln wrote that night that evening at gettysburg, is an intermediate draft. Thats not the gettysburg address, either. The speech he brought from washington is not the gettysburg address. And that we have on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial and elsewhere. The gettysburg undoubtedly thought as he went it bed that night it was going to be the speech that he gave the next day. Thats not the speech that he gave. The journey continuing starts in washington. And it continues. The next morning, the next morning before going to the battlefield, Lincoln Seward evidently the night before, had cooked up a trip to the battlefield. In part we know that, a newspaper at the time of the next day after the ceremony, quotes steward as saying i visited the ground around the seminary this morning and mr. Lincoln joined me. Seward and lincoln traveled up to the Seminary Ridge and visited some of the key sites that were known even at the time. I have here magnificent, photographic history. Because this image comes from that. And they visited the ground around the seminary for very specific reasons. Already now this is only four months after the battle, already there was kind of a pilgrimage route taking shape. Gettysburg was entering the historical memory. Of the union and maybe of the united states. Born in the united states. And pilgrimage route often started at Seminary Ridge. It was recognized to be a key point. There were stories of heaps of human limbs out the windows of the seminary course which had been used as a hospital amputation. Lincoln and others knew lees headquarters was quite nearby. He may have known, certainly knew of jo