Гражданская война в США 1861-1865г. Речь Линкольна в Геттисберге. Подкаст на английском с переводом №19.

Podcast №19  The American Civil War of 1861 — 1865.  Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

© Georgy Panov has prepared the introduction. This educational podcast is for the PTAFL program.

00. Almost all educated people have heard the name Abraham Lincoln, but not everyone can tell who this man was and why he became famous. Let’s learn more about him and the time when he lived.

01. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a poor American farmer’s family. From an early age, he worked a lot on the farm. This was the reason why he did not receive a full school education. But he learned to read and did a lot of self-education. As a result, he received a license to practice law.

02. Lincoln took an active part in the political life of the country from his youth and, in 1858, participated in the elections to the US Senate. But he lost that election. At the same time, he became one of the founders of the Republican Party. In 1860, Lincoln was nominated as a presidential candidate by this party and won the Presidential election, becoming the 16th President of the United States. The USA of that time was a relatively young country with many fundamental contradictions.

03. We can say that the United States was like a powder keg of political tension. On the one hand, there were the northern states, where industry was developing rapidly. The development of industry required the use of the latest advances in technology. But in life, it rarely happens that the fast growth of any economic sector does not affect the political side of the country. And the northern states of America were no exception.

04. In that society, democratic ideas were becoming more and more popular. And on the other hand, there was a very conservative rural South in which slavery still flourished. Although the slavery of the late period in the USA became much milder than before, even in this form, it became unacceptable for the winds of change in the USA at that time. It is fair to say that slavery also existed in the northern states. Also, do not think slavery in the country was the only reason for the beginning of the war between the North and the South.

05. Many books are devoted to analyzing the causes of this war, but we can say that the war was inevitable, and the parties were only waiting for an excuse to start it. The election of Abraham Lincoln as President, with his desire for radical changes, contributed to the beginning of the separation of the southern states. The southern states wanted to unite into a Confederation. Although Lincoln tried to prevent the country’s split, he failed to do it peacefully. A civil war began in the country and lasted four years.

06. The date of its beginning is considered to be April 12, 1861. It was the bloodiest war in the history of the United States because at least 612 thousand people died in it, and at least 412 thousand were injured. One warring party was represented by the northern states, which called themselves the Union. They fought under the star-spangled flag that is well known today and were led by President Abraham Lincoln. General Ulysses S.

07. Grant commanded the troops of the North. By the way, he later became the 18th President of the United States. Some people consider Ulysses S. Grant a butcher because there were tens of thousands of uselessly killed Union soldiers on his conscience. The Confederacy was the other warring side.

08. It consisted of the southern states, led by General Robert Edward Lee. This general became a legendary figure. Despite the superiority of the Union in many important indicators, the Confederacy managed to resist the attacks of the Northerners for a very long time. But here, we cannot forget the legendary General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, who also fought on the side of the Confederacy. Jackson actually died from the careless actions of his patrol of Southerners.

09. His role in the war with the Union was so significant that Robert Lee considered his death the cause of the defeat of the Confederacy in the war with the Union. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the well-known ‘Emancipation Proclamation’. In this proclamation, he required that all slaves in the territory of the Confederation should be freed. In 1865, the war entered its final stage. General Lee capitulated at Appomattox Courthouse village, which meant the end of the Confederacy.

10. Northern troops won. However, the country’s recovery, which suffered greatly from the war, was not easy. The American Civil War greatly influenced the further development of the country. The author of this text wants to add a small remark here. Tens of thousands of black soldiers voluntarily fought for the Confederacy.

11. Hundreds of thousands of blacks remained neutral and did not support the Union that came to liberate them. It reminds us that what is written in school textbooks rather corresponds to the current political environment more than to what actually happened. But without a doubt, the American Civil War was the hardest period in the history of the United States and constantly required great efforts and motivation from its participants. Listen to the very famous, not adapted speech of Abraham Lincoln, spoken by him at the opening of the soldiers’ cemetery in Gettysburg. A few months earlier, there was a big battle at Gettysburg, in which many soldiers died.

12. Although the Union defeated the Confederacy in this battle, heavy losses demoralized people. ‘Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battle — field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

13. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

14. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ‘ ‘Abraham Lincoln. November 19, 1863.