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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Gettysburg Address,

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1195 Baltimore Pike.

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Yeah. That's the address. See in Google Maps? It's right there.

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All right, first up, the excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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Okay, and now the question:

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In writing the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln was still working

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to win over Northern voters who believed that... what?

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Like, who wouldn't vote for Lincoln?

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It's like not voting in Tom Brady to the Hall of Fame.

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All right, and here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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Okay. Well, Lincoln might have been at Gettysburg

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to dedicate a cemetery to soldiers

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killed a few months earlier,

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but he used the opportunity to win over Northern voters,

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particularly Democrats who were still skeptical of his leadership.

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[ chuckles ] Talk about an uphill battle.

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In the Gettysburg Address, was Lincoln focused on

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winning over voters who believed that A -

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the war was not economically responsible?

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Well, actually, many voters believed the North to be in

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a solid economic position to fight the war. So that knocks out A.

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Was the Gettysburg Address intended to woo voters

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who still thought that B - slavery could be ended without a war?

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Well, in fact, these anti-Lincoln voters -

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who are mostly Northern Democrats - were fully opposed to

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the abolitionist movement. They had no desire to

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end slavery whatsoever. Like what were they thinking?

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All right, so B is out, as well.

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Then was Lincoln using the speech to win over voters

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who thought that D - the North was too unprepared for war?

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Well, remember how voters thought that

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the North had a solid economic advantage over the South?

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Well, they also felt pretty confident about the North's military might.

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Maybe too confident, though, given how long the war ended up lasting.

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Which means that Lincoln used the Gettysburg Address

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to win over Northern Democrats who believed that C -

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the South had the right to secede.

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Regardless of their differences, Lincoln wanted to convince his

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political rivals that the government of the people, by the people,

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for the people shall not perish from the earth.

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All that to say the South had no right to secede

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to begin with and political differences should be

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worked out with the nation as a whole.

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So C is the correct answer.

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Despite Lincoln's best efforts, these Northern Democrats,

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who referred to themselves as copperheads, like the snake,

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slithered in the grass, waiting to poison his plan for peace.

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[ sigh ]

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