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The Gettysburg Address is short speech by [[Abraham Lincoln]] which took its most famous expressions from the [[Bible]], without giving it credit.  Its opening line -- fourscore and seven years ago -- is a play on the biblical expression about how the lifespan of an average person is threescore and ten years: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."<ref>Psalm 90:10 (KJV)</ref>  The famous conclusion in the Gettysburg Address is a paraphrase of the General Prologue to the first English translation of the Bible by John Wycliffe (1384): "This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People."

The Gettysburg Address is short speech by [[Abraham Lincoln]] which took its most famous expressions from the [[Bible]], without giving it credit.  Its opening line -- fourscore and seven years ago -- is a play on the biblical expression about how the lifespan of an average person is threescore and ten years: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."<ref>Psalm 90:10 (KJV)</ref>  The famous conclusion in the Gettysburg Address is a paraphrase of the General Prologue to the first English translation of the Bible by John Wycliffe (1384): "This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People."

== Background ==

== Background ==

At the end of the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], more than 51,000 Confederate and Union soldiers were wounded, missing, or dead. Many of those who died were laid in makeshift graves along the battlefield. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin commissioned David Wills, an attorney, to purchase land for a proper burial site for the deceased Union soldiers. Wills acquired 17 acres for the cemetery, which was planned and designed by landscape architect William Saunders.  

At the end of the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], more than 51,000 Confederate and Union soldiers were wounded, missing, or dead. Many of those who died were laid in makeshift graves along the battlefield. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin commissioned David Wills, an attorney, to purchase land for a proper burial site for the deceased Union soldiers. Wills acquired 17 acres for the cemetery, which was planned and designed by landscape architect William Saunders.