This week in Philly history: Which version of the Gettysburg Address did Abraham Lincoln actually say?

On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. The next day, newspapers such as The Inquirer re-printed Lincoln’s poetic words, but versions vary.

This photo is a reprint of a small detail of a photo showing the crowd gathered for the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., where President Abraham Lincoln gave his now famous speech, the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln is visible facing the crowd, not wearing a hat, about an inch below the third flag from the left. Josephine Cobb first found Lincoln's face while working with a glass plate negative at the National Archives in 1952.Read moreLibrary of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division

by Tommy Rowan

Published Nov. 22, 2024, 5:45 a.m. ET

Upon a wooden platform, set in a small, war-torn Pennsylvania town, President Abraham Lincoln stood before a crowd of about 15,000 people and summed up the stakes of the American Civil War in a tidy 272-word address.

Well, about 272.

On Nov. 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at a ceremony to dedicate a portion of the town’s battlefield as a national cemetery. Historians routinely cite the prose poem as one of the most important speeches in American history.

But in the 161 years since it was spoken into existence, a debate continues over Lincoln’s exact words.

“In an address so brief, but so momentous, every syllable tells,” wrote Major William H. Lambert in his 1909 book on the subject.

There are five versions of the speech in Lincoln’s handwriting, and then scores of newspaper accounts that offer slightly alternate accounts.

The gist is the same, but the question remains: Which version did he actually say?

Many newspapers from across the country and in Philadelphia, reported a shorthand version jotted down by an Associated Press reporter, but there is no definitive version of that transcription, as each newspaper’s rendition included omissions or errant additions, or inconsistent prepositions, or verbal variations, most likely mixed up in translation by telegraph operators.

Several papers, including The Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune, sent their own correspondents, but many of those versions were either paraphrased or jumbled, most likely due to the same transmission issues.

Lincoln’s first drafts of the speech are named after his two private secretaries to which he gifted the copies, John Nicolay and John Hay. And historians differ on which version could have been the reading copy, while others think that copy is lost to history.

Most notably, the Nicolay and Hay versions omit the words “under God” from the phrase “that this nation [under God] shall have a new birth of freedom...” But those words are included in a few of the newspaper accounts, adding fuel to the theory that Lincoln went off-script during the address and added flourishes that weren’t pre-written.

And those words are present in the three copies Lincoln later penned as mementos. For these drafts, Lincoln consulted several newspaper accounts in helping him craft more polished versions.

The fifth manuscript, known as the Bliss copy, is generally accepted as Lincoln‘s preferred variant, as it’s the only edition he signed and dated. It’s on display at the White House, and in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., it’s etched in marble.