Outline: Is there a link between Lincoln's Gettysburg address and the funeral oration of Pericles.

I. During the American Civil War, after the battle of Gettysburg, the climax of the war, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech at the commemoration of the Field. His type of "funeral oration" is one of the most famous speeches in America to date starting with the phrase "four score and seven years ago" that is very known today. He gave this speeched at the consecration of Gettysburg where so many U.S. soldiers died. He believed that they should consecrate the field not only because so many died there, but for what they did die for, freedom. "...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion"(Lincoln). Another example of a funeral oration is the speech that Pericles gave at the funeral for the war dead, at the end of the first year of the Pelopennesian war. ("Pericles' Funeral Oration.") Pericles gave his speech

citation:"Pericles' Funeral Oration." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 11 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .