But writer Adam Gopnik felt differently. In "The New Yorker", he said that Everett's Oration was openly neoclassical. For example, Everett spoke directly about Marathon and Pericles. But he said that "Lincoln’s rhetoric is, instead, deliberately Biblical". He added that it is hard to find any obviously classical references in all of his speeches. Gopnik felt that "Lincoln had mastered the sound of the King James Bible so completely that he could recast (make again) abstract issues of constitutional law in Biblical terms (words from the Bible), making the proposition (suggestion) that Texas and New Hampshire should be forever bound by a single post office sound like something right out of Genesis".
There are many theories about where Lincoln's expression of "government of the people, by the people, for the people" came from. In "The American Monthly Review of Reviews", it is suggested that the writings of William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, much influenced Lincoln. William Herndon wrote in "Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of A Great Life" that he had brought some of the sermons of abolitionist minister Theodore Parker to Lincoln, who had been moved by them.
Craig R. Smith, In "Criticism of Political Rhetoric and Disciplinary Integrity", suggested that the Gettysburg Address was influenced by the speech of Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster. In his "Second Reply to Hayne", Webster had famously cried out, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable"! In this 1830 speech, Webster had also described the Federal Government as "made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people". This expression was very similar to Lincoln's "government of the people, by the people, for the people." Webster also said, "This the independent offspring of the popular will. It is not the creature of State the whole truth must be told, the people brought it into existence, established it, and have hitherto (until now) supported it, for the very purpose, amongst others, of imposing certain salutary restraints on State sovereignties".
Wills was interested in how Lincoln used the ideas of birth, life, and death. Lincoln had described the nation as "brought forth", "conceived", and that shall not "perish". Others, such as Allen C. Guelzo, suggested that Lincoln's expression "four score and seven" was about the King James Version of the Bible's . There, man's life is described as "threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years".
Each of the five manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address are named for the person who received it from Lincoln. Lincoln gave a copy to each of his private secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay. Both were written around the time of his November 19 address. The other three copies of the address (the Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss copies) were written a long time after November 19. They were written by Lincoln for charitable purposes. The Bliss copy has become the most widely accepted text of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. This is partly because Lincoln gave it a title and signed and dated it.
There has been some controversy about the two earliest drafts of the Address. Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, made Nicolay and Hay the legal guardians of Lincoln's papers in 1874. The Nicolay Copy appeared as a copy in an article written by Nicolay in 1894. After that, it was thought to be among the papers passed to Hay by Nicolay's daughter Helen when Nicolay died in 1901. Robert Lincoln began a search for the first copy in 1908. He discovered a handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address among the papers of John Hay—a copy now known as the "Hay Draft".
The Hay Draft was different from the Gettysburg Address printed by Nicolay in 1894 in many important ways. For example, it was written on a different kind of paper, had a different number of words on every line, had a different number of lines, and had corrections in Lincoln's handwriting.
Both the Hay and Nicolay copies of the Address are inside the Library of Congress. They are inside specially designed, temperature-controlled, sealed containers with argon gas. This is to protect the documents from oxidation.
The Nicolay Copy is often called the "first draft". This is because it is thought to be the earliest copy that exists. Scholars are not sure if the Nicolay Copy was actually the copy Lincoln read from at Gettysburg on November 19. In an 1894 article, Nicolay wrote that Lincoln had brought to Gettysburg the first part of the speech written in ink. Nicolay also said that Lincoln had written the second page in pencil on lined paper before November 19. Matching folds can still be seen on the two pages, suggesting it could be the copy that eyewitnesses say Lincoln took from his coat pocket and read at the ceremony. But some of the words and expressions in the Nicolay Copy do not match modern transcriptions of Lincoln's speech. Because of this, some people believe that the text used at Gettysburg has been lost. The words "under God", for example, are missing in this copy from the phrase "that this nation (under God) shall have a new birth of freedom..." If the Nicolay draft was the copy Lincoln read from, either the modern transcriptions are not correct, or Lincoln spoke differently from his written text several times. John Nicolay kept this copy of the Gettysburg Address until he died in 1901. When he died, it was passed on to his friend John Hay. It is on permanent display as part of the American Treasures exhibition of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
In 1906, it was first announced that the Hay Copy had been discovered. It had been found among the papers of John Hay when people were searching for the "original manuscript" of the Address. There are some important differences from the copy of the Address described by John Hay in his article. There are many important words taken out and added by Lincoln's own handwriting, which often changed the basic meaning of the sentence. In this copy, like in the Nicolay Copy, the words "under God" are not there.
This version has been described as "the most inexplicable" of the drafts. It is sometimes referred to as the "second draft". The "Hay Copy" was probably made on the morning of the delivery of the Address. It could also have been made shortly after Lincoln came back to Washington. The people who believe it was completed on the morning of his address note that it has some expressions that are not in the first draft but are in the reports of the address and in later copies by Lincoln. It is likely, they say, that Lincoln used this copy when he delivered the address. Lincoln later gave this copy to his other secretary, John Hay. Hay's descendants gave it and the Nicolay Copy to the Library of Congress in 1916.
The Everett Copy is also known as the "Everett-Keyes Copy". It was sent by President Lincoln to Edward Everett in early 1864. Everett, who was collecting the speeches at the Gettysburg dedication into one book to sell for hurt soldiers at New York's Sanitary Commission Fair, had asked for it. The Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield, Illinois has it on display. It is in the Treasures Gallery of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.