The Bancroft Copy of the Gettysburg Address was written by President Lincoln in February 1864. The famous historian George Bancroft, the "father of American History", who wrote "History of the United States", had asked him to write it for him. Bancroft wanted to put this copy in "Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors" and sell it at a Soldiers' and Sailors' Sanitary Fair in Baltimore. But Lincoln wrote on both sides of the paper, so he could not use it for this purpose. Therefore, Bancroft was allowed to keep it. This copy was kept by the Bancroft family for many years. Then, it was sold to different dealers and bought by Nicholas and Marguerite Lilly Notes. They donated it to Cornell in 1949. It is now kept by the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University. Among the five copies, it is the only one to be privately owned.
When Lincoln found that his fourth written copy could not be used, he wrote a fifth copy. The Bliss Copy was named for Colonel Alexander Bliss, Bancroft's stepson. It is not known if Lincoln made any more copies. Lincoln wrote this copy with much care. He gave it a title—"Address delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg"—and signed and dated this copy. In fact, it was the only copy of the Gettysburg Address he signed. Partly because of this, it has become the most well-known version of the Gettysburg Address. It is the source of most modern copies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Today, this copy hangs in the Lincoln Room of the White House. It is a present from Oscar B. Cintas, who used to be a Cuban Ambassador to the United States. Cintas liked to collect art and manuscripts. He had bought the Bliss Copy for $54,000 at a public auction in 1949. It "set a new high record for the sale of a document at public auction". The Castro government claimed Cintas' properties after it became powerful in 1959. But Cintas, who died in 1957, had willed the Gettysburg Address to the American people, if it would be kept at the White House. It was moved there in 1959, and is still there today.
Another source of the Gettysburg Address is the copy from the Associated Press. It was copied from the notes taken by reporter Joseph L. Gilbert. It is different from the drafted words in a few ways.
Eyewitnesses reports about Lincoln's performance are various. In 1931, 87-year-old Mrs. Sarah A. Cooke Myers suggested that there was a dignified silence after Lincoln finished his speech. She had been there when she was 19 years old. "I was close to the President and heard all of the Address, but it seemed short. Then there was an impressive silence like our Menallen Friends Meeting. There was no applause when he stopped speaking". Historian Shelby Foote said that the applause, which came after a long time, was "barely polite". But the governor of Pennsylvania, Curtin, said, "He pronounced (said) that speech in a voice that all the multitude (people) heard. The crowd was hushed into silence because the President stood before was so Impressive! It was the common remark of everybody. Such a speech, as they said it was!"
There is a story that Lincoln turned to his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon and said that his speech "won't scour (wouldn't be successful)". Garry Wills argued that this story was not true. He said that Lamon was the only person who remembered this remark, and that it was not reliable. Garry Wills felt that Lincoln had done what he wanted to do at Gettysburg.
The following day, Everett wrote a letter to Lincoln. In the letter, he praised the President for his speech, saying, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central (main) idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes". Lincoln replied that he was glad the speech was not a "total complete failure".
Other public reaction to the speech was different according to each party. The Democratic "Chicago Times" said, "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances (remarks) of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States". However, the Republican "New York Times" praised the speech. The Springfield, MA. Republican newspaper printed the entire speech, calling it "a perfect gem" that was "deep in feeling, compact (simple) in thought and expression, and tasteful and elegant in every word and comma". The Republican said that Lincoln's short remarks would "repay further study as the model speech".
William R. Rathvon is the only known eyewitness of the Gettysburg Address to have left an audio recording of what he remembered. One year before he died in 1939, Rathvon's remarks were recorded on February 12, 1938. It included his reading the address itself. The title of the record was "I Heard Lincoln That Day - William R. Rathvon, TR Productions". The National Public Radio (NPR) discovered a copy during a "Quest for Sound" project in 1999. NPR allows people to hear the record around Lincoln's birthday.
The only known and confirmed photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg was taken by David Bachrach. It was identified in the Mathew Brady collection of photographic plates in 1952. Lincoln's speech was short, but he and others sat for hours during the rest of the program. Because Everett's speech was very long, and because it took a long time for 19th century photographers to prepare for taking a picture, it is likely that photographers were not prepared for how short Lincoln's speech was. In 2006, John Richter identified two more photographs in the Library of Congress collection.
The Nicolay and Hay copies do not have the words "under God", but they appear in the three later copies (Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss). So, some skeptics suggest that Lincoln did not say "under God" at Gettysburg. Yet at least three reporters telegraphed the words of the Gettysburg Address with the words "under God" included. Historian William E. Barton says:
The reporters who were there at that time included Joseph Gilbert, Charles Hale, John R. Young. There were also reporters from the "Cincinnati Commercial", "New York Tribune", and "New York Times". Charles Hale "had notebook and pencil in hand, [and] took down the slow-spoken words of the President". "He took down what he declared was the exact language of Lincoln's associates confirmed his testimony, which was received, as it deserved to be at its face value". Lincoln probably spoke differently from what he had prepared and added the expression when he was speaking.
The Gettysburg Address's importance in the history of the United States can be seen by the long time it has been a part of American culture. Popular works often refer to the Gettysburg Address as if expecting that the audience will know Lincoln's words. Many years have passed after the Address was delivered, but it is still one of the most famous speeches in American history. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous speech of "I Have a Dream" spoke of the Gettysburg Address. In August 1963, King spoke of President Lincoln and his well-known words: "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. came as a of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames ".
The Constitution of France spoke of France as a ""gouvernement du peuple, par le peuple et pour le peuple"" ("government of the people, by the people, and for the people"). This was a direct translation of Lincoln's words.