Lost Chapters
The Gettysburg Address: Quartz Event
The Gettysburg Address is Abraham Lincoln's brief speech at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863. In about two minutes he honored the Union dead, said the nation was founded on equality, and asked the living to finish the work for a new birth of freedom and government by the people.
- Cost
- 4 crystals
- Type
- Event · Triumph
- Color
- Quartz (Founders & Revolution)
- Rarity
- Common
- Set
- Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)
Triumph
Recover 2.
Immortal speech saying more with 272 words than most politicians manage in entire careers.
The real history
In July 1863 Union and Confederate armies fought at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Months later, many Union dead still lay in unmarked and deteriorating graves across the battlefield, which troubled Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin. With state funding, the state hired Gettysburg attorney David Wills to buy land and run the project. About 3,600 soldiers were reburied in the new Soldiers' National Cemetery on Cemetery Hill.
The dedication took place on November 19, 1863, before a crowd of more than 10,000 people. The main speaker, Edward Everett, talked for about two hours. President Lincoln followed with remarks that lasted about two minutes.
Here is the speech in brief. Lincoln begins by looking back 87 years to the nation's founding, which he describes as built on liberty and on the idea that all men are created equal. He says the Civil War is testing whether a nation built on that idea can last. He then turns to the dead, saying that no speech can add to what the soldiers did there, and that it is up to the living to carry on the unfinished work. He ends with hope for a new birth of freedom and for government of, by and for the people.
The National Park Service describes the speech as the point where Lincoln began to speak openly of ending slavery as a goal of the war. Lincoln wrote out more than one copy by hand, and five are known today. They are held by the Library of Congress, Cornell University, the Illinois State Historical Library and the White House. The text is also carved into a wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Sources
- The Gettysburg Address, Library of Congress
- History of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, National Park Service
- Lincoln Memorial: Emancipation and Gettysburg Address, National Park Service
How the card plays
The Gettysburg Address costs 4 crystals and is a Quartz Event. It has Triumph, a game term meaning that if it is revealed from your Life cards you may play it for free. When it resolves, you Recover 2, which is the game's term for winning back Life.
It is a defensive card for a race you are losing: it undoes two hits to your Life total, and as a Triumph it can show up for free just when you take damage. Because it does nothing to the board, hold it for when your Life is under real pressure. Honest Abe Lincoln is a cheap character that Recovers 1 when it enters, Chips, Purple Hearted Recovers 1 when it is destroyed, and Abraham Lincoln, Emancipator returns up to two characters from your trash, so you can stabilize and rebuild in the same turn.
- Playable in decks led by George Washington, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Quartz.
- In the Washington starter deck (1 copy). Deck code:
LC2-BhoCgAKBAYIBgwGEAYUBhgKHAYgBiQGKAYsBjAKNAY4BjwGQAZEBkgGTAZQBlQGWAZcBmAGZAZoCmwGcAZ0BngGfAaABoQFBjA - A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.
Questions about The Gettysburg Address
How long was the Gettysburg Address?
It lasted about two minutes. Edward Everett's main speech earlier the same day ran about two hours.
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