Editing Gettysburg Address (section)

== Five manuscripts ==
[[File:Gettysburg Address Amalgamated Text.jpg|thumb|The five extant versions of Lincoln's remarks, presented as a single annotated text{{Ref label|Nicolay|a|a}}{{Ref label|Hay|b|b}}{{Ref label|Everett|c|c}}{{Ref label|Bancroft|d|d}}{{Ref label|Bliss|e|e}}]]
Each of the five known manuscript copies of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for the person who received it from Lincoln. Lincoln gave copies to his private secretaries, [[John Nicolay]] and [[John Hay]].<ref name="johnson">{{cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Martin P. |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala;view=text;rgn=main;idno=2629860.0024.203 |title=Who Stole the Gettysburg Address |journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association |volume=24 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2003 |pages=1–19 |access-date=April 20, 2012 |archive-date=May 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122721/https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jala&view=text&rgn=main&idno=2629860.0024.203 |url-status=live }}</ref> Both of these drafts were written around the time of his November 19 address, while the other three copies of the address, the Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss copies, were written by Lincoln for charitable purposes after November 19.<ref>{{cite web|author=Rao, Maya|work=Cornell Daily Sun|date=April 6, 2005|url=http://cornellsun.com/2005/04/07/c-u-holds-gettysburg-address-manuscript/|title=C.U. Holds Gettysburg Address|access-date=November 23, 2007|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122551/https://cornellsun.com/2005/04/07/c-u-holds-gettysburg-address-manuscript/|url-status=live}}: "Several months after President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address, renowned historian George Bancroft attended a reception at the White House. There, he asked Lincoln for a hand-written copy of the address, and that manuscript is now the highlight of Cornell University Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections." "[Visitors]&nbsp;... can also see the letter Lincoln enclosed when he mailed the copy to Bancroft, which is dated February 29, 1864."</ref><ref>White Jr., Ronald C. (2005). ''The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words.'' New York: Random House. {{ISBN|1-4000-6119-9}} Appendix 9, p. 390: "The Bliss copy&nbsp;... Lincoln made in March 1864&nbsp;... The Everett and Bancroft copies, both of which Lincoln made in February 1864."</ref> In part because Lincoln provided a title and signed and dated the Bliss copy, that version has become the standard text of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.<ref name="hand">{{cite news|author=Boritt, Gabor|title=In Lincoln's Hand|access-date=November 23, 2007|url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213222142/http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|archive-date=February 13, 2009|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=November 16, 2006}}</ref>
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?64095-1/gettysburg-address Discussion with Garry Wills on the Nicolay and Hay manuscript copies held by the Library of Congress, December 12, 1994], [[C-SPAN]]}}

In 1874, Nicolay and Hay were appointed custodians of Lincoln's papers by [[Robert Todd Lincoln]], Lincoln's son.<ref name="johnson" /> After appearing in [[facsimile]] in an article written by John Nicolay in 1894, the Nicolay copy was presumably among the papers given to Hay by Nicolay's daughter, Helen, following Nicolay's death in 1901. In 1908, Robert Lincoln began searching for the original copy of the Gettysburg Address, leading to his discovery of a handwritten copy that was part of the bound papers of John Hay, a copy now known as the "Hay copy" or "Hay draft".<ref name="johnson" />

The Hay draft differed notably from the version of the Gettysburg Address published by John Nicolay. It was written on a different type of paper, had a different number of words per line and number of lines, and included editorial revisions that were personally made by Lincoln to the speech.<ref name="johnson" />

Both the Hay and Nicolay copies of the Gettysburg Address are now housed at the [[Library of Congress]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], where they are encased in specially designed, temperature-controlled, sealed containers with [[argon]] gas designed to protect the documents from oxidation and continued deterioration.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Library of Congress|title=Preservation of the drafts of the Gettysburg Address at the Library of Congress|url=http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/GettysburgAddress/Pages/Preservation.aspx?sc_id=wikip|access-date=September 15, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141534/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/GettysburgAddress/Pages/Preservation.aspx?sc_id=wikip|archive-date=March 9, 2012}}</ref>

=== Nicolay copy ===
The Nicolay copy{{Ref label|Nicolay|a|a}} is often called the "first draft" of the Gettysburg Address because it is believed to be the earliest copy that exists of it.<ref name="nicolay">Nicolay, J. "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address", ''Century Magazine'' 47 (February 1894): 596–608, cited by Johnson, Martin P. "Who Stole the Gettysburg Address", ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 24(2) (Summer 2003): 1–19.</ref><ref name="GA drafts">{{cite web|url=http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/NicolayCopy.aspx?sc_id=wikip|title=The Gettysburg Address Nicolay draft|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=September 15, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141549/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/NicolayCopy.aspx?sc_id=wikip|archive-date=March 9, 2012}}</ref> Scholars disagree over whether the Nicolay copy was actually the copy Lincoln used at Gettysburg on November 19. In an 1894 article, which included a facsimile of the this copy, Nicolay, the custodian of Lincoln's papers, wrote that Lincoln brought the first part of the speech written in ink on [[White House|Executive Mansion]] stationery, and that he wrote the second page in pencil on lined paper before the ceremonial dedication on November 19.<ref name="nicolay"/> Matching folds are still evident on the two pages, suggesting that it could be the copy that eyewitnesses say Lincoln took from his coat pocket and read from at the ceremony.<ref name="GA drafts" /><ref>Sandburg, Carl (1939). "Lincoln Speaks at Gettysburg". In: ''Abraham Lincoln: The War Years'' New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. II, 452–457; cited by Prochnow, Victor Herbert. ed. (1944). ''Great Stories from Great Lives'' Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, {{ISBN|0-8369-2018-X}}, p. 13: "The ''Cincinnati Commercial'' reporter wrote 'The President rises slowly, draws from his pocket a paper&nbsp;... [and] reads the brief and pithy remarks.'"</ref> Others believe that the delivery text has been lost, because some of the words and phrases of the Nicolay copy do not match contemporary transcriptions of Lincoln's original speech.<ref>Wills, Garry. Appendix I: "this text does not have three important phrases that the joint newspaper accounts prove he actually spoke", and "there is no physical impossibility that this is the delivery text, but it is&nbsp;... unlikely that it is."</ref> The words "under God", for example, are missing in this copy from the phrase "that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom&nbsp;..." In order for the Nicolay draft to have been the reading copy, either the contemporary transcriptions were inaccurate, or Lincoln would have had to depart from his written text in several instances. This copy of the Gettysburg Address apparently remained in John Nicolay's possession until his death in 1901, when it passed to his friend and colleague John Hay.<ref name="johnson" /> The Nicolay version was on previously on display as part of the American Treasures exhibition at the Library of Congress.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr00.html Top Treasures.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122602/https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr00.html |date=May 3, 2021 }} American Treasures of the Library of Congress. Retrieved on December 10, 2007.</ref>

===Hay copy===
[[File:Haycopy-1.jpg|thumb|[[John Hay]]'s copy of the address, including Lincoln's handwritten corrections]]
The Hay copy of the address{{Ref label|Hay|b|b}} was first announced to the public in 1906, following a search for the original manuscript of the address. It was found among the papers of [[John Hay]].<ref name="johnson"/> The Hay copy differs somewhat from the manuscript of the address described by Nicolay in his article, and includes several omissions and insertions made by Lincoln, including omissions critical to the basic meaning of the sentence, not simply words that would be added by Lincoln to strengthen or clarify their meaning.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} In this copy of the address, like the Nicolay copy, the words "under God" are not present.

The Hay version has been described as "the most inexplicable" of the drafts and is sometimes referred to as the "second draft".<ref name="GA drafts"/><ref>David Mearns (1964). "Unknown at this Address", in ''Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address: Commemorative Papers'', ed. Allan Nevins. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, p. 133; Mearns and Dunlap, caption describing the facsimile of the Hay text in ''Long Remembered''; both cited in Johnson, "Who Stole the Gettysburg Address".</ref> The Hay copy was written by Lincoln either the morning before the event, or shortly after Lincoln's return to Washington, D.C.. Those who believe that it was completed the morning of his address point to the fact that it includes several phrases that are not present in the first draft, which do appear in media coverage of the address and in subsequent copies made by Lincoln. It is probable, they conclude, that, as the Library of Congress includes in an explanatory note accompanying the original copies of the first and second drafts, that this was the version that Lincoln read from when he delivered the address.<ref name="gnmp">{{cite web|publisher=United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service|title=Gettysburg National Military Park|url=http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm|access-date=December 3, 2007|archive-date=March 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306120405/http://publications.usa.gov/epublications/gettysburg/g2.htm|url-status=dead}}
Historical Handbook Number Nine 1954 (Revised 1962), at the Gettysburg National Military Park Historical Handbook website.</ref> Lincoln eventually gave this copy of the speech to Hay, whose descendants donated it and the Nicolay copy to the Library of Congress in 1916.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/HayDraft.aspx?sc_id=wikip |title=The Gettysburg Address Hay draft |access-date=September 15, 2010 |date=September 15, 2010 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309141609/http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/gettysburgaddress/exhibitionitems/ExhibitObjects/HayDraft.aspx?sc_id=wikip |archive-date=March 9, 2012  }}</ref>

=== Everett copy ===
The Everett copy,{{Ref label|Everett|c|c}} also known as the "Everett-Keyes copy"{{why|date=April 2023}}, was given to [[Edward Everett]] by Lincoln in early 1864, after Everett  requested it.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peatman |first1=Jared |title=Writing the Gettysburg Address |journal=Civil War Book Review |date=2014 |volume=16 |issue=2 |page=3 |doi=10.31390/cwbr.16.2.10 |url=https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2231&context=cwbr |access-date=22 February 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref> Everett collected the speeches at the Gettysburg dedication into a bound volume, which was soldl for the benefit of stricken soldiers at New York's [[United States Sanitary Commission|Sanitary Commission Fair]]. The draft Lincoln sent Everett is known as the third autograph copy, and is now held by the [[Illinois State Library]] in [[Springfield, Illinois]],<ref name="gnmp"/> where it is displayed in the Treasures Gallery of the [[Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum]].

=== Bancroft copy ===
The Bancroft copy{{Ref label|Bancroft|d|d}} of the Gettysburg Address was written out by Lincoln in February 1864, following the ceremonial dedication, at the request of [[George Bancroft]], a former [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]] and historian whose comprehensive ten-volume ''History of the United States'' later led him to be known as the "father of American History".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=George Bancroft|access-date=December 19, 2007|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/51366/George-Bancroft|date=|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122629/https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Bancroft-American-historian|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>See also: {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553688/George_Bancroft.html |access-date=December 19, 2007 |title=George Bancroft |encyclopedia=Encarta |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028222041/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553688/George_Bancroft.html |archive-date=October 28, 2009 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Bancroft planned to include this copy of the Gettysburg Address in ''Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors'', which he planned to sell at a Soldiers' and Sailors' [[Sanitary Fair]] in [[Baltimore]]. This copy, known as the fourth copy of the address, was written by Lincoln on both sides of the paper, and it ultimately proved unusable for this purpose, and Bancroft was allowed to keep it. This manuscript is the only one version accompanied  by a letter from Lincoln transmitting the manuscript and by the original envelope addressed and [[franking|franked]] by Lincoln.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause.htm|title=Gettysburg Address|publisher=Cornell University Library|access-date=December 19, 2007|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122626/https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The Bancroft copy was held by the Bancroft family for many years, and was later sold to various dealers and purchased by Nicholas and Marguerite Lilly Noyes,<ref>{{cite web|title=Founding Collections: Nicholas H. Noyes '06 and Marguerite Lilly Noyes|url=http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/footsteps/exhibition/foundingcollections/foundingcollections_5.html|publisher=Cornell University Library|access-date=November 28, 2007|archive-date=May 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503122646/https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/footsteps/exhibition/foundingcollections/foundingcollections_5.html|url-status=live}}</ref> who donated it to [[Cornell University]] in 1949. The Bancroft copy is now held by the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University.<ref name="gnmp" /> This is the only copy among the five that is privately owned.<ref>{{cite web |work=The Cornell Daily Sun |title=C.U. Holds Gettysburg Address Manuscript |url=http://cornellsun.com/node/14486 |date=April 6, 2005 |access-date=December 18, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111165322/http://cornellsun.com/node/14486 |archive-date=January 11, 2012  }}</ref>

=== Bliss copy ===
[[File:Gettysburg Address Bliss copy.jpg|thumb|[[Alexander Bliss]]' copy of the address, now on display in the [[Lincoln Room]] at the [[White House]]]]
Discovering that his fourth written copy could not be used, Lincoln then wrote a fifth and final draft, known as the Bliss copy{{Ref label|Bliss|e|e}} and named for Colonel [[Alexander Bliss]], Bancroft's stepson and publisher of ''Autograph Leaves''. It is the only copy of the address that is signed by Lincoln and the final version of the address that Lincoln is known to have written. Because of the care Lincoln used in preparing the Bliss copy and because this copy includes a title and is signed and dated by Lincoln, it is considered the standard version of the Gettysburg Address and the source for most facsimile reproductions of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It is the version that is inscribed on the South wall of the [[Lincoln Memorial]].<ref name="hand"/>

This draft is now displayed in the [[Lincoln Room]] of the [[White House]], a gift of [[Oscar B. Cintas]], former [[Cuba]]n Ambassador to the United States.<ref name="gnmp" /> Cintas, a wealthy collector of art and manuscripts, purchased the Bliss copy at a public [[auction]] in 1949 for $54,000 (${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|54000|1949|r=-3}}}} as of {{CURRENTYEAR}}), at that time the highest price ever paid for a document at public auction.<ref>{{cite web|title=About Oscar B. Cintas|publisher=Oscar B. Cintas foundation|url=http://www.cintasfoundation.org/about|access-date=September 23, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923150605/http://www.cintasfoundation.org/about|url-status=live}}</ref> Cintas' properties were claimed by the [[Fidel Castro|Castro government]] after the [[Cuban Revolution]] in 1959. Cintas, who died in 1957, willed the Gettysburg Address to the American people, provided it would be kept at the White House, where it was transferred in 1959.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Boritt|first1=Gabor|author-link=Gabor Boritt|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=November 16, 2006|page=D6|url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|title=Change of Address: The Gettysburg drafts|access-date=December 4, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213222142/http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009250|archive-date=February 13, 2009}}</ref>

Garry Wills concluded that the Bliss copy "is stylistically preferable to others in one significant way: Lincoln removed 'here' from 'that cause for which they (here) gave&nbsp;...' The seventh 'here' is in all other versions of the speech." Wills noted the fact that Lincoln "was still making such improvements", suggesting Lincoln was more concerned with a perfected text than with an "original" one.<ref>Wills,  Appendix I.</ref>

From November 21, 2008, to January 1, 2009, the Albert H. Small Documents Gallery at the [[Smithsonian Institution]] [[National Museum of American History]] hosted a limited public viewing of the Bliss copy, with the support of then [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Laura Bush]]. The museum also launched an online exhibition and interactive gallery to enable visitors to look more closely at the document.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/gettysburg_address_1.html|title=The Gettysburg Address|publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution|access-date=April 4, 2012|archive-date=December 1, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201083333/http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/gettysburg_address_1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Associated Press report===
Another contemporary source of the text is a dispatch by Joseph L. Gilbert, [[Associated Press]], transcribed from the shorthand notes taken by reporter Joseph L. Gilbert. It also differs from the drafted text in a number of minor ways.<ref>Bryan, William Jennings, ed. (1906). ''The World's Famous Orations'' Vol. IX. America: II. (1818–1865). {{cite web |title=V. The Speech at Gettysburg by Abraham Lincoln |url=http://www.bartleby.com/268/9/26.html#txt2 |access-date=December 18, 2005 |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013170813/http://bartleby.com/268/9/26.html#txt2 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=Associated Press.org|work=History/Archives: The Associated Press|title=1846–1900: The News Cooperative Takes Shape|url=http://www.ap.org/pages/about/history/history_first.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110729010041/http://ap.org/pages/about/history/history_first.html|archive-date=July 29, 2011 |access-date=November 30, 2007 }}</ref>