To consecrate means to make sacred. In the next few lines he says that the world will not care what we say here, but they can't forget what the men did here. Their bravery and their sacrifice makes it sacred far more than a speech ever can. Lincoln is saying this because that's probably what he felt. How can his two minute long speech make a ground sacred? Instead it is the men who gave their lives who made it a scared place.
The Gettysburg Address was not meant to dedicate a battlefield, it was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That cemetery was located on a portion of the battlefield where the Battle of Gettysburg took place.
The Gettysburg address in Gettysburg pa
Gettysburg
Abraham Lincoln's speech was meant to dedicate Gettysburg
the dedication of a cemetery
Lincoln delivered the Address to dedicate the Military Cemetery created there after the battle.
The Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address at the ceremony to dedicate the military cemetery there.
It was the dedication to the Union cemetery at Gettysburg this is why he states.........."we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation can long endure." The graves of the fallen dead from the battle were still fresh when he came to dedicate the cemetery. The speech took 2 minutes.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this ground.
Answer President Lincoln spoke the Gettysburg Address on the occasion of the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg. In his short speech, he basically said that we could not dedicate this hollowed ground any more than those who died here.
Lincoln made the speech at the dedication of the military cemetery, not a hotel.