U.S. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts wrote of the address and its enduring presence in American culture after Lincoln 's assassination in April 1865 : " That speech , uttered at the field of Gettysburg ... and now sanctified by the martyrdom of its author , is a monumental act . In the modesty of his nature he said ' the world will little note , nor long remember what we say here ; but it can never forget what they did here . ' He was mistaken . The world at once noted what he said , and will never cease to remember it . " U.S. President John F. Kennedy stated in July 1963 about the battle and Lincoln 's speech : " Five score years ago the ground on which we here stand shuddered under the clash of arms and was consecrated for all time by the blood of American manhood . Abraham Lincoln , in dedicating this great battlefield , has expressed , in words too eloquent for paraphrase or summary , why this sacrifice was necessary . " Kennedy was himself assassinated three days after the Gettysburg Address centennial
was himself assassinated
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Gettysburg Address