Why does Lincoln most likely talk about the past before he talks about the present?

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'The Gettysburg Address' was a speech given by President Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863 at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, the final resting place of soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. The Gettysburg Address  Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a... Show more

Why does Lincoln most likely talk about the past before he talks about the present?