America still divided, 150 years after Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address preached unity, but politicians are seen as more apart than ever
The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln's undying call for a "new birth of freedom" at the bloody turning point of the US Civil War, turned 150 years old, even as the union he fought to preserve quarrelled bitterly over the role of government.
US marks 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Thousands of people crowded into the Soldiers' National Cemetery where Lincoln delivered the 272 words that became one of the most revered speeches in US history.
Not far from the simple headstones marking the graves of soldiers who fell in the battle of Gettysburg, tourists, civil war buffs, members of Congress, a supreme court justice and others listened to speeches, prayers and a re-enactment of Lincoln's restrained, eloquent remarks on an emancipated America.
The crowd burst into cheers when 21 new US citizens were sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Embroiled in a fight to save his signature health reform, Barack Obama, the country's first African-American president, stayed away from the ceremony but a taped message from him was played to the new citizens.