Johnny Cash - The Gettysburg Address: Guitar Chords

Learn to play "The Gettysburg Address" on your guitar with our chord guide. This page provides everything you need to perform this song on the guitar, including lyrics integrated with chords, chord diagrams, and a key transposer to match your vocal range.

For easier playing, use our Simplify Chords feature to remove difficult chords like barre.

Four score and seven years ago
so began the message
Of a war-weary President Abraham Lincoln
A message written on the back of
an envelope on a train
On the way to dedicate a battlefield
Where men from the north and south
had died at Gettysburg Pennsylvania

A
Four score and seven years ago
                  D
our forefathers brought forth on this continent
              B
A new nation conceived in liberty
                       E
And dedicated in the proposition that
all men are created equal
A
Now we're engaged in a great Civil War
A7
Testing whether that nation or
                 D
any nation so conceived

And so dedicated can long endure'
A
We are met on a great battlefield of that war
E
We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field
As the final resting place
for those who here gave their lives
A
That that nation might live

It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this
But in a larger sense we cannot
dedicate, we cannot consecrate
We cannot hallow this ground
For the brave men living and dead
who struggled here
Have consecrated it far above our
poor power to add or detract
The world will little notice or
long remember what we say here
But it can never forget what they did here
It is for us the living rather
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work
Which they who fought here have
thus so nobly advanced
It is rather for us to be here d
edicated to the great task remaining before us
That from these honored dead we
take increased devotion
To that cause for which they gave
the last full measure of devotion
That we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died
In vain and that this nation
under God shall have a new birth of freedom
And the government of the people
by the people and for the people
Shall not perish from the earth


You can simplify chords by removing barre

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Simplify chords by removing barre

Guitar Chord Diagrams

A

Guitar chord A

A7

Guitar chord A7

D

Guitar chord D

E

Guitar chord E

B

Guitar chord B

Here you can see detailed diagrams for each guitar chord used in the song. Utilize our key transposer to adjust the chords to a key that better fits your singing range. Simply select the desired key, and the chords throughout this page will update automatically, ensuring you can play and sing comfortably.

If you are also interested in learning how to play "The Gettysburg Address" on the ukulele, check out the chords on our sister site: Ukulele Chords for "The Gettysburg Address" by Johnny Cash.

Johnny Cash Song List