This Day in History:
Lincoln Delivers
the Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863 In just 272 words,
President Abraham Lincoln
delivered one of the most
memorable speeches in American history. The occasion was the
dedication of a cemetery for
7,500 soldiers who fell during the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln was invited as an
afterthought to say “a few
appropriate remarks" to consecrate the grounds. His address lasted just
two or three minutes. The speech is considered to be
the most eloquent articulation
of the democratic vision ever written. "... that this nation, under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
