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."