Gettysburg Address, The by Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

It was a cloudy November day in 1863 when thousands gathered to hear renowned orator Edward Everett dedicate a national cemetery at the site of a pivotal battle early in July of that year. Also present to deliver "a few appropriate remarks" was the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln spoke but 278 words; Everett later wrote to the President, "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." Though there are surviving transcripts of Everett's lengthy speech, it is Lincoln's words which have come to be known as "The Gettysburg Address" (Summary by Chip)