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."