19 November 1863: Lincoln Delivers Gettysburg Address

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered what would become the most famous speech in American history. Standing on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Lincoln spoke for approximately two minutes, delivering 272 words that redefined the purpose of the Civil War.

Lincoln was not the featured speaker that day. Edward Everett delivered a two-hour address recounting the battle. Lincoln’s remarks were almost an afterthought. Yet while Everetts speech is forgotten, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has been memorized by generations.

The speech’s power lies in its transformation of the war’s meaning. Lincoln invoked the Declaration of Independence and its assertion that all men are created equal. He framed the war as a test of whether a nation conceived in liberty could long endure.

Lincoln himself reportedly called the speech a flat failure. But Edward Everett recognized its brilliance, writing that he wished he could have come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as Lincoln did in two minutes.

The closing phrase—government of the people, by the people, for the people—has become a touchstone for democratic ideals worldwide.