This Day in History: <br />Lincoln Delivers <br />the Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863 In just 272 words, <br />President Abraham Lincoln <br />delivered one of the most <br />memorable speeches in American history. The occasion was the <br />dedication of a cemetery for <br />7,500 soldiers who fell during the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln was invited as an <br />afterthought to say “a few <br />appropriate remarks" to consecrate the grounds. His address lasted just <br />two or three minutes. The speech is considered to be <br />the most eloquent articulation <br />of the democratic vision ever written. "... that this nation, under God, <br />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."
