The Gettysburg Address

Four months after the battle that left more than seven thousand dead, Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery. The main orator that day, Edward Everett, talked for two hours; Lincoln followed with 272 words and sat down.

He recast the war as a test of whether a nation founded on equality could endure. Everett wrote to him the next day that he wished he had come as near the heart of the occasion in two hours as Lincoln had in two minutes.