The Gettysburg Address

At a time of enormous national crisis, President Abraham Lincoln felt a profound need to make a public statement that would justify the great cost of the Civil War. He got the opportunity when he was invited to offer remarks at the dedication of a new cemetery on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.

On November 19, 1863, it took Lincoln only a few minutes to deliver his Gettysburg Address. Though less than 300 words, the profound text deftly linked the Civil War to the founding of the nation, called for the equality of all men, evoked a "new birth of freedom," and concluded with an ideal vision of the American government.

Lincoln's carefully written words were widely circulated immediately after he spoke, and they continue to resonate to the present day.

Image: Lincoln photographed by Alexander Gardner, November 1863/Library of Congress