On November 19, 1863, a tall, tired president named Abraham Lincoln stood up on a wooden platform on a hillside in Pennsylvania and gave a speech that took only about two minutes to read. It was just 272 words long. The crowd of 15,000 people had been baking in the sun for hours listening to the main speaker, a famous orator named Edward Everett, who had talked for two solid hours. When Lincoln stepped up, photographers were still setting up their bulky cameras. By the time most of them got ready to snap his picture, he had already sat back down.
Lincoln was there to dedicate a new cemetery for the soldiers who had died at the Battle of Gettysburg the previous July. The battle had been the bloodiest of the American Civil War, with about 51,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in three days of fighting. Lincoln scribbled the speech on White House stationery and polished it on the train. He spoke about a government of the people, by the people, for the people, and reminded listeners that the Union was fighting to make sure the country's promise of equality would survive.
At first the speech got mixed reviews. Some newspapers thought it was too short. But the writer Edward Everett, the same one who had spoken for two hours, sent Lincoln a note saying he wished he had come as close to the heart of the day in two hours as Lincoln had in two minutes. Today the Gettysburg Address is carved into the wall of the Lincoln Memorial, memorized by schoolkids, and quoted by presidents - a tiny speech with enormous staying power.
