On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, President Abraham Lincoln gave the shortest, and most enduring speech ever delivered by an American President.
In his eulogy for Lincoln on June 1, 1865, Senator Charles Summer called Lincoln's Gettysburg Address a "monumental act", and said that Lincoln was wrong in thinking that "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here." He went on to say that "The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech.".
It's often said that it's not what you say, it's how you say it. Barack Obama pointed out during his campaign that saying that a speech, any speech, is "just words" is taking away the power of words themselves. .
At the time of Lincoln's speech, brothers were killing brothers, and entire families were torn asunder by a war which had threatened the very fabric of our nation. At the Battle of Gettysburg alone, more than 51,000 were killed. After the battle, the wounded and dying were everywhere, crowded into any building that would hold them. The fallen were buried in makeshift graves, with no headstones to even identify them. It would take over a year to finally enterr all the bodies that fell there that day. Gettysburg stands as the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
Only 272 words long, the Gettysburg Address was carefully crafted by Lincoln. The first draft was written in Washington, and revised in Gettysburg the night before the dedication, at the home of David Wills. The speaker who preceded him gave a two hour oration, and the crowed was stunned by Lincoln's simple two minute speech.
Those two minutes transformed Gettysburg from a battlefield into a symbol, and gave an historical meaning to the sacrifice of those who had lost their lives, while serving as an inspiration to the living.