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| Four score, seven years ago, our fathers brought fourth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedticated to the proposition that all men are created equal, was the first sentence of the Gettysburg Address. This speech only lasted two minutes. Even though it was only that long, the Gettysburg Address is one of the greatest speeches ever written. |
| The people listening to Abe Lincoln when he said this speech were stunned after he was finished. No one clapped, No one cheered everything was silent. Because of this result, Lincoln thought the speech was a failure. |
| During the speech Lincoln said,” The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here today”. He was wrong. His words of the Gettysburg Address have long been remembered. |
| Lincoln wrote six copies of the Gettysburg Address, and he also had two versions. The first version he wrote out five times. The second one he only wrote once. |
| He delivered the address at a ceremony in Gettysburg to dedicate a portion of the battlefield to those who had lost their lives during the war. |
| Many untrue stories have been told about the speech. Some people say that Lincoln wrote it on the back of a brown envelope, with a pencil, on the train to the ceremony at Gettysburg. Another story says that Lincoln did not appreciate the speech. |
| Many people there listening to the speech, did not know they were listening to one of the greatest speeches ever written but they all knew it came from their presidents heart. |
| Some people say Lincoln learned how to use words as a poet uses them with great care and precision when he delivered the speech that day at Gettysburg. |
| Edward Everett said to Lincoln after the ceremony,’’ Mr. President, I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.’’ |
| People seemed to have to have expected more that day, but that’s what they got and they can’t do anything about it. |
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Stefoff, Rebecca ''Aberham Lincoln'', 1989, by Garrett Educational Corparation Ward, Geoffrey C. ''The Civil War'',1990, by American Documentaries, Inc. Dillon Shoffner
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