How Abraham Lincoln Changed the World in Two Minutes

**Shown here is Lincoln delivering his famous Gettysburg Address in 1863**

President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address is one of the most famous speeches ever given

It is stunning in its brevity: ten sentences—272 words—and delivered in just over two minutes…few have said more with less. Lincoln delivered the address on November 19, 1863. He was in Gettysburg to dedicate a national military cemetery to the Union soldiers who fell at the Battle of Gettysburg four months earlier. The North’s victory here was one of the pivotal battles of the American Civil War.

Though he was not the featured orator that day, Lincoln’s brief address would be remembered as one of the most important speeches in American history. In it, he invoked the principles of human equality contained in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of the Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom,” as well as the all-important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and it’s ideal of self-government.

“’Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.’”

Lincoln’s assertion is two-fold. First, the United States is unique. No nation was ever founded on a commitment to liberty and equality. And the Civil War was a trial to see if a nation based on such lofty ideals could survive.

“’We are met on a great battlefield of that war.’” Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of the bloodiest battle of America’s bloodiest war. In three days of fighting, 51,000 Americans on both sides—Union and Confederate—were killed, wounded, captured, or missing.

“’We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, we cannot dedicate in a larger sense—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.’”

Lincoln concludes: “’…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’”

The Union won the Civil War. Slavery ended, and with it, the values of liberty and equality were given a “new birth.” However, the struggle for liberty and equality continued…and persists today.

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