150 years ago Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was not the featured speaker, a famous orator Edward Everett was. A crowd of fifteen to twenty thousand crowded around the speakers platform. Everett spoke first, holding the audience spell-bound for almost two hours. Lincoln then rose and delivered his address in less than two minutes. The audiences response was muted, probably due to surprise at the brevity of the speech. Seeing his audiences reaction, Lincoln remarked to a companion: It is a flat failure and the people are disappointed. However, the following day, Everett wrote the President praising his speech and pronouncing it one of the best he had heard. As the words Lincoln spoke that day were spread by the newspapers, public reaction concurred and Lincolns few sentences have come to be regarded as one the best speeches in American history.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:26:23 +0000
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