On this day, November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in dedication to the new Gettysburg National Cemetery, on the same ground where more than 10,000 Americans died just four-and-a-half months earlier. The featured speaker was Senator Edward Everett. Lincoln was only invited as a polite afterthought, thinking he probably wouldn’t come anyway. Extremely ill at the time, Lincoln came and uttered the most famous 272 words in American history. Although photographers were there to capture the moments, no clear images (we know of) exist of Lincoln at Gettysburg. After Everett went on for two hours, it was widely believed that Lincoln would also go on for some time. Photographers were caught off-guard when Lincoln spoke for just two minutes. No human could say so much with so few words as Lincoln. “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…..”
