272 words at Gettysburg

Abraham Lincoln called it his "little speech." We call it The Gettysburg Address. Per the editors at the History Channel website, the speech "is thought by many today to be the most eloquent articulation of the democratic vision ever written." I know of no one who disagrees.

Mr. Lincoln delivered the address on 19 November 1863 before a gathering of some 15,000 people at Cemetery Hill where General Lee's artillery batteries had pounded it only four months before. Evidence of the titanic battle was omnipresent. One eyewitness recalled seeing "cut and scarred trees ... pieces of artillery wagons and harness, scraps of blue and gray clothing [and] bent canteens."

At the appointed time, Mr. Lincoln "stepped slowly to the front of the platform, with his hands clasped before him, his natural sadness of expression deepened, his head bowed forward, and his eyes cast to the ground," a Union general's aide recalled. The assemby "listened almost awe-struck."

"FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN YEARS AGO our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—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 New York Times reported that Lincoln was interrupted five times by applause, and a "long continued applause" greeted its conclusion. At the time, few recognized the brilliance or power of the president's "little speech." Nationally, the 3-minute address received mixed reviews. Some "criticized Lincoln for his bad taste in speaking so briefly and accused him of insulting the memory of the dead," per enotes.com, a literary website. Well, journalistic knuckleheadedness goes way back.