A Sesquicentennial of Note
Seven score and ten years ago, today, Abraham Lincoln brought forth at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a 272-word speech that many consider the best ever delivered by any political leader. As statesman Edward Everett, the principal speaker that day, would later tell the president, Lincoln had done more to capture the essence of the moment—the dedication of a national cemetery honoring those who had died in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War—in two minutes than Everett had done in two hours, the length of his own speech.
If "brevity is the soul of wit," Lincoln's speech stands as the 19th-century model for the twitter generation. Read More
Seven score and ten years ago, today, Abraham Lincoln brought forth at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a 272-word speech that many consider the best ever delivered by any political leader. As statesman Edward Everett, the principal speaker that day, would later tell the president, Lincoln had done more to capture the essence of the moment—the dedication of a national cemetery honoring those who had died in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War—in two minutes than Everett had done in two hours, the length of his own speech.
If "brevity is the soul of wit," Lincoln's speech stands as the 19th-century model for the twitter generation. Read More