On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln came to Gettysburg to help dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. He was not the featured orator. He followed a two-hour speech with one that took just two minutes. At the end of his address, many of those in attendance didn’t even realize he had spoken. But today, those 272 words continue to inspire a nation.
In the few words of the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln redefined for the North – and eventually for all Americans – the meaning and value of the continuing struggle for a unified nation: "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." It was what many consider the best summation in the nation’s history of the meaning and price of freedom.
Matt: CORRECT
Record: 130-100
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