Two minutes, ten sentences, one idea that lasted.

Thursday, November 19, 1863

Know your slot

Everett got two hours. Lincoln got a few appropriate remarks.

Sixth on a bill of eight, straight after the main event.

Order of Exercises

1. Music, by Birgfeld's Band.
2. Prayer, by Rev. T. H. Stockton, D.D..
3. Music, by the Marine Band.
4. Oration, by Hon. Edward Everett. About 2 hours
5. Music, by Hymn composed by B. B. French, Esq..
6. Dedicatory Remarks, by the President of the United States. About 2 minutes
7. Dirge, by Choir selected for the occasion.
8. Benediction, by Rev. H. L. Baugher, D.D..

Few words

13,607 words, then 272. Drawn to scale.

The Oration13,607wordsEdward Everett

Dedicatory Remarks272wordsAbraham Lincoln

1 square = 10 words

Ten sentences, three tenses, one idea.

Past

¹ 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.

Present

² Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. ³ We are met on a great battle-field of that war. ⁴ 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. ⁵ It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

Future

⁶ But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this ground. ⁷ The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. ⁸ The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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.

Open on shared history

Open where the whole field agrees: four score and seven years ago.

1776 1863

“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.”

Name the stakes

Name the stakes in one line: can it long endure?

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

50,000+

Casualties, both armies, in three days at Gettysburg

The battle: July 1 to 3, 1863
The dedication: 139 days later
The war: Still undecided

Why we are here

Say why this room, today: a final resting place.

“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.”

3,500+

Union dead, laid out by William Saunders in semicircles, by state, around one center.

The turn

Then turn: say what this day can not do.

“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

Same frame. Three times. One new word.

The call to action

Then hand the room the unfinished work.

“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.”

1
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion
2
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain
3
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom
4
And the closing line, saved for last.

One idea, tested

Cut it to 33 words and the idea still stands.

33words left

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 review

The next day, the two-hour speaker wrote the review.

Lincoln's reply, the same day

“In our respective parts yesterday, you could not have been excused to make a short address, nor I a long one.”

Washington, November 20, 1863

“I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

Edward Everett, to the President

End on the line you want quoted

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863