Gerry Bowler: 160 Years On, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Remains One of History’s Greatest Speeches

Depiction of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address at the Dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 19, 1863. Everett Collection/Shutterstock

Commentary

Any list of the greatest speeches in history must include the Sermon on the Mount, Pericles’s Oration on the Athenian Dead, Winston Churchill’s offer of “blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream,” and the 271 words Abraham Lincoln uttered on Nov. 19, 1863.