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On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to speak at the National Soldiers Cemetery. The Civil War was still going on. There was much criticism of Presi-dent Lincoln at the time. He was not at all popular. He had been invited to speak at Gettysburg on-ly out of politeness. The principal speaker was to be Edward Everett, a famous statesman and speaker of the day. Everett was a handsome man and very popular everywhere.

It is said that Lincoln prepared his speech on the train while going to Gettysburg. Late that night, alone in his hotel room and tired out, he again worked briefly on the speech. The next day Everett spoke first. He spoke for an hour and 57 minutes. His speech was a perfect example of the rich oratory of the day. Then Lincoln rose. The crowd of 15,000 people at first paid little attention to him. He spoke for only nine minutes. At the end there was little applause. Lincoln turned to a friend and remarked,"I have failed again". On the train back to Washington, he said sadly, "That speech was a fiat failure, and the people are disappointed".

Some newspapers at first criticized the speech, but little by little as people redid the speech they began to understand better. (76) They began to appreciate its simplicity and its deep mean-ing. It was a speech which only Abraham Lincoln could have made.

Today, every American school child learns Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address by heart. Now eve-ryone thinks of it as one of the greatest speeches ever given in American history.

In 1863， Abraham Lincoln was__________.                  查看材料