h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lincoln is said to have written most of the speech on 17 November, 1863 at the White House. He spent the train ride to Gettysburg lying down with a cool cloth on his forehead to relieve a slight case of smallpox.

Lincoln was not the featured speaker at the dedication of the National Cemetery - instead the crowd of 15,000 came to hear Edward Everett, president of Harvard College and a former US Senator and US Secretary of State. He spoke for two hours.

Much of the crowd had left when Lincoln rose to speak. The only photographer at the event was unable to get his camera focussed on Lincoln before his three-minute speech ended.

The media was brutal in its reception of the speech - the London Times called it 'ludicrous, dull and commonplace'; the Chicago Times referred to the 'silly, flat and dish-watery utterances of the president'; and the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Union ignored the 'silly remarks' of Lincoln that day.

Two months after the speech, Everett wrote Lincoln for a copy of the speech which was then sold for $1,000 at a charity auction.

Lincoln wrote five known copies of the Gettysburg Address - the final one (for a book entitled 'Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors')he was forced to re-write when it was returned to him because it 'lacked margins and a heading and needed a signature'.

An original copy of the Gettysburg Address was finally placed in exhibit at the National Military Park at Gettysburg in 1979.

Jimi,

To be fair, the newspapers you've cited were opposition newspapers. The papers of the time were very much mouth pieces for editors that harbored their own political agenda (think of Horace Greely and the New York Tribune.)

Here are some quotes from friendlier papers (taken from Harry Maihafer's, "War of Words: Abraham Lincoln & the Civil War Press"):

Springfield Republican: "...a perfect gem; deep in feeling, compact in thought and expression, and tasteful and elegant ine very word and comma."

Chicago Tribune: "The dedicatory remarks of President Lincoln will live among the annals of man."

Providence Journal: "We know not where to look for a more admirable speech than the brief one which the President made at the close of Mr. Everett's oration...Could the most elaborte and splendid oration be more beautiful, more touching, more inspiring, than thos thrilling words of the President?"

And in a new personal best for late replies, I'd have to agree with you for the most part.

I never heard the reaction of pro-Lincoln papers, mainly because it was much more humourous to hear the reaction of those opposed to him...

I reckon between the two of us, these details might make the entry a bit more complete eh?


- Jimi X
tardy but moving fast

19th November 1863, Gettysburg;
A crowd of 15,000 people gathers for a dedication of the military cemetery at Gettysburg. Edward Everett, the main speaker, gives a brilliant two-hour historical dissertation on the battle, using information furnished by Maj General Meade and other officers of the union. After Everett concludes, Lincoln rises and in his high toneless voice gives his ‘little speech’ . When he has finished, the reception is polite but unenthusiastic; the President considers the address a ‘flat failure’. Over the next few days it receives a few compliments, Everett assuring the President that the speech said more in two minutes then he said in two hours. it is perhaps natural that no one at the time can foresee that these ten sentences would come to be considered one of the most moving and exquisite utterances in the American language.

Hey TLG, what is that from?