The most famous speech in American history is only nine sentences long. It has less than three hundred words and was delivered in under three minutes. Three-fourths of the words in it are only one syllable long, and nearly all the other words have no more than two syllables. Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 to dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A hush fell over the crowd as Lincoln spoke, and when he was done the applause was light and scattered. His predecessor, Edward Everett, had received thunderous applause. The following day Everett praised Lincoln’s concise eloquence, “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.” Lincoln replied that he was glad to know speech wasn’t a total failure.
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