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Shown here in Lincoln's own hand, the Gettysburg Address was only two minutes long
Credit: Manuscript Division, The Gettysburg Address: Photographs, Library of Congress.
Throughout 1863, in speeches and in public letters, Abraham Lincoln had searched in vain for the right words to define the war's purpose for a public that had become increasingly frustrated with its heavy cost in blood and resources. In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln finally found those words.