This Day in History: , Lincoln Delivers the br Gettysburg Address.br November 19, 1863.br In just 272 words, br President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the br most memorable speeches in American history.br The occasion was the dedication of a cemetery for br 7,500 soldiers who fell during the Battle of Gettysburg.br Lincoln was invited as an afterthought br to say “a few appropriate remarks" br to consecrate the grounds.br His address lasted just br two or three minutes.br The speech is considered br to be the most eloquent br articulation of the democratic br vision ever written.br "... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of br freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, br for the people, shall not perish from the earth.