Top 10 Greatest Speeches
As the political season heats up, TIME takes a tour of history's best rhetoric
Gettysburg Address, 1863
At the site of one of the Civil War's pivotal battles, Lincoln delivered an address that was as succinct — just about three minutes and 265 words long —as it was memorable. As he helped dedicate a cemetery to Gettysburg's fallen soldiers, he issued a stirring plea for the country to pay them tribute by honoring principles — liberty, equality — worth dying for.
Best Line: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
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