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From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia
Lincoln's Address Following the Battle of Gettysburg
In the words of H.L. Mencken, "The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history.... It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense" (quoted by Charles Adams, When in the Course of Human Events [2000], page 198). More to the point, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is one of the best examples of propaganda to ever have been foisted upon the American people. That it has survived for so long in the popular opinion as a speech of great statesmanship aptly demonstrates the power which words, however speciously strung together, have to effect the emotions and minds of those who hear them.
However, the Address, when delivered on 19 November 1863, did not receive the admiring reception by its original audience as it does in our day. In fact, some evidence exists that the now-familiar words contained in what we know as the Gettysburg Address were not actually spoken by Lincoln on that day in Pennsylvania. Ward Lamon, who was a close companion of Lincoln during his years as President and who sat beside him on the platform, testified that the Address "is not the speech Mr. Lincoln made at Gettysburg.... I state it as a fact and without fear of contradiction, that this Gettysburg speech was not regarded as a production of extraordinary merit, nor was it commented on as such until after the death of Mr. Lincoln." He then recalled Lincoln's words to him after he had delivered the speech and resumed his seat: "Lamon, that speech was like a wet blanket on the audience. I am distressed about it" (Recollections of Abraham Lincoln [1895], page 173). John Nicolay, who was Lincoln's personal secretary during the war also said of the speech that "it was revised" (A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln [1911]). continued...
