Great Speeches

Great Speeches

<DIV><DIV>For someone who claimed he had been educated by "littles" — a little now and a little then — Abraham Lincoln displayed a remarkable facility in his use of the written word. The simple yet memorable eloquence of his speeches, proclamations and personal correspondence is recorded here in a representative collection of 16 documents.<BR>This volume contains, complete and unabridged, the Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois (1838), which emphasized a theme Lincoln was to return to repeatedly, namely, the capacity of a people to govern themselves; the "House Divided" speech at the Republican State Convention in Illinois (1858); the First Inaugural Address (1861), in which he appealed to the people of an already divided union for sectional harmony; the Gettysburg Address (1863), a speech delivered at ceremonies dedicating a part of the Gettysburg battlefield as a cemetery; the Letter to Mrs. Bixby (1864), expressing Lincoln's regrets over the wartime deaths of her five sons; the Second Inaugural Address (March 1865), urging a post-war nation to "bind up its wounds" and show "charity for all"; and his Last Public Address (April 11, 1865). New notes place the speeches and other documents in their respective historical contexts.<BR>An invaluable reference for history students, this important volume will also fascinate admirers of Abraham Lincoln, Americana enthusiasts, Civil War buffs and any lover of the finely crafted phrase.</DIV></DIV>