From left: Draft of the address, the only known photo of Abraham Lincoln, from the Library of Congress.

Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address. Lincoln wasn’t the main attraction at the ceremony. Place of pride went to Edward Everett, the leading orator of the day. Lincoln was invited at the last minute by David Wills, a local lawyer who helped purchase the land for the cemetery. Everett, who was invited first, asked the organizers to postpone the date so that he would have time to write–and memorize–his speech. It took two hours to deliver.

Then Lincoln delivered the closing remarks, a mere 286 words. Although we now think of the speech as a rhetorical masterpiece, not everyone was blown away by the speech.

According to a New York Times article, his delivery was interrupted five times by applause and greeted with “long continued applause” at its conclusion. Outside of Gettysburg, the speech received mixed reviews from newspapers of the day, which were even more highly partisan than they are today. Northern papers both praised and attacked it, while Southern papers predictably denounced it.

Eyewitnesses, too, gave conflicting reports, but mostly about the amount of applause and whether or not Lincoln read from a manuscript. E.W. Andrews, the aide of a Union general, sat near the speakers’ platform. He recalled that Lincoln “came out before the vast assembly, and stepped slowly to the front of the platform, with his hands clasped before him, his natural sadness of expression deepened, his head bowed forward, and his eyes cast to the ground.” Andrews said “the great assembly listened almost awe-struck as to a voice from the divine oracle.”

Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, who sat on the speakers’ platform, enthused, “It was so Impressive! It was the common remark of everybody. Such a speech, as they said it was! Everett and all went up and congratulated the President, shaking him by the hand.”

Everett wrote Lincoln a brief note the next day, requesting a copy of the speech and covering it with praise: “Permit me also to express my great admiration of the thoughts expressed by you, with such eloquent simplicity & appropriateness, at the consecration of the cemetery. I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

How would a modern-day speaker approach the occasion? Perhaps as a PowerPoint presentation.