I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little I did say was not entirely a failure.

- Letter to Edward Everett, November 20, 1863

Gettysburg Address

DEDICATION OF THE GETTYSBURG NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fourscore 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.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate--we cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

NOVEMBER 19, 1863

PowerPoint Humor

With a humorous twist that I'm sure Abraham Lincoln would have appreciated, Peter Norvig shows what would have happened had Lincoln used PowerPoint rather than the "power of oratory" at the Gettysburg cemetery dedication. Norvig's "making of" document notes that this satirical piece was born of the frustration of "seeing too many presentations where PowerPoint or other visual aids obscure rather than enhance the point." In 2000, he created the PowerPoint version of the Gettysburg Address.

If your employer seems to live or die by Microsoft PowerPoint, this deck is a good one. Here's a teaser slide. You really should read all six slides!

Source: Carpenter, Eric. "Kindergartners know Lincoln speech by heart," Orange County Register, February 13, 2012, http://www.ocregister.com/news/bauman-339916-lincoln-students.html