Garry Wills has described the circumstances surrounding Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg--the need to bury the dead properly after a major battle, the importance of oratory on such occasions, the choice of Edward Everett to give the main speech, and the surprising result that Lincoln's brief remarks "remade America."

Before continuing on with Wills's argument about the revolutionary nature of Lincoln's speech, we need to take a few moments to look in detail at the text of the address. We'll focus on three aspects of the address:

* What Lincoln did not say

*What Lincoln did say

*Lincoln's use of language

Leave the popup window open so you can refer to the text as we continue our discussion.