Abraham Lincoln was president of the united states during the Civil War, when the North and South were deeply divided on many critical issues the most important of which was slavery. Though Lincoln wrote a number of well-known speeches during the course of his long political career, the address at Gettysburg is perhaps the most widely quoted of them all. Since it was first printed, there has hardly been a child of school age in the United States who has not had to study and memorize it. Lincoln was preceded on the program by Edward Everett, whose speech was long and conventional, phrased in the highly ornate style then popular in oratory. Lincoln’s speech, in contrast, was extremely short and simple.It had been composed on the train to Gettysburg and was written in pencil on the back of an envelope. Some historians say that the people were so moved by Lincoln’s words that they did not applaud ; they responded instead with a profound and respectful silence. Ironically enough, Lincoln himself felt that the speech had been a failure.