...dedication. Prominent among those were Dr. Everett, who wrote to the president: "I should be glad if 1 could flatter myself that I came as near the central...occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes." Lincoln's reply in returning the compliment expresses both tact and sincerity in a beautiful manner:...

...note on the day after the dedication: "I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes." Although Lincoln felt at the time that his speech was a failure because of the lack of public response,...

...Edward Everett says, "Mr. President, 1 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." This is what the president said on November 19, 1863; this is how he explained the meaning of the war:...

...Everett later wrote to Lincoln, "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." To which Lincoln responded, "... you could not have been excused to make a short address, nor I a long...

...speaker, the next day wrote the president, "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came near the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." *** The year 1863 — strenuous year, eventful year — closed with Lee's Army of Northern Virginia...

...twenty lines." The next day he wrote, "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," to which Lincoln replied, "I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little I did say was not...

...following day. "I should be glad," he wrote Lincoln, "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." Lincoln had translated the story of his country and the meaning of the war into words and ideas accessible...

...days after the speech and said, "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." And yet there is something attractive about Lincoln's kind of modesty, isn't there? "The world will...

...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." But he was not the only one to recognize the greatness of the address. Sidney George Fisher commented,...

...him on the day after the dedication: " I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes. " Today, the Gettysburg Address is universally recognized not only as a classical model of. the noblest...