November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln stood on a cold Pennsylvania field that still carried the weight of the dead. Gettysburg had been a place of thunder only a few months earlier. The echoes had not settled. People were still arriving with grief that clung to their clothes. The plan for the day was simple. Honor the Union soldiers who had fallen and dedicate the new cemetery that would hold them. The country needed a moment of steady footing. Everyone looked to speeches for comfort because speech