Lincoln from Postmaster to President
Celebrating Lincoln through Stamps and Postal History

Four Score and Seven Years Ago

3-cent Lincoln Delivering Gettysburg Address, Honduras
This airmail stamp was issued by Honduras on February 12, 1959, the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). The Gettysburg Address is considered one of the most important speeches ever delivered by an American president. Though it only took a few minutes to deliver, Lincoln's carefully measured words defined the central struggle of the Civil War and the everlasting importance that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

 
Draft of the Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln, Draft of the Gettysburg Address: Nicolay Copy, November 1863; Series 3, General Correspondence, 1837-1897; The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Washington, D. C.: American Memory Project, [2000-02]).

Lincoln from Postmaster to President