Oration is a formal speech one given at a ceremony. Two of the best orator gave two of the most famous public speeches ever made in the history of our planet: Pericles' Funeral Oration and Abraham Lincoln 's Gettysburg Address. Both speeches were delivered to commemorate those troops wh...

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Dr. Martin Luther King, a prominent African American leader in the equal rights movement, delivered his most famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial to an audience of hundreds of thousands of citizens white and black. His inspiring speech pleaded for...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (The Declaration of Independence). The evident immorality within the ins...

The two hundred seventy-two words of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are as significant today as they were six score and seventeen years ago. Garry Wills' "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America," explicates these two hundred seventy-two words and paints a new picture that giv...

When and Where were the Gettysburg Address given? The speech was delivered by Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of the national cemetery on the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg, Pa. How did the Gettysburg Address come to be? For three days in July of 1863, Union and Confed...

At the end of the Peloponnesian War Pericles, an elder states man and builder of the democracy in Athens, at the ceremony to honor those who had fallen, gave a moving speech to remind all of Athens why these men gave their lives. In the course of this infamous speech he begins to discuss what it is ...

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Speech, given before congress on March 4, 1865, was perhaps best noted at the time it was given for its extreme brevity. However, unbeknownst to most of the grand orators of the time who regarded Mr. Lincoln as an uneducated country bumpkin, the president's spee...

Abraham Lincoln was the president responsible for the end of slavery following the Civil War. At first though, it was kind of unclear how he stood on the issue. In some cases it seemed as he wanted nothing more than to preserve the union and had no feelings toward the freeing of slaves. In other c...

Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America is an extraordinary piece of literature that has earned much acclaim in general non-fiction. The author of the book is Garry Wills. Garry Wills is an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University. He has a dignified career as an autho...

Apostles of Disunion In Apostles of Disunion, Charles Dew attempted to explain what caused the South to secede and start a civil war. One topic he focused on and believed was a major reason the South seceded was the pro slavery attitude the South held. Dew believed that if slavery did not...

Rosellen Brown resides in Chicago, Illinois and is the author of five novels: Before and After (1992), Civil Wars (1984), Tender Mercies (1978), The Autobiography of my Mother (1976), and Half a Heart (2000). Brown was the recipient of an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and ha...

Lincoln's Assassination Abraham Lincoln was one of, if not the greatest, presidents in the United States' history. He led the country through one of the toughest times in history and was still able to preserve the union. However, while he was president many people hated him because of ...

Was Gettysburg really the turning point in the Civil War? "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that n...

Honest Abe After reading the bookLincoln?, I can see exactly why Abraham Lincoln is known asHonest Abe?. Basically saying Lincoln was still your typical politician because he would still tend to beat around the bush on many touchy subjects, but always seems to get to the point and make his p...

October 25, 2001 Lincoln: The Articulate Politician The middle of the 19th Century was a period of turbulence and discontent for Americans; although citizens of one country, America was split by the presence of an institution known as slavery. The controversy surrounding the practice of slavery i...

Killer Angels The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, examines the approach to that decisive battle and the battle itself through the eyes of several participants on both sides, but especially through those of General James Longstreet of the Confederacy and Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain of the Union. T...

When I was seven years old and my father was laid off from his construction job which took half of our family's income away. He knew that we were in trouble so the very next day he went in search of a new company to hire him and on the weekends he worked several side jobs at a time. Seven days ...

No issue dominates the history of early eighteenth and nineteenth century America like the problem of slavery. It is amazing that even today, over 130 years after the Civil War started, there is still passionate debate regarding the "cause" of the Civil War. The curious thing is that although slav...

A democracy is a government that is run by, of, and for the people. In the early nineteenth century, "democracy" did not comply with it's meaning. Reform movements such as abolition and women's rights show the weaknesses and strengths of democracy. One of the most important ...

The Civil War was a time in America's history that remains bitter and controversial. American bullets pierced American hearts. American fathers killed American sons. Yet if it had not taken place, the United States of America would have been torn in two. Many say that the turning point of ...

During the 1960s, one hundred yearsit after the civil war, a civil rights movement for African-Americans was taking place in the united sates. Martin Luther king jr. was a leader in the movement and Langston Hughes, a black poet who lived from 1902 to 1967. Kings famous "I have a dream" sp...

"Today we've had a national tragedy." President George W. Bush spoke these words after a horrendous attack on America. As we watched bombs fly into steel and then explode, we waited to hear the advice and comfort our President would give to us. One hundred thirty-seven years a...

Henry David Thoreau harbored many anarchist thoughts toward the American government of the decades before the Civil War, which he collected and wrote about in the essay, Civil Disobedience. The essay contains a powerful message that would not only reflect Thoreau's own views toward the Mexican war,...

According to a survey taken on factmonster.com America has labeled Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents. As most of us learn in our primary education Lincoln is responsible for freeing the slaves. Celebrated as the "Great Emancipator," he is widely regarded as a backer of black fre...

American History 4th of July 1877 Today we are gathered to celebrate not only America's birthday but also the birthday of this community of Cambellsville, Iowa. This community is just three years old, a baby when compared America. This community has been a beacon of...