Consider this.

In the time the American Dental Association recommends everyone should brush to achieve maximum dental health, Abraham Lincoln managed to dedicate the first cemetery for soldiers of war in the United States, acknowledge the loss and devastation of a three-day battle on fields and hills not far from here, do a bit of damage control to his own image and redefine the United States of America.

That is less time than it takes to make most microwave popcorn.

In their 2013 book "The Gettysburg Address," subtitled a "graphic adaptation," collaborators Jonathan Hennessey, Aaron McConnell with Tom Orzechowski describe the 271-word speech as "probably the most famous and influential speech in American history."

Ronald C. White Jr., in his nearly 800-page biography "A. Lincoln," notes newspaper editor Josiah Holland called the speech "a perfect gem, deep in feeling, compact in thought and expression, and tasteful and elegant in every word and comma."

The backstory to the speech is populated with compelling facts: Lincoln, according to White, was the last speaker to be invited to appear at the consecration of the first military cemetery in U.S. history. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, writer of the poems "Paul Revere's Ride" and "The Song of Hiawatha," celebrated Quaker abolitionist and poet John Greenleaf Whittier, and New York Evening Post newspaper editor and journalist William Cullen Bryant all respectfully declined requests to speak. Moreover, the date for the commemoration was moved at the suggestion of the speaker at the top of the bill, Edward Everett, then the top draw on the speaking circuit. Organizers penciled in Oct. 23, 1863, for the event and invited Everrett a month in advance of the tentative date. Everett balked, stating a month did not leave him enough time to research and prepare what would go on to be a speech over two hours long he delivered from memory. According to White's research, Everett wrote "he would not be ready to deliver such an important address until Nov. 19, 1863." It was a Thursday.

News coverage in The New York Times calculated about 15,000 men, women and children attended the ceremony. A thick morning fog dissipated as the commemoration ceremony continued, a ceremony involving displays of military pageantry and appearances by government dignitaries. In their book Hennessey and McConnell mention burial of the dead from the battle at Gettysburg five months earlier was only about one-third complete. Coffins stood stacked at the train platform. Buildings in the town of Gettysburg remained scarred by bullets and shrapnel. Neighboring farms were decimated. The three-day-long battle had claimed at least one life outside of the formal field of battle. Ginnie Wade, 20, struck and killed by a stray bullet while she was baking bread, likely was on the minds of some who attended the event.

The grandstand from which Lincoln, Everett and others would speak was "set under a honey locust tree on Cemetery Ridge," as described by the website visit-gettysburg.com. Cemetery Ridge, a line of hills, was the battleground of one of the most fierce skirmishes in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.

When the 16th president of the United States stood to address the crowd it was mid-afternoon. White describes Lincoln as adjusting his glasses before taking his address from his coat pocket.

The president's speech was so quick, a photographer missed the shot he wanted of Lincoln addressing the crowd.

The ceremony was all over by about 4 p.m.

In two minutes and just 271 words, Lincoln started the work of reunifying a physically and philosophically torn United States. In its deliberate biblical tone and precise allusions to history, Lincoln addressed the sacrifices of those lost in battle on both sides and the essence of the term "United States" – and all without the use of the first-erson pronoun, not even once. Is there a politician in our immediate history of whom the same can be said? Lincoln did, however, use the word nation five times in his 271-word speech.

In the conclusion to their book on Lincoln's definitive speech, Hennessey and McConnell endow the Gettysburg Address with the power to make sure the U.S. Civil War stays won. White writes of the speech, "Lincoln built the architecture of the Gettysburg Address upon a structure of past, present, and future time."

Take a minute, or two, today to reread or read for the first time the Gettysburg Address. If you are feeling particularly ambitious, commit the speech to memory. Yes, the official anniversary was Nov. 19; however, Lincoln speaks to the United States of today and ensures the United States to come.

Not bad for two minutes.

April Peterson

editorial assistant

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press