Abraham Lincoln Audio & Video

Listen to Lincoln's most famous speech. American Rhetoric offers the speech in four different versions, one narrated by musician Johnny Cash, and the others read by actors Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterson, and Jim Getty.

From humble beginnings as a self-taught prairie lawyer, beloved U.S. President Abraham Lincoln rose to national leadership over a divided Nation during the American Civil War and kept the country together thanks in part to his unparalleled leadership capabilities.

The Gettysburg Address is the most famous speech of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in United States history.

On 27 February 1860, Abraham Lincoln gave this address at the Cooper Union in New York City.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, seven legendary meetings between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during their 1858 senatorial campaign in Illinois, made history, and changed its course as well.

Lincoln's first inaugural address was delivered on March 4th, 1861, as the North and South were sliding towards separation and Civil War.

The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

In 1858, incumbent U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas and the Republican challenger for his Senate seat, Abraham Lincoln, held a series of seven debates around the state of Illinois.

"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves."

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, The Essential Abraham Lincoln, views this key figure in Western history through his own word, complemented by a compact biography.