This is the copy of a letter (retained in a letterbook) Edward Everett wrote to Abraham Lincoln on 20 November 1863, a day after the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Everett had been the primary speaker, but he remarked to Lincoln, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself, that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."