He first wrote out his speech in longhand. He had it printed and then cut the text into 27 snippets that he pasted on a sheet of paper. He changed three words and added 15 commas and semicolons.
Then the author, Abraham Lincoln, took the paper to the East Front of the U.S. Capitol and, on March 4, 1865, delivered one of the greatest speeches in American history: his majestic second inaugural address.
"With malice toward none; with charity for all," he said that day near the close of the Civil War. ". . . let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle. . ."