The Perfect Tribute

After delivering an address at the dedication ceremony of the cemetary at Gettysburg, on 19 November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln is disappointed in the crowd's seeming lack of enthusiasm. The following day, while taking a reflective walk around the Capital, he encounters a young boy in urgent need of an attorney. Accompanying him to a nearby hospital, the boy explains that his brother, a Southern soldier wounded in battle, is dying and wants to dictate his will. The young man, eyes bandaged and unconscious of the stranger's identity, regales him with the newspaper's accounting of the eloquent speech and recites as much of it as he is able. He reassures the address's author that the crowd's lack of ovation was because they were too much in awe to move or speak. The President is humbled.