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On November 19, 1863, 150 years ago, U.S. President Lincoln was asked as a matter of courtesy to say a few words  after the main keynote speaker have spoken  dedicating the civil war memorial at Gettysburg, PA.  His short remarks  of 278 words, in my opinion, became the greatest speech in American history. Every child in the US is taught  this piece  of literature early in school. To an immigrant the speech embodies the ideal, spirit, and aspiration of the US democracy. Every time I read the words, it sends chills up my spine and goose pimples rise  on my arm. My limited Chinese background does not tell me if anything in Chinese literature parallel this  address (i.e., short and inspirational. Readers enlighten me). The speech is reproduced  below:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,  a new nation,

conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men  are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation  so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting  place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.  It  is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow  -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it,  far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note,  nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did  here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work  

which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to  be here  dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we  take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

You can find many more references and historical notes about this address  at http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

Note added 11/18/2013: For Harvard's take and connection to the speech see http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/11/words-to-remember/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11.18.daily%201

Note added 11/20/2013. See President Obama's hand written tribute to the Gettysburg address http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/gettysburg-address?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email263-text1&utm_campaign=gettysberg.