Abraham Lincoln: Speeches Learn more about the views and beliefs of one of America's most respected President's. Lincoln never wrote a book. He dabbled in poetry and journalism, but almost all of what composes the standard collections of Lincoln's writings are either letters or speeches. But the boundary between his writings and speeches was a porous one. In many cases before his election to the presidency in 1860, the speeches are only transcripts taken down in a more or less haphazard fashion by newspaper reporters and editors who heard him speak, as they did in the campaign speech he delivered in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1848, or his Lewistown, Illinois, speech on the Declaration of Independence. The great debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 that made Lincoln nationally famous were unrehearsed and unscripted, but they were taken down with unusual precision in shorthand and published word for word in the Chicago newspapers within forty-eight hours. Abraham Lincoln: The Speeches contains six of his greatest speeches, including his two inaugural addresses and his Gettysburg speech. Abraham Lincoln's speeches are inspiring and essential reading for every American to understand how our country was shaped by the President's ambitious and life-changing views. Scroll up and enjoy Abraham Lincoln: The Speeches today.