The 17 Greatest Speeches in American History

Two minutes at a cemetery, a farewell printed in a newspaper, a ballplayer who called himself lucky. Rank the words that stuck.

1. 1
   I Have a Dream

   Martin Luther King Jr. speaking from the Lincoln Memorial steps in August 1963.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Washington's Farewell Address

   Washington's printed 1796 letter to the nation explaining why he was going home.
   785pts
3. 3
   The Gettysburg Address

   Lincoln's 272 words at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery in November 1863.
   636pts
4. 4
   Barbara Jordan's 1976 Keynote

   The first Black woman to keynote a national convention, on what the country owed itself.
   568pts
5. 5
   Susan B. Anthony's 'Is It a Crime?'

   The 1873 courtroom-circuit speech delivered after she was arrested for voting.
   508pts
6. 6
   Franklin's Closing Speech at the Convention

   Benjamin Franklin's 1787 plea that the delegates sign a Constitution none of them loved entirely.
   508pts
7. 7
   Chief Joseph's Surrender Speech

   The 1877 words 'I will fight no more forever', spoken at the end of the Nez Perce flight.
   454pts
8. 8
   Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate

   The 1987 Berlin speech built around four words: 'tear down this wall'.
   454pts
9. 9
   Lou Gehrig's Farewell

   The 1939 Yankee Stadium goodbye from a dying ballplayer who called himself lucky.
   394pts
10. 10
    Eisenhower's Farewell Address

    The 1961 warning about the 'military-industrial complex' from a departing general-president.
    324pts
11. 11
    Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July

    The 1852 Rochester address asking what the holiday meant to an enslaved American.
    245pts
12. 12
    Kennedy's Moon Speech at Rice

    The 1962 case for going to the Moon 'not because it is easy, but because it is hard'.
    245pts
13. 13
    Patrick Henry's 'Liberty or Death'

    The 1775 Virginia convention speech that pushed the colony toward revolution.
    151pts
14. 14
    Sojourner Truth's 'Ain't I a Woman?'

    The 1851 Akron women's rights speech that fused abolition and suffrage in one argument.
    151pts
15. 15
    FDR's First Inaugural

    Roosevelt telling a collapsing 1933 economy that the only thing to fear was fear itself.
    151pts
16. 16
    Lincoln's Second Inaugural

    The 1865 address that ended with 'with malice toward none, with charity for all'.
    0pts
17. 17
    JFK's Inaugural Address

    Kennedy's 1961 call to 'ask not what your country can do for you'.
    0pts

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