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

I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King Jr. speaking from the Lincoln Memorial steps in August 1963.

1000pts

2

Washington's Farewell Address

Washington's printed 1796 letter to the nation explaining why he was going home.

785pts

3

The Gettysburg Address

Lincoln's 272 words at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery in November 1863.

636pts

4

Barbara Jordan's 1976 Keynote

The first Black woman to keynote a national convention, on what the country owed itself.

568pts

5

Susan B. Anthony's 'Is It a Crime?'

The 1873 courtroom-circuit speech delivered after she was arrested for voting.

508pts

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

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

Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate

The 1987 Berlin speech built around four words: 'tear down this wall'.

454pts

9

Lou Gehrig's Farewell

The 1939 Yankee Stadium goodbye from a dying ballplayer who called himself lucky.

394pts

10

Eisenhower's Farewell Address

The 1961 warning about the 'military-industrial complex' from a departing general-president.

324pts

11

Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July

The 1852 Rochester address asking what the holiday meant to an enslaved American.

245pts

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

Patrick Henry's 'Liberty or Death'

The 1775 Virginia convention speech that pushed the colony toward revolution.

151pts

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

FDR's First Inaugural

Roosevelt telling a collapsing 1933 economy that the only thing to fear was fear itself.

151pts

16

Lincoln's Second Inaugural

The 1865 address that ended with 'with malice toward none, with charity for all'.

41pts

17

JFK's Inaugural Address

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

41pts