Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 21 Democratic Eloquence Part 2

Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 21 Democratic Eloquence Part 2

The two speeches responded to the same event—the Battle of Gettysburg and its soldier-heroes—but were vastly different from each other. Four years earlier, a perceptive Chicago journalist had contrasted the oratorical styles of Everett and Lincoln. The journalist wrote that Lincoln, with “the vigor of his rhetoric, . . . is at once the equal and the opposite of Mr. Everett. The latter excels in lengthy sentences of most  musical flow.” Everett’s style “is rather cloying than satisfying. There is diffusion, not concentration of idea”; it is “truthful to a fault, overladen with detail, overcrowded with elaborate ornament.” The essayist continued, “Mr. Lincoln belongs to another school. His style is broad and sketchy, accomplishing at a stroke that to which Mr. Everett devotes an hour, and gaining in force and expression all that is lost in minuteness of execution.” The essayist said of Lincoln, “ Terse  is the term which describes his language. It is eminently direct.” 16 Nowhere was the cont…