Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech
It was said that Ronald Reagan gave essentially the same speech through out most of his political career?
Lincoln gave a whole lot of speeches. They’re all worth reading and absorbing, especially if you want to understand the background of the war.
I don’t recall any stump-like repetitive nature to them, either. They seemed fairly unique, well able in each case to stand up on their own.
Things were different then. Political speeches tended to run for hours.
Take a look at the Lincoln-Douglas debates for example. They went on for hours and hours, and were repeated many times in numerous locations.
These guys had to know their stuff.
The above is why, I think, that people were so shocked by the incredible brevity of perhaps the greatest speech in American history, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (”The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here...”)
At that event, the main speaker was Edward Everett, a renowned orator. He spoke for several hours. Lincoln gave his immortal address in two minutes.
Afterwards, Everett famously told Lincoln that he wished he could have summed up the heart of the matter in two hours as well as he had done it in two minutes.
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