The Washington herald., 1911-02-19
BREvITY WAS LINCoLN's FORTE
Used Only 267 Words In His Famous
Gettysburg Address.

I GettysDurR Auuress.
It is well known that Lincoln's famous
| Gettysburg address is one of the shortest
| speeches ever delivered: that It has a
place in the first rank of the world S
masterpieces Of oratory; that 1t was al
most extemporaneous; that it followed a
mastery address by one of the greatest
| orators Of the day-Edward Everett-and
that it has become better and more widely
| known with the passing of years, while
| the remarks of the classical and polished
Everett survive only in the tones of his
| tory.
Something not so generally known is
that the best version of the speech was
written by the martyred President a year
after it was delivered. The speech was
delivered at the dedication of the Gettys-
burg Cemetery on November 10, 1853. The
version was written in 1864 by Mr.. Lincoln
for the soldiers and sailors fair. in Bal
timore. 1t was signed by Mr.. Lincoln
and there<6re must be accepted as his
own version.
There are just 267 words in the speech.
but brevity is not the only peculiar thing
TO be found in it. Seven of those 26I
words consist of the article "a" Then
there are fifty words of only two letters,
like on" AS, " in, - at " its" &c There
are fifty-four words of three letters, like
and. the" now" our" "men,"
all" &c
There are three paragraphs in the
speech, as Lincoln wrote it out. and ten
sentences There are thirty words in the
first sentence, two of those words being
and. In the tenth and last-the longest
sentence there are eighty-two words.
but OF these tifty-two are repetitions OF
words in the same or preceding sentences.
His third sentence I'VE are met on a
great battlefield of that war;" is the
shortest The word most repeated in the
speech is that" Only 14S separate and
distinct words are used from beginning
to end. 1l9 being repetitions.
Here's another thing: There are 1s6
words of one syllable in the speech. That
leaves only seventy-one words of two or
more syllables.
II you pick out the worus Of two sylla-
bles, counting among them such words as
increased" which is pronounced as of
only two syIlables. you will find there are
fifty of them. That leaves twenty-one
words of three or more syIlables.
Lincoln's big words are really big
words in the best sense. They include
continent" liberty" battlefield"
dedicated 'Consecrated,' remember"
devotion" and government"
Again, take descriptive adjectives those
dear treasures of the man more eloquent
in words than ideas. They are scarce In
this speech, moderate and far from the
superlative. He speaks of "a great civil
war, "a great battlefield" brave men,"
great task" and "honored dead Taken
by themselves these phrases seem COM
monplace, but in the speech they boom
forth like the great guns on battle ship
There are some sentences that simply
amaze with the power of the small word
one being The world will little note nor
long remember what we say here, but II
can never forget what they did here"
There are twenty-one words in that
sentence. The longest word is ''remem-
ber," three syIlables. There are three
words OF two syllabIes each little"
never and forget" This is held to
be in some respects the greatest SEN
tence in the whole speech. Its SIM
plicity. for one thing, is most striking
Then there is its contrast in the ideas
what we say here and what they did
here"
In only one respect did Lincoln miss
the real truth in that sentence 1t is in
its very opening-'The world will little
note nor long remember" Undoubtedly,
he spoke from the heart and unquestion-
ably with sincerity. Yet the world has
greatly noted and does remember and
will long remember what he did say
there.
The most striking difference between
ala the other versions and this one of
Lincoln's own is in the fact that all OF
them, except in this one of 1864, the
article the" appears before the word
government" in that remarkable clos
ing sentence-"that government of the
people, for the people. by the people"
These versions give it that the govern
ment of the people," &C. deal of diff
ference can be put between "the govern
ment" and just plain government"
Another popularity of the Gettysburg
speech is that it is one of only two that
everybody can quote from. Usually it |
is the last part Of the last sentence that |
is quoted, and that generally incorrectly. |
The other speech is Patrick Henry's |
Give me liberty or give me death"
Everett knew it was a great speech |
just as soon as he had heard 1t, in spite |
of the fact that applause for his effort |
was still ringing in his ears. He wrote |
. note to Lincoln the next day that has |
proved prophetic. He said: Il should be |
glad if I could fiatter myself that |
came as near the central idea of the |
occasion in two hours as you did in two |
minutes.
Lincoln was modest about the speech. |
He answered Everett thus: IT am pleased |
to know that in your judgment the little |