Another
distinctive facet to Lincoln's abiding appeal was/is the matchless power of his
words – an absolute essential in a leader of men since we humans are creatures
that live and move and have our being in a world of words as fish in a world of
water and birds in a world of air.
One reason
his words were so powerful was that he used them so sparingly. How often did he
say that his personal inclination was to refrain from saying anything unless he
sought to achieve some good by it? [By contrast, how many politicians do we
know today who are firm believers that there is no such thing as bad publicity,
who simply can’t resist the seductive power of a TV news crew?] But when
Lincoln did have something to say he would weave a distinctively subtle alchemy
of words that invariably had a way of sweeping up his audience into his world
with the concerted power of one who is master of that world down to the final
semi-colon. And since writing was a skill he practiced virtually all his life,
he could – and did – impress effortlessly. That is the part of what came to be
called the Gettysburg Address that is ho-hum: he put relatively little time
into its composition because he had little time to give to it. But that
condition applied to virtually everything he ever wrote. He wrote in keeping
with his own early description of his politics – short and sweet like the old
lady’s dance with no wasted movements. In short, whatever left his pen
habitually had had all the dross already burnt off, leaving only a residue of
pure gold.
The next few entries will show some dazzling examples of
Lincoln’s wizardly working of words.
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