Abraham Lincoln I have him on the list. No, I haven't seen him. No, I haven't watched video of Abraham Lincoln giving a speech. But there are so many replicas of this reenactments. It's such a part of popular culture in the United States and around the world. I felt I had to include it the Gettysburg Address is considered by many to be the finest speech ever.

I don't feel that strongly about it. When I ask people. What was the point that was so profound. People say I don't even know what the speech was about. Or they'll say, well, it was just commemorating lost soldiers at a greater Gettysburg. Either way.

The message is not that powerful. What is powerful is the poetry of how it was written. The beauty of the words the elegance of the words, and a lot of people are drawn into just how tight it was. Now people like to talk about his speech was too minutes. The senator after him spoke for an hour. Nobody remembers that guy.

I think that's the wrong lesson to learn from the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln. Because what people don't realize is, Lincoln never would have given the Gettysburg Address. If he hadn't also developed the skill of speaking for five hours at a time when he did Lincoln Douglas debates with Douglas, they would speak for five hours, so Lincoln could speak as long or as short as he needed to. So don't fetishize being extra concise and speaking for two minutes. It's better to speak longer if you get people to remember it, and take action. Other things and you typically don't see this in reenactments of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is he was known for having sort of a high pitched screechy voice, but interesting historical fact.

This was in the days before Electricity, obviously amplifications speakers so having a high pitched voice, a little bit grating, carried further when you're in a big crowd in front of thousands of people. His voice went further. It made it easier for people to hear it. So it actually helped to take a look at this reenactment below. I know it's not exactly the same thing, but it's the best we have. Take a look.

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