Abraham Lincoln – man of light and leading.

O’Connor Power admired Lincoln and praises him in The Making of an Orator.

President Lincoln’s short speech on the field of Gettysburg is an oratorical gem of the purest quality, a masterpiece of rhetorical art, and a striking example of condensation.  It was delivered on November 19, 1863, during the war between North and South.

O’Connor Power quotes the speech in full and adds a comment of Mr Edward Everett, who delivered the formal oration of the day:

I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes