Delanceyplace.com 08/14/06-American Brevity

In today's encore excerpt, in this description of the Gettysburg Address we can see the development of a unique American style of prose--a style that was born in the mid-nineteenth century. This style was simple and plain and powerful, and stemmed from the simple prose of the hard frontiersmen--Lincoln being the most striking example (and stemmed too from the sobering realities of the Civil War-- seen in Walt Whitman's poem "The Wound Dresser", a stark portrait of the suffering in a Civil War hospital). The elaborate prose of England and the United States East Coast seemed increasing inappropriate and inadequate to new realities. Lincoln's address was delivered on November 19, 1863 to commemorate the crucial victory of July 3, and followed the keynote address of Edward Everett:

"At 2pm, two long cold hours after starting, (Edward) Everett concluded his speech...and turned the dais over to President Lincoln...

"Though Lincoln was never expected to provide anything other than some concluding remarks, this was breathtakingly brief. The Gettysburg Address
: <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=pagaoxbab.0.mmigoxbab.yo7g7qbab.1936&ts=S0198&p=http%3A%2F%2Fshowcase.netins.net%2Fweb%2Fcreative%2Flincoln%2Fspeeches%2Fgettysburg.htm> contained just 268 words, two-thirds of them of only one syllable, in ten mostly short, direct, and memorably crystalline sentences. It took only a fraction over two minutes to deliver...

"...this was an age of ludicrously inflated diction...no nineteenth century journalist would write that a house had burned down, but must instead say that "a great conflagration consumed the edifice." Nor would he be content with a sentiment as unexpressive as "a crowd came to see" but instead would write "a vast concourse was assembled to witness"...

"American English had at last found a voice to go with its flag and anthem and national symbol..."

Bill Bryson, Made in America, Perennial, 1994, pp. 79- 81