of November 18, 1863, Abraham Lincoln was travelling from Washington to
take part next day in the consecration of the national cemetery at
Gettysburg. He wrote his speech on a scrap of wrapping-paper, carefully
fitting word to word, changing and correcting it in minutest detail as
best he could until it was finished.

The next day after the speech had been delivered, Edward Everett, the
trained and polished orator, said that he would have been content to
have made in his oration of two hours the impression which Lincoln had
made in that many minutes.

It will repay you to study this speech closely and to wrest from it its
innermost secrets of power and effectiveness. The greatest underlying
quality of this speech is its rare simplicity--simplicity of thought,
simplicity of language, simplicity of purpose, and shining through it
all, the simplicity of the great emancipator himself.

This simplicity is one of the great distinguishing qualities of
effective public speaking. It is characteristic of all true art. It is
subtle and difficult to define, but Fénelon gives a definition that will
aid us when he says, "Simplicity is an uprightness of soul that has no
reference to self." It is another word for unselfishness.

In these days of self-exploitation and self-aggrandizement, how
refreshing it is to meet a man of true simplicity. We are won by his
unaffected manner, his gentleness of argument, his ingratiating tones of
voice, his freedom from prejudice and passion. Such a man wins us almost
wholly by the power of his simplicity.

This supreme quality is noticeable in men who are said to have come to