399 3 Getttysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

I think his classic sense of "less is more" or brevity was a strong oratory force. Lincoln refused to burry his message with flowery rhetoric,

"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."

Lincoln got right to the heart of the matter with a powerful opening. He didn't waste time with long salutations or dedications. He often began with a Biblical Anastrophe which utilized old language to convey the importance of his speech, "four score and seven years ago."

He of course ended with powerful ideas and structure. Closer was very important,

"... we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."