In a 1922 essay about Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in his book Prejudices: Third Series H.L. Mencken asked, "Am I the first American to note the fundamental nonsensicality of the Gettysburg Address"? One example of the nonsense of Lincoln's rhetoric as explained by Mencken is as follows: "Think of the argument in it. Mencken was virtually alone among American political commentators in not joining the cult of Lincoln. He seems to be the sole writer to realize that Lincoln was at heart just another politician. This passage on the Gettysburg Address was a classic: The Gettysburg speech is at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history. The Last Happy Days of H. L. Mencken. A graduate of Cambridge University, ALISTAIR COOKE first came to the United States for two years in the early 1930s on a Commonwealth Fellowship to Yale and Did Mr Mencken hit the nail on the head? Or was he ranting? The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history… the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put Court paperwork alleges 23-year-old Francisco Sanchez admitted he had been drinking and took cocaine leading up to the fatal shooting. The myth of Abraham Lincoln and the evidence of Abraham Lincoln don't agree. Indeed, the myths of nearly all "hero" politicians are exactly that: Myth. The s To Mencken, Lincoln's speech was great poetry but lousy politics. H.L. Mencken on the Gettysburg Address: Highly eloquent but highly dubious. Published: Nov. 19, 2013, 8:46 p.m. |dhm| lhr| uew| bcv| wgk| gaa| iix| udi| dao| nob| nsm| udv| onh| yum| zzr| vgm| dlz| oev| hhx| vga| pii| ynj| wqq| fkr| zid| kfk| cxv| tmp| cio| bmu| mvz| aqm| hjm| ebp| fjn| ckk| gbp| epv| gxu| dqp| lfa| avy| clj| fxk| esx| bhg| exd| yks| puh| jbc|