Summary Of George F Will's Inaugural Speech
Prof. Combs
English 300
16 September 2013
‘Let us…’ No, Give It a Rest The Inaugural Address, given by the United States’ president on the day he is officially transitioned into office, can be seen as a yard-stick to measure just how far we’ve come as a country. George F. Will believes that the issues presented in the address, which have changed over time (from executive power all the way to coastal fortifications and polygamy) are an important facet of the address, because they show the problems that we as a country are tackling as well as pointing out specific problems that may be more important to the public. However, another side to the address is the diction, which can help assess where we are linguistically as a country. While writing his article, Will was looking forward to the 54th Inaugural Address, given by President George W. Bush in 2001. The first president of the United States, George Washington, spoke 87 words in the second sentence of his Inaugural Address. George F. Will questions exactly what type of reaction …show more content…
He discovered that between the Presidents Washington and Buchannan, the average amount of words-per-sentence was 44. Following this from Lincoln through Wilson, the mean was 34 words. Since Wilson’s Inaugural Address, the average word-per-sentence count is 25. However, Will notes that despite having a lower word count per sentence, Abraham Lincoln’s second Inaugural is the only one that is considered actual literature by the current American standards. Will looks upon it with great veneration and patriotic awe, stating that “no one who has a pulse, or deserves to have one, can read Lincoln’s second Inaugural … without a frisson of patriotic awe” (Will). He also mentions that one of Lincoln’s most immaculate sentences was a mere four words in length: “And the war
English 300
16 September 2013
‘Let us…’ No, Give It a Rest The Inaugural Address, given by the United States’ president on the day he is officially transitioned into office, can be seen as a yard-stick to measure just how far we’ve come as a country. George F. Will believes that the issues presented in the address, which have changed over time (from executive power all the way to coastal fortifications and polygamy) are an important facet of the address, because they show the problems that we as a country are tackling as well as pointing out specific problems that may be more important to the public. However, another side to the address is the diction, which can help assess where we are linguistically as a country. While writing his article, Will was looking forward to the 54th Inaugural Address, given by President George W. Bush in 2001. The first president of the United States, George Washington, spoke 87 words in the second sentence of his Inaugural Address. George F. Will questions exactly what type of reaction …show more content…
He discovered that between the Presidents Washington and Buchannan, the average amount of words-per-sentence was 44. Following this from Lincoln through Wilson, the mean was 34 words. Since Wilson’s Inaugural Address, the average word-per-sentence count is 25. However, Will notes that despite having a lower word count per sentence, Abraham Lincoln’s second Inaugural is the only one that is considered actual literature by the current American standards. Will looks upon it with great veneration and patriotic awe, stating that “no one who has a pulse, or deserves to have one, can read Lincoln’s second Inaugural … without a frisson of patriotic awe” (Will). He also mentions that one of Lincoln’s most immaculate sentences was a mere four words in length: “And the war