I was going to start a new thread to celebrate July 4, but since our young history buff got this one going, I'll take advantage of it.

I wanted to draw attention, especially to non-USns, to some of the great language usage which has been demonstrated in our national documents and historical statements. We Americans should be familiar with this, and no doubt many others are as well, even though they probably haven't been made to study (and in some cases, memorize) them.

The Declaration of Independence, to which there is a link above, has some really fine prose. The opening is great, but followed as it is with the litany of King George's offenses, tolling like a great bell, it attains a solemn majesty unparalleled in political literature. Then follows the extension of the responsibility for the Revolution to the rest of the British people, concluding, sadly but sweetly in a rare rhetorical construction known as a chiasmus, "We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."

Then there is this passage from George Washington's farewell address (not a speech -- it was published in writing) in which he announced that he would not be a candidate for a third term as President and gave his farewell remarks to the nation:

"In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgement of that debt of gratitude, which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the stedfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjooyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the Passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence -- that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual -- that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained -- that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue -- that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation, which is yet a stranger to it."

Of course, any mention of American historical prose has to include Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, rightly admired as a magnificent piece of prose. Another effort of Lincoln's, not as well known but also a remarkable demonstration of saying much in few words, is the following letter:

"Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864

Mrs. Bixby, Boston Massachusetts:

Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN"

Anyone else want to contribute a favorite?