Abraham Lincoln Second Inaugural Address

[AussieMick]

Apart from anything else (such as checking for missing words and confusion), reading one's own letters (and emails) aloud would imply a desire to imagine and even attempt to know their effect on the recipient.

How many times have I sent an email and received a reply which indicated that my correspondent completely misunderstood my message ... hopefully only once (I think) and that was embarrassing, resulting in a cringing apology from me.

[David Lockmiller]

(Yesterday 01:27 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  He certainly punctuated by ear, much to the chagrin of John Defrees, who fought a losing battle trying to purge the excessive commas from the state papers Lincoln sent to the government printing office.[34] As president it was still his custom, according to one of his secretaries, “to read his manuscript over aloud, ‘to see how it sounded, as he could hardly judge of a thing by merely reading it.’”[35]

Are not these two sentences from my previous post contradictory?

[Gene C]

I don't think they are contradictory.
"He certainly punctuated by ear..." and
"read his manuscript over out loud to see how it sounded..."
The two quotes you used seem to compliment each other.

I do recall, in a previous thread, that Mary Lincoln was also noted for using excessive commas in her writing.
Maybe he picked that up from her, or she picked it up from him.

Since we do not have any recordings of his speeches, the use of excesses commas may be an indication of Lincoln's public speaking style. The commas may have been for the benefit of the speaker and hearer, and less for the reader.

As Hamlet may have responded to your inquiry
I thinketh not,
That your citations
from your previous pronouncement,
be they contradictory?