Fwiw, the Gettysburg address would have been pretty bad as prose. It was written to be delivered as a speech. A speaker can control inflection and intonation,

Fwiw, the Gettysburg address would have been pretty bad as prose. It was written to be delivered as a speech. A speaker can control inflection and intonation, which add their own meaning and interact with the actual word choices. Written word has no such luxury. Also, the Gettysburg Address was written 150 years ago. Language norms change over time.