Compare the Gettysburg Address with the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 1

Both are written in a formal language and are rhetoric of the type we see rarely today (look at JFK's Inaugural and MLK's I Have a Dream speech). Both refer to the relationship of citizens to government. Both are in a speaking style addressed to the reader or listener, ("When in the course of human events ... " "People will little note nor long remember ... ") The Declaration was crafted by a highly educated man (Jefferson) and was pounded by the Congress to form it as we see today. The Address was crafted by a man working alone who had little formal education but whose education was entirely in the kind of language used in Address (law, Bible, classical writings) who used this language regularly in public forums (debates, court, and speeches)