Official, Refined

Though behind closed doors Ike was known to cuss in a particularly colorful way, in public he was good at maintaining a calmly authoritative tone and demeanor. By the time he stepped down from the Presidency, he'd been in charge of terribly important things for most of his professional life, and probably could hardly remember the last time he didn't hold some important position in charge of making sure the world didn't blow up.

So it's no wonder his final speech doesn't drift into casual chatter or loose colloquialisms. He had a role to play in public, and he played it well.

Just take the first sentence, for example:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. (I. 1)

He could have just said, "In three days, I won't be president anymore, and that kid Jack will be the new one." But no. That wouldn't be presidential. It wouldn't be keeping with his official status. Words like shall, or vested, and phrases like responsibilities of office are usually good clues that someone official is making a speech.

Perhaps more than any other address he gave, Ike's "Farewell Address" was impeccably refined. To be sure, all of his speeches were carefully written, especially once he became president and his every word was scrutinized both by the domestic press and foreign diplomats and intelligence agents.

But in his farewell, you could pick almost any sentence and find an antiquated grammatical structure, high-minded diction, and some words that don't necessarily need to be there. For instance:

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. (III. 1-3)

Now, that's a mouthful. Though Ike was a good writer in his own write—ahem, right—it's possible some of the more refined and downright fancy passages were contributed by his brother Milton or his speechwriter Malcolm "What Does The Cow Say" Moos. The speech had undergone a lengthy editing process, which explains the density of meaning and the long sentences with lots of commas.

Goes to show you what happens when a trio of brainiacs polish a ten-minute speech for months.