"My Fellow Citizens- I have appeared among you on this occasion with no intention of making a speech. It has been my purpose, since I have been plated in my present position, to make no speeches. This assemblage having been drawn together at the place of my residence, it appeared to be the wish of those constituting the vast assembly, to see you. As it is certainly my wish to see all of you, I appear upon the ground here at this time only for the purpose of seeing you and enabling you to see me. I confess with gratitude that I did not suppose that my appearance among you would create the tumult which I now witness (15,000 people). I am profoundly grateful for this manifestation of your feelings.
I am gratified, because it's a tribute which can be paid to no man. It is a testimony which four years hence you will pay to the next man who is the representative of the truth on the questions which now agitate the public mind." [Cheers] "It is an evidence that you will FIGHT* for this cause then, as you now FIGHT* for it, and even stronger than you now FIGHT*, though I may be dead and gone." [Cheers] "I most profoundly and sincerely thank you. Having said this much, let me now ask that you will hear the public dissertations by others of our friends, who are here for the purpose of addressing you, and let me be silent." [Immense applase].
*capitals are mine.
[By being silent, Lincoln was working on the emotions of his followers, letting them place in their own minds what they thought Lincoln was, instead of him speaking and erasing all uncertainty ...others have gone on to use this same ploy]
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David Upton