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To mark Independence Day, we have some good old-fashioned patriotic speech-making. Specifically, two of the greatest presidential speeches in American history.

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Speech were given under very different circumstances by two very different political leaders. But history buff David Rubenstein says they share some important features that make them so memorable. David Rubenstein says both speeches were  eloquent. Both were brilliantly delivered. Both came at key turning points in history and most importantly, says David Rubenstein, both speeches had a profound impact on public opinion.  

David Rubenstein is the co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, a huge private
equity firm. He's used his enormous personal wealth to acquire rare historical documents, including one of the few private copies of the Magna Carta, and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, which he donated to the White House.

This past weekend, David Rubenstein was one of the featured speakers at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado, which each year brings together some of the nation's most fascinating and provocative thinkers and policymakers.

Gallery

The story behind the Emancipation Proclamation

The story of the Declaration of Independence

Abraham Lincoln and slavery

In North, Civil War sites, events long 'forgotten'

Voting Rights in the Kennedy Years

Remembering the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debates

Arts and Culture

Carlyle Group co-founder and managing director David Rubenstein speaks at the Aspen Ideas Festival about two of the most important presidential speeches in history, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address. He compares and contrasts them, and argues why they stand the test of time and are still celebrated to this day as great speeches.

Aspen Ideas: What makes a great presidential speech?

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