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Kicking Rear End With Your Conclusion - Turning Bland Conclusions into Bold Conclusions

• "In conclusion, I urge you to support American independence."
• "I challenge you to agree with me and fight the Nazis."
• "In summary, it is important for you to fight well because this is a major war, your race is depending on you and I am too."
• "I hope you will join me in thinking back to the old days as I say 'good-bye.'"
• "So, write your Congressman and tell him/her to make Americans more free."

That's how five speakers might have ended their speeches if they had not known the value of strong conclusions. Inexperienced public speakers often write conclusions as after-thoughts. Veteran public speakers plan forceful, emotional conclusions leaving their audience with a vivid final impression. The five speakers were Patrick Henry, Winston Churchill, General George S. Patton, General Douglas MacArthur and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Here is how they concluded their speeches.

• PATRICK HENRY GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH (March 23, 1775, speaking to the Continental Congress) Henry concluded his speech by emphasizing the depth of his own convictions. The speech's dramatic concluding line has become its title. "Gentleman cry, Peace, Peace-but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life do dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
• WINSTON CHURCHILL THIS WAS THEIR FINEST HOUR (JUNE 18, 1940, In the House of Commons following the surrender of France when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany in World War II.) The title of the speech is derived from its conclusion. Churchill uses words to paint an emotional picture. "The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned upon us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
• GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON THAT SON OF A BITCH PATTON AGAIN (1944 welcoming the 761st 'Black Panther' Tank Battalion to Europe in World War II.) Patton's speeches to his troops were interlaced with profanity. "Men, you are the first Negro tankers ever to fight in the American army. I would never have asked for you if you were not good. I have nothing but the best in my army. I don't care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Kraut sons-of-bitches. Everyone has their eyes on you are expecting great things from you. Most of all, your race is looking forward to your success. Don't let them down, and, damn you, don't let me down! If you want me you can always find me in the lead tank."
• DOUGLAS MACARTHUR DUTY-HONOR-COUNTRY (SPEAKING AT WEST POINT ON MAY 12, 1962.) The 82-year-old MacArthur was bidding the military academy farewell. MacArthur repeated the phrase 'Duty-Honor-Country' several times during the speech and concluded with an emotional story. "The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished tone and tint; they have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes in my ears-Duty-Honor-Country. I bid you farewell."
• MARTIN LUTHER KING I HAVE A DREAM (AUGUST 28, 1963, AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL) Dr. King quoted two popular songs and skillfully repeated phrases. "'My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing: Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride, From every mountainside Let freedom ring.' And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty we are free at last!'"