Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

The speech Abraham Lincoln gave on March 4th, 1865, titled the ‘Second Inaugural Speech’, was mainly political theology, in which he sought to address the major issues in which he would face in his presidency. His voice was very strong and clear, and he used diction, a passive voice, and a very well mannered tone in order to achieve the full purpose of his speech to the ‘fellow countrymen’. He achieves this effect very well, while speaking to both the North and the South about binding up the nation’s wounds that have stricken them in the core.

Four years prior to his second Inaugural Address, President Lincoln had given a speech about war, “an impending civil war.” Now, after four years of such conflict, the President is issuing a speech of reconciliation, trying to convince his people to come back together with their Southern brethren, and try and heal the grievously wounded nation. A gifted rhetorician, the President used three primary literary tool s to make his point: parallel structure to illustrate similarities between Northerner and Southerner, allusions to the Bible to highlight the Christian values so important to both, and personification to paint the war as an evil enemy, and the nation as a wounded friend.

It’s no joke that the Civil War is America’s bloodiest war. And throughout these tumultuous times, tensions were high among all Americans. On the last legs of the Civil War, there was considerable doubt about the future of America. Would America ever recover from its harsh divide? Abraham Lincoln certainly thought so. In his second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln sets forth a convincing argument detailing his thoughts and opinions on the future of the Union. Lincoln accomplishes this by making use of Kairos, which having his argument being at the opportune moment. He also characterizes both sides of war by addressing the Confederates’ goals as well as the Union’s. Finally, he brings the two side together with a unifying religious appeal.

President Abraham Lincoln uses a variety of rhetorical strategies in his Second Inaugural Address to pose an argument to the American people regarding the division in the country between the northern states and the southern states. Lincoln gives this address during the American Civil War, when politics were highly debated and there was a lot of disagreement. Lincoln calls for the people of America to overcome their differences to reunite as one whole nation once more.

During the history of the United States there have been very respectable speakers Martin Luther King Jr. John F. Kennedy but perhaps no greater leader in American history came to addressing the country like Abraham Lincoln. In his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln gave a short speech concerning the effect of the Civil War and his own personal vision for the future of the nation. In this speech Lincoln uses many different rhetorical strategies to convey his views of the Civil War to his audience.

In his Second Inaugural Address speech by Abraham Lincoln, incorporates biblical references and compares the North and South in order to bring them together and unite the country.

During Abraham Lincoln’s presidency at the start of the 1860, an issue that had divided the nation was slavery. Lincoln’s election to presidency as a republic was not received well by the Southern slave states, as they thought that as a republican he was out to abolish slavery. In an effort to calm southern states and keep them from seceding from the United States, he attempts to ease them with his First Inaugural Address. In his First Inaugural Address his key points are to clam southern leaders of slave states, keep the states from seceding, and make them at ease as he enters presidency.

With the beginning of his second term and the Civil War coming to a close, President Lincoln was burdened by a country torn apart by war.

“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine,” he said, “is the momentous issue of civil war.” That sentence epitomizes Abraham Lincoln’s entire approach to the issue of secession. He considered it a constitutional impossibility, and would never officially concede that it had been successfully accomplished. That’s why, when he directly addressed citizens of the states that three weeks before had installed Jefferson Davis as president of what they claimed to be a separate nation, Lincoln still spoke of them as “my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen.” I think that the speech of Abraham Lincoln is more appealing as he did not considered the South as his

President Lincoln stated that: “if I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it,..., and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do it.”. This quote clearly shows that the freedom of slaves was not his concern and unnecessary if it did not help the Union; as the result, slavery still exists if there is no war. Free slave from bondage should be a Great Emancipator’s primary goal and he will do his best to achieve it no matter what, but president Lincoln’s thought differed from that because all he cares was the Union. Although he had many times admitting himself an anti-slavery but his words and thoughts obviously prove that he is

(Swanson pg.9) He could not stand another Union victory over the Confederacy. Mr. Lincoln had sat by the first and last president of the Confederate State of America. (John was willing to throw away fame, wealth for a promising future for the cause of his Confederacy).(Swanson pg.10) Booth’s eyes lit up when he heard that the president would be coming to Ford’s theater.

Abraham Lincoln in the speech, The Gettysburg Address, constructs a point of achieving a "just and lasting peace" between the North and South without retribution. Lincoln supports his assertion by justifying his beliefs of unity between the states. Lincoln's purpose is to influence the people to not allow what has been done to go to waste. He wants his audience to realize that this division will only persist if no one settles the current issues in society. Lincoln speaks in a sympathizing, determined tone to address the Americans who are mourning the loss of their loved ones and to the rest of Americans who he wants to see a change from.

It was clear that during Lincoln’s presidency, the American political system had failed. The South wanted to cede from the Union, and this was only one of the problems going on during this period of time. The division between the North and the South was extremely prominent; they were both passive enemies. The South wanted the right to own slaves and induce slavery, while the North thought slavery was immoral and unjust while referring to the Constitution for argumentative backup.

Literary Analysis on “House Divided Speech” and “Civil War Journal” How did the Civil War redefine what it means to be an American? In the article of “House Divided Speech”, the narrator and main character which is President Abraham Lincoln, presents the American nation with the information of injustice that is being fulfilled in what is supposed to be a free country. He furthermore discusses the issue of slavery and how the North and South are divided. Lincoln proclaims, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Lincoln is stating that because there are two sides, for example, North and South, in which the North are “opponents of slavery (page 5- “House Divided Speech” in StudySync Booklet)”, and the South are “its advocates (page

“...conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure…” Lincoln states that all men are created equally but since there is inequality, the nation is in a ‘great civil war’ for the freedom and how long the people can endure this. “...under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” There is repetition here as well and parallelism. The urgency here in the Gettysburg Address is to make changes and demand for a ‘new birth of freedom’ or else the nation will perish and fall apart.