Rhetoric In Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

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 addition he delivered the Second Inaugural Address. President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was carried out on March 4, 1865 during his second appearing as President of the United States. A point that was stated in his address was slavery. He reminded everyone how slavery was the main point of the Civil War and he felt and proposed it insulted GOD. Another point was about the war.

A question that has left many Americans puzzled is, was the civil was inevitable? Could the United States of America survived without the famous war? Would America be split in half? To answer this question one must look back and the reason the civil war happened and how it affected America.

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. The diction that Lincoln chooses to use displays that he is very educated, and that he wished to establish that he was speaking to both divided parts of the country, the north and the south, and that he planned on bringing the two together in his words.

When Abraham Lincoln took t the stand for his second inaugural speech, people were surprised by the short but effective speech that was given. Abraham Lincoln talked about some of the motives each side had and their reasons. Lincoln used some rhetorical devices to not only persuade his audience, but to show them that things could get better. He uses it very efficiently to provide solutions and to see past their problems. One of the rhetorical devices used was ethos or his credibility.

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. Lincoln indirectly questions the ethics behind owning slaves by referring to the bible and reveals the South using God as an excuse for racism. Quoting the bible, Lincoln concludes that “He now wills to remove” implying that God wishes to abolish slavery. The former president convoys God to have “his own purposes” suggesting to leave the war in God's hands.

When Abraham Lincoln was sworn in for his second term as president in 1865, he didn’t bore his audience with a long and frivolous inaugural address. Instead, he used his speech to reunify the divided country. Our 16th president’s tone, use of repetition, allusion and syntax convinced both the north and south that they shared commonalities, because of their devotion to God and their common opinions on the prolonged Civil War. The purpose of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was not to rally the north to win the Civil War, or to prove to the people that he was a worthy president, but to consolidate our broken nation at the tail end of a continuous and bloody conflict.

The Battle of Gettysburg occurred between July 1 and July 3 of 1863 in Gettysburg, PA. The battle only lasted for three days, but in that short period, there were more lives lost than during the entire Civil War. It is said that it was the turning point of the war and began the Union’s road to victory. The Union was led by Major General George Meade while the Confederates followed General Robert Lee. Around 50,000 soldiers from both sides lost their lives on that battlefield before the Confederate Army retreated.

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” -A. Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was the man who never told a lie, and he brought great success to our country. He came from nothing, living in the back of the store, where he worked the front counter. Abraham was a self-taught reader and lawyer, and spent hours and worked late into the night to create the best work he could.

Abraham Lincoln’s Establishment of Impartiality During the Civil War Abraham Lincoln served his presidency to the United States (U.S.) during one of the most decisive and divisive time periods in the nation’s history. Lincoln began his presidency shortly after the official formation of the Confederacy in the Southern states of the U.S. President Lincoln delivered his first Inaugural Address in 1861 to an already divided nation with the knowledge that the potential for a civil war was growing and that conflict was imminent. Taking the reins of a nation that was seemingly at irreconcilable odds, Lincoln served his first four-year term as president from 1861-1865; a time period that saw the violence of the American Civil War engulf and divide an entire nation. Near the end of the Civil War in 1865, Lincoln was elected for a second presidential term. It was during Lincoln’s second Inaugural Address in March of 1865 that he was tasked with again speaking before a divided