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Rhetorical Analysis Of Abraham Lincoln's 'Moby Dick'

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This document is a transcription of Abraham Lincoln’s speech on October 16, 1854 in Peoria, Illinois. Lincoln’s speaks passionately about the immorality of slavery and how the Kansas-Nebraska act is a direct and vile nullification of the Missouri Compromise. I found Lincoln’s speech to be extremely powerful and inspiring. The first thing that intrigued me was observing how modern his language was. I had a difficult time reading Moby Dick because of the language differences in that time period and it was published only three years prior to Lincoln’s speech in Peoria. Lincoln begins his speech by outlining just how large the territory of Nebraska is. It was about one third the size of what was then the whole of the United States. This altered …show more content…

Lincoln characterizes the depiction of slavery in the south as having been defined as a necessity due to the institution of slavery being so engrained in everyday life and economy there. Lincoln goes on to contend that in the settling of new lands the argument for slavery being a necessity or engrained in society is a complete falsity and an abhorrent violation of humanity. Lincoln speaks about how important our constitution is and that we, as a country, would be perceived as hypocrites by other nations for the inequalities we demonstrate with slavery. He expresses his fears that allowing slavery to spread to Nebraska would further the expansion of it into other areas of the country and eventually the world. It is very enlightening to read how broad and thorough Lincoln’s insights are. In reading history I have always assumed that the future was as uncertain to those in the past as it is to us today. Lincoln seemed to have a very clear and identifiable understanding for how events would unfold. His sense of what was right versus what was wrong and his vehement

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