President Lincoln, King George VI, and President F. Roosevelt all gave speeches facing a conflict and they used ethos, pathos, and logos when persuading their audiences of the arguments they presented. They used ethos to prove their credibility and trustworthiness, pathos to attract their audience and connect to them on an emotional level, and logos to back up their information and arguments with logical reasoning. The First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln was given on Monday March 4, 1861 to his fellow citizens of the United States. In order to preserve the Union, President Lincoln needed the support from both the North and the South. The Southerners despised Lincoln because they believed he wanted to ban slavery. President Lincoln assured in his address that he would not interfere with slavery in the South and implored with the Confederate states to reconcile with the North. President Lincoln used logos, ethos, and pathos to appeal to his audience throughout his address. President Lincoln appealed to his audience using logos by providing the logical reasoning behind the slavery conflict, which was addressed primarily to the South. President Lincoln made it known to his audience that being a president you can only enforce laws that are already in place, so the issue of whether or not he was going to ban slavery had already been settled in the Constitution. President Lincoln referred back to the Constitution throughout his speech using logical appeal to explain to his people the reasoning, laws, and logic to why they could not secede. President Lincoln continues to primarily address the South and talk about slavery, adding an ethical appeal to his speech. President Lincoln says, “I have no purpose directly or indirectly, to ... ... middle of paper ... ... He showed his people in his speech that he was a strong leader and had the mindset to overcome a war. Not only did he appeal to ethos, but also he connected to his people emotionally through pathos. The King asked them to stand firm and unite in this time of trial. The King did not demand them to do this, rather asked this of them. By using this formal approach to reach out to the nation, he showed that he cared about them on a respective level. The King did not talk down to the nation when giving this speech. He made this speech as formal as possible because this speech was given one day before the outbreak of World War II and he wanted to show the nation he cared and they could overcome this time of terror. Through using these rhetorical devices, The King empowered the nation and reminded his citizens of their strength and abilities to overcome adversity in life.
Edlund, John R. Ethos, Logos, Pathos: Three Ways to Persuade.” Cal Poly Pomona, n.d. Web. 6
Disapproval, the Confederacy, and slavery were amongst the many crises Abraham Lincoln faced when addressing his First Inaugural speech (Lincoln, First Inaugural, p.37). Above all, Lincoln’s speech was stepping on the boundaries of the southern slave states. Once states began to secede, new territories formed and the disapproval of Lincoln grew. Despite Lincoln’s attempts of unifying the antislavery and confederate views, many whites refused to follow his untraditional beliefs. Lincoln encountered hostile and admirable emotions from the people of the Union and the Confederacy. However, despite his representation of the Union, not everyone agreed with his views.
At the time, the South depended on slavery to support their way of life. In fact, “to protect slavery the Confederate States of America would challenge the peaceful, lawful, orderly means of changing governments in the United States, even by resorting to war.” (635) Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and realized that slavery was bitterly dividing the country. Not only was slavery dividing the nation, but slavery was also endangering the Union, hurting both black and white people and threatening the processes of government. At first, Lincoln’s goal was to save the Union in which “he would free none, some, or all the slaves to save that Union.” (634) However, Lincoln realized that “freeing the slaves and saving the Union were linked as one goal, not two optional goals.” (634) Therefore, Lincoln’s primary goal was to save the Union and in order to save the Union, Lincoln had to free the slaves. However, Paludan states that, “slave states understood this; that is why the seceded and why the Union needed saving.” (634) Lincoln’s presidential victory was the final sign to many Southerners that their position in the Union was
Effectively communicating an idea or opinion requires several language techniques. In his study of rhetoric, Aristotle found that persuasion was established through three fundamental tools. One is logos, which is used to support an argument through hard data and statistics. Another is ethos, which is the credibility of an author or speaker that allows an audience to conclude from background information and language selection a sense of knowledge and expertise of the person presenting the argument. The impact of pathos, however, is the most effective tool in persuasion due to the link between emotions and decisions. Although each of these tools can be effective individually, a combination of rhetorical devices when used appropriately has the ability to sway an audience toward the writer’s point of view.
Lincoln believed that both sides were at fault for the start of the war, and that there was no need to have a war. Even though neither the south nor the north wanted war. They couldn’t come to an agreement over slavery. The south wanted to keep practicing slavery and to expand it to the west. “One-eighth” of the people that lived in the south were “colored slaves.” The slaves were on the side of the north and that may have been what pushed the south over the edge. From what I read in the speech I get the feeling that the south wanted slaves to do their bidding. They didn’t want to do their own work. Maybe they thought that having slaves gave them power over others, but it doesn’t. No one should be under the control of another person; every person’s life matters. The Civil War caused a wave a great sadness throughout the country. So many
Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was the belief that the expansion of it to Free states and new territories should be ceased and that it eventually be abolished completely throughout the country. He believed simply that slavery was morally wrong, along with socially and politically wrong in the eyes of a Republican. Lincoln felt that this was a very important issue during the time period because there was starting to be much controversy between the Republicans and the Democrats regarding this issue. There was also a separation between the north and the south in the union, the north harboring the Free states and the south harboring the slave states. Lincoln refers many times to the Constitution and its relations to slavery. He was convinced that when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution their intentions were to be quite vague surrounding the topic of slavery and African-Americans, for the reason that he believes was because the fathers intended for slavery to come to an end in the distant future, in which Lincoln refers to the "ultimate extinction" of slavery. He also states that the men who wrote the constitution were wiser men, but obviously did not have the experience or technological advances that the men of his day did, hence the reasons of the measures taken by our founding fathers.
In his second Inaugural Address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: “With malice toward none; with charity for all.”
When President Lincoln first called for troops to put down the confederate rebellion, he made no connection between this action and an attempt to end slavery. In fact, he explicitly stated "the utmost care will be observed to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property..." At this point, slavery was not yet integral to the struggle, it was much more important for the Union to air on the side of political prudence and avoid angering loyal boarder states. However, despite this lack of political dialogue, many abolitionists, slaves, and free blacks felt the war to preserve the union could also be a war to end slavery. In the end, they were right, as military need overwhelmed potential political dangers, slaves and the institution of slavery became a central issue in the civil war.
Four and a half months after the Union defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. He gave the Union soldiers a new perspective on the war and a reason to fight in the Civil War. Before the address, the Civil War was based on states’ rights. Lincoln’s speech has the essence of America and the ideals that were instilled in the Declaration of Independence by the Founders. The sixteenth president of the United States was capable of using his speech to turn a war on states’ rights to a war on slavery and upholding the principles that America was founded upon. By turning the Civil War into a war about slavery he effortlessly ensured that no foreign country would recognize the South as an independent nation, ensuring Union success in the war. In his speech, Lincoln used the rhetorical devices of juxtaposition, repetition, and parallelism, to touch the hearts of its listeners.
In Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, President Lincoln addresses a divided nation. Both the Union and the Confederacy are bitter to each other towards the end of the war. However, Lincoln calls both the north and the south to set aside their issues that divided them in order to heal their broken nation. Lincoln uses a slew of rhetorical methods in his speech such as tone, diction, and syntax to further assist him in achieving his purpose of uniting the nation.
For some, an argument may be a discussion that leads people to become mad and feel hate towards someone. This also might bring tension, between friends and family, but there’re times when people just want to discuss a topic that they feel would make the conflict better or resolved. When an argument happens, it’s recommended to use Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle. It is here that Aristotle set’s up three ways to appeal to the audience, which are ethos, pathos, and logos. These three appeals help the writer to persuade, inform, or convince the audience that what he/she is doing the right thing. Without Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle and Aims of Arguments, the writer would unsuccessfully perform an argument correctly. If creditability of the
Lincoln had to focus on the spread of slavery because if slavery spread, he would have a bigger population of people to deal with. In his first inauguration speech Lincoln said, “"I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” He confirmed to the south in this speech that he would not uproot the slaves already in the south because he did not think it was constitutionally correct. Lincoln makes it extremely clear that he does not want the intuition of slavery spreading. In his speech in Chicago, Illinois, he says, “But I say that the spread and strengthening and perpetuation of it is an entirely different proposition. There we should in every way resist it as a wrong, treating it as a wrong, with the fixed idea that it must and will come to an end." He knew that saying that he wanted to interfere with the institution of slavery that was established would make the south even
By the time of his speech South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas had already seceded from the Union. In his speech Lincoln had three main points: “to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government,” secession was impossible because the Union was unbreakable, and that any use of arms against the United States would be met with force but he would never be first to attack (Grafton 80). Lincoln aspired to increase his support in the North without alienating the South where most disliked him in fear of the end of slavery. In his speech however, Lincoln made it clear that his intention was not to interfere with slavery quoting “I have no purpose, directly, or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so” (Grafton 81). In hope to make amends with the South Lincoln closed by saying “We are not enemies, but friends. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature” (Grafton 81). Although meant to unify the North and South, this address had a larger impact on another
Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, was delivered March 4, 1865. During this time, he was in the process of attempting to mend both sides of the war. Instead of giving a victory speech to the North or a blame filled speech to the South, he instead spoke to both of them, in the attempt to have war reconciliation.