(A depiction of how the Gettysburg Address and Letter to His son are both similar and different in what Lincoln and Lee talk about) Thousands of men died in November 1863. Within in a couple of days bodies laid scattered across the battle fields while tens of thousands men sat in a hospital. All of these men participated in one thing, the Civil War. Fighting for the rights of the people and what our constitution stood for. Families and friends had to pick a side, South or the North. Each had their reasoning for why they stood to fight, but surprisingly their reasoning was similar. Each state was proud they live in a country that had broken away from British. They marveled at the idea that all men are created and equal and have certain rights. Americans were proud. Proud to the point that they never stopped pay attention to all that they did. Proud because they put laws on humans and threw them into bondage. In 1861 people started to take sides. In some ways it was unconstitutional, but in others they were fighting for the people. The Civil War had begun. The fate of our country was in the hands of the people. On opposite sides of the war, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee wrote The Gettysburg Address and Letter to His Son there were three astonishingly similarities and differences in the two works: the people are one, acts were unconstitutional and the nation is on shaky ground. Lee and Lincoln both wrote about how the people are one as stated by the founding fathers. In the constitution it says that all men are created equal. Both sides understood that all white men were equal. The founding father fought for the equality of men. “Four score and seven years ago out fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived... ... middle of paper ... ...d that it was a very realistic idea that our country would be destroyed and never be the same. Southern and Northern People had different ideas about the civil war. There were problems within their country and they wanted to fix them. They knew the country was created for the people and was run by the people. They wanted the nation to succeed, but one side wanted it to be free for all people no matter the race, while the southern wanted to keep slaves. With these complete opposites ideas of thinking the southern states decided their only option was to separate from the Union. They split and this left the country confused. Confused about what was in store for the nation they had grown to love. It was no longer clear what they future held for American and it would take a couple of years to get the country moving down the path that leads to the world we live in today.
Abraham Lincoln became the United States ' 16th President in 1861, delivering the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863. If there is a part of the United States History that best characterizes it, is the interminable fight for the Civil Rights. This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, 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. "The Declaration of Independence states “All men are created equal”.
In the 1860’s the United States weren’t united because of the issue of slavery. The civil war was never just about getting the union back together, but about making it count and getting rid of slavery. The south wanted their slaves and would say they are “-the happiest, and in some, the freest people in the world”. (Doc 5) However, the north knew that was not true because of Harriet Beecher Stowe's “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. In 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed it caused some issues. Anti-slavery supporters were not happy because they did not want expansion of slavery, but the pro-slavery supporters weren’t happy because they wanted slavery everywhere for sure. (Doc. 7)The Kansas-Nebraska act caused trouble before it was even passed, Senator Charles Sumner argued against and attacked pro-slavery men causing Preston Brooks to beat Sumner with a cane. The south praised Brooks while the north felt for Sumner. (Doc 8) In 1858 during his acceptance speech Lincoln said his famous line, “A house divided
Social inequality was one of the fundamental differences between the two men. Lee was an aristocrat who believed in traditional chivalry. This belief had become historically antiquated because America became the land of change. In America, the aristocratic society was slowly being replaced by an industrious and forward thinking society. (Catton 429) He also believed in the establishment and the maintenance of a clear cut social order between each class of individual. Catton wrote, “In such a land Lee stood for the feeling that it was somehow of advantage to human society to have a pronounced inequality in the social structure” (429). In contrast, Grant believed that everyone had the opportunity to succeed in society and that everyone had the same opportunities. Catton wrote, “No man was born to anything, except perhaps to a chance to show how far he could rise. Life was a competition” (430).
September 16-18, 1862, outside of the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, between the Potomac River and Antietam Creek, was the location of the bloodiest battle in American history. Confederate Colonel Stephen D. Lee described it as “Artillery Hell” because of the frightful toll on his gunners and horses from Federal counter battery and infantry fire. (AotW, 2014) The battle of Antietam, or the Battle of Sharpsburg, would collect an estimated 23,100 total casualties (Luvaas and Nelson, 1987). The body count far exceeded any of the other three battles waged in the Maryland Campaign (Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Shepherdstown). This battle was a contributing factor in the outcome of our country and the rest of the world. The Union Army desperately needed a victory at Antietam; however, a victory for the Confederate rebels may have very well gained them international recognition as a sovereign country in the eyes of the rest of the world. The Federal Army, which belonged to the Union States, consisted of an all-volunteer army and was a larger army than the Confederate States. Even though the Battle of Antietam was inconclusive, President Lincoln went on to read the Emancipation Proclamation to the country, effectively ending slavery, and ensuring that no foreign nation would intervene on the Confederates behave.
When the battle of Gettysburg, known as one of the bloodiest battles in history, ended, the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, gave his famous Gettysburg Address. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the thirty-second president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, gave his speech to Congress that would later cause Congress to declare war on Japan, thus creating World War II. Each president was elected for at least two terms. Lincoln could not serve out his second term as he was assassinated about a month after being reelected for a second term. While both presidents and their respective speeches have influenced many, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speeches were more effective than Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.
On November 19th, about seven score and twelve years ago, President Abraham Lincoln gave a monumental speech known as the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln’s address was comprised of two-hundred and seventy-two words which were separated by ten forms of various punctuation and lasted a mere two minutes. However, although short, the speech was particularly concise, and is still resonating in the classrooms of High School and College campuses. In fact, Edward Everett also gave a speech that day over the same subject, and he is quoted saying, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”
In Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech” and Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg address,” the two men employ rhetorical strategies in order to show the public the need for a better world. Two men from different backgrounds and different times both advocate for equality. Although Abraham wrote the Gettysburg Address way before Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech, the two speeches are connected through semantics and rhetoric. King and Lincoln both use the same strategies in the making of their speeches. A hundred years and about three wars fall between the two speeches and yet they still are advocating for the same thing in a similar way.
The Gettysburg Address is without a doubt one of the most famous speeches in American history. However, at the time, it was simply an uplifting, motivational speech by the sitting president as part of a ceremony dedicating the Gettysburg Battlefield as a National Cemetery. Now, it is viewed as an historic address delivered by one of the greatest presidents and orators to ever live, Abraham Lincoln. It has also become the benchmark for speeches today and is the subject of many articles, talks, and books alike. Naturally, many speakers and authors offer a similar type of insight that one might have considered or encountered previously. In Lincoln at Gettysburg, Garry Wills offers an original perspective on the Address by arguing his belief that President Abraham Lincoln gave America “a new birth of freedom” with his famous words at the Gettysburg battlefield.
The Civil War was an important war over the freedom of slaves in the U.S.. The Civil War is well known for being caused by the issue of slavery, but it is really a combination of different events and actions that caused tensions to rise throughout the country. The economic and political issues in the U.S., along with certain actions caused the Civil war, which is one of the United States’s worst wars. All in all, the Civil War was one of the most devastating wars for our country as a whole, and the process of rebuilding would take years and is no easy job.
The sacrifice of the lives of so many soldiers gave Lincoln a new perspective on life, liberty, and freedom and now Lincoln is no longer defending slavery. Before the Civil War, the “Union” tried to ignore slavery and the fact that blacks were actually included in the Declaration of Independence. This was now recognized by Lincoln and the rest of the nation as the essence of a democratic government. The sacrifices of the Union soldiers ensured a government geared by the people and for the people.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, there was great conflict throughout the United States. The North and South had come to a crossroads at which there was no turning back. The Secession Crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and the South disagreed on slavery and what states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and rose up in revolt by forming the Confederate States of America.
In a very humble and quick speech Abraham Lincoln not only honorably confers a departure to the soldiers who gave their lives for their country, but also unites a nation under a common goal. Through his rhetorical usage of repetition and parallelism Lincoln delivers his chief message of unity as a nation. In Abraham Lincoln’s revolutionary and celebrated speech “The Gettysburg Address,” Lincoln’s use of superior rhetoric and leadership reignites the American people’s passion and desire to come together for a common goal.
At 7:30am, on Wednesday, July 1st, 1863, at the intersection of Knoxlyn Rd and US Rt. 30 Chambersburg Pike, a shot was fired by Lieutenant Marcellus Jones. This shot would not be forgotten, as it was the beginning of what would turn into one of the biggest turning points of the Civil War; The Battle of Gettysburg. This three day streak of combat would later be referred to as the “High Water Mark of the Rebellion.” With the outcome being an overall Union victory, the Battle of Gettysburg would mark the point at which the Union would place the Confederacy on the defensive and end General Robert E. Lee’s most ambitious attempt to seize Union territory. The Battle of Gettysburg was so critical, in fact, that it lead to one of the most vital documents written in United States history, the Gettysburg Address. How exactly did this battle guide President Abraham Lincoln to write the Gettysburg Address is a common question among many.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Thomas Jefferson, a white, Christian, political southern slave owner, wrote these words in 1776, a period in United States history when slavery thrived. The writer of the Declaration of Independence contradicts himself when he states that all men are created equal, when in actuality, his slaves were denied all that humans were meant to cherish.
Speeches, they are large body paragraphs of words put together on a page to persuade, inform, and explain so many topics. They all can be so similar but also very different, in ways most wouldn’t think of. They can open the eyes of those who are lost, and change lives and the way things are thought of. The two speeches, “The Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg”, and “Pericles’s Funeral Oration” are speeches that similarly support the same topic but are still very different.