Lincoln's Inaugural Address Rhetorical Analysis

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With every speech comes a response. Whatever purpose it intended to have, fails, then the matters disappeared and at most, refuses to take the speakers words to heart. During a time of sensitivity, healing, and confusion, words are capable of acting as a medicated dressing all that is needed are the right words. Lincoln appears before the people of the states as one of their very own-- one who through a three minute speech spoke words of the people. By the time the war had ended, Lincoln had owned the oval office for 4 long years. He observed “less occasion” for the traditional… of most Inaugural Addresses and dives into the concern of recent events. A short summary of these events ensues, but through them flows impartiality and hope for reconciliation. We began by relaying the “thoughts anxiously directed to an impending civil war.” By appealing the past, Lincoln, perhaps unbeknownst to the crowd, reaffirms the passing of a great, unavoidable struggle. The people are free and in need of moving forward as a nation in it’s entirety. …show more content…

Lincoln reminds his listeners that no one won the war, but all learned from it. Both sides entered the conflict without knowing the consequences. Since “neither party expected [its] magnitude or duration, [nor] that the cause of conflict cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease,” neither party found whatever it was they thought to have lost. Could it be they forgot what it

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