Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Essay

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Lincoln 2nd Inaugural Speech Analysis

Abraham Lincoln is considered by many people to be best president of the United States, and is also viewed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest speakers of the Western world. What makes Lincoln’s speeches so effective is not the length, but the rhetoric power that the speech brings. In the majority of his speeches, Lincoln utilizes either the elements of ethos, logos, and pathos to captivate his audience; however, in his 2nd Inaugural address, he successfully combines all three rhetorical elements to make his speech all the more impactful. In his 2nd Inaugural address, Lincoln uses powerful rhetorical techniques, such as parallelism, biblical allusion,appeal to authority, active voice, and a consistent …show more content…

The reason that he does this is not to make the audience forget the war, but to establish a vision of prosperity, something that the audience can strive to work towards each and every day. By comparing the nation to an injured animal, Lincoln states that the Civil War will eventually fade into a scar, a scar that will serve as a reminder that freedom is not free and that the past must never be forgotten. The continuous use of God throughout his final paragraphs suggest that only God is the one who can determine reason from wrong, and that God has the final say on the duration and effect of the war. The entirety of this speech is also viewed as a warning to the audience, a warning that shows just how weak humanity really is. Lincoln’s primary message is that of sadness with small amounts of hope. Instead of using condemning language he uses words like “cherish”, “achieve”, “strive”, and “peace” to show that he also forgives those who were for slavery. He establishes hope in the audience by using pathological imagery of a “widow and his orphan’” stating that those who gave their lives, for the right reason, died for the future of the country, a future that was greater than their own

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