Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Second inaugural address lincoln analysis
Rhetorical devices in lincolns second inaugural
Second inaugural address lincoln analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Second inaugural address lincoln analysis
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. Lincoln’s optimistic tone encourages all Americans to put behind them the Civil War and progress forward as a united nation once more. President Lincoln calls to action all the peoples of America with sentences such as, “let us strive on to finish the work we are in” and “ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace”. The tone that President Lincoln capitalizes on is purposefully optimistic because he hopes to end the war and move past the issue of slavery, among others, which has divided the nation, and he wishes to safeguard the nations reunification. Lincoln’s tone also has hortative sentences such as asking the American people to “strive”. President Lincoln also wishes to rid both sides of any grudges or rancor they may feel towards one another for the war by reflecting that “all sought to avert it” and by articulating, “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it…attained”. And towards the end of his speech, Lincoln calls the nation to be unified “with malice towards none, with charity for all” so that their minds and souls may be cleared of any ill will in order for the nation’s reunification to be permanent and not just superficial. President Lincoln evokes the nation as a whole to a higher degree in hop... ... middle of paper ... ... sought to avert it.” The different sentence lengths might resemble the difference among northerners and southerners, and Lincoln’s desire to bring them together and create a strong nation. The syntax uses by Lincoln emphasizes the goal of uniting a divided nation by combining different sentence lengths in order to create a legendary speech, illustrating that combining the Union and Confederacy will create a legendary nation. President Lincoln combines tone, diction, and syntax in his speech highlight his purpose of uniting a separated nation. His optimistic tone and diction enable the listeners to gain a positive attitude towards the unification of America. President Lincoln’s syntax also foreshadows his vision of a reunited America. The usage of these rhetorical devices allowed Lincoln to create the United States of America as one nation under God, indivisible.
The Gettysburg Address given by President Lincoln in the November following the Battle of Gettysburg acted as a call to arms. This speech gave the North a sense of pride and reassured them that they did have a chance at winning the Civil War. In The Gettysburg Address, Lincoln tells the audience not to let the men who died in the battle die in vain he tells them that their dedication will lead to a “new birth of freedom” in the nation(document D). This newly found sense of pride and hope led confidence which was something that the Confederate army was lacking at the
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.
It was a goal of President Abraham Lincoln’s for Reconstruction to be a very smooth and successful period of time. “With malice toward none, with charity to all,” Lincoln said in his second inauguration speech. He was referring to not only the conflict between black men and white men, but also the hard feelings between the north and south. The southern states had entered the Civil War with such confidence and dreams of independence that many were now humiliated at the idea of having to receive aid from the federal government. President Lincoln’s assassination also put in the country in further turmoil.
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.”
...after the Civil War, Frederick Douglass continued to think highly of Lincoln and his great speech. It was hard to believe that before the Civil War, the two men disagreed and fought over the greatest and most awful sin committed, slavery. But they found a way to form the friendship that would last throughout history. It was his famous quote that really brought attention. He had said of the sixteenth president, “His greatest mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery . . . . taking him for all in all, measuring the tremendous magnitude of the work before him, considering the necessary means to ends, and surveying the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into the world better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln.”
Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were both effective peacemakers, but Lincoln focused on creating peace in America while Theodore Roosevelt focused on foreign countries. When Lincoln became president the northern and southern states erupted into conflict over issues such as states’ rights and slavery (“Causes of the Civil War”). As the North and South fought, Lincoln did not only fight to help the North win, but sought out to reunite the North and South while abolishing slavery at the same time. When the Civil War was won by the North Lincoln avoided any hatred towards the Southern people and encouraged the Northern people to accept them back with. In a conversation with a woman who believed that the Southerners should be “destroyed” Lincoln told the woman “...am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" (Lincoln Quote 10/19/07). Unfortunately, Lincoln never got his chance to oversee the reunion...
'With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.' In the delivery of Lincoln's 'Second Inaugural,' many were inspired by this uplifting and keen speech. It had been a long war, and Lincoln was concerned about the destruction that had taken place. Worn-out from seeing families torn apart and friendships eradicated, he interpreted his inaugural address. It was March of 1865, and the war, he believed, must come to an end before it was too late. The annihilation that had taken place was tragic, and Lincoln brawled for a closure. The 'Second Inaugural' was very influential, formal, and emotional.
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.
Boom! A gunshot at a theatre is heard... and unfortunately a great leader falls a week after giving a very famous speech called the second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln. This essay is called upon and told to his fellow countrymen of both the north and south so that we all come as one. The author argues to the occurrence of the war and that there should be peace amongst the land.
One of the strongest basic values that Lincoln expressed was that the civil war as a devastating situation for most people. He expressed this by saying, “Both parties deprecated war.” Meanwhile, a more fragile basic value of his speech is the classification of the South as the destructive force and the North as the protective one. He said, “But one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive. And the other would accept war rather than let it perish.” This value splits the public into two factions (Hansen 244) that was defined by Lincoln as “good” and “bad”.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with furnaces in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations” -Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural, March 4,1865
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 was a great orator and an incredibly intelligent man, and his ability to use these skills won him the presidency and then allowed him to eventually keep the Union together, even through the inevitable Civil War. Through the Civil War, Lincoln provided extremely strong leadership and gave multiple powerful speeches including both of his inaugural addresses and his Gettysburg Address. All of these speeches shared the same objective of keeping America united, but they took different approaches to this goal, following the ups and downs of the Civil War. Although Lincoln’s speeches varied through the years, they were all extremely powerful and effective at achieving the particular goal
Lincoln's conquering of his audience's mentality starts at the very beginning of the speech, where he started with an allusion to build up the base of the emotion for the entire speech, the seriousness. ''All men are created equal.'' (35) The phrase from the Declaration of Independence prepares the audience for what is coming next. The Declaration of Independence is not for entertaining; the topic of the speech must be heavy and serious. Starting with a strong phrase grabs the audience's attention instantly. Also, for setting up the mood of the speech, Lincoln i...
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 ...