For many white southerners, Lincoln’s triumph placed their future in the hands of a party hostile to their region’s values and interests. Those who wanted the South to secede did not believe Lincoln would interfere with slavery in the states, but worried that his election indicated that Republican administrations in the future might do so. Southerners in the Deep South, fearing they would become a permanent minority in a nation ruled by their political enemies, instead decided to secede from the Union to save slavery, the basis of their society. In the months after Lincoln’s election, seven states stretching from South Carolina to Texas seceded from the United States.…
The “First Inaugural Address” by Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States was held on January 20, 1981. The inauguration marked the commencement of the first four-year term of Ronald Reagan to be remembered as one of the greatest President’s ever. It was the first time the Inaugural Ceremony was held on the West Front (rear) of the capital, which to many Americans, that direction had always symbolized the boundless manifest destinies of opportunity. In this speech, the President talks about the many problems that America was facing back then. The rhetorical techniques that I find effective are hyperbole, allusion, Personification, metaphor, and Synechdoche.…
President Abraham Lincoln is one of the most eloquent and effective speech writers to have ever taken office. Ronald C. White Jr. presents Lincoln's Greatest Speech as an argument that Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address is in fact Lincoln's greatest speech. Through Lincoln's Greatest Speech, White applies several literary techniques to his writing in order to present an effective argument to his audience. The arguments he presents in his book uncover a deeper meaning of Lincoln's speech in a captivating way. White uses the techniques of dramatization, parallelism, and format to convince his audience of the importance and significance of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address that make it Lincoln's "greatest speech".…
A Rhetorical Analysis Of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was a speech Abraham Lincoln created and delivered on March 4, 1865. Lincoln wrote this speech for his election day where he would be chosen as America’s new president. The speech’s topic revolves mainly around how Lincoln proposes his plans for how the war, which is currently being faced at the time, should be dealt with. The war is between the Union, or the North, and the Confederates, or the South over a dispute where the Confederates wanted to be an independent nation, but the Union didn’t allow this to happen and the situation escalated to become America’s famous Civil War.…
At first, Lincoln tried to avoid the topic of slavery. In fact, in his first inaugural speech, he said he would not force the emancipation of slaves onto southerners, but would also not allow it to expand to the western United States. With this notion, states began to seceded from the Union and war began to break out between the north and the south. As the war progressed and more states seceded, Lincoln began to fear he would lose the war. He was losing his funding, a large number of soldiers were dying, and the soldiers morale on the battlefield was extremely low.…
Instead of contentment, despondency was spoke. Appearing enraged by anger Lincoln uses his chance to ease the pressure of the war between the states by addressing it in his second inaugural speech. But, instead of speaking as the victorious Commander-in-Chief Lincoln portrayed his message by speaking reflectively on the shared suffering of both North and South, representing ethos. In Lincoln's speech, he had a plan of reconstruction for the readmission of old confederate states to the Union on an oath of loyalty.…
In Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, he uses many rhetorical devices to appeal to our ethos, pathos, and logos. Through this he expresses his feeling about the Civil War; the motivation which made it come about and the outcome of the war. At this point the country had been a war for four years and tensions are high; President Lincoln has been reelected into his second term prepared to give a speech that will hopefully bring the nation back together so that they can “bind up the nation’s wounds”. Due to the fact that this is his second address, he felt that this one didn’t need to be as long, but it still had to be powerful. With Lincoln’s use of emotion, logic and respect of authorities, he creates a feeling of national unity and helps to once again unite the North and South.…
Strategic or Reactive: The transformation of Lincoln’s rhetoric during his presidency From an Illinois lawyer, to the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln is one of the most celebrated historical and political figures of all time. He led the United States through its civil war and paved the way to the abolition of slavery. Not only a proficient politician, but also an amazing rhetorician, Lincoln is the author of some of the most memorable speeches and letters in the American history such as: the Gettysburg Address, Emancipation Proclamation, his first and second Inaugural Addresses and so on. His distinct writing style has a restrained, legalistic, calmed tone and most importantly, passive. David Herbert Donald, an American historian, two times Pulitzer Prize winner and best known for his biography of Abraham Lincoln, argues mainly about this aspect of Lincoln’s rhetoric.…
He fulfilled his role as president and is one of the primary…
Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural was to celebrate a day in history that will remain in history. This election was so significant that this historical event was the first election in history that a government gave its power to the popular election. This election would forever eliminate the limits under the government political philosophy of the Democratic Party. Thomas Jefferson used the Inauguration Address to patch up what had been separated caused by his not so good election in the 1800s. In his address he tries to relay his ideas of trying to find a way to connect with people and stand ground of what is common.…
At the beginning of his presidency, Lincoln felt that southern secession would resolve itself over time, however he was criticized by the public for his indecision. He addressed the subject during his inaugural address, stating, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break out bonds of affection.…
In President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, he recalled the past and look toward the future (Johnson, 200). Lincoln stated, “He [God] now wills to remove [slavery], and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war” (Johnson, 201). Lincoln asserted that God imposed this dreadful and violent war on both the North and the South because He wanted to end slavery (Johnson, 201). Lincoln also suggests that God imposed this brutal war to punish each side for their wrongdoing (Johnson, 201) Did Lincoln think that God punished both sides equally? Although Lincoln suggested that God punished both sides, Lincoln believed that God punished the South more than the North because the Confederacy intended to expand the institution of…
In the Lincoln’s speech I remember him saying, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” This showed a change in his views that neither I nor the others around me expected to hear from him that day. The Gettysburg address also addressed the issue that everyone in the World were created equal. By Lincoln saying, “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” at the beginning of his speech and that the end of his speech saying, “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,” Lincoln showed the view that the war was about slavery and about the freedom of all men that were created equal.…
President Lincoln gave his first inaugural address in which he stated, “Shall it be peace, or the sword?” This was meant for the rebellious southern states that had already seceded from the…
Abraham Lincoln, a man known for his honesty and optimism towards the future of the United States of America during the turmoil of the Civil War. A man devoted to his divided country and its suffering people. A man grounded in his Christian faith. This man, the sixteenth president of the United States of America, spoke with precision and elegance. Lincoln presented many speeches during his life, and even after his assassination scholars explore his writings.…