Abraham Lincoln Rhetorical Analysis

On the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination and the emancipation of slaves in D.C., on April 14, 1876, a memorial of Abraham Lincoln was put on full display. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and advocate of black citizens, gave an arousing address during the celebration. This speech is given 11 years after the assassination of Lincoln and during this time in the U.S. many political issues are arising. For instance, the government ordered all Native Americans onto the reservations on the western side of the United States causing many of them to fight back the government. The presidential election also had its despairing moments when the democratic nomination won the popular vote but then lost in the Electoral and many were still feeling the effects of the Lincoln’s assassination. The monument shows a black kneeling at Lincoln’s feet which Douglass had his issues with. He questioned why the man was not standing as a free man.

Abraham Lincoln was born Sunday, February 12, 1809, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, He was the son of Thomas and Nancy and he was named for his paternal grandfather. Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter and farmer. Both of Abraham's parents were members of a Baptist congregation which had separated from another church due to opposition to slavery. As Abraham grew up, he loved to read and preferred learning to working in the fields. This led to a difficult relationship with his father who was just the opposite. Abraham was constantly borrowing books from the neighbors.

Rhetoric is the study of how writers and speakers use words to influence an audience. Pathos, Logos, and Ethos are examples of rhetorical devices, where the rhetorician would appeal to an audience to prove a point. In both the Declaration of Independence and The American Crisis #1, the authors use several examples of rhetoric to persuade their audience in the 1700s, to separate themselves from England.

union he may have lost the election. In several speeches made by Douglass he expressed "the mission of the war was the liberation of the slaves as well as the salvation of the Union. I reproached the North that they fought with one hand, while they might fight more effectively with two; that they fought with the soft white hand, while they kept the black iron hand chained and helpless behind them; that they fought the effect, while they protected the cause; and said that the Union cause would never prosper until the war assumed an anti-slavery attitude and the Negro was enlisted on the side of the Union." After the announcement of the Proclamation of Emancipation, the Governor of Massachusetts was given permission to create the regiment of

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 something to fight for. Before the address, the Civil War was based solely on states’ rights. Lincoln’s speech has the essence of America and the ideals that were put into 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 that was about slavery he was able to ensure that no foreign

Lincoln has different to eliminate slavery but that would be impossible. He also speaks about the education slaves had perspectives on slavery. He expresses his feelings and views on slavery in every speech he gives but in each speech he has different points of view. On some of the speeches he talks about how fast he wants in the southern states and how men preferred to have slaves instead of common men. He also talks of how they worked and were treated horribly. But then his opinions were also indecisive, he wants to satisfy the majority of states by stating his opinions in a way that satisfies the ideas pertain to slavery just to gain political power over his presidential election.

Could the North and South ever come together again and unite as one nation after the Civil War? The purpose of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was to offer his promising predictions for reconciliation with the South and his vision of the future. Lincoln utilizes strong and elevated diction to clearly articulate his vision for the future, with choices like “dreaded” and “sought”. Furthermore, Lincoln’s optimistic tone offers a beacon of hope, with examples like, “achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations,” and “to bind up the nation’s wounds”. The purpose of the address is achieved through parallelism and appeal to religion, too. Lincoln’s diction, one of his most powerful literary devices, is employed prominently throughout the entire passage.

Abraham Lincoln’s presidential career was full of questionable actions. Thomas DiLorenzo author of, The Real Lincoln discusses Lincoln’s actions regarding racism, his refusal to emancipate the slaves, his continual tendency to act independently of Congress, and his radical reconstruction after the Civil War. DiLorenzo attacks each of these topics in his book and proves that Lincoln had his own agenda, and was not the picture perfect president everybody thought that he was.

My rhetorical analysis is about a free African-American almanac writer, naturalist, and farmer who fought against slavery and who earned the recognition of many high officials of the time, including Thomas Jefferson. As D.L. Chandler pointed out, Benjamin Banneker, wrote to Thomas Jefferson, on August 19, 1791, to condemn the practice of slavery in the United States. Banneker attempted to persuade Thomas Jefferson of his forbearance of slave practices and the fact that he owned slaves yet pronounced himself morally correct in society. (Chandler, 2017) By changing his choice of words and phrases and suggesting a call to attention using history and the Bible as reference, Banneker adopted a respectful yet critical respectability to move

Seven score and fourteen years ago, following the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln stood in front of a crowd of approximately 1,500 people and gave a short speech. His audience included surviving Union soldiers, families of those who perished, and some politicians, all of whom gathered to consecrate the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address, although only 271 words and lasting a mere two minutes, is one of the most well-known speeches in American history. In it, Lincoln argues that though he would like to dedicate the field to the fallen soldiers, there is no way to “add or detract” from the consecration those men gave with their blood (Lincoln). In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln uses the stasis forms of evaluation and proposal to convince his audience of the importance of the fallen soldiers. Using the rhetorical appeals of pathos, appealing to emotions of the distressed soldiers, ethos, catching the attention of his audience with both his diction and his position granting him credibility, and logos, structuring his speech in such a way as to draw in his audience, he successfully resolves his constraints while continually surrounding his argument around the exigence, the loss of life at the Battle of Gettysburg, to the target audience.

Leutze’s painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, conveys that the people of America can overlook their differences and hardship when being unified by hope. He uses pathos in the color contrast in his painting to inspire feelings of hope in the unity of America. Dark color seems to loom, almost pushing upon the ships in the painting. Nevertheless, light surrounds the ships, seeming to flow from the American flag on the first ship. The American flag is a symbol of hope for the men on these ships, each of them being drastically different. The men gathered on these ships are all drastically different . George Washington himself is there, a highly respected general among common folk and even an African American man. Each of these men different in race, rank, and opinion are unified under a flag that represents each different person as a single people for the hope that they can earn their freedom. Despite the pressing darkness the flag shines a light of hope as a symbol of unity for the people of America. The pathos used in

In a time where African American have been deprived of rights, Frederick Douglass seeks to highlight the hardships faced by a slave to white Americans. In order to better get his point across Douglass utilizes a multitude of rhetorical devices, from chiasmus and parallelism to imagery and paradox. In some cases, he highlights the complexity if a subject and in others, he makes the point clearer to the reader by juxtaposing two ideas to emphasize the differences and underlying message through what ties them together. With the use of these devices backing his point he effectively appeals to his audience's pathos and logos which allows him to persuade his audience to open their eyes to their wrongdoings.

Abraham Lincoln, the abolisher of slavery, the African American’s President; he shocked the world when came up with plan to end the war. That was to take the South’s biggest asset, their greatest workhouse the Black community. The South were superior at agriculture without having to it touch. Then on the other hand you have the North that is big in factories and don’t want to lose any jobs. So Lincoln had a lot going against him he still pushed for the Emancipation Proclamation. The time period when everyone was fighting each other lincoln wanted something that would end the fight for good, something to bring this war-torn nation at peace. The amendment is to take away the heart and soul of the South so they have no reason to fight. At the time the Democrats were mainly in the South, while the Republicans are in the North where they don't need slave because they work complex mechanic jobs. President Lincoln was entering his second term and wanted the bill to pass before the election stared back up. With some other states already have secede from the Union with some

Furthermore, Lincoln used appeal to emotion as a way to reach out to his audience and unify the country once again. He stated, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” to support the victory of the Union. This pleased Northerners because it justified the reasons of entering the war and made it that slavery was immoral and against the will of the lord. Anyone with opposing believes was left to deal with lingering doubts in their consciences. Douglass’ tone was also very criticizing and even vulgar at times. In spite of this, his tone worked to his advantage and served as a call to action for the North for help in the pre-Civil War era. Douglass’ tone caused his audience to question their beliefs and consider Douglass’ standpoint

Lincoln felt that slavery itself had violated the fundamental rights of human, making other countries criticized American at being a hypocrite for contravening the Declaration of Independence, plus inquiring many citizens doubt the foundation which the United States had built upon. He sympathized with people who were affected by the slavery system, and did not want to criticize anyone whose lives revolved around its existence as he would do the same if he were in their situation. So, Lincoln thought of freeing all the slaves in the country and sent them to Liberia, which is slave’s original country. However, it would be impossible for him to execute his solution as it would need a huge fortune to move them away, then he would also need to help them settling in their new land. He somehow felt afterward that it his solution did not work, he would have to deal with other problem when emancipating them. First, he doubted that if he, himself, could consider hiring them to work for him as well as for other Americans, and would it be better than being a slave for them this way. He would also not agree with the idea of