Lincoln 's Speech On The Civil War And His Vision Of Future For The United States

United States president, Abraham Lincoln, in his speech, “Second Inaugural Address” (March 4, 1865), addresses the conflict of the civil war. Lincoln believes that the war begun due to slavery and that it does not have to conquered by fighting fire with fire. He supports his claim by first addressing the opposing views of the war. He then states how both sides searched for a way around the conflict. Finally he speaks about what proposes shall be done during that time of war. His purpose is to address the conflict that risen and caused the civil war, how it will be dealt with and inform the citizens of the United States of his proposition. He adopts a solemn tone as he portrays his message throughout the majority of the passage and transitions into a more shocked tone as he speaks of how other are dealing with the ordeal as if to say, “Can you believe the way we’re behaving?”

Apart from abolishing slavery, Lincoln’s goal was to re-unify the Union and fix the division between the nation. During the “Second Inaugural Address” the 16th president of the U.S., Abraham Lincoln, recalled his first inauguration and stated “While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war…” In making this comment, Lincoln shows that his main goal has always been to preserve the Union, even before the war. Later on his speech, Lincoln maintains that “...let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves with all the nations.” The essence of his argument is once again proven to be the reparation of the union when he states this. Not only does he want a repaired nation, but he also wants everyone to forget the bitterness and rejoice the peace amongst each other.

Alongside the religious allusions, Lincoln uses a non-accusatory tone towards both sides of the battle in an attempt to not assign blame, and to keep the audience engaged and open to what he was saying. He says, “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.” He is careful to not call out the North, or the South. He also refers to the members of the other

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.

I believe he is again focusing on preserving the country and uniting all Americans, North and South, behind the nation and reminding them of our common history. President Lincoln also refers to the dedication of the Battlefield of Gettysburg, emphasizing that this is,” a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.” Clearly, Lincoln wants to remind all citizens that these thousands of casualties were for a great purpose of preserving this country, not dividing it through a Civil War.

The second inaugural address In which the president of the United States Abraham Lincoln, states that our nation needs to come together peacefully. In honour of all the many soldiers that died there in the name of freedom. The key factors making his speech great was the way that he used ethos,pathos,and logos. Abraham Lincoln used these literary devices in such a great way to persuade the nation that they needed to free the slaves and end the war. Writing the second Inagural address and Lincoln used ethos,pathos,logos to support his claim that america,ethos needed a rebirth of freedom.

He states that the Civil War tested weather a nation with the standards and principals of the United States would make it. He dedicates the ground that the solders died on the great battle which they had just fought and stated that the solders would not be buried, but instead left were they fell in battle. Lincoln then tell the troops not the let the brave men who died’s deaths to have been in vein. He then says that the country shall have a new birth of freedom and that the United

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

Lincoln’s optimistic tone attempts to persuade the audience into forgiving the South and making peace. For instance, Lincoln says, “to bind up the nation’s wounds,”, a bright and encouraging quote for the country’s future. By referring to the Union and Confederacy as a one entity, it depicts them as a single united country. What Lincoln also suggests is that the Civil

President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address clearly shows the cause for which the Union soldiers and officers bravely fought. The equality and freedom they fought for are easily misunderstood but not by President Lincoln. The equality he spoke of does not mean that each individual is completely the same, making their capability equal. Instead, it means that no individual is valued more than another because every citizen has the same value under God.

Lincoln tried in several ways to reassure the Southerners about his intentions in his inaugural address. Since some of the Southern states were stirring away from the Union, Lincoln knew he had to do something to try and change the Southerners minds. Also, Lincoln needed to be sure that the Southern states that were in the union, stayed. In order to make sure that the Southern states that were in the union stayed, Lincoln said that there would be no bloodshed or fighting, and that he was not going to attack them. Lincoln also reassured the South by saying that if there was ever a war, it wouldn’t have been his fault and that someone else would have to have started it. Lastly, Lincoln promised the South that if they didn’t leave the union,

While he might have pointed a heavier finger towards the South, he reminded the audience that “all dreaded it, [and] all sought to avert it.” The country couldn’t be united if the population was constantly blaming each other. He emphasized that while the whole country might have been at fault, the cause was “localized in the southern part.” What started as a disagreement between two parts of a country turned into the bloodiest war fought in the young country’s history. “Neither party expected… the magnitude” of the war, and “neither anticipated that the cause” (which was slavery) would end “before the conflict… should cease.” Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation before the end of the Civil War, so the main cause of the war was essentially concluded before the war itself was concluded. So, in conclusion, he managed to unite the country even further by acknowledging that both the North and the South held part of the blame of the

Lincoln speaks in a simplistic manner in order to convey his message to the common man. Prior to the start of the civil war, he made it clear that “all dreaded [the

Throughout the 19th century issues of slavery became increasingly more visible by the American public. Despite the America’s foundation of being a country which established freedom, the ideas of slavery contradicted this philosophy of American society. Outstanding leaders during the time address the how the implications of slavery affected the United States as a whole. Leaders such as Douglass, Jacobs, Lincoln, and Stowe used literary works to confront their audiences with the cruelty of slavery? One of the most influential men of the time was Lincoln who used his speeches to insight questions of the United States morality. His speeches would go on be quoted for decades to come as his ideas used religious ideas and ideas established in the

He continues and says, “…we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes” (Lincoln). Lincoln takes a firm stance against any form of invasion. Obviously trying to prevent war, Lincoln denounces any form of invasion, regardless of the crimes committed. Despite his best efforts, history tells us that the speech failed at preventing the South from seceding and the civil war from beginning. However, that does not fall on Lincoln and his speech. At this point the South seemed to have already made up their minds on leaving the union to form the Confederacy. There is a very good chance that no matter what he said in his speech, it was destined to fail.