Lincoln's Inaugural Address

Panel 3: On March 4, 1861, after being elected as the president of the nation, Abraham Lincoln gave his first inaugural Address where he claimed that he had no purpose to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it’s practiced. He had no inclination to do so. He was just like any other northerner who believed that slavery should not expand but never considered the black and white to be on the same level.

Washington’s farewell address and Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address both mention about the military, the relationship between North the South. Also they both achieve and cherish a just and peace nation. Lincoln’ thinks people are afraid of the civil war, so they are trying to avoid the civil war happen. However, Lincoln claims the reason cause the war was interest, he is telling people he would devotes altogether to saving the Union without war. In Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address, we can see Lincoln is more focus on the slavery. However, in Washington’s farewell address, he is telling people more about the relationship between North the South, not just focus on slavery, he thinks the North and South are in an unrestrained intercourse with each

Abraham Lincoln believed that to preserve the union, he would need to free slaves, but it was more than that, he needed to find a way to bring the country together as one rather than separation. He said himself, " if I could save the union, without freeing any slave I would do it...", that shows that the abolition of slavery was not Lincoln's number one priority, but he believed it needed to be done in order to preserve the Union.

When Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in 1860 the Union was divided. He accepted his presidential duties knowing that he was working with a nation that no longer remained united. Seven of the southern states had already seceded from the Union and were beginning to refer to themselves as the Confederates. What he had now were free states and slave states. When Lincoln gave his Inaugural Address he attempted to do so in a way that would not dissuade his chances of gaining support in the southern states, especially when it involved the institution of slavery. However, he also made it clear in his address that he believed a secure and united nation was of utmost importance and he rejected the ideas

President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address on January 1961, suggests that the United States must unify and act upon injustices in the country. He supports this claim by first calling out to countries around the world, then speaking to the citizens of America and asking them to take action, and finally by creating a sense of patriotism to help connect the people to their country. Because he is the youngest president, Kennedy adopts a tone of excitement and energy for his younger audience, but a tone of maturity and authority for his older audience members.

Language plays a crucial role in the development of power. Famous personalities in the United States use rhetorical devices to emphasize a specific point and make it clear to the audience. President Thomas Jefferson is a Democratic-Republican and won the election of 1800. In 1801 he presented his inauguration speech and was significant because it was the first time in the history when the power shifted from one party to the other. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as an American minister and played an active role in the civil rights movement. John F. Kennedy delivered his speech during his inauguration in order to develop relations with the Soviet Union and end Cold War. All the speeches were delivered by most known personalities and made use of rhetorical devices such as allusion and repetition to make their message memorable in the hearts of the citizens of America.

“The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration” (Edwin Louis Cole). Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” is a speech that highlights every point in Cole’s quote. He, Lincoln, talks about how the south manages to rebel, how their economy will be left in ruin, how they will repent and be forgiven by both God and the North, how the North and the South will reconcile, and finally he talks of how the nation will move on to restoration. Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” emphasizes the reconciliation of a torn apart nation by appealing to pathos, logos, and ethos and by using diction to appeal to the listener’s emotion.

Lincoln employed biblical allusions and imagery throughout his speeches and writings to articulate political religion and give the political principles a new appearance for the people to understand, admire, and reassert. President Lincoln’s use of biblical imagery helped revoke the platform the supporters of the institution of slavery argued upon, while appealing to the nation through romantic religious language. The biblical imagery encased in Lincoln’s rhetoric allowed for a better understanding of the republican principles found within the nation’s sacred documents that constituted for a national political religion.

On March 4, 1865 Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address as president of the United States. The inaugural address came at the very end of the American Civil War, and just a month before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Prior to this address, the United States had been split into two different independent states, the Union and the Confederacy. Throughout Abraham Lincoln’s first term and the very beginning of his second, Lincoln had to deal with the secession of the eleven states that made up the Confederacy. Also during the war, Lincoln competed in the 1864 presidential election in which his leadership was challenged by George B. McClellan. This inaugural address was important at the time, and remains a relic of Abraham Lincoln’s powerful speaking ability.

Since the foundation and establishment of the United States of America, Americans, either as a civilian or a politician, have sought after peace and unity. Leaders throughout our history have exploited manifold means to achieve this idealized notion, including diplomacy, appeasement, ransom, and, ironically, war. John F. Kennedy, a young, brilliant, and Catholic Democrat, delivered his inaugural speech on a frigid January 20, 1961. JFK’s inauguration became the first inaugural speech to ever be given on live television; therefore, Kennedy’s rhetorical skills and appearance played a large roll in the viewers’ initial impressions of their newly elected president. Televising JFK’s inaugural speech consequently magnified the audience directly receiving his speech, which now including almost all television-owning Americans. Like many other presidents, JFK delivered an extensive, yet general, outline of what his four next years in office will look like for Americans. However, unlike many other presidents, JFK won the presidential race by a very small margin, which required him to mitigate and mollify the opposing political party’s members. He was unable to introduce any cataclysmic changes that he intended to make because many Americans would be outraged. Due to the cold weather and uneasy tension about a close presidential race, JFK inevitably delivered a succinct message to celebrate his victory, appease the opposing party’s members, and give a guideline to show how the next

As I read the lines carefully of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, I wonder how a man who is elected for his second term as president with over 54% of the popular vote, and in turn, compose such an eloquent address can be assassinated little more than a month later. In reading other commentaries concerning this address it seems to me that everyone concurs that this address is one of the finest speeches ever written by a president. Lincoln wrote other memorable speeches such as his first inaugural address, and the Gettysburg Address, which are of equally high caliber, however, his second inaugural address is considered a favorite by most critics. Even the surrounding circumstances at the time

In Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum speech given in 1838, he instructs the audience how perpetuate our political institutions. How do we keep our country united? “The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty…swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.” But what about bad or unjust laws? “[I]f they exist, [they]should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should be religiously observed.”

George Washington had to borrow money to relocate to New York, then the center of American government. His presidential inauguration was held near New York 's Wall Street in late April 1789. A tremendous crowd showed up to see the man now known as "the Father of His Country." Borrowing a custom from English monarchs, who by tradition address Parliament when its sessions open, Washington gave a brief speech. It was the first inaugural address and the first of many contributions that Washington would make to the office of the presidency. But this would be no monarch; the new leader wore a plain brown suit.

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

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. In his inaugural speech, he declared that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and that this was a binding contract. He said he didn’t have any plans to invade the southern states, but that he would use force to maintain possession of federal property.