Lincoln Rhetorical Analysis

In his Second inaugural Address, United States president Abraham Lincoln, surprised the audience with a short speech in which he contemplated to discuss the issues of reconciliation, in order to unite the people of the nation back together. Lincoln was achieving his purpose by providing his vision for the future of the nation by expressing his ideas in hope to motivate the people to come back together as one.

At his second appearing to take the oath of presidential office, Lincoln used rhetorical strategies, careful word usage, and theological reasoning to express his views about the Civil War's incentives and outcomes in order to improve the nation after the Civil War. He goes to explain that the war cannot literally "[absorb] the attention" of the nation. He uses figurative language to emphasize how much the nation focused on the war. Lincoln has "high hopes" for America's future. The nation "dreaded" the war, and wanted to "divide" its effects. Lincoln uses alliteration in order to catch the reader's attention. Lincoln makes a stronger impact on the people by bringing up religion and the bible in his Inaugural address. He goes on to say that the union treated slaves unfairly. "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invoked His aid against the other." Lincoln's application to authority with this statement conveys that everyone reads the same Bible, and prays to the same God. Lincoln's address doesn't compare to other president's because each address delivered by the other fourteen presidents, all referred to God or deity, the Bible was never quoted once, as in Lincoln's.

By offering his vision for the future, Lincoln discusses both parties' involvement in the war through comparison and contrast. The north and the south were similar and different because "both parties deprecated war, one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish".