The Gettysburg Address Rhetorical Analysis

The historian David Blight says that Lincoln’s message in the Gettysburg Address was to help the people recover from the deficit from the Battle of Gettysburg and the casualties that were caused by it. Lincoln simply wants to rebuild the country.

While the Gettysburg Address is fairly short in length at around 300 words, this famous speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1963 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is both enduring and meaningful for all Americans today, almost exactly 146 years later. The first paragraph of his speech sets the tone, in which Lincoln does not directly mention the bloody Battle of Gettysburg, in which 50,000 soldiers lost their lives. Instead, he refers in the opening phrase, “Four score and seven years ago,” to the founding of America through another important written document, the Declaration of Independence in 1776. I believe Lincoln wanted the country to focus on preserving this

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

Repetition is the final key rhetorical device in the address. Two examples of repetition are in the opening statement of the Gettysburg Address which set the repetitious nature of the whole speech. Common expression, such as “we,” “our,” and “us,” is used to tie the entire address together, but this set of repletion is outweighed by the other. The word “dedicated” has been used in the speech to not only tie the entire speech together but to also appeal to pathos, an emotional appeal. The words “I” and “you” are absent from the speech, instead Lincoln uses words such as “we,” “our,” and “us,” to include the people of the Union and the Confederacy to unite both parties as a whole under the one

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.

In American history, there were always these amazing speakers like John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), Martian Luther King Jr and others, that would influence the people around them to strive for success, never give up because there will always be hope, and one of those speakers was Abraham Lincoln in possibly his best speech “The Gettysburg Address”. The American civil war was the bloodiest war the Unites States had ever seen roughly 620,000 soldiers died, and in that dark time people needed inspiration to rekindle the flame of hope, to have something worth fighting for and Abraham Lincoln inspired them to fight for their nation and not let those who died for the cause not die in vain. In Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address he used rhetorical appeals, Parallel structure, Contrast, and Allusion to end the American civil war, unite the north and the south to end slavery in the United States once and for all.

Blood, sweat, and tears will always be shed. Maybe you will find bone or even an actual bloody body part on the very land of Gettysburg if you went back in time to the very moment of the war. July 1 to July 3, 1863, will forever go down as the bloodiest moments during the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point during the American Civil War. The American Civil War started because of the differences between the free and enslaved state. They fought over the power of the national governments to forbid slavery in the territories that have yet to become states. The South is also known as the Confederate were at war with the North also known as the Union. After the war Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech, The Gettysburg Address. In his speech he mentioned that the dead who fought shall not die in vain. His speech also addresses the concept of equality and the struggle with equality.

President Abraham Lincoln was one of the most honest and most popular of all of the presidents. For a large part of that presidency, however, he was only president of half of the country due to the nature of the American Civil War. Throughout his time in office, he was able to deliver many great speeches, of which include the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address. In both of these orations, he uses primarily uses ethical appeals to assist in the deliverance of and strengthen the main themes.

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 a reason to fight in the Civil War. Before the address, the Civil War was based on states’ rights. Lincoln’s speech has the essence of America and the ideals that were instilled in 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 about slavery he effortlessly ensured that no foreign country would

In “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln, the opening of the speech reminds listeners about the country's birth 87 years earlier. His words point out that the Civil War was testing whether the United States' foundations of liberty and equality were strong enough to survive. He gave his speech at the Soldier’s National Cemetery in dedication for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Lincoln honored the Union dead and reminded the people the purpose of the soldiers sacrifice: equality, freedom and national unity.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln stated, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.” Lincoln believed slavery to be abhorrent. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, announcing, “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious areas “are, and henceforward shall be free.” The Gettysburg Address and the Proclamation were steps toward a new nation freed from slavery. On December 1865, the 13th Amendment made slavery illegal throughout the United States. African Americans faced more struggles after the adoption of the 13th Amendment, such as: discrimination, segregation, poor wages,

The Gettysburg address argues that “forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (The Avalon Project) and to not forget about the dead that died for us. Since Lincoln emphasize that God makes everyone equal. Alexander Stephens argues that no, the blacks do not have the same equality as the whites especially, when he states “proclaims that slavery and white supremacy were not only the cause for the secession, but also the “cornerstone” of the Confederate nation” (Stephens 1). When Stephens says, “they were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal” (Stephens 2) since the Northerns were trying to make things equal which they weren't.

The Richmond Examiner expressed this thought towards The Gettysburg Address: "Kings are usually made to speak in the magniloquent language supposed to be suited to their elevated position. On the present occasion, Lincoln acted the clown." Here, the Richmond Examiner mentions that "Lincoln acted the clown", meaning that he didn't use fancy words or language to convey his message in the address. As the President of the United States, it would be expected for him to use a higher language level. While Lincoln did use simpler wording, his directness aided in a powerful speech that would continue to stay in the heads of Americans up until now.

The first appeal that President Lincoln touched on in the Gettysburg Address was ethos. He did not try to use his own character to reinforce his point, even though he was the President at the time. As a substitute, he started his speech by saying “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ‘all men are created equal’” (Transcript of Gettysburg Address (1863).) By saying “our fathers” he brought himself down to the same levels as the public he was speaking to and that these battles were not for him, they we for the founding fathers that signed the Declaration of Independence eighty-seven years prior. They were the men the fallen soldiers had fought for. They were the men that said, “all men are created equal”. Lincoln did not want to be the reason why the soldiers gave their lives. He wanted to remind the public that the war was being fought in the name of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence and the men that fought for the nations

In American history there are multiple immortal speeches that have been made by several of the most influential figures. One of such speeches is President Abraham Lincoln’s “The Gettysburg Address.” Lincoln gave this speech at the dedication of a cemetery for fallen veterans from the American Civil War. The purpose of the address is to convince listeners to respect the fallen soldiers from the war and to inspire them to finish what those men started and gain a new freedom after the civil war that truly represents equality. Lincoln uses an authoritative and inspirational tone in order to achieve his desired effect and create a somber mood for his audience of attentive Americans both at the cemetery and listening or reading otherwise.