Rhetorical Analysis Of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was a seminal document in our nation’s history. Lincoln used the opportunity to try and bring a wounded nation back together, employing several rhetorical strategies in his speech. Lincoln wrote his Second Inaugural Address himself. He had already been president for one term and had just been re-elected. He could have used the speech to celebrate himself and his efforts in the war, which was nearly over. He didn’t. Instead he tried to motivate his people to try to rebuild the nation and not focus on who was wrong or who “lost.” In the second paragraph, Lincoln states, “all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it,” and later in that paragraph he also said, “Both parties …show more content…
In the final paragraph of his speech, Lincoln invites the nation to, “strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation 's wounds.” When Lincoln uses inclusive speech, it further helps to unify the nation. When he says, “Let us” and “We,” he is addressing the nation as a whole, as one: “let us judge not that we be not judged.” The reason that Lincoln worked so hard to unite both sides is because he expected some bitter feelings and animosity from his audience. He was definitely correct about that. The war had been long and difficult and both sides had been hit pretty hard. Lincoln uses references to the bible throughout his speech, and that is something that both the North and South could relate to. He is able to take advantage of pathos and draw the two sides together with a sacred text that both sides revere, but without making it sound like God had taken sides “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. “ He has achieved his purpose of building …show more content…
Lincoln was wise in addressing this issue in his speech. In order to truly unite the two halves, there needed to be a consensus about slavery. Using the bible and citing religion in the third paragraph, Lincoln insisted that slavery was against God’s will, “American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came.” Lincoln hoped that by using religion and God, that he would be able to further unit both