Lincoln Second Inaugural Address Analysis

Words: 945
Pages: 4

The 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in his speech, the Second Inaugural Address, addresses the topic of the Civil War and argues that there needs to be more unity within the country. He supports this claim by making the issue and main problem’s cause to be well known, creating some kind of outline to solve the issue, and using the power of God as an influence over the citizens. Lincoln’s purpose is to show the northern and southern citizens that there shouldn’t be conflict between the two sides in order to bring the country together and allow equality for everyone within the borders. He adopts a blunt and reverent tone for his audience, the readers of the Inaugural Address, and others interested in the topic of resolving …show more content…
His first sentence is incredibly blunt and states that, “At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first.” There was no hiding the fact that this ongoing issue was become more of a burden on not only the president, but the citizens as well as Lincoln later states, “… which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the greatest contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation…” By making these statements, he is trying to persuade his audience into understanding the harsh effects of continuing on the war that could lead to more division within the country; its consuming valuable time that could be used to make their own society more durable. For those who are still confused on what their stance should be, as suggest by Lincoln, there begins to be some repetition on everything that was going on and the main fault for it. In multiple spots throughout the passage, he mentions the division caused by the war and how it could have been avoided. Over-all in order to keep his topics well understood and clear, Lincoln repeatedly mentions his overview of the Civil War and the negative grip it has on the