Rhetorical Analysis Of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

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Most would say the Union won the Civil War while the Confederation lost, but in retrospect they both lost. However, the number of Americans who perished during the Civil War outweighs the number of American causalities in every war U.S. has ever participated in, including World War II. Therefore, in reality neither side won for the loss greatly outweighed the gain. The idea of the war being a loss on both sides is something Abraham Lincoln expresses in his Second Inaugural Address through his sad and regretful tone. Lincoln creates his tone of sadness and regret to express how awful the whole war is, due to, the war going against God, how it affected the country, and how it affected the people of the United States of America. According to Abraham Lincoln, the whole war went …show more content…
In addition, to there already being a void between the two parts of the country there will distrust among both sides and open wounds still in the south for losing the war. This is expressed when Lincoln talks about, “ two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk,” or in other words all of the hard work of making the original thirteen colonies into a country will be for nothing, because now due to the Civil War the country will be separated on all issues. This easily, reflects the regretful tone Lincoln creates by expressing how centuries of hard work went to waste because of the war. In addition, the people of America have all experienced great loss due to the Civil War. They lost their husbands, their fathers, their brothers, their homes, and their lives all for a war that could have been prevented. Lincoln illustrates this when he states, “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan”. This reflects the sad, regretful tone Lincoln creates to express how the war heartbreaking the war was by, stating that both sides lost too much for either side to come out as
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