What Are The Rhetorical Devices Used In Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

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Throughout Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural speech, he gives different similarities between the North and South. He noticeably uses religion when he is trying to convince the nation that people aren’t so different in the eyes of God. And no matter which way the war favors, it will be decided by God. Lincoln’s speech is mainly in order to save the Union from war. In Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural speech, he uses allusions, repetition, and logic in an attempt to make the audience recognize the moral and religious dimensions of the war. In Abraham Lincoln’s speech, he uses different rhetorical devices and tactics to try to bring both sides of the nation together in order to stop the civil war. For example, in the beginning of Abraham Lincoln’s …show more content…

In Lincoln’s speech, he is trying to stop the downfall of the nation because of a civil war. Lincoln addresses that fact that everyone should be working together to save the nation when he explains that, “While the inaugural [sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war.” Here Lincoln is expressing how he wants peace without war. He wants to minimize the damage of the war because the new nation still has many enemies that it has to watch out for and the people should expend resources on fighting each other. Abraham Lincoln understands that each side has their own conflicts and reasons for fighting, but he wants the people of the nation to realize that it will be the downfall of their young nation if they do not work together. Abraham Lincoln shifts from his own credibility and the nation's weakness to a logical appeal and allusion to the Bible. He uses a black population statistic to help prove his point when he asserts that, “One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of

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