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In Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, President Lincoln addresses a divided nation. Both the Union and the Confederacy are bitter to each other towards the end of the war. However, Lincoln calls both the north and the south to set aside their issues that divided them in order to heal their broken nation. Lincoln uses a slew of rhetorical methods in his speech such as tone, diction, and syntax to further assist him in achieving his purpose of uniting the nation. Lincoln’s optimistic tone encourages all Americans to put behind them the Civil War and progress forward as a united nation once more. President Lincoln calls to action all the peoples of America with sentences such as, “let us strive on to finish the work we are in” and “ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace”. The tone that President Lincoln capitalizes on is purposefully optimistic because he hopes to end the war and move past the issue of slavery, among others, which has divided the nation, and he wishes to safeguard the nations reunification. Lincoln’s tone also has hortative sentences such as asking the American people to “strive”. President Lincoln also wishes to rid both sides of any grudges or rancor they may feel towards one another for the war by reflecting that “all sought to avert it” and by articulating, “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it…attained”. And towards the end of his speech, Lincoln calls the nation to be unified “with malice towards none, with charity for all” so that their minds and souls may be cleared of any ill will in order for the nation’s reunification to be permanent and not just superficial. President Lincoln evokes the nation as a whole to a higher degree in hop... ... middle of paper ... ... sought to avert it.” The different sentence lengths might resemble the difference among northerners and southerners, and Lincoln’s desire to bring them together and create a strong nation. The syntax uses by Lincoln emphasizes the goal of uniting a divided nation by combining different sentence lengths in order to create a legendary speech, illustrating that combining the Union and Confederacy will create a legendary nation. President Lincoln combines tone, diction, and syntax in his speech highlight his purpose of uniting a separated nation. His optimistic tone and diction enable the listeners to gain a positive attitude towards the unification of America. President Lincoln’s syntax also foreshadows his vision of a reunited America. The usage of these rhetorical devices allowed Lincoln to create the United States of America as one nation under God, indivisible.

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