Prolific for its apocalyptic portrayal President Abraham Lincoln’s Election, the speech delivered by Senator Robert Toombs to the state legislature in Georgia reveals anxieties of Southerners about the longevity of their lifestyle. Utilizing passionate rhetoric, The South Must Strike while There Is Yet Time displays how the future of the Union remains gloomy and unpredictable. Addressing the fellow legislators with vigorous pathos, the speech details how the security of Southern values remains paramount to the decision of secession. Moreover, Toombs features the question of slavery and its expansion heavily in his speech, deeming it the quality most necessary to preserve to preserve the Southern way of life. As Lincoln has been perceived by Southerners to support radical …show more content…
Written with fervour, Toombs articulates how Lincoln’s election dooms the South to have their culture overwritten by northern lawmakers. Dwelling on the issue of slavery, the speech presents the argument that the new Republican President would violate each citizen’s right to property as affirmed in the Constitution. Believing that Lincoln would undermine this principle, Toombs exclaims that Southerners “stand without a shield, with bare bosoms presented to our enemies.” (57) This allusion to the sectionalist divide that causes the Secession Crisis presents the Northern states as aggressors against the traditions of the South. Revealing the anxieties towards this northern aggression, the speech vilifies Republicans for their coercive approach to political reform. Moreover, Republicans are presented as a single-issue party of abolitionists throughout the work, which reveals how this “horde” worried Southerners in a time of uncertainty. (58) The unconditional drive to prohibit the expansion and abolish the institution of slavery concerns Southerners, as it would
In this paper there has been a discussion of the legislation and the tensions preceding the southern Secession. Based on this discussing it can be concluded that the tensions, which culminated with the Civil War, were present many decades before the secession itself. Even threats of Civil war and secession were present much prior to this particular conflict. This paper has also concluded that the threat of Lincoln was real to the South, because of the Republican party’s very distinct foundation as an anti-slavery party. Slavery was a soft spot in the South because of the substantial value slaves had.
In an almost identical setting four years prior to the occasion of Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln delivered a speech regarding a war that was yet to come. Over the next four years, that impending conflict became a very real national catastrophe that divided Lincoln's nation. Now, at the start of his second term as president, Lincoln issues a speech focused on reconciliation and the renewal of a wounded nation by joining again with the South. As a skilled public speaker and an extremely respected political figure, Lincoln utilizes three rhetorical strategies to highlight the similarities between the North and South as well as to declare the war as the real enemy in an effort to urge the U.S. to reunite.
Allen Guelzo and Vincent Harding approached Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the eventual abolition of slavery from two very different viewpoints. The major disagreement between them is whether the slaves freed themselves, or Abraham Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation freed them. Harding argued the former view, Guelzo took the later. When these essays are compared side by side Guelzo’s is stronger because, unlike Harding, he was able to keep his own views of American race relations out of the essay and presented an argument that was based on more than emotion. Allen Guelzo
In the short story "The Goophered Grapevine" Chesnutt uses the literary technique known as the frame story, in which a first story leads to another story within it by serving as a tool for comparison and contrast between two realities. The story is set in North Carolina shortly after the post-civil war where the first narrator—already engaged in the business of growing grapes—is looking for a place for grape-growing, as shown by these lines: "I found that grape-culture...was not entirely unknown in the neighborhood...but like most Southern industries, it had felt the blight of war and had fallen into desuetude." The author's aim is to portray the chasm between the society and mentality of the northern and southern states through two narrating voices: a white northern businessman and a
Concentrating on the issue of slavery, the speech describes how the new Republican President would violate the constitutional right to property that extended to protect slaveholders. Revising the principle that forms the basis for chattel slavery, Toombs exclaims that Southerners “stand without a shield, with bare bosoms presented to our enemies.” (57) This allusion to sectionalism presents the North as enemies of Southern tradition, describing in turn how unprepared the South is for the Republican future. Anxious towards this perceived northern aggression, Southerners present the abolitionist policies of the Republican Party to be unconstitutional and coercive.
The paper is based on the speech that was provided by William Henry Seward at Rochester, New York on 25th October 1858. The speech begins with criticizing the image of the Democratic Party in relation to the confidence that the American people placed on it. He talks about the significant role played by the Republicans in dislodging the Democratic Party and dismissing its high trust from the society. Henry gives an account of the American society, calling it a theatre, accommodating two radical political systems. He gives the description of slave labor and voluntary labor (by freedmen) as the two conditions operational in the society.
When analyzing Abraham Lincoln’s early presidential speeches, his objective to preserve the Union becomes quite apparent. However, we must not overlook Lincoln’s devotion to equality as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Examining the Address at Independence Hall and the Gettysburg Address reveals Lincoln’s dedication to upholding the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. In reading Lincoln’s early presidential speeches, many view Lincoln’s motivation for abolishing slavery solely as a measure imperative to preserving the Union. However, his intentions run deeper than war-time necessity in that he possesses a profound reverence for the Declaration of Independence and its ideals of equality, that, although not always explicitly
The ability for people to look at a situation from a different perspective is vital in today’s globalized society. Diversity is the most important, core attribute we each share that gives us the ability to assess new situations through our diverse backgrounds and upbringings. Unlike Patrick J. Buchanan’s argument in his essay titled “Deconstructing America,” diversity is a necessity in America’s culture as opposed to the burden it is described as. Conversely, Fredrickson 's essay titled “Models of American Ethnic Relations: A Historical Perspective,” illustrated a more precise version of American history that disproves Buchanan’s ethnocentric ideologies. Buchanan speaks of diversity on a narrow, one-way street.
Storm over Texas is a historical novel, written by Joel Silbey, that highlights the issues that came with the annexation of Texas into the United States. One of the key themes of the book is the transition Americans had to make from a partisan to sectional party and how it foreshadowed the crisis of succession and war. As Silbey ends his book with, “Texas annexation turned out to be another sudden, resounding fire bell in the night, one that rang longer and louder, and ultimately with more effect, than any that had preceded it” (181), he sums up perfectly how the Annexation of Texas left the United States, not so united. Joel Silbey’s
The South’s Secession The south seceding was a big turning point in history. It marked a new chapter, and not a very good one. The south seceded with a number of “grievances”. These “grievances” included a number of disagreements on major issues.
Oakes’ masterful command of the broad literature of slavery, race, and the Civil War era allows him to trace the parallel journeys of two iconic American leaders. Oakes tells an absorbing and didactic story, shifting between accounts of Lincoln and Douglas and ending with their meetings in the White House. By portraying Douglas as a character of equal significance as Lincoln, Oakes not only provides insight into Douglas’s life but also enriches the study of Lincoln. The convergence of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas during the nation’s greatest crisis reveals “what can happen when progressive reformers and savvy politicians make common cause”
President Abraham Lincoln, in his inaugural address, addresses the topic of the civil war and its effects on the nation and argues that America could be unified once more. He supports his claim by using massive amounts of parallel structure and strong word choice. Lincoln ‘s purpose is to contemplate the effects of the civil war in order to unite the broken America once again. He adopts a very hopeful tone for his audience, the readers of the inaugural address and others interested in the topic of American history and the civil war.
In his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” Frederick Douglass effectively advocates for the emancipation of slaves to a mostly Northern white population at an Anti-slavery meeting in Rochester, New York. Frederick Douglass, once a slave now a free man, was one of very few slaves who was literate. Douglass became known throughout the North and South for his speaking ability and the influence his speeches had on his audiences. Throughout the three different sections of this particular speech, Douglass uses a variety of rhetorical devices and strategies to accurately and adequately convey his anti-slavery message.
The piece of writing which I felt was unsuccessful for me was the Rhetorical Analysis of an article relating to a topic from our course book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. This piece of writing was difficult for me to organize my ideas around. The article that I decided to use for my rhetorical analysis highlighted mass incarceration among African American and the effect of civil liberties being are taken away from these individuals. I had a lot of repetition because many of the examples I used demonstrated more than one type of appeal. I found myself repeating what the purpose of the example was and how it demonstrated proper use of ethos, pathos, and logos.
In the essay What We Can Learn About the Art of Persuasion from Candidate Abraham Lincoln: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Three Speeches That Propelled Lincoln into the Presidency, Michael Loudenslager analyzes the rhetorical devices used by Abraham Lincoln that made him the most prominent political figure of the day. When Loudenslager’s analysis is employed to real world applications in various business ventures, this knowledge can be extremely useful in becoming a successful persuader in every facet of life. To begin, Loudenslager gives a brief overview of Lincoln’s extensive legal career. This history in and of itself is not terribly important to the overall message of the essay, but it helps outline a context with which Lincoln became the