ipl-logo

Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Summary

541 Words3 Pages

During Abraham Lincoln’s childhood, he was raised in a Baptist church, but never joined the church of his parents. Lincoln’s religious views were more realist. He believed that God was not a personal God. God may have created the world, but he does not interfere with our lives. Lincoln was suspicious of the “feeling” religion. He did, however, use his religious raising throughout his childhood. When the six Southern state pulled away from the Union, Lincoln’s religious views began to evolve. He personally didn’t believe in slavery, but was willing to compromise with the South in order to keep the Union together. After his eleven year old son, Willie, passed away from typhoid-like disease, Lincoln’s religious views began to evolve even more. …show more content…

After the Union’s victory and his re-election. President Lincoln gives his Second Inaugural Address (1865), in his speech he addresses the war and the effects of it, “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other…. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes….If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time…” He also says, “Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” From the beginning of Lincoln’s presidency to his death, his relationship with God can be seen through his vast amounts of addresses to the country. The events of separation of states, civl war, and death of his son, caused his relationship with God to

Show More
Related
427 Words | 2 Pages

In hindsight, this seems the only way America’s worst moment could end. After some 600,000 American men had died of wounds, or grossly unsanitary medical practice, Lincoln gave his second inaugural address, the famous “charity for all” speech, on March 4, 1865, one month before his death. There is a photograph of him giving this speech, which also shows John Wilkes Booth standing above and behind him, on a balcony. Lincoln ended his speech with these words: “With malice toward none; with charity for all;…let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”

Read More
464 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
642 Words | 3 Pages

Lincoln's uses rhetorical strategy throughout his Second Inaugural Address was the use of an appeal to his audience's emotions. This is evident during his entire speech Lincoln continuously revert to religious evidence of some sort to support his claim. He says that although it may seem absurd for slavery's proponents to be allowed to pray to God, that his audience and he should “judge not that [they] be not judged,” alluding to the Lord's Prayer and appealing to his audience's Christian beliefs. He continues religion when talking about the Christians, he states, “Fondly do [they] hope, fervently do

Read More
837 Words | 4 Pages

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln employed various allusions to the Bible in order to show that the Civil War was a form of divine punishment for slavery that could only be amended through “the providence of God” (5). His purpose in his address was to restore hope in the citizens of the Union, and he accomplished this by utilizing Bible verses to create an ethical appeal to the idea that through God, America would be able to prosper in the face of opposition. This shows that Lincoln was well aware of the pride that Americans felt in the idea that the United States is God’s nation, and for many people, this firm belief still exists today. A second example that utilizes the idea that the United States is controlled by the hands of God in order to invoke pride and nationalism is Emmanuel Leutze’s famous painting George Washington Crossing the Delaware. In the painting, an aura of light surrounds George Washington and the American

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

There is clear evidence that over the duration of the Civil War and up to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, he had been reconsidering his previous beliefs about slavery and its future in America. For example, when the Civil War began, Lincoln believed that the only dispute the North

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

He believed there was a “physical difference” between them that would never allow them to live peacefully together. Interracial marriage seemed distasteful in his eyes. He also stated that he liked having superior and inferior roles in which he played superior. Lincoln did not want to have anything to do with the institution of slavery in the South. He never had any inclination to do so.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

(Peter Steinfels). Abraham Lincoln had been culturally influenced by his family as well as other famous writers. “As a youthful refugee from an ultra-Calvinist Baptist upbringing, he absorbed skeptical, anticlerical Enlightenment writers like Tom Paine.” (Peter Steinfels). Although he had been born religious, later in his political life he had to learn to keep his views personal and to himself.

Read More
793 Words | 4 Pages

The Civil War was a time period of social, political, and economic tensions. The North and South fought to decide whether to stop or continue slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the then president, addresses the two crowds before and after the war; however, in the second address, after the war, he uses specific literary devices to convey his message, of the need to end slavery. Abraham Lincoln uses varied sentence structure and appeals, in his succinct Second Inaugural Speech, to try to bring back harmony in the states and the abolitionment of slavery. Abraham Lincoln uses varied sentence structure to emphasize his message of harmony and abolition of slavery.

Read More
312 Words | 2 Pages

In Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address he said, "let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to build up the nation's wounds… and just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. " The main idea of his speech was to end the perilous fight that was the Civil War. Lincoln spoke about how the war needs to pass for the sake of the soldiers and the rest of the nation and that the war would end strong. Lincoln said that if God wishes for the war to continue, then it would because His word is final. When he said "malice toward none, with charity for all" he meant that people should stop fighting and show kindness to all (although at the time women and people of color would still be discriminated against).

Read More
680 Words | 3 Pages

During the Civil War , President Abraham Lincoln’s position on the practice of slavery had changed greatly from the start of the war to the end of it. He expresses his views on slavery through a variety of documents: both of his Inaugural Addresses, his letter to Horace Greeley and in the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Through these primary documents Lincoln demonstrates his initial feeling toward slavery as indifferent, for his priority was to keep the nation unified. As the war continued he stuck by his desire to keep the unity of the Union regardless of the state of slavery. By the end of the war, Lincoln called the practice of slavery an “offence” and that God “wills” the removal of its practice.

Read More
1033 Words | 5 Pages

He said that he did not really know what God wanted, but He could not be in favor of both the North and the South. To Noll, people knew what God wanted as if it were common sense, but Lincoln did not. Lincoln did, however, join together “trust in providence and much agnosticism about the work of God in the

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

President Abraham Lincoln uses a variety of rhetorical strategies in his Second Inaugural Address to pose an argument to the American people regarding the division in the country between the northern states and the southern states. Lincoln gives this address during the American Civil War, when politics were highly debated and there was a lot of disagreement. Lincoln calls for the people of America to overcome their differences to reunite as one whole nation once more. Lincoln begins his Second Inaugural Address by discussing the American Civil War and its ramifications.

Read More
135 Words | 1 Pages

Although in the beginning of his political career, Lincoln was not a particularly religious man, he integrates biblical references, allusion and scriptural quotes to address political issues. Many Historians and scholars have pondered the Lincoln's spiritual and religious affiliation. Harry Stout has written that Lincoln grew steadily more spiritual during the Civil War and that “along with spirituality came a sort of mystical fatalism.” Lincoln once said “Americans believe in Chosen people.” Lincoln compares the founding of America to the founding of Israel.

Read More
657 Words | 3 Pages

It would be more than difficult not to read Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address without some sense of pride or honor for one’s own country. He brings about a call to civility among all citizens striving for unity and harmony with one another. Lincoln understood the dilemma that slavery became for not only the Northerners attempting to abolish the practice entirely, but also for the Southerners perpetuating it in the first place. The fact that there was a faction rising in favor of slavery on a scale that would divide the country indefinitely and that Lincoln foresaw this danger demonstrates the level of prudence he was able to acquire up until his presidency. In this address, Lincoln stressed the importance of the nation staying unified and true to the principles set by

Read More
283 Words | 2 Pages

Lincoln thought about the war theologically, as well as politically. This made clear by his many insertions of the Bible throughout his speech―“God” (five times), “living God” (once), the “Almighty” (once), the “Lord” (once), “His” (three times), “He” (twice), “Him” (once)—all in the short space of 469 words in two paragraphs. With the words "The Almighty has His own purposes" Lincoln brought God to the rhetorical center of the address. In quick strokes he described God's actions: "He now wills to remove"; "He gives to both North and South this terrible war" proclaiming that this war was brought on by God as a repayment for slavery and the war will not end “until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the

Read More

More about Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Summary

Related Topics

Open Document