Allusions In Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

In his Second Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln had one purpose; to cast a vision of the nation’s future. To achieve this purpose, Lincoln appeals to the audience’s emotion and includes biblical allusions. By appealing to the audience’s emotion, Lincoln creates a stronger connection which leads to the audience becoming more open, and thus more feasible to Lincoln’s vision. To do this, Lincoln introduces the 2 opposing sides as one audience by using the word “all.” By stating that “all dreaded it, all sought to avert it” (18-19), Lincoln creates a link between the audience and himself which sets up the opportunity to influence the audience’s emotions. To stir up the audience’s emotion, Lincoln utilizes emotionally charged words such as: wounds, widow, and orphan. Lincoln states, “let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan..”(72-74). The use of these words invokes sympathy and empathy among both the Northern and Southern audience and demonstrates the emotions shared among the 2 parties.

He accomplishes this by using words which trigger a progressive mindset. He does by speaking of how “the progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all” (11-12). By using the word progress, he asserts the sense of development, as do the words duration and finish. Lincoln tells of how “neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained" (37-39). The use of the term duration brings about a sense of progression and that that progression brought about a necessary