Gettysburg Address Rhetorical Devices

“Be careful with them, for words have more power than atom bombs” (Pearl Hurd). Although Abraham Lincoln was alive way before the first atom bomb existed, his “Gettysburg Address” proves he knew the importance of expression. Through Lincoln's rhetoric, he captured his audience of politicians, soldiers, journalists and even today’s ordinary citizens, hundreds of years later, to instill his powerful message in them. This speech was given on November 19, 1863, during the Civil War, in honor of the people who died in the Battle of Gettysburg. His purpose was not only to commemorate the people who lost their lives, but also to realize how to prevent conflict and loss from happening again. Lincoln focuses on the power of unity throughout his speech,

Lincoln reasons with his audience, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war… We are met on a great battlefield of war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field… it is altogether fitting and proper that should do this” (par. 2). In other words, Lincoln is explaining to his audience that everyone is united in a time of war through the tough to remember the people who have suffered because of it. He strategically repeats the word “we” throughout this portion, and excludes the words “I” and “you,” to bring the people of his country together as a one. Furthermore, Lincoln is shining light on the power of a group over a single person and the conflict that comes along with divide. In his conclusion, Lincoln utilizes parallel sentence structure justifying, “that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain… and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” (par. 3). Here, Lincoln recognizes the duty laid upon the people to unite their nation and ameliorate the bridges. He repeats his structure within this paragraph to create impact on the audience. Also, he repeats the world people when describing the government to emphasize the power

In the last paragraph, his tone is compassionate and he uses words such as “struggled” and “devotion,” to pull at the audience's heart strings (par. 3). Lincoln uses these words to describe the emotions the people may feel for the people who were lost. These words help the audience empathize for the victims and show Lincoln has the same emotions as well. Lincoln uses them to relate to the audience and grasp their feelings. Contrastingly, in the same paragraph he uses a more declarative and dutiful tone because he believed people should “resolve[,] that these dead shall not have died in vain” (par. 3). Here Lincoln is motivating the crowd to fight for the sake of the people who died fighting. His tone is much more forceful and ordering to promote action in his audience. In these shifts, Lincoln created a mood of emotional charge in his audience. He proves that with rhetorical strategies such as shifts in tone one can successfully send their message to