Rhetorical Analysis Of President Everett's 'Dedicatory Remarks'

Everett’s speech primarily entertained the idea that the Confederacy had no right to secede from the Union, in depth descriptions of each day at battle, and also touched on the importance of the work done by nurses during the Battle of Gettysburg (book). After Everett’s dedication was presented, Lincoln then approached the stage and orated his memorable speech, known as his “Dedicatory Remarks” in a matter of two minutes. According to myth and a skeptical story, Abraham Lincoln could have possibly recorded his most notable speech on a brown scrap of paper while riding on the train from Washington to Gettysburg. However this claim is not supported by David Wills, Lincoln’s host at the Soldier's National Cemetery. Wills stated that Lincoln wrote

Lincoln began his powerful Address by stating, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (voiceofdemoc). This expression made by Lincoln highlights the amount of time has passed since the Founding Fathers established America as a free, independent nation. President Lincoln also expressed the persistent push for liberty, which had been a prominent and reoccurring issue all throughout the United State’s history up until the Civil War. Despite America being built upon the ideology that “all men are created equal” four score and seven years later, meaning 87 years, the secession of the South and the abundant use of slavery concerned President Lincoln. However in context, the phrase that Lincoln referenced in The Gettysburg Address was admitted by President Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson did not promote the idea that “all men are created equal” was to be applied to black slaves in America, rather it was primarily intended for free, white men in the Nation. Although President Lincoln viewed slavery to be morally wrong, originally he did not believe that the purpose of The Civil War was grant freedom to slaves, but instead he believed that warfare was necessary in order to preserve the Union. In 1862 Lincoln’s views of the war effort changed, he then believed that the emancipation of slaves was not only necessary but vital in means of winning the war (pbs). By Lincoln’s presentation of The Gettysburg Address in 1863, the heart’s of the people living in the Union recognized the importance of abolitionism and the need for slavery to be outlawed. The original idea that only the white and wealthy men of America were