Alex Sliter

Connor Pearce

Composition I

October 29, 2021

Rhetorical Analysis

The Gettysburg Address is a very powerful speech given by President Abraham Lincoln.

This famous speech was given during the American Civil War. This is where the interest comes

in for me. I have great interest in historical events, and speeches. This being one that I never

researched is what pushed me to pick the topic. President Lincoln did great things as president,

and one thing that I notice is his way with words. He can make such a powerful speech, and use

so many rhetorical devices with so very few words. It is almost like an art form when he delivers

his speeches. He knows and uses just the right words to strike passion, and patriotism into the

hearts of the American people. Even today we can look back, and watch his speeches or even

read them, and you feel so connected even though we are 158 years in the future.

To truly understand the sheer power of Abraham Lincoln's words, and why exactly they

are so important you have to understand everything about where, and how his speech was given.

The Gettysburg Address actually came as a big shock to the crowd. Abraham Lincoln presented

his speech after Edward Everret, Edward Everret spoke for two whole hours in Gettysburg. This

two hour speech was followed by Abraham Lincoln's speech which only lasted about 2 to 3

minutes. This is what makes me so curious about the Gettysburg Address. After a two hour long

speech Abraham Lincoln spoke for two to three minutes however, we never really talk about

Edward Everret or his speech in Gettysburg. It is crazy that Lincoln’s speech is so important even

though he was not even the main speaker in Gettysburg. The crowd was massive, because it was
an important place to the north. They believed that The Battle of Gettysburg was a huge turning

point in the war which is why they decided to make Gettysburg the cemetery for Union war

dead. Over fifteen thousand northerners were there to listen to the speeches. Something else that

is kinda crazy about the Gettysburg Address is that President Lincoln made a pre-speech the

night before where he basically told the people to wait for his speech the following day. During

the Gettysburg Address there was a very somber atmosphere for the speeches, but the night

before was almost like a party there were even staff members of Lincoln who got drunk. While

the Dedication speeches were going on the bodies of the Union dead were being buried Right

next to the group of over fifteen thousand people, and the speakers. There were a lot of people

who believed that the speech delivered by President Lincoln was a good speech including

Lincoln himself. However, there was a small group of people who disagreed with that opinion.

Known as the “Peace Democrats” who sympathized with the south, Lincoln’s speech was poorly

delivered, and weak.

Now if you are looking at the length of the speech that Lincoln gave compared to the

other speakers in Gettysburg it almost seems as if his speech was made quickly, and did not have

very much work put into it but when looking at the wording used you see the power of his

speech. Abraham Lincoln might have only had a two to three minute speech, but he used so

many great rhetorical devices within his speech. These devices are those of allusion, metaphors,

repetition, and imagery. You can see his allusion in the speech when he talks about the founding

of our nation with the following quote, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth,

upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that ‘all

men are created equal.’” He then uses our fathers as imagery to create an image of our nation as

a child. Which created the personifying metaphor “... Our Fathers brought forth,...” There are
two specific points when he uses repetition. One is the word “Here” which he uses to show the

importance of Gettysburg within the War. He uses “here” in his speech seven times. He then uses

“We” eleven times within his speech which brought upon the impression of shared values, and

the experiences of the war.

That is when you can begin to look at the ways he appealed to his audience within his

two to three minute speech. The three forms of appeal are logos, ethos, and pathos. President

Lincoln was known for being great at using all three of these forms of appeal. Within this speech

you can see great examples of these forms. Ethos can be seen when President Lincoln alludes to

founding documents, and national historic events which makes himself look knowledgeable

about the nation. He then creates the appeal of logos in his speech when he talks about the

commemoration of the dead soldiers being a logical course of action due to their sacrifice, “We

have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who gave their

lives that that nation might live.” He then went on to speak about the soldiers who were involved

in the war which is when pathos came into the speech. “The brave men, living and dead, who

struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” There is so

much to this speech that makes it great. President Lincoln knew this was a great speech when he

presented, and he delivered the speech to the crowd just as well as he wrote the speech. The

biggest use for the speech, and the other speeches delivered at Gettysburg was to commemorate

the soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg, as well as the soldiers who died in other battles

within the civil war. However, there were other uses in the speech. One of the other uses was to

motivate the current soldiers to fight harder than ever. It gave the soldiers the motivation to take

the new turning point in the war and run with it which they did. It also gave the northerners a

reason to support the war effort more than ever. Every single one of these efforts that the speech
could have been used for it was used for, and very successfully. The Union soldiers took the

motivation from the speech and continued down the road to victory in the Civil War. November

19, 1863 was the date in which the Gettysburg Address was spoken over the field of dead union

soldiers. The Civil War officially ended on May 26, 1865. The southern surrender was just a little

over a month after President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilks Booth. The Gettysburg

Address was not the last speech, but the second from the last speech that Abraham Lincoln

delivered before his assassinatiton. However, the Gettysburg Address is the most famous speech

that Abraham Lincoln delivered. A two to three minute speech is his most famous speech. This

can only mean that it was a great speech, and well delivered.

So when you look back at what the “Peace Democrats” said about the speech they were

clearly wrong about his speech. Maybe they were just biased towards the speech, because of the

speaker himself. Lincoln did refuse to bury southern soldiers in the cemetery. So maybe those

“Peace Democrats” did not feel included in the “We” that president Lincoln spoke of in his

speech, but regardless the speech was great, and still notable, and talked about to this day.