Argumentative Paper

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Abraham Lincoln’s Argument |

Argument Analysis |

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Jessika Washington |

English 201. 03 |

3/25/2015

Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 1864 by a 55 percent to 45 percent vote over George McClellan. The first president re-elected since Andrew Jackson in 1832, he carried 22 of the 25 states that voted and won the Electoral College by a vote of 212 to 21. On his inauguration day in March 1865, the Civil War was drawing to a close, Grant was forcing Lee back toward Richmond, and the Union was within days of victory, the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery throughout the United States was being ratified, and Lincoln delivered one of the most remarkable and famous speeches in American history. Instead of setting out a Reconstruction plan, as many expected, Lincoln’s reconciliatory and almost pious tone established a basis for restoring the Union. The 703-word speech is one of the shortest inaugural addresses on record and sought to heal rather than to divide the nation. In Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln addresses a divided nation and calls to both the North and the South to put aside the issues that divide them in order to mend their broken nation. While addressing the nation as a whole, Lincoln’s diction, tone, and syntax help to achieve his purpose of reuniting the nation.

Lincoln’s positive diction creates a feeling of unity and forgiveness with words like “bind up” and “peace.” Lincoln uses these words to express the direction in which he hopes the nation will go. A path of healing and reconciliation is what Lincoln wants for the nation. “Bind up” expresses the emotion of healing not only the personal wounds suffered by the American people, but also the wounds of the nation as a whole. Lincoln also speaks of a “lasting peace,” which he hopes will come upon the nation. After the “bind[ing]” of the nation’s wounds, then “lasting peace” will follow, as will the unity of the nation. Throughout the speech, Lincoln...