The two hundred seventy-two words of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address are as significant today as they were six score and seventeen years ago. Garry Wills’ “Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America,” explicates these two hundred seventy-two words and paints a new picture that gives us the historical context of the President’s speech. It was short enough for generations of people to remember, yet at the same time, long enough to have a great impact on the ways we think of this great republic. Wills argues that through his speech Lincoln remade the American history in that Americans would interpret the Civil War, and the Constitution, through the kaleidoscope of the Declaration of Independence. It is an extraordinary argument that, with just two hundred seventy-two words, Lincoln changed the American history and forever altered the ways we interpret the American Revolution. With a rhetorical approach, Wills ? like Lincoln ? persuades his readers, through evidence and interpretation, to be convinced that at Gettysburg, Lincoln ?revolutionized the Revolution, giving people a new past to live with that would change their future indefinitely.? Wills begins with a vivid description of the consequence of the three-day battle in early July 1863 that resulted in fifty thousand casualties.
Many of the dead corpses of the soldiers were not properly buried. In some places, where the soil was too soft, animals began to dig out the bodies. In fact, arrangements had to be made to re-bury the bodies. Seventeen acres of land were set aside for a new cemetery and Edward Everett was invited to dedicate it. While Everett was the star of the ceremony, Lincoln ? through a casual invitation ? decided to make an appearance in Gettysburg. The casual invitation did not intend to offend the President, and nor did he get offended. Of course, this was no accident. For Lincoln, Wills reasons, it was an opportunity. It was his chance to recuperate the political fences and elucidate the goals of the Civil War. Unlike the popular myth, that Lincoln jotted down his speech on the back of an envelope on his way to Gettysburg, Wills persuasively points out that Lincoln could not have done such a thing. His evidence is that Lincoln was a scholarly man and has always performed his work with shrewdness. The President did not do anything inadvertently and thus, ?it is impossible to imagine him leaving his speech at Gettysburg to the last moment.? Thus, the argument that Lincoln actually wrote the speech in the train on his way to Gettysburg is as apocalyptic as the argument that George Washington actually cut down a cherry tree and told the truth to his father.
The Essay on Abraham Lincoln: Gettysburg Address
... one of the most powerful nations of the world. Although President Lincoln’s speech was about ten lines, in which he delivered in two ... in Gettysburg while fighting for freedom, but also people across the globe. In ten lines the President spoke not only about American ... the definition of democracyfrom the very words of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln may have passed on, but his words still live in the hearts ...
It is an intriguing matter that just when the readers think that Wills has delivered them with everything there is to know about the Gettysburg Address, the author merely begins to examine the national treasure for historical and cultural context. He argues that Lincoln?s address ?is made compact and compelling by its ability to draw on so many sources of verbal energy.? Among these sources was classical rhetoric. The author illustrates the different ways both Everett and Lincoln used rhetoric to persuade their audience. He compares Lincoln?s speech, especially, to Athenian funeral prose which often began with a praise for the dead, and closed with an advice for those who are alive. Lincoln modeled his speech on them to articulate his thoughts to his audience. Wills entertains his readers by compelling them to be fascinated by Lincoln?s use of language. In fact, he goes as far as dedicating an entire chapter to the revolution of the prose style in America that he argues is among the accomplishments of the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was fond of experimenting with words and their usage, and he spent a great deal of his time doing so. Using the changes the President made himself to his First Inaugural speech – that was prepared for him by William Seward – as his evidence, Wills explains that Lincoln acquired a rhythmic pace that made his sentences smooth and coherent.
The Essay on Gettysburg Address Speech Henry Lincoln
The Similarities of "The Gettysburg Address" and "Speech in the Virginia Convention" In Abraham Lincoln's famous speech, "The Gettysburg Address", Lincoln uses emotional appeal, persuasive traits, and powerful diction to make one of the most well known and respected speeches of our time. Also the "Speech in the Virginia Convention" by Patrick Henry is similar to Lincoln's speech in all the same ...
Ultimately, Lincoln embraced the ideals of rhetoric and used them efficiently to make his speeches more powerful. The author goes a step further and provides his readers with an analysis of the Gettysburg Address. He records that the speech is outstanding and abstract. Unlike Everett?s speech, where he provides details after details of the Civil War, Lincoln avoids them in his address. The President did not mention Gettysburg- the battlefield, or the Union- the defender of the Constitution, or the South- the runaway rebel that had just been captured; nor did he mention anything about slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, or the future of the freed slaves. This was no accident at all. President Lincoln avoided mentioning these issues in his speech because, for one thing, they were the most controversial issues of the time. He did so, according to Wills, to look ?beyond the wars to ?the great task remaining before us? as a nation trying to live up to the vision in which it was conceived.? Lincoln wanted to put the war behind and move on to build a nation as foreseen by the forefathers of the republic. The Gettysburg Address focused more on the pivotal ideas for the nation and found a connection to the Declaration of Independence.
Throughout his book, Wills shows his readers that there exist a relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. According to Wills, Lincoln often referred to the Declaration of Independence when he argued that it was inconsistent to think that the American people could believe that all men had the rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness but deny the very rights to black slaves. Lincoln was determined to not let this happen; and so, the Civil War was fought. Eloquently, Wills pens that Lincoln was able to remake America in his Gettysburg Address because he had spent a great deal of time relating the most sensitive issues of the era to the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln, as Wills writes, viewed the Declaration of Independence as the basis of the American nation. Thus, it is deeply embedded within the Gettysburg Address. The pivotal argument of Wills writing is that in the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln turned the attention of the nation of nations, the United States of America, towards its founding document, the Declaration of Independence. The President, with only two hundred seventy-two words, remade America on the most important principle of this sacred document ? that all men are created equal.
The Essay on The Civil War Gettysburg Address
... Lincoln's speech, The Gettysburg Address, defined, symbolized, and epitomized the spirit of America. Lincoln established equality, found in the Declaration of Independence ... This also meant that Lincoln thought that if the nation remained divided it could ... Gettysburg. In the Gettysburg Address Lincoln states, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, ...
Bibliography:
Wills, Garry – Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
