Abraham Lincoln's 'The Gettysburg Address'

1. In “The Gettysburg Address”, Abraham Lincoln advances the idea that for the honor of citizens and soldiers, dead or alive, its necessary for the nation to come together and reestablish the country’s democratic ethics that were blinded from the civil war.
2. Lincoln’s allusion to the Declaration of Independence, claiming that “all men are created equal”, results in the audience believing that to unite the nation again, they need to restore their democratic values, as the ones stated in the declaration.
3. Lincoln’s reverent tone, constructed through words like “dedicated”, “hallow”, “brave” and “consecrate”, appeals to our sense of emotion, thereby convincing us that the people involved in the civil war, both dead or alive, deserve respect
and honor for their bravery. This allows Lincoln to reinforce that to respect the citizens that were involved in war should be expressed though the unification of the country.
4. Lincoln causes potential audiences to believe he is trustworthy through his use of parallel structure, such as when he repetitively stated “-that from these honored dead...-that we here highly resolve...-that this nation...-and that government of the people...shall not perish from the earth”. This technique allows Lincoln to broaden the subject he’s talking about though the repetition, and emphasize his credibility by referencing several population of the nation. This reinforces Lincoln’s point that for the honor of the nation and the population, and to unite the broken country, the reconstruction of the American society is unavoidable.