Rhetorical Analysis of the Gettysburg Address

Christofer Smith • August 22, 2025 • 332 Words

Introduction

Abraham Lincoln, president and orator of The Gettysburg Address (1863) posits that the United States is obliged to persist through a time of dissension. Lincoln develops this claim through the strategic use of commonizing diction, bolstered throughout with a deliberate tone and emphatical anaphora. He asserts this to invigorate moral and patriotic sentiments in order to reestablish the nation that once stood, with such conviction, committed to these ideas. President Lincoln proclaimed this concise address in front of an audience of divided and fatigued citizens while having known that such words would be dictated and distributed among the press, as is demonstrated by the inclusive language he selects.

Diction

President Lincoln commences his speech by recognizing the contemporary developments that had brought the need for the cemetery he was dedicating. He appeals to the underlying patriotism of his audience by first referring to the founding of the nation, stating the years that had passed since “our fathers brought forth … a new nation” (Lincoln 1) devoted to freedom and equality before addressing how he and his audience were then “engaged in a great civil war, testing… that nation” (Lincoln 3). The president in this time of internal conflict proclaims such in order to invoke thought about the ideas that the United States was founded upon. This recounting of a shared history serves to induce a sentiment of pride within a war-ridden audience. Within this same opening section, President Lincoln doubly acts to unify through commonality. He elects not to accuse the Confederacy that the United States stood against, but rather counting them in his message through inclusive language such as the aforementioned “our fathers” (Lincoln 1) and “we are engaged” (Lincoln 3). This diction is strategic, as it contributes to de-escalation of conflict. Despite the people of Gettysburg being first, these words extend an offering of peace to all who would hear them. Through both of these suggestions of unity, his diction contributes to President Licoln’s ultimate goal of reintegrating the divided nation.

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