Lincoln's Rhetorical Use of God

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the use of God in three major speeches given by Abraham Lincoln: the First Inaugural, The Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural. This author discusses Lincoln's use of divine agency as a rhetorical tactic for explaining the circumstances of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

From the Paper:

"In his later speeches, and his "Second Inaugural Address" in particular, Lincoln tends to borrow a significant amount of his ethos, as politicians are apt to do, from the Christian God and scriptures. Of course, we see this in his earlier speeches as well. His "House Divided Speech," given before the Illinois Republican State Convention of 1858, gets its most memorable line, and its very name, from the Gospels. However, Lincoln does seem to increase his rhetorical use of the Christian God throughout his presidency, and his "Second Inaugural Address," may be a culmination of this tactic."

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