GETTYSBURG

Egberongbe 1

The Gettysburg address Critical Evaluation

Written and delivered by one of the most iconic presidents the United States (U.S) has ever had, the Gettysburg Address is undeniably a speech to reckon with. November 19, 1863 marked an important day when Lincoln delivered the speech to dedicate part of the battlefield as a cemetery for the fallen gallant soldiers who fought bravely to secure their nation. Imperatively, Lincoln charged his fellow countrymen to take the challenge and responsibility to conserve and protect their nation. Being a great speech that it was and came to be known as later, the Gettysburg Address was highly successful in passing the call for unity and responsibility message. Its brevity, use of pathos, ethos and logos to pass an important message in yet a simplistic manner were aspects that made it a great speech. He explains so eloquently that this hollowed grounds must not be desecrated, he went on to assert that we are a nation, "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (Lincoln).

It is evident from the speech that Lincoln used pathos to amplify the somber mood engulfing the Americans especially when they were in the midst of a bloody civil war as noted in his speech, ”Now we are engaged in a great civil war…” (2). The Gettysburg Address was purposed to honor the fallen soldiers with a cemetery that would later become the Soldiers’ National Cemetery (4). With the Civil War still raged, Lincoln had to inspire the Americans in the North to continue the fight. He was obligated to campaign for the conservation of the union by passing off the torch that the fallen soldiers had held to the Americans in the North. Democracy being a new idea Lincoln realized the need to protect it. His speech which to the audience sounded like a comparison of the Northern nation to a child who needed protection made them see the Confederate South not as a threat that had to be eliminated but one against which they had to protect themselves from. It is this comparative aspect choice of simple words and structure of the speech that brought an undertone of desirable or less aggressive tone in the speech making the audience feel better and know what their side was fighting for. 

From an ethos perspective, Lincoln painted in the speech a picture of the future where the promise of the new democracy was to be fully realized upon the concerted effort and desirable relationship between the government and the people. It is however worth noting that, at the time of the address, the nation was divided over the issue of slavery, yet he was able to appeal to them as noted in the speech “It is rather for us, the living….to the great task remaining before us…” (8). This was definitely a call for action and his own personal character as a kind and warm hearted man gave credibility to his words and even those who did not agree with him could not deny his credibility.

Furthermore, it is also notable that through the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln used logical arguments to persuade the audience to rise to a common course. Through the use of triads he managed to transform the words of the speech from bland to poetic. Such triads included; “we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground,” and “government of the people, by the people, for the people” (6 &10). He also used the reason for the unity of the fallen soldiers to protect their land as the reason that the audience had to unite to protect their nation. Although most of the words in Lincoln’s speech were dedicated to honoring the fallen soldiers through a war memorial, his full purpose was a call to the audience to “be dedicated here to the unfinished work…” (8). He says that the audience should not let the soldiers who died to “have died in vain” (10). From these words of his speech, accompaniments of logos or reasons to his argument were evident.

In conclusion through the use of a simple speech outline, brevity, use of pathos, ethos and logos, Lincoln was able to state a clear call-to-action for his audience. The greatness of his speech was seen in his use of only two-hundred and seventy-two words to dedicate a war memorial, address current issues that affected the Americans while encouraging them to continue what was started by their forefathers and fallen soldiers. Finally, his speech’s sentences are not only simple, but greatly structured to put emphasis on his ideas that were not only relevant then but also today. It is a speech without fallacies, whose greatness will make it referenced countless times as a source of national inspiration.

Work Cited

Abraham Lincoln, Draft of the Gettysburg Address: Nicolay Copy. Transcribed and annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. Available at Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Washington, D.C.: American Memory Project, [2000-02]), http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.