How Does Lincoln Use Ethos In The Second Inaugural Address

In the years, 1863 and 1865, Abraham Lincoln gave two of the most powerful speeches in history. The first speech, “The Gettysburg Address”, was an empowering piece that gave comfort to the public when the Union most needed it. The other speech, “The Second Inaugural Address”, was an influential speech about Abraham Lincoln returning to office for a second term. Both speeches, utilizes rhetoric through the use of ethos, logos, and pathos to support Abraham Lincoln’s viewpoints of the Civil War. Ethos is shown throughout “The Second Inaugural Address” more than the “The Gettysburg Address”, though both speeches use God as a reference to establish ethos. For example, from “The Gettysburg Address” Abraham Lincoln claimed, “ ...That this nation, under God, shall have new birth of freedom” (748). In other words, Lincoln wanted the audience to trust him so he used religion as a strategy to relate to the audience better since the audience already puts their faith in God’s hands. Another example from,“The Second Inaugural Address”, Lincoln said, “At this second Inaugural appearing to take the oth of presidential office...the progress of our arms… is as well known to the public as to myself ”(748). Abraham Lincoln creates credibility upon himself
No logic or statistics are spoken throughout the entirety of the of “The Second Inaugural Address”, but some reasoning is left behind in the other speech. From “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln stated, “...we are engaged in a civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure… It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this” (747). In other words, Abraham Lincoln is reasoning with the audience that war is testing the United States’ ability to hold on to a nation. The wording in the speech shows the logical reasoning behind Lincoln's meaning of the Civil