Allusions To Lincoln's Inaugural Address

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided.” This was the beginning of a great man’s rise to power. It was his first promise of a better United States. Lincoln chose to start a war on slavery, but he also intended to finish it which brings us to this speech. He was explaining why the war needed to happen (because slavery went against God and the rights of man) and how as Americans the country needed to be put back together peaceably. Lincoln recognized the horrors and devastation of the Civil War and pushed the country to start healing with
Within this section Lincoln uses Biblical allusions to give people a sense of purpose and safety because God is with them through every hardship including the Civil War such as, “The Almighty has His own purpose. ‘Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!’” which means God has His own way of working things out. God will make sure those who are worthy of victory win and not let injustice spread. He provides protection from sin (Bible Hub). This being said, his use of biblical allusions caught me off guard at first because Lincoln was not known to be a religious man. Lincoln grew up in a religious family, but as an adult he was not very religious thus possibly making Lincoln a realpolitik. A realpolitik is a leader who does not care what religion he is or what religion his country is. He does not let faith dictate how he rules his country. Lincoln is the only president so far to not have belonged to a church and he was never baptized (Noll). Lastly, in paragraph five, Lincoln uses the rhetorical question, “...shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to him?” to show slavery is against God and against man and man is supposed to follow God. The main reason why the Civil War was fought was to not only limit slavery, but eventually to eradicate it. With a country so fixated on religion Lincoln was playing to the masses by quoting the Bible which many of the religions in the United States