Desecrated and decimated, the United States was left broken after the Civil War. A war not fought because of foreign people oppressing them, but rather a war of their own oppressing one another. Facing a deeply divided nation in midst of an ongoing four-year Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, who in response to being elected once again, hoped to made amends between the North and the South by giving a moving speech. By using, emotional and ethical rhetorical appeals, Lincoln wanted to make the nation realize that "[they were] only as strong as [they were] united, as weak as [they were] divided." (J.K. Rowling). .
Appearing riled up by anger and fury, Lincoln utilizes his chance to ease the tension of the War Between the States by addressing it in his Second Inaugural Speech. Although a short speech, lasting only a few minutes, President Abraham was able to extinguish the aversion of the two states through his use of emotional appeal. He is able to accomplish this due to how he presents his audience with his parallelism. After explaining the causes of the war and the mutuality both states felt about the length of the war, Lincoln employs the heavy uses of parallel sentences in order to convey a strong emotional appeal to the audience. Hoping the make the states feel unified rather than as two separate masses, he opens the address to imprint onto everyone that "All dreaded it, all sought to avert it" (l.18) in order to express the neutrality of both sides concerning their desires and re-conjoins them as on. He calls upon the citizens of America with sentences like, "Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him [], to do all which may achieve [] peace" so that the people feel obligated to strive to mend the wounds of their division so that peace may finally overcome the violence. By saying, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray" (l.
