“Four score and seven years ago…” is the preamble to one of the greatest speeches ever given by an American president, the leader of the free world. While a country was torn apart, Confederates and Union soldiers alike, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech that tore to core of the American spirit, ideology and what we as Americans today believe as patriotism. Giving the speech on the very battlefield where siblings, family members and fellow citizens slaughtered each other, President Lincoln sought to delve deep into the American heart and soul and proceed to honor the very souls that had given up their lives to defend what they believed to be true patriotism. The speech, given at the site of a decisive battle of the Civil War, Gettysburg, Pennyslvania, was at a time where the nation was in great mourning. Even four months after the great battle at Gettysburg, it was obvious to the American public that this war was violent, exhausting and even worse, self-destructive as a whole. Nevertheless, President Lincoln proceeded to give a speech that he himself claimed, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here…”, yet went into the American history books as one of the greatest speeches in American presidential history. Senator Charles Sumner responded to this claim made by President Lincoln in his eulogy note by saying, “The world noted at once what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech." (Sumner)
“The Gettysburg Address,” given by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 is considered to be one of the most superlative and impactful speeches given in the history of the United States because of the sixteenth president’s vigilance toward his use of rhetorical devices, such as rhetorical appeals and canons, in just a mere of over two minutes worth of spoken words. To deliver such a historical and bone-chilling speech in a little over one hundred and twenty seconds speaks volumes to the...