AP Language, period 1 Kaitlyn Vallance
SOAPSTONE CHART -The Gettysburg Address 30 August 2010
SPEAKER | Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States of America and he help office during the Civil War. During the Civil War, the North and South split into two sides – the Union in the north led by President Lincoln and the Confederacy in the south led by President Davis. Originally, the Civil War was not an attempt by Lincoln to abolish slavery and emancipate the slaves, but to preserve and protect the Union, but later Lincoln decided that ending slavery was a key step necessary to winning the war. He was assassinated on April 15, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. | OCCASION | Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863. Lincoln was there for a dedication of a national cemetery in Gettysburg to commemorate the soldiers who lost their lives during the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg that stated on July 1, 1963 to July 3, 1963. It was both a joyous and tragic occasion: so many had lost their lives, but they did so in order to halt the advancement of Confederate soldiers into Union territory. | AUDIENCE | Lincoln was addressing the families of the deceased soldiers, surviving soldiers and other politicians who had showed up to offer their own words of hope and grief. The crowd that Lincoln stood before had been disheartened and depressed by the staggering losses on their side – even if it had meant victory for the Union. Lincoln attempted to embody a sense of grief, to console the families and pay respect to the dead, and a sense of determination, to rally the people and convince them that continuing the war and being victorious were the only options for keeping their nation alive. | PURPOSE | The purpose of the Gettysburg address was to honor the dead and make it clear to the other citizens of the Union that their deaths had not been in vain. The war they were fighting was the only way to ensure the longevity of their nation and the continuation of the American Dream. Since the spirits of the families and remaining soldiers in the Union had been dampened, it was imperative that Lincoln rally the people back together despite the losses and convince them that the deaths had been for a great cause – the maintenance and victory of the Union against the Confederacy. | SUBJECT | President Lincoln wrote a very brief speech that changed the way the men and women of the Union saw the war. Before he delivered the Gettysburg Address to the public, they had regarded the war as simply a fight for property and constitutionality, but Lincoln turned it into a war for democracy and freedom with a few hundred words. | TONE | The tone of this speech is pride and conviction. Lincoln states “the world will little note nor remember what we say here, but it can never forget what [the soldiers] did here.” Lincoln is proud that the Union soldiers were willing to give their lives in order to ensure the preservation of...
