Lincoln's Greatest Speech

Lincoln's Greatest Speech PDF Author: Ronald C. White
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743299620
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In the tradition of Wills's "Lincoln at Gettysburg, Lincoln's Greatest Speech" combines impeccable scholarship and lively, engaging writing to reveal the full meaning of one of the greatest speeches in the nation's history.

Lincoln's Greatest Speech

Lincoln's Greatest Speech PDF Author: Ronald C. White
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743299620
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In the tradition of Wills's "Lincoln at Gettysburg, Lincoln's Greatest Speech" combines impeccable scholarship and lively, engaging writing to reveal the full meaning of one of the greatest speeches in the nation's history.

Every Drop of Blood

Every Drop of Blood PDF Author: Edward Achorn
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 080214876X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
This vividly rendered Civil War history presents “a lively guided tour of Washington during the 24 hours or so around Lincoln’s swearing-in” (Adam Goodheart, Washington Post). By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had left intractable wounds on the nation. Tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term—and witness what was perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history. Lincoln stunned the nation by arguing that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors might have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery. In Every Drop of Blood, Edward Achorn reveals the nation’s capital on that momentous day—with its mud, sewage, and saloons, its prostitutes, spies, reporters, social-climbing spouses and power-hungry politicians. Swirling around the complex figure of Lincoln, a host of characters are brought to life, from grievously wounded Union colonel Selden Connor to the embarrassingly drunk new vice president, Andrew Johnson, to poet-journalist Walt Whitman; from soldiers’ advocate Clara Barton and African American leader Frederick Douglass to conflicted actor John Wilkes Booth. In indelible scenes, Achorn captures the frenzy and division in the nation’s capital at this crucial moment in America’s history. His story offers new understanding of our great national crisis, and echoes down the decades to resonate in our own time.

His Greatest Speeches

His Greatest Speeches PDF Author: Diana Schaub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250763460
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
An expert analysis of Abraham Lincoln's three most powerful speeches reveals his rhetorical genius and his thoughts on our national character. Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president, believed that our national character was defined by three key moments: the writing of the Constitution, our declaration of independence from England, and the beginning of slavery on the North American continent. His thoughts on these landmarks can be traced through three speeches: the Lyceum Address, the Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural. The latter two are well-known, enshrined forever on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial. The former is much less familiar to most, written a quarter century before his presidency, when he was a 28 year-old Illinois state legislator. In His Greatest Speeches, Professor Diana Schaub offers a brilliant line-by-line analysis of these timeless works, placing them in historical context and explaining the brilliance behind their rhetoric. The result is a complete vision of Lincoln’s worldview that is sure to fascinate and inspire general readers and history buffs alike. This book is a wholly original resource for considering the difficult questions of American purpose and identity, questions that are no less contentious or essential today than they were over two hundred years ago.

The Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address PDF Author: Sean Conant
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190227451
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
It remains without question the most memorable and memorized speech in American history. In 272 words, spoken on November 19, 1863, among the freshly dug graves of the Union dead at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln evoked and distilled the profound significance of the terrible war in which the nation was engaged. This volume aims to place Lincoln's words in their full context. Edited by the country's leading scholars, including Sean Wilentz, Craig L. Symonds, and Harold Holzer, it approaches the Address from a number of fresh perspectives. Taken together, they show why in the century and a half since it was delivered, the Gettysburg Address has proven a seemingly inexhaustible source of somber reflection and soaring hope, its language echoed by those seeking meaning for their own struggles and sacrifices.

The Most Famous Speeches of Abraham Lincoln

The Most Famous Speeches of Abraham Lincoln PDF Author: Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985726109
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes excerpts from the speeches *Includes reactions to the speeches from newspaper reports and audience members *Includes online resources and bibliographies for further reading *Includes a table of contents Abraham Lincoln was still not considered a real option for the Republican nomination until he delivered a speech at New York City's Cooper Union in February 1860, just a few months before the Republicans' convention in May. Lincoln had gained a bit of a national profile by debating Stephen Douglas during an Illinois Senate Race in 1858, and though he lost that election, Lincoln continued discussing the same themes, most notably slavery and Dred Scott in his Cooper Union speech. In the hard-hitting speech, Lincoln both deflected Southern criticisms and attacked them, chiding would-be secessionists, "Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events." Although just 7,000 words long, the Cooper Union Address was almost universally praised in the North, and biographer Harold Holzer credited it for leading Lincoln to the presidency: "Had Abraham Lincoln failed at his do-or-die debut in New York, he would never have won his party's presidential nomination three months later, not to mention election to the White House that November. Such was the impact of a triumph in the nation's media capital. Had he stumbled, none of the challenges that roiled his presidency would ever have tested his iron will... He had arrived at Cooper Union a politician with more defeats than victories, but he departed politically reborn." When a crowd came to Gettysburg in November 1863 to commemorate the battle fought there 4 months earlier and dedicate a new national cemetery, they came to hear a series of speeches about the Civil War and the events of that battle. Today it may seem obvious to invite the president to such an occasion, but Lincoln was initially an afterthought, and though he did come to deliver remarks, he was not in fact the keynote speaker. Instead, the man chosen to give the keynote speech was Edward Everett, a politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett had already been a Congressman, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and Secretary of State, and by the Civil War, he was considered perhaps the greatest orator in the nation, making him a natural choice to be the featured speaker at the dedication ceremony. Everett is still known today for his oratory, but more for the fact that he spoke for over two hours at Gettysburg immediately before President Lincoln delivered his immortal two-minute Gettysburg Address. Everett would later say, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." At the time, however, Lincoln and many others present at the event thought his speech fell flat and was ultimately a failure that would be consigned to the dustbin of history. Lincoln wasn't given a chance to finish his work, but his thoughts and visions were eloquently saved for posterity in his second inaugural address, delivered a month before his death and considered one of America's greatest speeches. With the war nearing the end, Lincoln struck a conciliatory tone, reminding both sides that they prayed to the same God for victory and that neither side could divine God's will. "With malice toward none, with charity for all," Lincoln called for peace and reunion, his eye clearly on Reconstruction. Nobody will ever know if Lincoln could've managed the Reconstruction process in a better way than what actually unfolded, but in many respects, the second inaugural address was a fitting postscript of sorts to his presidency.

The Eloquent President

The Eloquent President PDF Author: Ronald C. White
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 030779685X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
The fact that Abraham Lincoln is now universally recognized as America’s greatest political orator would have surprised many of the citizens who voted him into office. Ungainly in stature and awkward in manner, the newly elected Lincoln was considered a Western stump speaker and debater devoid of rhetorical polish. Then, after the outbreak of the Civil War, he stood before the nation to deliver his Message to Congress in Special Session on July 4, 1861, and, as a contemporary editor put it, “some of us who doubted were wrong.” In The Eloquent President, historian Ronald White examines Lincoln’s astonishing oratory and explores his growth as a leader, a communicator, and a man of deepening spiritual conviction. Examining a different speech, address, or public letter in each chapter, White tracks the evolution of Lincoln’s rhetoric from the measured, lawyerly tones of the First Inaugural, to the imaginative daring of the 1862 Annual Message to Congress, to the haunting, immortal poetry of the Gettysburg Address. As a speaker who appealed not to intellect alone, but also to the hearts and souls of citizens, Lincoln persuaded the nation to follow him during the darkest years of the Civil War. Through the speeches and what surrounded them–the great battles and political crises, the president’s private anguish and despair, the impact of his words on the public, the press, and the nation at war–we see the full sweep and meaning of the Lincoln presidency. As he weighs the biblical cadences and vigorous parallel structures that make Lincoln’s rhetoric soar, White identifies a passionate religious strain that most historians have overlooked. It is White’s contention that as president Lincoln not only grew into an inspiring leader and determined commander in chief, but also embarked on a spiritual odyssey that led to a profound understanding of the relationship between human action and divine will. Brilliantly written, boldly original in conception, The Eloquent President blends history, biography, and a deep intuitive appreciation for the quality of Lincoln’s extraordinary mind. With grace and insight, White captures the essence of the four most critical years of Lincoln’s life and makes the great words live for our time in all their power and beauty.

Abraham Lincoln: the Speeches

Abraham Lincoln: the Speeches PDF Author: Abraham Lincoln
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781508683414
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches Learn more about the views and beliefs of one of America's most respected President's. Lincoln never wrote a book. He dabbled in poetry and journalism, but almost all of what composes the standard collections of Lincoln's writings are either letters or speeches. But the boundary between his writings and speeches was a porous one. In many cases before his election to the presidency in 1860, the speeches are only transcripts taken down in a more or less haphazard fashion by newspaper reporters and editors who heard him speak, as they did in the campaign speech he delivered in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1848, or his Lewistown, Illinois, speech on the Declaration of Independence. The great debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 that made Lincoln nationally famous were unrehearsed and unscripted, but they were taken down with unusual precision in shorthand and published word for word in the Chicago newspapers within forty-eight hours. Abraham Lincoln: The Speeches contains six of his greatest speeches, including his two inaugural addresses and his Gettysburg speech. Abraham Lincoln's speeches are inspiring and essential reading for every American to understand how our country was shaped by the President's ambitious and life-changing views. Scroll up and enjoy Abraham Lincoln: The Speeches today.

Great Speeches of Abraham Lincoln

Great Speeches of Abraham Lincoln PDF Author: Abraham Lincoln
Publisher: Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 9356844100
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Great Speeches of Abraham Lincoln is a compilation of several speeches by Abraham Lincoln. Some of these speeches are famous; the Gettysburg Address and House Divided speech are famous Lincoln speeches of particular note. Some of them were delivered during the American Civil War; the First Inaugural Address and Last Public Address, among others. And some of them speak of freedom and Lincoln's views on American's original sin, slavery; the Peoria Speech and Cooper Union Address draw heavy influence from these areas. In one of his most famous speeches, he said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe the government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free." He predicted that the country eventually would become "all one thing, or all the other." Again and again he insisted that the civil liberties of every U.S. citizen, white as well as Black, were at stake. The territories must be kept free, he further said, because "new free states" were "places for poor people to go and better their condition."

The Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address PDF Author: Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985384088
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the speech and reactions written by people who were there *Discusses the influences on the speech and debates over the various versions that exist *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live." - Abraham Lincoln Without question, the most famous battle of the American Civil War took place outside of the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which happened to be a transportation hub, serving as the center of a wheel with several roads leading out to other Pennsylvanian towns. From July 1-3, Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia tried everything in its power to decisively defeat George Meade's Union Army of the Potomac, unleashing ferocious assaults that inflicted nearly 50,000 casualties in all. When a crowd came to Gettysburg in November 1863 to commemorate the battle fought there 4 months earlier and dedicate a new national cemetery, they came to hear a series of speeches about the Civil War and the events of that battle. Today it may seem obvious to invite the president to such an occasion, but Lincoln was initially an afterthought, and though he did come to deliver remarks, he was not in fact the keynote speaker. Instead, the man chosen to give the keynote speech was Edward Everett, a politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett had already been a Congressman, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and Secretary of State, and by the Civil War, he was considered perhaps the greatest orator in the nation, making him a natural choice to be the featured speaker at the dedication ceremony. Everett is still known today for his oratory, but more for the fact that he spoke for over two hours at Gettysburg immediately before President Lincoln delivered his immortal two-minute Gettysburg Address. Everett would later say, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." At the time, however, Lincoln and many others present at the event thought his speech fell flat and was ultimately a failure that would be consigned to the dustbin of history. Perhaps Lincoln's most impressive feat is that he was able to convey so much with so few words; after Everett spoke for hours at Gettysburg, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address only took a few minutes, but in those few minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence. In the process, he redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, ensure that democracy would remain a viable form of government, and would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant. 150 years later, Lincoln's speech is still considered arguably the greatest in American history, yet the exact wording of the speech is disputed. The five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address differ in a number of details and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech. In fact, at the time, few Americans knew the president had even given a speech at Gettysburg, and the Gettysburg Address was not widely covered in newspapers. The irony is lost on few, given that the Gettysburg Address continues to represent a concise and eloquent statement on the very purpose of the United States.

Great Speeches

Great Speeches PDF Author: Abraham Lincoln
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486130886
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Masterly orations and letters. "House Divided" speech (1858), First Inaugural Address (1861), Gettysburg Address (1863), Letter to Mrs. Bixby (1864), Second Inaugural Address (1865), 11 others.