He delivered this 2-minute oration during the ceremony of honoring those who died on the battlefield at Gettysburg (Lincoln, 1863). Lincoln tried to say that people who died on this battlefield for a higher purpose made this ground sacred with their blood, and hence those who remained could only finish their work to honor them.Īlthough Lincoln could deliver a longer speech, he decided to make it short but effective because he realized that soldiers were exhausted and needed a quick inspiration rather than a lengthy report. Similarly, the “hallowed” ground indicates a site honored as holy. In this case, the word “consecrate” means to sanctify a place. history and highlighting the cause for which the soldiers were fighting. Indeed, Lincoln opened his talk by referring to the most essential document in U.S. It is always critical to state the main points of writing or speech at the beginning to catch the audience’s attention (Hacker & Sommers, 2020). The speech states that “our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (Lincoln, 1863, p. For example, the word “proposition” means the Declaration of Independence in this context. The nouns and adjectives used in this oration had a special meaning applicable to the battlefield.
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