Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered

Front Cover
JHU Press, 2005 M06 16 - 370 pages

Originally published in 2005. Throughout the fractious years of the mid-nineteenth century, Abraham Lincoln's speeches imparted reason and guidance to a troubled nation. Lincoln's words were never universally praised. But they resonated with fellow legislators and the public, especially when he spoke on such volatile subjects as mob rule, temperance, the Mexican War, slavery and its expansion, and the justice of a war for freedom and union.

In this close examination, John Channing Briggs reveals how the process of studying, writing, and delivering speeches helped Lincoln develop the ideas with which he would so profoundly change history. Briggs follows Lincoln's thought process through a careful chronological reading of his oratory, ranging from Lincoln's 1838 speech to the Springfield Lyceum to his second inaugural address.

Recalling David Herbert Donald's celebrated revisionist essays (Lincoln Reconsidered, 1947), Briggs's study provides students of Lincoln with new insight into his words, intentions, and image.

From inside the book

Contents

Rhetorical Contexts
12
The Lyceum Address
29
The Temperance Address
58
The Speech on the War with Mexico
82
The Eulogy for Henry Clay
113
The KansasNebraska Speech
134
The House Divided Speech
164
Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions
184
Thorough Farming and SelfGovernment
221
The Cooper Union Address
237
Presidential Eloquence and Political Religion
257
The Farewell Address
281
The First Inaugural the Gettysburg Address
297
POSTSCRIPT The Letter to Mrs Bixby
328
Index
363
Copyright

The Milwaukee Address
195

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About the author (2005)

John Channing Briggs is a professor of English at the University of California, Riverside.

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