The two texts that I think hold a conversation with each other would be Jefferson Davis’s Inaugural Address and Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865. What I think is so interesting between the two in the pursuit of the American Dream begins with Davis’s outlook on the American Dream. Davis, throughout his address, liberally uses the word “peace.” Being the head of provisional government by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, he is advocating the right to have peace within his states. The quote I find so intriguing is when he references the Declaration of Independence; “…it is the right of the people to alter or abolish a government whenever it becomes destructive of the ends go which it was established” (pg. 1360). I think this is where the pursuit of the American Dream comes to play in Davis’ address. It is within our Declaration that we are provided with the dreams and rights our fore fathers established unto us and for him to reference such a document in his address reiterates the notion that the American Dream is accomplished through the beliefs of what our fore fathers created. He, although is proactive in the movement in keeping an established, slave holding society, his view of the American Dream is to hold on to what has been the right for the privileged American, the right to be happy with the slaves he owns. A 19-century reader could be persuaded by such a speech because of the geographic location of Alabama, because that was a slave holding state. Using the Declaration of Independence in such a state would reinforce the drive the south needs to pursue and win the Civil War in keeping their right to own slaves. On the contrary, Abraham Lincoln had an address that lead a nation into stopping, or at least starting a progressive legacy in the death of slavery. Lincoln’s address used the grandest of all documents that established our government, the Bible. More than half if his address was referencing the Bible and how as a nation we should be following this such word of peace and compassion for others. His address made closest to the end of the Civil War bring in the powerful messages of the Bible in how those words can be made into living and prosperous ways of life in his day. The American Dream, in the 19th-century was to live a pious and God-fearing life, to live otherwise one would be considered an outsider. He uses language set forth in the Bible to harmonize the country as a whole to ending slavery all together. I really enjoyed how he made this comment “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against each other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask for a just God’s assistance in writing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged” (pg. 1375). I thought that was a noble and just statement made by Lincoln in stating that we are all praying to the same God for him to bring the same division the winning gold medal, yet the message of the Lord, speaks of compassion of one another and that is not what the American society is doing. Lincoln was in the Northern states when he addressed this, so I could only infer the amount of support he got when he stated this. In both address’ I can imagine the amount of support each received because of the geographic location. In my opinion, I would say that Davis’ would be more persuasive, even though I completely agree with Lincoln in his movement to abolish slavery, Davis set himself up for a nicely cited and thoughtful address, where as Lincoln’s, to the eye, looks short. It also depended on the amount of emotion the speaker was using at the time. If I were to be living in this time I would have loved to be able to see the amount of emotion each conveyed for his own purpose. I’m sure each would have had an equal amount, but just looking at the extent to what Davis put in, I think it would have been more persuasive.
No comments:
Post a Comment