Final Test Question #3

Gustavo Quintero
English 48A
December 14,2007
Journal #30

Quote:
"...Two hundred and fifty of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.(Lincoln 1636).

Summary:
Lincoln is stating his reason explanation for why the early United States is going through a civil war.


As I was taking the final exam in Scott's English class I came up to this question and could no think of a literary strategy that Lincoln uses for swaying the opinion's of white people on black slaves. As I was looking at Lincoln's speech again I found that Lincoln uses peoples guilty conscience as a strategy to persuade the white persons opinion on the black slave. Contrary to popular belief Lincoln was not an avid spokesperson against slavery. He sort of fell into that role during his second term as president. It was very interesting to read about Lincoln's true background. The background information given in the Norton's anthology was an excellent point ot start reading about how Lincoln's position came about to speak against slavery.

The quote I chose above is a very enlightening one because it ties in Christianity and slavery. Flat out Lincoln says that the civil war is a punishment to the people of the United States for allowing slavery to occur. This is a very powerful and moving position to take on the slavery debate. No one could have worded it better than Lincoln. The one thing that I find confusing, is how Lincoln achieved such a hero status. From what the Norton Anthology says Lincoln Started his political career on a very indecisive position. Later as the war became bloodier he started to believe in the position that he is famous for now.