How does Obamas address compare with past inaugural speeches?
Below are some of the most famous quotes from previous presidents’ inaugural speeches. Help students place each address in historical context. Then discuss the excerpts in relation to the four purposes of inaugural speeches cited by Campbell and Jamieson. Next, consider how well each excerpt employs the rhetorical devices named above. Abraham Lincoln, first inaugural, 3/4/1861: I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature. Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural, 3/4/1865: Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth pil
