Lincoln’s Speech to the Washingtonian Temperance Society

• In Event: Historical U.S. Discourses on Race and Racism

Abstract

Lincoln constitutes his audience and leader as embracing the values of self-determination and equality. The metaphor that I identify, the slave owner as drunkard, defiance in the name of equality and self-determination is not only tolerated, but praised. In terms of studies in Lincoln it shows a younger, less-experienced leader in the earlier phases of the development of his rhetorical leadership.

Author

• Margret McCue, Saginaw Valley State University