Voices for Abraham Lincolns Assassination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Voices for Abraham Lincolns Assassination - Essay Example For Walt Whitman, he wrote an intensely emotionally driven poem entitled, O Captain! My Captain! which passionately expresses the author’s grief for the death of his captain, President Lincoln. Similarly, Frederick Douglass wrote a speech entitled Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, which he delivered at the unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument in Washington D.C. in memory of the deceased president on the 14th of April, 1876. The theme of his speech, like that of the article published in Harper’s Weekly, entitled The Murder of the President shared the same air of intense sorrow for the loss of a dear friend and father of the nation. The greatness and advocacy of the president were immortalized in the three written pieces, with the discussion not only of his convictions but also the actions he took to convey his seriousness in such matters. With a similar theme, the poem, speech, and report had stirred the emotions not only of American readers during that time b ut also both Americans and foreigners alike in this present age. The poem by Whitman strongly expresses the poet’s unbelief of the untimely death of the president who is nearing the witnessing of his victory in his fight for his beliefs. Douglass, on the other hand, appeals to the emotions of the white Americans to the remembrance of the man who fought for their rights and protected them in all his services as the president. He did this by talking about the passions of the late president and his dreams for the American people.