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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Farewell Address, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Parting, Gratitude, and Remembrance
The Passage of Time
Faith and Providence
Summary
Analysis
After addressing the audience as his friends, Abraham Lincoln emphasizes how difficult he finds it to leave Springfield and its inhabitants behind. To explain how much he owes the Illinois capital, he states that living there has taken him through adulthood. In addition to witnessing this transformation, the city has been the backdrop of major milestones for his family. Most of his family will accompany him to Washington, D.C., except for his son who is buried in Springfield.
Clearly shaken by his impending departure from his longtime home, Lincoln underlines his indebtedness to the city and the people living there. By identifying his audience as friends, he immediately imbues the speech with a sense of intimacy that will remain until the end. His grateful tone drives home the idea that he sees his years living in Springfield as inextricably linked with his election to the White House. In his view, the people standing before him helped bring about his success. He also reflects on the passage of time: when he states that Springfield saw him grow from a young to an old man, he is suggesting that the city and people of Springfield made him wise and competent.
Themes
Lincoln confronts his many uncertainties about the future, admitting that he doesn't know if he will ever return to Springfield. He compares the challenges that await him to the challenges that faced George Washington when he first became president of the United States, claiming that his job will be even harder. In Lincoln’s view, Washington was blessed by God during his presidency. If he can get the same assistance from God, Lincoln feels certain that he will be a good president.
After devoting the first part of his speech to a sentimental reflection on the past, Lincoln begins to look ahead. By comparing himself to George Washington, he again invokes age as a symbol of authority, since most portraits of Washington portray him as a distinguished older man with white hair. Just as the American people trusted Washington to lead the nation when it was newly independent from Great Britain after the American Revolution, the American people have put their trust in Lincoln to lead the nation through a period of escalating tension. In February of 1861, when Lincoln gave his Farewell Address, there was intense political and social conflict between northern and southern states over the issue of slavery. This conflict would erupt into the American Civil War just a couple of months after Lincoln gave this speech. Lincoln’s statement that his presidency will be more difficult than Washington’s gives a sense of his humility as well as his awareness of the challenges that await.
Themes
Lincoln continues to reflect on his faith and the hope it gives him for the future. He may imminently be leaving his audience behind, but he explains that God will both remain with his audience in Springfield and proceed with him to Washington. Before giving them a final goodbye, he tells the crowd that he will pray to God for their well-being and hopes that they will pray for him in return.
As a thoughtful leader in a period of intensifying conflict, Lincoln knows that this farewell to his friends and neighbors ought not to end on a tone of complete uncertainty. By turning to his Christian faith, he is able to assume a more hopeful tone. Given that most people listening to Lincoln’s speech would have been Christian, they would derive comfort from his trust in God and his submission to divine providence. He reminds those listening that while they may be going into a period in which he is the nation’s foremost leader, he yields to another, much higher figure of authority.
Themes
