Transcript Revolutionary Speeches - North Bergen School District

Speeches of the
American Revolution
“The Crisis, Number 1”
“Speech in the Virginia
Convention”
“Common Sense”
The Crisis, Number 1
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
• Arrived in America at age 37
• His passage was paid by Ben Franklin, who
called Paine and “ingenious, worthy young
man.”
• Only resided in America for 13 years yet
wrote some of the most persuasive texts of
the American Revolution
• Paine proposed the name United States of
America for the new nation.
Thomas Paine
• Paine's strength lay in his ability to
present complex ideas in clear and
concise form, as opposed to the more
philosophical approaches of his
Enlightenment contemporaries in
Europe.
Thomas Paine
Significant Works
• “Common Sense” (1776): pamphlet that
advocated war against Britain (sold
120,000 copies in three months) “the most
important pamphlet in American history.”
• “The Crisis, Number One”: urged war
against England; the first of 16 “Crisis”
papers written between 1776-83.
The Crisis, Number One
• Paine composed the speech using a drum
for a desk.
• It was read aloud to discouraged soldiers
during a retreat early in the war.
• Morale was so restored that most soldiers
reenlisted and six days later, the army had
its first victory at Trenton
• The essay was printed and given to every
new recruit.
The Crisis, Number One
• Paine compares the colonists’ situation
to being enslaved.
• Paine uses metaphor, aphorism,
argument by analogy, anecdote, &
rhetorical questions, to argue that the
colonists have no choice but to wage
war against Britain.
The Appeals
• Paine uses the three appeals:
Logos: logical appeal
Pathos: emotional appeal
Ethos: ethical appeal
The Three Appeals
• Logos (logical appeal)
= the text
• Pathos (emotional appeal)
= the audience
• Ethos (ethical appeal)
= the author
Rhetorical Devices
• Aphorism/Proverb: a brief statement
(sometimes witty), usually only one
sentence long, that expresses a general
truth or clever observation about life.
•
•
•
•
“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.” – John Wooden
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius
“The best way out is always through” – Robert Frost
“You can’t steal second base and keep you r foot on first.” anonymous
• “An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over
his fellow citizens.” – Thomas Jefferson
Rhetorical Devices
Parallel Structure/Parallelism:
• Anaphora: the repetition of a word or
words at the beginning of successive
lines, clauses, or sentences.
• Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of
this world?
• “Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!”
• “for everything there is a season, and a time or matter under
heaven; a time to plant, a time to pluck up what is planted
a time to be born, and a time to die…”(Ecclesiastes (3:1-2)
Rhetorical Devices
• Epistrophe: the repetition of a word or
words at the end of successive lines,
clauses, or sentences.
• The cars do not sell because the engineering is inferior, the
quality of materials is inferior, and the workmanship is
inferior.
• Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on you. [. . .]
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you.
— Shakespeare, The Tempest (4.1.108-109; 116-17)
• We are born to sorrow, pass our time in sorrow, end our days
in sorrow.
Rhetorical Devices
Parallel Structure/Parallelism:
• Asyndeton: the deliberate omission between
a series of related clauses
• “I came, I saw, I Conquered.”
• “I went to the store, I grabbed the phone, I
dialed.”
• “the storm, stress, sound, fury.”
• They spent the day wondering, searching,
thinking, understanding.
Rhetorical Devices
Parallel Structure/Parallelism:
• Polysyndeton: the use of a conjunction
between each word, phrase, or clause, and is
thus structurally the opposite of asyndeton.
• “The storm, and the stress, and the sound, and the fury.”
• The water, like a witch's oils, / Burnt green, and blue, and
white. --S. T. Coleridge
• [He] pursues his way, / And swims, or sinks, or wades, or
creeps, or flies. --John Milton
Rhetorical Devices
• Analogy: a point by point comparison
between two things for the purpose of
clarifying the less familiar of the two
subjects.
• You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You
may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though
you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. -Samuel Johnson
• . . . For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to
difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot
if he is ignorant of it. --Aristotle
Rhetorical Devices
• understatement: deliberately expresses an
idea as less important than it actually is, either
for ironic emphasis or for politeness and tact.
• The 1906 San Francisco earthquake interrupted business somewhat
in the downtown area.
• Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and everybody
smiled . . . . To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of
twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well . . . . --Jane Austen
• Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how
much it altered her person for the worse. --Jonathan Swift
• Hitting that telephone pole certainly didn't do your car any good.
Rhetorical Devices
• epithet: an adjective or adjective phrase
appropriately qualifying a subject (noun) by
naming a key or important characteristic of
the subject; can be an abusive insulting
word or phrase
• "laughing happiness," "sneering contempt,"
"untroubled sleep," "peaceful dawn,“
"lifegiving water."
The Crisis, Number One
Aphorisms Paine uses:
• “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
• “The summer soldier and the sunshine
patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of his country.” (also alliteration,
epithet)
The Crisis, Number One
Aphorisms Paine uses:
• “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily
conquered.” (also a simile)
• “the harder the conflict, the more
glorious the triumph; what we obtain too
cheap, we esteem too lightly.”
“A noted one [Torie], who kept a tavern at
Amboy…finished with this unfatherly
expression, ‘Well! Give me peace in my day.’
Not a man lives on the continent but fully
believes that a separation must some time or
other finally take place, and a generous parent
should have said, “If there must be trouble, let it
be in my day that my child may have peace;”
and this single reflection…is sufficient to
awaken every man to duty.”
(anecdote; emotional appeal/pathos)
“…though the flame of liberty may sometimes
cease to shine, the coal never can expire.”
(metaphor)
“The heart that feels not now, is dead.”
(metaphor)
“The blood of his children will curse his
cowardice, who shrinks back at a time
when a little might have saved the
whole, and made them happy.”
(metaphor; emotional appeal: pathos)
“Tis the business of little minds to
shrink…”
(aphorism)
“My own line of reasoning is to myself
as strait and clear as a ray of light.”
(simile)
“Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I
believe, could have induced me to support an
offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a
thief break into my house, burn and destroy
my property, and kill or threaten to kill me, or
those that are in it, and to “bind me in all cases
whatsoever,” to his absolute will, am I to
suffer it?”
(ethos; metaphor; argument by analogy; pathos;
rhetorical question; allusion)
(Note on the Allusion: 1766: a Declaratory Act was introduced, asserting the authority of
the King and Parliament to make laws which should "bind the colonies and people of
America in all cases whatsoever!" )
“What signifies it to me, whether he who does it,
is a king or a common man; my countryman or
not my countryman? Whether it is done by an
individual villain or an army of them? If we
reason to the root of things we shall find no
difference; neither can any just cause be
assigned where we should punish in the one
case and pardon in the other.”
(rhetorical question; argument by analogy; logos;
parallel structure)
“…but I should suffer the misery of devils,
were I to make a whore of my soul by
swearing allegiance to one whose character
is that of a *sottish, stupid, stubborn,
worthless, brutish man.”
(metaphor, alliteration, allusion)
*drunken
“The cunning of the fox is as murderous as
the violence of the wolf; and we ought to
guard equally against both.”
(simile; emotional appeal: pathos)
“Speech in the
Virginia Convention”
Patrick Henry
“Speech in the
Virginia Convention”
• Patrick Henry was the most famous orator
of the American Revolution.
• He delivered this speech in March 1775 to
the Second Virginia Provincial Convention.
• The battles of Lexington & Concord took
place less than a month after the speech.
Patrick Henry
• “Call it oratory or what you will, but I never
heard anything like it. He had more
command over the passions than any man I
ever knew.” – Thomas Jefferson
• Henry opposed the Stamp Act
• He helped draw up Virginia’s first state
constitution & was elected Virginia’s first
governor.
“Speech in the Virginia Convention”
• Henry uses various tropes (mainly
metaphors), rhetorical questions, allusions
(classical & Biblical) and parallel structure
in the speech.
• He uses the extended metaphor of slavery.
“Speech in the Virginia Convention”
• He uses the appeals of logos & pathos
and establishes ethos
• He acknowledges the opposing
viewpoint (that a war against Britain is
unwinnable) and refutes it effectively
Rhetorical Devices
• Allusion: an indirect reference to a
person, place, event, or literary work
with which the author believes the
reader will be familiar.
• The implied comparisons are intended
to strengthen the writer’s argument.
Rhetorical Devices
• Rhetorical Question: a question to
which no answer is expected because
the answer is obvious.
• Often used to emphasize a point or
create an emotional effect.
Acknowledgement
& Refutation
• “Mr. President: No man thinks more highly
than I do of the patriotism, as well as
abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who
have just addressed the House. But different
men often see the same subject in different
lights.”
(metaphor; ethos)
• “For my own part I consider it as
nothing less than a question of freedom
or slavery.”
(simile) (pathos)
• “Should I keep back my opinions at
such a time, through fear of giving
offense, I should consider myself as
guilty of treason towards my country,
and of an act of disloyalty towards the
majesty of heaven, which I revere
above all earthly kings.” (ethos)
• “We are apt to shut our eyes against a
painful truth, and listen to the song of
that siren, till she transforms us into
beasts.”
(allusion – The Odyssey)
• “Is this the part of wise men, engaged
in a great and arduous struggle for
liberty?
(rhetorical question; pathos)
• “Are we disposed to be of the number
of those who, having eyes, see not, and
having ears, hear not, the things which
so nearly concern their temporal
salvation?” (rhetorical question;
parallel structure)
• “For my part, whatever anguish of
spirit it may cost, I am willing to know
the whole truth—to know the worst and
to provide for it.”
(parallel structure: anaphora)
• “I have but one lamp by which my feet
are guided; and that is the lamp of
experience.” (metaphor)
• “Is it that insidious smile with which
our petition has been lately received?”
(rhetorical question; oxymoron)
• “Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare
to your feet.”
(metaphor)
• “Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed
with a kiss.”
(allusion - Bible)
• “Are fleets and armies necessary to a
work of love and reconciliation?”
(rhetorical question/logical appeal)
• “Has Great Britain any enemy, in this
quarter of the world, to call for all of
this accumulation of navies and
armies?” (rhetorical question/logical
appeal)
• “They are meant for us; they can be
meant for no other. They are sent over
to bind and rivet upon us those chains
which the British ministry have been
so long forging.” (parallel structure:
anaphora; metaphor; logical appeal)
“We have held the subject up in every
light of which it is capable; but it has
been all in vain. Shall we resort to
humble supplication?”
(metaphor; rhetorical question)
• “Sir, we have done everything that
could be done to avert the storm which
is now coming on.”
(metaphor)
• “We have petitioned; we have
remonstrated; we have supplicated; we
have prostrated ourselves before the
throne…”(parallel structure: anaphora)
• “Our petitions have been slighted; our
*remonstrances have produced
additional violence and insult; our
supplications have been disregarded;
and we have been spurned, with
contempt, from the foot of the throne.”
(parallel structure: anaphora;
metaphor)
*protests or complaints
• “If we wish to be free—if we mean to
preserve inviolate those inestimable
privileges for which we have been so
long contending—if we mean not
basely to abandon until the glorious
object of our contest shall be obtained,
we must fight! I repeat it sir, we must
fight!” (parallel structure: anaphora)
• “They tell us, sir, that we are weak—
unable to cope with so formidable an
adversary. But when shall we be
stronger? Will it be the next week, or
the next year?” (acknowledgement of
opposing viewpoint & refutation;
ethos; rhetorical question; logos)
• “Will it be when we are totally
disarmed, and when a British guard
shall be stationed in every home?”
(rhetorical question; emotional appeal:
pathos)
• “Shall we acquire the means of
effectual resistance, by lying supinely
on our backs, and hugging the delusive
phantom of hope, until our enemies
shall have bound us hand and foot?”
(rhetorical question; metaphor; pathos,
logos)
“Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper
use of those means which the God of nature
hath placed in our power. Three millions of
people, armed in the holy cause of liberty,
and in such a country as that which we
possess, are invincible by any force which
our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir,
we shall not fight our battles alone. There is
a just God who presides over the destinies
of nations, and who will raise up friends to
fight our battles for us.”
(metaphor; logos; pathos; refutation)
• “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it
is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”
(parallel structure)
• “There is no retreat but in submission and
slavery! Our chains are forged! Their
clanking may be heard on the plains of
Boston! The war is inevitable—and let it
come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!”
(metaphor; emotional appeal: pathos;
parallel structure)
• “The next gale that sweeps from the
north will bring to our ears the clash of
resounding arms!”
(metaphor)
• “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to
be purchased at the price of chains and
slavery?”
(rhetorical question; metaphor)
• “Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not
what course others may take; but as for
me, give me liberty, or give me death!”
(parallel structure; emotional appeal:
pathos)
from Common Sense
Thomas Paine
from Common Sense
• “In the following pages I offer nothing
more than simple facts, plain arguments
and common sense…” (understatement)
• “The sun never shined on a cause of
greater worth.”
from Common Sense
• “‘Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a
province, or a kingdom, but of a
continent—of at least one eighth part of
the habitable globe. ‘Tis not the concern
of a day, a year, or an age…”
• “The least fracture now will be like a
name engraved with the point of a pin
on the tender rind of a young oak; the
wound will enlarge with the tree, and
posterity read in in full grown
characters.”
• “I have heard it asserted by some, that as
America hath flourished under her former
connection with Great Britain, that the same
connection is necessary towards her future
happiness, and will always have the same
effect. Nothing can be more *fallacious than
this kind of argument. We may as well
assert that because a child has thrived on
milk, that it is never to have meat, or that
the first twenty years of our lives is to
become a precedent for the next twenty.”
*erroneous or misleading
• “But Britain is the parent country, say
some. Then the more shame upon her
conduct. Even brutes do not devour
their young, nor savages make war
upon their families…”
• “This new world hath been the asylum
for the persecuted lovers of civil and
religious liberty from every part of
Europe. Hither have they fled, not from
the tender embraces of the mother, but
from the cruelty of the monster.”
• “Every thing that is right or natural
pleads for separation. The blood of the
slain, the weeping voice of nature cries,
“TIS TIME TO PART.”
• “Even the distance at which the
Almighty hath placed England and
America, is a strong and natural proof,
that the authority of the one, over the
other, was never the design of
Heaven.”