Persuasion Techniques Used In Patrick Henry's Speech

Madison’s Radical Agenda In Madison’s Radical Agenda by Joseph Ellis the thesis was how James Madison shaped the Constitutional Convention and formed the national government through the Virginia plan to what it now is today, and why he was successful. “Although James Madison was considered a wee man, he thought more profoundly about political problems than any other American,” (80). Many of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention only though they were there to make a few changes to the Articles of Confederation. Like the moderates, but Madison had something else in mind. He knew that the Articles would not be able to sustain, and they would lose everything they fought for.

In the 1700’s the British ruled the 13 colonies and the people of the colonies were in unrest by the British but no one wanted to take action in fear of the British. At the Virginia Convention, on 20 March 1775, great minds of the colony were deciding whether to take action. Patrick Henry persuaded the people of the Virginia Convention to take up arms and fight against the British to win their freedom and independence. He showed how powerful Pathos was by using it in his speech to heavily sway the hearts and minds of the members which persuaded them to fight against the British. “It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope.

How Did Henry Many wonder how Patrick Henry was able to convince so many unsupporting colonists. At the third Virginia convention Patrick Henry was outnumbered by people who did not want to fight the British. He needed to use a perfect persuasive technique. Pathos was the most effective technique because the colonists were emotionally excited to fight, they in fact, did not want to fight the British until Henry’s persuasive speech, and the colonists were finally calling themselves American because of the speech. When the meeting began majority of these colonists did not want to fight the British.

Henry is able to include the members of the Virginia Convention in his opinions with repetitive phrases that start with “[w]e have”, “[w]e are”, and “[w]e shall.” The word “we” invokes a sense of unity. The unifying aspect of his repetition causes the colonists to doubt their actions and to consider other solutions. However, the repetition of the word “peace” by the speaker shows that peaceful solutions are not working in favor of the colonies. Henry states that the delegates call for peace, yet there is no peace. The speaker presents his claim as an opinion of the colonies, which convinces the delegates that they must fight for their freedom and rights.

Henry states that the other men of the convention have different views than his but it would be "treason" if he did not speak his proposition. He continues, saying it is the colonists' duty to follow his call to action. He then infers since he is "guided... [by] the lamp of experience" the others should trust his views. Next he builds up the emotion in the room by using imagery and allusions to call to mind the Britain's recent actions. Henry remarks that the colonists' false hopes in the British "will prove a snare to [their] feet."

Pathos promotes either a positive or negative emotion or feeling, and in this case, Henry used pathos to evoke negative emotions. His audience could feel a sense of betrayal when he said that the colonists' petition had been received with "that insidious smile." Insidious means treacherous and crafty, and that's what Henry wanted the British to seem like in his speech. He was trying to show the citizens at the convention that Parliament was deceiving them into believing that they would accept the petitions in a positive manner, while he knew that the British were really just trying to keep the colonists under their rule. This angered his audience, and made them resent and fear the British when they realized how much power they had over

“It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to god and our country” (Henry) during the time the speech was written, the colonist were trying to be separate from Britain. People wanted out of British laws, but had fear of fighting war. The colonist struggled with no money for an army nor the support to create one. In Patrick Henry’s, “Speech to Virginia convention ” he primarily used pathos to persuade the audience to stand up and fight. It was important to persuade the colonist so when Great Britain attacked they were ready to fight back.

Imagine living without representation in the government; a world where people are treated like objects without natural rights. This is how the American colonists lived from the mid-1760’s to the mid-1770’s as taxes and acts were placed upon them without any representation in Parliament. This caused tension between England and the colonies, which consequently, after several failed treaties and negotiations, kicked off the American Revolution. On 23 March 1775, Patrick Henry gave his “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention.” In this speech Henry uses rhetorical questions, repetition, and his past experience to build a strong speech to persuade his audience in taking part of the Revolution. Rhetorical questions are a great way to get an

Patrick Henry’s speech to the Convention of Delegates in Virginia was a powerful speech given with the intent to convince the Colonies to unite and fight against the tyranny of the British. The final part of his speech seen in the above excerpt fits well into the overall structure of his speech because it appeals to pathos by using a lot of emotional diction to show the listening audience that their only way to gain freedom was war. When he states, “...but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” he is not only making the audience feel his strong emotions, but convincing them that the cause for liberty is a life or death matter, and the only way to gain the liberty that they absolutely need for survival is to fight. This excerpt ends his speech well because it leaves the audience feeling a variety of emotions, including anger and patriotism, which makes it effective towards Henry’s cause.

When he thought of people who actually lived, he thought of people who followed their dreams. Regret can be caused by many things, but James’ came from his decision not to follow his dreams. In the story, the author used the symbol of James Maxwell being the president to show that no matter how far one gets in life, they will always have some regrets about what they chose to do with their life. James was one of the most influential people in the story. Most kids looked up to him and wanted to be him, but that wasn’t enough.