The Rhetoric of Revolution

As history evolves, government expands, and citizens become more involved in political and social decisions, revolution is inevitable. Through petitions, riots, demonstrations, rallies, strikes, coups, and war, an oppressed people will empower themselves to seize the rights they have been denied by an abusive governmental power. From the American Revolution and the Civil War to the women's suffrage and civil rights movements, the American people have unfalteringly demanded equal rights, equal privileges, and equal recognition as an independent nation of citizens capable of self-governance. However, American government -empowered by its citizens-must constantly be transformed, improved, and developed to ensure that citizens are not unjustly deprived of power and privileges. To catapult reform, leaders of interest groups, movements, and even entire nations have employed various rhetorical devices in their writings and speeches to motivate, inspire, and incite citizens to action in order to revolutionize the intricate dynamic between the government and its people.
As an introductory device, many historical, revolutionary speeches and writings begin with the speaker's establishing his or her credibility with an appeal to ethos. Ofen citing the authority of God, nature, justice, or ethical standards as a reason for revolution or change, the speaker attempts to persuade the audience of the urgency and necessity of whatever the speaker is supporting. Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, appeals to the authority of the "Laws of Nature and Nature's God" as justification for the colonists' vital decision to declare
independence from the unjust power of Great Britain's King George III and Parliament. Speaking to the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry appeals to the ethics of truth as well as the "great responsibility which we hold to God and our country" as reasoning for declaring war against Great Britain. Delivered in 1865, Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address focused decisively on the Civil War; to assert his authority as leader of the United States, President Lincoln cites his knowledge of "the progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends7' and declares himself a spokesman for the Union by stating: "[the progress of the war] is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all." In his address at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. appeals to the political authority of Abraham Lincoln and the. Emancipation Proclamation as reason for black equality. King also notes the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as sources of rationale for the civil rights movement, stating that these documents “promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." However, as one of the leading proponents of the women's suffrage movement in the early twentieth century, Emmeline Pankhurst does not appeal to the authority of God or the authority of the American government -a government which has yet to grant equal rights and privileges to women -but instead invokes the plight of the colonists in the American Revolution, when men demanded equality and independence from Great Britain, as an equal comparison to the demands of women for the right to vote: "Your forefathers decided that they must have representation for taxation, many, many years ago. ...and they went on until they had won the independence of the United States of America." Pankhurst asserts her demand not as a woman but as a fellow human being of equal status. Her appeal to ethos-just as Henry, Lincoln, and King appeal to the ethical standards of their audience-is a successful attempt establish unquestionable authority and reliability, a necessary tactic utilized to gain her
audience's trust.
Another common rhetorical device used throughout historical documents is the use of enthymeme, a logical syllogism in which the major premise is unstated and assumed to be shared by both the speaker and the audience. Relying on the beliefs and presupposed values of the audience instead of factual information, an enthymeme is only effective if the audience already believes or the speaker can make the audience believe that the unstated major premise is manifestly true. Although not an enthymeme, the preamble to the Declaration of Independence can be viewed as an extended syllogism beginning with this major premise, a premise that has Y been used as the basis for several revolutionary American speeches: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Emrneline Pankhurst utilizes the ideals of the Declaration to establish the enthymeme of her speech "Freedom or Death"; speaking to a convention of women suffragists, Pankhurst is able to use the enthymeme that all men and women are created equal and deserve equal treatment, rights, and privileges. Likewise, Martin Luther King, Jr. alludes to the Declaration of Independence with his enthymeme that all men, all nationalities, all religions, all ethnicities are entitled to justice and equality of opportunity:"the Constitution and the declaration of Independence... [were]a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." While not finding its foundation in the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln's enthymeme in his Second Inaugural Address attempts to unify not only the Union but the Confederacy as well under the unstated major premise that the war should end and the country should be reunited. Assuring his audience that both sides, the Confederacy and the Union, abhor the concept of war, Lincoln's enthymeme becomes almost obvious: "Both parties deprecated
war; but one of them would make war rather than let the national survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish." By 1865both armies had grown weary of fighting, exhausted from the constant marching and poor rations, and because it was quite apparent that the Union army was quickly approaching victory by March of 1865,the country was unknowingly-and perhaps unwillingly -united under Lincoln's enthymeme.
Replete with biblical, mythological, and historical allusions, historical documents often draw comparisons from past events and ideals to gain support for whatever the document is advocating. For instance, Patrick Henry, in his Speech to the Virginia Convention, makes reference to the mythological siren/seductress Circe, stating, "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." This statement creates an appeal to pathos by condemning the actions of the British monarchy and government as seductive and mendacious as well as illustrating the colonists' reactions to the British control as weak, fearful, and even bestial. Furthermore, Henry alludes to the biblical actions of Judas Iscariot with his statement, "Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss," elevating the plight of the colonists to the same level of suffering as the crucifixion of Christ. Lincoln explicitly references biblical material in the third paragraph of his Second Inaugural Address: "'The judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether,"' drawing on his position that the course of the civil war is in the almighty hands of God. Emmeline Pankhurst consistently alludes to the Declaration of Independence and American Revolution as metaphors for women's fight for suffrage and equal rights; just as the colonial men had demanded "representation for taxation" and "went on until they had won the independence of the United States of America," Pankhurst astutely amalgamates women's suffrage with American independence, creating an appeal to pathos for American women. Pankhurst is appealing to the
American woman's intrinsic sense of national pride and patriotism yet at the same time I / equalizing the grievances of men with the grievances of women. Similarly, Martin Luther King, Jr. proposes that black citizens, entitled to the "promissory note" guaranteed by both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, have been rejected by their government: "America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned." Beginning his introduction with "Five score years ago...,"King also presents an allusion to the Gettysburg Address, a document that symbolically represents the first political attempt to end slavery and black subjugation. The allusion is a rhetorical device that appeals to ethos by referencing the authority of an important historical, biblical, or mythological event or document; pathos by instilling in the audience a sense of camaraderie and kinship with the struggles of past generations; and logos by presenting logical reasons and facts that prove why civil change and revolution is necessary and inevitable.
To achieve a stylistic sense of rhythm and poetry, many historical documents employ repetition in the forms of anaphora and alliteration to lend a dramatic and emphatic effect to specific points of the document. The repetition of beginning phrases draws the audience's attention and allows the document to achieve a certain degree of rhythm and composure that is common in effective speeches. King's "I Have a Dream'' speech, often hailed for its rhythmic and poetic aspects, repeatedly utilizes anaphora to call attention to important themes of his speech, such as the repetition of "one hundred years later," "I have a dream," and "let freedom ring." "One hundred years later" stresses the extensive struggle for freedom of American blacks; "I have a dream7'signifiesthe growing possibility of King's dream becoming a reality; and "let freedom ring" is a promise of hope and opportunity for success of the Civil Rights movement. King's speech is also sated with alliteration, lending a sort of poetic imagery to his words. The repetition of the "s" consonant in "this sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent" draws the audience's attention to the excruciatingly slow and painful efforts of black citizens to achieve equal rights. Repeating the "d" consonant in both "dark and desolate valley of segregation" and "high plane of dignity and discipline" accents King's intent belief that, though subjugated beneath arbitrary laws and militant policies, black citizens must remain non-violent in order to attain equal rights. King expounds on this belief with the statement, "We must not our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence." The Declaration of Independence also uses anaphora to emphasize specific grievances the colonists have with the tyrannical power of King George III with the repetition of the words “'He has .." to begin each separate grievance. Thomas Jefferson, as he denounces both the British people and the British government in the final two sections of the Declaration, describes certain insults with alliterative words to draw emphasis to the significance of the insults. The colonists' "British brethren" have been petitioned, "conjured" by the "ties of common kindred," "connections and correspondence" which were suspended by the British citizens' reluctance to support the American colonists. However, it is important to note that certain historical speeches, such as Emrneline Pankhurst's "Freedom or Death," seek not to inspire audiences with poetic words and imagery, but instead use a more pragmatic and analytical approach. Pankhurst most likely saw nothing poetic about women's violent battle for suffrage, and she sought to incite women to action through examples of "militant" women fighting for equality at any cost and lists of abuses toward women inflicted by the patriarchal society.
Typified by the rhetoric of an era, history is made through revolution-the sudden or gradual shift in power, ideology, rights, and efficacy that can compel entire nations to alter laws, policies, and even constitutional rights so as to better serve the people. However, it is the
speeches, the letters, the documents, the words of revolution that are so dangerous, for it is the words that empower people to fight, to rally, to protest, to believe so firmly in a cause they are willing to die unashamedly and even heroically so change, reform, and progress may proliferate. Knowing this, writers and speakers rely heavily upon rhetorical devices such as appeals, metaphor, allusion, anaphora, alliteration, and even fallacies to provide strength and credibility to the author's cause; without these devices the writer or speaker would be unable to incite revolution. Without the rhetoric of revolution, there would have been no American fight for independence, no end to slavery, no progress for women, no equal rights and racial justice for blacks. Without the rhetoric of revolution, history would be stagnant, individual efficacy destroyed, and advancement and improvement a whimsical, dream of the idealists and the visionaries.