Question

Excerpt from "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!" by Patrick Henry

Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. 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.

Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this speech. Which statement best describes Patrick Henry's use of logos in this excerpt?

He explains what has occurred under his watch to reinforce his authority and knowledge on the subject.

He describes current events to create anger toward the British and present the moral argument for war.

He presents the crimes committed against the American people by the British government, to create outrage.

He lists the actions taken by America to ensure peace, to establish the reasons why war is inevitable.

Answer 1

Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this speech. Which statement best describes Patrick Henry's use of logos in this excerpt?

To be able to answer this question you must first be clear about what logos is.

Aristotle wrote more than 2,300 years ago in his famous Rhetoric that there are three types of persuasive arguments or modes of appeal in a discourse: those relating to ethos, pathos and logos.

The arguments linked to the logos are tied to the theme and to the message of the discourse itself, entering here in the domain proper of the Dialectic. Logical arguments supported by solid evidence are used, appealing to the reason and intelligence of the audience.

In the text, the speaker expresses that the war is imminent and can no longer be stopped. To support this assertion, the speaker lists a series of actions that America have been taken to avoid war and the rejection of their counterpart, which translates into war happening even if they didn't want it.

The author gave the list of action taken because they serve as arguments to convince the audience that they tried to stop this war but the other part did't want it. Basically it's a way to say that America is not the main responsable for this war.

Answer: He lists the actions taken by America to ensure peace, to establish the reasons why war is inevitable.

Answer 2

The statement that best describes Patrick Henry's use of logos in this excerpt is "He lists the actions taken by America to ensure peace, to establish the reasons why was is inevitable".

According to Aristotle, logos is one of the three modes of persuasion. Logos is the appeal to reason in order to convince an audience. In this excerpt, Patrick Henry tries to convince his audience by citing facts, that is, by listing the actions taken by America to ensure peace as well as the response of the ministry and the Parliament. Therefore, in this speech, Henry presents the reasons why they should raise a militia and defend Virginia. Moreover, he constructs a logical argument when he states that Americans tried to ensure peace in a diplomatic way but the British did not want to hear them; therefore, they must declare war against Britain.