What Are Patrick Henry's Arguments In A Call To Arms
A Call to Arms
Nearly 250 years have passed since the American Revolution, a time of political turmoil and chaos. It was accepted among colonial politicians at the time that there was conflict between America and Britain, but many disagreed that conditions were bad enough to justify war. Many speeches were given on either side of this question. Patrick Henry’s 1775 speech to the Virginia convention urging the colonists to fight is remembered while others are forgotten because it was an ingenious work of persuasion -- appealing to reason to defeat every argument against war, then appealing to emotion to inspire the colonists to fight.
The first argument of the colonists was the claim that conditions were not bad enough to justify war. …show more content…
“Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty.” Here, Henry makes two clear points, first, the colonists have millions of people ready to fight, and second, they are fighting for a higher purpose than the British. The colonists are fighting for their own survival, for their own land, for their own nation that they rightly deserve. He insists that surely people fighting for liberty are much more powerful than people simply seeking to expand their territory. He adds to this argument by saying that they will be aided, both spiritually and physically. “There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.” This appeals to logic as well as emotion. He appeals to emotion by including God in his argument, creating a sense of destiny in the audience. He also appeals to logic by saying that other nations will rise up and join them, making them stronger. At this point Patrick Henry has closed off every logical argument the colonists had for rejecting war. But he wasn’t
Nearly 250 years have passed since the American Revolution, a time of political turmoil and chaos. It was accepted among colonial politicians at the time that there was conflict between America and Britain, but many disagreed that conditions were bad enough to justify war. Many speeches were given on either side of this question. Patrick Henry’s 1775 speech to the Virginia convention urging the colonists to fight is remembered while others are forgotten because it was an ingenious work of persuasion -- appealing to reason to defeat every argument against war, then appealing to emotion to inspire the colonists to fight.
The first argument of the colonists was the claim that conditions were not bad enough to justify war. …show more content…
“Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty.” Here, Henry makes two clear points, first, the colonists have millions of people ready to fight, and second, they are fighting for a higher purpose than the British. The colonists are fighting for their own survival, for their own land, for their own nation that they rightly deserve. He insists that surely people fighting for liberty are much more powerful than people simply seeking to expand their territory. He adds to this argument by saying that they will be aided, both spiritually and physically. “There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.” This appeals to logic as well as emotion. He appeals to emotion by including God in his argument, creating a sense of destiny in the audience. He also appeals to logic by saying that other nations will rise up and join them, making them stronger. At this point Patrick Henry has closed off every logical argument the colonists had for rejecting war. But he wasn’t