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President Theodore Roosevelt Proclamation and First Inaugural Address: the Use of Ethos and Pathos

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President Theodore Roosevelt
Proclamation and First Inaugural Address: The Use of Ethos and Pathos

Lisa Weber
ENG 530.020
Dr.Mollick
December 5, 2012

Inaugural addresses usually follow a farewell address given by the outgoing President. In the book Presidents Creating Presidency: Deeds Done in Words, Campbell and Jamieson’s chapter on “Farewell Addresses” explain that “[a] farewell address is an anticipatory ritual; the address is delivered days, sometimes weeks, before an outgoing president “lays down” the office, an event that does not occur until a successor is sworn in” (308). This was not the case for Theodore Roosevelt for there was no pending farewell speeches planned. Vice-President Roosevelt became president after …show more content…

In the biographical material that Podell and Anzovin have compiled they inform the reader that Roosevelt was once a Sunday school teacher and saw the political platform as a “bully pulpit” (356). They also express that Roosevelt’s tendency in speaking and writing resembles that of a Protestant preacher, as he stresses the importance of walking “towards the paths of righteousness and virtue” (356). Many people did not like the manner to which Roosevelt would present his speeches because he would be seen as being very loud in volume. While walking back and forth he can be seen waving his speech around like a maniac man screeching his voice in tones that were unbearable to some listening. Podell and Anzovin describes William Roscoe Thayer observations to the manner of which Roosevelt dramatized his speeches; that some of the “listeners were fascinated by “his gestures, the way in which his pent-up thoughts seemed almost to strangle him before he could utter them, his smile showing the white rows of teeth, his fist clenched to strike an invisible adversary” (356). Theodore Roosevelt loved the attention and enjoyed the art of oratory for he looked for many opportunities to speak in public, especially on issues that he was passionate about. For Roosevelt, speechmaking was a means

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