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A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Republican Speeches in the 1856 Presidential Election Campaign

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A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Republican Speeches in the 1856 Presidential Election Campaign Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1987 A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Republican Speeches in the 1856 Presidential Election Campaign. Linda Jean Webster Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Webster, Linda Jean, "A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Republican Speeches in the 1856 Presidential Election Campaign." (1987). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 4429. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/4429 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this manuscript, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. For example: • Manuscript pages may have indistinct print. In such cases, the best available copy has been filmed. • Manuscripts may not always be complete. In such cases, a note will indicate that it is not possible to obtain missing pages. • Copyrighted material may have been removed from the manuscript. In such cases, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, and charts) are photographed by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is also filmed as one exposure and is available, for an additional charge, as a standard 35mm slide or as a 17”x 23” black and white photographic print. Most photographs reproduce acceptably on positive microfilm or microfiche but lack the clarity on xerographic copies made from the microfilm. For an additional charge, 35mm slides of 6”x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations that cannot be reproduced satisfactorily by xerography. Order Number 8728225 A rhetorical analysis of selected Republican speeches in the 1856 presidential election campaign Webster, Linda Jean, Ph.D. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical Col., 1987 UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Aibor, MI 48106 PLEASE NOTE: tn all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V . 1. Glossy photographs or _____pages 2. 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Other______________________________________________ University Microfilms International A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF SELECTED itEPUBLICAN SPEECHES IN THE 1856 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech Communication, Theatre, and Communication Disorders by Linda J. Webster B.S., Southern Connecticut State University, 1981 M.A., Southern Connecticut State University, 1983 August, 1987 Acknowledgements The writer is indebted to her major professor, Dr. Harold Mixon, for his patient guidance and careful instruction. In addition, she wishes to thank her parents, Stanley and Irene Webster, who unfailingly encouraged her academic efforts throughout the course of her study. Finally, she wishes to thank her children, Michael and Elizabeth Fryar, who provided four years of perspective to their mother's research efforts. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................... 1 CHAPTER Is ANTI-SLAVERY POLITICS - 1840-1854 ...... 10 American Anti-Slavery Societies ................. 13 Annexation of Texas ............................... 19 Political Coalitions from 1844-1848 ............ 21 Political Coalitions from 1848-1852 ............ 31 Political Parties to 1852 ........................ 36 Summary ...................................... 38 CHAPTER 2: POLITICAL ISSUES - 1854-1856 ........... 47 Social and Political Movements: 1854-1856 ...... 47 Kansas-Nebraska Act ............................... 49 Rise of Sectionalism ............................. 56 Abolitionism ....................................... 62 S u m m a r y ............................................ 65 CHAPTER 3: ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY .. 71 Organizational Environment - External Factors .. 74 Organizational Environment - Internal Factors .. 82 Free Labor Ideology ............................... 86 General Rhetorical Strategies ................... 90 Candidate as a Constraint ........................ 97 Summary ...................... 104 iii CHAPTER 4: ETHOS: IDENTIFICATION AND CREDIBILITY .. 112 Leading Republicans ................................ 117 Speeches of Eyewitnesses ......................... 124 Speeches of Anti-Slavery Politicians ............ 146 Summary ...................................... 163 CHAPTER 5: LOGICAL APPEALS ........................... 171 Speech of Nathaniel Banks ......................... 175 Speech of George William Curtis .................. 187 Speech of William H. Seward ....................... 203 Summary ............................................. 218 CHAPTER 6: EMOTIONAL APPEALS ......................... 225 Abolitionist Speaking .............................. 230 Speeches of Henry Ward Beecher ................... 231 Speeches of George Cheever ....................... 238 Radical Speakers ................................... 248 Republican Appeals ................................. 251 Northern Dissent ................................... 259 Summary .............................................. 264 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION ................................. 270 Summary of the Study ............................... 270 Conclusions ......................................... 272 Suggestions for Further Study ..................... 284 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................... 287 iv ABSTRACT The Republican party organized its first presidential campaign in 1856. The party was composed of men from a wide variety of political backgrounds, primarily from free soil and anti-slavery groups. The rhetoric of this first Republican campaign represented the efforts of these individual speakers to reconcile their free soil arguments with the official party platform. Although the party was loosely organized and poorly funded, many respected orators participated in the campaign. As background for the rhetorical analysis, the major political and historical events of the decade are identified in the first two chapters. Bleeding Kansas, abolitionism, and the reorganization of the major political parties are examined for their contribution to the rhetorical exigence of the political situation. The analytical portion of the study first identifies the method by which the party was organized in the period between 1854 and 1856. Then, the primary arguments employed by the Republican speakers are analyzed in three separate chapters for their logical, ethical, and emotional forms of proof. Individual speeches are v analyzed for the major form of artistic proof employed by the speaker. Some speakers argued for adoption of the Republican platform on logical grounds and other men employed emotional appeals with great skill. Personal credibility, mainly the eye-witness to the violence in Kansas, was an important artistic proof in the 1856 campaign. John C. Frfemont, the Republican presidential candidate, did not speak publicly during the campaign. Instead, the party was represented by surrogate speakers. Among these speakers were former Barnburner Democrats, Liberty party members, Conscience Whigs, and political abolitionists. The rhetorical constraints posed by such a wide variety of political coalitions justifies this type of individual speech analysis. The study concludes with a discussion of the effectiveness of the rhetoric of the presidential campaign of 1856. Suggestions for further study are also included. Introduction Statement of the Problem The success of the Republican campaign of 1856 is difficult to measure against other national campaigns of the era. The immediate political challenge to the Republican organization, James Buchanan and the Democratic party campaign effort, was relatively well organized throughout the nation and had access to substantial campaign funds. The Republicans were campaigning out of their own pockets while devising strategy on a day-by-day basis. Yet, the Republicans accrued nearly one-third of the popular vote while actively campaigning
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