Persona of Wendell Phillips

Wendell Phillips's speech delivered in 1861 near the beginning of the Civil War claims that African Americans ought to be given the right to serve in the military, for different contemporary generals were not of a European background yet brought America prominent success that significantly affected the course of American history. Although African Americans in the past were subjugated by the Americans on a regular basis, a couple of excellent triumphes by African descendant generals clearly proved that African Americans need to be, in truth, enabled to serve in the military as the rightful soldiers of America.

Phillips uses embellishment, understatement and metaphor to encourage the audience that the assistance of African American soldiers will be a contributing element in imminent American victory.

Wendell Phillips represents a few commendable figures of Europe that have been proclaimed as the best minds of the time through making use of hyperbole. In the beginning of the passage, he describes Napoleon as a guy whom the French discovered "no language abundant enough to paint the fantastic captain of the nineteenth century.

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" Although Phillips is applauding the eminence of Napoleon, he is also making a caustic remark on how the Frenchmen would do whatever it takes to shine the glory of Napoleon's success. Like the embellishment utilized in the representation of Napoleon, another phrase likewise highlights the success of Washington, whom the Americans consider "no marble white enough on which to sculpt the name of the Father of his Nation."

Through his use of embellishment, Phillips communicates to the audience the pompous mindset each nation holds in reverencing its own national hero.

Because of Phillips's usage of hyperbole to overemphasize the credibility of each nationwide hero, the audience expects to hear the exact same type of appraisal for the African American hero, basic Toussaint Louverture; however, in following part of the passage, Phillips explains him as a male who was degraded by the scanty traces of composed pieces that plainly represented Briton and French belittlement and abhorrence-- a noticeably contrasting illustration.

By presenting two distinct ways of depicting the national heroes, Phillips reprimands the American views towards African American success; whereas the French and American heroes earned the prestigious titles through their work, Louverture was rather degraded as a negro and a slave who was fortunate in the battles. Phillips’s use of hyperbole appeals to the audience’s logos, because the readers are compelled to believe that American’s disapproval of African American military enlistment is unreasonable, since even men like Louverture was barred from the honor he should have received simply because of his status as a negro and a slave.