John Adams : Independence

After witnessing the incident happened at Concord when the British came, John Adams takes up the cause of independence. Along the process, John Adams try to persuade the congress to support him to supply an army. Viewing from a rhetorical point of view, I would like to analyze one of his speech in the scene where the rhetorical appeals play its role successfully. It is the speech where he is telling a story about his friend, General Warren who fell at Bunker Hill. The detail of the story to show how he has been shot through the head, bayoneted and stripped off of his clothes attract the audience who is the congress. Another story is about 400 ordinary civilian dead because of the attack. In this speech, John Adams used two important Pathos tools which are storytelling and volume control. Both tools should compatible and complementary to each other in order to persuade the audience successfully and in this scene, he did an excellent job in doing that. Thus, in the effect of persuading and patriotism arise from the congress from his speech, the congress agree to support the militia for Massachusetts and appointed George Washington as the man in charge of the army.