Appeals to Ethos and Pathos in Eugene V. Debs’ “Statement to the Court”
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history 1789 to present
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date published 19/02/2008
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SummaryIn June of 1918, Eugene Victor Debs was arrested for a speech he gave in Canton, Ohio in which he criticized the United States government for its involvement in World War I. He publicly discouraged young men from enlisting in the armed forces and was arrested for violating the Sedition Act of 1918. The Sedition Act, an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, further restricted American citizens from speaking or publishing opinions that were disloyal, profane, or abusive toward the federal government (Tussey, 281).
Debs stood trial in the fall of 1918 and knowing he would undoubtedly be found guilty on at least one of the ten counts he faced, he used his trial as a public forum to promote his socialist ideals. According to biographer Ray Ginger, “The attorney’s realized that the best weapons available were the personality and philosophy of Eugene Debs” (363). On September 18, 1918, Debs addressed the court before receiving a prison sentence of ten years. His plea to socialism and contention that the Sedition Act violated the first amendment rests upon solid logical appeal. However, the political and social climate was such that his audience – which ranged from fellow Marxists packed into a tiny Cleveland court room to unsympathetic, capitalist Americans – remained unmoved by a logical appeal. Rather, it is his appeal to both ethos and pathos that allowed him to capture the attention of the American public.
Debs stood trial in the fall of 1918 and knowing he would undoubtedly be found guilty on at least one of the ten counts he faced, he used his trial as a public forum to promote his socialist ideals. According to biographer Ray Ginger, “The attorney’s realized that the best weapons available were the personality and philosophy of Eugene Debs” (363). On September 18, 1918, Debs addressed the court before receiving a prison sentence of ten years. His plea to socialism and contention that the Sedition Act violated the first amendment rests upon solid logical appeal. However, the political and social climate was such that his audience – which ranged from fellow Marxists packed into a tiny Cleveland court room to unsympathetic, capitalist Americans – remained unmoved by a logical appeal. Rather, it is his appeal to both ethos and pathos that allowed him to capture the attention of the American public.
Table of Contents- Thus, it is crucial that his demeanor be of as little offense to the American public as possible while still advocating a radical viewpoint.
- His use of concrete, powerful diction enriches his prose and helps trigger an emotional response from his audience.
- His concluding paragraph is a metaphor of a mariner sailing over what appears to be an unending sea.
- On March 10, 1919 Debs' conviction was upheld by the United States Supreme Court.
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