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How Does Benjamin Franklin Use Rhetorical Devices In Speech In The Convention

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"Speech in the Convention"
On September 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin delivered the "Speech in the Convention”. At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin is trying to persuade the delegates to sign and ratify the Constitution in his speech. He explains in further detail how this is the best Consitution that is going to be made. To encourage them to sign he uses different literary devices. Some examples Franklin includes are parallelism, rhetorical questions, and allusions to make the speech more entertaining and keep the delegates' attention on what is essential.
Benjamin Franklin uses rhetorical questions to show the delegates that the perfect person does not exist. By using the rhetorical question he showed that the character faults of the delegates would outweigh their collective wisdom and the result would be poor. To get them thinking about this Franklin says “From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?”. He is implying that even if you have a great assembly and everyone agrees you still can't expect a perfect product to come from it. The product is human-made so it can not be perfect if humans aren't perfect. Ben Franklin is trying to encourage them to sign this document because he believes it is the best version of it. …show more content…

In his speech, he says “Within these walls, they were born, and here they shall die”. Franklin uses persuasive techniques, like parallelism, to make his ideas reach the minds of the delegates at the convention. Another example of parallelism would be when he states “..you assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passion, their error of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views”. The use of parallelism increases the significance of the weaknesses of the Consitution never being expressed outside the walls in which it was

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