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The Preamble Rhetorical Devices

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When the Articles of Confederation failed the colonies, they decided to write the Constitution. The Constitution was written by James Madison in 1787. James Madison was a Virginia plantation and slave owner. Over his life, he was the fourth president of America, served as a United States Secretary of State, and served as a member of the House of Representatives from Virginia. Madison is known as the “Father of the Constitution”. The Constitution went into effect in September 1789. The reason that America has been successful for many years is because of this document. It is also known as one of the documents that shaped America into what it is today. The purpose of the constitution was to establish a government and regulate government powers. The first part of the document is known as the Preamble. The Preamble can be known as the most important part of the Constitution. Without the Preamble being as direct as it is, America would not have stayed true to what the founding fathers wanted this country to be. The exact goal of the Constitution was declared in a few lines of the Preamble. The most substantial aspect of the Preamble is the rhetorical device used to bring the American people together. Madison used pathos when writing the Preamble to appeal …show more content…

“Form,” “establish,” “insure,” and “provide” are words that all speak clearly to James Madison’s audience. It is never said who Madison’s audience is, but in Article 1 Section 2 “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature” (Madison 92), it is suggested that his audience was white Americans who voted on the Constitution. In the era of the Constitution, voters were classified as white, educated, landowning

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