Setting the Standard for Presidential Inaugural Speeches

Rhetorical Speech - My Copy

Robert McGill

September 9, 2011

Organizational Method: Topical

Specific Purpose: Critique of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Speech

Central Idea or Thesis: Setting the standard for presidential inaugural speeches.

Good Evening everyone!

It was a snowy day in Washington, D.C., January 20th, 1961. The 35th president of the United States delivers his inaugural speech after taking the oath of office on Capitol Hill. Fifty years later, this iconic speech remains as one of the four best U.S. presidential inaugural speeches of all time. According to William Safire, a former New York Times columnist and Nixon speechwriter, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech that "set the standard by which presidential inaugurals have been judged in the modern era." (csmonitor.com) JFK, as he became so widely known, used many stylistic devices such as repetition, antithesis, and parallelism throughout his speech. He established credibility or his ethos in his opening remarks and he concluded his speech with a call to action that has remained both memorable and unforgettable.

John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech was full of passion, conviction and encouragement. He establishes credibility almost immediately with the statement, "For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath of our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago." (americanrhetoric.com) I have heard and I have listened to several of JFK's speeches, I have seen the miniseries, the movies, and the documentaries and one of the things that always fascinated me was his passion and conviction. His strong accent proves that you don't have to be blessed with a perfect speaking voice to be an effective public speaker.

What made Kennedy's inaugural speech so powerful were the pauses in between each of his thoughts. I believe this allowed his target audience, the American citizens, to process each thought as deeply as he intended them to be. Throughout his speech, he continually looked to the future while using examples from the past. A great example of this is in the following statement:

"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world." (americanrhetoric.com)

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