Goodner AP ENGL LANG & COMP 3

Using Toulmin with Henry’s Speech

Toulmin’s Model of Argument

Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginia Convention

Read Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginia Convention.

Annotate for claim, evidence, warrants, backing, qualifiers, and
rebuttals. Complete the following activities.

1. List each claim made in the argument.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
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equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the
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pursuit of Happiness."
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"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
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establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove
this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."
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2. Record the data used to support each claim._______________________________________________

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
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importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the
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accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has
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called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of
their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has
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dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the
rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be
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elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large
for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from
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without, and convulsions within.
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3. Identify the warrants. (What assumptions make the data support the claims?) Are these warrants

implicit (implied) or explicit (clearly stated)?_________________________________________________

The data supports the claim because he is stating how the
colonists should be able to free themselves from Great Britain because of all the wrong that the King was
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allowing to happen and them feeling that they have no control. Thomas Jefferson then goes on to list all
the things the King is doing to encourage the colonists that they will be better off splitting themselves from
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Great Britain and going on their own way. The warrants are clearly stated when he says "The history of
the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
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object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the States." This states that the King has a history of
wrongdoing and that it has not changed given the recent events at the time.
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 Goodner AP ENGL LANG & COMP 4
Using Toulmin with Henry’s Speech

The backings given for the warrant are shown after "The
4. Record any backing given for the warrant(s)._______________________________________________

history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having
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direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the States." All of the stated facts that show
how the King is refused to have a fair government for his people.
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5. List any qualifiers.____________________________________________________________________

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"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring
6. List any rebuttals.____________________________________________________________________

the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an
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undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions." This states that at some point they
wanted to free the slaves.
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7. What is your overall evaluation of the strength or weakness of this argument? What reasons can you

The document was written very powerfully to persuade its audience and
give to support your evaluation?__________________________________________________________
the evidence and the power that it gave the colonists that the argument was very strong. Because of this
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documents the colonists realized all of the wrong doings that the King was allowing and that they could
separate from Great Britain. The obvious reason to support this evaluation is simply by seeing how we
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are today as a nation. It shows how far we have come from this important piece of document and without
it who knows where or how we would be today. The apparent reason to endorse this assessment is to
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see where we are as a country now. It demonstrates how far we've gone since that crucial text, and who
knows where or how we'd be now if it hadn't been. The letter was produced with great force in order to
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persuade its audience, and the evidence and power it supplied the colonists demonstrated that the case
was quite strong. The colonists discovered all the wrongdoings that the King was permitting because of
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this paper, and they were able to break away from Great Britain. The colonists fought the British because
they desired independence from the British Empire. Because of unjust levies, they attacked the British.
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They clashed because they lacked self-government. When the American colonies were founded, they
were a part of the United Kingdom.
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