The Purpose and Context of Susan B. Anthony's Speech
The purpose of Susan B. Anthony's speech is to express her outrage at her incarceration as a result of her decision to vote in the 1872 American election (Buhle & Buhle, 2005). On the other hand, the context of her speech focuses on her conviction for voting. During the mistake, American women were denied the right to vote (Anthony, 1873). As a result of her illegal participation in the exercise, Susan was now facing a $100 fine, which she refused to pay and continued with the conversation.
She used soft words at the beginning of her speech. For instance, she said, "Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote (Anthony, 1873)". That succeeded in drawing the attention of her listeners on what she would say next. Apparently, Susan used certain phrases that are of high relevance to the story. Her reminiscence of the federal Constitution expression that states the law helps "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty (Buhle & Buhle, 2005)." It intended to develop the sense of remembering the content of the policy and to promoting its impartial application.
She used symbolism in the form of a rhetorical question, "Are women persons?" Having reckoned on the provision of the federal law, she was sure that this could change the stand and convince the accusers. According to Hodder (2013), symbolism connotes using a given the word to represent an idea. Therefore, she used the word 'women' to refer to individuals.
The Context and Purpose of President Richard Nixon's Speech
The context for the speech of President Richard Nixon came after the Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives decided to impeach him out of the office. During the instance, some burglars invaded the Watergate offices in Washing D.C, a situation that created a division and the collapse of the congress that was supporting President Nixon (Nixon, 2013). Therefore, the purpose of his presentation was to express a profound apology for the instance and also to notify the public that he was set to resign from the power. Notably, he was acting so to respect the will of the people.
President Nixon used sympathetic and soft words. For instance, he maintained that "I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation (Nixon, 1974)." In this case, he was showing a grave concern with the Watergate inconveniences, an instance that would bring a wider understanding of the Americans.
The effective phrase that President Nixon used was when he was about to conclude and reckoned on his first goal before becoming the president. He said that "I made this sacred commitment, to consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations (Nixon, 1974)." The saying outlined that the failures that were resulting in his impeachment were unintentional (Powaski, 2017).
Also, President Nixon managed to use a metaphor. While recalling on the Theodore Roosevelt's quotes "whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood (Nixon, 1974)." The metaphor here is when he expresses the appearance to be full of sweat and blood (Nixon, 2013). He referred to the toil that he thought to be making that ended up bearing an adverse outcome as he proceeded, "and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming (Nixon, 1974)."
References
Anthony, S. B. (1873). The history place: Great speeches collection, on women’s right to vote. Retrieved on 23rd July, 2013 http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/anthony.htm
Buhle, P., & Buhle, M. J. (Eds.). (2005). The Concise History of Woman Suffrage: Selections from History of Woman Suffrage, Edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and the National American Woman Suffrage Association. University of Illinois Press.
Hodder, I. (Ed.). (2013). The meanings of things: material culture and symbolic expression. Routledge.
Nixon, R. (2013). RN: the memoirs of Richard Nixon. Simon and Schuster.
Nixon, R. M. (1974). The history place: Great speeches collection, resigning the presidency. 23rd July, 2013 http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/nixon.htm
Powaski, R. E. (2017). Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and the Congress: Ending US Involvement in the Vietnam War, 1969-1974. In American Presidential Statecraft (pp. 121-174). Springer International Publishing.
