Suggests that the family metaphor that was dominant in the rhetoric of both the colonists and the British government contributed to extreme polarization of positions of the British government in London and the British subjects in the thirteen North American Atlantic colonies. (MH)

Reproduces portions of the first lecture given to the Philosophical Society of Aberdeen, Scotland--George Campbell's discussion of eloquence of 1758. Explains the importance of this document, asserting that it reveals the "belletristic" roots of Campbell's theory, and proves that his differentiation on the "ends" of speaking…

Examines eighteenth century Spain and the rhetorical thought of the Spanish "Illustracion," revealing the evolution of a modern theory of rhetoric which elevated expression at the expense of investigation and culminated in a literary, aesthetic, and belletristic conception of communication. (JMF)

Explores how argumentation in the eighteenth-century miracles controversy (a century-long debate in Britain over the reasonableness of revealed religion) exhibited a controlling concern for procedural considerations. Discusses how the Deists and the Orthodox apologists used their argumentative force to advance rival methods for evaluating miracle…

Analyzes how John Dickinson's "Letter from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" appropriates pastoral design and convention for rhetorical ends. Explores how literary idiom lends its force of expression to meet the needs of public controversy and how rhetorical judgment is both insubstantiated in the argument and is its chief mode of appeal. (KEH)

Analyzes Fisher Ames' fiery speech of 1796 on the Jay Treaty. Demonstrates the influence of Scottish enlightenment thinkers (particularly in moral sense philosophy and faculty psychology) on Ames and his rhetoric. Demonstrates how Ames made a compelling case to shift the standard of political judgment from reason to passion. (SR)