Calvin Coolidge's Inaugural Address: Analysis

Calvin Coolidge's Inaugural Address: Analysis

Symbols, Motifs, and Rhetorical Devices

Rhetoric

Pathos, with a dash of Logos and EthosPathosIt might not seem like Coolidge is aiming for his audience's emotional nerve centers in this speech. After all, he's not using a lot of flowery language,...

Structure

Inaugural AddressThis is a particular kind of speech that's only given by presidents who, you guessed it, have just been inaugurated. So they happen every four years, whether or not it's a new guy...

Tone

Confident, instructiveBy the time Coolidge gave his Inaugural Address in 1925, he'd already been in the executive branch for four years, first as Vice President and then President when Warren Hardi...

Writing Style

Direct but SophisticatedIf you read presidential speeches from the early days of, you'll that their sentences can go on for days. Weeks, sometimes. By the 1920s, writing styles had changed towards...

What's Up With the Title?

The title is pretty straightforward here. Coolidge was elected, he was inaugurated, and this is the speech he gave. The Inaugural Address is a tradition, and generally they're just known as the Ina...

What's Up With the Opening Lines?

Coolidge doesn't exactly open his speech with a bang. But he does open it with a summary of what he's about to say for the rest of the speech, like the thesis paragraph we were all taught to write...

What's Up With the Closing Lines?

Coolidge closes his speech with some relatively rousing (for him) lines about America's conscience and moral fiber:We should not let the much that is to do obscure the much which has been done. The...

Tough-o-Meter

(3) Base Camp Coolidge might throw in a few advanced vocab words here and there, but in general his speech is pretty easy to understand. The only thing that makes it tricky is that he references re...

Shout-Outs

In-Text ReferencesLiterary and Philosophical ReferencesWashington's Farewell Address (1796) (George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Monroe, 7.1, 10.1-2, 11.13, 12.1-3)The Constitution (3....

Trivia

In addition to his two pet lions, Tax Reduction and Budget Bureau, Calvin Coolidge had two pet raccoons that wandered around the White House. (Source)Most presidents have to wait until they're dead...