President Kennedy`s Inaugural Address (video plus transcript) Language and Form How should the speech be structured? How can the President use language that elevates the address to a higher level than other speeches, while remaining in his own voice? Students choose (or are assigned) one of the entry addresses from the list. When watching the speech, they should use the following document to take notes on the categories listed below. Once they have completed the table, they must use the rubric to assign scores to each category. Begin the course by having students answer the following inaugural questions. Inaugural Speech Bingo – Before you watch the President`s inaugural address, think about a list of 24 vocabularies and topics that you think could be discussed in the speech. Put these 24 terms/themes on a blank BINGO card. When watching the speech, mark the square when this term/topic is mentioned. Describe the general message of the opening remarks. How did this news adapt to the events that took place at the time? [3] Authenticated text available on www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/inaugural-address-2. Few presidents have understood this need better than Washington.
In his inaugural address, he described the speech itself as his “first official act” as president, a role many of his contemporaries doubted because they feared the position would simply replicate the British monarchy or direct too much power into an emerging federal system. In this context, Washington wrote the very first words of the President ever spoken to reassure his audience, those present in the Senate Chamber, as well as those who will read the speech in the following days. His intentions were clear. He would remain humble and serve despite his own “fears,” a word he used in the first sentence; Remain respectful of the “Almighty Being who rules the universe” and who could conceivably favor the new nation; and remain more than anything else attached to the new Congress (recognizing that it understood the constitutional restrictions imposed on the executive power) and thus to the “public good”. [App Note: As delivered, this address differed in some respects from the version published in Public Documents. For example, the speech began with the phrase “This is a day of national consecration.” The American Presidency Project attempted to reproduce the text of public newspapers in their originally published form. However, the fdR documents contained a number of FDR`s “retrospective” explanations and comments that are not included here.] The words of the presidents are important. Such a statement may seem particularly relevant at the moment, but it has been true throughout the history of the United States.
Richard Neustadt wrote in 1960 that “presidential power is the power to convince,” and much of his attention was on how business leaders should negotiate with members of other branches of government. However, consider to what extent the executive actions of presidents can be done by their words alone and how far those words can now go due to the rise of mass and social media. They can veto, appoint, declare war, accept peace, issue implementing regulations, define and pardon the state of the Union. Today, as Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson have argued, “residential rhetoric is the source of executive power, reinforced in the modern presidency by the ability to choose where, when and on any topic, and to reach a national audience through electronic media coverage.” Color photographs of John F. Kennedy sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren, followed by President Kennedy`s inaugural address. In 2021, awareness of how many “people” were ignored in previous inauguration speeches raises questions about what an inaugural speech now means. If it is to be rooted in rhetorical traditions, which ones? Like other kinds of presidential speeches, inauguration speeches are built around pillars of burnt impulses and assumptions of previous generations about who deserves to be called an American and whose interests should be included in an impartial and unifying sense of the common good. Even one of the finest phrases of any inauguration, Lincoln`s appeal to the “best angels of our nature” in its first, gives food for thought when one realizes that the “we” involved in Lincoln`s sense of “our nature” was necessarily almost exclusively white and male because it was intended in 1861, as well as his intention stated in the same speech, “the institution of slavery” during his presidency. Following his swearing-in by John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States, President Trump delivers his inaugural address. He promises to keep his campaign promises and says, “Together, we will make America great again.” He commissioned Sorensen to study other inaugural speeches and Lincoln`s Gettysburg speech to uncover the secrets of successful speeches. The finely crafted closing speech had been revised and revised several times by Kennedy and Sorensen until the president-elect was satisfied.
Although it was not the shortest inaugural speech, Kennedy`s was shorter than most others with 1,355 words and, like Lincoln`s famous speech, consisted of short sentences and words. In addition to the message, the choice of words and the length, he realized that it took a powerful delivery to captivate his audience. The day before and on the morning of the inauguration day, he kept a copy ready to use at every free moment to check it, even at the breakfast table. To provide an overview of the general topics and message of the address, ask students to use the document below to help them watch one of the talks. Students can select (or be assigned) the video they want to watch. President Kennedy`s inaugural address was addressed not only to the American people, but also to people around the world – including the new independent nations, the former allies, and the Soviet Union. In this lesson plan, students are encouraged to reflect on how the speech may have resonated with some of these listeners. Write your own inaugural speech – Imagine you were elected president. What would you include in your inaugural address? What topics and questions would you highlight? With that in mind, use what you`ve learned from previous inaugural speeches and write a speech that you would deliver at your inauguration. Vanessa Beasley, a graduate of Vanderbilt University and an expert in the history of American political rhetoric, is vice president of academic affairs, dean of the faculty of residence, and associate professor of communication sciences. As Vice President and Dean of the Residential Faculty, she oversees Vanderbilt`s growing residential college system as well as campus units that offer experiential learning inside and outside the classroom.
5. Finally, let the class read and listen to the most recent inaugural speech, analyze it, and compare it with the “recipes” in their memos. One example is Thomas Jefferson`s first inauguration after the fiercely divided election of 1800, which was also the first time an incumbent president was not re-elected. To reunify a divided people, Jefferson did not ignore the reality of the divisions that were still among them, nor the unprecedented wickedness of the campaign. “During the opinion contest we experienced, the animation of discussion and effort sometimes had an aspect that could force outsiders to think in unknown ways, to think and speak freely, and to write what they think,” he noted, reminding citizens that it was their unique democratic privilege to be able to discuss politics so openly. “But this will now be decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will of course reconcile under the will of the law and unite in joint efforts for the common good.” Jefferson defined American identity by setting a clear border: Americans follow the rules even if they don`t like the result. And yet, of course, any discussion of Jefferson`s definition of American character must say the obvious: like Washington, he never really spoke to or about all residents of the United States. There was no recognition of slave peoples or indigenous peoples as part of this common good. There was no feeling that these people were part of what was brought together after an election or at any other time.
Following the rules of the time, in fact, required something else, including the forced separation of kinship and tribe, in order to build a new nation. While white women were considered invaluable to a virtuous republic, there was no understanding that their interests could differ in any way from white men who presumably, but not always accurately, voted for them. This lesson gives you several ways to ask your students to analyze past presidential inauguration speeches.