Speakers appeal to ethos (Greek for “character”) to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy people who should be listened to when they discuss a given topic. The first component of ethos is the speaker’s qualifications, or authority. Whether it is an explicit title or credential or a less formal sort of expertise or experience, what we as an audience want to know is if the person is qualified to speak on the matter. If a speaker is giving a lecture on raising children, we would likely heed her advice if she had formal qualifications—such as a PhD in child psychology—but we also would be willing to listen to a person with less formal qualifications, such as a father who successfully raised three children. This sort of appeal to ethos is often found outside of the text. For instance, when Lou Gehrig gave his speech, he did not introduce himself as “Lou Gehrig, baseball legend.” The audience was well aware of his accomplishments. And Gehrig’s purpose was not to reinforce his legendary status; it was to reinforce his humanity, which brings us to the next aspect of ethos.
Relying on authority and reputation can be an effective strategy, but it will only take you so far because speakers are primarily judged not on who they are but on what they say. There are a couple of ways that a speaker can build ethos while speaking on a subject. One is by sounding logical and reasonable. The second way is by demonstrating shared values with the audience. Think, once again, about Lou Gehrig and his speech reprinted at the beginning of the chapter. He brings the ethos of a legendary athlete to his speech, yet in the speech itself he enhances his ethos by remaining calm, reasonable, and dignified in the face of a debilitating disease and by expressing his shared values with the fans. He emphasizes that he’s just a regular guy and a good sport who shares the audience’s love of baseball and family. And like them, he has known good luck and bad breaks. Remaining reasonable and emphasizing shared values is a great way to win over a hostile crowd, but in Gehrig’s case, it was the perfect way to win the heart not only of every baseball fan but also of every American.
Let’s look at an example of how a speaker can use these various methods to bring ethos to the rhetorical situation. On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson gave a nationally televised speech before a joint session of Congress. The occasion was violence that had erupted the week prior in Selma, Alabama, when African Americans preparing to march to Montgomery to protest voting-rights discrimination were attacked by police. The selection below is the beginning of the speech.
Speech to Congress, March 15, 1965
President Lyndon Baines Johnson
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of the Congress:
I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of Democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.
At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many of them were brutally assaulted. One good man—a man of God—was killed.
There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our Democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government—the government of the greatest nation on earth. Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country—to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man. In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues, issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression.
But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For, with a country as with a person, “What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
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There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.
And we are met here tonight as Americans—not as Democrats or Republicans; we’re met here as Americans to solve that problem. This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose.
The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: “All men are created equal.” “Government by consent of the governed.” “Give me liberty or give me death.” And those are not just clever words, and those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty risking their lives. Those words are promised to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man’s possessions. It cannot be found in his power or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom. He shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.
To apply any other test, to deny a man his hopes because of his color or race or his religion or the place of his birth is not only to do injustice, it is to deny Americans and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom. Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders. The history of this country in large measure is the history of expansion of that right to all of our people.
(1965)
The very fact that he is the president of the United States gives Johnson the authority and ethos to speak on the subject of civil rights, yet he also addresses the nation in a reasonable manner, while emphasizing the shared values that unite us as Americans. He uses “our” and “we” to include himself as one of the people while at the same time delivering a commanding challenge. He enjoins his audience to transcend concerns for “growth,” “abundance,” “welfare,” and “security” (par. 4) that democracy gives us and instead to focus on the “values and the purposes and the meaning” (par. 4) on which democracy depends. He bolsters his ethos through appeals to religious faith and to patriotism by quoting the Bible, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, while continuing his use of the first-person plural “we.” President Johnson brings ethos to his speech by the nature of the office that he holds, but in stating that “we are met here tonight as Americans” (par. 6) for “all of our people” (par. 8), he constructs ethos through appeals to shared American values that “[o]ur fathers believed” (par. 8) (emphasis added): patriotism, freedom, equality, gratitude, responsibility, justice, and ultimately, sacrifice.