Question

Which type of fallacy or emotional appeal does Henry James Hammond use in this excerpt from his speech “Cotton Is King”?

The Senator from New York [William Seward] said yesterday that the whole world had abolished slavery. Aye, the name, but not the thing; all the powers of the earth cannot abolish that. God only can do it when he repeals the fiat, "the poor ye always have with you;" for the man who lives by daily labor, and scarcely lives at that, and who has to put out his labor in the market, and take the best he can get for it; in short, your whole hireling class of manual laborers and "operatives," as you call them, are essentially slaves.

A)hyperbole B) red herring C) straw man D) ad hominem

Answer 1

Based on the excerpt above, I would say that the answer would be option C: STRAW MAN. Based on the speech made by Henry James Hammond "Cotton Is King”, he is merely restating the claim that William Seward made which is the abolishment of slavery in the whole world. But then, he made a distorted interpretation of this claim which makes this an example of a straw man fallacy. Hope this helps.