Read the excerpt from "what to the slave is the fourth of july? " fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am i called upon to speak here today? what have i, or those i represent, to do with your national independence? are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that declaration of independence, extended to us? and am i, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? would to god, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. for who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not acknowledge such priceless benefits? who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? i am not that man. in a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.” which statement best describes why this excerpt contains an example of deductive reasoning? it contains specific details that support a variety of different ideas. it begins with broad statements and ends with more specific ones. it uses clear examples that are easily understood by all readers. it starts with a very simple idea and builds to a much grander idea.

The correct answer is: B. It begins with broad statements and ends with more specific ones.

The right answer is It begins with broad statements and ends with more specific ones. This powerful and critical address, which Frederick Douglass gave on July 5, 1852 at an Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York, is an example of deductive reasoning because it begins with various general premises ("What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?", "Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?," and so on) and it logically concludes with specific statements or inferences ("Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions!," "Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful," or "I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak...”).  

Douglass is making the point that he is not going to celebrate the Fourth of July, since that festivity neither represents him nor the people he in turn represents (enslaved African Americans), and only a "dumb and lame" man would do it. He starts by posing a series of general rhetorical questions that expose the contradiction of celebrating the Declaration of Independence when some people still experience injustice and inequality, and he concludes by providing specific examples of the type of person that would look the other way and celebrate the festivity. He is the cold, obdurate, stolid and selfish man that refuses to do so.    

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