The language of C.D. is marked by an implicit call to action to right the wrongs of the government and abolish slavery which is categorized by a list of conditions for which government can operate. However, when these conditions are breached with unjust, the responsibility to amend these faults is then placed upon the people by appealing to their pathos. This is evident in Thoreau’s essay when he notes that , “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out…but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” He says this in order to evoke a sense of responsibility in the people and urge them to take action to abolish slavery by appealing to the audience's pathos. In parallel, it could be argued that the Declaration of Independence also presents the language of civil disobedience as Jefferson’s language has similar markings. These markings are clear when Jefferson notes that, "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."Jefferson says this in order to present a justified case for seceding from England by appealing to the audience's logos. At the same time Jefferson, in similar fashion to Thoreau, highlights that when certain conditions for which government can operate are breached to the point of sheer unjust, the colonies must be independent. He is stating that the colonies are seceding not because of petty complaints and trifles, but because of noble aim to claim their unalienable rights which also appeals to the audience's pathos.
This marking is continued in the work of Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in that he states that, "We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter...But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers... when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"...when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience."Unlike both Jefferson and Thoreau, King is able to use a common ethos to appeal directly to his intended audience. In doing so, his language has different linguistic markers; these direct Biblical allusions help him to appeal more directly to his audience’s sense of suffering. The parallelism paired with the repetition of "when you" divide the mirage and the reality of what the white moderates view what black life is; all the examples used are harsh truths the white moderates never had to experience but the blacks experience on an everyday basis. Having been personally experienced such unjust appeals to MLK's ethos. On top of that, the polysyndeton conveys the sense on constant weight these acts have on the people which further emphasizes that the people cannot wait any longer and must at now. We see this when he notes that, "Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid."; the appeal to the Bible is used in order to appeal to the audience's pathos in order to urge them to take action now and not wait any longer or suffer the consequences of unjust.
To this end, by utilizing this language, the three writers challenge their audience to act in a manner in accordance with justice, morality, and civil duty by appealing to their ethos, pathos, and logos.
