The rhetoric of the petition in boots

The Industrial ("Coxey") Army movement of 1894 was the product of one of America's worst depressions. Groups across the nation attempted to take “A petition with boots on” to Washington, D. C. asking for relief of unemployment. The movement was rhetorical in method and object. As it progressed, it attempted to meet opposition arguments that its members were “tramps” and that it was asking for the impossible: guaranteed employment. Branded as radical, it answered its opponents with diverse rhetorical techniques and arguments rooted in the prevalent value system.