Rhetoric was a very important part of the education of every literate person of the time. Especially so if they intended to enter politics.
Ok, upper class is just as good. See the above.
The stakes were higher and the spin greater. Just as happens today. Human nature hasn't changed.
That's not what I meant. It is irrelevant to the notion that "reason" was a new idea and was appealed to in discussions. "Rhetoric" is not an argument to which one appeals. It is a tool by which one persuades. Rhetoric was the hammer, but reason was the nail, holding together concepts.
Of course, I am of the personal belief that rhetoric exists to obscure ignorance and idiocy and I work to deconstruct it whenever possible, but I know of its role in 18th century educated circles and, in fact, in many areas today.