“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Most of us had to memorize Patrick Henry’s famous speech in grade school. Many of us recall large parts of it.
The famous discourse speaks to the very heart of a human’s desire for liberty. It was being threatened in 1775 in Virginia and the other English colonies; it did not become true for the enslaved until the Civil War; and it’s one of America’s ideals (Liberty and Justice for All) toward which we continually strive.
Please read it again, and remember that in 1775—250 years ago—the colonies...