-Caveat Lector-
ALERT: 7/14/99
A CALL TO ARMS
by Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775
(Dots connected by Albert T. Viar ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
"Mister President,
it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope.
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth.
Is this the part of wise men,
engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be of the number of those,
who, having eyes, see not; and having ears, hear not,
The things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost,
I am willing to know the whole truth;
To know the worst, and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and
That is the lamp of experience.
I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.
Sir, we have done everything that could be done
to avert the storm which is now coming on.
We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated;
we have prostrated ourselves before the throne,
and have implored its interposition
to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament.
Our petitions have been slighted;
our remonstrances have produced additional violance and insult;
our supplications have been disregarded; and
we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!
In vain, after these things, may we indulge
in the fond hope of peace and reconciliation.
There is no longer any room for hope.
If we wish to be free --
if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges
for which we have been so long contending --
if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle
in which we have been so long engaged, and
which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon,
until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained
--WE MUST FIGHT!
I repeat it, sir, we must fight!
An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!
They tell us, sir, that we are weak --
unable to cope with so formidable an adversary.
But when shall we be stronger?
Will it be the next week or the next year?
Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and
when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?
Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?
Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely
on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope,
until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use
of those means which the God of nature has placed in our power.
Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty,
and in such a country as that which we possess,
are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations,
and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone;
it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Besides, sir, we have no election.
If we were base enough to desire it,
it is now too late to retire from the contest.
There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!
Our chains are forged.
Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!
The war is inevitable -- and let it come!!
I repeat it sir, let it come!
It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.
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!"
======================================
Patrick Henry then took his seat. No murmur of applause was heard. The
effect was too deep. After the trance of a moment, several members started
from their seats.
The cry, "TO ARMS" seemed to quiver on every lip and gleam from every
eye.
No written records of this speech exist. The words were so powerful that
they were etched into the minds of every man present, who later assisted
biographer William Wirt to bring words to paper.
Patrick Henry lived from 1736 to 1799. This speech was given before the
Virginia Provincial Convention (assembled after Lord Dunsmore had suspended
the Virginia Assembly) which was debating whether to send the militia under
arms to defend the colony against the Crown's Government, an act of treason.
In arguments against the Stamp Act of 1765, he said
"If this be treason, let us make the most of it."
Patrick Henry was one of his native Virginia's delegates to the First and
Second Colonial Congresses (1774 and 1775), before becoming commander
of Virginia's military and militia forces, which post he resigned in February
of
1776, being chosen for the Committee on the Constitution of the Common-
wealth of Virginia. He is known as the first politician to refer to the
voters
as "fellow citizens," at a time when they were still Subjects of the Crown.
He was instrumental in recruiting the 6,000 Virginians who joined the
Continental Army, as well as an additional 5,000 militiamen.
With this background, and his service as Virginia's governor (being
elected
in 1776, 1777, 1778, 1784 and 1785), he saw the dangers of a strong central
government.
He vigorously opposed ratification of the United States Constitution,
which
he saw as endangering the rights of individuals and the soverign powers of
the separate states. He was largely responsible for the adoption of the Bill
of Rights.
Patrick Henry's last great speech was a denial of a state's power to
decide
the constitutionality of Federal laws, a campaign speech in which he told
the voters:
"United we stand, divided we fall.
Let us not split into factions which must destroy that
union upon which our existence hangs."
While he won the election, he died before taking that last office, and
was
buried on the estate at Red Hill to which he had originally retired five
years
earlier.
--------------------
"Liberty is NEVER unalienable;
it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or
it ALWAYS vanishes.
Of all the so-called natural human rights the have ever been invented,
liberty is the least to be cheap and is NEVER free of cost."
-- Robert A. Heinlein, founder of the Patrick Henry League
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