This is a Revolution

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Patrick Henry

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve.
This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the numbers 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 of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received?

Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land.

Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlement assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves.

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 violence 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 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 but 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 hath placed in our power. The 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 in vain, sir, to extentuate 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!


Response:



This is one of the new world's greatest speaches. I personally believe he is right in everything he says. What's the point in trying to live supressed when you can try to live a free life. If fighting is necessary to expereince freedom, then have at it! Revolutionaries empower the people, and just reading it is enough to feel a fraction of what he felt, but to hear the words spoken would be truly amazing. No greater line is there than "Give me liberty or Give Me Death". All or Nothing, Give me my life, or I'll throw it away so you can't have it. This is one of my favorites.







Journal:



Dear diary,



Englands grip on us is tightening, and as they choke our money out of us with their taxes and tariffs, it is only soon when we will break on the edge of war. My family, my country, myself... we all deserve better, Patrick henry is an inpsiration, through his words he has shown us that God is on our side and he will defend us through the hardests of battles, and even if we dont win, we will show our enemies that we wont go without a fight. Better to take a few with you if you have to die, right? America is coming to war, and soon nothing will be the same.



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Thomas Paine

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that
stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like
hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder
the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem
too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how
to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial
an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to
enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to
BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is
not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the
expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too
long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had
it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a
proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state.
However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but
ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this
month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a
year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will
soon recover.
I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has
ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military
destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so
repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which
wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose
that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care
of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can
look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a
house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he.
'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country.
All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague
at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth
[fifteenth] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France,
was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was
performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc.
Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen,
and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in
some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is
always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than
before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity
and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain
forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which
an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the
hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a
disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with
curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.
. . . . Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those
who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not
upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and
help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little,
when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the
depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and
the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.
Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the
burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that
God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold,
the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties
and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels
not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks
back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I
love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and
grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose
heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his
principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear
as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have
induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks
into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me,
or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute
will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or
a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an
individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall
find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish
in the one case and pardon in the other.


Response:

If compared to Patrick Henry, I do not believe it is as powerful, but the concept is right. Why let them conquer you partially, if your not free completely, your not free at all. Thomas Paine applies his work more toward the general idea behind it, and which I agree with because everyone should expereince full freedom. It is good work, with a powerfull message behind it.

Journal:
Dear Diary,

As we draw closer to war, I can see that it is inevitable. We must stand firmly, because Britian is only an obstacle in the path of God's true dream. Our freedom is all we have, and letting people control our taxes and we don't even choose who they are, absurd! We must take what is ours and keep it held tightly agaisnt our chests. Britian is stripping us bare till we have nothing, and if i could lose everything , yet keep one thing, taht woudl be my freedom... because thats all I truly need to live.

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Essential Question:

In this era, the only way a stablized way where everyone lives equality is the destruction of the superiority titles. If Britian and American had mutual agreements upon how everyone can live equally, then everyone is given a chance. The whole point is Britian takes advantage of America, but escaping them is in essence their American dream. So escaping is necessary so everyone gets it, but the escape is also the american dream