Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
1775
This is the speech that swung a nation toward war. Delivered on March 23, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, Patrick Henry addressed the Second Virginia Convention at a moment when the American colonies stood at the precipice of revolution. The British had locked Massachusetts in an iron grip. The Continental Congress had petitioned for peace. Most colonists still dreamed of reconciliation. Henry offered them something else: an unflinching choice. With devastating logic, he dismantled the hope of peaceful compromise. He invoked the God of peace, then argued for the God of war. He painted British tyranny not as a distant threat but as an immediate reality creeping into every Virginia home. And then he delivered the line that has echoed through nearly 250 years: "Give me liberty or give me death!" The speech won the convention's approval, Virginia's troops marched, and a revolutionary war began. Whether Henry ever spoke these exact words, or whether biographer William Wirt reconstructed them decades later from fading memories, matters less than what the speech has become: the purest expression of the revolutionary conviction that some freedoms are worth dying for. It speaks to anyone who has ever faced the question of whether to submit or resist.
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“Give me liberty or give me death."[From a speech given at Saint John's Church in Richmond, Virginia on March 23, 1775 to the Virginia House of Burgesses; as first published in print in 1817 in William Wirt's .]””
— Patrick Henry
“I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.””
— Patrick Henry
“I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!””
— Patrick Henry
“Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.””
— Patrick Henry
“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.””
— Patrick Henry
“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.””
— Patrick Henry
“Why stay 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
“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 these 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 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.””
— Patrick Henry
“Why stay we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Islife 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
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-49f10233-f516-43da-843e-c5abcd47817f"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-49f10233-f516-43da-843e-c5abcd47817f)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-49f10233-f516-43da-843e-c5abcd47817f][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-49f10233-f516-43da-843e-c5abcd47817fCite this book
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Henry, Patrick. Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death. Lex, lex-books.com/book/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-49f10233-f516-43da-843e-c5abcd47817f.Henry, P. (1775). Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-49f10233-f516-43da-843e-c5abcd47817fHenry, Patrick. Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-49f10233-f516-43da-843e-c5abcd47817f.
