Patrick Henry Revisited
I'm sure you are familiar with his famous declaration, "Give me liberty or give me death." To fully grasp the circumstances surrounding it, here is his speech in its entirety and its pertinence today
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 1:9
Patrick Henry:
Born on May 29, 1736, in Hanover County, Virginia.
At the age of 15, Henry ran a store for his father. The business didn't last.
Married Sarah Shelton, his first wife, the daughter of a local innkeeper, in 1754. They had six children together.
As part of his wife's dowry, Henry received some farmland.
He tried growing tobacco there for three years which didn't go well.
In 1757, Henry and his wife lost their farmhouse to a fire.
He then managed a tavern for his father-in-law and studied by himself to be a lawyer. After three months of study, in April of 1760, he was quizzed by four of the county's top attorneys. He passed the test, got his law license and found his calling.
As a lawyer, Henry developed a reputation as a powerful and persuasive speaker and orator. There are more than a few great speakers around today. Our Founders were not just great speakers. They were skilled orators. Patrick Henry is considered probably the finest of them. Just like today, he said what many Americans felt but were too afraid to say.
Helped write the Virginia State Constitution.
One of the authors of the Anti-Federalist papers and instrumental in getting the Bill of Rights included in the Constitution.
His first wife, Sarah, died in 1775 after a battle with mental illness. He had 11 more children with his second wife, Dorothea, for a total of 17.
The first elected Governor of the state of Virginia in 1776. Served three terms total. Two more in the 1780’s.
Died June 6, 1799 at 63 from stomach cancer.
Circumstances then and now in America:
As per my previous quote, there is nothing new under the sun. Our Founders were suffering under tyranny as we are, in increasing severity each day:
Then: Our forefathers were suffering under the oppression of King George and the British Parliament.
Now: We are suffering under this administration, its increasing disregard for the rule of law, its various lawless agencies persecuting the American people and its treasonous cooperation, aid and comfort given to the World Economic Forum, (WEF), and the World Health Organization, (WHO), which plans to literally rule the world through health emergencies!
Then: Increasingly onerous taxes.
Now: Insisting the rich don't pay enough taxes when:
the top 1% pay the disproportionate amount of 38.5% of all taxes.
the top 5% pay the disproportionate amount of 59.1% of all taxes.
the top 10% pay the disproportionate amount of 70.1% of all taxes.
which causes them to shield wealth instead of investing it or creating more jobs that would benefit everyone.
Raising corporate tax which will be passed onto customers.
The “Green New Deal” which will cause Americans to pay exorbitant energy prices and taxes driving prices of all products skyward making them increasingly unaffordable.
Then: British soldiers going door to door to confiscate weapons.
Now: Brazen attacks on our 2nd Amendment rights:
Increasing unconstitutional so-called laws passed infringing on our 2nd Amendment rights.
The FBI, DOJ, and ATF illegally and unconstitutionally creating databases of gun owners and new rules to confiscate American's guns.
Then: The King interfering in Colony and local legislatures.
Now: The federal government taking over state and local governments under the premise of “voter discrimination”, “voter suppression”, “voter disenfranchisement”, “civil rights violations by police”, blah, blah, in complete violation of the Constitution.
Then: Colonists being accused of treason and hauled back to England for trial.
Now: Peaceful protesters being deemed “domestic terrorists” and “insurrectionists”, kidnapped by FBI SWAT teams then hauled back as political prisoners to the Washington DC Gulag, with ample evidence being one of the most filthy, deplorable and disgusting prisons in the world. In violation of the Constitution, they are denied arraignment with specific charges or opportunity to post bail for years now.
Mothers and fathers peacefully protesting at schools objecting to what their children are being taught called “domestic terrorists” and put on watch lists.
Designating traditional fundamentalist Catholic groups who have not harmed any person or destroyed any property as hate groups linked to white supremacists and domestic terrorist groups with the FBI outrageously infiltrating churches!
Hundreds of churches and pro-life centers damaged or burned to the ground with no investigations or arrests.
While actual acts of domestic terrorism are committed by Antifa and BLM burning down cities with billions in damages and people killed. To mock you, these are called “mostly peaceful protests” with the FBI and Justice Department looking the other way. Further mocking you by saying Antifa does not even exist as a terrorist organization!
Fun fact:
Data showed that the FBI in DC spent nearly 16,000 more hours on the clock following the Jan. 6 protest fraudulently called an “insurrection”, than it did in the "fiery but mostly peaceful" BLM/Antifa riots in Washington DC in 2020, including the burning of St. John's Church and the siege on the White House where 60 Secret Service agents were injured with 11 hospitalized.
Under this regime, conservative and/or religious groups asserting their First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceful protest are terrorists and insurrectionist while it actually protects and defends leftist/Marxist terrorists! Why do you think the depth and organization of the Tea party terrified them? Why do you think they are rounding up parents, religious Americans and peaceful protesters from Jan. 6?
Exclusively Present Day:
Americans being prevented from pursuing their livelihoods to feed their families with threats of jail or bankrupting fines.
Being forced to take injections not tested or proven or lose employment, health care and school attendance.
In contradiction to all science, quarantining the well and shutting down civilization while placing infected elderly patients in nursing homes to spread the illness. Killing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.
As a sign of obedience like domestic animals, being forced to wear masks. Or, to quote the late, great Doctor Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko, “face diapers”, which of course were proven not to work in numerous studies.
Doctor Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko, who contradicted the protocol of ventilators and Remdesivir, which was designed to kill you, by coming up with his own protocol which had a 99% survival rate of high risk Covid-19 patients.
Weddings, funerals and graduations being cancelled. Loved ones monstrously dying alone because of Covid protocols!
All based on faulty and fraudulent so-called science since disproved.
You do know there are plans in place to do it all over again. Right?
This speech was given in St. John's church in Richmond in regards to a vote whether Virginia was going to join the Revolution. He spoke without any notes, his voice getting louder and louder, climaxing with the famous phrase.
Feel free to insert for the words “earthly kings”, “British ministry”, “Great Britain”, “Parliament”, and “British guards” any words that are today more appropriate.
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 that 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 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 by my country, and of an act of disloyalty towards 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 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 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 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 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 gentlemen assign any other possible motives 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 on 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 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 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 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 the means which the God of nature hath 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 in 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 - March 23, 1775
How awesome it would have been to have been able to hear it live! Just as relevant today as it was then with the same degree of deadly seriousness. History IS repeating itself!
In conclusion, quoting Patrick Henry:
Gentlemen may cry, "Peace! Peace!" -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!
There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged!
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, (fill in the appropriate tyrannical government entity), 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 the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
YOU were BORN with the RIGHTS of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness!” YOU were BORN to be here at this time in human history!
My own personal view, quoting Patrick Henry, “I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery.” Not just for America, but the WHOLE human race!
What is your response?
“The war is actually begun!”
I love this post. Very welcome this Friday. Going over it more closely and will respond later.
One of mine too. What you see is what you get.
Fed-Up House Democrats Unleash on 'Kindergarten-Level' Biden Administration
https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/fed-house-democrats-unleash-kindergarten-level-biden-administration