Give me liberty or give me death

[Ravenseye]

Before I head off to the sack, I wanted to share this with people. I posted it in another topic, but thought more people deserved to read the words of Patrick Henry.

"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!"

Next time they mention removing our rights to make us "safer" or for whatever reason, think about the man who was instrumental in not only our nations existance but the bill of rights itself.

Just thought people deserved to be reminded of that quote.

[Homer Wells]

1. You got that RIGHT!!!!

Kicked and Recommended
:kick:

[Journeyman]

2. Contrast that with the immortal words of Sen. Pat Roberts. . .

the Quaking Coward from Kansas, who declared this year:

"You don't have any civil liberties if you're dead."


And when I read such drivel, I understand better how the people of Kansas can be so adamant against evolution -- they (or at least their representatives) are painfully devolving.

[originalpckelly]

9. I tend to think it is a paradox, the very people who are most like apes...

cannot believe how they came from apes, very interesting indeed.

[Ravenseye]

11. They make me angry

They're just so anti-american that I can't believe so many people would fall for their crap. Particularly Repblicans. I thought these were the people who supposedly don't trust the governemnt to build their roads, educate their children, or provide them with healthcare, yet they trust them to not abuse the right to arrest/detain anyone they want without trial and lock them up forever...

*spit take*

*double take*

*Scooby Doo voice* HUUUUHHH!!?!?

[terminal_concept]

3. You forgot to mention they killed him.

Just thought people should know.

[magellan]

4. "They killed him"?

Nobody killed Patrick Henry. He died at his home in VA at the age of 63. What are you on about?

[terminal_concept]

7. O.K. they didn't

I should have payed more attention in history class.Not to say he didn't risk his life.Like Martin Luther King(Now I know they killed him)and others of the civil rights erra.And those where the winners.

[Vidar]

5. I'm guessing you mean Nathan Hale : "I have but one life to

give for my country." Sure wasn't Patrick Henry.

[Ravenseye]

6. Shameless Morning Kick

Good Morning! Give me liberty or give me death.

[originalpckelly]

8. Read my sigline:

[Ravenseye]

10. lol

nice. I might either change mine or tack on this P.Henry quote. It just feels so applicable to today.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Patrick Henry was a slaveholder who opposed slavery.

The hypocrisy is evident, but it was still quite a leap for the times and a Virginian. Like Thomas Jefferson, he aborrhed slavery but had no idea of what to do about it, except make less awful for the victims and hope that, someday, the abolitionists would have the power to end it.

"It is not a little surprising that Christianity, whose chief excellence consists in softening the human heart, in cherishing & improving its finer Feelings, should encourage a Practice so totally repugnant to the first Impression of right & wrong. What adds to the wonder is that this Abominable Practice has been introduced in the most enlightened Ages, Times that seem to have pretensions to boast of high Improvements in the Arts, Sciences, & refined Morality, have brought into general use, & guarded by many Laws, a Species of Violence & Tyranny, which our more rude & barbarous, but more honest Ancestors detested. Is it not amazing, that at a time, when the Rights of Humanity are defined & understood with precision, in a Country above all others fond of Liberty, that in such an Age, & such a Country we find Men, professing a Religion the most humane, mild, meek, gentle & generous, adopting a Principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and destructive to Liberty. . . .

I cannot but wish well to a people whose System imitates the Example of him whose Life was perfect. And believe me, I shall honour the Quakers for their noble Effort to abolish Slavery. It is equally calculated to promote moral & political Good.

Would any one believe that I am Master of Slaves of my own purchase! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. . . .

I believe a time will come when the oppo. will be offered to abolish this lamentable Evil. Every thing we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our day, if not, let us transmit to our descendants together with our Slaves, a pity for their unhappy Lot, & an abhorrence for Slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished for Reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity, & it is the furthest advance we can make toward Justice."

Patrick Henry letter to a Quaker Abolitionist 1773