Patrick Henry

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

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 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.


Reflection:

The author wants to show that he is a strong believer in the nation that has been created, but it troubles him that the great nation created is having a time of crisis. We have spent time building up a massive army Patrick Henry says to fight the British who have more people than us. He sees the new world as great as it is and a part of him wants to be free from the British, while another part wants to leave well enough alone.


Dear Diary:

This morning my dad went off into train for the army for a battle against the British so we don’t have to pay so much for food that we buy that the British gives us. When sell to them they get it so much cheaper than what it sells in our world, while they still get the taxes. My parents are fed up as am I because with the more money we have the happier we will live. I want the British to stop taxing us for nothing; they don’t even protect us from the Indians that sometimes travel in our colony to take food. We are left all alone with no help to live and starve so we can still be nation of the British. I am fed up!