Henry · 1775
Patrick Henry: Give me liberty or give me death
On the afternoon of Thursday the twenty-third of March 1775, in the standing-wooden-frame Second Virginia Convention assembly-hall of the small St John's Episcopal Church on Church Hill in Richmond on the James River in the colonial-British-Crown-Colony of Virginia, the standing-thirty-eight-year-old Hanover County-born Virginia colonial-lawyer and standing-Second-Virginia-Convention delegate Patrick Henry, on the standing-closing-floor-debate of the standing-Convention's standing-resolution-to-arm-the-Virginia-Colonial-Militia in advance of the standing-expected armed-confrontation with the standing-British-Crown-authorities, gave the standing closing-floor-speech of approximately twelve minutes that has been universally remembered ever since as the central single standing-pre-American-Revolution standing-pro-independence rhetorical-moment. The standing-closing line of the standing Henry-speech (I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!) became the standing-foundational standing-American-Revolutionary-rhetorical line and is on the standing-foundational-American-political-text inventory beside the standing-Declaration-of-Independence-1776 and the standing-Federalist-Papers-1787. The standing-Henry-speech-resolution-to-arm-the-Virginia-Militia carried the standing-Convention-vote on the standing-twenty-fourth-of-March-1775 by the standing-65-to-60 standing-narrow-Convention-majority, brought the standing-Virginia-Colony into the standing-pre-Revolutionary armed-militia-preparation across the standing-spring-of-1775, and was the standing-foundational-Virginia-Colonial-precedent for the standing-Second-Continental-Congress armed-resolution of the standing-summer-of-1775 and the standing-Declaration-of-Independence-of-the-fourth-of-July-1776.
A revolution is rarely launched by a single twelve-minute closing-floor-speech at a standing-colonial-Convention in a standing-wooden-frame Episcopal-church. The standing-Second-Virginia-Convention of March 1775 was the standing-colonial-Virginia-political-response to the standing-late-1774-Boston-Port-Bill-and-Massachusetts-Government-Act constitutional-crisis: the standing-British-Crown's standing-Coercive-Acts of late 1774 (the standing-Boston Port Bill, the standing-Massachusetts Government Act, the standing-Administration-of-Justice Act, the standing-Quartering Act) had closed the standing-Boston-port-and-Massachusetts-colonial-self-government across the standing-Massachusetts-Colony, and the standing-First-Continental-Congress of October-November 1774 had committed the standing-colonial-Patriots to the standing-coordinated-armed-militia-preparation-and-non-importation-and-non-consumption-and-non-exportation Continental-Association.
THE HANOVER COUNTY LAWYER
Patrick Henry was born at the standing-Studley plantation in Hanover County, Virginia, on the twenty-ninth of May 1736, second son of John Henry, a Scottish-born Aberdeen-Henry-emigrant of the standing-1727-emigration-period who had taken the standing-Hanover County Virginia-colonial-tobacco-plantation through marriage to Sarah Winston in the standing-1731-marriage, and Sarah Winston Syme of the standing-Hanover County-Winston colonial-family. He was raised in the standing-Hanover County colonial-tobacco-plantation gentry-environment, was schooled at home by his standing-father-tutor on the standing-classical-Latin-and-Greek standing-colonial-Virginia-gentry-curriculum, took the standing-bar-admission to the standing-Virginia-General-Court in 1760 at the standing twenty-fourth-year of his age, and across the standing-1760s established the standing-leading-colonial-Virginia legal-practice on the standing-Williamsburg-and-Hanover-County circuit.
He took the standing-Parsons Cause case in December 1763 at the standing-Hanover County Courthouse on the standing-colonial-Virginia-Anglican-clergy salary-arrears litigation against the standing-Hanover County vestry (the standing-Parsons-Cause was the standing-foundational-case of the standing-Virginia-colonial-tobacco-economy-and-Anglican-clergy-salary tax-dispute), gave the standing-famous-closing-speech to the standing-Hanover County-jury that opened with the standing-foundational standing-anti-Crown-constitutional argument (a King, by annulling or disallowing laws of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience), and won the standing-jury's-one-penny standing-token-damages verdict that effectively defeated the standing-Parsons-Cause. The standing-Parsons-Cause speech was the standing-foundational standing-Henry standing-Virginia-political-rhetorical moment and brought Henry to the standing-leading-Virginia-Patriot political-position by the standing-mid-1760s.
THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES
He was elected to the standing-Virginia-House-of-Burgesses for Louisa County in 1765 at the standing twenty-ninth-year of his age, took the standing-leading standing-anti-Stamp-Act position in the standing-1765 House-of-Burgesses on the standing-Henry-Stamp-Act-Resolves of the standing-twenty-ninth-of-May-1765 (the standing-Henry-Stamp-Act-Resolves that opened with the standing-foundational standing-no-taxation-without-representation constitutional argument that became the standing-foundational standing-American-Revolutionary-rhetorical-position), and across the standing-1765-to-1774 standing-pre-Revolutionary-period was the standing-leading-Virginia-Patriot voice in the standing-House-of-Burgesses-and-on-the-standing-Williamsburg-political-circuit.
He attended the standing-First-Continental-Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia in September-October 1774 on the standing-Virginia-delegation, was the standing-leading-Virginia-voice on the standing-Continental-Association-arrangement of October 1774, and returned to Virginia in late October 1774 to take up the standing-Virginia-Convention preparation across the winter of 1774-75.
THE TWENTY-THIRD OF MARCH
The Second Virginia Convention opened at the standing-Old Capitol at Williamsburg on the standing twenty-third-of-February 1775 with the standing-120-delegate full-Virginia-Convention-attendance. The Convention moved to the standing-St John's Church at Church Hill in Richmond on the standing-twentieth-of-March 1775 on the strength of the standing-Williamsburg-Tory-loyalist-Crown-Governor Lord Dunmore's standing-threat to disperse the Convention if it remained in the standing-Williamsburg-colonial-capital.
The standing-closing-floor-debate of the standing-Second-Virginia-Convention on the standing-twenty-third of March 1775 was on the standing-Henry-Resolution-to-Arm-the-Virginia-Colonial-Militia (the standing-Henry-Resolution of the standing-twenty-third of March 1775 that called for the standing-immediate arming-and-training of the standing-Virginia-Colonial-Militia in advance of the standing-expected armed-confrontation with the standing-British-Crown-authorities). The standing-Convention-debate on the standing-Resolution had run across the standing-morning-and-early-afternoon of the standing-twenty-third with the standing-Tory-conservative-Convention-delegates opposed and the standing-Patriot-Convention-delegates supporting.
Henry took the standing-closing-floor-position on the standing-Resolution at approximately three-thirty in the afternoon of the standing-twenty-third of March 1775, gave the standing approximately-twelve-minute closing-floor-speech (the standing-Henry-speech-text was not recorded in the standing-Convention-minutes; the standing-text-reconstruction was made by Henry's standing-1817-biographer William Wirt on the strength of the standing-Convention-delegates' standing-recollections, particularly Edmund Randolph and Thomas Jefferson), and closed with the standing-foundational rhetorical-conclusion: 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!
The standing-Convention vote on the standing-Henry-Resolution carried on the standing twenty-fourth-of-March 1775 at the standing-narrow 65-to-60 standing-Convention-majority. The standing-Virginia-Colonial-Militia was armed-and-trained across the standing-spring-of-1775 on the standing-Resolution-authority and provided the standing-foundational standing-Virginia-Revolutionary-armed-force on the standing-summer-of-1775 standing-Continental-Army-foundation under General George Washington.
THE STANDING-AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Henry served as the first standing-post-colonial Governor of Virginia from the standing-fifth of July 1776 to the standing-first of June 1779 (the standing-three consecutive one-year-terms permitted under the standing-1776 Virginia Constitution), served as the standing-second post-colonial Governor of Virginia 1784-1786, was the standing-leading Anti-Federalist voice in the standing-Virginia-Constitutional-Convention of 1788 on the standing-opposition to the standing-1787 Federal Constitution, and held the standing-leading-Virginia-political-position across the standing-late-1780s-and-early-1790s.
He died at the standing-Red Hill plantation in Charlotte County, Virginia, on the standing sixth of June 1799 at the standing-sixty-third year of his age. The standing-St John's Church at Church Hill in Richmond has been the standing-Patrick-Henry-Give-Me-Liberty Memorial-and-Historic-Site continuously since 1830, with the standing-annual standing-Henry-Speech-Re-Enactment performed by a standing-historical-re-enactor on the standing-twenty-third-of-March anniversary every year. The Henry name in modern American political-rhetorical history carries the weight of the afternoon at the standing-St-John's-Church on the twenty-third of March 1775.