Recall words from history

Everyone should reread Patrick Henry’s speech at least once a year.

Though it was delivered in March, July 4 seems a good time to become reacquainted with this blood-stirring masterpiece of rhetoric.

In 1775 the situation was this: Britain had already violated a number of civil rights that Americans held as their own by virtue of their British citizenship, and Americans were pushing hard in de-manding restoration of those rights. The crown resisted; Massachusetts, where foment began, was already declared by Britain to be in rebellion.

The question of the day was this: Would Virginia begin raising a militia in readiness for possible defense of arms? By doing so, Virginia would also be signaling its support of Massachusetts.

The Virginia Burgesses met to consider this question, and the fate of the nation may well have hinged on their decision. Virginia was America’s largest colony, and one of the most influential. Had Virginia held back, momentum toward freedom might have sputtered and died. Patrick Henry called Virginia to arms, in no uncertain terms.

Historians now say that the words transcribed for posterity are not exactly those spoken by the fiery Virginian on March 23, 1775. They were recreated some years later by his first biographer, from oral histories. Researchers now think Mr. Henry used tactics that would be an anathema today, such as name-calling and playing upon his hearers’ fears of Indian or slave revolts.

Be that as it may, the speech still deserves our attention, for two reasons. It may well have changed history by turning Virginia inexorably toward defense of liberty. And the version that was accepted from the 1820s to the 1970s, while not literal, nonetheless created a power all its own. Those words captured public imagination and became the inspiration for lovers of freedom both in this land and abroad.

We will not quote them all here. But let a sampling of those words inspire your Fourth of July.

“The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. … [It is] nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery …

“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 ... we must fight! …

“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 …

“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? … 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!”