... 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!
"... 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!"
What wonder that the audience sways to his belief!
He was a true prophet, for in less than four weeks the first gun of the
Revolution was fired in the quiet town of Lexington, Massachusetts.
Undoubtedly Patrick Henry's fiery spirit had done much to kindle the flame
which then burst forth.
Not long after this, he was made commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces
(1775), and the next year was elected governor of Virginia.
When the war--in the declaring of which he had taken so active a part--was
over, Patrick Henry retired at the age of fifty-eight (1794), to an estate
in Charlotte County called "Red Hill," where he lived a simple and
beautiful life.
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