March 24, 2025: Patriotic Speeches: Patrick Henry

[250 years ago this past Saturday, Patrick Henry delivered his “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech to the Virginia Assembly. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that and four other patriotic speeches!]

For the anniversary of Henry’s speech, I wanted to share my three paragraphs on it at the start of Chapter 1 of Of Thee I Sing:

On March 23rd, 1775, a 38-year old attorney, planter, and delegate to the Vir[1]ginia House of Burgesses named Patrick Henry (1736–1799) rose to give a speech at the Second Virginia Convention. That convention, held from March 20^th–23^rd at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond in order to maintain distance from the colony’s royal Governor Dunmore and his administration in Williamsburg, was the second in a series of meetings of delegates and other civic leaders to debate the question of independence for Virginia and the colonies. Henry had proposed that the colonists raise a militia that would exist separate from the English army and government, and some of the convention’s more moderate attendees had spoken out against that proposal as too belligerent and likely to increase the chances of war.

Henry’s speech became famous, and a rallying cry for the incipient revolution, due to his closing line: “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” But what’s particularly striking about the speech is that Henry frames his revolutionary sentiments through an initial lens not of liberty but of patriotism. He opens by making his disagreement with his fellow delegates about precisely that topic, his vision of patriotism in response to theirs: “No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve.”

Moreover, Henry makes clear that he sees his responsibility to offer such sentiments as itself an expression and exemplification of patriotism. “Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence,” he admits, “I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country.” Given that Virginia (like all the colonies) was still part of England at this time, and Henry thus a subject of King George like every other Virginian, he here reframes the interconnected concepts of patriotism and treason in a particularly bold and crucial way. That is, while he goes on to argue that freedom is “the glorious object of our contest,” he frames the battle to attain that freedom, “the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged” and of which his own speech becomes a part, not just as an opposition to one nation, but also and especially as a patriotic embrace of another, new nation.

Next SpeechStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Speeches you’d highlight?