Liberty or Death!
July 29, 2009 Freedom, God No Comments
- The St. John’s Church (Anglican, Richmond, VA)
- Inside St. John’s Church (Richmond, VA)
In the first picture, you will find a view of the St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA where Patrick Henry delivered his famous oration where he said, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” The second picture is actually inside the church where Patrick Henry stood when he made his famous speech. Following is an account of this momentous event. “On March 23, 1775, the Second Virginia Convention had been moved from the House of Burgesses to St. John’s Church in Richmond, because of the mounting tension between the Colonies and the British Crown. It was here that Patrick Henry delivered his fiery patriotic oration: …Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the Holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us. The battle, sire, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…
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!” (William Federer, America’s God and Country, 287-288).
Patrick Henry is credited with stating, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here” (Federer, p. 289).
Both of these quotations are worth contemplating at this time in our own history.