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Famous American Speech Essay- Patrick Henry

by Amanda L Marron

For this assignment, we were told to choose a famous American speech. I chose Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech in which he spoke in front of the Virginia Provincial Convention in 1775. Patrick Henry lived in the era of the Revolutionary War. During this time, the British Parliament was trying to keep freedom and independence from America. Both of which were nearly taken from us, a year ago today.
Patrick Henry was living in a world where there was not yet freedom. He wanted the freedom for our nation that we all enjoy now. He knew we had to fight for it. We had to prove ourselves to the world. At that point, America was the baby country in a world of adult countries. England didn’t think we would be able to survive on our own, but we proved them wrong.
It is the same today. We have proved ourselves worthy of being a country over and over again. We just cannot sit and wait for our freedom to come to us or for it to be taken from us. We cannot wait until the attacks are in our own neighborhoods. We have to strike now. As Patrick Henry once said, “…what means this martial array, if its purpose be not force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motives for it?”
As Americans, we should all feel responsible for keeping our nation free for the generations to come. We should want to give our children the freedoms we have for so long relished. We have tried peace talks or anything else that could avert the storm, which will commence. As Patrick Henry once also said, “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, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight!” We must not go quietly into the night. We must make ourselves known that we will not go down without a resistance.
I think this speech might be selected to be read aloud on September 11th for many reasons. It has many of the ideas that we have today. Most Americans do not think we should be sitting on our hands while Osama Bin Laden is hiding in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. They think we should go to where the problem started. We should all take up arms. “The war is inevitable—and let it come… the next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!”
It also explains how England thought us weak, as Al- Quaeda also feels. “They tell us, sir, that we are weak - - unable to cope with so formidable an adversary.” Everyone wants to know why we don’t prove we aren’t as weak as they think us. “But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed?” As a country we need to prove we aren’t as frail, as we are perceived. If that means going to war to end this all, that’s what we have to do.

12/12/2006

Author's Note: I wrote this my senior year in high school.

Posted on 12/12/2006
Copyright © 2024 Amanda L Marron

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