250 Years Ago Today: Patrick Henry’s Speech

This vintage Currier and Ives print is the most commonly circulated image of Patrick Henry’s famous speech before the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775. It was created well after the event of course (Currier and Ives were active between 1835 and 1907) but by now the image itself has the kind of authority we superstitiously give to all old things. I like aspects of the image but I feel it is badly composed — the fact that nearly all the men have their arms raised pulls focus from Henry. This later depiction by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris serves the purpose better.

Interestingly, what we know of the text of the speech itself turns out to be about as roughly re-created as these illustrations. It was not transcribed in real time, although it was of such a force it lingered in the minds of all the men who were present, a group that included George Washington,Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison (father and great-grandfather of Presidents), Edmund Randolph (America’s first Attorney General and second Secretary of State), Thomas Marshall (father of Chief Justice John Marshall), George Mason (the important Constitutional Convention delegate for whom the University is named), Richard Henry Lee (future President of the Continental Congress, uncle of Robert E. Lee), and many other of the leading citizens of Virginia.

In 1817, U.S. Attorney General William Wirt penned a biography of Henry and wrote to such survivors of the convention as he could locate for their recollections of what was said. His reconstruction of the speech is the best and only record that exists:

“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 and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. 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? 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!”

It is assumed that aspects of the speech were inspired by Joseph Addison’s 1712 play Cato, right down to the theatrical gesture of miming his own impalement on a paper knife. (Cato was the favorite play of Washington’s, BTW). At any rate, these words (whatever they were) are commonly held to be what tipped the balance in Virginia to throw in their lot with Massachusetts in their open defiance of British authorities. Lexington and Concord and the Gunpowder Incident (Virginia’s equivalent) followed a month later and the Revolutionary War was on.

Oddly, this legendary oration, so electric to those who were present, seems rarely to have been dramatized. Frank McGlynn played Patrick Henry in D.W. Griffith’s silent film America (1924). Richard Gaines plays him in The Howards of Virginia (1940) starring Cary Grant. Actor Jack Kelly starred in the role in the made-for-tv bio-pic Patrick Henry on Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1955. In 1957, Colonial Williamsburg and Paramount Pictures teamed up to make a half hour orientation short narrated by Jack Lord. Called Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot , it’s a slick production, shot in Vista Vision, with a score by Bernard Herrmann. Actor Robert Carroll plays Henry in that one. MacDonald Carey played him in John Paul Jones (1959). Daniel Davis (Niles on The Nanny) was Henry in the tv movie George Washington II: The Forging of the Nation (1986). He could use a little more attention!

At any rate, we observe this anniversary at a similarly crucial time in our history. Your bravery is not only needed but required if we are to salvage what’s left of our liberty in America, and retrieve what’s been lost. Read the words again. Better yet, listen to the great Orson Welles gave a version of the full speech on radio which reveals its full power, and ties it even closer to the present flood tide of injustices we are now undergoing. The words are just as relevant as they were 250 years ago.