11. Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaetion? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? 12. Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those 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. The 13. Besides, sir, we shall not fight alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. battle, sir, is not to the strong alone,—it is to the active, the vigilant, the brave. 14. Besides, sir, we have no election. 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. be heard on the plains of Boston. Their clanking may The war is inevitable -and let it come! I repeat it, sir--let it come! 15. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlebut there is no peace! The men may cry peace, peace war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! 16. 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, Heaven! I know not what course others may take, but as for me—give me liberty, or give me death! 17* PATRICK HENRY. XCIX.-IMAGINED SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS. 1. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there's a divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest, for our own good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. 2. Why then should we defer the declaration? Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England; which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life and honor? Are not you, sir, who sit in that chair—is not he, our venerable colleague near you are you not both already the proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and of vengeance? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws? 3. If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on or to give up the war? Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston port bill and all? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. 4. Do we intend to violate that most solemn obligation ever entered into by men- that plighting, before God, of our sacred honor to Washington, when, putting him forth to incur the dangers of war, as well as the political hazards of the times, we promised to adhere to him, in every extremity, with our fortunes and our lives? I know there is not a man here, who would not rather see a general conflagration sweep over the land, or an earth quake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to the ground. 5. For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved you that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces, raised or to be raised, for the defense of American liberty, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth," if I hesitate or waver in the support I give him. The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off longer the declaration of independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. 6. If we fail, it can not be worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us and will carry themselves, gloriously, through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the people of these colonics, and I know that resistance of British aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, and can not be eradicated. 7. Every colony, indeed, has expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered immunities held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life. 8. Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support. 9. Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see clearly through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this declaration shall be made good. We may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. 10. But whatever may be our fate, be assured that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, copious gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude and of joy. 11. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I begun, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment-independence now, and independence forever! DANIEL WEBSTER. C.-INDEPENDENCE BELL: JULY 4, 1776. 1. When it was certain that the "Declaration" would be adopted and confirmed by the signatures of the delegates in Congress, it was determined to announce the event by ringing the old State House bell, which bore the inscription, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof!" and the old bellman posted his little boy at the door of the Hall to await the instruction of the doorkeeper when to ring. At the word, the little patriot scion rushed out and, flinging up his hands, shouted, "Ring! ring!! ring!!!" 2. There was tumult in the city, In the quaint old Quaker town, Where they whispered, each to each, 3. As the bleak Atlantic currents Lash the wild Newfoundland shore, |