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Patrick Henry was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.
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culture · American Founding Father (1736–1799) · politician · lawyer · writer · governor · also Patrick Henry, Henry
Born 29 May 1736 · Died 6 June 1799 · Q311885
35 published statements · 0 followers
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Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death - read by Bob Gonzalez for LibriVox's Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 026 (2012)
Patrick Henry (author), Bob Gonzalez (narrator) · Public Domain
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“This book is worth all the books that ever were printed, and it has been my misfortune that I have never found time to read it with the proper attention and feeling till lately. I trust in the mercy of Heaven that it is not yet too late.”
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“a great orator ... and much more, a learned lawyer, a most accurate thinker, and a profound reasoner”
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“I have to lament that I cannot bring my Mind to accord with the proposed Constitution. The Concern I feel on this account is really greater than I am able to express.”
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“is fatal to the publick Safety”
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“s anger in his response that such troops were not useful caused Henry to drop the matter, stating that he deferred to Washington”
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“In vain should I attempt to give any idea of his speech”
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“s Council agreed to pay the value of the powder by bill of exchange. Although Dunmore issued a proclamation against”
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“I am the master of slaves of my own purchase. I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without them. I will not, I cannot justify it.”
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“s 1776 election as governor,”
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San Diego Union-Tribune: Patrick Henry sprints to big lead, holds on for season-opening win over La Jolla - San Diego Union-Tribune
Public attention spiked: 3,418 Wikipedia readers in one day, 5.1× the usual 670, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 36,841 Wikipedia readers in one day, 55× the usual 670, with 9 article edits. Editors noted: common usage
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Snopes rated the claim “Patrick Henry once said, "The Constitution is not a document for the government to restrain the people: it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government."” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
Read "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Debt"), according to Kidd, "few Americans today, Tea Partiers or others, take seriously Henry's fundamental criticisms of the Constitution
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Patrick Henry College was founded in Purcellville, Virginia, in large part for those who had been homeschooled
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Just before the Constitution's bicentennial, predicted that during that anniversary, "it will be hard to avoid depicting Henry as one of history's losers, as one too short-sighted to see beyond the bounds of his own nati
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The United States Post Office Department issued a $1 definitive stamp honoring Henry, one of the high values in the Liberty issue
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The airport was called Patrick Henry Field and was later renamed Patrick Henry International Airport, a name it retained until 1990
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It became the site of the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport on 925 acres (3
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Recorded at the time of Henry's speech that "one of the members stood up and said that he had read that in former times Tarquin and Julius had their Brutus, Charles had his Cromwell, and he did not doubt but some good Am
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Told Daniel Webster, "Patrick Henry was originally a bar-keeper", a characterization that Henry's biographers have found to be unfair; that his position was more general than that, and that the main business of Hanover T
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And is now reduced to archaeological remains, is also preserved; it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
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Died 1799-06-06.
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“I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery.”
“Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds. … Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.”
“Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty?”
“Let Mr. Madison tell me when did liberty ever exist when the sword and the purse were given up from the people? Unless a miracle shall interpose, no nation ever did, nor ever can retain its liberty after the loss of the sword and the purse.”
“When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, Sir, was then the primary object.”
“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”
“It is not a little Surprising that Christianity, whose chief excellence consists of softening the human heart, in cherishing and improving its finer Feelings, should encourage a Practice so totally repugnant to the first Impression of Right and Wrong. What adds to the wonder is that this Abominable Practice has been introduced in the most enlightened Ages.”
“The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American.”
“Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third — ["Treason!" cried the Speaker] — may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”
“A King, by disallowing Acts of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated into a Tyrant and forfeits all rights to his subjects' obedience.”
Career landmark: Governor of Virginia (1776–1779).
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Born 1736-05-29.
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