Give me liberty or give me death! Happy Independence Day

  Happy Independence Day everyone, I would like to share a couple of videos with you today in remembrance of the times.

  Perhaps the greatest speech anyone has ever given was delivered on March 23rd, 1775 by Patrick Henry when he made his famous call to arms with his “give me liberty or give me death” speech. It is interesting to note the influence the Bible had on this speech. See Luke 22:48, Jeremiah 6:14, Jeremiah 8:11, Jeremiah 6:22, and Matthew 20:6.

  I think my favorite line from the speech is “shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the illusive phantom of Hope.”  In my opinion Patrick Henry was a master orator and showman, I love the way this speech starts out slow and builds to its crescendo. 

  Here is a good video of the speech, it comes from a short film from 1936 entitled “Give Me Liberty.” Enjoy:

  I sometimes wonder if over the course of hundreds of years people have lost the perspective of what actually happened on July 4th, 1776 when the Founders voted to free themselves from the yolk of Great Britain. July 4th, 1776 is known as Independence Day but I wonder how many people think this was the day we won our freedom.

  I wonder how many people think we declared our freedom and it was a happy day because we were at last free, but that is not how it happened. Actually there were many years of fighting needed to secure this declaration and the men who declared independence that day understood the gravity of their actions–if they were caught they would be hanged as traitors to the Crown.

  Here is a video from the HBO miniseries “John Adams,” if you have not seen this miniseries you need to because it was remarkable! The thing I love about this scene is how it portrays the gravity of the situation and how the Founders understood what they had just done–there was no celebration of the outcome of the vote, the celebration did not occur until much later.