Last year, on July 5th, I ran the following article.

Before we get to tomorrow’s great holiday, I felt it needed to be revisited as it has a direct bearing on our very special and IMPORTANT 4th of July article TOMORROW!!!

236 years ago, yesterday, a nation rose from tyranny and oppression. A people, with unalienable rights endowed by the Creator, had had enough of Imperial rule and said so boldly, courageously and with the knowledge that they had a choice.

Patrick Henry understood that choice.

In a speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses, on March 23, 1775, Henry swung the vote convincing his Colony to send troops to the Revolutionary War when he proclaimed, “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!”

12 years earlier, Patrick Henry, a bar keeper turned attorney had argued in a case that the King was but “a tyrant who forfeits the allegiance of his subjects.”

In 1765, a law student and guest in the House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson, listened while, regarding the Stamp Act, Henry offered resolutions to nullify them. Henry, at that time, was met with fierce opposition and his resolutions were termed as treasonous to the King. What Patrick Henry said in response, lit the fire in Jefferson that would lead him to be elected to the House of Burgesses 6 years later.

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