Times PasT
10 SpeecheS ThaT Made
For use with “10 Speeches That
Made History” on p. 18 of the magazine
Elizabeth
Cady Stanton
July 19, 1848
Patrick Henry
March 23, 1775
Analyzing primary sources
patrick henry (standing),
the fiery Virginia lawyer who helped
bring on the American Revolution
Download patrick Henry’s full speech at upfrontmagazine.com
18
“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!”
this page: Valerie loiseleux/getty images (microphones); Fotosearch/getty images (patrick henry); page 19: the liFe picture collection/getty
images (elizabeth cady stanton); library oF congress (abraham lincoln); christie’s images/corbis (chieF Joseph oF the nez perce)
‘GiveMe
Liberty,
orGiveMe
Death!’
Ratified in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave
women the right to vote. In many ways, the road to women’s
suffrage began with this speech by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 72 years
earlier, at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in New York.
“[W]e are assembled to protest against a form of government
existing without the consent of the governed—to declare our right
to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government
which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as
give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the
wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in
case of separation, the children of her love; laws which make her
the mere dependent on his bounty. It is to protest against such
unjust laws as these that we are assembled today, and to have
them, if possible, forever erased from our statute books, deeming
them a shame and a disgrace to a Christian republic in the 19th
century. We have met to uplift woman’s fallen divinity upon an
even pedestal with man’s. And, strange as it may seem to many,
we now demand our right to vote according to the declaration of
the government under which we live.”
“A speech is poetry: cAdence, rhythm, imAgery, sweep!” said peggy noonan,
a speechwriter for president ronald reagan. “a speech reminds us that words . . . have the power
to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.”
indeed, when written and delivered well, speeches can change minds, stir people to action (both
positive and negative), and even alter the course of history. here are excerpts from some of america’s
most important speeches, why they mattered in their time—and why they still resonate today.
Fed up with Great Britain’s increasingly
oppressive measures against its American
colonies, the fiery Virginia lawyer Patrick
Henry gave this speech to delegates at
the Second Virginia Convention, in
Richmond, urging them to organize a
militia to fight. The United States declared
its independence a year later and won it
in 1783, after seven years of war.
‘iWillFight
NoMore
Forever’
‘FourscoreandsevenyearsAgo...’
Abraham Lincoln Nov. 19, 1863
The Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania (July 1-3, 1863) was one of the most costly of the Civil
War (1861-65), leaving 50,000 dead, wounded, or missing on the Union and Confederate sides.
Dedicating the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg four months later, President Abraham
Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. At fewer than 300 words, it’s one of history’s
briefest—but most memorable—speeches, and it gave the nation a “new birth of freedom.”
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation or any nation so conceived and
so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who
here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave
men, living and dead who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The
world will little note nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. . . .
[W]e here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain, that this nation under
God shall have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the
people, by the people, for
the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Chief Joseph of
the Nez Perce,
Oct. 5, 1877
Seventeen years after gold
was discovered on Nez Perce
lands in Oregon and whites
began settling it, the U.S.
government ordered the
Indians to relocate to Idaho
in 1877. Enraged, two Nez
Perce killed a group of whites,
sending the U.S. Army after
the entire tribe. Outnumbered,
the Nez Perce fought valiantly
for four months but were
cornered in Montana. Chief
Joseph, long a champion of
resistance, gave this surrender
speech, which has come
to represent the futility of
Indians’ struggle to keep their
North American lands.
“I am tired of fighting. Our
chiefs are killed. . . . The old
men are all dead. . . . It is cold
and we have no blankets. The
little children are freezing to
death. My people, some of
them, have run away to the
hills and have no blankets and
no food. No one knows where
they are—perhaps freezing to
death. I want to have time to
look for my children and see
how many of them I can find.
Maybe I shall find them among
the dead. Hear me, my chiefs.
My heart is sick and sad. From
where the sun now stands,
I will fight no more forever.”
Upfront • Upfrontmagazine.com
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19
‘Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!’
The article “10 Speeches That Made History” spotlights excerpts from 10 famous speeches in U.S. history, including one
from Patrick Henry’s address to delegates at the Second Virginia Convention on the eve of the American Revolution.
Read the full text of Henry’s powerful speech here, along with the Upfront article. Then answer the questions below.
N
o man thinks more highly than I do
of the patriotism, as well as abilities,
of the very worthy gentlemen who have
just addressed the house. But different
men often see the same subject in different
lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be
thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if,
entertaining as I do opinions of a character
very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my
sentiments freely and without reserve. This is
no time for ceremony. The question before the
house is one of awful moment to this country.
Patrick Henry (standing, left),
delivering his famous speech
For my own part, I consider it as nothing less
than a question of freedom or slavery; and
in proportion to the magnitude of the subject
ought to be the freedom of the debate. It
is only in this way that we can hope to
arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great
responsibility which we hold to God and our
country. Should I keep back my opinions at
such a time, through fear of giving offense,
I should consider myself as guilty of treason
‘I am willing
to know the
whole truth . . .
and to provide
for it.’
towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the
is the lamp of experience. I know of no way
of judging of the future but by the past. And
judging by the past, I wish to know what there
has been in the conduct of the British ministry
for the last 10 years to justify those hopes with
which gentlemen have been pleased to solace
themselves and the House. Is it that insidious
smile with which our petition has been lately received?
Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the
not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how
illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a
this gracious reception of our petition comports with those
painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she
warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our
transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men,
land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and
engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are
reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be
we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having
reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love?
eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which
Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements
so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part,
of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings
whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know
resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if
the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.
its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that
U p f r o n t • up f r o n tma g a z i n e . c o m
assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain
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Library of Congress
Uses: copy machine, opaque projector, or transparency master for overhead projector. Scholastic Inc. grants teacher-subscribers to The New York Times Upfront permission to reproduce this Skills Sheet for use in their classrooms. ©2015 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved.
‘WeNowDemandourrighttoVote’
History
Uses: copy machine, opaque projector, or transparency master for overhead projector. Scholastic Inc. grants teacher-subscribers to The New York Times Upfront permission to reproduce this Skills Sheet for use in their classrooms. ©2015 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved.
‘Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!’ (continued)
any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this
cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be
accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none.
stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it
They are meant for us: They can be meant for no other. They
be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard
are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which
shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength
the British ministry have been so long forging. And what
by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means
have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we
of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and
have been trying that for the last 10 years. Have we anything
hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies
new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the
shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we
subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has
make a proper use of those means which the God of nature
been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble
hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the
supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been
holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we
already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive
possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send
ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to
against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned;
There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations,
we have remonstrated; we have supplicated;
we have prostrated ourselves before the throne,
and have implored its interposition to arrest
the tyrannical hands of the ministry and
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted;
our remonstrances have produced additional
violence and insult; our supplications have
Is ‘peace so
sweet, as to
be purchased
at the price of
chains?’
and who will raise up friends to fight our
battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong
alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
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!
been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt,
Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war
from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may
is inevitable—and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation.
There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen
may cry, ‘Peace, Peace’—but there is no peace. The war is
free—if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable
actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north
privileges for which we have been so long contending—if
will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our
we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which
brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?
we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged
What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?
ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at
contest shall be obtained—we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we
the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I
must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all
know not what course others may take; but as for me, give
that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to
me liberty, or give me death! •
Questions
1.What do you think is the purpose of Henry’s
4.What are some of the rhetorical and persuasive
speech? What evidence in this text supports
devices that Henry employs in his speech? Are they
your view?
effective, in your opinion? Explain.
2.How would you describe the tone of the speech?
3.What possible counterargument does Henry
anticipate to his position? How does he respond?
U p f r o n t • up f r o n tma g a z i n e . c o m
5.Do you agree with the Upfront article that
this speech by Henry is among America’s most
important speeches? Explain.
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