There never was a manuscript of his famous “liberty or death” speech in St. John’s Church. The speech quoted in these pages represents a reconstruction by Henry’s first biographer, William Wirt, who extrapolated its contents from recollections—forty years after the event—by those present at St. John’s, including Judge John Tyler, an intimate of Henry’s, along with Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and Judge St. George Tucker, among others.
Bibliography
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Paul Leicester Ford, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892-1899, 10 vols.).
William M. Fowler, Jr., The Baron of Beacon Hill: A Biography of John Hancock (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1980).
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Henry Lawrence Gipson, The Coming of the Revolution, 1763-1775 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954).
Kevin J. Hayes, The Mind of a Patriot: Patrick Henry and the World of Ideas (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2008).
Burton J. Hendrick, The Lees of Virginia: Biography of a Family (Boston: Little Brown, and Company, 1935).
William Wirt Henry, Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1891, 3 vols.).
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Merrill Jensen, John P. Kaminski, Gaspare Saladino, Richard Leffler, Charles H. Schoenleber, eds., The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution (Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976-[in progress], 22 vols. to date).
John P. Kaminski, George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic (Madison, WI: Madison House Publishers, Inc., 1993).
———, ed., The Founders on the Founders: Word Portraits from the American Revolutionary Era (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008).
———, James Madison, Champion of Liberty and Justice (Madison, WI: Parallel Press, 2006).
———, ed., The Quotable Jefferson (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).
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John Bartlett, Justin Kaplan, eds., Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 16th ed., 1992).
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Index
Adams, Abigail
Adams, John
Boston Massacre and
on Henry as orator
independence movement and
Jefferson letter to
portrait of
as president
Thoughts on Government
as vice president
Adams, Samuel
Boston Massacre and
charge of traitor and
at Continental Congress
flight from Boston
Gaspée and
mob and
opposition to Galloway proposal
propaganda and
on Virginia’s unity with colonies
Alexander, Archibald
Alien Enemies Act
American Historical Association
Anglican Church
parish taxes
popular resentment against clergy
See also Church of England
Annapolis Convention
Antifederalists
Apollo Room, at Raleigh Tavern
Arnold, Benedict
portrait of
The Articles of Compact
Articles of Confederation
Annapolis Convention
revising(see also Constitutional Convention)
Aylett, Elizabeth Henry
Aylett, Philip
Baptists
Battle of Long Island
Berkeley, Norborne (Baron de Botetourt)
Bernard, Francis
Beverlys
“Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom” (Jefferson)
Bill of Rights
The Articles of Compact
calls for
Henry and
Madison and
states’ rights and
Blackstone, William
Blair, John
Bland, Richard
Bland, Theodore
Board of War
Bohun, William
Boston
boycott of British goods and
martial law in
rebellion against Stamp Act
resistance to British rules
during Revolutionary War
See also Massachusetts
Boston Evening Post (newspaper)
Boston Gazette (newspaper)
Boston Independent Chronicle (newspaper)
Boston Massacre
Boston Port Bill
Boston Tea Party
Botetourt (Lord)
Boucher, Jonathan
Bowdoin, James
Boycotts of British goods
Breed’s Hill
British Board of Trade
British colonies, map of (1763)
British Debts Case
Bunker’s Hill
Burgoyne, John
Burke, Edmund
Burr, Aaron
Byron, Lord
Cabell, Dr. George
Canal-building projects
Capitol (Williamsburg, Virginia)
Carlisle, Lord
Carpenters’ Hall
Carrington, Edward
Carters
Chapelle, Alonzo
Charleston, British capture of
Cherokees, war with
Christian, Anne Henry
Christian, John Henry
Christian, William
Church and state, separation of
Church of England See Anglican Church
Clark, George Rogers
Clinton, George
Coercive Acts
Continental Congress and resolves against
Coke, Edward
College of William and Mary
Colonies
1763 map of
protests against Townshend Acts
trade with Britain
travel between
See also individual colonies
Colonists
boycotts of British goods
opposition to British-imposed taxes
Commentaries on the Laws of England (Blackstone)
Committee of Safety
Committee on Privileges and Elections
“Committee on Stile,”
Committees of correspondence
The Compleat Chancery-Practiser (Jacob)
Concord, battle at
Confederation Congress
Connecticut
Constitution
final draft
Henry and Antifederalist objections to
ratification of
Constitutional Convention
Continental Army
establishment of
Henry’s efforts to aid
shortages and
at Valley Forge
Continental Association
Continental Congress
First
Second
See also Intercolonial congresses
Conway, Thomas
Corbin, Francis
Cornwallis, Charles
Creek Indians
Culpeper Minutemen
Custis, Martha Dandridge
Dabneys
Dandridge, Bartholomew
&nbs
p; Dandridge, Dorothea. See also Henry, Dorothea Dandridge
Dandridge, Nathaniel West
Dandridge, Nathaniel West, II,
Dartmouth, Lord
Davis, Jefferson
Debt
American government
British government
Declaration of Independence
“Declaration of Rights and Grievances of the Colonists in America,”
“Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms,”
Declarations and Pleadings (Bohun)
Declaratory Act
Delaware
Demosthenes
d’Estaing, Charles-Henri Comte
Dickinson, John
Digest of Virginia Acts
Don’t Tread on Me motto
Le Droit des gens (The Law of Nations) (von Vattel)
Dunmore, (Lord) John M.
Earl of Shelburne
East India Company
Economic troubles after Revolution
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
Ellsworth, Oliver
Fairfax Independent Company
Farmers
Continental Army and
flooding and
Parsons’ Cause case and
Piedmont/western
protests after Revolution
Whiskey Rebellion and
Fauquier, Francis
The Federalist (Madison)
Federalists
attempts to discredit Henry
response to Henry’s arguments against Constitution
Federal Republicans
First Continental Congress
First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England, or, A Commentarie upon Littleton (Coke)
Floods of 1771,
Fontaine, Edward
Lion of Liberty Page 33