Comments Elsewhere

bago:

“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!” — Patrick Henry

“Civil liberties do not mean much when you are dead” — Jim Bunning

Which of these two would YOU call a patriot?

Neither.

Bunning is obviously a snivelling tyrannical creep. But Patrick Henry, who personally held slaves, deserves no admiration for his hypocritical panegyrics on the liberty he steadfastly opposed for his black slaves, or the grotesque irony of condemning life lived at “the price of chains and slavery” when he daily inflicted actual chains and literal slavery on others. He was a hell of an orator and perhaps a useful agitator, but as a person he was nothing more than a hypocritical scoundrel, deserving of contempt. A speech like the one attributed to him is worth a lot as a speech, but if the question is how patriotic, virtuous, or admirable Patrick Henry was, on the basis of that speech, then in his mouth it is worth less than nothing.