I just want to add this as to the sacrifices made by our founders:
Patrick Henry: "Give me Liberty or give me Death"
- Thread starter ameridaddy
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I just want to add this as to the sacrifices made by our founders:
My 5th great-grandfather wasn't a Signer, but was on the Virginia Committee of Safety, the Committee of Correspondence, was Commissioner of the Virginia Navy, and Treasurer of Virginia during and after the War of Independence.
As Treasurer, and later as Receiver of Taxes, he held the Virginia tax collections owed to the Federal Government in an iron chest on his brother's property. A British officer, wounded at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, was too weak to bear the ship journey back to England after the battle, and was quartered during his recovery at the Treasurer's house. He stole the tax receipts, which my ggggg-grandfather Webb had to produce. Failing that, in a long series of back and forth letters over ten years, he petitioned for reimbursement or forgiveness of the monies owed.
Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton wrote to Congress in 1791, paraphrasing, " I am of the opinion that too much time has passed since the monies went missing, and Mr. Webb's petition is filed too late. While I sympathize with Mr. Webb's plight, I can find nothing in the Constitution that authorizes me to reimburse him for his loss."
To make good on the debt incurred as a result of his service and a misfortune of war, Mr. Webb sold both of his plantations, all of his slaves, all of his livestock, all of his furnishings and died penniless, his fortune gone, but with his honor intact, about nine years latter.
I used to help out on a Civics and Law Academy that was put on by the local bar association for high school students in the county. I took my lecture on voting rights back to the Founding Fathers and would recite the provision about "lives, fortunes and sacred honor." I must have ruffled some feathers because all of a sudden I didn't get informed about future Academies.
As a fourth grader, at Battlefield Park Elementary school in Hanover County, Virginia, we had to memorize this portion of the speech and stand in the front of the class and deliver it. I shocked my wife (a midwest girl) by still being able to recite it today.
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!"
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!"
