ise up
friends for us. The battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the
vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, we have no election. If we
were base enough to desire it, it is too late to retire from the
contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. The war is
inevitable--and let it come! let it come!

"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."

Henry's voice, calm in his exordium, rose gradually to a higher and yet
higher pitch, until the very walls of the church seemed to rock and
tremble, as if conscious of the tremendous vibrations. The listeners,
forgetful of order and of themselves, leaned forward in their seats,
magnetized by the voice and look of the speaker, whose pale face and
glaring eye assumed an appearance of preternatural emotion. His last
exclamation, "Give me liberty, or give me death," sounded like the shout
of the warrior in the tempest of battle.[601:A] When Mr. Henry sat down
every eye remained still fixed on him, entranced and spell-bound.[601:B]

Richard Henry Lee supported Mr. Henry in a masterly review of the
resources of the colonies and their means of resistance, exhorting the
convention to remember that "the race is not to the swift, nor the
battle to the strong, and that he is thrice armed whose cause is just."
"But," says Wirt, "his melody was lost amid the agitations of that ocean
which the master-spirit of the storm had lifted up on high." It would,
however, be a wide mistake to believe that a melodious voice was Mr.
Lee's highest qualification as a speaker. Plain, solid, common sense was
the distinguishing characteristic of his mind as it was of Mr. Henry's.

The overweening caution of those who opposed Henry's resolutions perhaps
served the purpose of the breaks in a train of railroad cars--while they
endeavored to retard the movement, they made it eventually safer. The
resolutions were carried, and a committee was appointed to prepare a
plan of defence.[601:C]

In conformity with a plan reported by the committee, the convention
unanimously determined on the establishment of a well-regulated militia,
by forming in every county one or more volunteer companies and troops
of horse, to be in constant training and ready to act at a moment's
warning, and hence called "minute-men." Mr. Nicholas, hitherto an