. 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!--_The War
Inevitable:_ PATRICK HENRY.

_A Study in Dignity and Style_

4. In retiring as I am about to do, forever, from the Senate, suffer me
to express my heartfelt wishes that all the great and patriotic objects
of the wise framers of our Constitution may be fulfilled; that the high
destiny designed for it may be fully answered; and that its
deliberations, now and hereafter, may eventuate in securing the
prosperity of our beloved country, in maintaining its rights and honor
abroad, and upholding its interests at home. I retire, I know, at a
period of infinite distress and embarrassment. I wish I could take my
leave of you under more favorable auspices; but without meaning at this
time to say whether on any or on whom reproaches for the sad condition
of the country should fall, I appeal to the Senate and to the world to
bear testimony to my earnest and continued exertions to avert it, and to
the truth that no blame can justly attach to me.--_Farewell Address:_
HENRY CLAY.

_A Study in Strength and Diction_

5. For myself, I believe there is no limit fit to be assigned to it by
the human mind, because I find at work everywhere, on both sides of the
Atlantic, under various forms and degrees of restriction on the one
hand, and under various degrees of motive and stimulus on the other, in
these branches of the common race, the great principle of the freedom of
human thought, and the respectability of individual character. I find
everywhere an elevation of the character of man as man, an elevation of
the individual as a component part of society. I find everywhere a
rebuke of the idea that the many are made for the few, or that
government is anything but an agency for mankind. And I care not beneath
what zone, frozen, temperate, or torrid; I care not of what complexion,
white, or brown; I care not under what circumstances of climate or
cultivation--if I can find a race of men on