"Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a
right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have
earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates,
their pleasure, and their blood."
John Adams, 1765
"They tell us Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable
an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the
next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard
shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution
and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying
supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our
enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a
proper use of those means which the God of nature has placed in our power."
Patrick Henry
"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate --
we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln, 19 November 1863
