"Give me liberty, or give me death."

"These are the times that try men's [and Ladies] souls."

"I only regret that I have one life to lose for my country."

"Don't fire [postal clerk] till you see the whites of their eyes."

"I can't tell a lie."

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What do those words mean? What are the real stories behind them?

"We hold these truths" ....

Patrick Henry may never have said:`If this is treason, make the most of it. 

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The Stamp Act became law in 1765. This required colonist to pay for postage to affix to legal papers and love letters. The troops, after all, needed to be paid. Troops were to protect colonial land grabbers who loved to rob Native Folk from their well tended Real Estate. Well?

You know that the invading French and Indians wanted territory too. The people were getting inflamed. People everywhere began believing that these taxes were in bad taste. They were violation- taxes. The lightening and thunder roaring was beginning to rumble. The ferment was felt too.

Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia House of Burgesses. Here's how [howling] William Wirt described the scene in his biography, which was first published in 1817:`

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Henry exclaimed in a voice of thunder, and with a look of a god:`Cesar had his Brutas - Charles the First, his Cromwell - and George the Third - ('Treason!'

Cried Patrick Henry the speaker - Treason, treason! Echoed from every part of the house .... Henry faltered not for an instant; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis)--may profit from their example.

"If this be treason, make the most of it." Did Henry say that? I don't know.

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One eyewitness quoted by Wirt was a young student of law, Thomas Jefferson. "I well remember the cry treason," Jefferson told Wirt, "the pause of Mr. Henry at the name of George 111, and the presence of mind he closed his sentence, and baffled the charge vociferated."

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Henry stirred citizens and strongly was condemming  the acts of Parliament. A chasm was deepening. Henry put it in this writ way:`

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Light and heat were seen and felt throughout the continent; and  ... everywhere there was talk about colonial liberty ... The spirit of great resistance became bolder and bolder, until the continent was in a flame."

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Words get overshadowed. Henry latter commented:`No taxation without representation." There were eyewitnesses and people took sides. People were becoming horrified. The most "sober and virtuous part of these audiences ... some of whom did murmur at the time, 'treason! treason!"

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Despite the claim of Henry's 1776 response to the cries of treason, it's by no means clear he ever suggested making the most of it. Biographer and historian Mr. Wirt's recollections were  compiled decades after the event. In 1921 an anonymous Frenchman - whose report was written just one day after the speech in a private journal declares a different story:`

Henry confronted with the accusation of treason, immediately apologized to the entire audience and pledged loyalty to the king. Personally, I (me) find this very interesting.

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The Frenchman wrote:`

Shortly after I came in, one of the members stood up and said he had read in former times Tarquin and Julus had their Brutus, Charles had his Cromwell, and he did not doubt that  some good Americans would stand up, in favor of his country, but (say he) in a more moderate manner, and was going to continue, when the speaker of the house rose and said, he, the last that stood up had spoken treason, and was sorry to see that not one of the members of the house was loyal enough to stop him, before he had gone too far.

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Henry was backpedaling recognizing he has gone too far? Was Wirts account, then, no different from those of Parson Weems, the biographer of George Washington who invented a story of chopping down the pretty cherry tree? 

Patrick Henry gave a speech. It "seized the  pillars of the temple, shook them terribly, and seemed to threaten his opponents with ruin" ...

And it's written "the fainthearted gathered courage ... And cowards became the era's  of the heroes, while they gazed upon their exploits."

My o day, wild.

I just don't know.

I know I gotta behave.

I'll clean cans from farm trucks.