"Given a free press, free speech and the right to carry and bear arms, a people worthy of liberty can secure and maintain it...."

Patrick Henry, the "forest-born Demosthenes*"

   FREEDOM OF SPEECH.--When Lord Byron's "forest-born Demosthenes" thundered against Virginia's acceptance of the "constitution of 1787," until his amendments, which guaranteed free speech, free assemblage, etc., were embodied in it, he did so in the beli[e]f, which was general then, that such constitutional safe-guards would prove-sufficient to protect posterity in its "inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and I think they would have been if federalist judges had not twisted and tortured the whole instrument into a slave-making and slave-perpetuating machine.

   Given a free press, free speech and the right to carry and bear arms, a people worthy of liberty can secure and maintain it, but in the absence of these essentials liberty is but a name, a mere ghost....

[The Day Book, Chicago, Friday, January 21, 1916. Last Edition, Vol. 5, No. 97 Pg. 23]

* - "Note 19. Page 489. Henry, the forest-born Demosthenes. Patrick Henry, of Virginia, at leading member of the American Congress, died in June, 1797. Lord Byron alludes to his famous speech in 1765, in which, on saying, “Caesar had his Brutus--Charles the First had his Cromwell-and George the 'l‘hird——” Henry was interrupted with a shout of “Treason! treason! !”—but coolly finished the sentence with—“ George the Third may profit by their example.”-E."--George Noël Gordon Byron (Baron Byron), The Complete Works of Lord Byron Including His Suppressed Poems, With Several Pieces In Prose And Verse Volume 4. Paris, BAUDRY’S EUROPEAN LIBRARY, Rux Du Coq, Near The Louvre. SOLD ALSO BY THEOPHILE BARROIS, JUN., RUE RICHELIEU; TRUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS; AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX; LIBRAIRIE DES ETRANGERS, 55, RUE NEUVE SAINT-AUGUSTIN; AND FRENCH AND ENGLISH LIBRARY, RUE VIVIENNE. 1833.

   Patrick Henry was one of the most influential orators during the American Revolution. And during the period of the formation of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. Mr. Henry can very well be considered as one of the most ardent supporters of the rights of We The People. He had been a U.S. Representative and the Governor of Virginia. As well as having been asked to run for President of the United States. Which he declined due to the mental illness and poor health of his wife. As well as his skepticism of the course which the new American Constitutional Republican form of government seemed to be on.