Which sentence in this excerpt from Patrick Henry's lamous "liberty or death" speech at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775 emphasizes the
American colonists' efforts to avoid war?
Speech to the Second Virginia Convention
by Patrick Henry (excerpt)
Let us not, beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have be done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We
have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to
arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence
and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these
things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish (O be free-if we mean to
preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending-if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in
which we have SO been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be
obtained-we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!
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