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DISCIPLINES
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 DIGITAL
DISCIPLINES
ATTAINING MARKET LEADERSHIP VIA THE
CLOUD, BIG DATA, SOCIAL, MOBILE, AND
THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Joe Weinman
Copyright © 2015 by Joe Weinman. All rights reserved.
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Weinman, Joe, 1958-
Digital disciplines : attaining market leadership via the cloud, big data, social, mobile, and the
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Includes index.
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ISBN 978-1-119-03987-7 (ePub) 1. Internet marketing. 2. Leadership. 3. Customer
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Printed in the United States of America
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“Dedicated to Mom and Dad”
 CONTENTS
FOREWORD xvii
PREFACE xix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxiii

PART ONE— Overview and Background

CHAPTER 1 Digital Disciplines, Strategic Supremacy 3

From Value Disciplines to Digital Disciplines 4
Information Excellence 7
Solution Leadership 8
Collective Intimacy 9
Accelerated Innovation 10
Exponential Value Creation 11
The Leadership Agenda 13
Information Technology in Context 15
Notes 17

CHAPTER 2 Value Disciplines and Related Frameworks 21

Value Disciplines 22
Operational Excellence 23
Product Leadership 24
Customer Intimacy 25
Importance of Focus 26
The Unbundled Corporation 27
Business Model Generation 30
Michael Porter and Competitive Advantage 31
Blue Ocean Strategy 33
Innovation: The “Fourth” Value Discipline 34
Notes 36

CHAPTER 3 Digital Disciplines 39

Information Excellence 40
Solution Leadership 42

ix
x CONTENTS

Collective Intimacy 43
Accelerated Innovation 45
All of the Above? 47
Notes 49

CHAPTER 4 Digital Technologies 51

The Cloud 52
Big Data 54
Mobile 57
The Internet of Things 59
Social 60
Notes 61

PART TWO— Information Excellence

CHAPTER 5 Operations and Information 65

Processes 66
Process Advantage 67
Process Optimization 72
Asset Optimization 74
Business Value of Information 76
The Role of Information Technology 78
Caveats 79
Notes 80

CHAPTER 6 The Discipline of Information Excellence 83

From People to Machines 85
From Physical to Virtual 87
From Virtual to Digical 88
From Processes to Experiences 89
From Operations to Improvement 90
From Static Design to Dynamic Optimization 91
From Mass Production to Mass Personalization 92
From Cost Reduction to Revenue Generation 92
From Direct to Indirect Monetization 93
From Touchpoints to Integration 94
From Firms to Networks 95
 CONTENTS xi

From Data to Actionable Insight 97

From Answers to Exploration 98
Notes 99

CHAPTER 7 Burberry—Weaving IT into the Fabric of the Company 103

Operational Excellence and Product Leadership 105
From Operational Excellence to Information Excellence 105
From Physical to Virtual 106
From Virtual to Digical 107
From Processes to Experiences 109
From Mass Production to Mass Personalization 110
From Cost Reduction to Revenue Generation 111
From Touchpoints to Integration 112
From Firms to Networks 113
Notes 114

PART THREE— Solution Leadership

CHAPTER 8 Products, Services, and Solutions 119

Competitive Strategy 120
Product Elements 121
The Experience Economy 125
Pricing and Business Models 126
Notes 129

CHAPTER 9 The Discipline of Solution Leadership 131

From Products and Services to Solutions 135
From Generic and Expected to Augmented and Potential 136
From Transactions to Relationships 138
From Sales Results to Customer Outcomes 139
From Standard Products to Custom Solutions 142
From Products and Services to Experiences and Transformations 143
From Standalone to Social 144
From Product to Platform 145
From Engineered to Ecosystem 146
Notes 148
xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER 10 Nike—A Track Record of Success 151

From Products to Solutions 153
From Generic and Expected to Augmented and Potential 154
From Transactions to Relationships 155
From Sales Results to Customer Outcomes 155
From Standard Products to Custom Solutions 156
From Products to Experiences and Transformations 156
From Standalone to Social 158
From Engineered to Ecosystem 158
Nike and the Other Digital Disciplines 159
Notes 163

PART FOUR— Collective Intimacy

CHAPTER 11 Customer Experience and Relationships 167

Customer Intimacy 171
A Broad Spectrum of Relationships 173
Dimensions of Interaction 174
Collaborative and Content Filtering 176
Notes 178

CHAPTER 12 The Discipline of Collective Intimacy 181

From Transactions to Relationships 182
From Relationships to Intimacy 184
From Physical to Virtual 185
From Virtual to Digical 187
From Company to Community 188
From People to Algorithms 188
From Individual to Collective 191
Notes 194

CHAPTER 13 Netflix—Entertaining Disruption 197

Information Excellence 199
Accelerated Innovation 200
Solution Leadership 201
From Relationships to Intimacy 202
 CONTENTS xiii

From Physical to Virtual 203

From Virtual to Digical 204
From Company to Community 205
From People to Algorithms 205
From Individual to Collective 207
Notes 209

PART FIVE— Accelerated Innovation

CHAPTER 14 Innovation and Transformation 213

Successful Commercial Innovation 215
The Innovation Process 219
Innovation Principles 221
Innovation of Products, Processes, Relationships, and Innovation 225
Business Model Innovation and Corporate Transformation 227
Notes 230

CHAPTER 15 The Discipline of Accelerated Innovation 233

From Solitary to Collaborative 235
From Internal to External 237
From Closed to Open 239
From Inside-Out to Outside-In 241
From Products to Platforms 242
From Linear to Agile 243
From Employees to Crowds 245
From Salaries to Prizes 247
From Theoretical to Data-Driven 248
From Human to Machine 250
From Incremental to Transformational 251
Notes 252

CHAPTER 16 Procter & Gamble Cleans Up 255

From Solitary to Collaborative 257
From Internal to External 258
From Closed to Open 260
From Inside-Out to Outside-In 262
xiv CONTENTS

From Employees to Crowds 263

From Incremental to Transformational 264
Notes 265

PART SIX— Successful Execution

CHAPTER 17 General Electric—Flying High 269

Digital Disciplines at GE 271
Software at GE 273
Information Excellence 274
Solution Leadership 276
Collective Intimacy 277
Accelerated Innovation 279
Notes 281

CHAPTER 18 Human Behavior and Gamification 283

Human Behavior 285
Gamification 289
Gamifying Information Excellence 290
Gamifying Solution Leadership 291
Gamifying Collective Intimacy 292
Gamifying Accelerated Innovation 293
Gamification across Disciplines 294
Notes 295

CHAPTER 19 Opower—The Power of the Human Mind 299

Human Behavior and Energy Consumption 301
Opower, Information, and Intimacy 303
Notes 305

CHAPTER 20 Digital Disasters 307

Strategic Errors 308
Cyberattacks 310
Software Design and Development Challenges 312
Operational Issues 314
Unintended Consequences 315
Erratic Algorithms 316
 CONTENTS xv

Politics and Pushback 319

Digital Disappointments 319
Notes 323

PART SEVEN— What’s Next?

CHAPTER 21 Looking Forward 329

The Exponential Economy 329
Future Technologies 333
Opportunities 336
Critical Success Factors 337
Next Steps 340
Notes 342

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 345

INDEX 347
 FOREWORD
Marketplace success is much sought after, but hard to achieve. In most indus-
tries, only a handful of firms manage to outperform the majority of their
contenders. Their shining results make them stand out—in terms of customer
appeal, financial results, or growth prospects. Yet even they are subject to
decline in a turbulent world where customer power and buyers’ demands are
mounting relentlessly.
Attaining market leadership is no sinecure. This was already evident some
20 years ago in the research that led to my coauthored book The Discipline
of Market Leaders, a #1 bestseller that was published in 18 languages. The
fundamental and lasting truth exemplified by the market-leading companies
featured in that work, as well as the many outperformers I have studied
since, is that they succeeded by not being all things to all people. Instead,
they developed and honed the discipline to deliver unsurpassed value to
particular customer segments on just those dimensions most pertinent to
these customers—such as best total cost, best solutions, or best products.
On top of that, they recognized the imperative to provide better value year
after year in order to sustain their appeal to ravenous and switch-prone
customers—whether through faster, cheaper, and better offerings, special
treatment, or otherwise.
Then as well as now, customers want more—and they want to be
delighted and surprised. Today nothing has more power to surprise than the
digital juggernaut that is transforming marketplaces around the world.
In my research 20 years ago, the Internet barely registered as a crucial
component of market leadership. The word internetworking appeared just
once in my book, and the term digital did not come up at all. How things
have changed. Today, technology is a pervasive strategic force in any
market-leading company that I know, and is getting recognized as such in
a rapidly growing number of other firms. In light of that, it is no surprise
that as of April 2015, the world’s highest-ranking companies by stock market
capitalization were Apple and Google, with Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle,
and Amazon not far behind, and that most of the fastest-growing enterprises
can be found in the digital field.
Considering the rampant growth and importance of digital capabilities,
Joe Weinman’s Digital Disciplines could not be more timely. The immense
merit of his work lies in illuminating how the dizzying array of current and
emerging digital technologies are shaping and transforming the ways that
companies create better customer value and, hence, attain market leadership.
His insights and case studies provide a blueprint for companies of all sizes in all

xvii
xviii FOREWORD

industries to upgrade their strategies so as to compete effectively in the digital

era. The connection of his four digital disciplines with the enduring disciplines
of market leaders that were outlined in my earlier book is uncanny. To me,
Digital Disciplines shows how technology is super-charging the way customer
value gets created. Weinman, in effect, is putting my original disciplines on
steroids.
Digital Disciplines provides rich and interesting detail as to technology’s
potential and impact on customer strategy. Even with a pretty good grasp of
the subject matter, I found the book eye-opening, especially in terms of the
multitude of possibilities it covers that are worth exploring, and the dangers
that could befall those who do not fully appreciate the necessities of the
digital era.

Fred Wiersema
Customer Strategist, Chair of the B2B Leadership Board,
Institute for the Study of Business Markets at Penn State, and
coauthor of the top-selling The Discipline of Market Leaders
 PREFACE
In 1993, two management consultants named Michael Treacy and Fred
Wiersema wrote a popular Harvard Business Review article titled “Customer
Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines.” They further detailed their insights
in the best-selling The Discipline of Market Leaders. Based on a multiyear study
of dozens of companies, they argued that to be successful, firms needed to
create unique value for customers through operational excellence, product
leadership, or customer intimacy.
Operational excellence focuses on developing differentiated processes,
for example, those that offer lower prices or greater convenience. For
example, Dell had rethought the PC business, replacing store-based channels
that pushed standard make-to-stock configurations with a direct-to-consumer
model for assemble-to-order products, increasing convenience while lowering
price-points.
Product leadership involves leading-edge products and services. Treacy
and Wiersema highlighted Johnson & Johnson’s Vistakon unit, which rapidly
acquired the rights to and scaled up production of an innovative disposable
contact lens technology branded Acuvue.
Customer intimacy entails better relationships, driven by a deep under-
standing of customer problems and a willingness to solve them, enabled by
flexible processes, systems, people, and culture. Treacy and Wiersema pointed
out that Home Depot clerks are happy to spend whatever time a customer
needs to solve a home repair problem; the same for IBM sales teams.
The insights of the value disciplines approach are as true today as they
were then, but the implementation details have changed—significantly.
Treacy and Wiersema were well aware of the opportunities inherent in infor-
mation technology, highlighting, for example, how General Electric used a
system called “Direct Connect” to enable independent dealers to utilize a
stockless distribution model and sell from virtual inventory, simultaneously
giving GE better visibility into customer orders, dealers higher profits, and
customers better service.
However, the IT of that era largely involved enterprise systems. The web
was in its infancy and mobile data was nonexistent. Now we live in an era
where even three-year-olds play with smartphones and tablets more powerful
than the mightiest supercomputers of those bygone times. Today, the Internet
permeates our lives, with massive bandwidth increases enabling new services,
such as home movie streaming and mobile social networking. Sensors can
detect heartbeats and tremors, GPS can track vehicles, the cloud can apply

xix
xx PREFACE

sophisticated algorithms against enormous sets of not just numerical data,

but videos, speech, and images.
This book attempts to answer a simple question: How should the Treacy
and Wiersema value disciplines framework be updated for this new world of
cloud computing, big data and analytics, social networks, broadband wireless
and wireline connections, and smart, connected things ranging from ther-
mostats to jet planes? In other words, how do digital technologies impact value
disciplines to become digital disciplines?
Simply put: Everything stays the same, yet everything changes.
Better processes can still drive a competitive edge, but mere (physical)
operational excellence is no longer sufficient. It must be enabled, comple-
mented, and extended through information excellence, including real-time
dynamic optimization algorithms and the seamless fusion of physical and
virtual worlds.
Better products and services are still desirable, but it is no longer suffi-
cient to improve a standalone product. Today, products are not just digital and
smart but connect to back-end cloud services, and from there onward to social
networks and infinitely extensible ecosystems. The same goes for the phys-
ical embodiment of services—for example, healthcare services increasingly
involve pills, pacemakers, and equipment connected to patient data reposito-
ries, diagnostic systems, and hospital asset management systems.
Better customer relationships are no longer just about caring, empathetic
customer service employees or dedicated account teams willing to spend time
on the golf course to get to know the customer. They are also about better
meeting each individual customer’s needs, by deriving subtle insights based
on big data from all customers collectively. Examples include upsell /cross-sell
in retail, more targeted recommendations in entertainment, and personalized
medicine.
Finally, in today’s hypercompetitive world, innovation is a critical
imperative: delivering higher-quality results, faster, and more cost-effectively.
Innovation encompasses not just products and services but also processes
and relationships, and can benefit from new cloud-enabled constructs such as
idea markets and challenges, which extend the innovation team beyond the
company to the entire world.
After researching dozens of firms, the successful ones all seem to have
exploited one or more of these themes; the fallen ones have largely failed to
do so. Amazon.com versus Borders, Netflix versus Blockbuster, Wikipedia
versus Encyclopedia Brittanica, WhatsApp versus telco-based texting, and
dozens of other cautionary tales offer object lessons in harnessing infor-
mation technology to disrupt and reimagine industries and outmaneuver
competitors, or be overtaken by those who can.
 PREFACE xxi

This book offers what I hope will be valuable insights to boards and senior
executives such as CEOs, CIOs, CDOs, CFOs, and CMOs (chief executive,
information, innovation, digital, financial, and marketing officers), middle
management, and line personnel in and outside of information technology. It
is a book squarely at the intersection of business and technology, yet largely
nontechnical. In a world where virtually all consumers are digital natives or
digital immigrants, IT is no longer the province of the glass-house datacenter
but an important weapon that virtually any enterprise—in business or
government—must wield to be successful.
An implicit theme of the book is that winners win, not just due to ran-
dom luck, but due to repeatable, structured principles. These principles align
with and complement each other. For example, a focus on customer out-
comes requires a continuous relationship with the customer, one that is hard
to achieve with a standalone product, but one that can be enabled through a
connected solution.
The book is structured to be readable from cover to cover, yet each
chapter is also self-contained. As a by-product, this necessitates a bit of
repetition. The book provides an introduction to some key technologies
for those who are more business oriented, and an introduction to some key
business strategy concepts for those who are more technology oriented.
The first few chapters provide an overview of the key insights in the
book, background on Treacy and Wiersema’s value disciplines framework and
related strategy models, a more detailed overview of the digital disciplines,
and an overview of the five key technologies—cloud, data, social, networks,
and things—which, together, are the enabling platform for this new wave of
competitive strategies.
Following the introductory and overview matter, there are four main
sections, one to address each of the four digital disciplines: information excel-
lence, solution leadership, collective intimacy, and accelerated innovation.
Each section has three chapters: an introduction or refresher on essential
background ideas such as Porter’s Five Forces model or the elements of
innovation, the key themes and trends defining the discipline, and a specific
case study. Case studies for Burberry, Nike, Netflix, Procter & Gamble, and
General Electric provide real examples of how companies are applying the
disciplines.
Because successful execution and customer adoption happen largely
through people, two chapters focus on human behavior and gamification;
one addresses general principles, the other provides a case study on Opower,
a company that is heavily leveraging principles of human motivation in con-
junction with information technology to simultaneously achieve customer,
business, and societal objectives.
xxii PREFACE

Finally, as with any initiative, there can be challenges and caveats in suc-
cessful implementation. These range from strategic alignment and project
management to concerns over privacy and security.
Technology marches forward. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp,
Snapchat, iPads, iPhones, and many of the other elements of the modern
digital age didn’t exist a few years ago, and change is speeding up, not slow-
ing down. The last chapter addresses technologies on the horizon, and offers
thoughts on how to apply the book’s insights.
I have attempted to capture the intent of what Treacy and Wiersema
eloquently and insightfully articulated, but it’s hard to interpret one’s
own thoughts two decades later, much less someone else’s. Any errors or
misinterpretations are, of course, my fault.
It is a standing curse on books like these that companies that are held up
as paragons can succumb to market turbulence, which has done nothing but
increase, in no small part due to information technologies. In fact, during
the time it took to write this book, the companies highlighted have adjusted
strategies, divested brands, made acquisitions, discontinued products and
initiatives, and faced new global competitors. However, the case studies
represent a point-in-time snapshot of the issues, approaches, and successes of
real companies facing turbulent markets, applying the strategies herein.
A number of books covering strategy and information technology
oriented toward a leadership audience provide principles and detail themes
such as empowerment and transparency. I’m sure these are well reasoned,
but they don’t seem to provide clear direction to leaders in industries facing
increasing competition and the threat of digital disruption. It’s my hope that
the insights in the following pages can provide you with a framework with
which to pursue a focused digital strategy and attain market leadership in
your industry.

Joe Weinman
June 2015
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The most important acknowledgment is surely to Michael Treacy and Fred
Wiersema, who created a clear yet powerful framework for attaining com-
petitive advantage while driving customer value. Without their original and
compelling insights, this book wouldn’t exist.
The next major acknowledgment is to all of the global innovators at
companies large and small, old and new, who, in leading their organizations,
have created such a rich set of case studies from which I could elicit points to
illustrate and expand my thesis. As detailed in the book, this includes CEOs
and key executives such as Angela Ahrendts (now at Apple), Christopher
Bailey, and John Douglas at Burberry, Jeffrey Immelt, Bill Ruh, and Darin
DiTommaso at General Electric, Reed Hastings and Todd Yellin at Netflix,
Mark Parker and Stefan Olander at Nike, A.G. Lafley at Procter & Gamble,
and Dan Yates and Alex Kinnier at Opower, as well as the leaders and
innovators at the dozens of companies mentioned in the book ranging from
Amazon.com to Zappos.
I’d also like to acknowledge helpful fact checks and support for interview-
ing executives from the companies highlighted in the case study chapters. This
includes support from Joris Evers at Netflix, Holly Gilthorpe and Jennifer
Villarreal at GE, Carly Llewellyn, Margot Littlehale, and Melissa Roberts at
Opower, and their counterparts at Burberry, Nike, and P&G. I’d also like to
thank the peer reviewers who provided helpful feedback and sanity checks on
clarity and content: Tim Horan, Dawn Leaf, Jonathan Murray, Steve Sims,
and especially Marla Bradstock. Needless to say, I am responsible for any
remaining errors or inaccuracies.
A project like this can’t come to fruition without a publisher able to
appreciate the potential of a concept and demonstrate great flexibility. I have
been fortunate to work again with the editorial and production team at John
Wiley & Sons, including Sheck Cho, Stacey Rivera, Maria Sunny Zacharias,
and Brandon Dust.

xxiii
 PART O NE
Overview and
Background
Accelerated Innovation

Information Solution Collective

Excellence Leadership Intimacy

Digital Technologies

Cloud Big Data Social Mobile Things

Operational Product Customer

Excellence Leadership Intimacy

Processes and Products Customer

Resources and Services Relationships
 CHAPTER 1
Digital Disciplines,
Strategic Supremacy

O
n January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey,
was helping to build a lumber mill on the American River near Sacra-
mento when he noticed a twinkle in the water. It was the gold nugget
that launched the Gold Rush, which, in turn, led to a population explosion and
rapid statehood for California as fortune hunters and their suppliers—selling
picks, shovels, food, libations, and more—descended on the territory from
around the globe. The nonnative population of California grew from under
1,000 at the time of Marshall’s discovery to over 100,000 by the end of the
next year, thanks to the influx of Forty-Niners—mostly men who left their
families behind to find riches. Even when the Gold Rush ended, much of the
population remained, and so did a need for business associates, families, and
friends to communicate with each other across the emerging nation.
To help meet this need, the Pony Express was launched on April 3, 1860.
It could deliver letters and small packages between St. Joseph, Missouri, and
Sacramento in only 10 days, a breakthrough for that era. The Pony Express
accomplished this feat by using a cleverly engineered system of over 150
stations, hundreds of specially selected horses, lightweight riders, specially
designed lightweight saddles, and clever “hacks” such as a horn to alert an
upcoming station to ready the next horse. The stations were spaced about 10
miles apart, the distance a horse could go at top speed before tiring. In what
was a forerunner to today’s packet-switched networks such as the Internet,
a lightweight pouch containing the mail was handed off from rider to rider,
each rider exchanging horses several times before being replaced himself.
On October 24, 1861—a year and a half after the Pony Express began
deliveries—the first transcontinental telegraph network was completed, and
in less than 48 hours the Pony Express ceased operations. Thus was a miracle
of operational excellence supplanted by early information technology (IT) and
what might be called information excellence. It foreshadowed the critical need
to exploit IT—or be trampled and left in the dust.

3
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 BOOK III.
GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT ISSUES.
 Speech of James Wilson,

January, 1775, in the Convention for the Province of Pennsylvania,

IN VINDICATION OF THE COLONIES.

“A most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience still prevails in

Massachusetts, and has broken forth in fresh violences of a
criminal nature. The most proper and effectual methods have
been taken to prevent these mischiefs; and the parliament may
depend upon a firm resolution to withstand every attempt to
weaken or impair the supreme authority of parliament over all
the dominions of the crown.”—Speech of the King of Great
Britain to Parliament, Nov., 1774.
Mr. Chairman:—Whence, sir, proceeds all the invidious and ill-
grounded clamor against the colonists of America? Why are they
stigmatized in Britain as licentious and ungovernable? Why is their
virtuous opposition to the illegal attempts of their governors,
represented under the falsest colors, and placed in the most
ungracious point of view? This opposition, when exhibited in its true
light, and when viewed, with unjaundiced eyes, from a proper
situation, and at a proper distance, stands confessed the lovely
offspring of freedom. It breathes the spirit of its parent. Of this
ethereal spirit, the whole conduct, and particularly the late conduct,
of the colonists has shown them eminently possessed. It has
animated and regulated every part of their proceedings. It has been
recognized to be genuine, by all those symptoms and effects by which
it has been distinguished in other ages and other countries. It has
been calm and regular: it has not acted without occasion: it has not
acted disproportionably to the occasion. As the attempts, open or
secret, to undermine or to destroy it, have been repeated or enforced,
in a just degree, its vigilance and its vigor have been exerted to defeat
or to disappoint them. As its exertions have been sufficient for those
purposes hitherto, let us hence draw a joyful prognostic, that they
will continue sufficient for those purposes hereafter. It is not yet
exhausted: it will still operate irresistibly whenever a necessary
occasion shall call forth its strength.
Permit me, sir, by appealing, in a few instances, to the spirit and
conduct of the colonists, to evince that what I have said of them is
just. Did they disclose any uneasiness at the proceedings and claims
of the British parliament, before those claims and proceedings
afforded a reasonable cause for it? Did they even disclose any
uneasiness, when a reasonable cause for it was first given? Our rights
were invaded by their regulations of our internal policy. We
submitted to them: we were unwilling to oppose them. The spirit of
liberty was slow to act. When those invasions were renewed; when
the efficacy and malignancy of them were attempted to be redoubled
by the stamp act; when chains were formed for us; and preparations
were made for riveting them on our limbs, what measures did we
pursue? The spirit of liberty found it necessary now to act; but she
acted with the calmness and decent dignity suited to her character.
Were we rash or seditious? Did we discover want of loyalty to our
sovereign? Did we betray want of affection to our brethren in
Britain? Let our dutiful and reverential petitions to the throne; let
our respectful, though firm, remonstrances to the parliament; let our
warm and affectionate addresses to our brethren and (we will still
call them) our friends in Great Britain,—let all those, transmitted
from every part of the continent, testify the truth. By their testimony
let our conduct be tried.
As our proceedings, during the existence and operation of the
stamp act, prove fully and incontestably the painful sensations that
tortured our breasts from the prospect of disunion with Britain; the
peals of joy, which burst forth universally, upon the repeal of that
odious statute, loudly proclaim the heartfelt delight produced in us
by a reconciliation with her. Unsuspicious, because undesigning, we
buried our complaints, and the causes of them, in oblivion, and
returned, with eagerness, to our former unreserved confidence. Our
connection with our parent country, and the reciprocal blessings
resulting from it to her and to us, were the favorite and pleasing
topics of our public discourses and our private conversations. Lulled
into delightful security, we dreamed of nothing but increasing
fondness and friendship, cemented and strengthened by a kind and
perpetual communication of good offices. Soon, however, too soon,
were we awakened from the soothing dreams! Our enemies renewed
their designs against us, not with less malice, but with more art.
Under the plausible pretence of regulating our trade, and, at the
same time, of making provision for the administration of justice, and
the support of government, in some of the colonies, they pursued
their scheme of depriving us of our property without our consent. As
the attempts to distress us, and to degrade us to a rank inferior to
that of freemen, appeared now to be reduced into a regular system, it
became proper, on our part, to form a regular system for
counteracting them. We ceased to import goods from Great Britain.
Was this measure dictated by selfishness or by licentiousness? Did it
not injure ourselves, while it injured the British merchants and
manufacturers? Was it inconsistent with the peaceful demeanor of
subjects to abstain from making purchases, when our freedom and
our safety rendered it necessary for us to abstain from them? A
regard for our freedom and our safety was our only motive; for no
sooner had the parliament, by repealing part of the revenue laws,
inspired us with the flattering hopes, that they had departed from
their intentions of oppressing and of taxing us, than we forsook our
plan for defeating those intentions, and began to import as formerly.
Far from being peevish or captious, we took no public notice even of
their declaratory law of dominion over us: our candor led us to
consider it as a decent expedient of retreating from the actual
exercise of that dominion.
But, alas! the root of bitterness still remained. The duty on tea was
reserved to furnish occasion to the ministry for a new effort to
enslave and to ruin us; and the East India Company were chosen,
and consented to be the detested instruments of ministerial
despotism and cruelty. A cargo of their tea arrived at Boston. By a
low artifice of the governor, and by the wicked activity of the tools of
government, it was rendered impossible to store it up, or to send it
back, as was done at other places. A number of persons, unknown,
destroyed it.
Let us here make a concession to our enemies: let us suppose, that
the transaction deserves all the dark and hideous colors in which
they have painted it: let us even suppose (for our cause admits of an
excess of candor) that all their exaggerated accounts of it were
confined strictly to the truth: what will follow? Will it follow, that
every British colony in America, or even the colony of Massachusetts
Bay, or even the town of Boston, in that colony, merits the
imputation of being factious and seditious? Let the frequent mobs
and riots, that have happened in Great Britain upon much more
trivial occasions, shame our calumniators into silence. Will it follow,
because the rules of order and regular government were, in that
instance, violated by the offenders, that, for this reason, the
principles of the constitution, and the maxims of justice, must be
violated by their punishment? Will it follow, because those who were
guilty could not be known, that, therefore, those who were known
not to be guilty must suffer? Will it follow, that even the guilty should
be condemned without being heard—that they should be condemned
upon partial testimony, upon the representations of their avowed
and embittered enemies? Why were they not tried in courts of justice
known to their constitution, and by juries of their neighborhood?
Their courts and their juries were not, in the case of captain Preston,
transported beyond the bounds of justice by their resentment: why,
then, should it be presumed, that, in the case of those offenders, they
would be prevented from doing justice by their affection? But the
colonists, it seems, must be stripped of their judicial, as well as of
their legislative powers. They must be bound by a legislature, they
must be tried by a jurisdiction, not their own. Their constitutions
must be changed: their liberties must be abridged: and those who
shall be most infamously active in changing their constitutions and
abridging their liberties, must, by an express provision, be exempted
from punishment.
I do not exaggerate the matter, sir, when I extend these
observations to all the colonists. The parliament meant to extend the
effects of their proceedings to all the colonists. The plan, on which
their proceedings are formed, extends to them all. From an incident
of no very uncommon or atrocious nature, which happened in one
colony, in one town in that colony, and in which only a few of the
inhabitants of that town took a part, an occasion has been taken by
those, who probably intended it, and who certainly prepared the way
for it, to impose upon that colony, and to lay a foundation and a
precedent for imposing upon all the rest, a system of statutes,
arbitrary, unconstitutional, oppressive, in every view, and in every
degree subversive of the rights, and inconsistent with even the name,
of freemen.
Were the colonists so blind as not to discern the consequences of
these measures? Were they so supinely inactive, as to take no steps
for guarding against them? They were not. They ought not to have
been so. We saw a breach made in those barriers, which our
ancestors, British and American, with so much care, with so much
danger, with so much treasure, and with so much blood, had erected,
cemented and established for the security of their liberties, and—
with filial piety let us mention it—of ours. We saw the attack actually
begun upon one part: ought we to have folded our hands in
indolence, to have lulled our eyes in slumbers, till the attack was
carried on, so as to become irresistible, in every part? Sir, I presume
to think not. We were roused; we were alarmed, as we had reason to
be. But still our measures have been such as the spirit of liberty and
of loyalty directed; not such as the spirit of sedition or of disaffection
would pursue. Our counsels have been conducted without rashness
and faction: our resolutions have been taken without phrensy or
fury.
That the sentiments of every individual concerning that important
object, his liberty, might be known and regarded, meetings have
been held, and deliberations carried on, in every particular district.
That the sentiments of all those individuals might gradually and
regularly be collected into a single point, and the conduct of each
inspired and directed by the result of the whole united, county
committees, provincial conventions, a continental congress, have
been appointed, have met and resolved. By this means, a chain—
more inestimable, and, while the necessity for it continues, we hope,
more indissoluble than one of gold—a chain of freedom has been
formed, of which every individual in these colonies, who is willing to
preserve the greatest of human blessings, his liberty, has the pleasure
of beholding himself a link.
Are these measures, sir, the brats of disloyalty, of disaffection?
There are miscreants among us, wasps that suck poison from the
most salubrious flowers, who tell us they are. They tell us that all
those assemblies are unlawful, and unauthorized by our
constitutions; and that all their deliberations and resolutions are so
many transgressions of the duty of subjects. The utmost malice
brooding over the utmost baseness, and nothing but such a hated
commixture, must have hatched this calumny. Do not those men
know—would they have others not to know—that it was impossible
for the inhabitants of the same province, and for the legislatures of
the different provinces, to communicate their sentiments to one
another in the modes appointed for such purposes, by their different
constitutions? Do not they know—would they have others not to
know—that all this was rendered impossible by those very persons,
who now, or whose minions now, urge this objection against us? Do
not they know—would they have others not to know—that the
different assemblies, who could be dissolved by the governors, were
in consequence of ministerial mandates, dissolved by them,
whenever they attempted to turn their attention to the greatest
objects, which, as guardians of the liberty of their constituents, could
be presented to their view? The arch enemy of the human race
torments them only for those actions to which he has tempted, but to
which he has not necessarily obliged them. Those men refine even
upon infernal malice: they accuse, they threaten us, (superlative
impudence!) for taking those very steps, which we were laid under
the disagreeable necessity of taking by themselves, or by those in
whose hateful service they are enlisted. But let them know, that our
counsels, our deliberations, our resolutions, if not authorized by the
forms, because that was rendered impossible by our enemies, are
nevertheless authorized by that which weighs much more in the scale
of reason—by the spirit of our constitutions. Was the convention of
the barons at Runnymede, where the tyranny of John was checked,
and magna charta was signed, authorized by the forms of the
constitution? Was the convention parliament, that recalled Charles
the Second, and restored the monarchy, authorized by the forms of
the constitution? Was the convention of lords and commons, that
placed king William on the throne, and secured the monarchy and
liberty likewise, authorized by the forms of the constitution? I cannot
conceal my emotions of pleasure, when I observe, that the objections
of our adversaries cannot be urged against us, but in common with
those venerable assemblies, whose proceedings formed such an
accession to British liberty and British renown.
 We can be at no loss in resolving, that the king cannot, by his
prerogative, alter the charter or constitution of the colony of
Massachusetts Bay. Upon what principle could such an exertion of
prerogative be justified? On the acts of parliament? They are already
proved to be void. On the discretionary power which the king has of
acting where the laws are silent? That power must be subservient to
the interest and happiness of those concerning whom it operates. But
I go further. Instead of being supported by law, or the principles of
prerogative, such an alteration is totally and absolutely repugnant to
both. It is contrary to express law. The charter and constitution, we
speak of, are confirmed by the only legislative power capable of
confirming them; and no other power, but that which can ratify, can
destroy. If it is contrary to express law, the consequence is necessary,
that it is contrary to the principles of prerogative; for prerogative can
operate only when the law is silent.
In no view can this alteration be justified, or so much as excused.
It cannot be justified or excused by the acts of parliament; because
the authority of parliament does not extend to it; it cannot be
justified or excused by the operation of prerogative; because this is
none of the cases in which prerogative can operate: it cannot be
justified or excused by the legislative authority of the colony; because
that authority never has been, and, I presume, never will be given for
any such purpose.
If I have proceeded hitherto, as I am persuaded I have, upon safe
and sure ground, I can, with great confidence, advance a step farther,
and say that all attempts to alter the charter or constitution of that
colony, unless by the authority of its own legislature, are violations of
its rights, and illegal.
If those attempts are illegal, must not all force, employed to carry
them into execution, be force employed against law, and without
authority? The conclusion is unavoidable.
Have not British subjects, then, a right to resist such force—force
acting without authority—force employed contrary to law—force
employed to destroy the very existence of law and of liberty? They
have, sir, and this right is secured to them both by the letter and the
spirit of the British constitution, by which the measures and the
conditions of their obedience are appointed. The British liberties, sir,
and the means and the right of defending them, are not the grants of
princes; and of what our princes never granted they surely can never
deprive us.

“Id rex potest,” says the law, “quod de jure potest.” The king’s
power is a power according to law. His commands, if the authority of
lord chief justice Hale may be depended upon, are under the
directive power of the law; and consequently invalid, if unlawful.
“Commissions,” says my lord Coke, “are legal; and are like the king’s
writs; and none are lawful, but such as are allowed by the common
law, or warranted by some act of parliament.”
And now, sir, let me appeal to the impartial tribunal of reason and
truth; let me appeal to every unprejudiced and judicious observer of
the laws of Britain, and of the constitution of the British government;
let me appeal, I say, whether the principles on which I argue, or the
principles on which alone my arguments can be opposed, are those
which ought to be adhered to and acted upon; which of them are
most consonant to our laws and liberties; which of them have the
strongest, and are likely to have the most effectual tendency to
establish and secure the royal power and dignity.
Are we deficient in loyalty to his majesty? Let our conduct convict,
for it will fully convict, the insinuation that we are, of falsehood. Our
loyalty has always appeared in the true form of loyalty; in obeying
our sovereign according to law; let those, who would require it in any
other form, know, that we call the persons who execute his
commands, when contrary to law, disloyal and traitors. Are we
enemies to the power of the crown? No, sir, we are its best friends:
this friendship prompts us to wish, that the power of the crown may
be firmly established on the most solid basis: but we know, that the
constitution alone will perpetuate the former, and securely uphold
the latter. Are our principles irreverent to majesty? They are quite
the reverse: we ascribe to it perfection almost divine. We say, that the
king can do no wrong: we say, that to do wrong is the property, not of
power, but of weakness. We feel oppression, and will oppose it; but
we know, for our constitution tells us, that oppression can never
spring from the throne. We must, therefore, search elsewhere for its
source: our infallible guide will direct us to it. Our constitution tells
us, that all oppression springs from the ministers of the throne. The
attributes of perfection, ascribed to the king, are, neither by the
constitution, nor in fact, communicable to his ministers. They may
do wrong; they have often done wrong; they have been often
punished for doing wrong.
Here we may discern the true cause of all the impudent clamor and
unsupported accusations of the ministers and of their minions, that
have been raised and made against the conduct of the Americans.
Those ministers and minions are sensible, that the opposition is
directed, not against his majesty, but against them; because they
have abused his majesty’s confidence, brought discredit upon his
government, and derogated from his justice. They see the public
vengeance collected in dark clouds around them: their consciences
tell them, that it should be hurled, like a thunderbolt, at their guilty
heads. Appalled with guilt and fear, they skulk behind the throne. Is
it disrespectful to drag them into public view, and make a distinction
between them and his majesty, under whose venerable name they
daringly attempt to shelter their crimes? Nothing can more
effectually contribute to establish his majesty on the throne, and to
secure to him the affections of his people, than this distinction. By it
we are taught to consider all the blessings of government as flowing
from the throne; and to consider every instance of oppression as
proceeding, which, in truth, is oftenest the case, from the ministers.
If, now, it is true, that all force employed for the purposes so often
mentioned, is force unwarranted by any act of parliament;
unsupported by any principle of the common law; unauthorized by
any commission from the crown; that, instead of being employed for
the support of the constitution and his majesty’s government, it must
be employed for the support of oppression and ministerial tyranny; if
all this is true (and I flatter myself it appears to be true), can any one
hesitate to say, that to resist such force is lawful; and that both the
letter and the spirit of the British constitution justify such resistance?
Resistance, both by the letter and the spirit of the British
constitution, may be carried further, when necessity requires it, than
I have carried it. Many examples in the English history might be
adduced, and many authorities of the greatest weight might be
brought to show, that when the king, forgetting his character and his
dignity, has stepped forth, and openly avowed and taken a part in
such iniquitous conduct as has been described; in such cases, indeed,
the distinction above mentioned, wisely made by the constitution for
the security of the crown, could not be applied; because the crown
had unconstitutionally rendered the application of it impossible.
What has been the consequence? The distinction between him and
his ministers has been lost; but they have not been raised to his
situation: he has sunk to theirs.
 Speech of Patrick Henry,

March 23, 1775, in the Convention of Delegates of Virginia, On the

following resolutions, introduced by himself:
“Resolved, That a well regulated militia, composed of gentlemen
and yeomen, is the natural strength and only security of a free
government; that such a militia in this colony, would forever
render it unnecessary for the mother country to keep among us,
for the purpose of our defence, any standing army of mercenary
soldiers, always subversive of the quiet, and dangerous to the
liberties of the people, and would obviate the pretext of taxing us
for their support.
“That the establishment of such a militia is, at this time, peculiarly
necessary, by the state of our laws for the protection and defence
of the country, some of which are already expired, and others will
shortly be so; and that the known remissness of government in
calling us together in legislative capacity, renders it too insecure,
in this time of danger and distress, to rely, that opportunity will
be given of renewing them, in general assembly, or making any
provision to secure our inestimable rights and liberties from
those further violations with which they are threatened:
“Resolved, therefore, That this colony be immediately put into a
state of defence, and that be a committee to prepare a plan
for imbodying, arming and disciplining such a number of men as
may be sufficient for that purpose.”
Mr. President:—No man thinks more highly than I do of the
patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who
have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same
subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be
thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining, as I do,
opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my
sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony.
The question before the house is one of awful moment to this
country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a
question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude
of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this
way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great
responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep
back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I
should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and
of an act of disloyalty towards the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere
above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of
hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen
to the song of that siren, till he transforms us into beasts. Is this the
part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see
not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern
their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it
may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst,
and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the
lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by
the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been
in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify
those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace
themselves and the house? Is it that insidious smile with which our
petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a
snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.
Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports
with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken
our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and
reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be
reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us
not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and
subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask
gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to
force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible
motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the
world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir,
she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other.
They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains, which the
British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to
oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that
for the last ten years. Have we any thing new to offer upon the
subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which
it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty
and humble supplication? What terms shall we find, which have not
been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive
ourselves longer. Sir, we have done every thing 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 to 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
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!
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 hath placed in
our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of
liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible
by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we
shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides
over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight
our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the
vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we
were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the
contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! Our
chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of
Boston! The war is inevitable—and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it
come.
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!
 Supposed Speech of John Adams in favor of
the Declaration of Independence.

As given by Daniel Webster.

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my
heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed
not at independence. But there’s a divinity which shapes our ends.
The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her
own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till
independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to
it, and it is ours.
Why then should we defer the declaration? Is any man so weak as
now to hope for a reconciliation with England, which shall leave
either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life
and his own honor? Are not you, sir, who sit in that chair, is not he,
our venerable colleague near you, are you not both already the
proscribed and predestined objects of punishment and of vengeance?
Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you
be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws?
 If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on, or to give
up the war? Do we mean to submit to the measures of parliament,
Boston port bill and all? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we
ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights
trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We
never shall submit.
Do we intend to violate that most solemn obligation ever entered
into by men, that plighting, before God, of our sacred honor to
Washington, when putting him forth to incur the dangers of war, as
well as the political hazards of the times, we promised to adhere to
him, in every extremity, with our fortunes and our lives? I know
there is not a man here, who would not rather see a general
conflagration sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than one
jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to the ground.
For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, moved you
that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces,
raised or to be raised, for defence of American liberty, may my right
hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my
mouth, if I hesitate or waver in the support I give him. The war, then,
must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why
put off longer the declaration of independence? That measure will
strengthen us. It will give us character abroad.
The nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while
we acknowledge ourselves subjects, in arms against our sovereign.
Nay, I maintain that England, herself, will sooner treat for peace with
us on the footing of independence, than consent, by repealing her
acts, to acknowledge that her whole conduct toward us has been a
course of injustice and oppression. Her pride will be less wounded by
submitting to that course of things which now predestinates our
independence, than by yielding the points in controversy to her
rebellious subjects. The former she would regard as the result of
fortune; the latter she would feel as her own deep disgrace. Why
then, why then, sir, do we not as soon as possible change this from a
civil to a national war? And since we must fight it through, why not
put ourselves in a state to enjoy all the benefits of victory, if we gain
the victory?
If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause
will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the
people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry
themselves, gloriously, through this struggle. I care not how fickle
other people have been found. I know the people of these colonies,
and I know that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in
their hearts and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, has
expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the
declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of
a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of
grievances, for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set
before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will
breathe into them anew the breath of life.
Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be
drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to maintain it,
or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; religion
will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round it,
resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls;
proclaim it there; let them hear it, who heard the first roar of the
enemy’s cannon; let them see it, who saw their brothers and their
sons fall on the field of Bunker hill, and in the streets of Lexington
and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support.
Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see clearly
through this day’s business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may
not live to the time when this declaration shall be made good. We
may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and
on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that
my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall
be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour
may. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of
a country, and that a free country.
But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, that this
declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood;
but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the
thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the
sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When
we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it
with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On
its annual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of
subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of
gratitude, and of joy.
Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves
this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that
I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake
upon it; and I leave off as I begun, that live or die, survive or perish, I
am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing
of God it shall be my dying sentiment; independence now; and
INDEPENDENCE FOR EVER.
 Speech of Patrick Henry,

On the expediency of adopting the Federal Constitution delivered in the

convention of Virginia, June 24, 1788.[78] Enunciating views which have ever
since been accepted by the Democratic party.
Mr. Chairman:—The proposal of ratification is premature. The
importance of the subject requires the most mature deliberation. The
honorable member must forgive me for declaring my dissent from it,
because, if I understand it rightly, it admits that the new system is
defective, and most capitally; for, immediately after the proposed
ratification, there comes a declaration, that the paper before you is
not intended to violate any of these three great rights—the liberty of
religion, liberty of the press, and the trial by jury. What is the
inference, when you enumerate the rights which you are to enjoy?
That those not enumerated are relinquished. There are only three
things to be retained—religion, freedom of the press, and jury trial.
Will not the ratification carry every thing, without excepting these
three things? Will not all the world pronounce, that we intended to
give up all the rest? Every thing it speaks of, by way of rights, is
comprised in these three things. Your subsequent amendments only
go to these three amendments. I feel myself distressed, because the
necessity of securing our personal rights seems not to have pervaded
the minds of men; for many other valuable things are omitted. For
instance: general warrants, by which an officer may search suspected
places without evidence of the commission of a fact, or seize any
person without evidence of his crime, ought to be prohibited. As
these are admitted, any man may be seized; any property may be
taken, in the most arbitrary manner, without any evidence or reason.
Every thing, the most sacred, may be searched and ransacked by the
strong hand of power. We have infinitely more reason to dread
general warrants here, than they have in England; because there, if a
person be confined, liberty may be quickly obtained by the writ of
habeas corpus. But here, a man living many hundred miles from the
judges may rot in prison before he can get that writ.
Another most fatal omission is, with respect to standing armies. In
your bill of rights of Virginia, they are said to be dangerous to liberty;
and it tells you, that the proper defence of a free state consists in
militia; and so I might go on to ten or eleven things of immense