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Patrick Henry Speech Analysis

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On March 21st, 1775, Patrick Henry gave a speech that would be quoted for centuries to come, ”Give me liberty, or give me death!” Henry gave this speech to the Second Virginia Convention as a proposal to form a voluntary infantry for each county of Virginia in order to prepare for what Henry saw as the inevitable war. Many men wanted to wait for a reply from the King as Congress had petitioned for peace and reconciliation. Henry, however, did not believe this was a smart move; he said whether they acted now was “a question of freedom or slavery.”
Although Henry’s argument was very well structured, he did commit a couple logical fallacies, as many speechwriters do. Such as slippery slope and either/or fallacies which are presented in Patrick

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