“We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts.” Patrick Henry, a 38 year-old delegate to the Second Continental Congress spoke thus in 1775, at the Second Virginia convention, to try and pass a resolution for Virginia militia members to fight in the Revolutionary War. The speech was so well-thought out and delivered with passion that the whole convention sat in silence for a few minutes. “Every word he says not only engages but commands the attention, and your passions are no longer your own when he addresses them,” said the drafter of the Virginia Declaration of Independence, George Mason. Now, what did Mason mean when he said “your passions are no longer your own”? Mason meant that despite the speaker not knowing their individual passions, he spoke so eloquently and passionately that the individual worries and concerns were eclipsed by the nature of Henry’s speech – which was a stirring call to arms. The speaker influenced and guided the audience’s passions, bringing the room to mute astonishment. “There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.” He made it seem like God was fighting for them, or was going to fight with them if they joined the revolution; Henry states that the new country, with a destiny, is palpable; in God’s hands, and if the audience joins in this fight, then they would have secured the future and safety of the new nation. He uses these successive words which show the growing demoralization: petition, remonstrate, supplicate and finally, prostrate, and from this he commands the listener to heed his call: we must fight. At last he ends with “give me liberty or give me death!”  

As a 38 year-old junior senator from Massachusetts, in 1956, John F. Kennedy wrote and published Profiles in Courage, a volume of short biographies describing acts of courage by senators. The book immediately became a bestseller. In the 1950s, America was in the grip of the Cold War. Kennedy wrote the book to provide assurance and bring hope to Americans – that they had survived similar experiences in the past and will survive this one too. In his profile of John Quincy Adams, the son of the second president and founding father John Adams, Kennedy details the courage of John Quincy when he was abandoned by his colleagues and his friends. It details John Quincy Adams’ single term in the Senate, where he was pushed out by his own party, the Federalists, for voting for the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory Treaty and the $11 million appropriation to effectuate it. Despite this, he was not welcomed by Federalists, because he voted against their proposition of imposing a government and taxes upon the residents of the Louisiana Territory. John Quincy completely disregarded his party affiliation, claiming that he was free to pick whatever choices were good for the American Republic. George Frisby Hoar, also a Massachusetts Senator later on, claimed that “he had a tenacity of purpose, a lofty and inflexible courage, an unbending will, which never qualified or flinched before human antagonist, or exile, torture, or death.” John Quincy’s choices for the United States were more important than his party, and his friends. John F. Kennedy wrote “We would admire the courage and determination of John Quincy Adams if he served in the Senate today. We would respect his nonpartisan, non sectional approach.”  Kennedy clearly admired his character, and his devotion to his state, Massachusetts, which was also JFK’s state, and the country he served.  

And here, we come to the main question, is this the country that the founders envisioned? The founding fathers, which included Patrick Henry, expected the country to be for the people. As we come up to the election, many more people are voting than 4 years ago. The people are taking advantage of the gifts and the freedoms that the founding fathers created, to vote for the right president for the next 4 years. Like John Quincy Adams, we have to vote for whoever we think is the right choice, and not be influenced by whoever our friends or colleagues vote for, even though they might pressure you and abandon you. We, as the people of the United States, have to vote who we think will be the right president.