John's
Church. They met to see what should be done about defending those
rights which the king of England had refused to grant the Americans.
One of the speakers at that meeting was a famous Virginian named
Patrick Henry. When he got up to speak he looked very pale, but his
eyes shone like coals of fire. He made a great speech. He said, "We
must fight! I repeat it, sir,--we must _fight!_" The other Virginians
agreed with Patrick Henry, and George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson, with other noted men who were present at the meeting,
began at once to make ready to fight.
[Illustration: "WE MUST FIGHT!"]
186. Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence; how
it was sent through the country.--Shortly after this the great war
began. In a little over a year from the time when the first battle
was fought, Congress asked Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and
some others to write the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson
really wrote almost every word of it. He was called the "Pen of the
Revolution"; for he could write quite as well as Patrick Henry could
speak.
The Declaration was printed and carried by men mounted on fast horses
all over the United States. When men heard it, they rang the church
bells and sent up cheer after cheer.
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