Speech to the Second Virginia Convention

In Henry’s short speech, there are numerous references to God. Most of them aim to persuade colonists to mobilize for war. The assumed existence of the Christian God, and Henry’s insistence that this God supported the colonists over the British, reveals the critical role that Christian religion played in revolutionary ideology.

The colonists had long identified as Christians. Appealing to their shared faith was more persuasive than calls to action that reflected individual opinions. Revolutionaries who declared independence from Britain and forged the government of the new United States ascribed to Christian theology paired with Enlightenment philosophy, an intellectual movement in Europe over the preceding century that stressed reason and natural rights.

Henry invokes Christianity in the first paragraph of his speech, declaring that the colonists’ freedom must be discussed to “fulfill the great responsibility which [the delegates] hold to God and our country” (Paragraph 1). In the next sentence, he references both “my country” and “the Majesty of Heaven,” reiterating this two-pronged commitment to an earthly state and a divine ruler (Paragraph 1).

Henry suggests that God will support the colonists if they war with Britain: “There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations,” he says, “and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us” (Paragraph 4).