Two-hundred-thirty-six years ago today, Patrick Henry gave his famous “Give me Liberty or Give me Death!” speech before the second Virginia Convention. We have all heard about or perhaps even read this speech in our American History classes. Many Tea Party protests have some guy dress like him and shout the speech. But do we really understand what Henry was saying? If we understood the implications and context of the speech we would probably think he was crazy.

Just as today, Americans enjoyed more freedom and less taxes than any nation in Europe. Yet they opposed a tax on tea (today’s equivalent of taxing coke) with violent vigor. Laws like the Stamp Act, which are reasonable by today’s standards, caused violent opposition that bordered on treason. Where the colonists crazy?

After the British repealed many of these duties, the Sons of Liberty hurled entire chests of perfectly fresh, well priced tea, into Boston Harbor with significant public support. Were the colonists just trying to provoke the wrath of the British?

When that wrath did come, politicians like Patrick Henry shouted phrases like “Liberty or Death!” when in the direct warpath of the most powerful military in the world.

The founders did these things because they believed in the principle of individual rights. Individual rights is the idea that the government’s sole job is the protection of the life liberty and property of individuals, and the belief that any compromise, any deviation from that principle, is unacceptable. Today, the principle of individual rights is hardly ever mentioned, and compromise is considered a virtue.

The colonists were not protesting against the level of taxes (as Republicans do today) they protested the fact that they were being collected by the whim of a single man, just as today they are collected at the whim of a simple majority, or at the whim of whatever pressure group manages to lobby congress. They recognized that any amount of taxes collected in this way violated the principle and was therefore completely wrong.

The Boston Tea party was a demonstration against the British government bailing out the East India Company by giving the failing business a trade monopoly. They recognized that if the government had the arbitrary power to save a failing company, it also had the arbitrary power to destroy their liberties. Imagine what we would think of the Sons of Liberty today if they were caught tossing Chevy Volts into the sea.

When Patrick Henry shouted “Give me liberty or give me death!” he understood that life means nothing if it is bought at the cost of liberty. If he spoke such words today he would be viewed as a “violent extremist”. Intellectuals would condemn his position as too “black and white” to account for the nuances of politics.

Instead of protesting taxes that are “too high” or that government regulations are “too much” we should remember the principles involved. The purpose of government is to protect individual rights. When it does things other than that, it stands in violation of that principle. It is our failure to recognize this principle that has caused government to grow out of control.

There can be no “compromise” on issues like these. Either a government accomplishes the legitimate role of government, or it does not.

The colonists did not hold bipartisan committees to compromise with the unjust laws; they recognized them as a threat and used all means, from violent protest, to vandalism, to war to fight them.

The American colonists were extremists, unwilling to settle for anything but total liberty. It is time we adopt that same attitude.