Which sentence in this excerpt from Patrick Henry's famous "liberty or death" speech at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775 emphasizes the American colonists' efforts to avoid war?
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Speech to the Second Virginia Convention
by Patrick Henry (excerpt)
Let us not, beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done O avert the storm which is now coming on.
We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its
interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have
produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot
of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If
we wish to be free-if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contendingif we mean not
basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until
the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained-we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is
all that is left us!