Introduction
In the 1812 General Election, Henry Brougham (pronounced ‘broom’) was one of two Whig candidates hoping to represent Liverpool. On the night before they went to polls, he addressed supporters with a last-minute plea to redouble their efforts, reminding them that Parliamentary democracy, the abolition of slavery and even peace in Europe all depended on their determination to keep fighting for liberty.
DO not, Gentlemen, listen to those who tell you the cause of freedom is desperate; — they are the enemies of that cause and of you — but listen to me, for you know me — and I am one who has never yet deceived you; — I say then that it will be desperate if you make no exertions to retrieve it.* I tell you that your languor alone can betray it — that it can be made desperate only through your despair.
I am not a man to be cast down by temporary reverses, let them come upon me as thick and as swift and as sudden as they may. I am not he who is daunted by majorities in the outset of a struggle for worthy objects — else I should not now stand before you to boast of triumphs won in your cause.
Précis
Facing defeat in the General Election of 1812,
Henry Brougham appealed to the voters of Liverpool, declaring
that the result rested on their own determination to fight for
freedom. He himself was not the kind of man to lose heart in
the face of a little opposition, he assured them, as his record
in Parliament clearly showed.
(57 / 60 words)
Facing defeat in the General Election of 1812,
Henry Brougham appealed to the voters of Liverpool, declaring
that the result rested on their own determination to fight for
freedom. He himself was not the kind of man to lose heart in
the face of a little opposition, he assured them, as his record
in Parliament clearly showed.
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