Pathos

While it totally sounds like the name of one of the Three Musketeers, pathos refers to a type of rhetoric that appeals to emotion to provoke a response.

And, man, does Patrick Henry ever appeal to emotion by pointing again and again to the fact that taking up arms against Great Britain is a big deal, or as he puts it, a question of "awful moment" (4).

Are you leaning in, listening closely? That's what Henry wants.

Henry talks about hope, that best and worst of all emotions. He says, "it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope" (8) before concluding,

In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. (42-43)

Did you just feel your heart crash into your stomach? We bet Henry's listeners did too.

But wait. There's still a chance to regain our liberty.

[W]e must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left to us! (44-46)

Henry's really winding up now to his main call to action.

Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? (69-70)

Feeling a little twinge of guilt? You should be. And that twinge is going to grow into a full-blown guilt attack in a second.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! (73-75)

Yeah, Henry's really setting the example here. And if you don't go along with it, you're going to look like kind of a jerk.