Response to Patrick Henry Post

In the paragraph starting with "And what have we to oppose them?" Patrick Henry is convincing the President of the Virginia Convention (all the members, really) to go to war with the British. He uses multiple rhetorical questions in the beginning of the paragraph that really emphasize the point that for the last ten years, the people of the New World have done everything that the British have wanted them to do, and the British haven't done anything in return. You gloss over these rhetorical questions in one sentence here. In reality, what he's doing with these questions is a form of antithesis. He asks questions of his opponents to show why their solutions have failed. Patrick Henry makes the point that the people of the New World have petitioned, remonstrated, supplicated, and prostrated before the throne but to no avail. Interesting in here that he uses the analogy of an approaching storm, a force of nature which man cannot prevent but for which we must prepare. This further suggests the inevitability of war. He brings the emphasis of those last few points to another level by using parallel structure. In making these points, Patrick Henry brings himself around to his main point, war with the British is inevitable, and preparations need to be made to win the war and preserve their freedom. By the end of this segment, when Patrick Henry is really getting heated up, he repeats "we must fight!" to further emphasize and clarify his point that war is the answer and freedom is worth fighting for. You could extend this to connect the specific language he uses to the notion of freedom, or rather, to the notion of slavery. "Humble supplication" suggests such meekness, such willingness to be dominated.
It is difficult to ignore the appeal to the "God of Hosts" at the end of this passage, too. This reference suggests the Age of Reason belief in the connection between a diety and man's inalienable rights. Rhetorically aligning their fight with "glorious" aims and religious purposes obvious elevates the dignity of the cause.
This was a challenging passage for your first response. As you move forward from here, I'd like to see you engage with the specifics in the passages--get to the level of word analysis. You've definitely got it in your brain to do that.