Two heroes of American history share a May 29th birthday, 181 years apart. Both were considered persuasive public speakers, and both men were political creatures. (来源：英语杂志 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

And both birthday boys had plenty to say about liberty. Our first speaker promised this: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Our second speaker had these cautionary words: "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel." That latter man is better remembered, however, for different words on liberty. Patrick Henry (who was born on this date in 1736) not only called public liberty a "jewel;" he also famously declared, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Our first speaker today—the one eager to assure the survival of liberty—was born in 1917 and was cut down by an assassin's bullet in 1963. President John F. Kennedy also left us these words, which could have just as easily been said by his birthday twin Patrick Henry: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."