The phrase comes from a toast written by General John Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire's most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington and to send his toast by letter:
Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
The motto was enacted at the same time as the state emblem, on which it appears.
Friday, September 11, 2009
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