Which sentence in this excerpt from Patrick Henry'a famous "liberty or death" speech at the second Virginia convention in 1775 emphasizes the American colonists' efforts to avoid war?

A. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament.

B. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrance shave produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!

C. If we wish to be free- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained- we must fight!