Patrick Henry used the phrase in his last public speech, given in March 1799, in which he denounced The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Clasping his hands and waving his body back and forth, Henry declaimed,
Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.
At the end of his oration, Henry fell into the arms of bystanders and was carried almost lifeless into a nearby tavern. Two months afterward he was dead.
Although I've been carried almost lifeless into a nearby tavern, particularly after a week of six-sector earlies, I usually always manage to survive the experience. If Patrick Henry is one to go by, it would seem that, apart from stupor on stilts, union membership is bad for one's health!