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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Patrick Henry, by Moses Coit Tyler
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Patrick Henry
+
+
+Author: Moses Coit Tyler
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2009  [eBook #29368]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PATRICK HENRY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+American Statesmen
+
+PATRICK HENRY
+
+by
+
+MOSES COIT TYLER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston and New York
+Houghton Mifflin Company
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+Copyright, 1887, by Moses Coit Tyler
+Copyright, 1898, by Moses Coit Tyler And Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
+Copyright, 1915, by Jeannette G. Tyler
+
+The Riverside Press
+Cambridge ˇ Massachusetts
+Printed in the U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In this book I have tried to embody the chief results derived from a
+study of all the materials known to me, in print and in manuscript,
+relating to Patrick Henry,--many of these materials being now used for
+the first time in any formal presentation of his life.
+
+Notwithstanding the great popular interest attaching to the name of
+Patrick Henry, he has hitherto been the subject of but one memoir
+founded on original investigation, and that, of course, is the Life
+by William Wirt. When it is considered, however, that Wirt's book was
+finished as long ago as the year 1817,--before the time had fairly
+come for the publication of the correspondence, diaries, personal
+memoranda, and official records of every sort, illustrating the great
+period covered by Patrick Henry's career,--it will be easy to infer
+something as to the quantity and the value of those printed materials
+bearing upon the subject, which are now to be had by us, but which
+were not within the reach of Wirt. Accordingly, in his lack of much
+of the detailed testimony that then lay buried in inaccessible
+documents, Wirt had to trust largely to the somewhat imaginative
+traditions concerning Patrick Henry which he found floating in the
+air of Virginia; and especially to the supposed recollections of old
+people,--recollections which, in this case, were nearly always vague,
+not always disinterested, often inaccurate, and generally made up of
+emotional impressions rather than of facts. Any one who will take the
+trouble to ascertain the enormous disadvantages under which Wirt
+wrote, and which, as we now know, gave him great discouragement, will
+be inclined to applaud him for making so good a book, rather than to
+blame him for not making a better one.
+
+It is proper for me to state that, besides the copious printed
+materials now within reach, I have been able to make use of a large
+number of manuscripts relating to my subject. Of these may be
+specified a document, belonging to Cornell University, written by a
+great-grandson of Patrick Henry, the late Rev. Edward Fontaine, and
+giving, among other things, several new anecdotes of the great orator,
+as told to the writer by his own father, Colonel Patrick Henry
+Fontaine, who was much with Patrick Henry during the later years of
+his life. I may add that, through the kindness of the Hon. William
+Wirt Henry of Richmond, I have had access to the manuscripts which
+were collected by Wirt for the purposes of his book, but were only in
+part used by him. With unstinted generosity, Mr. Henry likewise placed
+in my hands all the papers relating to his illustrious grandfather,
+which, during the past thirty years or more, he has succeeded in
+bringing together, either from different branches of the family, or
+from other sources. A portion of the manuscripts thus accumulated by
+him consists of copies of the letters, now preserved in the Department
+of State, written by Patrick Henry, chiefly while governor of
+Virginia, to General Washington, to the president of Congress, to
+Virginia's delegation in Congress, and to the Board of War.
+
+In the very front of this book, therefore, I record my grateful
+acknowledgments to Mr. William Wirt Henry; acknowledgments not alone
+for the sort of generosity of which I have just spoken, but for
+another sort, also, which is still more rare, and which I cannot so
+easily describe,--his perfect delicacy, while promoting my more
+difficult researches by his invaluable help, in never once encumbering
+that help with the least effort to hamper my judgment, or to sway it
+from the natural conclusions to which my studies might lead.
+
+Finally, it gives me pleasure to mention that, in the preparation of
+this book, I have received courteous assistance from Mr. Theodore F.
+Dwight and Mr. S. M. Hamilton of the library of the Department of
+State; from the Rev. Professor W. M. Hughes, of Hobart College; and
+from the Rev. Stephen H. Synnott, rector of St. John's, Ithaca.
+
+                                                     M. C. T.
+
+CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 3 June, 1887.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO REVISED EDITION
+
+
+I have gladly used the opportunity afforded by a new edition of this
+book to give the text a minute revision from beginning to end, and to
+make numerous changes both in its substance and in its form.
+
+During the eleven years that have passed since it first came from the
+press, considerable additions have been made to our documentary
+materials for the period covered by it, the most important for our
+purpose being the publication, for the first time, of the
+correspondence and the speeches of Patrick Henry and of George Mason,
+the former with a life, in three volumes, by William Wirt Henry, the
+latter also with a life, in two volumes, by Kate Mason Rowland.
+Besides procuring for my own pages whatever benefit I could draw from
+these texts, I have tried, while turning over very frequently the
+writings of Patrick Henry's contemporaries, to be always on the watch
+for the means of correcting any mistakes I may have made concerning
+him, whether as to fact or as to opinion.
+
+In this work of rectification I have likewise been aided by
+suggestions from many persons, of whom I would particularly mention
+the Right Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., D. D., Bishop of North
+Carolina, and Mr. William Wirt Henry.
+
+                                                     M. C. T.
+
+CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 31 March, 1898
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAP.                                                PAGE
+      I. EARLY YEARS                                        1
+     II. WAS HE ILLITERATE?                                10
+    III. BECOMES A LAWYER                                  22
+     IV. A CELEBRATED CASE                                 36
+      V. FIRST TRIUMPHS AT THE CAPITAL                     56
+     VI. CONSEQUENCES                                      77
+    VII. STEADY WORK                                       90
+   VIII. IN THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS                101
+     IX. "AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT"                       128
+      X. THE RAPE OF THE GUNPOWDER                        153
+     XI. IN CONGRESS AND IN CAMP                          168
+    XII. INDEPENDENCE                                     189
+   XIII. FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA          214
+    XIV. GOVERNOR A SECOND TIME                           240
+     XV. THIRD YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP                   257
+    XVI. AT HOME AND IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES            271
+   XVII. SHALL THE CONFEDERATION BE MADE STRONGER?        298
+  XVIII. THE BATTLE IN VIRGINIA OVER THE NEW CONSTITUTION 313
+    XIX. THE AFTER-FIGHT FOR AMENDMENTS                   339
+     XX. LAST LABORS AT THE BAR                           357
+    XXI. IN RETIREMENT                                    382
+   XXII. LAST DAYS                                        407
+         LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS CITED IN THIS BOOK     424
+         INDEX                                            431
+
+
+
+
+PATRICK HENRY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EARLY YEARS
+
+
+On the evening of October 7, 1732, that merry Old Virginian, Colonel
+William Byrd of Westover, having just finished a journey through King
+William County for the inspection of his estates, was conducted, for
+his night's lodging, to the house of a blooming widow, Mistress Sarah
+Syme, in the county of Hanover. This lady, at first supposing her guest
+to be some new suitor for her lately disengaged affections, "put on a
+Gravity that becomes a Weed;" but so soon as she learned her mistake
+and the name of her distinguished visitor, she "brighten'd up into an
+unusual cheerfulness and Serenity. She was a portly, handsome Dame, of
+the Family of Esau, and seem'd not to pine too much for the Death of
+her Husband, who was of the Family of the Saracens.... This widow is a
+person of a lively & cheerful Conversation, with much less Reserve than
+most of her Countrywomen. It becomes her very well, and sets off her
+other agreeable Qualities to Advantage. We tost off a Bottle of honest
+Port, which we relisht with a broil'd Chicken. At Nine I retir'd to my
+Devotions, And then Slept so Sound that Fancy itself was Stupify'd,
+else I shou'd have dreamt of my most obliging Landlady." The next day
+being Sunday, "the courteous Widow invited me to rest myself there that
+good day, and go to Church with Her, but I excus'd myself by telling
+her she wou'd certainly spoil my Devotion. Then she civilly entreated
+me to make her House my Home whenever I visited my Plantations, which
+made me bow low, and thank her very kindly."[1]
+
+Not very long after that notable visit, the sprightly widow gave her
+hand in marriage to a young Scotchman of good family, John Henry, of
+Aberdeen, a protégé and probably a kinsman of her former husband; and
+continuing to reside on her estate of Studley, in the county of
+Hanover, she became, on May 29, 1736, the mother of Patrick Henry.
+
+Through the lineage of both his parents, this child had some claim to
+an inheritance of brains. The father, a man of firm and sound
+intellect, had been liberally educated in Scotland; among the country
+gentlemen of his neighborhood in Virginia, he was held in high esteem
+for superior intelligence and character, as is shown by the positions
+he long held of county surveyor, colonel of his regiment, and
+presiding judge of the county court; while he could number among his
+near kinsmen at home several persons of eminence as divines, orators,
+or men of letters,--such as his uncle, William Robertson, minister of
+Borthwick in Mid Lothian and afterward of the Old Greyfriars' Church
+in Edinburgh; his cousin, David Henry, the successor of Edward Cave in
+the management of the "Gentleman's Magazine;" and especially his
+cousin, William Robertson, principal of the University of Edinburgh,
+and author of the "History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V."
+Moreover, among the later paternal relatives of Patrick Henry may be
+mentioned one person of oratorical and forensic genius very brilliant
+and in quality not unlike his own. Patrick Henry's father was second
+cousin to that beautiful Eleanor Syme of Edinburgh, who, in 1777,
+became the wife of Henry Brougham of Brougham Hall, Westmoreland.
+Their eldest son was Lord Brougham, who was thus the third cousin of
+Patrick Henry. To some it will perhaps seem not a mere caprice of
+ingenuity to discover in the fiery, eccentric, and truculent eloquence
+of the great English advocate and parliamentary orator a family
+likeness to that of his renowned American kinsman; or to find in the
+fierceness of the champion of Queen Caroline against George IV., and
+of English anti-slavery reform and of English parliamentary reform
+against aristocratic and commercial selfishness, the same bitter and
+eager radicalism that burned in the blood of him who, on this side of
+the Atlantic, was, in popular oratory, the great champion of the
+colonies against George III., and afterward of the political autonomy
+of the State of Virginia against the all-dominating centralization
+which he saw coiled up in the projected Constitution of the United
+States.[2]
+
+Those, however, who knew the mother of Patrick Henry, and her family,
+the Winstons, were accustomed to think that it was from her side of
+the house that he derived the most characteristic traits not only of
+his genius, but of his disposition. The Winstons of Virginia were of
+Welsh stock; a family marked by vivacity of spirit, conversational
+talent, a lyric and dramatic turn, a gift for music and for eloquent
+speech, at the same time by a fondness for country life, for
+inartificial pleasures, for fishing and hunting, for the solitude and
+the unkempt charms of nature. It was said, too, of the Winstons that
+their talents were in excess of their ambition or of their energy, and
+were not brought into use except in a fitful way, and under the
+stimulus of some outward and passing occasion. They seem to have
+belonged to that very considerable class of persons in this world of
+whom more might have been made. Especially much talk used to be heard,
+among old men in Virginia, of Patrick Henry's uncle, his mother's own
+brother, William Winston, as having a gift of eloquence dazzling and
+wondrous like Patrick's, nay, as himself unsurpassed in oratory among
+all the great speakers of Virginia except by Patrick himself.[3]
+
+The system of education prevailing in Virginia during Patrick Henry's
+early years was extremely simple. It consisted of an almost entire
+lack of public schools, mitigated by the sporadic and irregular
+exercise of domestic tuition. Those who could afford to import
+instruction into their homes got it, if they desired; those who could
+not, generally went without. As to the youthful Patrick, he and
+education never took kindly to each other. From nearly all quarters
+the testimony is to this effect,--that he was an indolent, dreamy,
+frolicsome creature, with a mortal enmity to books, supplemented by a
+passionate regard for fishing-rods and shot-guns; disorderly in dress,
+slouching, vagrant, unambitious; a roamer in woods, a loiterer on
+river-banks; having more tastes and aspirations in common with
+trappers and frontiersmen than with the toilers of civilized life;
+giving no hint nor token, by word or act, of the possession of any
+intellectual gift that could raise him above mediocrity, or even up to
+it.
+
+During the first ten years of his life, he seems to have made, at a
+small school in the neighborhood, some small and reluctant progress
+into the mysteries of reading, writing, and arithmetic; whereupon his
+father took personal charge of the matter, and conducted his further
+education at home, along with that of other children, being aided in
+the task by the very competent help of a brother, the Rev. Patrick
+Henry, rector of St. Paul's parish, in Hanover, and apparently a good
+Scotch classicist. In this way our Patrick acquired some knowledge of
+Latin and Greek, and rather more knowledge of mathematics,--the latter
+being the only branch of book-learning for which, in those days, he
+showed the least liking. However, under such circumstances, with
+little real discipline, doubtless, and amid plentiful interruptions,
+the process of ostensible education went forward with the young man;
+and even this came to an end by the time that he was fifteen years
+old.
+
+At that age, he was duly graduated from the domestic schoolroom into
+the shop of a country tradesman hard by. After an apprenticeship there
+of a single year, his father set him up in trade, joining with him in
+the conduct of a country store his elder brother, William, a youth
+more indolent, if possible, as well as more disorderly and
+uncommercial, than Patrick himself. One year of this odd partnership
+brought the petty concern to its inevitable fate. Just one year after
+that, having attained the ripe age of eighteen, and being then
+entirely out of employment, and equally out of money, Patrick rounded
+out his embarrassments, and gave symmetry to them, as it were, by
+getting married,--and that to a young woman quite as impecunious as
+himself. The name of this damsel was Sarah Shelton; her father being a
+small farmer, and afterward a small tavern-keeper in the neighborhood.
+In the very rashness and absurdity of this proceeding on the part of
+these two interesting young paupers, irresistibly smitten with each
+other's charms, and mutually resolved to defy their own helplessness
+by doubling it, there seems to have been a sort of semi-ludicrous
+pathos which constituted an irresistible call for help.
+
+The parents on both sides heard the call, and by their joint efforts
+soon established the young couple on a little farm near at hand, from
+which, by their own toil, reënforced by that of half a dozen slaves,
+they were expected to extort a living. This experiment, the success of
+which depended on exactly those qualities which Patrick did not then
+possess,--industry, order, sharp calculation, persistence,--turned out
+as might have been predicted. At the end of two years he made a forced
+sale of some of his slaves, and invested the proceeds in the stock of
+a country store once more. But as he had now proved himself to be a
+bad farmer, and a still worse merchant, it is not easy to divine by
+what subtle process of reasoning he had been able to conclude that
+there would be any improvement in his circumstances by getting out of
+agriculture and back into merchandise.
+
+When he undertook this last venture he was still but a youth of
+twenty. By the time that he was twenty-three, that is, by the autumn
+of 1759, he had become convinced that his little store was to prove
+for him merely a consumer of capital and a producer of bad debts; and
+in view of the necessity of soon closing it, he had ample excuse for
+taking into consideration what he should do next. Already was he the
+happy father of sundry small children, with the most trustworthy
+prospect of a steady enlargement and multiplication of his paternal
+honors. Surely, to a man of twenty-three, a husband and a father, who,
+from the age of fifteen, had been engaged in a series of enterprises
+to gain his livelihood, and had perfectly failed in every one of them,
+the question of his future means of subsistence must have presented
+itself as a subject of no little pertinence, not to say urgency.
+However, at that time Patrick seems to have been a young fellow of
+superabounding health and of inextinguishable spirits, and even in
+that crisis of his life he was able to deal gayly with its problems.
+In that very year, 1759, Thomas Jefferson, then a lad of sixteen, and
+on his way to the College of William and Mary, happened to spend the
+Christmas holidays at the house of Colonel Nathan Dandridge, in
+Hanover, and there first met Patrick Henry. Long afterward, recalling
+these days, Jefferson furnished this picture of him:--
+
+     "Mr. Henry had, a little before, broken up his store, or
+     rather it had broken him up; but his misfortunes were not to
+     be traced either in his countenance or conduct." "During the
+     festivity of the season I met him in society every day, and
+     we became well acquainted, although I was much his
+     junior.... His manners had something of coarseness in them.
+     His passion was music, dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled
+     in the last, and it attached every one to him."[4]
+
+Shortly after Jefferson left those hilarious scenes for the somewhat
+more restrained festivities of the little college at Williamsburg,
+Patrick succeeded in settling in his own mind what he was going to do
+next. He could not dig, so it seemed, neither could he traffic, but
+perhaps he could talk. Why not get a living by his tongue? Why not be
+a lawyer?
+
+But before we follow him through the gates of that superb
+profession,--gates which, after some preliminary creaking of the
+hinges, threw open to him the broad pathway to wealth, renown,
+unbounded influence,--let us stop a moment longer on the outside, and
+get a more distinct idea, if we can, of his real intellectual outfit
+for the career on which he was about to enter.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Byrd Manuscripts_, ii. 79, 80.
+
+[2] I have from private sources information that Brougham was aware of
+his relationship to Patrick Henry, and that in recognition of it he
+showed marked attentions to a grand-nephew of Patrick Henry, the late
+W. C. Preston, of South Carolina, when the latter was in England.
+Moreover, in his _Life and Times_, i. 17, 18, Brougham declares that
+he derived from his maternal ancestors the qualities which lifted him
+above the mediocrity that had always attached to his ancestors on the
+paternal side.
+
+[3] Wirt, 3.
+
+[4] In a letter to Wirt, in 1815, _Life of Henry_, 14, 15; also
+_Writings of Jefferson_, vi. 487, 488, where the letter is given,
+apparently, from the first draft.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+WAS HE ILLITERATE?
+
+
+Concerning the quality and extent of Patrick Henry's early education,
+it is perhaps impossible now to speak with entire confidence. On the
+one hand there seems to have been a tendency, in his own time and
+since, to overstate his lack of education, and this partly, it may be,
+from a certain instinctive fascination which one finds in pointing to
+so dramatic a contrast as that between the sway which the great orator
+wielded over the minds of other men and the untrained vigor and
+illiterate spontaneity of his own mind. Then, too, it must be admitted
+that, whatever early education Patrick Henry may have received, he
+did, in certain companies and at certain periods of his life, rather
+too perfectly conceal it under an uncouth garb and manner, and under a
+pronunciation which, to say the least, was archaic and provincial.
+Jefferson told Daniel Webster that Patrick Henry's "pronunciation was
+vulgar and vicious," although, as Jefferson adds, this "was forgotten
+while he was speaking."[5] Governor John Page "used to relate, on the
+testimony of his own ears," that Patrick Henry would speak of "the
+yearth," and of "men's naiteral parts being improved by larnin';"[6]
+while Spencer Roane mentions his pronunciation of China as
+"Cheena."[7] All this, however, it should be noted, does not prove
+illiteracy. If, indeed, such was his ordinary speech, and not, as some
+have suggested, a manner adopted on particular occasions for the
+purpose of identifying himself with the mass of his hearers, the fact
+is evidence merely that he retained through his mature life, on the
+one hand, some relics of an old-fashioned good usage, and, on the
+other, some traces of the brogue of the district in which he was born,
+just as Edmund Pendleton used to say "scaicely" for scarcely, and as
+John Taylor, of Caroline, would say "bare" for bar; just as Thomas
+Chalmers always retained the brogue of Fifeshire, and Thomas Carlyle
+that of Ecclefechan. Certainly a brogue can never be elegant, but as
+it has many times coexisted with very high intellectual cultivation,
+its existence in Patrick Henry does not prove him to have been
+uncultivated.
+
+Then, too, it must be remembered that he himself had a habit of
+depreciating his own acquaintance with books, and his own dependence
+on them. He did this, it would seem, partly from a consciousness that
+it would only increase his hold on the sympathy and support of the
+mass of the people of Virginia if they should regard him as absolutely
+one of themselves, and in no sense raised above them by artificial
+advantages. Moreover, this habit of self-depreciation would be brought
+into play when he was in conversation with such professed devourers of
+books as John Adams and Jefferson, compared with whom he might very
+properly feel an unfeigned conviction that he was no reader at all,--a
+conviction in which they would be quite likely to agree with him, and
+which they would be very likely to express. Thus, John Adams mentions
+that, in the first intimacy of their friendship begun at the Congress
+of 1774, the Virginian orator, at his lodgings, confessed one night
+that, for himself, he had "had no public education;" that at fifteen
+he had "read Virgil and Livy," but that he had "not looked into a
+Latin book since."[8] Upon Jefferson, who of course knew Henry far
+longer and far more closely, the impression of his disconnection from
+books seems to have been even more decided, especially if we may
+accept the testimony of Jefferson's old age, when his memory had taken
+to much stumbling, and his imagination even more to extravagance than
+in his earlier life. Said Jefferson, in 1824, of his ancient friend:
+"He was a man of very little knowledge of any sort. He read nothing,
+and had no books."[9]
+
+On the other hand, there are certain facts concerning Henry's early
+education and intellectual habits which may be regarded as pretty
+well established. Before the age of ten, at a petty neighborhood
+school, he had got started upon the three primary steps of knowledge.
+Then, from ten to fifteen, whatever may have been his own irregularity
+and disinclination, he was member of a home school, under the
+immediate training of his father and his uncle, both of them good
+Scotch classical scholars, and one of them at least a proficient in
+mathematics. No doubt the human mind, especially in its best estate of
+juvenile vigor and frivolity, has remarkable aptitude for the
+repulsion of unwelcome knowledge; but it can hardly be said that even
+Patrick Henry's gift in that direction could have prevented his
+becoming, under two such masters, tolerably well grounded in Latin, if
+not in Greek, or that the person who at fifteen is able to read Virgil
+and Livy, no matter what may be his subsequent neglect of Latin
+authors, is not already imbued with the essential and indestructible
+rudiments of the best intellectual culture.
+
+It is this early initiation, on the basis of a drill in Latin, into
+the art and mystery of expression, which Patrick Henry received from
+masters so competent and so deeply interested in him, which helps us
+to understand a certain trait of his, which puzzled Jefferson, and
+which, without this clue, would certainly be inexplicable. From his
+first appearance as a speaker to the end of his days, he showed
+himself to be something more than a declaimer,--indeed, an adept in
+language. "I have been often astonished," said Jefferson, "at his
+command of proper language; how he obtained the knowledge of it I
+never could find out, as he read little, and conversed little with
+educated men."[10] It is true, probably, that we have no perfect
+report of any speech he ever made; but even through the obvious
+imperfections of his reporters there always gleams a certain
+superiority in diction,--a mastery of the logic and potency of fitting
+words; such a mastery as genius alone, without special training,
+cannot account for. Furthermore, we have in the letters of his which
+survive, and which of course were generally spontaneous and quite
+unstudied effusions, absolutely authentic and literal examples of his
+ordinary use of words. Some of these letters will be found in the
+following pages. Even as manuscripts, I should insist that the letters
+of Patrick Henry are witnesses to the fact and quality of real
+intellectual cultivation: these are not the manuscripts of an
+uneducated person. In penmanship, punctuation, spelling, syntax, they
+are, upon the whole, rather better than the letters of most of the
+great actors in our Revolution. But, aside from the mere mechanics of
+written speech, there is in the diction of Patrick Henry's letters the
+nameless felicity which, even with great natural endowments, is only
+communicable by genuine literary culture in some form. Where did
+Patrick Henry get such literary culture? The question can be answered
+only by pointing to that painful drill in Latin which the book-hating
+boy suffered under his uncle and his father, when, to his anguish,
+Virgil and Livy detained him anon from the true joys of existence.
+
+Wirt seems to have satisfied himself, on evidence carefully gathered
+from persons who were contemporaries of Patrick Henry, that the latter
+had received in his youth no mean classical education; but, in the
+final revision of his book for publication, Wirt abated his statements
+on that subject, in deference to the somewhat vehement assertions of
+Jefferson. It may be that, in its present lessened form, Wirt's
+account of the matter is the more correct one; but this is the proper
+place in which to mention one bit of direct testimony upon the
+subject, which, probably, was not known to Wirt. Patrick Henry is said
+to have told his eldest grandson, Colonel Patrick Henry Fontaine, that
+he was instructed by his uncle "not only in the catechism, but in the
+Greek and Latin classics."[11] It may help us to realize something of
+the moral stamina entering into the training which the unfledged
+orator thus got that, as he related, his uncle taught him these maxims
+of conduct: "To be true and just in all my dealings. To bear no malice
+nor hatred in my heart. To keep my hands from picking and stealing.
+Not to covet other men's goods; but to learn and labor truly to get my
+own living, and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it
+shall please God to call me."[12]
+
+Under such a teacher Patrick Henry was so thoroughly grounded, at
+least in Latin and Greek grammar, that when, long afterward, his
+eldest grandson was a student in Hampden-Sidney College, the latter
+found "his grandfather's examinations of his progress in Greek and
+Latin" so rigorous that he dreaded them "much more than he did his
+recitations to his professors."[13] Colonel Fontaine also states that
+he was present when a certain French visitor, who did not speak
+English, was introduced to Governor Henry, who did not speak French.
+During the war of the Revolution and just afterwards a similar
+embarrassment was not infrequent here in the case of our public men,
+among whom the study of French had been very uncommon; and for many of
+them the old colonial habit of fitting boys for college by training
+them to the colloquial use of Latin proved to be a great convenience.
+Colonel Fontaine's anecdote implies, what is altogether probable, that
+Patrick Henry's early drill in Latin had included the ordinary
+colloquial use of it; for he says that in the case of the visitor in
+question his grandfather was able, by means of his early stock of
+Latin words, to carry on the conversation in that language.[14]
+
+This anecdote, implying Patrick Henry's ability to express himself
+in Latin, I give for what it may be worth. Some will think it
+incredible, and that impression will be further increased by the
+fact that Colonel Fontaine names Albert Gallatin as the visitor
+with whom, on account of his ignorance of English, the conversation
+was thus carried on in Latin. This, of course, must be a mistake;
+for, at the time of his first visit to Virginia, Gallatin could
+speak English very well, so well, in fact, that he went to Virginia
+expressly as English interpreter to a French gentleman who could not
+speak our language.[15] However, as, during all that period,
+Governor Henry had many foreign visitors, Colonel Fontaine, in his
+subsequent account of that particular visitor, might easily have
+misplaced the name without thereby discrediting the substance of his
+narrative. Indeed, the substance of his narrative, namely, that he,
+Colonel Fontaine, did actually witness, in the case of some foreign
+visitor, such an exhibition of his grandfather's good early training
+in Latin, cannot be rejected without an impeachment of the veracity
+of the narrator, or at least of that of his son, who has recorded
+the alleged incident. Of course, if that narrative be accepted as
+substantially true, it will be necessary to conclude that the
+Jeffersonian tradition of Patrick Henry's illiteracy is, at any
+rate, far too highly tinted.
+
+Thus far we have been dealing with the question of Patrick Henry's
+education down to the time of his leaving school, at the age of
+fifteen. It was not until nine years afterward that he began the study
+of the law. What is the intellectual record of these nine years? It is
+obvious that they were years unfavorable to systematic training of
+any sort, or to any regulated acquisition of knowledge. During all
+that time in his life, as we now look back upon it, he has for us the
+aspect of some lawless, unkempt genius, in untoward circumstances,
+groping in the dark, not without wild joy, towards his inconceivable,
+true vocation; set to tasks for which he was grotesquely unfit;
+blundering on from misfortune to misfortune, with an overflow of
+unemployed energy and vivacity that swept him often into rough fun,
+into great gusts of innocent riot and horseplay; withal borne along,
+for many days together, by the mysterious undercurrents of his nature,
+into that realm of reverie where the soul feeds on immortal fruit and
+communes with unseen associates, the body meanwhile being left to the
+semblance of idleness; of all which the man himself might have given
+this valid justification:--
+
+      "I loafe and invite my soul,
+  I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass."
+
+Nevertheless, these nine years of groping, blundering, and seeming
+idleness were not without their influence on his intellectual
+improvement even through direct contact with books. While still a boy
+in his teens, and put prematurely to uncongenial attempts at
+shopkeeping and farmkeeping, he at any rate made the great discovery
+that in books and in the gathering of knowledge from books could be
+found solace and entertainment; in short, he then acquired a taste for
+reading. No one pretends that Patrick Henry ever became a bookish
+person. From the first and always the habit of his mind was that of
+direct action upon every subject that he had to deal with, through his
+own reflection, and along the broad primary lines of common sense.
+There is never in his thought anything subtle or recondite,--no mental
+movement through the media of books; but there is good evidence for
+saying that this bewildered and undeveloped youth, drifting about in
+chaos, did in those days actually get a taste for reading, and that he
+never lost it. The books which he first read are vaguely described as
+"a few light and elegant authors,"[16] probably in English essays and
+fiction. As the years passed and the boy's mind matured, he rose to
+more serious books. He became fond of geography and of history, and he
+pushed his readings, especially, into the history of Greece and of
+Rome. He was particularly fascinated by Livy, which he read in the
+English translation; and then it was, as he himself related it to
+Judge Hugh Nelson, that he made the rule to read Livy through "once at
+least in every year during the early part of his life."[17] He read
+also, it is apparent, the history of England and of the English
+colonies in America, and especially of his own colony; for the latter
+finding, no doubt, in Beverley and in the grave and noble pages of
+Stith, and especially in the colonial charters given by Stith, much
+material for those incisive opinions which he so early formed as to
+the rights of the colonies, and as to the barriers to be thrown up
+against the encroaching authority of the mother country.
+
+There is much contemporaneous evidence to show that Patrick Henry was
+throughout life a deeply religious person. It certainly speaks well
+for his intellectual fibre, as well as for his spiritual tendencies,
+that his favorite book, during the larger part of his life, was
+"Butler's Analogy," which was first published in the very year in
+which he was born. It is possible that even during these years of his
+early manhood he had begun his enduring intimacy with that robust
+book. Moreover, we can hardly err in saying that he had then also
+become a steady reader of the English Bible, the diction of which is
+stamped upon his style as unmistakably as it is upon that of the elder
+Pitt.
+
+Such, I think it may fairly be said, was Patrick Henry when, at the
+age of twenty-four, having failed in every other pursuit, he turned
+for bread to the profession of the law. There is no evidence that
+either he or any other mortal man was aware of the extraordinary gifts
+that lay within him for success in that career. Not a scholar surely,
+not even a considerable miscellaneous reader, he yet had the basis of
+a good education; he had the habit of reading over and over again a
+few of the best books; he had a good memory; he had an intellect
+strong to grasp the great commanding features of any subject; he had a
+fondness for the study of human nature, and singular proficiency in
+that branch of science; he had quick and warm sympathies, particularly
+with persons in trouble,--an invincible propensity to take sides with
+the under-dog in any fight. Through a long experience in offhand talk
+with the men whom he had thus far chiefly known in his little
+provincial world,--with an occasional clergyman, pedagogue, or
+legislator, small planters and small traders, sportsmen, loafers,
+slaves and the drivers of slaves, and, more than all, those bucolic
+Solons of old Virginia, the good-humored, illiterate, thriftless
+Caucasian consumers of tobacco and whiskey, who, cordially consenting
+that all the hard work of the world should be done by the children of
+Ham, were thus left free to commune together in endless debate on the
+tavern porch or on the shady side of the country store,--young Patrick
+had learned somewhat of the lawyer's art of putting things; he could
+make men laugh, could make them serious, could set fire to their
+enthusiasms. What more he might do with such gifts nobody seems to
+have guessed; very likely few gave it any thought at all. In that
+rugged but munificent profession at whose outward gates he then
+proceeded to knock, it was altogether improbable that he would burden
+himself with much more of its erudition than was really necessary for
+a successful general practice in Virginia in his time, or that he
+would permanently content himself with less.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[6] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 20.
+
+[7] MS.
+
+[8] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 396.
+
+[9] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[10] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[11] MS.
+
+[12] MS.
+
+[13] MS.
+
+[14] MS.
+
+[15] Henry Adams, _Life of Gallatin_, 59, 60.
+
+[16] Wirt, 9.
+
+[17] Wirt, 13. This is the passage on which Jefferson, in his extreme
+old age, made the characteristically inaccurate comment: "His
+biographer says, 'He read Plutarch every year.' I doubt if he ever
+read a volume of it in his life." Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+BECOMES A LAWYER
+
+
+Some time in the early spring of 1760, Thomas Jefferson, then a lad in
+the College of William and Mary, was surprised by the arrival in
+Williamsburg of his jovial acquaintance, Patrick Henry, and still more
+by the announcement of the latter that, in the brief interval since
+their merrymakings together at Hanover, he had found time to study
+law, and had actually come up to the capital to seek an admission to
+the bar.
+
+In the accounts that we have from Henry's contemporaries respecting
+the length of time during which he was engaged in preparing for his
+legal examination, there are certain discrepancies,--some of these
+accounts saying that it was nine months, others six or eight months,
+others six weeks. Henry himself told a friend that his original study
+of the law lasted only one month, and consisted in the reading of Coke
+upon Littleton and of the Virginia laws.[18]
+
+Concerning the encounter of this obscure and raw country youth with
+the accomplished men who examined him as to his fitness to receive a
+license to practice law, there are three primary narratives,--two by
+Jefferson, and a third by Judge John Tyler. In his famous talk with
+Daniel Webster and the Ticknors at Monticello, in 1824, Jefferson
+said: "There were four examiners,--Wythe, Pendleton, Peyton Randolph,
+and John Randolph. Wythe and Pendleton at once rejected his
+application; the two Randolphs were, by his importunity, prevailed
+upon to sign the license; and, having obtained their signatures, he
+again applied to Pendleton, and after much entreaty, and many promises
+of future study, succeeded also in obtaining his. He then turned out
+for a practicing lawyer."[19]
+
+In a memorandum[20] prepared nearly ten years before the conversation
+just mentioned, Jefferson described somewhat differently the incidents
+of Henry's examination:--
+
+     "Two of the examiners, however, Peyton and John Randolph,
+     men of great facility of temper, signed his license with as
+     much reluctance as their dispositions would permit them to
+     show. Mr. Wythe absolutely refused. Rob. C. Nicholas refused
+     also at first; but on repeated importunities, and promises
+     of future reading, he signed. These facts I had afterwards
+     from the gentlemen themselves; the two Randolphs
+     acknowledging he was very ignorant of law, but that they
+     perceived him to be a young man of genius, and did not doubt
+     he would soon qualify himself."[21]
+
+Long afterward, and when all this anxious affair had become for
+Patrick Henry an amusing thing of the past, he himself, in the
+confidence of an affectionate friendship, seems to have related one
+remarkable phase of his experience to Judge John Tyler, by whom it was
+given to Wirt. One of the examiners was "Mr. John Randolph, who was
+afterwards the king's attorney-general for the colony,--a gentleman of
+the most courtly elegance of person and manners, a polished wit, and a
+profound lawyer. At first, he was so much shocked by Mr. Henry's very
+ungainly figure and address, that he refused to examine him.
+Understanding, however, that he had already obtained two signatures,
+he entered with manifest reluctance on the business. A very short time
+was sufficient to satisfy him of the erroneous conclusion which he had
+drawn from the exterior of the candidate. With evident marks of
+increasing surprise (produced, no doubt, by the peculiar texture and
+strength of Mr. Henry's style, and the boldness and originality of his
+combinations), he continued the examination for several hours;
+interrogating the candidate, not on the principles of municipal law,
+in which he no doubt soon discovered his deficiency, but on the laws
+of nature and of nations, on the policy of the feudal system, and on
+general history, which last he found to be his stronghold. During the
+very short portion of the examination which was devoted to the common
+law, Mr. Randolph dissented, or affected to dissent, from one of Mr.
+Henry's answers, and called upon him to assign the reasons of his
+opinion. This produced an argument, and Mr. Randolph now played off on
+him the same arts which he himself had so often practiced on his
+country customers; drawing him out by questions, endeavoring to puzzle
+him by subtleties, assailing him with declamation, and watching
+continually the defensive operations of his mind. After a considerable
+discussion, he said, 'You defend your opinions well, sir; but now to
+the law and to the testimony.' Hereupon he carried him to his office,
+and, opening the authorities, said to him: 'Behold the force of
+natural reason! You have never seen these books, nor this principle of
+the law; yet you are right and I am wrong. And from the lesson which
+you have given me (you must excuse me for saying it) I will never
+trust to appearances again. Mr. Henry, if your industry be only half
+equal to your genius, I augur that you will do well, and become an
+ornament and an honor to your profession.'"[22]
+
+After such an ordeal at Williamsburg, the young man must have ridden
+back to Hanover with some natural elation over his success, but that
+elation not a little tempered by serious reflection upon his own
+deficiencies as a lawyer, and by an honest purpose to correct them.
+Certainly nearly everything that was dear to him in life must then
+have risen before his eyes, and have incited him to industry in the
+further study of his profession.
+
+At that time, his father-in-law had become the keeper of a tavern in
+Hanover; and for the next two or three years, while he was rapidly
+making his way as a general practitioner of the law in that
+neighborhood, Patrick seems occasionally to have been a visitor at
+this tavern. It was in this way, undoubtedly, that he sometimes acted
+as host, especially in the absence of his father-in-law,--receiving
+all comers, and providing for their entertainment; and it was from
+this circumstance that the tradition arose, as Jefferson bluntly
+expressed it, that Patrick Henry "was originally a barkeeper,"[23] or,
+as it is more vivaciously expressed by a recent writer, that "for
+three years" after getting his license to practice law, he "tended
+travelers and drew corks."[24]
+
+These statements, however, are but an exaggeration of the fact that,
+whenever visiting at the tavern of his father-in-law, he had the good
+sense and the good feeling to lend a hand, in case of need, in the
+business of the house; and that no more than this is true may be
+proved, not only from the written testimony of survivors,[25] who knew
+him in those days, but from the contemporary records, carefully kept
+by himself, of his own earliest business as a lawyer. These records
+show that, almost at once after receiving his license to practice
+law, he must have been fully occupied with the appropriate business of
+his profession.
+
+It is quite apparent, also, from the evidence just referred to, that
+the common history of his life has, in another particular, done great
+injustice to this period of it. According to the recollection of one
+old man who outlived him, "he was not distinguished at the bar for
+near four years."[26] Wirt himself, relying upon the statements of
+several survivors of Patrick Henry, speaks of his lingering "in the
+background for three years," and of "the profits of his practice" as
+being so inadequate for the supply of even "the necessaries of life,"
+that "for the first two or three years" he was living with his family
+in dependence upon his father-in-law.[27] Fortunately, however, we are
+not left in this case to grope our way toward the truth amid the ruins
+of the confused and decaying memories of old men. Since Wirt's time,
+there have come to light the fee-books of Patrick Henry, carefully and
+neatly kept by him from the beginning of his practice, and covering
+nearly his entire professional life down to old age.[28] The first
+entry in these books is for September, 1760; and from that date onward
+to the end of the year 1763,--by which time he had suddenly sprung
+into great professional prominence by his speech in "the Parsons'
+Cause,"--he is found to have charged fees in 1185 suits, besides many
+other fees for the preparation of legal papers out of court. From
+about the time of his speech in "the Parsons' Cause," as his fee-books
+show, his practice became enormous, and so continued to the end of his
+days, excepting when public duties or broken health compelled him to
+turn away clients. Thus it is apparent that, while the young lawyer
+did not attain anything more than local professional reputation until
+his speech against the parsons, he did acquire a very considerable
+practice almost immediately after his admission to the bar. Moreover,
+so far from his being a needy dependent on his father-in-law for the
+first two or three years, the same quiet records show that his
+practice enabled him, even during that early period, to assist his
+father-in-law by an important advance of money.
+
+The fiction that Patrick Henry, during the first three or four years
+of his nominal career as a lawyer, was a briefless barrister,--earning
+his living at the bar of a tavern rather than at the bar of
+justice,--is the very least of those disparaging myths, which, through
+the frailty of human memory and the bitterness of partisan ill-will,
+have been permitted to settle upon his reputation. Certainly, no one
+would think it discreditable, or even surprising, if Patrick Henry,
+while still a very young lawyer, should have had little or no
+practice, provided only that, when the practice did come, the young
+lawyer had shown himself to have been a good one. It is precisely
+this honor which, during the past seventy years, has been denied him.
+Upon the evidence thus far most prominently before the public, one is
+compelled to conceive of him as having been destitute of nearly all
+the qualifications of a good lawyer, excepting those which give
+success with juries, particularly in criminal practice: he is
+represented as ignorant of the law, indolent, and grossly negligent of
+business,--with nothing, in fact, to give him the least success in the
+profession but an abnormal and quite unaccountable gift of persuasion
+through speech.
+
+Referring to this period of his life, Wirt says:--
+
+     "Of the science of law he knew almost nothing; of the
+     practical part he was so wholly ignorant that he was not
+     only unable to draw a declaration or a plea, but incapable,
+     it is said, of the most common or simple business of his
+     profession, even of the mode of ordering a suit, giving a
+     notice, or making a motion in court."[29]
+
+This conception of Henry's professional character, to which Wirt seems
+to have come reluctantly, was founded, as is now evident, on the
+long-suppressed memorandum of Jefferson, who therein states that,
+after failing in merchandise, Patrick "turned his views to the law,
+for the acquisition or practice of which however, he was too lazy.
+Whenever the courts were closed for the winter session, he would make
+up a party of poor hunters of his neighborhood, would go off with
+them to the piny woods of Fluvanna, and pass weeks in hunting deer, of
+which he was passionately fond, sleeping under a tent before a fire,
+wearing the same shirt the whole time, and covering all the dirt of
+his dress with a hunting-shirt. He never undertook to draw pleadings,
+if he could avoid it, or to manage that part of a cause, and very
+unwillingly engaged but as an assistant to speak in the cause. And the
+fee was an indispensable preliminary, observing to the applicant that
+he kept no accounts, never putting pen to paper, which was true."[30]
+
+The last sentence of this passage, in which Jefferson declares that it
+was true that Henry "kept no accounts, never putting pen to paper,"
+is, of course, now utterly set aside by the discovery of the precious
+fee-books; and these orderly and circumstantial records almost as
+completely annihilate the trustworthiness of all the rest of the
+passage. Let us consider, for example, Jefferson's statement that for
+the acquisition of the law, or for the practice of it, Henry was too
+lazy, and that much of the time between the sessions of the courts was
+passed by him in deer-hunting in the woods. Confining ourselves to the
+first three and a half years of his actual practice, in which, by the
+record, his practice was the smallest that he ever had, it is not easy
+for one to understand how a mere novice in the profession, and one so
+perfectly ignorant of its most rudimental forms, could have earned,
+during that brief period, the fees which he charged in 1185 suits, and
+in the preparation of many legal papers out of court, and still have
+been seriously addicted to laziness. Indeed, if so much legal business
+could have been transacted within three years and a half, by a lawyer
+who, besides being young and incompetent, was also extremely lazy, and
+greatly preferred to go off to the woods and hunt for deer while his
+clients were left to hunt in vain for him, it becomes an interesting
+question just how much legal business we ought to expect to be done by
+a young lawyer who was not incompetent, was not lazy, and had no
+inordinate fondness for deer-hunting. It happens that young Thomas
+Jefferson himself was just such a lawyer. He began practice exactly
+seven years after Patrick Henry, and at precisely the same time of
+life, though under external circumstances far more favorable. As a
+proof of his uncommon zeal and success in the profession, his
+biographer, Randall, cites from Jefferson's fee-books the number of
+cases in which he was employed until he was finally drawn off from the
+law into political life. Oddly enough, for the first four years of his
+practice, the cases registered by Jefferson[31] number, in all, but
+504. It should be mentioned that this number, as it includes only
+Jefferson's cases in the General Court, does not indicate all the
+business done by him during those first four years; and yet, even with
+this allowance, we are left standing rather helpless before the
+problem presented by the fact that this competent and diligent young
+lawyer--whom, forsooth, the rustling leaves of the forest could never
+for once entice from the rustle of the leaves of his law-books--did
+nevertheless transact, during his own first four years of practice,
+probably less than one half as much business as seems to have been
+done during a somewhat shorter space of time by our poor, ignorant,
+indolent, slovenly, client-shunning and forest-haunting Patrick.
+
+But, if Jefferson's charge of professional indolence and neglect on
+the part of his early friend fares rather ill when tested by those
+minute and plodding records of his professional employments which were
+kept by Patrick Henry, a fate not much more prosperous overtakes
+Jefferson's other charge,--that of professional incompetence. It is
+more than intimated by Jefferson that, even had Patrick been disposed
+to engage in a general law practice, he did not know enough to do so
+successfully by reason of his ignorance of the most ordinary legal
+principles and legal forms. But the intellectual embarrassment which
+one experiences in trying to accept this view of Patrick Henry arises
+from the simple fact that these incorrigible fee-books show that it
+was precisely this general law practice that he did engage in, both in
+court and out of court; a practice only a small portion of which was
+criminal, the larger part of it consisting of the ordinary suits in
+country litigation; a practice which certainly involved the drawing
+of pleadings, and the preparation of many sorts of legal papers; a
+practice, moreover, which he seems to have acquired with extraordinary
+rapidity, and to have maintained with increasing success as long as he
+cared for it. These are items of history which are likely to burden
+the ordinary reader with no little perplexity,--a perplexity the
+elements of which are thus modestly stated by a living grandson of
+Patrick Henry: "How he acquired or retained a practice so large and
+continually increasing, so perfectly unfit for it as Mr. Jefferson
+represents him, I am at a loss to understand."[32]
+
+As we go further in the study of this man's life, we shall have before
+us ample materials for dealing still further and still more definitely
+with the subject of his professional character, as that character
+itself became developed and matured. Meantime, however, the evidence
+already in view seems quite enough to enable us to form a tolerably
+clear notion of the sort of lawyer he was down to the end of 1763,
+which may be regarded as the period of his novitiate at the bar. It is
+perfectly evident that, at the time of his admission to the bar, he
+knew very little of the law, either in its principles or in its forms:
+he knew no more than could have been learned by a young man of genius
+in the course of four weeks in the study of Coke upon Littleton, and
+of the laws of Virginia. If, now, we are at liberty to suppose that
+his study of the law then ceased, we may accept the view of his
+professional incompetence held up by Jefferson; but precisely that is
+what we are not at liberty to suppose. All the evidence, fairly
+sifted, warrants the belief that, on his return to Hanover with his
+license to practice law, he used the next few months in the further
+study of it; and that thenceforward, just so fast as professional
+business came to his hands, he tried to qualify himself to do that
+business, and to do it so well that his clients should be inclined to
+come to him again in case of need. Patrick Henry's is not the first
+case, neither is it the last one, of a man coming to the bar miserably
+unqualified for its duties, but afterward becoming well qualified. We
+need not imagine, we do not imagine, that he ever became a man of
+great learning in the law; but we do find it impossible to believe
+that he continued to be a man of great ignorance in it. The law,
+indeed, is the one profession on earth in which such success as he is
+proved to have had, is impossible to such incompetence as he is said
+to have had. Moreover, in trying to form a just idea of Patrick Henry,
+it is never safe to forget that we have to do with a man of genius,
+and that the ways by which a man of genius reaches his results are
+necessarily his own,--are often invisible, are always somewhat
+mysterious, to the rest of us. The genius of Patrick Henry was
+powerful, intuitive, swift; by a glance of the eye he could take in
+what an ordinary man might spend hours in toiling for; his memory
+held whatever was once committed to it; all his resources were at
+instant command; his faculty for debate, his imagination, humor, tact,
+diction, elocution, were rich and exquisite; he was also a man of
+human and friendly ways, whom all men loved, and whom all men wanted
+to help; and it would not have been strange if he actually fitted
+himself for the successful practice of such law business as was then
+to be had in Virginia, and actually entered upon its successful
+practice with a quickness the exact processes of which were
+unperceived even by his nearest neighbors.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[18] Wirt, 16.
+
+[19] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 584.
+
+[20] First printed in the Philadelphia _Age_, in 1867; and again
+printed, from the original manuscript, in _The Historical Magazine_,
+August, 1867, 90-93. I quote from the latter.
+
+[21] Jefferson's memorandum, _Hist. Mag._ for August, 1867, 90.
+
+[22] Wirt, 16, 17.
+
+[23] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 584.
+
+[24] McMaster, _Hist. of U. S._ i. 489.
+
+[25] I have carefully examined this testimony, which is still in
+manuscript.
+
+[26] Judge Winston, MS.
+
+[27] Wirt, 18, 19.
+
+[28] These fee-books are now in the possession of Mr. William Wirt
+Henry, of Richmond.
+
+[29] Wirt, 18.
+
+[30] _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 93.
+
+[31] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 47, 48.
+
+[32] William Wirt Henry, _Character and Public Career of Patrick
+Henry_, 3.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A CELEBRATED CASE
+
+
+Thus Patrick Henry had been for nearly four years in the practice of
+the law, with a vigor and a success quite extraordinary, when, late in
+the year 1763, he became concerned in a case so charged with popular
+interest, and so well suited to the display of his own marvellous
+genius as an advocate, as to make both him and his case immediately
+celebrated.
+
+The side upon which he was retained happened to be the wrong
+side,--wrong both in law and in equity; having only this element of
+strength in it, namely, that by a combination of circumstances there
+were enlisted in its favor precisely those passions of the multitude
+which are the most selfish, the most blinding, and at the same time
+the most energetic. It only needed an advocate skilful enough to play
+effectively upon these passions, and a storm would be raised before
+which mere considerations of law and of equity would be swept out of
+sight.
+
+In order to understand the real issue presented by "the Parsons'
+Cause," and consequently the essential weakness of the side to the
+service of which our young lawyer was now summoned, we shall need to
+turn about and take a brief tour into the earlier history of Virginia.
+In that colony, from the beginning, the Church of England was
+established by law, and was supported, like any other institution of
+the government, by revenues derived from taxation,--taxation levied in
+this case upon nearly all persons in the colony above the age of
+sixteen years. Moreover, those local subdivisions which, in the
+Northern colonies, were called towns, in Virginia were called
+parishes; and accordingly, in the latter, the usual local officers who
+manage the public business for each civil neighborhood were called,
+not selectmen or supervisors, as at the North, but vestrymen. Among
+the functions conferred by the law upon these local officers in
+Virginia was that of hiring the rector or minister, and of paying him
+his salary; and the same authority which gave to the vestry this power
+fixed likewise the precise amount of salary which they were to pay.
+Ever since the early days of the colony, this amount had been stated,
+not in money, which hardly existed there, but in tobacco, which was
+the staple of the colony. Sometimes the market value of tobacco would
+be very low,--so low that the portion paid to the minister would yield
+a sum quite insufficient for his support; and on such occasions, prior
+to 1692, the parishes had often kindly made up for such depreciation
+by voluntarily paying an extra quantity of tobacco.[33] After 1692,
+however, for reasons which need not now be detailed, this generous
+custom seems to have disappeared. For example, from 1709 to 1714, the
+price of tobacco was so low as to make its shipment to England, in
+many instances, a positive loss to its owner; while the sale of it on
+the spot was so disadvantageous as to reduce the minister's salary to
+about Ł25 a year, as reckoned in the depreciated paper currency of the
+colony. Of course, during those years, the distress of the clergy was
+very great; but, whatever it may have been, they were permitted to
+bear it, without any suggestion, either from the legislature or from
+the vestries, looking toward the least addition to the quantity of
+tobacco then to be paid them. On the other hand, from 1714 to 1720,
+the price of tobacco rose considerably above the average, and did
+something towards making up to the clergy the losses which they had
+recently incurred. Then, again, from 1720 to 1724, tobacco fell to the
+low price of the former period, and of course with the same results of
+unrelieved loss to the clergy.[34] Thus, however, in the process of
+time, there had become established, in the fiscal relations of each
+vestry to its minister, a rough but obvious system of fair play. When
+the price of tobacco was down, the parson was expected to suffer the
+loss; when the price of tobacco was up, he was allowed to enjoy the
+gain. Probably it did not then occur to any one that a majority of
+the good people of Virginia could ever be brought to demand such a
+mutilation of justice as would be involved in depriving the parson of
+the occasional advantage of a very good market, and of making up for
+this by always leaving to him the undisturbed enjoyment of every
+occasional bad one. Yet it was just this mutilation of justice which,
+only a few years later, a majority of the good people of Virginia were
+actually brought to demand, and which, by the youthful genius of
+Patrick Henry, they were too well aided in effecting.
+
+Returning now from our brief tour into a period of Virginian history
+just prior to that upon which we are at present engaged, we find
+ourselves arrived at the year 1748, in which year the legislature of
+Virginia, revising all previous regulations respecting the hiring
+and paying of the clergy, passed an act, directing that every parish
+minister should "receive an annual salary of 16,000 pounds of
+tobacco, ... to be levied, assessed, collected, and paid" by the
+vestry. "And if the vestry of any parish" should "neglect or refuse
+to levy the tobacco due to the minister," they should "be liable to
+the action of the party grieved ... for all damages which he ...
+shall sustain by such refusal or neglect."[35] This act of the
+colonial legislature, having been duly approved by the king, became
+a law, and consequently was not liable to repeal or even to
+suspension except by the king's approval. Thus, at the period now
+reached, there was between every vestry and its minister a valid
+contract for the annual payment, by the former to the latter, of
+that particular quantity of tobacco,--the clergy to take their
+chances as to the market value of the product from year to year.
+
+Thus matters ran on until 1755, when, by reason of a diminished crop
+of tobacco, the legislature passed an option law,[36] virtually
+suspending for the next ten months the Act of 1748, and requiring the
+clergy, at the option of the vestries, to receive their salaries for
+that year, not in tobacco, but in the depreciated paper currency of
+the colony, at the rate of two pence for each pound of tobacco due,--a
+price somewhat below the market value of the article for that year.
+Most clearly this act, which struck an arbitrary blow at the validity
+of all contracts in Virginia, was one which exceeded the
+constitutional authority of the legislature; since it suspended,
+without the royal approval, a law which had been regularly ratified by
+the king. However, the operation of this act was shrewdly limited to
+ten months,--a period just long enough to accomplish its object, but
+too short for the royal intervention against it to be of any direct
+avail. Under these circumstances, the clergy bore their losses for
+that year with some murmuring indeed, but without any formal
+protest.[37]
+
+Just three years afterward, in 1758, the legislature, with even less
+excuse than before, passed an act[38] similar to that of 1755,--its
+force, however, being limited to twelve months. The operation of this
+act, as affecting each parish minister, may be conveyed in very few
+words. In lieu of what was due him under the law for his year's
+services, namely, 16,000 pounds of tobacco, the market value of which
+for the year in question proved to be about Ł400 sterling, it
+compelled him to take, in the paper money of the colony, the sum of
+about Ł133. To make matters still worse, while the tobacco which was
+due him was an instant and an advantageous medium of exchange
+everywhere, and especially in England whence nearly all his merchant
+supplies were obtained, this paper money that was forced upon him was
+a depreciated currency even within the colony, and absolutely
+worthless outside of it; so that the poor parson, who could never
+demand his salary for any year until six full months after its close,
+would have proffered to him, at the end, perhaps, of another six
+months, just one third of the nominal sum due him, and that in a
+species of money of no value at all except in Virginia, and even in
+Virginia of a purchasing value not exceeding that of Ł20 sterling in
+England.[39]
+
+Nor, in justification of such a measure, could it be truthfully said
+that there was at that time in the colony any general "dearth and
+scarcity,"[40] or any such public distress of any sort as might
+overrule the ordinary maxims of justice, and excuse, in the name of
+humanity, a merely technical violation of law. As a matter of fact,
+the only "dearth and scarcity" in Virginia that year was "confined to
+one or two counties on James River, and that entirely owing to their
+own fault;"[41] wherever there was any failure of the tobacco crop, it
+was due to the killing of the plants so early in the spring, that such
+land did not need to lie uncultivated, and in most cases was planted
+"in corn and pease, which always turned to good account;"[42] and
+although, for the whole colony, the crop of tobacco "was short in
+quantity," yet "in cash value it proved to be the best crop that
+Virginia had ever had" since the settlement of the colony.[43]
+Finally, it was by no means the welfare of the poor that "was the
+object, or the effect, of the law;" but it was "the rich planters"
+who, first selling their tobacco at about fifty shillings the hundred,
+and then paying to the clergy and others their tobacco debts at the
+rate of sixteen shillings the hundred, were "the chief gainers" by the
+act.[44]
+
+Such, then, in all its fresh and unadorned rascality, was the famous
+"option law," or "two-penny act," of 1758: an act firmly opposed, on
+its first appearance in the legislature, by a noble minority of
+honorable men; an act clearly indicating among a portion of the people
+of Virginia a survival of the old robber instincts of our Norse
+ancestors; an act having there the sort of frantic popularity that all
+laws are likely to have which give a dishonest advantage to the debtor
+class,--and in Virginia, unfortunately, on the subject of salaries due
+to the clergy, nearly all persons above sixteen years of age belonged
+to that class.[45]
+
+At the time when this act was before the legislature for
+consideration, the clergy applied for a hearing, but were refused.
+Upon its passage by the two houses, the clergy applied to the acting
+governor, hoping to obtain his disapproval of the act; but his reply
+was an unblushing avowal of his determination to pursue any course,
+right or wrong, which would bring him popular favor. They then sent
+one of their own number to England, for the purpose of soliciting the
+royal disallowance of the act. After a full hearing of both sides, the
+privy council gave it as their opinion that the clergy of Virginia had
+their "certain remedy at law;" Lord Hardwicke, in particular,
+declaring that "there was no occasion to dispute about the authority
+by which the act was passed; for that no court in the judicature
+whatever could look upon it to be law, by reason of its manifest
+injustice alone."[46] Accordingly, the royal disallowance was granted.
+Upon the arrival in Virginia of these tidings, several of the clergy
+began suits against their respective vestries, for the purpose of
+compelling them to pay the amounts then legally due upon their
+salaries for the year 1758.
+
+Of these suits, the first to come to trial was that of the Rev. Thomas
+Warrington, in the County Court of Elizabeth City. In that case, "a
+jury of his own parishioners found for him considerable damages,
+allowing on their oaths that there was above twice as much justly due
+to him as the act had granted;"[47] but "the court hindered him from
+immediately coming at the damages, by judging the act to be law, in
+which it is thought they were influenced more by the fear of giving
+offense to their superiors, than by their own opinion of the
+reasonableness of the act,--they privately professing that they
+thought the parson ought to have his right."[48]
+
+Soon afterward came to trial, in the court of King William County, the
+suit of the Rev. Alexander White, rector of St. David's parish. In
+this case, the court, instead of either sustaining or rejecting the
+disallowed act, simply shirked their responsibility, "refused to
+meddle in the matter, and insisted on leaving the whole affair to the
+jury;" who being thus freed from all judicial control, straightway
+rendered a verdict of neat and comprehensive lawlessness: "We bring in
+for the defendant."[49]
+
+It was at this stage of affairs that the court of Hanover County
+reached the case of the Rev. James Maury, rector of Fredericksville
+parish, Louisa; and the court, having before it the evidence of the
+royal disallowance of the Act of 1758, squarely "adjudged the act to
+be no law." Of course, under this decision, but one result seemed
+possible. As the court had thus rejected the validity of the act
+whereby the vestry had withheld from their parson two thirds of his
+salary for the year 1758, it only remained to summon a special jury on
+a writ of inquiry to determine the damages thus sustained by the
+parson; and as this was a very simple question of arithmetic, the
+counsel for the defendants expressed his desire to withdraw from the
+case.
+
+Such was the situation, when these defendants, having been assured by
+their counsel that all further struggle would be hopeless, turned for
+help to the enterprising young lawyer who, in that very place, had
+been for the previous three and a half years pushing his way to notice
+in his profession. To him, accordingly, they brought their cause,--a
+desperate cause, truly,--a cause already lost and abandoned by veteran
+and eminent counsel. Undoubtedly, by the ethics of his profession,
+Patrick Henry was bound to accept the retainer that was thus tendered
+him; and, undoubtedly, by the organization of his own mind, having
+once accepted that retainer, he was likely to devote to the cause no
+tepid or half-hearted service.
+
+The decision of the court, which has been referred to, was rendered at
+its November session. On the first day of the session in December, the
+order was executed for summoning a select jury "to examine whether the
+plaintiff had sustained any damages, and what."[50] Obviously, in the
+determination of these two questions, much would depend on the
+personal composition of the jury; and it is apparent that this matter
+was diligently attended to by the sheriff. His plan seems to have been
+to secure a good, honest jury of twelve adult male persons, but
+without having among them a single one of those over-scrupulous and
+intractable people who, in Virginia, at that time, were still
+technically described as gentlemen. With what delicacy and efficiency
+he managed this part of the business was thus described shortly
+afterward by the plaintiff, of course a deeply interested
+eye-witness:--
+
+     "The sheriff went into a public room full of gentlemen, and
+     told his errand. One excused himself ... as having already
+     given his opinion in a similar case. On this, ... he
+     immediately left the room, without summoning any one person
+     there. He afterwards met another gentleman ... on the green,
+     and, on saying he was not fit to serve, being a church
+     warden, he took upon himself to excuse him, too, and, as far
+     as I can learn made no further attempts to summon
+     gentlemen.... Hence he went among the vulgar herd. After he
+     had selected and set down upon his list about eight or ten
+     of these, I met him with it in his hand, and on looking over
+     it, observed to him that they were not such jurors as the
+     court had directed him to get,--being people of whom I had
+     never heard before, except one whom, I told him, he knew to
+     be a party in the cause.... Yet this man's name was not
+     erased. He was even called in court, and had he not excused
+     himself, would probably have been admitted. For I cannot
+     recollect that the court expressed either surprise or
+     dislike that a more proper jury had not been summoned. Nay,
+     though I objected against them, yet, as Patrick Henry, one
+     of the defendants' lawyers, insisted they were honest men,
+     and, therefore, unexceptionable, they were immediately
+     called to the book and sworn."[51]
+
+Having thus secured a jury that must have been reasonably
+satisfactory to the defendants, the hearing began. Two gentlemen,
+being the largest purchasers of tobacco in the county, were then sworn
+as witnesses to prove the market price of the article in 1759. By
+their testimony it was established that the price was then more than
+three times as much as had been estimated in the payment of paper
+money actually made to the plaintiff in that year. Upon this state of
+facts, "the lawyers on both sides" proceeded to display "the force and
+weight of the evidence;" after which the case was given to the jury.
+"In less than five minutes," they "brought in a verdict for the
+plaintiff,--one penny damages."[52]
+
+Just how the jury were induced, in the face of the previous judgment
+of that very court, to render this astounding verdict, has been
+described in two narratives: one by William Wirt, written about fifty
+years after the event; the other by the injured plaintiff himself, the
+Rev. James Maury, written exactly twelve days after the event. Few
+things touching the life of Patrick Henry can be more notable or more
+instructive than the contrast presented by these two narratives.
+
+On reaching the scene of action, on the 1st of December, Patrick Henry
+"found," says Wirt,--
+
+     "on the courtyard such a concourse as would have appalled
+     any other man in his situation. They were not people of the
+     county merely who were there, but visitors from all the
+     counties to a considerable distance around. The decision
+     upon the demurrer had produced a violent ferment among the
+     people, and equal exultation on the part of the clergy, who
+     attended the court in a large body, either to look down
+     opposition, or to enjoy the final triumph of this hard
+     fought contest, which they now considered as perfectly
+     secure.... Soon after the opening of the court the cause was
+     called.... The array before Mr. Henry's eyes was now most
+     fearful. On the bench sat more than twenty clergymen, the
+     most learned men in the colony.... The courthouse was
+     crowded with an overwhelming multitude, and surrounded with
+     an immense and anxious throng, who, not finding room to
+     enter, were endeavoring to listen without in the deepest
+     attention. But there was something still more awfully
+     disconcerting than all this; for in the chair of the
+     presiding magistrate sat no other person than his own
+     father. Mr. Lyons opened the cause very briefly.... And now
+     came on the first trial of Patrick Henry's strength. No one
+     had ever heard him speak,[53] and curiosity was on tiptoe.
+     He rose very awkwardly, and faltered much in his exordium.
+     The people hung their heads at so unpromising a
+     commencement; the clergy were observed to exchange sly looks
+     with each other; and his father is described as having
+     almost sunk with confusion, from his seat. But these
+     feelings were of short duration, and soon gave place to
+     others of a very different character. For now were those
+     wonderful faculties which he possessed, for the first time
+     developed; and now was first witnessed that mysterious and
+     almost supernatural transformation of appearance, which the
+     fire of his own eloquence never failed to work in him. For
+     as his mind rolled along, and began to glow from its own
+     action, all the exuvić of the clown seemed to shed
+     themselves spontaneously. His attitude, by degrees, became
+     erect and lofty. The spirit of his genius awakened all his
+     features. His countenance shone with a nobleness and
+     grandeur which it had never before exhibited. There was a
+     lightning in his eyes which seemed to rive the spectator.
+     His action became graceful, bold, and commanding; and in the
+     tones of his voice, but more especially in his emphasis,
+     there was a peculiar charm, a magic, of which any one who
+     ever heard him will speak as soon as he is named, but of
+     which no one can give any adequate description. They can
+     only say that it struck upon the ear and upon the heart, in
+     a manner which language cannot tell. Add to all these, his
+     wonder-working fancy, and the peculiar phraseology in which
+     he clothed its images: for he painted to the heart with a
+     force that almost petrified it. In the language of those who
+     heard him on this occasion, 'he made their blood run cold,
+     and their hair to rise on end.'
+
+     "It will not be difficult for any one who ever heard this
+     most extraordinary man, to believe the whole account of this
+     transaction which is given by his surviving hearers; and
+     from their account, the court house of Hanover County must
+     have exhibited, on this occasion, a scene as picturesque as
+     has been ever witnessed in real life. They say that the
+     people, whose countenance had fallen as he arose, had heard
+     but a very few sentences before they began to look up; then
+     to look at each other with surprise, as if doubting the
+     evidence of their own senses; then, attracted by some strong
+     gesture, struck by some majestic attitude, fascinated by the
+     spell of his eye, the charm of his emphasis, and the varied
+     and commanding expression of his countenance, they could
+     look away no more. In less than twenty minutes, they might
+     be seen in every part of the house, on every bench, in every
+     window, stooping forward from their stands, in death-like
+     silence; their features fixed in amazement and awe; all
+     their senses listening and riveted upon the speaker, as if
+     to catch the least strain of some heavenly visitant. The
+     mockery of the clergy was soon turned into alarm; their
+     triumph into confusion and despair; and at one burst of his
+     rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from the house
+     in precipitation and terror. As for the father, such was his
+     surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that,
+     forgetting where he was, and the character which he was
+     filling, tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks, without
+     the power or inclination to repress them.
+
+     "The jury seem to have been so completely bewildered, that
+     they lost sight not only of the Act of 1748, but that of
+     1758 also; for, thoughtless even of the admitted right of
+     the plaintiff, they had scarcely left the bar, when they
+     returned with a verdict of one penny damages. A motion was
+     made for a new trial; but the court, too, had now lost the
+     equipoise of their judgment, and overruled the motion by an
+     unanimous vote. The verdict and judgment overruling the
+     motion were followed by redoubled acclamations, from within
+     and without the house. The people, who had with difficulty
+     kept their hands off their champion from the moment of
+     closing his harangue, no sooner saw the fate of the cause
+     finally sealed, than they seized him at the bar; and in
+     spite of his own exertions, and the continued cry of order
+     from the sheriffs and the court, they bore him out of the
+     courthouse, and raising him on their shoulders, carried him
+     about the yard, in a kind of electioneering triumph."[54]
+
+At the time when Wirt wrote this rhapsody, he was unable, as he tells
+us, to procure from any quarter a rational account of the line of
+argument taken by Patrick Henry, or even of any other than a single
+topic alluded to by him in the course of his speech,--they who heard
+the speech saying "that when it was over, they felt as if they had
+just awaked from some ecstatic dream, of which they were unable to
+recall or connect the particulars."[55]
+
+There was present in that assemblage, however, at least one person who
+listened to the young orator without falling into an ecstatic dream,
+and whose senses were so well preserved to him through it all that he
+was able, a few days afterward, while the whole occasion was fresh in
+his memory, to place upon record a clear and connected version of the
+wonder-working speech. This version is to be found in a letter written
+by the plaintiff on the 12th of December, 1763, and has been brought
+to light only within recent years.
+
+After giving, for the benefit of the learned counsel by whom the cause
+was to be managed, on appeal, in the general court, a lucid and rather
+critical account of the whole proceeding, Maury adds:--
+
+     "One occurrence more, though not essential to the cause, I
+     can't help mentioning.... Mr. Henry, mentioned above (who
+     had been called in by the defendants, as we suspected, to do
+     what I some time ago told you of), after Mr. Lyons had
+     opened the cause, rose and harangued the jury for near an
+     hour. This harangue turned upon points as much out of his
+     own depth, and that of the jury, as they were foreign from
+     the purpose,--which it would be impertinent to mention here.
+     However, after he had discussed those points, he labored to
+     prove 'that the Act of 1758 had every characteristic of a
+     good law; that it was a law of general utility, and could
+     not, consistently with what he called the original compact
+     between the king and people ... be annulled.' Hence he
+     inferred, 'that a king, by disallowing acts of this salutary
+     nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated
+     into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects'
+     obedience.' He further urged 'that the only use of an
+     established church and clergy in society, is to enforce
+     obedience to civil sanctions, and the observance of those
+     which are called duties of imperfect obligation; that when a
+     clergy ceases to answer these ends, the community have no
+     further need of their ministry, and may justly strip them of
+     their appointments; that the clergy of Virginia, in this
+     particular instance of their refusing to acquiesce in the
+     law in question, had been so far from answering, that they
+     had most notoriously counteracted, those great ends of their
+     institution; that, therefore, instead of useful members of
+     the state, they ought to be considered as enemies of the
+     community; and that, in the case now before them, Mr. Maury,
+     instead of countenance, and protection, and damages, very
+     justly deserved to be punished with signal severity.' And
+     then he perorates to the following purpose, 'that excepting
+     they (the jury) were disposed to rivet the chains of bondage
+     on their own necks, he hoped they would not let slip the
+     opportunity which now offered, of making such an example of
+     him as might, hereafter, be a warning to himself and his
+     brethren, not to have the temerity, for the future, to
+     dispute the validity of such laws, authenticated by the only
+     authority which, in his conception, could give force to laws
+     for the government of this colony,--the authority of a legal
+     representative of a council, and of a kind and benevolent
+     and patriot governor.' You'll observe I do not pretend to
+     remember his words, but take this to have been the sum and
+     substance of this part of his labored oration. When he came
+     to that part of it where he undertook to assert 'that a
+     king, by annulling or disallowing acts of so salutary a
+     nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated
+     into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects'
+     obedience,' the more sober part of the audience were struck
+     with horror. Mr. Lyons called out aloud, and with an honest
+     warmth, to the Bench, 'that the gentleman had spoken
+     treason,' and expressed his astonishment, 'that their
+     worships could hear it without emotion, or any mark of
+     dissatisfaction.' At the same instant, too, amongst some
+     gentlemen in the crowd behind me, was a confused murmur of
+     'treason, treason!' Yet Mr. Henry went on in the same
+     treasonable and licentious strain, without interruption from
+     the Bench, nay, even without receiving the least exterior
+     notice of their disapprobation. One of the jury, too, was so
+     highly pleased with these doctrines, that, as I was
+     afterwards told, he every now and then gave the traitorous
+     declaimer a nod of approbation. After the court was
+     adjourned, he apologized to me for what he had said,
+     alleging that his sole view in engaging in the cause, and in
+     saying what he had, was to render himself popular. You see,
+     then, it is so clear a point in this person's opinion that
+     the ready road to popularity here is to trample under foot
+     the interests of religion, the rights of the church, and the
+     prerogatives of the crown."[56]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[33] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 12.
+
+[34] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ 316, 317.
+
+[35] Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vi. 88, 89.
+
+[36] _Ibid._ vi. 568, 569.
+
+[37] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 508, 509.
+
+[38] Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vii. 240, 241.
+
+[39] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 467, 468.
+
+[40] As was alleged in Richard Bland's _Letter to the Clergy_, 17.
+
+[41] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 467.
+
+[42] _Ibid._ i. 466.
+
+[43] _Ibid._ i. 465, 466.
+
+[44] Meade, _Old Families of Virginia_, i. 223.
+
+[45] In the account here given of these Virginia "option laws," I have
+been obliged, by lack of space, to give somewhat curtly the bald
+results of rather careful studies which I have made upon the question
+in all accessible documents of the period; and I have not been at
+liberty to state many things, on both sides of the question, which
+would be necessary to a complete discussion of the subject. For
+instance, among the motives to be mentioned for the popularity of laws
+whose chief effects were to diminish the pay of the established
+clergy, should be considered those connected with a growing dissent
+from the established church in Virginia, and particularly with the
+very human dislike which even churchmen might have to paying in the
+form of a compulsory tax what they would have cheerfully paid in the
+form of a voluntary contribution. Perhaps the best modern defense of
+these laws is by A. H. Everett, in his _Life of Henry_, 230-233; but
+his statements seem to be founded on imperfect information. Wirt,
+publishing his opinion under the responsibility of his great
+professional and official position, affirms that on the whole
+question, "the clergy had much the best of the argument." _Life of
+Henry,_ 22.
+
+[46] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 510.
+
+[47] _Ibid._ i. 513, 514.
+
+[48] _Ibid._ i. 496, 497.
+
+[49] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 497.
+
+[50] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Family_, 419.
+
+[51] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Family_, 419, 420.
+
+[52] _Ibid._ 420.
+
+[53] This cannot be true except in the sense that he had never before
+spoken to such an assemblage or in any great cause.
+
+[54] Wirt, 23-27.
+
+[55] _Ibid._ 29.
+
+[56] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Family_, 418-424, where the entire
+letter is given in print for the first time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+FIRST TRIUMPHS AT THE CAPITAL
+
+
+It is not in the least strange that the noble-minded clergyman, who
+was the plaintiff in the famous cause of the Virginia parsons, should
+have been deeply offended by the fierce and victorious eloquence of
+the young advocate on the opposite side, and should have let fall,
+with reference to him, some bitter words. Yet it could only be in a
+moment of anger that any one who knew him could ever have said of
+Patrick Henry that he was disposed "to trample under foot the
+interests of religion," or that he had any ill-will toward the church
+or its ministers. It is very likely that, in the many irritations
+growing out of a civil establishment of the church in his native
+colony, he may have shared in feelings that were not uncommon even
+among devout churchmen there; but in spite of this, then and always,
+to the very end of his life, his most sacred convictions and his
+tenderest affections seem to have been on the side of the institutions
+and ministers of Christianity, and even of Christianity in its
+historic form. Accordingly, both before and after his great speech, he
+tried to indicate to the good men whose legal claims it had become
+his professional duty to resist, that such resistance must not be
+taken by them as implying on his part any personal unkindness. To his
+uncle and namesake, the Reverend Patrick Henry, who was even then a
+plaintiff in a similar suit, and whom he had affectionately persuaded
+not to remain at the courthouse to hear the coming speech against the
+pecuniary demands of himself and his order, he said "that the clergy
+had not thought him worthy of being retained on their side," and that
+"he knew of no moral principle by which he was bound to refuse a fee
+from their adversaries."[57] So, too, the conciliatory words, which,
+after the trial, he tried to speak to the indignant plaintiff, and
+which the latter has reported in the blunt form corresponding to his
+own angry interpretation of them, after all may have borne the better
+meaning given to them by Bishop Meade, who says that Patrick Henry, in
+his apology to Maury, "pleaded as an excuse for his course, that he
+was a young lawyer, a candidate for practice and reputation, and
+therefore must make the best of his cause."[58]
+
+These genial efforts at pacification are of rather more than casual
+significance: they are indications of character. They mark a distinct
+quality of the man's nature, of which he continued to give evidence
+during the rest of his life,--a certain sweetness of spirit, which
+never deserted him through all the stern conflicts of his career. He
+was always a good fighter: never a good hater. He had the brain and
+the temperament of an advocate; his imagination and his heart always
+kindled hotly to the side that he had espoused, and with his
+imagination and his heart always went all the rest of the man; in his
+advocacy of any cause that he had thus made his own, he hesitated at
+no weapon either of offence or of defence; he struck hard blows--he
+spoke hard words--and he usually triumphed; and yet, even in the
+paroxysms of the combat, and still more so when the combat was over,
+he showed how possible it is to be a redoubtable antagonist without
+having a particle of malice.
+
+Then, too, from this first great scene in his public life, there comes
+down to us another incident that has its own story to tell. In all the
+roar of talk within and about the courthouse, after the trial was
+over, one "Mr. Cootes, merchant of James River," was heard to say that
+"he would have given a considerable sum out of his own pocket rather
+than his friend Patrick should have been guilty of a crime but little,
+if any thing, inferior to that which brought Simon Lord Lovat to the
+block,"--adding that Patrick's speech had "exceeded the most seditious
+and inflammatory harangues of the Tribunes of Old Rome."[59] Here,
+then, thus early in his career, even in this sorrowful and alarmed
+criticism on the supposed error of his speech, we find a token of that
+loving interest in him and in his personal fate, which even in those
+days began to possess the heartstrings of many a Virginian all about
+the land, and which thenceforward steadily broadened and deepened into
+a sort of popular idolization of him. The mysterious hold which
+Patrick Henry came to have upon the people of Virginia is an historic
+fact, to be recognized, even if not accounted for. He was to make
+enemies in abundance, as will appear; he was to stir up against
+himself the alarm of many thoughtful and conservative minds, the
+deadly hatred of many an old leader in colonial politics, the deadly
+envy of many a younger aspirant to public influence; he was to go on
+ruffling the plumage and upsetting the combinations of all sorts of
+good citizens, who, from time to time, in making their reckonings
+without him, kept finding that they had reckoned without their host.
+But for all that, the willingness of this worthy Mr. Cootes of James
+River to part with his money, if need be, rather than his friend
+Patrick should go far wrong, seems to be one token of the beginning of
+that deep and swelling passion of love for him that never abated among
+the mass of the people of Virginia so long as Patrick lived, and
+perhaps has never abated since.
+
+It is not hard to imagine the impulse which so astonishing a forensic
+success must have given to the professional and political career of
+the young advocate. Not only was he immediately retained by the
+defendants in all the other suits of the same kind then instituted in
+the courts of the colony, but, as his fee-books show, from that hour
+his legal practice of every sort received an enormous increase.
+Moreover, the people of Virginia, always a warm-hearted people, were
+then, to a degree almost inconceivable at the North, sensitive to
+oratory, and admirers of eloquent men. The first test by which they
+commonly ascertained the fitness of a man for public office, concerned
+his ability to make a speech; and it cannot be doubted that from the
+moment of Patrick Henry's amazing harangue in the "Parsons' Cause,"--a
+piece of oratory altogether surpassing anything ever before heard in
+Virginia,--the eyes of men began to fasten upon him as destined to
+some splendid and great part in political life.
+
+During the earlier years of his career, Williamsburg was the capital
+of the colony,--the official residence of its governor, the place of
+assemblage for its legislature and its highest courts, and, at certain
+seasons of the year, the scene of no little vice-regal and provincial
+magnificence.
+
+Thither our Patrick had gone in 1760 to get permission to be a lawyer.
+Thither he now goes once more, in 1764, to give some proof of his
+quality in the profession to which he had been reluctantly admitted,
+and to win for himself the first of a long series of triumphs at the
+colonial capital,--triumphs which gave food for wondering talk to all
+his contemporaries, and long lingered in the memories of old men. Soon
+after the assembling of the legislature, in the fall of 1764, the
+committee on privileges and elections had before them the case of
+James Littlepage, who had taken his seat as member for the county of
+Hanover, but whose right to the seat was contested, on a charge of
+bribery and corruption, by Nathaniel West Dandridge. For a day or two
+before the hearing of the case, the members of the house had "observed
+an ill-dressed young man sauntering in the lobby," apparently a
+stranger to everybody, moving "awkwardly about ... with a countenance
+of abstraction and total unconcern as to what was passing around him;"
+but who, when the committee convened to consider the case of Dandridge
+against Littlepage, at once took his place as counsel for the former.
+The members of the committee, either not catching his name or not
+recalling the association attaching to it from the scene at Hanover
+Court House nearly a twelvemonth before, were so affected by his
+rustic and ungainly appearance that they treated him with neglect and
+even with discourtesy; until, when his turn came to argue the cause of
+his client, he poured forth such a torrent of eloquence, and exhibited
+with so much force and splendor the sacredness of the suffrage and the
+importance of protecting it, that the incivility and contempt of the
+committee were turned into admiration.[60] Nevertheless, it appears
+from the journals of the House that, whatever may have been the
+admiration of the committee for the eloquence of Mr. Dandridge's
+advocate, they did not award the seat to Mr. Dandridge.
+
+Such was Patrick Henry's first contact with the legislature of
+Virginia,--a body of which he was soon to become a member, and over
+which, in spite of the social prestige, the talents, and the envious
+opposition of its old leaders, he was promptly to gain an ascendancy
+that constituted him, almost literally, the dictator of its
+proceedings, so long as he chose to hold a place in it. On the present
+occasion, having finished the somewhat obscure business that had
+brought him before the committee, it is probable that he instantly
+disappeared from the scene, not to return to it until the following
+spring, when he came back to transact business with the House itself.
+For, early in May, 1765, a vacancy having occurred in the
+representation for the county of Louisa, Patrick Henry, though not
+then a resident in that county, was elected as its member. The first
+entry to be met with in the journals, indicating his presence in the
+House, is that of his appointment, on the 20th of May, as an
+additional member of the committee for courts of justice. Between that
+date and the 1st of June, when the House was angrily dissolved by the
+governor, this young and very rural member contrived to do two or
+three quite notable things--things, in fact, so notable that they
+conveyed to the people of Virginia the tidings of the advent among
+them of a great political leader, gave an historic impulse to the
+series of measures which ended in the disruption of the British
+Empire, and set his own name a ringing through the world,--not without
+lively imputations of treason, and comforting assurances that he was
+destined to be hanged.
+
+The first of these notable things is one which incidentally throws a
+rather painful glare on the corruptions of political life in our old
+and belauded colonial days. The speaker of the House of Burgesses at
+that time was John Robinson, a man of great estate, foremost among all
+the landed aristocracy of Virginia. He had then been speaker for about
+twenty-five years; for a long time, also, he had been treasurer of the
+colony; and in the latter capacity he had been accustomed for many
+years to lend the public money, on his own private account, to his
+personal and political friends, and particularly to those of them who
+were members of the House. This profligate business had continued so
+long that Robinson had finally become a defaulter to an enormous
+amount; and in order to avert the shame and ruin of an exposure, he
+and his particular friends, just before the arrival of Patrick Henry,
+had invented a very pretty device, to be called a "public loan
+office,"--"from which monies might be lent on public account, and on
+good landed security, to individuals," and by which, as was expected,
+the debts due to Robinson on the loans which he had been granting
+might be "transferred to the public, and his deficit thus completely
+covered."[61] Accordingly, the scheme was brought forward under nearly
+every possible advantage of influential support. It was presented to
+the House and to the public as a measure eminently wise and
+beneficial. It was supported in the House by many powerful and
+honorable members who had not the remotest suspicion of the corrupt
+purpose lying at the bottom of it. Apparently it was on the point of
+adoption when, from among the members belonging to the upper counties,
+there arose this raw youth, who had only just taken his seat, and who,
+without any information respecting the secret intent of the measure,
+and equally without any disposition to let the older and statelier
+members do his thinking for him, simply attacked it, as a scheme to be
+condemned on general principles. From the door of the lobby that day
+there stood peering into the Assembly Thomas Jefferson, then a law
+student at Williamsburg, who thus had the good luck to witness the
+début of his old comrade. "He laid open with so much energy the spirit
+of favoritism on which the proposition was founded, and the abuses to
+which it would lead, that it was crushed in its birth."[62] He
+"attacked the scheme ... in that style of bold, grand, and
+overwhelming eloquence for which he became so justly celebrated
+afterwards. He carried with him all the members of the upper
+counties, and left a minority composed merely of the aristocracy of
+the country. From this time his popularity swelled apace; and Robinson
+dying four years after, his deficit was brought to light, and
+discovered the true object of the proposition."[63]
+
+But a subject far greater than John Robinson's project for a loan
+office was then beginning to weigh on men's minds. Already were
+visible far off on the edge of the sky, the first filmy threads of a
+storm-cloud that was to grow big and angry as the years went by, and
+was to accompany a political tempest under which the British Empire
+would be torn asunder, and the whole structure of American colonial
+society wrenched from its foundations. Just one year before the time
+now reached, news had been received in Virginia that the British
+ministry had announced in parliament their purpose to introduce, at
+the next session, an act for laying certain stamp duties on the
+American colonies. Accordingly, in response to these tidings, the
+House of Burgesses, in the autumn of 1764, had taken the earliest
+opportunity to send a respectful message to the government of England,
+declaring that the proposed act would be deemed by the loyal and
+affectionate people of Virginia as an alarming violation of their
+ancient constitutional rights. This message had been elaborately drawn
+up, in the form of an address to the king, a memorial to the House of
+Lords, and a remonstrance to the Commons;[64] the writers being a
+committee composed of gentlemen prominent in the legislature, and of
+high social standing in the colony, including Landon Carter, Richard
+Henry Lee, George Wythe, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, Richard
+Bland, and even Peyton Randolph, the king's attorney-general.
+
+Meantime, to this appeal no direct answer had been returned; instead
+of which, however, was received by the House of Burgesses, in May,
+1765, about the time of Patrick Henry's accession to that body, a copy
+of the Stamp Act itself. What was to be done about it? What was to be
+done by Virginia? What was to be done by her sister colonies? Of
+course, by the passage of the Stamp Act, the whole question of
+colonial procedure on the subject had been changed. While the act was,
+even in England, merely a theme for consideration, and while the
+colonies were virtually under invitation to send thither their views
+upon the subject, it was perfectly proper for colonial pamphleteers
+and for colonial legislatures to express, in every civilized form,
+their objections to it. But all this was now over. The Stamp Act had
+been discussed; the discussion was ended; the act had been decided on;
+it had become a law. Criticism upon it now, especially by a
+legislative body, was a very different matter from what criticism upon
+it had been, even by the same body, a few months before. Then, the
+loyal legislature of Virginia had fittingly spoken out, concerning the
+contemplated act, its manly words of disapproval and of protest; but
+now that the contemplated act had become an adopted act--had become
+the law of the land--could that same legislature again speak even
+those same words, without thereby becoming disloyal,--without
+venturing a little too near the verge of sedition,--without putting
+itself into an attitude, at least, of incipient nullification
+respecting a law of the general government?
+
+It is perfectly evident that by all the old leaders of the House at
+that moment,--by Peyton Randolph, and Pendleton, and Wythe, and Bland,
+and the rest of them,--this question was answered in the negative.
+Indeed, it could be answered in no other way. Such being the case, it
+followed that, for Virginia and for all her sister colonies, an
+entirely new state of things had arisen. A most serious problem
+confronted them,--a problem involving, in fact, incalculable
+interests. On the subject of immediate concern, they had endeavored,
+freely and rightfully, to influence legislation, while that
+legislation was in process; but now that this legislation was
+accomplished, what were they to do? Were they to submit to it quietly,
+trusting to further negotiations for ultimate relief, or were they to
+reject it outright, and try to obstruct its execution? Clearly, here
+was a very great problem, a problem for statesmanship,--the best
+statesmanship anywhere to be had. Clearly this was a time, at any
+rate, for wise and experienced men to come to the front; a time, not
+for rash counsels, nor for spasmodic and isolated action on the part
+of any one colony, but for deliberate and united action on the part of
+all the colonies; a time in which all must move forward, or none. But,
+thus far, no colony had been heard from: there had not been time. Let
+Virginia wait a little. Let her make no mistake; let her not push
+forward into any ill-considered and dangerous measure; let her wait,
+at least, for some signal of thought or of purpose from her sister
+colonies. In the meanwhile, let her old and tried leaders continue to
+lead.
+
+Such, apparently, was the state of opinion in the House of Burgesses
+when, on the 29th of May, a motion was made and carried, "that the
+House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, immediately
+to consider the steps necessary to be taken in consequence of the
+resolutions of the House of Commons of Great Britain, relative to the
+charging certain stamp duties in the colonies and plantations in
+America."[65] On thus going into committee of the whole, to deliberate
+on the most difficult and appalling question that, up to that time,
+had ever come before an American legislature, the members may very
+naturally have turned in expectation to those veteran politicians and
+to those able constitutional lawyers who, for many years, had been
+accustomed to guide their deliberations, and who, especially in the
+last session, had taken charge of this very question of the Stamp
+Act. It will not be hard for us to imagine the disgust, the anger,
+possibly even the alarm, with which many may have beheld the floor now
+taken, not by Peyton Randolph, nor Richard Bland, nor George Wythe,
+nor Edmund Pendleton, but by this new and very unabashed member for
+the county of Louisa,--this rustic and clownish youth of the terrible
+tongue,--this eloquent but presumptuous stripling, who was absolutely
+without training or experience in statesmanship, and was the merest
+novice even in the forms of the House.
+
+For what precise purpose the new member had thus ventured to take the
+floor, was known at the moment of his rising by only two other
+members,--George Johnston, the member for Fairfax, and John Fleming,
+the member for Cumberland. But the measureless audacity of his
+purpose, as being nothing less than that of assuming the leadership of
+the House, and of dictating the policy of Virginia in this stupendous
+crisis of its fate, was instantly revealed to all, as he moved a
+series of resolutions, which he proceeded to read from the blank leaf
+of an old law book, and which, probably, were as follows:--
+
+     "_Whereas_, the honorable House of Commons in England have
+     of late drawn into question how far the General Assembly of
+     this colony hath power to enact laws for laying of taxes and
+     imposing duties, payable by the people of this, his
+     majesty's most ancient colony: for settling and ascertaining
+     the same to all future times, the House of Burgesses of this
+     present General Assembly have come to the following
+     resolves:--
+
+     "1. _Resolved_, That the first adventurers and settlers of
+     this, his majesty's colony and dominion, brought with them
+     and transmitted to their posterity, and all other his
+     majesty's subjects, since inhabiting in this, his majesty's
+     said colony, all the privileges, franchises, and immunities
+     that have at any time been held, enjoyed, and possessed, by
+     the people of Great Britain.
+
+     "2. _Resolved_, That by two royal charters, granted by king
+     James the First, the colonists aforesaid are declared
+     entitled to all the privileges, liberties, and immunities of
+     denizens and natural born subjects, to all intents and
+     purposes, as if they had been abiding and born within the
+     realm of England.
+
+     "3. _Resolved_, That the taxation of the people by
+     themselves or by persons chosen by themselves to represent
+     them, who can only know what taxes the people are able to
+     bear, and the easiest mode of raising them, and are equally
+     affected by such taxes themselves, is the distinguishing
+     characteristic of British freedom, and without which the
+     ancient constitution cannot subsist.
+
+     "4. _Resolved_, That his majesty's liege people of this most
+     ancient colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of
+     being thus governed by their own Assembly in the article of
+     their taxes and internal police, and that the same hath
+     never been forfeited, or any other way given up, but hath
+     been constantly recognized by the kings and people of Great
+     Britain.
+
+     "5. _Resolved_, therefore, That the General Assembly of this
+     colony have the only and sole exclusive right and power to
+     lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this
+     colony; and that every attempt to vest such power in any
+     person or persons whatsoever, other than the General
+     Assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy
+     British as well as American freedom.
+
+     "6. _Resolved_, That his majesty's liege people, the
+     inhabitants of this colony, are not bound to yield obedience
+     to any law or ordinance whatever, designed to impose any
+     taxation whatsoever upon them, other than the laws or
+     ordinances of the General Assembly aforesaid.
+
+     "7. _Resolved_, That any person who shall, by speaking or
+     writing, assert or maintain that any person or persons,
+     other than the General Assembly of this colony, have any
+     right or power to impose or lay any taxation on the people
+     here, shall be deemed an enemy to his majesty's colony."[66]
+
+No reader will find it hard to accept Jefferson's statement that the
+debate on these resolutions was "most bloody." "They were opposed by
+Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Nicholas, Wythe, and all the old members,
+whose influence in the House had till then been unbroken."[67] There
+was every reason, whether of public policy or of private feeling, why
+the old party leaders in the House should now bestir themselves, and
+combine, and put forth all their powers in debate, to check, and if
+possible to rout and extinguish, this self-conceited but most
+dangerous young man. "Many threats were uttered, and much abuse cast
+on me," said Patrick himself, long afterward. Logic, learning,
+eloquence, denunciation, derision, intimidation, were poured from all
+sides of the House upon the head of the presumptuous intruder; but
+alone, or almost alone, he confronted and defeated all his assailants.
+"Torrents of sublime eloquence from Mr. Henry, backed by the solid
+reasoning of Johnston, prevailed."[68]
+
+It was sometime in the course of this tremendous fight, extending
+through the 29th and 30th of May, that the incident occurred which has
+long been familiar among the anecdotes of the Revolution, and which
+may be here recalled as a reminiscence not only of his own consummate
+mastery of the situation, but of a most dramatic scene in an
+epoch-making debate. Reaching the climax of a passage of fearful
+invective, on the injustice and the impolicy of the Stamp Act, he said
+in tones of thrilling solemnity, "Cćsar had his Brutus; Charles the
+First, his Cromwell; and George the Third ['Treason,' shouted the
+speaker. 'Treason,' 'treason,' rose from all sides of the room. The
+orator paused in stately defiance till these rude exclamations were
+ended, and then, rearing himself with a look and bearing of still
+prouder and fiercer determination, he so closed the sentence as to
+baffle his accusers, without in the least flinching from his own
+position,]--and George the Third may profit by their example. If this
+be treason, make the most of it."[69]
+
+Of this memorable struggle nearly all other details have perished with
+the men who took part in it. After the House, in committee of the
+whole, had, on the 29th of May, spent sufficient time in the
+discussion, "Mr. Speaker resumed the chair," says the Journal, "and
+Mr. Attorney reported that the said committee had had the said matter
+under consideration, and had come to several resolutions thereon,
+which he was ready to deliver in at the table. Ordered that the said
+report be received to-morrow." It is probable that on the morrow the
+battle was renewed with even greater fierceness than before. The
+Journal proceeds: "May 30. Mr. Attorney, from the committee of the
+whole House, reported according to order, that the committee had
+considered the steps necessary to be taken in consequence of the
+resolutions of the House of Commons of Great Britain, relative to the
+charging certain stamp duties in the colonies and plantations in
+America, and that they had come to several resolutions thereon, which
+he read in his place and then delivered at the table; when they were
+again twice read, and agreed to by the House, with some amendments."
+Then were passed by the House, probably, the first five resolutions as
+offered by Henry in the committee, but "passed," as he himself
+afterward wrote, "by a very small majority, perhaps of one or two
+only."
+
+Upon this final discomfiture of the old leaders, one of their number,
+Peyton Randolph, swept angrily out of the house, and brushing past
+young Thomas Jefferson, who was standing in the door of the lobby, he
+swore, with a great oath, that he "would have given five hundred
+guineas for a single vote."[70] On the afternoon of that day, Patrick
+Henry, knowing that the session was practically ended, and that his
+own work in it was done, started for his home. He was seen "passing
+along Duke of Gloucester Street, ... wearing buckskin breeches, his
+saddle bags on his arm, leading a lean horse, and chatting with Paul
+Carrington, who walked by his side."[71]
+
+That was on the 30th of May. The next morning, the terrible Patrick
+being at last quite out of the way, those veteran lawyers and
+politicians of the House, who had found this young protagonist alone
+too much for them all put together, made bold to undo the worst part
+of the work he had done the day before; they expunged the fifth
+resolution. In that mutilated form, without the preamble, and with the
+last three of the original resolutions omitted, the first four then
+remained on the journal of the House as the final expression of its
+official opinion. Meantime, on the wings of the wind, and on the eager
+tongues of men, had been borne, past recall, far northward and far
+southward, the fiery unchastised words of nearly the entire series, to
+kindle in all the colonies a great flame of dauntless purpose;[72]
+while Patrick himself, perhaps then only half conscious of the fateful
+work he had just been doing, travelled homeward along the dusty
+highway, at once the jolliest, the most popular, and the least
+pretentious man in all Virginia, certainly its greatest orator,
+possibly even its greatest statesman.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[57] Wirt, 24.
+
+[58] Meade, _Old Families and Churches of Va._ i. 220.
+
+[59] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Fam._ 423.
+
+[60] Wirt, 39-41.
+
+[61] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[62] Jefferson's _Works_, vi. 365.
+
+[63] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[64] These documents are given in full in the Appendix to Wirt's _Life
+of Henry_, as Note A.
+
+[65] _Jour. Va. House of Burgesses._
+
+[66] Of this famous series of resolutions, the first five are here
+given precisely as they are given in Patrick Henry's own certified
+copy still existing in manuscript, and in the possession of Mr. W. W.
+Henry; but as that copy evidently contains only that portion of the
+series which was reported from the committee of the whole, and was
+adopted by the House, I have here printed also what I believe to have
+been the preamble, and the last two resolutions in the series as first
+drawn and introduced by Patrick Henry. For this portion of the series,
+I depend on the copy printed in the _Boston Gazette_, for July 1,
+1765, and reprinted in R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 180
+note. In Wirt's _Life of Henry_, 56-59, is a transcript of the first
+five resolutions as given in Henry's handwriting: but it is inaccurate
+in two places.
+
+[67] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[68] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91. Henry was aided
+in this debate by Robert Munford, also, and by John Fleming: W. W.
+Henry, _Life, Corr. and Speeches of P. Henry_, i. 82_n._
+
+[69] For this splendid anecdote we are indebted to Judge John Tyler,
+who, then a youth of eighteen, listened to the speech as he stood in
+the lobby by the side of Jefferson. Edmund Randolph, in his _History
+of Virginia_, still in manuscript, has a somewhat different version of
+the language of the orator, as follows: "'Cćsar had his Brutus,
+Charles the First, his Cromwell, and George the Third'--'Treason,
+Sir,' exclaimed the Speaker; to which Mr. Henry instantly replied,
+'and George the Third, may he never have either.'" The version
+furnished by John Tyler is, of course, the more effective and
+characteristic; and as Tyler actually heard the speech, and as,
+moreover, his account is confirmed by Jefferson who also heard it, his
+account can hardly be set aside by that of Randolph who did not hear
+it, and was indeed but a boy of twelve at the time it was made. L. G.
+Tyler, _Letters and Times of the Tylers_, i. 56; Wirt, 65.
+
+[70] Mem. by Jefferson, _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[71] Campbell, _Hist. Va._ 542.
+
+[72] The subject of the Virginia resolutions presents several
+difficulties which I have not thought it best to discuss in the text,
+where I have given merely the results of my own rather careful and
+repeated study of the question. In brief, my conclusion is this: That
+the series as given above, consisting of a preamble and seven
+resolutions, is the series as originally prepared by Patrick Henry,
+and introduced by him on Wednesday, May 29, in the committee of the
+whole, and probably passed by the committee on that day; that at once,
+without waiting for the action of the House upon the subject, copies
+of the series got abroad, and were soon published in the newspapers of
+the several colonies, as though actually adopted by the House; that on
+Thursday, May 30, the series was cut down in the House by rejection of
+the preamble and the resolutions 6 and 7, and by the adoption of only
+the first five as given above; that on the day after that, when
+Patrick Henry had gone home, the House still further cut down the
+series by expunging the resolution which is above numbered as 5: and
+that, many years afterwards, when Patrick Henry came to prepare a copy
+for transmission to posterity, he gave the resolutions just as they
+stood when adopted by the House on May 30, and not as they stood when
+originally introduced by him in committee of the whole on the day
+before, nor as they stood when mutilated by the cowardly act of the
+House on the day after. It will be noticed, therefore, that the
+so-called resolutions of Virginia, which were actually published and
+known to the colonies in 1765, and which did so much to fire their
+hearts, were not the resolutions as adopted by the House, but were the
+resolutions as first introduced, and probably passed, in committee of
+the whole; and that even this copy of them was inaccurately given,
+since it lacked the resolution numbered above as 3, probably owing to
+an error in the first hurried transcription of them. Those who care to
+study the subject further will find the materials in _Prior
+Documents_, 6, 7; Marshall, _Life of Washington_, i. note iv.;
+Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 180 note; Gordon, _Hist. Am.
+Rev._, i. 129-139; _Works of Jefferson_, vi. 366, 367; Wirt, _Life of
+Henry_, 56-63; Everett, _Life of Henry_, 265-273, with important note
+by Jared Sparks in Appendix, 391-398. It may be mentioned that the
+narrative given in Burk, _Hist. Va._, iii. 305-310, is untrustworthy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CONSEQUENCES
+
+
+Seldom has a celebrated man shown more indifference to the
+preservation of the records and credentials of his career than did
+Patrick Henry. While some of his famous associates in the Revolution
+diligently kept both the letters they received, and copies of the
+letters they wrote, and made, for the benefit of posterity, careful
+memoranda concerning the events of their lives, Patrick Henry did none
+of these things. Whatever letters he wrote, he wrote at a dash, and
+then parted with them utterly; whatever letters were written to him,
+were invariably handed over by him to the comfortable custody of luck;
+and as to the correct historic perpetuation of his doings, he seems
+almost to have exhausted his interest in each one of them so soon as
+he had accomplished it, and to have been quite content to leave to
+other people all responsibility for its being remembered correctly, or
+even remembered at all.
+
+To this statement, however, a single exception has to be made. It
+relates to the great affair described in the latter part of the
+previous chapter.
+
+Of course, it was perceived at the time that the passing of the
+Virginia resolutions against the Stamp Act was a great affair; but
+just how great an affair it was, neither Patrick Henry nor any other
+mortal man could tell until years had gone by, and had unfolded the
+vast sequence of world-resounding events, in which that affair was
+proved to be a necessary factor. It deserves to be particularly
+mentioned that, of all the achievements of his life, the only one
+which he has taken the pains to give any account of is his authorship
+of the Virginia resolutions, and his successful championship of them.
+With reference to this achievement, the account he gave of it was
+rendered with so much solemnity and impressiveness as to indicate
+that, in the final survey of his career, he regarded this as the one
+most important thing he ever did. But before we cite the words in
+which he thus indicated this judgment, it will be well for us to
+glance briefly at the train of historic incidents which now set forth
+the striking connection between that act of Patrick Henry and the
+early development of that intrepid policy which culminated in American
+independence.
+
+It was on the 29th of May, 1765, as will be remembered, that Patrick
+Henry moved in the committee of the whole the adoption of his series
+of resolutions against the Stamp Act; and before the sun went down
+that day, the entire series, as is probable, was adopted by the
+committee. On the following day, the essential portion of the series
+was adopted, likewise, by the House. But what was the contemporary
+significance of these resolutions? As the news of them swept from
+colony to colony, why did they so stir men's hearts to excitement, and
+even to alarm? It was not that the language of those resolutions was
+more radical or more trenchant than had been the language already used
+on the same subject, over and over again, in the discussions of the
+preceding twelve months. It was that, in the recent change of the
+political situation, the significance of that language had changed.
+Prior to the time referred to, whatever had been said on the subject,
+in any of the colonies, had been said for the purpose of dissuading
+the government from passing the Stamp Act. But the government had now
+passed the Stamp Act; and, accordingly, these resolutions must have
+been meant for a very different purpose. They were a virtual
+declaration of resistance to the Stamp Act; a declaration of
+resistance made, not by an individual writer, nor by a newspaper, but
+by the legislature of a great colony; and, moreover, they were the
+very first declaration of resistance which was so made.[73]
+
+This it is which gives us the contemporary key to their significance,
+and to the vast excitement produced by them, and to the enormous
+influence they had upon the trembling purposes of the colonists at
+that precise moment. Hence it was, as a sagacious writer of that
+period has told us, that merely upon the adoption of these resolves by
+the committee of the whole, men recognized their momentous bearing,
+and could not be restrained from giving publicity to them, without
+waiting for their final adoption by the House. "A manuscript of the
+unrevised resolves," says William Gordon, "soon reached Philadelphia,
+having been sent off immediately upon their passing, that the earliest
+information of what had been done might be obtained by the Sons of
+Liberty.... At New York the resolves were handed about with great
+privacy: they were accounted so treasonable, that the possessors of
+them declined printing them in that city." But a copy of them having
+been procured with much difficulty by an Irish gentleman resident in
+Connecticut, "he carried them to New England, where they were
+published and circulated far and wide in the newspapers, without any
+reserve, and proved eventually the occasion of those disorders which
+afterward broke out in the colonies.... The Virginia resolutions gave
+a spring to all the disgusted; and they began to adopt different
+measures."[74]
+
+But while the tidings of these resolutions were thus moving toward New
+England, and before they had arrived there, the assembly of the great
+colony of Massachusetts had begun to take action. Indeed, it had first
+met on the very day on which Patrick Henry had introduced his
+resolutions into the committee of the whole at Williamsburg. On the
+8th of June, it had resolved upon a circular letter concerning the
+Stamp Act, addressed to all the sister colonies, and proposing that
+all should send delegates to a congress to be held at New York, on the
+first Tuesday of the following October, to deal with the perils and
+duties of the situation. This circular letter at once started upon its
+tour.
+
+The first reception of it, however, was discouraging. From the speaker
+of the New Jersey assembly came the reply that the members of that
+body were "unanimously against uniting on the present occasion;" and
+for several weeks thereafter, "no movement appeared in favor of the
+great and wise measure of convening a congress." At last, however, the
+project of Massachusetts began to feel the accelerating force of a
+mighty impetus. The Virginia resolutions, being at last divulged
+throughout the land, "had a marked effect on public opinion." They
+were "heralded as the voice of a colony.... The fame of the resolves
+spread as they were circulated in the journals.... The Virginia
+action, like an alarum, roused the patriots to pass similar
+resolves.[75] "On the 8th of July, "The Boston Gazette" uttered this
+most significant sentence: "The people of Virginia have spoken very
+sensibly, and the frozen politicians of a more northern government say
+they have spoken treason."[76] On the same day, in that same town of
+Boston, an aged lawyer and patriot[77] lay upon his death bed; and in
+his admiration for the Virginians on account of these resolves, he
+exclaimed, "They are men; they are noble spirits."[78] On the 13th of
+August, the people of Providence instructed their representatives in
+the legislature to vote in favor of the congress, and to procure the
+passage of a series of resolutions in which were incorporated those of
+Virginia.[79] On the 15th of August, from Boston, Governor Bernard
+wrote home to the ministry: "Two or three months ago, I thought that
+this people would submit to the Stamp Act. Murmurs were indeed
+continually heard; but they seemed to be such as would die away. But
+the publishing of the Virginia resolves proved an alarm bell to the
+disaffected."[80] On the 23d of September, General Gage, the commander
+of the British forces in America, wrote from New York to Secretary
+Conway that the Virginia resolves had given "the signal for a general
+outcry over the continent."[81] And finally, in the autumn of 1774, an
+able loyalist writer, looking back over the political history of the
+colonies from the year of the Stamp Act, singled out the Virginia
+resolves as the baleful cause of all the troubles that had then come
+upon the land. "After it was known," said he, "that the Stamp Act was
+passed, some resolves of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, denying
+the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, made their appearance. We
+read them with wonder; they savored of independence; they flattered
+the human passions; the reasoning was specious; we wished it
+conclusive. The transition to believing it so was easy; and we, and
+almost all America, followed their example, in resolving that
+Parliament had no such right."[82]
+
+All these facts, and many more that might be produced, seem to point
+to the Virginia resolutions of 1765 as having come at a great primary
+crisis of the Revolution,--a crisis of mental confusion and
+hesitation,--and as having then uttered, with trumpet voice, the very
+word that was fitted to the hour, and that gave to men's minds
+clearness of vision, and to their hearts a settled purpose. It must
+have been in the light of such facts as these that Patrick Henry, in
+his old age, reviewing his own wonderful career, determined to make a
+sort of testamentary statement concerning his relation to that single
+transaction,--so vitally connected with the greatest epoch in American
+history.
+
+Among the papers left by him at his death was one significantly placed
+by the side of his will, carefully sealed, and bearing this
+superscription: "Inclosed are the resolutions of the Virginia Assembly
+in 1765, concerning the Stamp Act. Let my executors open this paper."
+On opening the document, his executors found on one side of the sheet
+the first five resolutions in the famous series introduced by him; and
+on the other side, these weighty words:--
+
+     The within resolutions passed the House of Burgesses in May,
+     1765. They formed the first opposition to the Stamp Act, and
+     the scheme of taxing America by the British parliament. All
+     the colonies, either through fear, or want of opportunity to
+     form an opposition, or from influence of some kind or other,
+     had remained silent. I had been for the first time elected a
+     Burgess a few days before; was young, inexperienced,
+     unacquainted with the forms of the House, and the members
+     that composed it. Finding the men of weight averse to
+     opposition, and the commencement of the tax at hand, and
+     that no person was likely to step forth, I determined to
+     venture; and alone, unadvised, and unassisted, on a blank
+     leaf of an old law book, wrote the within.[83] Upon
+     offering them to the House, violent debates ensued. Many
+     threats were uttered, and much abuse cast on me by the party
+     for submission. After a long and warm contest, the
+     resolutions passed by a very small majority, perhaps of one
+     or two only. The alarm spread throughout America with
+     astonishing quickness, and the ministerial party were
+     overwhelmed. The great point of resistance to British
+     taxation was universally established in the colonies. This
+     brought on the war, which finally separated the two
+     countries, and gave independence to ours.
+
+     Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse, will depend
+     upon the use our people make of the blessings which a
+     gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they
+     will be great and happy. If they are of a contrary
+     character, they will be miserable. Righteousness alone can
+     exalt them as a nation.
+
+     Reader! whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere
+     practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.
+
+                                                  P. HENRY.[84]
+
+But while this renowned act in Patrick Henry's life had consequences
+so notable in their bearing on great national and international
+movements, it is interesting to observe, also, its immediate effects
+on his own personal position in the world, and on the development of
+his career. We can hardly be surprised to find, on the one hand, that
+his act gave deep offence to one very considerable class of persons in
+Virginia,--the official representatives of the English government, and
+their natural allies, those thoughtful and conscientious colonists
+who, by temperament and conviction, were inclined to lay a heavy
+accent on the principle of civil authority and order. Of course, as
+the official head of this not ignoble class, stood Francis Fauquier,
+the lieutenant-governor of the colony; and his letter to the lords of
+trade, written from Williamsburg a few days after the close of the
+session, contains a striking narrative of this stormy proceeding, and
+an almost amusing touch of official undervaluation of Patrick Henry:
+"In the course of the debate, I have heard that very indecent language
+was used by a Mr. Henry, a young lawyer, who had not been above a
+month a member of the House, and who carried all the young members
+with him."[85] But a far more specific and intense expression of
+antipathy came, a few weeks later, from the Reverend William Robinson,
+the colonial commissary of the Bishop of London. Writing, on the 12th
+of August, to his metropolitan, he gave an account of Patrick Henry's
+very offensive management of the cause against the parsons, before
+becoming a member of the House of Burgesses; and then added:--
+
+     "He has since been chosen a representative for one of the
+     counties, in which character he has lately distinguished
+     himself in the House of Burgesses on occasion of the arrival
+     of an act of Parliament for stamp duties, while the Assembly
+     was sitting. He blazed out in a violent speech against the
+     authority of Parliament and the king, comparing his majesty
+     to a Tarquin, a Cćsar, and a Charles the First, and not
+     sparing insinuations that he wished another Cromwell would
+     arise. He made a motion for several outrageous resolves,
+     some of which passed and were again erased as soon as his
+     back was turned.... Mr. Henry, the hero of whom I have been
+     writing, is gone quietly into the upper parts of the country
+     to recommend himself to his constituents by spreading
+     treason and enforcing firm resolutions against the authority
+     of the British Parliament."[86]
+
+Such was Patrick Henry's introduction to the upper spheres of English
+society,--spheres in which his name was to become still better known
+as time rolled on, and for conduct not likely to efface the impression
+of this bitter beginning.
+
+As to his reputation in the colonies outside of Virginia, doubtless
+the progress of it, during this period, was slow and dim; for the
+celebrity acquired by the resolutions of 1765 attached to the colony
+rather than to the person. Moreover, the boundaries of each colony, in
+those days, were in most cases the boundaries likewise of the personal
+reputations it cherished. It was not until Patrick Henry came
+forward, in the Congress of 1774, upon an arena that may be called
+national, that his name gathered about it the splendor of a national
+fame. Yet, even before 1774, in the rather dull and ungossiping
+newspapers of that time, and in the letters and diaries of its public
+men, may be discovered an occasional allusion showing that already his
+name had broken over the borders of Virginia, had traveled even so far
+as to New England, and that in Boston itself he was a person whom
+people were beginning to talk about. For example, in his Diary for the
+22d of July, 1770, John Adams speaks of meeting some gentlemen from
+Virginia, and of going out to Cambridge with them. One of them is
+mentioned by name as having this distinction,--that he "is an intimate
+friend of Mr. Patrick Henry, the first mover of the Virginia resolves
+in 1765."[87] Thus, even so early, the incipient revolutionist in New
+England had got his thoughts on his brilliant political kinsman in
+Virginia.
+
+But it was chiefly within the limits of his own splendid and gallant
+colony, and among an eager and impressionable people whose habitual
+hatred of all restraints turned into undying love for this dashing
+champion of natural liberty, that Patrick Henry was now instantly
+crowned with his crown of sovereignty. By his resolutions against the
+Stamp Act, as Jefferson testifies, "Mr. Henry took the lead out of the
+hands of those who had heretofore guided the proceedings of the
+House, that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Randolph, and
+Nicholas."[88] Wirt does not put the case too strongly when he
+declares, that "after this debate there was no longer a question among
+the body of the people, as to Mr. Henry's being the first statesman
+and orator in Virginia. Those, indeed, whose ranks he had scattered,
+and whom he had thrown into the shade, still tried to brand him with
+the names of declaimer and demagogue. But this was obviously the
+effect of envy and mortified pride.... From the period of which we
+have been speaking, Mr. Henry became the idol of the people of
+Virginia."[89]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[73] See this view supported by Wirt, in his life by Kennedy, ii. 73.
+
+[74] Gordon, _Hist. of Am. Rev._ i. 131.
+
+[75] Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 178-181.
+
+[76] Cited in Frothingham, 181.
+
+[77] Oxenbridge Thacher.
+
+[78] _Works of John Adams_, x. 287.
+
+[79] Frothingham, 181.
+
+[80] Cited by Sparks, in Everett, _Life of Henry_, 396.
+
+[81] Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 181.
+
+[82] Daniel Leonard, in _Novanglus and Massachusettensis_, 147, 148.
+
+[83] As the historic importance of the Virginia resolutions became
+more and more apparent, a disposition was manifested to deny to
+Patrick Henry the honor of having written them. As early as 1790,
+Madison, between whom and Henry there was nearly always a sharp
+hostility, significantly asked Edmund Pendleton to tell him "where the
+resolutions proposed by Mr. Henry really originated." _Letters and
+Other Writings of Madison_, i. 515. Edmund Randolph is said to have
+asserted that they were written by William Fleming; a statement of
+which Jefferson remarked, "It is to me incomprehensible." _Works_, vi.
+484. But to Jefferson's own testimony on the same subject, I would
+apply the same remark. In his Memorandum, he says without hesitation
+that the resolutions "were drawn up by George Johnston, a lawyer of
+the Northern Neck, a very able, logical, and correct speaker." _Hist.
+Mag._ for 1867, 91. But in another paper, written at about the same
+time, Jefferson said: "I can readily enough believe these resolutions
+were written by Mr. Henry himself. They bear the stamp of his mind,
+strong, without precision. That they were written by Johnston, who
+seconded them, was only the rumor of the day, and very possibly
+unfounded." _Works_, vi. 484. In the face of all this tissue of rumor,
+guesswork, and self-contradiction, the deliberate statement of Patrick
+Henry himself that he wrote the five resolutions referred to by him,
+and that he wrote them "alone, unadvised, and unassisted," must close
+the discussion.
+
+[84] Verified from the original manuscript, now in possession of Mr.
+W. W. Henry.
+
+[85] Cited by Sparks, in Everett, _Life of Henry_, 392.
+
+[86] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 514, 515.
+
+[87] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 249.
+
+[88] _Works of Jefferson_, vi. 368.
+
+[89] _Life of Henry_, 66.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+STEADY WORK
+
+
+From the close of Patrick Henry's first term in the Virginia House of
+Burgesses, in the spring of 1765, to the opening of his first term in
+the Continental Congress, in the fall of 1774, there stretches a
+period of about nine years, which, for the purposes of our present
+study, may be rapidly glanced at and passed by.
+
+In general, it may be described as a period during which he had
+settled down to steady work, both as a lawyer and as a politician. The
+first five years of his professional life had witnessed his advance,
+as we have seen, by strides which only genius can make, from great
+obscurity to great distinction; his advance from a condition of
+universal failure to one of success so universal that his career may
+be said to have become within that brief period solidly established.
+At the bar, upon the hustings, in the legislature, as a master of
+policies, as a leader of men, he had already proved himself to be, of
+his kind, without a peer in all the colony of Virginia,--a colony
+which was then the prolific mother of great men. With him, therefore,
+the period of training and of tentative struggle had passed: the
+period now entered upon was one of recognized mastership and of
+assured performance, along lines certified by victories that came
+gayly, and apparently at his slightest call.
+
+We note, at the beginning of this period, an event indicating
+substantial prosperity in his life: he acquires the visible dignity of
+a country-seat. Down to the end of 1763, and probably even to the
+summer of 1765, he had continued to live in the neighborhood of
+Hanover Court House. After coming back from his first term of service
+in the House of Burgesses, where he had sat as member for the county
+of Louisa, he removed his residence into that county, and established
+himself there upon an estate called Roundabout, purchased by him of
+his father. In 1768 he returned to Hanover, and in 1771 he bought a
+place in that county called Scotch Town, which continued to be his
+seat until shortly after the Declaration of Independence, when, having
+become governor of the new State of Virginia, he took up his residence
+at Williamsburg, in the palace long occupied by the official
+representatives of royalty.
+
+For the practice of his profession, the earlier portion of this period
+was perhaps not altogether unfavorable. The political questions then
+in debate were, indeed, exciting, but they had not quite reached the
+ultimate issue, and did not yet demand from him the complete surrender
+of his life. Those years seem to have been marked by great
+professional activity on his part, and by considerable growth in his
+reputation, even for the higher and more difficult work of the law. Of
+course, as the vast controversy between the colonists and Great
+Britain grew in violence, all controversies between one colonist and
+another began to seem petty, and to be postponed; even the courts
+ceased to meet with much regularity, and finally ceased to meet at
+all; while Patrick Henry himself, forsaking his private concerns,
+became entirely absorbed in the concerns of the public.
+
+The fluctuations in his engagements as a lawyer, during all these
+years, may be traced with some certainty by the entries in his
+fee-books. For the year 1765, he charges fees in 547 cases; for 1766,
+in 114 cases; for 1767, in 554 cases; for 1768, in 354 cases. With the
+next year there begins a great falling off in the number of his cases;
+and the decline continues till 1774, when, in the convulsions of the
+time, his practice stops altogether. Thus, for 1769, there are
+registered 132 cases; for 1770, 94 cases; for 1771, 102 cases; for
+1772, 43 cases; for 1773, 7 cases; and for 1774, none.[90]
+
+The character of the professional work done by him during this period
+deserves a moment's consideration. Prior to 1769, he had limited
+himself to practice in the courts of the several counties. In that
+year he began to practice in the general court,--the highest court in
+the colony,--where of course were tried the most important and
+difficult causes, and where thenceforward he had constantly to
+encounter the most learned and acute lawyers at the bar, including
+such men as Pendleton, Wythe, Blair, Mercer, John Randolph, Thompson
+Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert C. Nicholas.[91]
+
+There could never have been any doubt of his supreme competency to
+deal with such criminal causes as he had to manage in that court or in
+any other; and with respect to the conduct of other than criminal
+causes, all purely contemporaneous evidence, now to be had, implies
+that he had not ventured to present himself before the higher
+tribunals of the land until he had qualified himself to bear his part
+there with success and honor. Thus, the instance may be mentioned of
+his appearing in the Court of Admiralty, "in behalf of a Spanish
+captain, whose vessel and cargo had been libeled. A gentleman who was
+present, and who was very well qualified to judge, was heard to
+declare, after the trial was over, that he never heard a more eloquent
+or argumentative speech in his life; that Mr. Henry was on that
+occasion greatly superior to Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Mason, or any other
+counsel who spoke to the subject; and that he was astonished how Mr.
+Henry could have acquired such a knowledge of the maritime law, to
+which it was believed he had never before turned his attention."[92]
+Moreover, in 1771, just two years from the time when Patrick Henry
+began practice in the General Court, Robert C. Nicholas, then a
+veteran member of the profession, "who had enjoyed the first practice
+at the bar," had occasion to retire, and began looking about among the
+younger men for some competent lawyer to whom he might safely intrust
+the unfinished business of his clients. He first offered his practice
+to Thomas Jefferson, who, however, was compelled to decline it.
+Afterward, he offered it to Patrick Henry, who accepted it; and
+accordingly, by public advertisement, Nicholas informed his clients
+that he had committed to Patrick Henry the further protection of their
+interests,[93]--a perfectly conclusive proof, it should seem, of the
+real respect in which Patrick Henry's qualifications as a lawyer were
+then held, not only by the public but by the profession. Certainly
+such evidence as this can hardly be set aside by the supposed
+recollections of one old gentleman, of broken memory and unbroken
+resentment, who long afterward tried to convince Wirt that, even at
+the period now in question, Patrick Henry was "wofully deficient as a
+lawyer," was unable to contend with his associates "on a mere question
+of law," and was "so little acquainted with the fundamental principles
+of his profession ... as not to be able to see the remote bearings of
+the reported cases."[94] The expressions here quoted are, apparently,
+Wirt's own paraphrase of the statements which were made to him by
+Jefferson, and which, in many of their details, can now be proved, on
+documentary evidence, to be the work of a hand that had forgot, not
+indeed its cunning, but at any rate its accuracy.
+
+As to the political history of Patrick Henry during this period, it
+may be easily described. The doctrine on which he had planted himself
+by his resolutions in 1765, namely, that the parliamentary taxation of
+unrepresented colonies is unconstitutional, became the avowed doctrine
+of Virginia, and of all her sister colonies; and nearly all the men
+who, in the House of Burgesses, had, for reasons of propriety, or of
+expediency, or of personal feeling, opposed the passage of his
+resolutions, soon took pains to make it known to their constituents
+that their opposition had not been to the principle which those
+resolutions expressed. Thenceforward, among the leaders in Virginian
+politics, there was no real disagreement on the fundamental question;
+only such disagreement touching methods as must always occur between
+spirits who are cautious and spirits who are bold. Chief among the
+former were Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Peyton Randolph, and Nicholas. In
+the van of the latter always stood Patrick Henry, and with him
+Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, the Pages, and George Mason. But between
+the two groups, after all, was surprising harmony, which is thus
+explained by one who in all that business had a great part and who
+never was a laggard:--
+
+     "Sensible, however, of the importance of unanimity among
+     our constituents, although we often wished to have gone
+     faster, we slackened our pace, that our less ardent
+     colleagues might keep up with us; and they, on their part,
+     differing nothing from us in principle, quickened their gait
+     somewhat beyond that which their prudence might of itself
+     have advised, and thus consolidated the phalanx which
+     breasted the power of Britain. By this harmony of the bold
+     with the cautious, we advanced with our constituents in
+     undivided mass, and with fewer examples of separation than,
+     perhaps, existed in any other part of the union."[95]
+
+All deprecated a quarrel with Great Britain; all deprecated as a
+boundless calamity the possible issue of independence; all desired to
+remain in loyal, free, and honorable connection with the British
+empire; and against the impending danger of an assault upon the
+freedom, and consequently the honor, of this connection, all stood on
+guard.
+
+One result, however, of this practical unanimity among the leaders in
+Virginia was the absence, during all this period, of those impassioned
+and dramatic conflicts in debate, which would have called forth
+historic exhibitions of Patrick Henry's eloquence and of his gifts for
+conduct and command. He had a leading part in all the counsels of the
+time; he was sent to every session of the House of Burgesses; he was
+at the front in all local committees and conventions; he was made a
+member of the first Committee of Correspondence; and all these
+incidents in this portion of his life culminated in his mission as one
+of the deputies from Virginia to the first Continental Congress.
+
+Without here going into the familiar story of the occasion and
+purposes of the Congress of 1774, we may briefly indicate Patrick
+Henry's relation to the events in Virginia which immediately preceded
+his appointment to that renowned assemblage. On the 24th of May, 1774,
+the House of Burgesses, having received the alarming news of the
+passage of the Boston Port Bill, designated the day on which that bill
+was to take effect--the first day of June--"as a day of fasting,
+humiliation, and prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition
+for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our
+civil rights, and the evils of civil war; to give us one heart and one
+mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to
+American rights; and that the minds of his majesty and his parliament
+may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to
+remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger, from a
+continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin."[96] Two days
+afterward, the governor, Lord Dunmore, having summoned the House to
+the council chamber, made to them this little speech:--
+
+     "Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have
+     in my hand a paper published by order of your House,
+     conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon his majesty
+     and the Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it
+     necessary for me to dissolve you, and you are dissolved
+     accordingly."[97]
+
+At ten o'clock on the following day, May 27, the members of the late
+House met by agreement at the Raleigh Tavern, and there promptly
+passed a nobly-worded resolution, deploring the policy pursued by
+Parliament and suggesting the establishment of an annual congress of
+all the colonies, "to deliberate on those general measures which the
+united interests of America may from time to time require."[98]
+
+During the anxious days and nights immediately preceding the
+dissolution of the House, its prominent members held many private
+conferences with respect to the course to be pursued by Virginia. In
+all these conferences, as we are told, "Patrick Henry was the
+leader;"[99] and a very able man, George Mason, who was just then a
+visitor at Williamsburg, and was admitted to the consultations of the
+chiefs, wrote at the time concerning him: "He is by far the most
+powerful speaker I ever heard.... But his eloquence is the smallest
+part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the first man upon this
+continent, as well in abilities as public virtues."[100]
+
+In response to a recommendation made by leading members of the recent
+House of Burgesses, a convention of delegates from the several
+counties of Virginia assembled at Williamsburg, on August 1, 1774, to
+deal with the needs of the hour, and especially to appoint deputies to
+the proposed congress at Philadelphia. The spirit in which this
+convention transacted its business is sufficiently shown in the
+opening paragraphs of the letter of instructions which it gave to the
+deputies whom it sent to the congress:--
+
+     "The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her American
+     colonies, which began about the third year of the reign of
+     his present majesty, and since, continually increasing, have
+     proceeded to lengths so dangerous and alarming as to excite
+     just apprehensions in the minds of his majesty's faithful
+     subjects of this colony that they are in danger of being
+     deprived of their natural, ancient, constitutional, and
+     chartered rights, have compelled them to take the same into
+     their most serious consideration; and being deprived of
+     their usual and accustomed mode of making known their
+     grievances, have appointed us their representatives, to
+     consider what is proper to be done in this dangerous crisis
+     of American affairs.
+
+     "It being our opinion that the united wisdom of North
+     America should be collected in a general congress of all the
+     colonies, we have appointed the honorable Peyton Randolph,
+     Esquire, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick
+     Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund
+     Pendleton, Esquires, deputies to represent this colony in
+     the said congress, to be held at Philadelphia on the first
+     Monday in September next. And that they may be the better
+     informed of our sentiments touching the conduct we wish them
+     to observe on this important occasion, we desire that they
+     will express, in the first place, our faith and true
+     allegiance to his majesty King George the Third, our lawful
+     and rightful sovereign; and that we are determined, with our
+     lives and fortunes, to support him in the legal exercise of
+     all his just rights and prerogatives; and however
+     misrepresented, we sincerely approve of a constitutional
+     connection with Great Britain, and wish most ardently a
+     return of that intercourse of affection and commercial
+     connection that formerly united both countries; which can
+     only be effected by a removal of those causes of discontent
+     which have of late unhappily divided us.... The power
+     assumed by the British Parliament to bind America by their
+     statutes, in all cases whatsoever, is unconstitutional, and
+     the source of these unhappy differences."[101]
+
+The convention at Williamsburg, of which, of course, Patrick Henry was
+a member, seems to have adjourned on Saturday, the 6th of August.
+Between that date and the time for his departure to attend the
+congress at Philadelphia, we may imagine him as busily engaged in
+arranging his affairs for a long absence from home, and even then as
+not getting ready to begin the long journey until many of his
+associates had nearly reached the end of it.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[90] MS.
+
+[91] Wirt, 70, 71.
+
+[92] Wirt, 71, 72.
+
+[93] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 49; Wirt, 77.
+
+[94] Wirt, 71.
+
+[95] Jefferson's _Works_, vi. 368.
+
+[96] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 350.
+
+[97] Campbell, _Hist. Va._ 573.
+
+[98] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 350, 351. The narrative of these events as given
+by Wirt and by Campbell has several errors. They seem to have been
+misled by Jefferson, who, in his account of the business (_Works_, i.
+122, 123), is, if possible, rather more inaccurate than usual.
+
+[99] Campbell, _Hist. Va._ 573.
+
+[100] Mason to Martin Cockburn, _Va. Hist. Reg._ iii. 27-29.
+
+[101] The full text of this letter of instructions is given in 4 _Am.
+Arch._ i. 689, 690. With this should be compared note C. in
+Jefferson's _Works_, i. 122-142.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+IN THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
+
+
+On the morning of Tuesday, the 30th of August, Patrick Henry arrived
+on horseback at Mt. Vernon, the home of his friend and colleague,
+George Washington; and having remained there that day and night, he
+set out for Philadelphia on the following morning, in the company of
+Washington and of Edmund Pendleton. From the jottings in Washington's
+diary,[102] we can so far trace the progress of this trio of
+illustrious horsemen, as to ascertain that on Sunday, the 4th of
+September, they "breakfasted at Christiana Ferry; dined at Chester;"
+and reached Philadelphia for supper--thus arriving in town barely in
+time to be present at the first meeting of the Congress on the morning
+of the 5th.
+
+John Adams had taken pains to get upon the ground nearly a week
+earlier; and carefully gathering all possible information concerning
+his future associates, few of whom he had then ever seen, he wrote in
+his diary that the Virginians were said to "speak in raptures about
+Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry, one the Cicero, and the other the
+Demosthenes, of the age."[103]
+
+Not far from the same time, also, a keen-witted Virginian, Roger
+Atkinson, at his home near Petersburg, was writing to a friend about
+the men who had gone to represent Virginia in the great Congress; and
+this letter of his, though not meant for posterity, has some neat,
+off-hand portraits which posterity may, nevertheless, be glad to look
+at. Peyton Randolph is "a venerable man ... an honest man; has
+knowledge, temper, experience, judgment,--above all, integrity; a true
+Roman spirit." Richard Bland is "a wary, old, experienced veteran at
+the bar and in the senate; has something of the look of old musty
+parchments, which he handleth and studieth much. He formerly wrote a
+treatise against the Quakers on water-baptism." Washington "is a
+soldier,--a warrior; he is a modest man; sensible; speaks little; in
+action cool, like a bishop at his prayers." Pendleton "is an humble
+and religious man, and must be exalted. He is a smooth-tongued
+speaker, and, though not so old, may be compared to old Nestor,--
+
+  'Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skilled,
+  Words sweet as honey from his lips distilled.'"
+
+But Patrick Henry "is a real half-Quaker,--your brother's
+man,--moderate and mild, and in religious matters a saint; but the
+very devil in politics; a son of thunder. He will shake the Senate.
+Some years ago he had liked to have talked treason into the
+House."[104]
+
+Few of the members of this Congress had ever met before; and if all
+had arrived upon the scene as late as did these three members from
+Virginia, there might have been some difficulty, through a lack of
+previous consultation and acquaintance, in organizing the Congress on
+the day appointed, and in entering at once upon its business. In fact,
+however, more than a week before the time for the first meeting, the
+delegates had begun to make their appearance in Philadelphia;
+thenceforward with each day the arrivals continued; by Thursday, the
+1st of September, twenty-five delegates, nearly one half of the entire
+body elected, were in town;[105] and probably, during all that week,
+no day and no night had passed without many an informal conference
+respecting the business before them, and the best way of doing it.
+
+Concerning these memorable men of the first Continental Congress, it
+must be confessed that as the mists of a hundred years of glorifying
+oratory and of semi-poetic history have settled down upon them, they
+are now enveloped in a light which seems to distend their forms to
+proportions almost superhuman, and to cast upon their faces a gravity
+that hardly belongs to this world; and it may, perhaps, help us to
+bring them and their work somewhat nearer to the plane of natural
+human life and motive, and into a light that is as the light of
+reality, if, turning to the daily memoranda made at the time by one of
+their number, we can see how merrily, after all, nay, with what
+flowing feasts, with what convivial communings, passed those days and
+nights of preparation for the difficult business they were about to
+take in hand.
+
+For example, on Monday, the 29th of August, when the four members of
+the Massachusetts delegation had arrived within five miles of the
+city, they were met by an escort of gentlemen, partly residents of
+Philadelphia, and partly delegates from other colonies, who had come
+out in carriages to greet them.
+
+     "We were introduced," writes John Adams, "to all these
+     gentlemen, and most cordially welcomed to Philadelphia. We
+     then rode into town, and dirty, dusty, and fatigued as we
+     were, we could not resist the importunity to go to the
+     tavern, the most genteel one in America. There we were
+     introduced to a number of other gentlemen of the city, ...
+     and to Mr. Lynch and Mr. Gadsden, of South Carolina. Here we
+     had a fresh welcome to the city of Philadelphia; and after
+     some time spent in conversation, a curtain was drawn, and in
+     the other half of the chamber a supper appeared as elegant
+     as ever was laid upon a table. About eleven o'clock we
+     retired.
+
+     "30, Tuesday. Walked a little about town; visited the
+     market, the State House, the Carpenters' Hall, where the
+     Congress is to sit, etc.; then called at Mr. Mifflin's, a
+     grand, spacious, and elegant house. Here we had much
+     conversation with Mr. Charles Thomson, who is ... the Sam
+     Adams of Philadelphia, the life of the cause of liberty,
+     they say. A Friend, Collins, came to see us, and invited us
+     to dine on Thursday. We returned to our lodgings, and Mr.
+     Lynch, Mr. Gadsden, Mr. Middleton, and young Mr. Rutledge
+     came to visit us.
+
+     "31, Wednesday. Breakfasted at Mr. Bayard's, of
+     Philadelphia, with Mr. Sprout, a Presbyterian minister. Made
+     a visit to Governor Ward of Rhode Island, at his lodgings.
+     There we were introduced to several gentlemen. Mr.
+     Dickinson, the Farmer of Pennsylvania, came in his coach
+     with four beautiful horses to Mr. Ward's lodgings, to see
+     us.... We dined with Mr. Lynch, his lady and daughter, at
+     their lodgings, ... and a very agreeable dinner and
+     afternoon we had, notwithstanding the violent heat. We were
+     all vastly pleased with Mr. Lynch. He is a solid, firm,
+     judicious man.
+
+     "September 1, Thursday. This day we breakfasted at Mr.
+     Mifflin's. Mr. C. Thomson came in, and soon after Dr. Smith,
+     the famous Dr. Smith, the provost of the college.... We then
+     went to return visits to the gentlemen who had visited us.
+     We visited a Mr. Cadwallader, a gentleman of large fortune,
+     a grand and elegant house and furniture. We then visited Mr.
+     Powell, another splendid seat. We then visited the gentlemen
+     from South Carolina, and, about twelve, were introduced to
+     Mr. Galloway, the speaker of the House in Pennsylvania. We
+     dined at Friend Collins' ... with Governor Hopkins, Governor
+     Ward, Mr. Galloway, Mr. Rhoades, etc. In the evening all the
+     gentlemen of the Congress who were arrived in town, met at
+     Smith's, the new city tavern, and spent the evening
+     together. Twenty-five members were come. Virginia, North
+     Carolina, Maryland, and the city of New York were not
+     arrived.
+
+     "2, Friday. Dined at Mr. Thomas Mifflin's with Mr. Lynch,
+     Mr. Middleton, and the two Rutledges with their ladies....
+     We were very sociable and happy. After coffee we went to the
+     tavern, where we were introduced to Peyton Randolph,
+     Esquire, speaker of Virginia, Colonel Harrison, Richard
+     Henry Lee, Esquire, and Colonel Bland.... These gentlemen
+     from Virginia appear to be the most spirited and consistent
+     of any. Harrison said he would have come on foot rather than
+     not come. Bland said he would have gone, upon this occasion,
+     if it had been to Jericho.
+
+     "3, Saturday. Breakfasted at Dr. Shippen's; Dr. Witherspoon
+     was there. Col. R. H. Lee lodges there; he is a masterly
+     man.... We went with Mr. William Barrell to his store, and
+     drank punch, and ate dried smoked sprats with him; read the
+     papers and our letters from Boston; dined with Mr. Joseph
+     Reed, the lawyer; ... spent the evening at Mr. Mifflin's,
+     with Lee and Harrison from Virginia, the two Rutledges, Dr.
+     Witherspoon, Dr. Shippen, Dr. Steptoe, and another
+     gentleman; an elegant supper, and we drank sentiments till
+     eleven o'clock. Lee and Harrison were very high. Lee had
+     dined with Mr. Dickinson, and drank Burgundy the whole
+     afternoon."[106]
+
+Accordingly, at 10 o'clock on Monday morning, the 5th of September,
+when the delegates assembled at their rendezvous, the city tavern, and
+marched together through the streets to Carpenters' Hall, for most of
+them the stiffness of a first introduction was already broken, and
+they could greet one another that morning with something of the
+freedom and good fellowship of boon companions. Moreover, they were
+then ready to proceed to business under the advantage of having
+arranged beforehand an outline of what was first to be done. It had
+been discovered, apparently, that the first serious question which
+would meet them after their formal organization, was one relating to
+the method of voting in the Congress, namely, whether each deputy
+should have a vote, or only each colony; and if the latter, whether
+the vote of each colony should be proportioned to its population and
+property.
+
+Having arrived at the hall, and inspected it, and agreed that it would
+serve the purpose, the delegates helped themselves to seats. Then Mr.
+Lynch of South Carolina arose, and nominated Mr. Peyton Randolph of
+Virginia for president. This nomination having been unanimously
+adopted, Mr. Lynch likewise proposed Mr. Charles Thomson for
+secretary, which was carried without opposition; but as Mr. Thomson
+was not a delegate, and of course was not then present, the doorkeeper
+was instructed to go out and find him, and say to him that his
+immediate attendance was desired by the Congress.
+
+Next came the production and inspection of credentials. The roll
+indicated that of the fifty-two delegates appointed, forty-four were
+already upon the ground,--constituting an assemblage of representative
+Americans, which, for dignity of character and for intellectual
+eminence, was undoubtedly the most imposing that the colonies had ever
+seen. In that room that day were such men as John Sullivan, John and
+Samuel Adams, Stephen Hopkins, Roger Sherman, James Duane, John Jay,
+Philip and William Livingston, Joseph Galloway, Thomas Mifflin, Cćsar
+Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read, Samuel Chase, John and Edward
+Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Henry Middleton, Edmund Pendleton,
+George Washington, and Patrick Henry.
+
+Having thus got through with the mere routine of organization, which
+must have taken a considerable time, James Duane, of New York, moved
+the appointment of a committee "to prepare regulations for this
+Congress." To this several gentlemen objected; whereupon John Adams,
+thinking that Duane's purpose might have been misunderstood, "asked
+leave of the president to request of the gentleman from New York an
+explanation, and that he would point out some particular regulations
+which he had in his mind." In reply to this request, Duane "mentioned
+particularly the method of voting, whether it should be by colonies,
+or by the poll, or by interests."[107] Thus Duane laid his finger on
+perhaps the most sensitive nerve in that assemblage; but as he sat
+down, the discussion of the subject which he had mentioned was
+interrupted by a rather curious incident. This was the return of the
+doorkeeper, having under his escort Mr. Charles Thomson. The latter
+walked up the aisle, and standing opposite to the president, said,
+with a bow, that he awaited his pleasure. The president replied:
+"Congress desire the favor of you, sir, to take their minutes."
+Without a word, only bowing his acquiescence, the secretary took his
+seat at his desk, and began those modest but invaluable services from
+which he did not cease until the Congress of the Confederation was
+merged into that of the Union.
+
+The discussion, into which this incident had fallen as a momentary
+episode, was then resumed. "After a short silence," says the man who
+was thus inducted into office, "Patrick Henry arose to speak. I did
+not then know him. He was dressed in a suit of parson's gray, and from
+his appearance I took him for a Presbyterian clergyman, used to
+haranguing the people. He observed that we were here met in a time and
+on an occasion of great difficulty and distress; that our public
+circumstances were like those of a man in deep embarrassment and
+trouble, who had called his friends together to devise what was best
+to be done for his relief;--one would propose one thing, and another a
+different one, whilst perhaps a third would think of something better
+suited to his unhappy circumstances, which he would embrace, and think
+no more of the rejected schemes with which he would have nothing to
+do."[108]
+
+Such is the rather meagre account, as given by one ear-witness, of
+Patrick Henry's first speech in the Congress of 1774. From another
+ear-witness we have another account, likewise very meagre, but giving,
+probably, a somewhat more adequate idea of the drift and point of what
+he said:--
+
+     "Mr. Henry then arose, and said this was the first general
+     congress which had ever happened; that no former congress
+     could be a precedent; that we should have occasion for more
+     general congresses, and therefore that a precedent ought to
+     be established now; that it would be a great injustice if a
+     little colony should have the same weight in the councils of
+     America as a great one; and therefore he was for a
+     committee."[109]
+
+The notable thing about both these accounts is that they agree in
+showing Patrick Henry's first speech in Congress to have been not, as
+has been represented, an impassioned portrayal of "general
+grievances," but a plain and quiet handling of a mere "detail of
+business." In the discussion he was followed by John Sullivan, who
+merely observed that "a little colony had its all at stake as well as
+a great one." The floor was then taken by John Adams, who seems to
+have made a searching and vigorous argument,--exhibiting the great
+difficulties attending any possible conclusion to which they might
+come respecting the method of voting. At the end of his speech,
+apparently, the House adjourned, to resume the consideration of the
+subject on the following day.[110]
+
+Accordingly, on Tuesday morning the discussion was continued, and at
+far greater length than on the previous day; the first speaker being
+Patrick Henry himself, who seems now to have gone into the subject far
+more broadly, and with much greater intensity of thought, than in his
+first speech.
+
+     "'Government,' said he, 'is dissolved. Fleets and armies and
+     the present state of things show that government is
+     dissolved. Where are your landmarks, your boundaries of
+     colonies? We are in a state of nature, sir. I did propose
+     that a scale should be laid down; that part of North America
+     which was once Massachusetts Bay, and that part which was
+     once Virginia, ought to be considered as having a weight.
+     Will not people complain,--"Ten thousand Virginians have not
+     outweighed one thousand others?"
+
+     "'I will submit, however; I am determined to submit, if I am
+     overruled.
+
+     "'A worthy gentleman near me [John Adams] seemed to admit
+     the necessity of obtaining a more adequate representation.
+
+     "'I hope future ages will quote our proceedings with
+     applause. It is one of the great duties of the democratical
+     part of the constitution to keep itself pure. It is known in
+     my province that some other colonies are not so numerous or
+     rich as they are. I am for giving all the satisfaction in my
+     power.
+
+     "'The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New
+     Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a
+     Virginian, but an American.
+
+     "'Slaves are to be thrown out of the question; and if the
+     freemen can be represented according to their numbers, I am
+     satisfied.'
+
+     "The subject was then debated at length by Lynch, Rutledge,
+     Ward, Richard Henry Lee, Gadsden, Bland, and Pendleton, when
+     Patrick Henry again rose:--
+
+     "'I agree that authentic accounts cannot be had, if by
+     authenticity is meant attestations of officers of the crown.
+     I go upon the supposition that government is at an end. All
+     distinctions are thrown down. All America is thrown into one
+     mass. We must aim at the minutić of rectitude.'"
+
+Patrick Henry was then followed by John Jay, who seems to have closed
+the debate, and whose allusion to what his immediate predecessor had
+said gives us some hint of the variations in Revolutionary opinion
+then prevailing among the members, as well as of the advanced position
+always taken by Patrick Henry:--
+
+     "'Could I suppose that we came to frame an American
+     constitution, instead of endeavoring to correct the faults
+     in an old one, I can't yet think that all government is at
+     an end. The measure of arbitrary power is not full; and I
+     think it must run over, before we undertake to frame a new
+     constitution. To the virtue, spirit, and abilities of
+     Virginia we owe much. I should always, therefore, from
+     inclination as well as justice, be for giving Virginia its
+     full weight. I am not clear that we ought not to be bound by
+     a majority, though ever so small; but I only mentioned it as
+     a matter of danger worthy of consideration.'"[111]
+
+Of this entire debate, the most significant issue is indicated by the
+following passage from the journal for Tuesday, the 6th of
+September:--
+
+     "_Resolved_, that in determining questions in this Congress,
+     each colony or province shall have one vote; the Congress
+     not being possessed of, or at present able to procure,
+     proper materials for ascertaining the importance of each
+     colony."[112]
+
+So far as it is now possible to ascertain it, such was Patrick Henry's
+part in the first discussion held by the first Continental
+Congress,--a discussion occupying parts of two days, and relating
+purely to methods of procedure by that body, and not to the matters of
+grievance between the colonies and Great Britain. We have a right to
+infer something as to the quality of the first impression made upon
+his associates by Patrick Henry in consequence of his three speeches
+in this discussion, from the fact that when, at the close of it, an
+order was taken for the appointment of two grand committees, one "to
+state the rights of the colonies," the other "to examine and report
+the several statutes which affect the trade and manufactures of the
+colonies," Patrick Henry was chosen to represent Virginia on the
+latter committee,[113]--a position not likely to have been selected
+for a man who, however eloquent he may have seemed, had not also shown
+business-like and lawyer-like qualities.
+
+The Congress kept steadily at work from Monday, the 5th of September,
+to Wednesday, the 26th of October,--just seven weeks and two days.
+Though not a legislative body, it resembled all legislative bodies
+then in existence, in the fact that it sat with closed doors, and that
+it gave to the public only such results as it chose to give. Upon the
+difficult and exciting subjects which came before it, there were, very
+likely, many splendid passages of debate; and we cannot doubt that in
+all these discussions Patrick Henry took his usually conspicuous and
+powerful share. Yet no official record was kept of what was said by
+any member; and it is only from the hurried private memoranda of two
+of his colleagues that we are able to learn anything more respecting
+Patrick Henry's participation in the debates of those seven weeks.
+
+For example, just two weeks after the opening of this Congress, one of
+its most critical members, Silas Deane of Connecticut, in a letter to
+his wife, gave some capital sketches of his more prominent associates
+there, especially those from the South,--as Randolph, Harrison,
+Washington, Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry. The
+latter he describes as "a lawyer, and the completest speaker I ever
+heard. If his future speeches are equal to the small samples he has
+hitherto given us, they will be worth preserving; but in a letter I
+can give you no idea of the music of his voice, or the high-wrought
+yet natural elegance of his style and manner."[114]
+
+It was on the 28th of September that Joseph Galloway brought forward
+his celebrated plan for a permanent reconciliation between Great
+Britain and her colonies. This was simply a scheme for what we should
+now call home rule, on a basis of colonial confederation, with an
+American parliament to be elected every three years by the
+legislatures of the several colonies, and with a governor-general to
+be appointed by the crown. The plan came very near to adoption.[115]
+The member who introduced it was a man of great ability and great
+influence; it was supported by James Duane and John Jay; it was
+pronounced by Edward Rutledge to be "almost a perfect plan;" and in
+the final trial it was lost only by a vote of six colonies to five.
+Could it have been adopted, the disruption of the British empire would
+certainly have been averted for that epoch, and, as an act of
+violence and of unkindness, would perhaps have been averted forever;
+while the thirteen English colonies would have remained English
+colonies, without ceasing to be free.
+
+The plan, however, was distrusted and resisted, with stern and
+implacable hostility, by the more radical members of the Congress,
+particularly by those from Massachusetts and Virginia; and an outline
+of what Patrick Henry said in his assault upon it, delivered on the
+very day on which it was introduced, is thus given by John Adams:--
+
+     "The original constitution of the colonies was founded on
+     the broadest and most generous base. The regulation of our
+     trade was compensation enough for all the protection we ever
+     experienced from her.
+
+     "We shall liberate our constituents from a corrupt House of
+     Commons, but throw them into the arms of an American
+     legislature, that may be bribed by that nation which avows,
+     in the face of the world, that bribery is a part of her
+     system of government.
+
+     "Before we are obliged to pay taxes as they do, let us be as
+     free as they; let us have our trade open with all the world.
+
+     "We are not to consent by the representatives of
+     representatives.
+
+     "I am inclined to think the present measures lead to
+     war."[116]
+
+The only other trace to be discovered of Patrick Henry's activity in
+the debates of this Congress belongs to the day just before the one
+on which Galloway's plan was introduced. The subject then under
+discussion was the measure for non-importation and non-exportation. On
+considerations of forbearance, Henry tried to have the date for the
+application of this measure postponed from November to December,
+saying, characteristically, "We don't mean to hurt even our rascals,
+if we have any."[117]
+
+Probably the most notable work done by this Congress was its
+preparation of those masterly state papers in which it interpreted and
+affirmed the constitutional attitude of the colonies, and which, when
+laid upon the table of the House of Lords, drew forth the splendid
+encomium of Chatham.[118] In many respects the most important, and
+certainly the most difficult, of these state papers, was the address
+to the king. The motion for such an address was made on the 1st of
+October. On the same day the preparation of it was entrusted to a very
+able committee, consisting of Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Thomas
+Johnson, Patrick Henry, and John Rutledge; and on the 21st of October
+the committee was strengthened by the accession of John Dickinson, who
+had entered the Congress but four days before.[119] Precisely what
+part Patrick Henry took in the preparation of this address is not now
+known; but there is no evidence whatever for the assertion[120] that
+the first draft, which, when submitted to Congress, proved to be
+unsatisfactory, was the work of Patrick Henry. That draft, as is now
+abundantly proved, was prepared by the chairman of the committee,
+Richard Henry Lee, but after full instructions from Congress and from
+the committee itself.[121] In its final form, the address was largely
+moulded by the expert and gentle hand of John Dickinson.[122] No one
+can doubt, however, that even though Patrick Henry may have
+contributed nothing to the literary execution of this fine address, he
+was not inactive in its construction,[123] and that he was not likely
+to have suggested any abatement from its free and manly spirit.
+
+The only other committee on which he is known to have served during
+this Congress was one to which his name was added on the 19th of
+September,--"the committee appointed to state the rights of the
+colonies,"[124] an object, certainly, far better suited to the
+peculiarities of his talents and of his temper than that of the
+committee for the conciliation of a king.
+
+Of course, the one gift in which Patrick Henry excelled all other men
+of his time and neighborhood was the gift of eloquence; and it is not
+to be doubted that in many other forms of effort, involving, for
+example, plain sense, practical experience, and knowledge of details,
+he was often equaled, and perhaps even surpassed, by men who had not a
+particle of his genius for oratory. This fact, the analogue of which
+is common in the history of all men of genius, seems to be the basis
+of an anecdote which, possibly, is authentic, and which, at any rate,
+has been handed down by one who was always a devoted friend[125] of
+the great orator. It is said that, after Henry and Lee had made their
+first speeches, Samuel Chase of Maryland was so impressed by their
+superiority that he walked over to the seat of one of his colleagues
+and said: "We might as well go home; we are not able to legislate with
+these men." But some days afterward, perhaps in the midst of the work
+of the committee on the statutes affecting trade and commerce, the
+same member was able to relieve himself by the remark: "Well, after
+all, I find these are but men, and, in mere matters of business, but
+very common men."[126]
+
+It seems hardly right to pass from these studies upon the first
+Continental Congress, and upon Patrick Henry's part in it, without
+some reference to Wirt's treatment of the subject in a book which has
+now been, for nearly three quarters of a century, the chief source of
+public information concerning Patrick Henry. There is perhaps no other
+portion of this book which is less worthy of respect.[127] It is not
+only unhistoric in nearly all the very few alleged facts of the
+narrative, but it does great injustice to Patrick Henry by
+representing him virtually as a mere declaimer, as an ill-instructed
+though most impressive rhapsodist in debate, and as without any claim
+to the character of a serious statesman, or even of a man of affairs;
+while, by the somewhat grandiose and melodramatic tone of some portion
+of the narrative, it is singularly out of harmony with the real tone
+of that famous assemblage,--an assemblage of Anglo-Saxon lawyers,
+politicians, and men of business, who were probably about as practical
+and sober-minded a company as had been got together for any manly
+undertaking since that of Runnymede.
+
+Wirt begins by convening his Congress one day too soon, namely, on the
+4th of September, which was Sunday; and he represents the members as
+"personally strangers" to one another, and as sitting, after their
+preliminary organization, in a "long and deep silence," the members
+meanwhile looking around upon each other with a sort of helpless
+anxiety, "every individual" being reluctant "to open a business so
+fearfully momentous." But
+
+     "in the midst of this deep and death-like silence, and just
+     when it was beginning to become painfully embarrassing, Mr.
+     Henry arose slowly, as if borne down by the weight of the
+     subject. After faltering, according to his habit, through a
+     most impressive exordium, in which he merely echoed back the
+     consciousness of every other heart in deploring his
+     inability to do justice to the occasion, he launched
+     gradually into a recital of the colonial wrongs. Rising, as
+     he advanced, with the grandeur of his subject, and glowing
+     at length with all the majesty and expectation of the
+     occasion, his speech seemed more than that of mortal man.
+     Even those who had heard him in all his glory in the House
+     of Burgesses of Virginia were astonished at the manner in
+     which his talents seemed to swell and expand themselves to
+     fill the vaster theatre in which he was now placed. There
+     was no rant, no rhapsody, no labor of the understanding, no
+     straining of the voice, no confusion of the utterance. His
+     countenance was erect, his eye steady, his action noble, his
+     enunciation clear and firm, his mind poised on its centre,
+     his views of his subject comprehensive and great, and his
+     imagination coruscating with a magnificence and a variety
+     which struck even that assembly with amazement and awe. He
+     sat down amidst murmurs of astonishment and applause; and,
+     as he had been before proclaimed the greatest orator of
+     Virginia, he was now on every hand admitted to be the first
+     orator of America."[128]
+
+This great speech from Patrick Henry, which certainly was not made on
+that occasion, and probably was never made at all, Wirt causes to be
+followed by a great speech from Richard Henry Lee, although the
+journal could have informed him that Lee was not even in the House on
+that day. Moreover, he makes Patrick Henry to be the author of the
+unfortunate first draft of the address to the king,--a document which
+was written by another man; and on this fiction he founds two or three
+pages of lamentation and of homily with reference to Patrick Henry's
+inability to express himself in writing, in consequence of "his early
+neglect of literature." Finally, he thinks it due "to historic truth
+to record that the superior powers" of Patrick Henry "were manifested
+only in debate;" and that, although he and Richard Henry Lee "took the
+undisputed lead in the Assembly," "during the first days of the
+session, while general grievances were the topic," yet they were both
+"completely thrown into the shade" "when called down from the heights
+of declamation to that severer test of intellectual excellence, the
+details of business,"--the writer here seeming to forget that "general
+grievances" were not the topic "during the first days of the session,"
+and that the very speeches by which these two men are said to have
+made their mark there, were speeches on mere rules of the House
+relating to methods of procedure.[129]
+
+Since the death of Wirt, and the publication of the biography of him
+by Kennedy, it has been possible for us to ascertain just how the
+genial author of "The Life and Character of Patrick Henry" came to be
+so gravely misled in this part of his book. "The whole passage
+relative to the first Congress" appears to have been composed from
+data furnished by Jefferson, who, however, was not a member of that
+Congress; and in the original manuscript the very words of Jefferson
+were surrounded with quotation marks, and were attributed to him by
+name. When, however, that great man, who loved not to send out
+calumnies into the world with his own name attached to them, came to
+inspect this portion of Wirt's manuscript, he was moved by his usual
+prudence to write such a letter as drew from Wirt the following
+consolatory assurance:--
+
+     "Your repose shall never be endangered by any act of mine,
+     if I can help it. Immediately on the receipt of your last
+     letter, and before the manuscript had met any other eye, I
+     wrote over again the whole passage relative to the first
+     Congress, omitting the marks of quotation, and removing your
+     name altogether from the communication."[130]
+
+The final adjournment of the first Continental Congress, it will be
+remembered, did not occur until its members had spent together more
+than seven weeks of the closest intellectual intimacy. Surely, no mere
+declaimer however enchanting, no sublime babbler on the rights of man,
+no political charlatan strutting about for the display of his
+preternatural gift of articulate wind, could have grappled in keen
+debate, for all those weeks, on the greatest of earthly subjects, with
+fifty of the ablest men in America, without exposing to their view all
+his own intellectual poverty, and without losing the very last shred
+of their intellectual respect for him. Whatever may have been the
+impression formed of Patrick Henry as a mere orator by his associates
+in that Congress, nothing can be plainer than that those men carried
+with them to their homes that report of him as a man of extraordinary
+intelligence, integrity, and power, which was the basis of his
+subsequent fame for many years among the American people. Long
+afterward, John Adams, who formed his estimate of Patrick Henry
+chiefly from what he saw of him in that Congress, and who was never
+much addicted to bestowing eulogiums on any man but John Adams, wrote
+to Jefferson that "in the Congress of 1774 there was not one member,
+except Patrick Henry, who appeared ... sensible of the precipice, or
+rather the pinnacle, on which we stood, and had candor and courage
+enough to acknowledge it."[131] To Wirt likewise, a few years later,
+the same hard critic of men testified that Patrick Henry always
+impressed him as a person "of deep reflection, keen sagacity, clear
+foresight, daring enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted
+integrity, with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the honor, and
+felicity of his country and his species."[132]
+
+Of the parting interview between these two men, at the close of that
+first period of thorough personal acquaintance, there remains from the
+hand of one of them a graphic account that reveals to us something of
+the conscious kinship which seems ever afterward to have bound
+together their robust and impetuous natures.
+
+     "When Congress," says John Adams, "had finished their
+     business, as they thought, in the autumn of 1774, I had with
+     Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar
+     conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction that
+     our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of wrongs,
+     petitions, remonstrances, and addresses, associations, and
+     non-importation agreements, however they might be expected
+     by the people in America, and however necessary to cement
+     the union of the colonies, would be but waste paper in
+     England. Mr. Henry said they might make some impression
+     among the people of England, but agreed with me that they
+     would be totally lost upon the government. I had but just
+     received a short and hasty letter, written to me by Major
+     Hawley, of Northampton, containing 'a few broken hints,' as
+     he called them, of what he thought was proper to be done,
+     and concluding[133] with these words: 'After all, we must
+     fight.' This letter I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with
+     great attention; and as soon as I had pronounced the words,
+     'After all, we must fight,' he raised his head, and with an
+     energy and vehemence that I can never forget, broke out
+     with: 'By God, I am of that man's mind!'"[134]
+
+This anecdote, it may be mentioned, contains the only instance on
+record, for any period of Patrick Henry's life, implying his use of
+what at first may seem a profane oath. John Adams, upon whose very
+fallible memory in old age the story rests, declares that he did not
+at the time regard Patrick Henry's words as an oath, but rather as a
+solemn asseveration, affirmed religiously, upon a very great occasion.
+At any rate, that asseveration proved to be a prophecy; for from it
+there then leaped a flame that lighted up for an instant the next
+inevitable stage in the evolution of events,--the tragic and bloody
+outcome of all these wary lucubrations and devices of the assembled
+political wizards of America.
+
+It is interesting to note that, at the very time when the Congress at
+Philadelphia was busy with its stern work, the people of Virginia were
+grappling with the peril of an Indian war assailing them from beyond
+their western mountains. There has recently been brought to light a
+letter written at Hanover, on the 15th of October, 1774, by the aged
+mother of Patrick Henry, to a friend living far out towards the
+exposed district; and this letter is a touching memorial both of the
+general anxiety over the two concurrent events, and of the motherly
+pride and piety of the writer:--
+
+     "My son Patrick has been gone to Philadelphia near seven
+     weeks. The affairs of Congress are kept with great secrecy,
+     nobody being allowed to be present. I assure you we have our
+     lowland troubles and fears with respect to Great Britain.
+     Perhaps our good God may bring good to us out of these many
+     evils which threaten us, not only from the mountains but
+     from the seas."[135]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[102] _Washington's Writings_, ii. 503.
+
+[103] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 357.
+
+[104] Meade, _Old Churches and Families of Va._ i. 220, 221.
+
+[105] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 361.
+
+[106] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 357-364.
+
+[107] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 365.
+
+[108] _Am. Quarterly Review_, i. 30, whence it is quoted in _Works of
+John Adams_, iii. 29, 30, note. As regards the value of this testimony
+of Charles Thomson, we should note that it is something alleged to
+have been said by him at the age of ninety, in a conversation with a
+friend, and by the latter reported to the author of the article above
+cited in the _Am. Quart. Rev._
+
+[109] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 365.
+
+[110] It seems to me that the second paragraph on page 366 of volume
+ii. of the _Works of John Adams_ must be taken as his memorandum of
+his own speech; and that what follows on that page, as well as on page
+367, and the first half of page 368, is erroneously understood by the
+editor as belonging to the first day's debate. It must have been an
+outline of the second day's debate. This is proved partly by the fact
+that it mentions Lee as taking part in the debate; but according to
+the journal, Lee did not appear in Congress until the second day. 4
+_Am. Arch._ i. 898.
+
+[111] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 366-368.
+
+[112] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 898, 899.
+
+[113] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 899.
+
+[114] _Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll._ ii. 181.
+
+[115] The text of Galloway's plan is given in 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 905,
+906.
+
+[116] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 390.
+
+[117] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 385.
+
+[118] Hansard, _Parl. Hist._ xviii. 155, 156 note, 157.
+
+[119] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 906, 907, 927.
+
+[120] Wirt, 109.
+
+[121] _Works of John Adams_, x. 79; ii. 396, note; Lee's _Life of R.
+H. Lee_, i. 116-118, 270-272.
+
+[122] _Political Writings_, ii. 19-29.
+
+[123] Thus John Adams, on 11th October, writes: "Spent the evening
+with Mr. Henry at his lodgings consulting about a petition to the
+king." _Works_, ii. 396.
+
+[124] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 904.
+
+[125] Judge John Tyler, in Wirt, 109, note.
+
+[126] For another form of this tradition, see Curtis's _Life of
+Webster_, i. 588.
+
+[127] Pages 105-113.
+
+[128] Wirt, 105, 106.
+
+[129] The exact rules under debate during those first two days are
+given in 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 898, 899.
+
+[130] Kennedy, _Mem. of Wirt_, i. 364.
+
+[131] _Works of John Adams_, x. 78.
+
+[132] _Ibid._ x. 277.
+
+[133] As a matter of fact, the letter from Hawley began with these
+words, instead of "concluding" with them.
+
+[134] _Works of John Adams_, x. 277, 278.
+
+[135] Peyton, _History of Augusta County_, 345, where will be found
+the entire letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+"AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT"
+
+
+We now approach that brilliant passage in the life of Patrick Henry
+when, in the presence of the second revolutionary convention of
+Virginia, he proclaimed the futility of all further efforts for peace,
+and the instant necessity of preparing for war.
+
+The speech which he is said to have made on that occasion has been
+committed to memory and declaimed by several generations of American
+schoolboys, and is now perhaps familiarly known to a larger number of
+the American people than any other considerable bit of secular prose
+in our language. The old church at Richmond, in which he made this
+marvelous speech, is in our time visited every year, as a patriotic
+shrine, by thousands of pilgrims, who seek curiously the very spot
+upon the floor where the orator is believed to have stood when he
+uttered those words of flame. It is chiefly the tradition of that one
+speech which to-day keeps alive, in millions of American homes, the
+name of Patrick Henry, and which lifts him, in the popular faith,
+almost to the rank of some mythical hero of romance.
+
+In reality, that speech, and the resolutions in support of which that
+speech was made, constituted Patrick Henry's individual declaration of
+war against Great Britain. But the question is: To what extent, if
+any, was he therein original, or even in advance of his
+fellow-countrymen, and particularly of his associates in the Virginia
+convention?
+
+It is essential to a just understanding of the history of that crisis
+in revolutionary thought, and it is of very high importance, likewise,
+to the historic position of Patrick Henry, that no mistake be
+committed here; especially that he be not made the victim of a
+disastrous reaction from any overstatement[136] respecting the precise
+nature and extent of the service then rendered by him to the cause of
+the Revolution.
+
+We need, therefore, to glance for a moment at the period between
+October, 1774, and March, 1775, with the purpose of tracing therein
+the more important tokens of the growth of the popular conviction that
+a war with Great Britain had become inevitable, and was to be
+immediately prepared for by the several colonies,--two propositions
+which form the substance of all that Patrick Henry said on the great
+occasion now before us.
+
+As early as the 21st of October, 1774, the first Continental
+Congress, after having suggested all possible methods for averting
+war, made this solemn declaration to the people of the colonies: "We
+think ourselves bound in duty to observe to you that the schemes
+agitated against these colonies have been so conducted as to render it
+prudent that you should extend your views to mournful events, and be
+in all respects prepared for every emergency."[137] Just six days
+later, John Dickinson, a most conservative and peace-loving member of
+that Congress, wrote to an American friend in England: "I wish for
+peace ardently; but must say, delightful as it is, it will come more
+grateful by being unexpected. The first act of violence on the part of
+administration in America, or the attempt to reinforce General Gage
+this winter or next year, will put the whole continent in arms, from
+Nova Scotia to Georgia."[138] On the following day, the same prudent
+statesman wrote to another American friend, also in England: "The most
+peaceful provinces are now animated; and a civil war is unavoidable,
+unless there be a quick change of British measures."[139] On the 29th
+of October, the eccentric Charles Lee, who was keenly watching the
+symptoms of colonial discontent and resistance, wrote from
+Philadelphia to an English nobleman: "Virginia, Rhode Island, and
+Carolina are forming corps. Massachusetts Bay has long had a
+sufficient number instructed to become instructive of the rest. Even
+this Quakering province is following the example.... In short, unless
+the banditti at Westminster speedily undo everything they have done,
+their royal paymaster will hear of reviews and manoeuvres not quite so
+entertaining as those he is presented with in Hyde Park and Wimbledon
+Common."[140] On the 1st of November, a gentleman in Maryland wrote to
+a kinsman in Glasgow: "The province of Virginia is raising one company
+in every county.... This province has taken the hint, and has begun to
+raise men in every county also; and to the northward they have large
+bodies, capable of acquitting themselves with honor in the
+field."[141] At about the same time, the General Assembly of
+Connecticut ordered that every town should at once supply itself with
+"double the quantity of powder, balls, and flints" that had been
+hitherto required by law.[142] On the 5th of November, the officers of
+the Virginia troops accompanying Lord Dunmore on his campaign against
+the Indians held a meeting at Fort Gower, on the Ohio River, and
+passed this resolution: "That we will exert every power within us for
+the defence of American liberty, and for the support of her just
+rights and privileges, not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous
+manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our
+countrymen."[143] Not far from the same time, the people of Rhode
+Island carried off to Providence from the batteries at Newport
+forty-four pieces of cannon; and the governor frankly told the
+commander of a British naval force near at hand that they had done
+this in order to prevent these cannon from falling into his hands, and
+with the purpose of using them against "any power that might offer to
+molest the colony."[144] Early in December, the Provincial Convention
+of Maryland recommended that all persons between sixteen and fifty
+years of age should form themselves into military companies, and "be
+in readiness to act on any emergency,"--with a sort of grim humor
+prefacing their recommendation by this exquisite morsel of
+argumentative irony:--
+
+     "_Resolved_ unanimously, that a well-regulated militia,
+     composed of the gentlemen freeholders and other freemen, is
+     the natural strength and only stable security of a free
+     government; and that such militia will relieve our mother
+     country from any expense in our protection and defence, will
+     obviate the pretence of a necessity for taxing us on that
+     account, and render it unnecessary to keep any standing
+     army--ever dangerous to liberty--in this province."[145]
+
+The shrewdness of this courteous political thrust on the part of the
+convention of Maryland seems to have been so heartily relished by
+others that it was thenceforward used again and again by similar
+conventions elsewhere; and in fact, for the next few months, these
+sentences became almost the stereotyped formula by which revolutionary
+assemblages justified the arming and drilling of the militia,--as,
+for example, that of Newcastle County, Delaware,[146] on the 21st of
+December; that of Fairfax County, Virginia,[147] on the 17th of
+January, 1775; and that of Augusta County, Virginia,[148] on the 22d
+of February.
+
+In the mean time Lord Dunmore was not blind to all these military
+preparations in Virginia; and so early as the 24th of December, 1774,
+he had written to the Earl of Dartmouth: "Every county, besides, is
+now arming a company of men, whom they call an independent company,
+for the avowed purpose of protecting their committees, and to be
+employed against government, if occasion require."[149] Moreover, this
+alarming fact of military preparation, which Lord Dunmore had thus
+reported concerning Virginia, could have been reported with equal
+truth concerning nearly every other colony. In the early part of
+January, 1775, the Assembly of Connecticut gave order that the entire
+militia of that colony should be mustered every week.[150] In the
+latter part of January, the provincial convention of Pennsylvania,
+though representing a colony of Quakers, boldly proclaimed that, if
+the administration "should determine by force to effect a submission
+to the late arbitrary acts of the British Parliament," it would
+"resist such force, and at every hazard ... defend the rights and
+liberties of America."[151] On the 15th of February, the Provincial
+Congress of Massachusetts urged the people to "spare neither time,
+pains, nor expense, at so critical a juncture, in perfecting
+themselves forthwith in military discipline."[152]
+
+When, therefore, so late as Monday, the 20th of March, 1775, the
+second revolutionary convention of Virginia assembled at Richmond, its
+members were well aware that one of the chief measures to come before
+them for consideration must be that of recognizing the local military
+preparations among their own constituents, and of placing them all
+under some common organization and control. Accordingly, on Thursday,
+the 23d of March, after three days had been given to necessary
+preliminary subjects, the inevitable subject of military preparations
+was reached. Then it was that Patrick Henry took the floor and moved
+the adoption of the following resolutions, supporting his motion,
+undoubtedly, with a speech:--
+
+     "_Resolved_, That a well-regulated militia, composed of
+     gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength and only
+     security of a free government; that such a militia in this
+     colony would forever render it unnecessary for the mother
+     country to keep among us for the purpose of our defence any
+     standing army of mercenary forces, always subversive of the
+     quiet and dangerous to the liberties of the people, and
+     would obviate the pretext of taxing us for their support.
+
+     "_Resolved_, That the establishment of such a militia is at
+     this time peculiarly necessary, by the state of our laws for
+     the protection and defence of the country, some of which
+     have already expired, and others will shortly do so; and
+     that the known remissness of government in calling us
+     together in a legislative capacity, renders it too insecure,
+     in this time of danger and distress, to rely that
+     opportunity will be given of renewing them in general
+     assembly, or making any provision to secure our inestimable
+     rights and liberties from those further violations with
+     which they are threatened.
+
+     "_Resolved, therefore_, That this colony be immediately put
+     into a posture of defence; and that ... be a committee to
+     prepare a plan for the embodying, arming, and disciplining
+     such a number of men as may be sufficient for that
+     purpose."[153]
+
+No one who reads these resolutions in the light of the facts just
+given, can find in them anything by which to account for the
+opposition which they are known to have met with in that assemblage.
+For that assemblage, it must be remembered, was not the Virginia
+legislature: it was a mere convention, and a revolutionary convention
+at that, gathered in spite of the objections of Lord Dunmore,
+representing simply the deliberate purpose of those Virginians who
+meant not finally to submit to unjust laws; some of its members,
+likewise, being under express instructions from their constituents to
+take measures for the immediate and adequate military organization of
+the colony. Not a man, probably, was sent to that convention, not a
+man surely would have gone to it, who was not in substantial sympathy
+with the prevailing revolutionary spirit.
+
+Of course, even they who were in sympathy with that spirit might have
+objected to Patrick Henry's resolutions, had those resolutions been
+marked by any startling novelty in doctrine, or by anything extreme or
+violent in expression. But, plainly, they were neither extreme nor
+violent; they were not even novel. They contained nothing essential
+which had not been approved, in almost the same words, more than three
+months before, by similar conventions in Maryland and in Delaware;
+which had not been approved, in almost the same words, many weeks
+before, by county conventions in Virginia,--in one instance, by a
+county convention presided over by Washington himself; which had not
+been approved, in other language, either weeks or months before, by
+Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and other
+colonies; which was not sanctioned by the plainest prudence on the
+part of all persons who intended to make any further stand whatsoever
+against the encroachments of Parliament. It is safe to say that no man
+who had within him enough of the revolutionary spirit to have prompted
+his attendance at a revolutionary convention could have objected to
+any essential item in Patrick Henry's resolutions.
+
+Why, then, were they objected to? Why was their immediate passage
+resisted? The official journal of the convention throws no light upon
+the question: it records merely the adoption of the resolutions, and
+is entirely silent respecting any discussion that they may have
+provoked. Thirty years afterward, however, St. George Tucker, who,
+though not a member of this convention, had yet as a visitor watched
+its proceedings that day, gave from memory some account of them; and
+to him we are indebted for the names of the principal men who stood
+out against Patrick Henry's motion. "This produced," he says, "an
+animated debate, in which Colonel Richard Bland, Mr. Nicholas, the
+treasurer, and I think Colonel Harrison, of Berkeley, and Mr.
+Pendleton, were opposed to the resolution, as conceiving it to be
+premature;"[154] all these men being prudent politicians, indeed, but
+all fully committed to the cause of the Revolution.
+
+At first, this testimony may seem to leave us as much in the dark as
+before; and yet all who are familiar with the politics of Virginia at
+that period will see in this cluster of names some clew to the secret
+of their opposition. It was an opposition to Patrick Henry himself,
+and as far as possible to any measure of which he should be the
+leading champion. Yet even this is not enough. Whatever may have been
+their private motives in resisting a measure advocated by Patrick
+Henry, they must still have had some reason which they would be
+willing to assign. St. George Tucker tells us that they conceived his
+resolutions to be "premature." But in themselves his resolutions, so
+far from being premature, were rather tardy; they lagged weeks and
+even months behind many of the best counties in Virginia itself, as
+well as behind those other colonies to which in political feeling
+Virginia was always most nearly akin.
+
+The only possible explanation of the case seems to be found, not in
+the resolutions themselves, but in the special interpretation put upon
+them by Patrick Henry in the speech which, according to parliamentary
+usage, he seems to have made in moving their adoption. What was that
+interpretation? In the true answer to that question, no doubt, lies
+the secret of the resistance which his motion encountered. For, down
+to that day, no public body in America, and no public man, had openly
+spoken of a war with Great Britain in any more decisive way than as a
+thing highly probable, indeed, but still not inevitable. At last
+Patrick Henry spoke of it, and he wanted to induce the convention of
+Virginia to speak of it, as a thing inevitable. Others had said, "The
+war must come, and will come,--unless certain things are done."
+Patrick Henry, brushing away every prefix or suffix of uncertainty,
+every half-despairing "if," every fragile and pathetic "unless,"
+exclaimed, in the hearing of all men: "Why talk of things being now
+done which can avert the war? Such things will not be done. The war is
+coming: it has come already." Accordingly, other conventions in the
+colonies, in adopting similar resolutions, had merely announced the
+probability of war. Patrick Henry would have this convention, by
+adopting his resolutions, virtually declare war itself.
+
+In this alone, it is apparent, consisted the real priority and
+offensiveness of Patrick Henry's position as a revolutionary statesman
+on the 23d of March, 1775. In this alone were his resolutions
+"premature." The very men who opposed them because they were to be
+understood as closing the door against the possibility of peace, would
+have favored them had they only left that door open, or even ajar. But
+Patrick Henry demanded of the people of Virginia that they should
+treat all further talk of peace as mere prattle; that they should
+seize the actual situation by a bold grasp of it in front; that,
+looking upon the war as a fact, they should instantly proceed to get
+ready for it. And therein, once more, in revolutionary ideas, was
+Patrick Henry one full step in advance of his contemporaries. Therein,
+once more, did he justify the reluctant praise of Jefferson, who was a
+member of that convention, and who, nearly fifty years afterward, said
+concerning Patrick Henry to a great statesman from Massachusetts:
+"After all, it must be allowed that he was our leader in the measures
+of the Revolution in Virginia, and in that respect more is due to him
+than to any other person.... He left all of us far behind."[155]
+
+Such, at any rate, we have a right to suppose, was the substantial
+issue presented by the resolutions of Patrick Henry, and by his
+introductory speech in support of them; and upon this issue the little
+group of politicians--able and patriotic men, who always opposed his
+leadership--then arrayed themselves against him, making the most,
+doubtless, of everything favoring the possibility and the
+desirableness of a peaceful adjustment of the great dispute. But their
+opposition to him only produced the usual result,--of arousing him to
+an effort which simply overpowered and scattered all further
+resistance. It was in review of their whole quivering platoon of hopes
+and fears, of doubts, cautions, and delays, that he then made the
+speech which seems to have wrought astonishing effects upon those who
+heard it, and which, though preserved in a most inadequate report, now
+fills so great a space in the traditions of revolutionary eloquence:--
+
+     "'No man, Mr. President, thinks more highly than I do of the
+     patriotism, as well as the abilities, of the very honorable
+     gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different
+     men often see the same subject in different lights; and,
+     therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to
+     those gentlemen if, entertaining, as I do, opinions of a
+     character very opposite to theirs, I should speak forth my
+     sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for
+     ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful
+     moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as
+     nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery. And in
+     proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the
+     freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can
+     hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility
+     which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my
+     opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I
+     should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my
+     country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty of
+     Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
+
+     "'Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the
+     illusions of Hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a
+     painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she
+     transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men,
+     engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we
+     disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see
+     not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly
+     concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever
+     anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the
+     whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
+
+     "'I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that
+     is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of
+     the future but by the past. And, judging by the past, I wish
+     to know what there has been in the conduct of the British
+     ministry, for the last ten years, to justify those hopes
+     with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves
+     and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our
+     petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it
+     will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be
+     betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious
+     reception of our petition comports with those warlike
+     preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are
+     fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and
+     reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be
+     reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our
+     love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the
+     implements of war and subjugation,--the last arguments to
+     which kings resort.
+
+     "'I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if
+     its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen
+     assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain
+     any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this
+     accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none.
+     They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They
+     are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which
+     the British ministry have been so long forging.
+
+     "'And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument?
+     Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have
+     we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have
+     held the subject up in every light of which it is capable;
+     but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty,
+     and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have
+     not been already exhausted?
+
+     "'Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.
+     Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the
+     storm which is now coming on. 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. Our petitions have been slighted; our
+     remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult;
+     our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been
+     spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne.
+
+     "'In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope
+     of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for
+     hope. 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! I repeat it, sir,--we must fight! An appeal to
+     arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us.'"
+
+Up to this point in his address, the orator seems to have spoken with
+great deliberation and self-restraint. St. George Tucker, who was
+present, and who has left a written statement of his recollections
+both of the speech and of the scene, says:--
+
+     "It was on that occasion that I first felt a full impression
+     of Mr. Henry's powers. In vain should I attempt to give any
+     idea of his speech. He was calm and collected; touched upon
+     the origin and progress of the dispute between Great Britain
+     and the colonies, the various conciliatory measures adopted
+     by the latter, and the uniformly increasing tone of violence
+     and arrogance on the part of the former."
+
+Then follows, in Tucker's narrative, the passage included in the last
+two paragraphs of the speech as given above, after which he adds:--
+
+     "Imagine to yourself this speech delivered with all the calm
+     dignity of Cato of Utica; imagine to yourself the Roman
+     senate assembled in the capitol when it was entered by the
+     profane Gauls, who at first were awed by their presence as
+     if they had entered an assembly of the gods; imagine that
+     you heard that Cato addressing such a senate; imagine that
+     you saw the handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar's palace;
+     imagine you heard a voice as from heaven uttering the words,
+     'We must fight!' as the doom of fate,--and you may have some
+     idea of the speaker, the assembly to whom he addressed
+     himself, and the auditory of which I was one."[156]
+
+But, by a comparison of this testimony of St. George Tucker with that
+of others who heard the speech, it is made evident that, as the orator
+then advanced toward the conclusion and real climax of his argument,
+he no longer maintained "the calm dignity of Cato of Utica," but that
+his manner gradually deepened into an intensity of passion and a
+dramatic power which were overwhelming. He thus continued:--
+
+     "'They tell us, sir, that we are weak,--unable to cope with
+     so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger?
+     Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when
+     we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be
+     stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by
+     irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of
+     effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and
+     hugging the delusive phantom of Hope, until our enemies
+     shall have bound us hand and foot?
+
+     "'Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those
+     means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
+     Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of
+     liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are
+     invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
+
+     "'Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There
+     is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations,
+     and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
+     The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone: it is to the
+     vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no
+     election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too
+     late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in
+     submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their
+     clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is
+     inevitable. And let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
+
+     "'It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may
+     cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. The war is actually
+     begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring
+     to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are
+     already in the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it
+     that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear,
+     or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains
+     and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
+     others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me
+     death!'"
+
+Of this tremendous speech there are in existence two traditional
+descriptions, neither of which is inconsistent with the testimony
+given by St. George Tucker. He, as a lawyer and a judge, seems to have
+retained the impression of that portion of the speech which was the
+more argumentative and unimpassioned: the two other reporters seem to
+have remembered especially its later and more emotional passages. Our
+first traditional description was obtained by Henry Stephens Randall
+from a clergyman, who had it from an aged friend, also a clergyman,
+who heard the speech itself:--
+
+     "Henry rose with an unearthly fire burning in his eye. He
+     commenced somewhat calmly, but the smothered excitement
+     began more and more to play upon his features and thrill in
+     the tones of his voice. The tendons of his neck stood out
+     white and rigid like whip-cords. His voice rose louder and
+     louder, until the walls of the building, and all within
+     them, seemed to shake and rock in its tremendous vibrations.
+     Finally, his pale face and glaring eye became terrible to
+     look upon. Men leaned forward in their seats, with their
+     heads strained forward, their faces pale, and their eyes
+     glaring like the speaker's. His last exclamation, 'Give me
+     liberty, or give me death!' was like the shout of the leader
+     which turns back the rout of battle. The old man from whom
+     this tradition was derived added that, 'when the orator sat
+     down, he himself felt sick with excitement. Every eye yet
+     gazed entranced on Henry. It seemed as if a word from him
+     would have led to any wild explosion of violence. Men looked
+     beside themselves.'"[157]
+
+The second traditional description of the speech is here given from a
+manuscript[158] of Edward Fontaine, who obtained it in 1834 from John
+Roane, who himself heard the speech. Roane told Fontaine that the
+orator's "voice, countenance, and gestures gave an irresistible force
+to his words, which no description could make intelligible to one who
+had never seen him, nor heard him speak;" but, in order to convey some
+notion of the orator's manner, Roane described the delivery of the
+closing sentences of the speech:--
+
+     "You remember, sir, the conclusion of the speech, so often
+     declaimed in various ways by school-boys,--'Is life so dear,
+     or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains
+     and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
+     others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me
+     death!' He gave each of these words a meaning which is not
+     conveyed by the reading or delivery of them in the ordinary
+     way. When he said, 'Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as
+     to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?' he
+     stood in the attitude of a condemned galley slave, loaded
+     with fetters, awaiting his doom. His form was bowed; his
+     wrists were crossed; his manacles were almost visible as he
+     stood like an embodiment of helplessness and agony. After a
+     solemn pause, he raised his eyes and chained hands towards
+     heaven, and prayed, in words and tones which thrilled every
+     heart, 'Forbid it, Almighty God!' He then turned towards the
+     timid loyalists of the House, who were quaking with terror
+     at the idea of the consequences of participating in
+     proceedings which would be visited with the penalties of
+     treason by the British crown; and he slowly bent his form
+     yet nearer to the earth, and said, 'I know not what course
+     others may take,' and he accompanied the words with his
+     hands still crossed, while he seemed to be weighed down with
+     additional chains. The man appeared transformed into an
+     oppressed, heart-broken, and hopeless felon. After
+     remaining in this posture of humiliation long enough to
+     impress the imagination with the condition of the colony
+     under the iron heel of military despotism, he arose proudly,
+     and exclaimed, 'but as for me,'--and the words hissed
+     through his clenched teeth, while his body was thrown back,
+     and every muscle and tendon was strained against the fetters
+     which bound him, and, with his countenance distorted by
+     agony and rage, he looked for a moment like Laocoön in a
+     death struggle with coiling serpents; then the loud, clear,
+     triumphant notes, 'Give me liberty,' electrified the
+     assembly. It was not a prayer, but a stern demand, which
+     would submit to no refusal or delay. The sound of his voice,
+     as he spoke these memorable words, was like that of a
+     Spartan pćan on the field of Platća; and, as each syllable
+     of the word 'liberty' echoed through the building, his
+     fetters were shivered; his arms were hurled apart; and the
+     links of his chains were scattered to the winds. When he
+     spoke the word 'liberty' with an emphasis never given it
+     before, his hands were open, and his arms elevated and
+     extended; his countenance was radiant; he stood erect and
+     defiant; while the sound of his voice and the sublimity of
+     his attitude made him appear a magnificent incarnation of
+     Freedom, and expressed all that can be acquired or enjoyed
+     by nations and individuals invincible and free. After a
+     momentary pause, only long enough to permit the echo of the
+     word 'liberty' to cease, he let his left hand fall powerless
+     to his side, and clenched his right hand firmly, as if
+     holding a dagger with the point aimed at his breast. He
+     stood like a Roman senator defying Cćsar, while the
+     unconquerable spirit of Cato of Utica flashed from every
+     feature; and he closed the grand appeal with the solemn
+     words, 'or give me death!' which sounded with the awful
+     cadence of a hero's dirge, fearless of death, and victorious
+     in death; and he suited the action to the word by a blow
+     upon the left breast with the right hand, which seemed to
+     drive the dagger to the patriot's heart."[159]
+
+Before passing from this celebrated speech, it is proper to say
+something respecting the authenticity of the version of it which has
+come down to us, and which is now so universally known in America. The
+speech is given in these pages substantially as it was given by Wirt
+in his "Life of Henry." Wirt himself does not mention whence he
+obtained his version; and all efforts to discover that version as a
+whole, in any writing prior to Wirt's book, have thus far been
+unsuccessful. These facts have led even so genial a critic as Grigsby
+to incline to the opinion that "much of the speech published by Wirt
+is apocryphal."[160] It would, indeed, be an odd thing, and a source
+of no little disturbance to many minds, if such should turn out to be
+the case, and if we should have to conclude that an apocryphal speech
+written by Wirt, and attributed by him to Patrick Henry fifteen years
+after the great orator's death, had done more to perpetuate the renown
+of Patrick Henry's oratory than had been done by any and all the words
+actually spoken by the orator himself during his lifetime. On the
+other hand, it should be said that Grigsby himself admits that "the
+outline of the argument" and "some of its expressions" are undoubtedly
+"authentic." That this is so is apparent, likewise, from the written
+recollections of St. George Tucker, wherein the substance of the
+speech is given, besides one entire passage in almost the exact
+language of the version by Wirt. Finally, John Roane, in 1834, in his
+conversation with Edward Fontaine, is said to have "verified the
+correctness of the speech as it was written by Judge Tyler for Mr.
+Wirt."[161] This, unfortunately, is the only intimation that has
+anywhere been found attributing Wirt's version to the excellent
+authority of Judge John Tyler. If the statement could be confirmed, it
+would dispel every difficulty at once. But, even though the statement
+should be set aside, enough would still remain to justify us in
+thinking that Wirt's version of the famous speech by no means deserves
+to be called "apocryphal," in any such sense as that word has when
+applied, for example, to the speeches in Livy and in Thucydides, or in
+Botta. In the first place, Wirt's version certainly gives the
+substance of the speech as actually made by Patrick Henry on the
+occasion named; and, for the form of it, Wirt seems to have gathered
+testimony from all available living witnesses, and then, from such
+sentences or snatches of sentences as these witnesses could remember,
+as well as from his own conception of the orator's method of
+expression, to have constructed the version which he has handed down
+to us. Even in that case, it is probably far more accurate and
+authentic than are most of the famous speeches attributed to public
+characters before reporters' galleries were opened, and before the art
+of reporting was brought to its present perfection.
+
+Returning, now, from this long account of Patrick Henry's most
+celebrated speech, to the assemblage in which it was made, it remains
+to be mentioned that the resolutions, as offered by Patrick Henry,
+were carried; and that the committee, called for by those resolutions,
+to prepare a plan for "embodying, arming, and disciplining" the
+militia,[162] was at once appointed. Of this committee Patrick Henry
+was chairman; and with him were associated Richard Henry Lee,
+Nicholas, Harrison, Riddick, Washington, Stephen, Lewis, Christian,
+Pendleton, Jefferson, and Zane. On the following day, Friday, the 24th
+of March, the committee brought in its report, which was laid over for
+one day, and then, after some amendment, was unanimously adopted.
+
+The convention did not close its labors until Monday, the 27th of
+March. The contemporaneous estimate of Patrick Henry, not merely as a
+leader in debate, but as a constitutional lawyer, and as a man of
+affairs, may be partly gathered from the fact of his connection with
+each of the two other important committees of this convention,--the
+committee "to inquire whether his majesty may of right advance the
+terms of granting lands in this colony,"[163] on which his associates
+were the great lawyers, Bland, Jefferson, Nicholas, and Pendleton; and
+the committee "to prepare a plan for the encouragement of arts and
+manufactures in this colony,"[164] on which his associates were
+Nicholas, Bland, Mercer, Pendleton, Cary, Carter of Stafford,
+Harrison, Richard Henry Lee, Clapham, Washington, Holt, and Newton.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[136] For an example of such overstatement, see Wirt, 114-123. See,
+also, the damaging comments thereon by Rives, _Life of Madison_, i.
+63, 64.
+
+[137] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 928.
+
+[138] 4 _Ibid._ i. 947.
+
+[139] _Ibid._
+
+[140] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 949, 950.
+
+[141] _Ibid._ i. 953.
+
+[142] _Ibid._ 858.
+
+[143] _Ibid._ i. 963.
+
+[144] Hildreth, iii. 52.
+
+[145] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 1032.
+
+[146] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 1022.
+
+[147] _Ibid._ i. 1145.
+
+[148] _Ibid._ i. 1254.
+
+[149] _Ibid._ i. 1062.
+
+[150] _Ibid._ i. 1139.
+
+[151] _Ibid._ i. 1171.
+
+[152] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 1340.
+
+[153] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 167, 168.
+
+[154] MS.
+
+[155] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[156] MS.
+
+[157] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 101, 102.
+
+[158] Now in the library of Cornell University.
+
+[159] MS.
+
+[160] _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 150, note.
+
+[161] MS.
+
+[162] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 168.
+
+[163] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1742.
+
+[164] _Ibid._ 170.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE RAPE OF THE GUNPOWDER
+
+
+Several of the famous men of the Revolution, whose distinction is now
+exclusively that of civilians, are supposed to have cherished very
+decided military aspirations; to have been rather envious of the more
+vivid renown acquired by some of their political associates who left
+the senate for the field; and, indeed, to have made occasional efforts
+to secure for themselves the opportunity for glory in the same pungent
+and fascinating form. A notable example of this class of Revolutionary
+civilians with abortive military desires, is John Hancock. In June,
+1775, when Congress had before it the task of selecting one who should
+be the military leader of the uprisen colonists, John Hancock, seated
+in the president's chair, gave unmistakable signs of thinking that the
+choice ought to fall upon himself. While John Adams was speaking in
+general terms of the military situation, involving, of course, the
+need of a commander-in-chief, Hancock heard him "with visible
+pleasure;" but when the orator came to point out Washington as the man
+best fitted for the leadership, "a sudden and striking change" came
+over the countenance of the president. "Mortification and resentment
+were expressed as forcibly as his face could exhibit them;"[165] and
+it is probable that, to the end of his days, he was never able
+entirely to forgive Washington for having carried off the martial
+glory that he had really believed to be within his own reach. But even
+John Adams, who so pitilessly unveiled the baffled military desires of
+Hancock, was perhaps not altogether unacquainted with similar emotions
+in his own soul. Fully three weeks prior to that notable scene in
+Congress, in a letter to his wife in which he was speaking of the
+amazing military spirit then running through the continent, and of the
+military appointments then held by several of his Philadelphia
+friends, he exclaimed in his impulsive way, "Oh that I were a soldier!
+I will be."[166] And on the very day on which he joined in the escort
+of the new generals, Washington, Lee, and Schuyler, on their first
+departure from Philadelphia for the American camp, he sent off to his
+wife a characteristic letter revealing something of the anguish with
+which he, a civilian, viewed the possibility of his being at a
+disadvantage with these military men in the race for glory:--
+
+     "The three generals were all mounted on horseback,
+     accompanied by Major Mifflin, who is gone in the character
+     of aide-de-camp. All the delegates from the Massachusetts,
+     with their servants and carriages, attended. Many others of
+     the delegates from the Congress; a large troop of light
+     horse in their uniforms; many officers of militia, besides,
+     in theirs; music playing, etc., etc. Such is the pride and
+     pomp of war. I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for
+     my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health,
+     must leave to others to wear the laurels which I have sown;
+     others to eat the bread which I have earned."[167]
+
+Of Patrick Henry, however, it may be said that his permanent fame as
+an orator and a statesman has almost effaced the memory of the fact
+that, in the first year of the war, he had considerable prominence as
+a soldier; that it was then believed by many, and very likely by
+himself, that, having done as much as any man to bring on the war, he
+was next to do as much as any man in the actual conduct of it, and was
+thus destined to add to a civil renown of almost unapproached
+brilliance, a similar renown for splendid talents in the field. At any
+rate, the "first overt act of war" in Virginia, as Jefferson
+testifies,[168] was committed by Patrick Henry. The first physical
+resistance to a royal governor, which in Massachusetts was made by the
+embattled farmers at Lexington and Concord, was made in Virginia
+almost as early, under the direction and inspiration of Patrick
+Henry's leadership. In the first organization of the Revolutionary
+army in Virginia, the chief command was given to Patrick Henry.
+Finally, that he never had the opportunity of proving in battle
+whether or not he had military talents, and that, after some months of
+nominal command, he was driven by a series of official slights into an
+abandonment of his military career, may have been occasioned solely by
+a proper distrust of his military capacity on the part of the Virginia
+Committee of Safety, or it may have been due in some measure to the
+unslumbering jealousy of him which was at the time attributed to the
+leading members of that committee. The purpose of this chapter, and of
+the next, will be to present a rapid grouping of these incidents in
+his life,--incidents which now have the appearance of a mere episode,
+but which once seemed the possible beginnings of a deliberate and
+conspicuous military career.
+
+Within the city of Williamsburg, at the period now spoken of, had long
+been kept the public storehouse for gunpowder and arms. In the dead of
+the night[169] preceding the 21st of April, 1775,--a little less than
+a month, therefore, after the convention of Virginia had proclaimed
+the inevitable approach of a war with Great Britain,--a detachment of
+marines from the armed schooner Magdalen, then lying in the James
+River, stealthily visited this storehouse, and, taking thence fifteen
+half-barrels of gunpowder,[170] carried them off in Lord Dunmore's
+wagon to Burwell's Ferry, and put them on board their vessel. Of
+course, the news of this exploit flew fast through the colony, and
+everywhere awoke alarm and exasperation. Soon some thousands of armed
+men made ready to march to the capital to demand the restoration of
+the gunpowder. On Tuesday, the 25th of April, the independent company
+of Fredericksburg notified their colonel, George Washington, that,
+with his approbation, they would be prepared to start for Williamsburg
+on the following Saturday, "properly accoutred as light-horsemen," and
+in conjunction with "any other bodies of armed men who" might be
+"willing to appear in support of the honor of Virginia."[171]
+
+Similar messages were promptly sent to Washington from the independent
+companies of Prince William[172] and Albemarle counties.[173] On
+Wednesday, the 26th of April, the men in arms who had already arrived
+at Fredericksburg sent to the capital a swift messenger "to inquire
+whether the gunpowder had been replaced in the public magazine."[174]
+On Saturday, the 29th,--being the day already fixed for the march upon
+Williamsburg,--one hundred and two gentlemen, representing fourteen
+companies of light-horse, met in council at Fredericksburg, and, after
+considering a letter from the venerable Peyton Randolph which their
+messenger had brought back with him, particularly Randolph's assurance
+that the affair of the gunpowder was to be satisfactorily arranged,
+came to the resolution that they would proceed no further at that
+time; adding, however, this solemn declaration: "We do now pledge
+ourselves to each other to be in readiness, at a moment's warning, to
+reassemble, and by force of arms to defend the law, the liberty, and
+rights of this or any sister colony from unjust and wicked
+invasion."[175]
+
+It is at this point that Patrick Henry comes upon the scene. Thus far,
+during the trouble, he appears to have been watching events from his
+home in Hanover County. As soon, however, as word was brought to him
+of the tame conclusion thus reached by the assembled warriors at
+Fredericksburg, his soul took fire at the lamentable mistake which he
+thought they had made. To him it seemed on every account the part of
+wisdom that the blow, which would have to be "struck sooner or later,
+should be struck at once, before an overwhelming force should enter
+the colony;" that the spell by which the people were held in a sort of
+superstitious awe of the governor should be broken; "that the military
+resources of the country should be developed;" that the people should
+be made to "see and feel their strength by being brought out together;
+that the revolution should be set in actual motion in the colony; that
+the martial prowess of the country should be awakened, and the
+soldiery animated by that proud and resolute confidence which a
+successful enterprise in the commencement of a contest never fails to
+inspire."[176]
+
+Accordingly, he resolved that, as the troops lately rendezvoused at
+Fredericksburg had forborne to strike this needful blow, he would
+endeavor to repair the mistake by striking it himself. At once,
+therefore, he despatched expresses to the officers and men of the
+independent company of his own county, "requesting them to meet him in
+arms at New Castle on the second of May, on business of the highest
+importance to American liberty."[177] He also summoned the county
+committee to meet him at the same time and place.
+
+At the place and time appointed his neighbors were duly assembled; and
+when he had laid before them, in a speech of wonderful eloquence, his
+view of the situation, they instantly resolved to put themselves under
+his command, and to march at once to the capital, either to recover
+the gunpowder itself, or to make reprisals on the king's property
+sufficient to replace it. Without delay the march began, Captain
+Patrick Henry leading. By sunset of the following day, they had got as
+far as to Doncastle's Ordinary, about sixteen miles from Williamsburg,
+and there rested for the night. Meantime, the news that Patrick Henry
+was marching with armed men straight against Lord Dunmore, to demand
+the restoration of the gunpowder or payment for it, carried
+exhilaration or terror in all directions. On the one hand, many
+prudent and conservative gentlemen were horrified at his rashness,
+and sent messenger after messenger to beg him to stay his fearful
+proceeding, to turn about, and to go home.[178] On the other hand, as
+the word flew from county to county that Patrick Henry had taken up
+the people's cause in this vigorous fashion, five thousand men sprang
+to arms, and started across the country to join the ranks of his
+followers, and to lend a hand in case of need. At Williamsburg, the
+rumor of his approach brought on a scene of consternation. The wife
+and family of Lord Dunmore were hurried away to a place of safety.
+Further down the river, the commander of his majesty's ship Fowey was
+notified that "his excellency the Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia,"
+was "threatened with an attack at daybreak, ... at his palace at
+Williamsburg;" and for his defence was speedily sent off a detachment
+of marines.[179] Before daybreak, however, the governor seems to have
+come to the prudent decision to avert, by a timely settlement with
+Patrick Henry, the impending attack; and accordingly, soon after
+daybreak, a messenger arrived at Doncastle's Ordinary, there to tender
+immediate satisfaction in money for the gunpowder that had been
+ravished away.[180] The troops, having already resumed their march,
+were halted; and soon a settlement of the trouble was effected,
+according to the terms of the following singular document:--
+
+                    DONCASTLE'S ORDINARY, NEW KENT, May 4, 1775.
+
+     Received from the Honorable Richard Corbin, Esq., his
+     majesty's receiver-general, Ł330, as a compensation for the
+     gunpowder lately taken out of the public magazine by the
+     governor's order; which money I promise to convey to the
+     Virginia delegates at the General Congress, to be under
+     their direction laid out in gunpowder for the colony's use,
+     and to be stored as they shall direct, until the next colony
+     convention or General Assembly; unless it shall be
+     necessary, in the mean time, to use the same in defence of
+     this colony. It is agreed, that in case the next convention
+     shall determine that any part of the said money ought to be
+     returned to his majesty's receiver-general, that the same
+     shall be done accordingly.
+
+                                     PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR.[181]
+
+The chief object for which Patrick Henry and his soldiers had taken
+the trouble to come to that place having been thus suddenly
+accomplished, there was but one thing left for them to do before they
+should return to their homes. Robert Carter Nicholas, the treasurer of
+the colony, was at Williamsburg; and to him Patrick Henry at once
+despatched a letter informing him of the arrangement that had been
+made, and offering to him any protection that he might in consequence
+require:--
+
+                                                   May 4, 1775.
+
+     SIR,--The affair of the powder is now settled, so as to
+     produce satisfaction in me, and I earnestly wish to the
+     colony in general. The people here have it in charge from
+     the Hanover committee, to tender their services to you as a
+     public officer, for the purpose of escorting the public
+     treasury to any place in this colony where the money would
+     be judged more safe than in the city of Williamsburg. The
+     reprisal now made by the Hanover volunteers, though
+     accomplished in a manner least liable to the imputation of
+     violent extremity, may possibly be the cause of future
+     injury to the treasury. If, therefore, you apprehend the
+     least danger, a sufficient guard is at your service. I beg
+     the return of the bearer may be instant, because the men
+     wish to know their destination.
+
+                                With great regard, I am, sir,
+                                     Your most humble servant,
+                                          PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR.
+
+     TO ROBERT CARTER NICHOLAS, Esq., Treasurer.[182]
+
+Patrick Henry's desire for an immediate answer from the respectable
+Mr. Nicholas was gratified, although it came in the form of a
+dignified rebuff: Mr. Nicholas "had no apprehension of the necessity
+or propriety of the proffered service."[183]
+
+No direct communication seems to have been had at that time with Lord
+Dunmore; but two days afterward his lordship, having given to Patrick
+Henry ample time to withdraw to a more agreeable distance, sent
+thundering after him this portentous proclamation:--
+
+     Whereas I have been informed from undoubted authority that a
+     certain Patrick Henry, of the county of Hanover, and a
+     number of deluded followers, have taken up arms, chosen
+     their officers, and styling themselves an independent
+     company, have marched out of their county, encamped, and put
+     themselves in a posture of war, and have written and
+     dispatched letters to divers parts of the country, exciting
+     the people to join in these outrageous and rebellious
+     practices, to the great terror of all his majesty's faithful
+     subjects, and in open defiance of law and government; and
+     have committed other acts of violence, particularly in
+     extorting from his majesty's receiver-general the sum of
+     three hundred and thirty pounds, under pretence of replacing
+     the powder I thought proper to order from the magazine;
+     whence it undeniably appears that there is no longer the
+     least security for the life or property of any man:
+     wherefore, I have thought proper, with the advice of his
+     majesty's council, and in his majesty's name, to issue this
+     my proclamation, strictly charging all persons, upon their
+     allegiance, not to aid, abet, or give countenance to the
+     said Patrick Henry, or any other persons concerned in such
+     unwarrantable combinations, but on the contrary to oppose
+     them and their designs by every means; which designs must,
+     otherwise, inevitably involve the whole country in the most
+     direful calamity, as they will call for the vengeance of
+     offended majesty and the insulted laws to be exerted here,
+     to vindicate the constitutional authority of government.
+
+     Given under my hand and the seal of the colony, at
+     Williamsburg, this 6th day of May, 1775, and in the
+     fifteenth year of his majesty's reign.
+
+                                                     DUNMORE.
+
+     God save the king.[184]
+
+Beyond question, there were in Virginia at that time many excellent
+gentlemen who still trusted that the dispute with Great Britain might
+be composed without bloodshed, and to whom Patrick Henry's conduct in
+this affair must have appeared foolhardy, presumptuous, and even
+criminal. The mass of the people of Virginia, however, did not incline
+to take that view of the subject. They had no faith any longer in
+timid counsels, in hesitating measures. They believed that their most
+important earthly rights were in danger. They longed for a leader with
+vigor, promptitude, courage, caring less for technical propriety than
+for justice, and not afraid to say so, by word or deed, to Lord
+Dunmore and to Lord Dunmore's master. Such a leader they thought they
+saw in Patrick Henry. Accordingly, even on his march homeward from
+Doncastle's Ordinary, the heart of Virginia began to go forth to him
+in expressions of love, of gratitude, and of homage, such as no
+American colonist perhaps had ever before received. Upon his return
+home, his own county greeted him with its official approval.[185] On
+the 8th of May, the county of Louisa sent him her thanks;[186] and on
+the following day, messages to the same effect were sent from the
+counties of Orange and Spottsylvania.[187] On the 19th of May, an
+address "to the inhabitants of Virginia," under the signature of
+"Brutus," saluted Patrick Henry as "his country's and America's
+unalterable and unappalled great advocate and friend."[188] On the 22d
+of May, Prince William County declared its thanks to be "justly due to
+Captain Patrick Henry, and the gentlemen volunteers who attended him,
+for their proper and spirited conduct."[189] On the 26th of May,
+Loudoun County declared its cordial approval.[190] On the 9th of June,
+the volunteer company of Lancaster County resolved "that every member
+of this company do return thanks to the worthy Captain Patrick Henry
+and the volunteer company of Hanover, for their spirited conduct on a
+late expedition, and they are determined to protect him from any
+insult that may be offered him, on that account, at the risk of life
+and fortune."[191] On the 19th of June, resolutions of gratitude and
+confidence were voted by the counties of Prince Edward and of
+Frederick, the latter saying:--
+
+     "We should blush to be thus late in our commendations of,
+     and thanks to, Patrick Henry, Esquire, for his patriotic and
+     spirited behavior in making reprisals for the powder so
+     unconstitutionally ... taken from the public magazine, could
+     we have entertained a thought that any part of the colony
+     would have condemned a measure calculated for the benefit of
+     the whole; but as we are informed this is the case, we beg
+     leave ... to assure that gentleman that we did from the
+     first, and still do, most cordially approve and commend his
+     conduct in that affair. The good people of this county will
+     never fail to approve and support him to the utmost of their
+     powers in every action derived from so rich a source as the
+     love of his country. We heartily thank him for stepping
+     forth to convince the tools of despotism that freeborn men
+     are not to be intimidated, by any form of danger, to submit
+     to the arbitrary acts of their rulers."[192]
+
+On the 10th of July, the county of Fincastle prolonged the strain of
+public affection and applause by assuring Patrick Henry that it would
+support and justify him at the risk of life and fortune.[193]
+
+In the mean time, the second Continental Congress had already convened
+at Philadelphia, beginning its work on the 10th of May. The journal
+mentions the presence, on that day, of all the delegates from
+Virginia, excepting Patrick Henry, who, of course, had been delayed in
+his preparations for the journey by the events which we have just
+described. Not until the 11th of May was he able to set out from his
+home; and he was then accompanied upon his journey, to a point beyond
+the borders of the colony, by a spontaneous escort of armed men,--a
+token, not only of the popular love for him, but of the popular
+anxiety lest Dunmore should take the occasion of an unprotected
+journey to put him under arrest. "Yesterday," says a document dated
+at Hanover, May the 12th, 1775, "Patrick Henry, one of the delegates
+for this colony, escorted by a number of respectable young gentlemen,
+volunteers from this and King William and Caroline counties, set out
+to attend the General Congress. They proceeded with him as far as Mrs.
+Hooe's ferry, on the Potomac, by whom they were most kindly and
+hospitably entertained, and also provided with boats and hands to
+cross the river; and after partaking of this lady's beneficence, the
+bulk of the company took their leave of Mr. Henry, saluting him with
+two platoons and repeated huzzas. A guard accompanied that worthy
+gentleman to the Maryland side, who saw him safely landed; and
+committing him to the gracious and wise Disposer of all human events,
+to guide and protect him whilst contending for a restitution of our
+dearest rights and liberties, they wished him a safe journey, and
+happy return to his family and friends."[194]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[165] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 415-417.
+
+[166] _Letters of John Adams to his Wife_, i. 40.
+
+[167] _Letters of John Adams to his Wife_, i. 47, 48.
+
+[168] _Works of Jefferson_, i. 116.
+
+[169] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1227.
+
+[170] _Ibid._ iii. 390.
+
+[171] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 387.
+
+[172] _Ibid._ ii. 395.
+
+[173] _Ibid._ ii. 442, 443.
+
+[174] _Ibid._ ii. 426.
+
+[175] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 443.
+
+[176] Patrick Henry's reasons were thus stated by him at the time to
+Colonel Richard Morris and Captain George Dabney, and by the latter
+were communicated to Wirt, 136, 137.
+
+[177] Wirt, 137, 138.
+
+[178] Wirt, 141.
+
+[179] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 504
+
+[180] Cooke, _Virginia_, 432.
+
+[181] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 540.
+
+[182] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 541.
+
+[183] _Ibid._
+
+[184] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 516.
+
+[185] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 540, 541.
+
+[186] _Ibid._ ii. 529.
+
+[187] _Ibid._ ii. 539, 540.
+
+[188] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 641.
+
+[189] _Ibid._ ii. 667.
+
+[190] _Ibid._ ii. 710, 711.
+
+[191] _Ibid._ ii. 938.
+
+[192] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1024.
+
+[193] _Ibid._ ii. 1620, 1621. For notable comments on Patrick Henry's
+"striking and lucky _coup de main_," see Rives, _Life of Madison_, i.
+93, 94; _Works of Jefferson_, i. 116, 117; Charles Mackay, _Founders
+of the American Republic_, 232-234; 327.
+
+[194] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 541.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+IN CONGRESS AND IN CAMP
+
+
+On Thursday, the 18th of May, Patrick Henry took his seat in the
+second Continental Congress; and he appears thenceforward to have
+continued in attendance until the very end of the session, which
+occurred on the 1st of August. From the official journal of this
+Congress, it is impossible to ascertain the full extent of any
+member's participation in its work. Its proceedings were transacted in
+secret; and only such results were announced to the public as, in the
+opinion of Congress, it was desirable that the public should know.
+Then, too, from the private correspondence and the diaries of its
+members but little help can be got. As affecting Patrick Henry, almost
+the only non-official testimony that has been found is that of
+Jefferson, who, however, did not enter this Congress until its session
+was half gone, and who, forty years afterward, wrote what he probably
+supposed to be his recollections concerning his old friend's
+deportment and influence in that body:--
+
+     "I found Mr. Henry to be a silent and almost unmeddling
+     member in Congress. On the original opening of that body,
+     while general grievances were the topic, he was in his
+     element, and captivated all by his bold and splendid
+     eloquence. But as soon as they came to specific matters, to
+     sober reasoning and solid argumentation, he had the good
+     sense to perceive that his declamation, however excellent in
+     its proper place, had no weight at all in such an assembly
+     as that, of cool-headed, reflecting, judicious men. He
+     ceased, therefore, in a great measure, to take any part in
+     the business. He seemed, indeed, very tired of the place,
+     and wonderfully relieved when, by appointment of the
+     Virginia convention to be colonel of their first regiment,
+     he was permitted to leave Congress about the last of
+     July."[195]
+
+Perhaps the principal value of this testimony is to serve as an
+illustration of the extreme fragility of any man's memory respecting
+events long passed, even in his own experience. Thus, Jefferson here
+remembers how "wonderfully relieved" Patrick Henry was at being
+"permitted to leave Congress" on account of his appointment by the
+Virginia convention "to be colonel of their first regiment." But, from
+the official records of the time, it can now be shown that neither of
+the things which Jefferson thus remembers, ever had any existence in
+fact. In the first place, the journal of the Virginia convention[196]
+indicates that Patrick Henry's appointment as colonel could not have
+been the occasion of any such relief from congressional duties as
+Jefferson speaks of; for that appointment was not made until five
+days after Congress itself had adjourned, when, of course, Patrick
+Henry and his fellow delegates, including Jefferson, were already far
+advanced on their journey back to Virginia. In the second place, the
+journal of Congress[197] indicates that Patrick Henry had no such
+relief from congressional duties, on any account, but was bearing his
+full share in its business, even in the plainest and most practical
+details, down to the very end of the session.
+
+Any one who now recalls the tremendous events that were taking place
+in the land while the second Continental Congress was in session, and
+the immense questions of policy and of administration with which it
+had to deal, will find it hard to believe that its deliberations were
+out of the range of Patrick Henry's sympathies or capacities, or that
+he could have been the listless, speechless, and ineffective member
+depicted by the later pen of Jefferson. When that Congress first came
+together, the blood was as yet hardly dry on the grass in Lexington
+Common; on the very morning on which its session opened, the colonial
+troops burst into the stronghold at Ticonderoga; and when the session
+had lasted but six weeks, its members were conferring together over
+the ghastly news from Bunker Hill. The organization of some kind of
+national government for thirteen colonies precipitated into a state of
+war; the creation of a national army; the selection of a
+commander-in-chief, and of the officers to serve under him; the
+hurried fortification of coasts, harbors, cities; the supply of the
+troops with clothes, tents, weapons, ammunition, food, medicine;
+protection against the Indian tribes along the frontier of nearly
+every colony; the goodwill of the people of Canada, and of Jamaica; a
+solemn, final appeal to the king and to the people of England; an
+appeal to the people of Ireland; finally, a grave statement to all
+mankind of "the causes and necessity of their taking up arms,"--these
+were among the weighty and soul-stirring matters which the second
+Continental Congress had to consider and to decide upon. For any man
+to say, forty years afterward, even though he say it with all the
+authority of the renown of Thomas Jefferson, that, in the presence of
+such questions, the spirit of Patrick Henry was dull or unconcerned,
+and that, in a Congress which had to deal with such questions, he was
+"a silent and almost unmeddling member," is to put a strain upon human
+confidence which it is unable to bear.
+
+The formula by which the daily labors of this Congress are frequently
+described in its own journal is, that "Congress met according to
+adjournment, and, agreeable to the order of the day, again resolved
+itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration the
+state of America; and after some time spent therein, the president
+resumed the chair, and Mr. Ward, from the committee, reported that
+they had proceeded in the business, but, not having completed it,
+desired him to move for leave to sit again."[198] And although, from
+the beginning to the end of the session, no mention is made of any
+word spoken in debate by any member, we can yet glean, even from that
+meagre record, enough to prove that upon Patrick Henry was laid about
+as much labor in the form of committee-work as upon any other member
+of the House,--a fair test, it is believed, of any man's zeal,
+industry, and influence in any legislative body.
+
+Further, it will be noted that the committee-work to which he was thus
+assigned was often of the homeliest and most prosaic kind, calling not
+for declamatory gifts, but for common sense, discrimination,
+experience, and knowledge of men and things. He seems, also, to have
+had special interest and authority in the several anxious phases of
+the Indian question as presented by the exigencies of that awful
+crisis, and to have been placed on every committee that was appointed
+to deal with any branch of the subject. Thus, on the 16th of June, he
+was placed with General Schuyler, James Duane, James Wilson, and
+Philip Livingston, on a committee "to take into consideration the
+papers transmitted from the convention of New York, relative to Indian
+affairs, and report what steps, in their opinion, are necessary to be
+taken for securing and preserving the friendship of the Indian
+nations."[199] On the 19th of June, he served with John Adams and
+Thomas Lynch on a committee to inform Charles Lee of his appointment
+as second major-general; and when Lee's answer imported that his
+situation and circumstances as a British officer required some further
+and very careful negotiations with Congress, Patrick Henry was placed
+upon the special committee to which this delicate business was
+intrusted.[200] On the 21st of June, the very day on which, according
+to the journal, "Mr. Thomas Jefferson appeared as a delegate for the
+colony of Virginia, and produced his credentials," his colleague,
+Patrick Henry, rose in his place and stated that Washington "had put
+into his hand sundry queries, to which he desired the Congress would
+give an answer." These queries necessarily involved subjects of
+serious concern to the cause for which they were about to plunge into
+war, and would certainly require for their consideration "cool-headed,
+reflecting, and judicious men." The committee appointed for the
+purpose consisted of Silas Deane, Patrick Henry, John Rutledge, Samuel
+Adams, and Richard Henry Lee.[201] On the 10th of July, "Mr. Alsop
+informed the Congress that he had an invoice of Indian goods, which a
+gentleman in this town had delivered to him, and which the said
+gentleman was willing to dispose of to the Congress." The committee
+"to examine the said invoice and report to the Congress" was composed
+of Philip Livingston, Patrick Henry, and John Alsop.[202] On the 12th
+of July, it was resolved to organize three departments for the
+management of Indian affairs, the commissioners to "have power to
+treat with the Indians in their respective departments, in the name
+and on behalf of the United Colonies, in order to preserve peace and
+friendship with the said Indians, and to prevent their taking any part
+in the present commotions." On the following day the commissioners for
+the middle department were elected, namely, Franklin, Patrick Henry,
+and James Wilson.[203] On the 17th of July, a committee was appointed
+to negotiate with the Indian missionary, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland,
+respecting his past and future services among the Six Nations, "in
+order to secure their friendship, and to continue them in a state of
+neutrality with respect to the present controversy between Great
+Britain and these colonies." This committee consisted of Thomas
+Cushing, Patrick Henry, and Silas Deane.[204] Finally, on the 31st of
+July, next to the last day of the session, a committee consisting of
+one member for each colony was appointed to serve in the recess of
+Congress, for the very practical and urgent purpose of inquiring "in
+all the colonies after virgin lead and leaden ore, and the best
+methods of collecting, smelting, and refining it;" also, after "the
+cheapest and easiest methods of making salt in these colonies." This
+was not a committee on which any man could be useful who had only
+"declamation" to contribute to its work; and the several colonies
+were represented upon it by their most sagacious and their weightiest
+men,--as New Hampshire by Langdon, Massachusetts by John Adams, Rhode
+Island by Stephen Hopkins, Pennsylvania by Franklin, Delaware by
+Rodney, South Carolina by Gadsden, Virginia by Patrick Henry.[205]
+
+On the day on which this committee was appointed, Patrick Henry wrote
+to Washington, then at the headquarters of the army near Boston, a
+letter which denoted on the part of the writer a perception, unusual
+at that time, of the gravity and duration of the struggle on which the
+colonies were just entering:--
+
+                                 PHILADELPHIA, July 31st, 1775.
+
+     SIR,--Give me leave to recommend the bearer, Mr. Frazer,
+     to your notice and regard. He means to enter the American
+     camp, and there to gain that experience, of which the
+     general cause may be avail'd. It is my earnest wish that
+     many Virginians might see service. It is not unlikely that
+     in the fluctuation of things our country may have occasion
+     for great military exertions. For this reason I have taken
+     the liberty to trouble you with this and a few others of the
+     same tendency. The public good which you, sir, have so
+     eminently promoted, is my only motive. That you may enjoy
+     the protection of Heaven and live long and happy is the
+     ardent wish of,
+
+                               Sir,
+                                    Yr. mo. obt. hbl. serv.,
+                                                P. HENRY, JR.[206]
+
+     His Excellency, GENL. WASHINGTON.
+
+On the following day Congress adjourned. As soon as possible after its
+adjournment, the Virginia delegates seem to have departed for home, to
+take their places in the convention then in session at Richmond; for
+the journal of that convention mentions that on Wednesday, August the
+9th, "Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, and Thomas
+Jefferson, Esquires, appeared in convention, and took their
+seats."[207] On the next day an incident occurred in the convention
+implying that Patrick Henry, during his absence in Congress, had been
+able to serve his colony by other gifts as well as by those of "bold
+and splendid eloquence:" it was resolved that "the powder purchased by
+Patrick Henry, Esquire, for the use of this colony, be immediately
+sent for."[208] On the day following that, the convention resolved
+unanimously that "the thanks of this convention are justly due to his
+excellency, George Washington, Esquire, Patrick Henry, and Edmund
+Pendleton, Esquires, three of the worthy delegates who represented
+this colony in the late Continental Congress, for their faithful
+discharge of that important trust; and this body are only induced to
+dispense with their future services of the like kind, by the
+appointment of the two former to other offices in the public service,
+incompatible with their attendance on this, and the infirm state of
+health of the latter."[209]
+
+Of course, the two appointments here referred to are of Washington as
+commander-in-chief of the forces of the United Colonies, and of
+Patrick Henry as commander-in-chief of the forces of Virginia,--the
+latter appointment having been made by the Virginia convention on the
+5th of August. The commission, which passed the convention on the 28th
+of that month, constituted Patrick Henry "colonel of the first
+regiment of regulars, and commander-in-chief of all the forces to be
+raised for the protection and defence of this colony;" and while it
+required "all officers and soldiers, and every person whatsoever, in
+any way concerned, to be obedient" to him, "in all things touching the
+due execution of this commission," it also required him to be obedient
+to "all orders and instructions which, from time to time," he might
+"receive from the convention or Committee of Safety."[210]
+Accordingly, Patrick Henry's control of military proceedings in
+Virginia was, as it proved, nothing more than nominal: it was a
+supreme command on paper, tempered in actual experience by the
+incessant and distrustful interference of an ever-present body of
+civilians, who had all power over him.
+
+A newspaper of Williamsburg for the 23d of September announces the
+arrival there, two days before, of "Patrick Henry, Esquire,
+commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces. He was met and escorted to
+town by the whole body of volunteers, who paid him every mark of
+respect and distinction in their power."[211] Thereupon he inspected
+the grounds about the city; and as a place suitable for the
+encampment, he fixed upon a site in the rear of the College of William
+and Mary. Soon troops began to arrive in considerable numbers, and to
+prepare themselves for whatever service might be required of
+them.[212] There was, however, a sad lack of arms and ammunition. On
+the 15th of October, Pendleton, who was at the head of the Committee
+of Safety, gave this account of the situation in a letter to Richard
+Henry Lee, then in Congress at Philadelphia:--
+
+     "Had we arms and ammunition, it would give vigor to our
+     measures.... Nine companies of regulars are here, and seem
+     very clever men; others, we hear, are ready, and only wait
+     to collect arms. Lord Dunmore's forces are only one hundred
+     and sixty as yet, intrenched at Gosport, and supported by
+     the ships drawn up before that and Norfolk."[213]
+
+On the 30th of November, Lord Dunmore, who had been compelled by the
+smallness of his land force to take refuge upon his armed vessels off
+the coast, thus described the situation, in a letter to General Sir
+William Howe, then in command at Boston:--
+
+     "I must inform you that with our little corps, I think we
+     have done wonders. We have taken and destroyed above four
+     score pieces of ordnance, and, by landing in different parts
+     of the country, we keep them in continual hot water....
+     Having heard that a thousand chosen men belonging to the
+     rebels, great part of whom were riflemen, were on their
+     march to attack us here, or to cut off our provisions, I
+     determined to take possession of the pass at the Great
+     Bridge, which secures us the greatest part of two counties
+     to supply us with provisions. I accordingly ordered a
+     stockade fort to be erected there, which was done in a few
+     days; and I put an officer and twenty-five men to garrison
+     it, with some volunteers and negroes, who have defended it
+     against all the efforts of the rebels for these eight days.
+     We have killed several of their men; and I make no doubt we
+     shall now be able to maintain our ground there; but should
+     we be obliged to abandon it, we have thrown up an
+     intrenchment on the land side of Norfolk, which I hope they
+     will never be able to force. Here we are, with only the
+     small part of a regiment contending against the extensive
+     colony of Virginia."[214]
+
+But who were these "thousand chosen men belonging to the rebels," who,
+on their march to attack Lord Dunmore at Norfolk, had thus been held
+in check by his little fort at the Great Bridge? We are told by
+Dunmore himself that they were Virginia troops. But why was not
+Patrick Henry in immediate command of them? Why was Patrick Henry held
+back from this service,--the only active service then to be had in the
+field? And why was the direction of this important enterprise given to
+his subordinate, Colonel William Woodford, of the second regiment?
+There is abundant evidence that Patrick Henry had eagerly desired to
+conduct this expedition; that he had even solicited the Committee of
+Safety to permit him to do so; but that they, distrusting his military
+capacity, overruled his wishes, and gave this fine opportunity for
+military distinction to the officer next below him in command.
+Moreover, no sooner had Colonel Woodford departed upon the service,
+than he began to ignore altogether the commander-in-chief, and to make
+his communications directly to the Committee of Safety,--a course in
+which he was virtually sustained by that body, on appeal being made to
+them. Furthermore, on the 9th of December, Colonel Woodford won a
+brilliant victory over the enemy at the Great Bridge,[215] thus
+apparently justifying to the public the wisdom of the committee in
+assigning the work to him, and also throwing still more into the
+background the commander-in-chief, who was then chafing in camp over
+his enforced retirement from this duty. But this was not the only cup
+of humiliation which was pressed to his lips. Not long afterward,
+there arrived at the seat of war a few hundred North Carolina troops,
+under command of Colonel Robert Howe; and the latter, with the full
+consent of Woodford, at once took command of their united forces, and
+thenceforward addressed his official letters solely to the convention
+of Virginia, or to the Committee of Safety, paying not the slightest
+attention to the commander-in-chief.[216] Finally, on the 28th of
+December, Congress decided to raise in Virginia six battalions to be
+taken into continental pay;[217] and, by a subsequent vote, it
+likewise resolved to include within these six battalions the first and
+the second Virginia regiments already raised.[218] A commission was
+accordingly sent to Patrick Henry as colonel of the first Virginia
+battalion,[219]--an official intimation that the expected commission
+of a brigadier-general for Virginia was to be given to some one else.
+
+On receiving this last affront, Patrick Henry determined to lay down
+his military appointments, which he did on the 28th of February, 1776,
+and at once prepared to leave the camp. As soon as this news got
+abroad among the troops, they all, according to a contemporary
+account,[220] "went into mourning, and, under arms, waited on him at
+his lodgings," when his officers presented to him an affectionate
+address:--
+
+     TO PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR, ESQUIRE:
+
+     Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the obligations we
+     lie under to you for the polite, humane, and tender
+     treatment manifested to us throughout the whole of your
+     conduct, while we have had the honor of being under your
+     command, permit us to offer to you our sincere thanks, as
+     the only tribute we have in our power to pay to your real
+     merits. Notwithstanding your withdrawing yourself from
+     service fills us with the most poignant sorrow, as it at
+     once deprives us of our father and general, yet, as
+     gentlemen, we are compelled to applaud your spirited
+     resentment to the most glaring indignity. May your merit
+     shine as conspicuous to the world in general as it hath done
+     to us, and may Heaven shower its choicest blessings upon
+     you.
+
+     WILLIAMSBURG, February 29, 1776.
+
+His reply to this warm-hearted message was in the following words:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--I am extremely obliged to you for your
+     approbation of my conduct. Your address does me the highest
+     honor. This kind testimony of your regard to me would have
+     been an ample reward for services much greater than I have
+     had the power to perform. I return you, and each of you,
+     gentlemen, my best acknowledgments for the spirit, alacrity,
+     and zeal you have constantly shown in your several stations.
+     I am unhappy to part with you. I leave the service, but I
+     leave my heart with you. May God bless you, and give you
+     success and safety, and make you the glorious instruments of
+     saving our country.[221]
+
+The grief and indignation thus exhibited by the officers who had
+served under Patrick Henry soon showed itself in a somewhat violent
+manner among the men. The "Virginia Gazette" for that time states
+that, "after the officers had received Colonel Henry's kind answer to
+their address, they insisted upon his dining with them at the Raleigh
+Tavern, before his departure; and after the dinner, a number of them
+proposed escorting him out of town, but were prevented by some
+uneasiness getting among the soldiery, who assembled in a tumultuous
+manner and demanded their discharge, and declared their unwillingness
+to serve under any other commander. Upon which Colonel Henry found it
+necessary to stay a night longer in town, which he spent in visiting
+the several barracks; and used every argument in his power with the
+soldiery to lay aside their imprudent resolution, and to continue in
+the service, which he had quitted from motives in which his honor
+alone was concerned."[222] Moreover, several days after he had left
+the camp altogether and had returned to his home, he was followed by
+an address signed by ninety officers belonging not only to his own
+regiment, but to that of Colonel Woodford,--a document which has no
+little value as presenting strongly one side of contemporary military
+opinion respecting Patrick Henry's career as a soldier, and the
+treatment to which he had been subjected.
+
+     SIR,--Deeply concerned for the good of our country, we
+     sincerely lament the unhappy necessity of your resignation,
+     and with all the warmth of affection assure you that,
+     whatever may have given rise to the indignity lately offered
+     to you, we join with the general voice of the people, and
+     think it our duty to make this public declaration of our
+     high respect for your distinguished merit. To your vigilance
+     and judgment, as a senator, this United Continent bears
+     ample testimony, while she prosecutes her steady opposition
+     to those destructive ministerial measures which your
+     eloquence first pointed out and taught to resent, and your
+     resolution led forward to resist. To your extensive
+     popularity the service, also, is greatly indebted for the
+     expedition with which the troops were raised; and while they
+     were continued under your command, the firmness, candor, and
+     politeness, which formed the complexion of your conduct
+     towards them, obtained the signal approbation of the wise
+     and virtuous, and will leave upon our minds the most
+     grateful impression.
+
+     Although retired from the immediate concerns of war, we
+     solicit the continuance of your kindly attention. We know
+     your attachment to the best of causes; we have the fullest
+     confidence in your abilities, and in the rectitude of your
+     views; and, however willing the envious may be to undermine
+     an established reputation, we trust the day will come when
+     justice shall prevail, and thereby secure you an honorable
+     and happy return to the glorious employment of conducting
+     our councils and hazarding your life in the defence of your
+     country.[223]
+
+The public agitation over the alleged wrong which had thus been done
+to Patrick Henry during his brief military career, and which had
+brought that career to its abrupt and painful close, seems to have
+continued for a considerable time. Throughout the colony the blame was
+openly and bluntly laid upon the Committee of Safety, who, on account
+of envy, it was said, had tried "to bury in obscurity his martial
+talents."[224] On the other hand, the course pursued by that
+committee was ably defended by many, on the ground that Patrick Henry,
+with all his great gifts for civil life, really had no fitness for a
+leading military position. One writer asserted that even in the
+convention which had elected Patrick Henry as commander-in-chief, it
+was objected that "his studies had been directed to civil and not to
+military pursuits; that he was totally unacquainted with the art of
+war, and had no knowledge of military discipline; and that such a
+person was very unfit to be at the head of troops who were likely to
+be engaged with a well-disciplined army, commanded by experienced and
+able generals."[225] In the very middle of the period of his nominal
+military service, this opinion of his unfitness was still more
+strongly urged by the chairman of the Committee of Safety, who, on the
+24th of December, 1775, said in a letter to Colonel Woodford:--
+
+     "Believe me, sir, the unlucky step of calling that gentleman
+     from our councils, where he was useful, into the field, in
+     an important station, the duties of which he must, in the
+     nature of things, be an entire stranger to, has given me
+     many an anxious and uneasy moment. In consequence of this
+     mistaken step, which can't now be retracted or
+     remedied,--for he has done nothing worthy of degradation,
+     and must keep his rank,--we must be deprived of the service
+     of some able officers, whose honor and former ranks will not
+     suffer them to act under him in this juncture, when we so
+     much need their services."[226]
+
+This seems to have been, in substance, the impression concerning
+Patrick Henry held at that time by at least two friendly and most
+competent observers, who were then looking on from a distance, and
+who, of course, were beyond the range of any personal or partisan
+prejudice upon the subject. Writing from Cambridge, on the 7th of
+March, 1776, before he had received the news of Henry's resignation,
+Washington said to Joseph Reed, then at Philadelphia: "I think my
+countrymen made a capital mistake when they took Henry out of the
+senate to place him in the field; and pity it is that he does not see
+this, and remove every difficulty by a voluntary resignation."[227] On
+the 15th of that month, Reed, in reply, gave to Washington this bit of
+news: "We have some accounts from Virginia that Colonel Henry has
+resigned in disgust at not being made a general officer; but it rather
+gives satisfaction than otherwise, as his abilities seem better
+calculated for the senate than the field."[228]
+
+Nevertheless, in all these contemporary judgments upon the alleged
+military defects of Patrick Henry, no reader can now fail to note an
+embarrassing lack of definiteness, and a tendency to infer that,
+because that great man was so great in civil life, as a matter of
+course, he could not be great, also, in military life,--a proposition
+that could be overthrown by numberless historical examples to the
+contrary. It would greatly aid us if we could know precisely what, in
+actual experience, were the defects found in Patrick Henry as a
+military man, and precisely how these defects were exhibited by him in
+the camp at Williamsburg. In the writings of that period, no
+satisfaction upon this point seems thus far to have been obtained.
+There is, however, a piece of later testimony, derived by authentic
+tradition from a prominent member of the Virginia Committee of Safety,
+which really helps one to understand what may have been the exact
+difficulty with the military character of Patrick Henry, and just why,
+also, it could not be more plainly stated at the time. Clement
+Carrington, a son of Paul Carrington, told Hugh Blair Grigsby that the
+real ground of the action of the Committee of Safety "was the want of
+discipline in the regiment under the command of Colonel Henry. None
+doubted his courage, or his alacrity to hasten to the field; but it
+was plain that he did not seem to be conscious of the importance of
+strict discipline in the army, but regarded his soldiers as so many
+gentlemen who had met to defend their country, and exacted from them
+little more than the courtesy that was proper among equals. To have
+marched to the sea-board at that time with a regiment of such men,
+would have been to insure their destruction; and it was a thorough
+conviction of this truth that prompted the decision of the
+committee."[229]
+
+Yet, even with this explanation, the truth remains that Patrick
+Henry, as commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, never was
+permitted to take command, or to see any real service in the field, or
+to look upon the face of an armed enemy, or to show, in the only way
+in which it could be shown, whether or not he had the gifts of a
+military leader in action. As an accomplished and noble-minded
+Virginian of our own time has said:--
+
+     "It may be doubted whether he possessed those qualities
+     which make a wary partisan, and which are so often possessed
+     in an eminent degree by uneducated men. Regular fighting
+     there was none in the colony, until near the close of the
+     war.... The most skilful partisan in the Virginia of that
+     day, covered as it was with forests, cut up by streams, and
+     beset by predatory bands, would have been the Indian
+     warrior; and as a soldier approached that model, would he
+     have possessed the proper tactics for the time. That Henry
+     would not have made a better Indian fighter than Jay, or
+     Livingston, or the Adamses, that he might not have made as
+     dashing a partisan as Tarleton or Simcoe, his friends might
+     readily afford to concede; but that he evinced, what neither
+     Jay, nor Livingston, nor the Adamses did evince, a
+     determined resolution to stake his reputation and his life
+     on the issue of arms, and that he resigned his commission
+     when the post of imminent danger was refused him, exhibit a
+     lucid proof that, whatever may have been his ultimate
+     fortune, he was not deficient in two grand elements of
+     military success,--personal enterprise, and unquestioned
+     courage."[230]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[195] _Hist. Mag._ for Aug. 1867, 92.
+
+[196] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 375.
+
+[197] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1902.
+
+[198] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1834.
+
+[199] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1849.
+
+[200] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1850, 1851.
+
+[201] _Ibid._ ii. 1852.
+
+[202] _Ibid._ ii. 1878.
+
+[203] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1879, 1883.
+
+[204] _Ibid._ ii. 1884, 1885.
+
+[205] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1902.
+
+[206] MS.
+
+[207] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 377.
+
+[208] _Ibid._ iii. 377, 378.
+
+[209] _Ibid._ iii. 378.
+
+[210] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 393. See, also, his oath of office, _ibid._
+iii. 411.
+
+[211] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 776.
+
+[212] Wirt, 159.
+
+[213] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1067.
+
+[214] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1713-1715.
+
+[215] Graphic contemporary accounts of this battle may be found in 4
+_Am. Arch._ iv. 224, 228, 229.
+
+[216] Wirt, 178.
+
+[217] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1962.
+
+[218] _Ibid._ iv. 1669.
+
+[219] _Ibid._ iv. 1517.
+
+[220] _Ibid._ iv. 1515, 1516.
+
+[221] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1516; also, Wirt, 180, 181.
+
+[222] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1516.
+
+[223] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1516, 1517.
+
+[224] _Ibid._ iv. 1518.
+
+[225] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1519.
+
+[226] Wirt, 175.
+
+[227] _Writings of Washington_, iii. 309.
+
+[228] W. B. Reed, _Life of Joseph Reed_, i. 173.
+
+[229] Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 52, 53, note.
+
+[230] Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 151, 152.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+INDEPENDENCE
+
+
+Upon this mortifying close of a military career which had opened with
+so much expectation and even _éclat_, Patrick Henry returned, early in
+March, 1776, to his home in the county of Hanover,--a home on which
+then rested the shadow of a great sorrow. In the midst of the public
+engagements and excitements which absorbed him during the previous
+year, his wife, Sarah, the wife of his youth, the mother of his six
+children, had passed away. His own subsequent release from public
+labor, however bitter in its occasion, must have brought to him a
+great solace in the few weeks of repose which he then had under his
+own roof, with the privilege of ministering to the happiness of his
+motherless children, and of enjoying once more their loving
+companionship and sympathy.
+
+But in such a crisis of his country's fate, such a man as Patrick
+Henry could not be permitted long to remain in seclusion; and the
+promptness and the heartiness with which he was now summoned back into
+the service of the public as a civilian, after the recent
+humiliations of his military career, were accented, perhaps, on the
+part of his neighbors, by something of the fervor of intended
+compensation, if not of intended revenge. For, in the mean time, the
+American colonies had been swiftly advancing, along a path strewn with
+corpses and wet with blood, towards the doctrine that a total
+separation from the mother-country,--a thing hitherto contemplated by
+them only as a disaster and a crime,--might after all be neither, but
+on the contrary, the only resource left to them in their desperate
+struggle for political existence. This supreme question, it was plain,
+was to confront the very next Virginia convention, which was under
+appointment to meet early in the coming May. Almost at once,
+therefore, after his return home, Patrick Henry was elected by his
+native county to represent it in that convention.
+
+On Monday morning, the 6th of May, the convention gathered at
+Williamsburg for its first meeting. On its roll of members we see many
+of those names which have become familiar to us in the progress of
+this history,--the names of those sturdy and well-trained leaders who
+guided Virginia during all that stormy period,--Pendleton, Cary,
+Mason, Nicholas, Bland, the Lees, Mann Page, Dudley Digges, Wythe,
+Edmund Randolph, and a few others. For the first time also, on such a
+roll, we meet the name of James Madison, an accomplished young
+political philosopher, then but four years from the inspiring
+instruction of President Witherspoon at Princeton. But while a few
+very able men had places in that convention, it was, at the time, by
+some observers thought to contain an unusually large number of
+incompetent persons. Three days after the opening of the session
+Landon Carter wrote to Washington:--
+
+     "I could have wished that ambition had not so visibly seized
+     so much ignorance all over the colony, as it seems to have
+     done; for this present convention abounds with too many of
+     the inexperienced creatures to navigate our bark on this
+     dangerous coast; so that I fear the few skilful pilots who
+     have hitherto done tolerably well to keep her clear from
+     destruction, will not be able to conduct her with common
+     safety any longer."[231]
+
+The earliest organization of the House was, on the part of the friends
+of Patrick Henry, made the occasion for a momentary flash of
+resentment against Edmund Pendleton, as the man who was believed by
+them to have been the guiding mind of the Committee of Safety in its
+long series of restraints upon the military activity of their chief.
+At the opening of the convention Pendleton was nominated for its
+president,--a most suitable nomination, and one which under ordinary
+circumstances would have been carried by acclamation. Thomas Johnson,
+however, a stanch follower of Patrick Henry, at once presented an
+opposing candidate; and although Pendleton was elected, he was not
+elected without a contest, or without this significant hint that the
+fires of indignation against him were still burning in the hearts of a
+strong party in that house and throughout the colony.
+
+The convention lasted just two months lacking a day; and in all the
+detail and drudgery of its business, as the journal indicates, Patrick
+Henry bore a very large part. In the course of the session, he seems
+to have served on perhaps a majority of all its committees. On the 6th
+of May, he was made a member of the committee of privileges and
+elections; on the 7th, of a committee "to bring in an ordinance to
+encourage the making of salt, saltpetre, and gunpowder;" on the 8th,
+of the committee on "propositions and grievances;" on the 21st, of a
+committee "to inquire for a proper hospital for the reception and
+accommodation of the sick and wounded soldiers;" on the 22d, of a
+committee to inquire into the truth of a complaint made by the Indians
+respecting encroachments on their lands; on the 23d, of a committee to
+bring in an ordinance for augmenting the ninth regiment, for enlisting
+four troops of horse, and for raising men for the defence of the
+frontier counties; on the 4th of June, of a committee to inquire into
+the causes for the depreciation of paper money in the colony, and into
+the rates at which goods are sold at the public store; on the 14th of
+June, of a committee to prepare an address to be sent by Virginia to
+the Shawanese Indians; on the 15th of June, of a committee to bring in
+amendments to the ordinance for prescribing a mode of punishment for
+the enemies of America in this colony; and on the 22d of June, of a
+committee to prepare an ordinance "for enabling the present
+magistrates to continue the administration of justice, and for
+settling the general mode of proceedings in criminal and other cases."
+The journal also mentions his frequent activity in the House in the
+presentation of reports from some of these committees: for example,
+from the committee on propositions and grievances, on the 16th of May,
+on the 22d of May, and on the 15th of June. On the latter occasion, he
+made to the House three detailed reports on as many different
+topics.[232]
+
+Of course, the question overshadowing all others in that convention
+was the question of independence. General Charles Lee, whose military
+duties just then detained him at Williamsburg, and who was intently
+watching the currents of political thought in all the colonies,
+assured Washington, in a letter written on the 10th of May, that "a
+noble spirit" possessed the convention; and that the members were
+"almost unanimous for independence," the only disagreement being "in
+their sentiments about the mode."[233] That Patrick Henry was in favor
+of independence hardly needs to be mentioned; yet it does need to be
+mentioned that he was among those who disagreed with some of his
+associates "about the mode." While he was as eager and as resolute
+for independence as any man, he doubted whether the time had then
+fully come for declaring independence. He thought that the declaration
+should be so timed as to secure, beyond all doubt, two great
+conditions of success,--first, the firm union of the colonies
+themselves, and secondly, the friendship of foreign powers,
+particularly of France and Spain. For these reasons, he would have had
+independence delayed until a confederation of the colonies could be
+established by written articles, which, he probably supposed, would
+take but a few weeks; and also until American agents could have time
+to negotiate with the French and Spanish courts.
+
+On the first day of the session, General Charles Lee, who was hot for
+an immediate declaration of independence, seems to have had a
+conversation upon the subject with Patrick Henry, during which the
+latter stated his reasons for some postponement of the measure. This
+led General Lee, on the following day, to write to Henry a letter
+which is really remarkable, some passages from which will help us the
+better to understand the public situation, as well as Patrick Henry's
+attitude towards it:--
+
+                                       WILLIAMSBURG, May 7, 1776.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--If I had not the highest opinion of your
+     character and liberal way of thinking, I should not venture
+     to address myself to you. And if I were not equally
+     persuaded of the great weight and influence which the
+     transcendent abilities you possess must naturally confer, I
+     should not give myself the trouble of writing, nor you the
+     trouble of reading this long letter. Since our conversation
+     yesterday, my thoughts have been solely employed on the
+     great question, whether independence ought or ought not to
+     be immediately declared. Having weighed the argument on both
+     sides, I am clearly of the opinion that we must, as we value
+     the liberties of America, or even her existence, without a
+     moment's delay declare for independence.... The objection
+     you made yesterday, if I understood you rightly, to an
+     immediate declaration, was by many degrees the most
+     specious, indeed, it is the only tolerable, one that I have
+     yet heard. You say, and with great justice, that we ought
+     previously to have felt the pulse of France and Spain. I
+     more than believe, I am almost confident, that it has been
+     done.... But admitting that we are utter strangers to their
+     sentiments on the subject, and that we run some risk of this
+     declaration being coldly received by these powers, such is
+     our situation that the risk must be ventured.
+
+     On one side there are the most probable chances of our
+     success, founded on the certain advantages which must
+     manifest themselves to French understandings by a treaty of
+     alliance with America.... The superior commerce and marine
+     force of England were evidently established on the monopoly
+     of her American trade. The inferiority of France, in these
+     two capital points, consequently had its source in the same
+     origin. Any deduction from this monopoly must bring down her
+     rival in proportion to this deduction. The French are and
+     always have been sensible of these great truths.... But
+     allowing that there can be no certainty, but mere chances,
+     in our favor, I do insist upon it that these chances render
+     it our duty to adopt the measure, as, by procrastination,
+     our ruin is inevitable. Should it now be determined to wait
+     the result of a previous formal negotiation with France, a
+     whole year must pass over our heads before we can be
+     acquainted with the result. In the mean time, we are to
+     struggle through a campaign, without arms, ammunition, or
+     any one necessary of war. Disgrace and defeat will
+     infallibly ensue; the soldiers and officers will become so
+     disappointed that they will abandon their colors, and
+     probably never be persuaded to make another effort.
+
+     But there is another consideration still more cogent. I can
+     assure you that the spirit of the people cries out for this
+     declaration; the military, in particular, men and officers,
+     are outrageous on the subject; and a man of your excellent
+     discernment need not be told how dangerous it would be, in
+     our present circumstances, to dally with the spirit, or
+     disappoint the expectations, of the bulk of the people. May
+     not despair, anarchy, and final submission be the bitter
+     fruits? I am firmly persuaded that they will; and, in this
+     persuasion, I most devoutly pray that you may not merely
+     recommend, but positively lay injunctions on, your servants
+     in Congress to embrace a measure so necessary to our
+     salvation.
+
+                                     Yours, most sincerely,
+                                               CHARLES LEE.[234]
+
+Just eight days after that letter was written, the Virginia convention
+took what may, at first glance, seem to be the precise action therein
+described as necessary; and moreover, they did so under the
+influence, in part, of Patrick Henry's powerful advocacy of it. On the
+15th of May, after considerable debate, one hundred and twelve members
+being present, the convention unanimously resolved,
+
+     "That the delegates appointed to represent this colony in
+     General Congress be instructed to propose to that
+     respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and
+     independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or
+     dependence upon, the crown or Parliament of Great Britain;
+     and that they give the assent of this colony to such
+     declaration, and to whatever measures may be thought proper
+     and necessary by the Congress for forming foreign alliances
+     and a confederation of the colonies, at such time, and in
+     the manner, as to them shall seem best: provided, that the
+     power of forming government for, and the regulations of the
+     internal concerns of, each colony, be left to the respective
+     colonial legislatures."[235]
+
+On the testimony of Edmund Randolph, who was a member of the
+convention, it is now known that this momentous resolution "was drawn
+by Pendleton, was offered in convention by Nelson, and was advocated
+on the floor by Henry."[236] Any one who will carefully study it,
+however, will discover that this resolution was the result of a
+compromise; and especially, that it is so framed as to meet Patrick
+Henry's views, at least to the extent of avoiding the demand for an
+immediate declaration, and of leaving it to Congress to determine the
+time and manner of making it. Accordingly, in letters of his, written
+five days afterward to his most intimate friends in Congress, we see
+that his mind was still full of anxiety about the two great
+prerequisites,--a certified union among the colonies, and a friendly
+arrangement with France. "Ere this reaches you," he wrote to Richard
+Henry Lee, "our resolution for separating from Britain will be handed
+you by Colonel Nelson. Your sentiments as to the necessary progress of
+this great affair correspond with mine. For may not France, ignorant
+of the great advantages to her commerce we intend to offer, and of the
+permanency of that separation which is to take place, be allured by
+the partition you mention? To anticipate, therefore, the efforts of
+the enemy by sending instantly American ambassadors to France, seems
+to me absolutely necessary. Delay may bring on us total ruin. But is
+not a confederacy of our States previously necessary?"[237]
+
+On the same day, he wrote, also, a letter to John Adams, in which he
+developed still more vigorously his views as to the true order in
+which the three great measures,--confederation, foreign alliances, and
+independence,--should be dealt with:--
+
+     "Before this reaches you, the resolution for finally
+     separating from Britain will be handed to Congress by
+     Colonel Nelson. I put up with it in the present form for the
+     sake of unanimity. 'T is not quite so pointed as I could
+     wish. Excuse me for telling you of what I think of immense
+     importance; 't is to anticipate the enemy at the French
+     court. The half of our continent offered to France, may
+     induce her to aid our destruction, which she certainly has
+     the power to accomplish. I know the free trade with all the
+     States would be more beneficial to her than any territorial
+     possessions she might acquire. But pressed, allured, as she
+     will be,--but, above all, ignorant of the great thing we
+     mean to offer,--may we not lose her? The consequence is
+     dreadful. Excuse me again. The confederacy:--that must
+     precede an open declaration of independency and foreign
+     alliances. Would it not be sufficient to confine it, for the
+     present, to the objects of offensive and defensive nature,
+     and a guaranty of the respective colonial rights? If a
+     minute arrangement of things is attempted, such as equal
+     representation, etc., etc., you may split and divide;
+     certainly will delay the French alliance, which with me is
+     everything."[238]
+
+In the mean time, however, many of the people of Virginia had received
+with enthusiastic approval the news of the great step taken by their
+convention on the 15th of May. Thus "on the day following," says the
+"Virginia Gazette," published at Williamsburg, "the troops in this
+city, with the train of artillery, were drawn up and went through
+their firings and various other military manoeuvres, with the greatest
+exactness; a continental union flag was displayed upon the capitol;
+and in the evening many of the inhabitants illuminated their
+houses."[239] Moreover, the great step taken by the Virginia
+convention, on the day just mentioned, committed that body to the duty
+of taking at once certain other steps of supreme importance. They were
+about to cast off the government of Great Britain: it was necessary
+for them, therefore, to provide some government to be put in the place
+of it. Accordingly, in the very same hour in which they instructed
+their delegates in Congress to propose a declaration of independence,
+they likewise resolved, "That a committee be appointed to prepare a
+declaration of rights, and such a plan of government as will be most
+likely to maintain peace and order in this colony, and secure
+substantial and equal liberty to the people."[240]
+
+Of this committee, Patrick Henry was a member; and with him were
+associated Archibald Cary, Henry Lee, Nicholas, Edmund Randolph,
+Bland, Dudley Digges, Paul Carrington, Mann Page, Madison, George
+Mason, and others. The two tasks before the committee--that of
+drafting a statement of rights, and that of drafting a constitution
+for the new State of Virginia--must have pressed heavily upon its
+leading members. In the work of creating a new state government,
+Virginia was somewhat in advance of the other colonies; and for this
+reason, as well as on account of its general preëminence among the
+colonies, the course which it should take in this crisis was watched
+with extraordinary attention. John Adams said, at the time, "We all
+look up to Virginia for examples."[241] Besides, in Virginia itself,
+as well as in the other colonies, there was an unsettled question as
+to the nature of the state governments which were then to be
+instituted. Should they be strongly aristocratic and conservative,
+with a possible place left for the monarchical feature; or should the
+popular elements in each colony be more largely recognized, and a
+decidedly democratic character given to these new constitutions? On
+this question, two strong parties existed in Virginia. In the first
+place, there were the old aristocratic families, and those who
+sympathized with them. These people, numerous, rich, cultivated,
+influential, in objecting to the unfair encroachments of British
+authority, had by no means intended to object to the nature of the
+British constitution, and would have been pleased to see that
+constitution, in all its essential features, retained in Virginia.
+This party was led by such men as Robert Carter Nicholas, Carter
+Braxton, and Edmund Pendleton. In the second place, there were the
+democrats, the reformers, the radicals,--who were inclined to take the
+opportunity furnished by Virginia's rejection of British authority as
+the occasion for rejecting, within the new State of Virginia, all the
+aristocratic and monarchical features of the British Constitution
+itself. This party was led by such men as Patrick Henry, Richard
+Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and George Mason. Which party was to
+succeed in stamping its impress the more strongly on the new plan for
+government in Virginia?
+
+Furthermore, it is important to observe that, on this very question
+then at issue in Virginia, two pamphlets, taking opposite sides, were,
+just at that moment, attracting the notice of Virginians,--both
+pamphlets being noble in tone, of considerable learning, very
+suggestive, and very well expressed. The first, entitled "Thoughts on
+Government," though issued anonymously, was soon known to be by John
+Adams. It advocated the formation of state constitutions on the
+democratic model; a lower house elected for a single year by the
+people; this house to elect an upper house of twenty or thirty
+members, who were to have a negative on the lower house, and to serve,
+likewise, for a single year; these two houses to elect a governor, who
+was to have a negative on them both, and whose term of office should
+also end with the year; while the judges, and all other officers,
+civil or military, were either to be appointed by the governor with
+the advice of the upper house, or to be chosen directly by the two
+houses themselves.[242] The second pamphlet, which was in part a reply
+to the first, was entitled "Address to the Convention of the Colony
+and Ancient Dominion of Virginia, on the subject of Government in
+general, and recommending a particular form to their consideration."
+It purported to be by "A native of the Colony." Although the pamphlet
+was sent into Virginia under strong recommendations from Carter
+Braxton, one of the Virginian delegates in Congress, the authorship
+was then unknown to the public. It advocated the formation of state
+constitutions on a model far less democratic: first, a lower house,
+the members of which were to be elected for three years by the people;
+secondly, an upper house of twenty-four members, to be elected for
+life by the lower house; thirdly, a governor, to be elected for life
+by the lower house; fourthly, all judges, all military officers, and
+all inferior civil ones, to be appointed by the governor.[243]
+
+Such was the question over which the members of the committee,
+appointed on the 15th of May, must soon have come into sharp conflict.
+At its earliest meetings, apparently, Henry found the aristocratic
+tendencies of some of his associates so strong as to give him
+considerable uneasiness; and by his letter to John Adams, written on
+the 20th of the month, we may see that he was then complaining of the
+lack of any associate of adequate ability on his own side of the
+question. When we remember, however, that both James Madison and
+George Mason were members of that committee, we can but read Patrick
+Henry's words with some astonishment.[244] The explanation is
+probably to be found in the fact that Madison was not placed on the
+committee until the 16th, and, being very young and very unobtrusive,
+did not at first make his true weight felt; while Mason was not placed
+on the committee until the working day just before Henry's letter was
+written, and very likely had not then met with it, and may not, at the
+moment, have been remembered by Henry as a member of it. At any rate,
+this is the way in which our eager Virginia democrat, in that moment
+of anxious conflict over the form of the future government of his
+State, poured out his anxieties to his two most congenial political
+friends in Congress. To Richard Henry Lee he wrote:--
+
+     "The grand work of forming a constitution for Virginia is
+     now before the convention, where your love of equal liberty
+     and your skill in public counsels might so eminently serve
+     the cause of your country. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I fear
+     too great a bias to aristocracy prevails among the opulent.
+     I own myself a democratic on the plan of our admired friend,
+     J. Adams, whose pamphlet I read with great pleasure. A
+     performance from Philadelphia is just come here, ushered in,
+     I'm told, by a colleague of yours, B----, and greatly
+     recommended by him. I don't like it. Is the author a Whig?
+     One or two expressions in the book make me ask. I wish to
+     divide you, and have you here to animate, by your manly
+     eloquence, the sometimes drooping spirits of our country,
+     and in Congress to be the ornament of your native country,
+     and the vigilant, determined foe of tyranny. To give you
+     colleagues of kindred sentiments, is my wish. I doubt you
+     have them not at present. A confidential account of the
+     matter to Colonel Tom,[245] desiring him to use it according
+     to his discretion, might greatly serve the public and
+     vindicate Virginia from suspicions. Vigor, animation, and
+     all the powers of mind and body must now be summoned and
+     collected together into one grand effort. Moderation,
+     falsely so called, hath nearly brought on us final ruin. And
+     to see those, who have so fatally advised us, still guiding,
+     or at least sharing, our public counsels, alarms me."[246]
+
+On the same day, he wrote as follows to John Adams:--
+
+                                     WILLIAMSBURG, May 20, 1776.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Your favor, with the pamphlet, came safe to
+     hand. I am exceedingly obliged to you for it; and I am not
+     without hopes it may produce good here, where there is among
+     most of our opulent families a strong bias to aristocracy. I
+     tell my friends you are the author. Upon that supposition, I
+     have two reasons for liking the book. The sentiments are
+     precisely the same I have long since taken up, and they come
+     recommended by you. Go on, my dear friend, to assail the
+     strongholds of tyranny; and in whatever form oppression may
+     be found, may those talents and that firmness, which have
+     achieved so much for America, be pointed against it....
+
+     Our convention is now employed in the great work of forming
+     a constitution. My most esteemed republican form has many
+     and powerful enemies. A silly thing, published in
+     Philadelphia, by a native of Virginia, has just made its
+     appearance here, strongly recommended, 't is said, by one of
+     our delegates now with you,--Braxton. His reasonings upon
+     and distinction between private and public virtue, are weak,
+     shallow, evasive, and the whole performance an affront and
+     disgrace to this country; and, by one expression, I suspect
+     his whiggism.
+
+     Our session will be very long, during which I cannot count
+     upon one coadjutor of talents equal to the task. Would to
+     God you and your Sam Adams were here! It shall be my
+     incessant study so to form our portrait of government that a
+     kindred with New England may be discerned in it; and if all
+     your excellences cannot be preserved, yet I hope to retain
+     so much of the likeness, that posterity shall pronounce us
+     descended from the same stock. I shall think perfection is
+     obtained, if we have your approbation.
+
+     I am forced to conclude; but first, let me beg to be
+     presented to my ever-esteemed S. Adams. Adieu, my dear sir;
+     may God preserve you, and give you every good thing.
+
+                                                  P. HENRY, JR.
+
+     P. S. Will you and S. A. now and then write?[247]
+
+To this hearty and even brotherly letter John Adams wrote from
+Philadelphia, on the 3d of June, a fitting reply, in the course of
+which he said, with respect to Henry's labors in making a constitution
+for Virginia: "The subject is of infinite moment, and perhaps more
+than adequate to the abilities of any man in America. I know of none
+so competent to the task as the author of the first Virginia
+resolutions against the Stamp Act, who will have the glory with
+posterity of beginning and concluding this great revolution. Happy
+Virginia, whose constitution is to be framed by so masterly a
+builder!" Then, with respect to the aristocratic features in the
+Constitution, as proposed by "A Native of the Colony," John Adams
+exclaims:--
+
+     "The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the
+     sachems, the nabobs, call them by what name you please,
+     sigh, and groan, and fret, and sometimes stamp, and foam,
+     and curse, but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it
+     cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than has
+     prevailed in other parts of the earth, must be established
+     in America. That exuberance of pride which has produced an
+     insolent domination in a few, a very few, opulent,
+     monopolizing families, will be brought down nearer to the
+     confines of reason and moderation than they have been used
+     to.... I shall ever be happy in receiving your advice by
+     letter, until I can be more completely so in seeing you here
+     in person, which I hope will be soon."[248]
+
+On the 12th of June, the convention adopted without a dissenting voice
+its celebrated "declaration of rights," a compact, luminous, and
+powerful statement, in sixteen articles, of those great fundamental
+rights that were henceforth to be "the basis and foundation of
+government" in Virginia, and were to stamp their character upon that
+constitution on which the committee were even then engaged. Perhaps
+no political document of that time is more worthy of study in
+connection with the genesis, not only of our state constitutions, but
+of that of the nation likewise. That the first fourteen articles of
+the declaration were written by George Mason has never been disputed:
+that he also wrote the fifteenth and the sixteenth articles is now
+claimed by his latest and ablest biographer,[249] but in opposition to
+the testimony of Edmund Randolph, who was a member both of the
+convention itself and of the particular committee in charge of the
+declaration, and who has left on record the statement that those
+articles were the work of Patrick Henry.[250] The fifteenth article
+was in these words: "That no free government, or the blessings of
+liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to
+justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by
+frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." The sixteenth article
+is an assertion of the doctrine of religious liberty,--the first time
+that it was ever asserted by authority in Virginia. The original
+draft, in which the writer followed very closely the language used on
+that subject by the Independents in the Assembly of Westminster, stood
+as follows:--
+
+     "That religion, or the duty we owe our Creator, and the
+     manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason
+     and conviction, and not by force or violence; and,
+     therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration
+     in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of
+     conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate,
+     unless, under color of religion, any man disturb the peace,
+     the happiness, or the safety of society; and that it is the
+     mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love,
+     and charity towards each other."[251]
+
+The historic significance of this stately assertion of religious
+liberty in Virginia can be felt only by those who remember that, at
+that time, the Church of England was the established church of
+Virginia, and that the laws of Virginia then restrained the exercise
+there of every form of religious dissent, unless compliance had been
+made with the conditions of the toleration act of the first year of
+William and Mary. At the very moment, probably, when the committee
+were engaged in considering the tremendous innovation contained in
+this article, "sundry persons of the Baptist church in the county of
+Prince William" were putting their names to a petition earnestly
+imploring the convention, "That they be allowed to worship God in
+their own way, without interruption; that they be permitted to
+maintain their own ministers and none others; that they may be
+married, buried, and the like, without paying the clergy of other
+denominations;" and that, by the concession to them of such religious
+freedom, they be enabled to "unite with their brethren, and to the
+utmost of their ability promote the common cause" of political
+freedom.[252] Of course the adoption of the sixteenth article
+virtually carried with it every privilege which these people asked
+for. The author of that article, whether it was George Mason or
+Patrick Henry, was a devout communicant of the established church of
+Virginia; and thus, the first great legislative act for the reform of
+the civil constitution of that church, and for its deliverance from
+the traditional duty and curse of persecution, was an act which came
+from within the church itself.
+
+On Monday, the 24th of June, the committee, through Archibald Cary,
+submitted to the convention their plan of a constitution for the new
+State of Virginia; and on Saturday, the 29th of June, this plan passed
+its third reading, and was unanimously adopted. A glance at the
+document will show that in the sharp struggle between the aristocratic
+and the democratic forces in the convention, the latter had signally
+triumphed. It provided for a lower House of Assembly, whose members
+were to be elected annually by the people, in the proportion of two
+members from each county; for an upper House of Assembly to consist of
+twenty-four members, who were to be elected annually by the people, in
+the proportion of one member from each of the senatorial districts
+into which the several counties should be grouped; for a governor, to
+be elected annually by joint ballot of both houses, and not to
+"continue in that office longer than three years successively," nor
+then to be eligible again for the office until after the lapse of four
+years from the close of his previous term; for a privy council of
+eight members, for delegates in Congress, and for judges in the
+several courts, all to be elected by joint ballot of the two Houses;
+for justices of the peace to be appointed by the governor and the
+privy council; and, finally, for an immediate election, by the
+convention itself, of a governor, and a privy council, and such other
+officers as might be necessary for the introduction of the new
+government.[253]
+
+In accordance with the last provision of this Constitution, the
+convention at once proceeded to cast their ballots for governor, with
+the following result:--
+
+  For Patrick Henry     60
+  For Thomas Nelson     45
+  For John Page          1
+
+By resolution, Patrick Henry was then formally declared to be the
+governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, to continue in office until
+the close of that session of the Assembly which should be held after
+the end of the following March.
+
+On the same day on which this action was taken, he wrote, in reply to
+the official notice of his election, the following letter of
+acceptance,--a graceful, manly, and touching composition:--
+
+     TO THE HONORABLE THE PRESIDENT AND HOUSE OF CONVENTION.
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The vote of this day, appointing me governor of
+     this commonwealth, has been notified to me, in the most
+     polite and obliging manner, by George Mason, Henry Lee,
+     Dudley Digges, John Blair, and Bartholomew Dandridge,
+     Esquires.
+
+     A sense of the high and unmerited honor conferred upon me by
+     the convention fills my heart with gratitude, which I trust
+     my whole life will manifest. I take this earliest
+     opportunity to express my thanks, which I wish to convey to
+     you, gentlemen, in the strongest terms of acknowledgment.
+
+     When I reflect that the tyranny of the British king and
+     parliament hath kindled a formidable war, now raging
+     throughout the wide-extended continent, and in the
+     operations of which this commonwealth must bear so great a
+     part, and that from the events of this war the lasting
+     happiness or misery of a great proportion of the human
+     species will finally result; that, in order to preserve this
+     commonwealth from anarchy, and its attendant ruin, and to
+     give vigor to our councils and effect to all our measures,
+     government hath been necessarily assumed and new modelled;
+     that it is exposed to numberless hazards and perils in its
+     infantine state; that it can never attain to maturity or
+     ripen into firmness, unless it is guarded by affectionate
+     assiduity, and managed by great abilities,--I lament my want
+     of talents; I feel my mind filled with anxiety and
+     uneasiness to find myself so unequal to the duties of that
+     important station to which I am called by favor of my fellow
+     citizens at this truly critical conjuncture. The errors of
+     my conduct shall be atoned for, so far as I am able, by
+     unwearied endeavors to secure the freedom and happiness of
+     our common country.
+
+     I shall enter upon the duties of my office whenever you,
+     gentlemen, shall be pleased to direct, relying upon the
+     known wisdom and virtue of your honorable house to supply my
+     defects, and to give permanency and success to that system
+     of government which you have formed, and which is so wisely
+     calculated to secure equal liberty, and advance human
+     happiness.
+
+     I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and
+     very humble servant,
+
+                                                 P. HENRY, JR.
+
+     WILLIAMSBURG, June 29, 1776.[254]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[231] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 390.
+
+[232] The journal of this convention is in 4 _Am. Arch._ vi.
+1509-1616.
+
+[233] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 406.
+
+[234] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 95-97. Campbell, in his _History of Virginia_,
+645, 646, commits a rather absurd error in attributing this letter to
+Thomas Nelson, Jr.
+
+[235] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1524.
+
+[236] Randolph's address at the funeral of Pendleton, in _Va. Gazette_
+for 2 Nov. 1803, and cited by Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 203, 204.
+
+[237] _S. Lit. Messenger_ for 1842; thence given in Campbell, _Hist.
+Va._ 647, 648.
+
+[238] _Works of John Adams_, iv. 201.
+
+[239] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 462.
+
+[240] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1524.
+
+[241] _Works of John Adams_, ix. 387.
+
+[242] John Adams's pamphlet is given in his _Works_, iv. 189-200.
+
+[243] The pamphlet is given in 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 748-754.
+
+[244] See the unfavorable comment of Rives, _Life and Times of
+Madison_, i. 147, 148.
+
+[245] Probably Thomas Ludwell Lee.
+
+[246] _S. Lit. Messenger_ for 1842. Reprinted in Campbell, _Hist. Va._
+647.
+
+[247] _Works of John Adams_, iv. 201, 202.
+
+[248] _Works of John Adams_, ix. 386-388.
+
+[249] Kate Mason Rowland, _Life of Mason_, i. 228-241.
+
+[250] Edmund Randolph, MS. _Hist. Va._ See, also, W. W. Henry, _Life
+of P. Henry_, i. 422-436.
+
+[251] Edmund Randolph, MS. _Hist. Va._ See, also, W. W. Henry, _Life
+of P. Henry_, i. 422-436.
+
+[252] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1582.
+
+[253] _Am. Arch._ vi. 1598-1601, note.
+
+[254] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1129, 1130.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA
+
+
+On Friday, the 5th of July, 1776, Patrick Henry took the oath of
+office,[255] and entered upon his duties as governor of the
+commonwealth of Virginia. The salary attached to the position was
+fixed at one thousand pounds sterling for the year; and the governor
+was invited to take up his residence in the palace at Williamsburg. No
+one had resided in the palace since Lord Dunmore had fled from it; and
+the people of Virginia could hardly fail to note the poetic
+retribution whereby the very man whom, fourteen months before, Lord
+Dunmore had contemptuously denounced as "a certain Patrick Henry of
+Hanover County," should now become Lord Dunmore's immediate successor
+in that mansion of state, and should be able, if he chose, to write
+proclamations against Lord Dunmore upon the same desk on which Lord
+Dunmore had so recently written the proclamation against himself.
+
+Among the first to bring their congratulations to the new governor,
+were his devoted friends, the first and second regiments of Virginia,
+who told him that they viewed "with the sincerest sentiments of
+respect and joy" his accession to the highest office in the State, and
+who gave to him likewise this affectionate assurance: "our hearts are
+willing, and arms ready, to maintain your authority as chief
+magistrate."[256] On the 29th of July, the erratic General Charles
+Lee, who was then in Charleston, sent on his congratulations in a
+letter amusing for its tart cordiality and its peppery playfulness:--
+
+     "I most sincerely congratulate you on the noble conduct of
+     your countrymen; and I congratulate your country on having
+     citizens deserving of the high honor to which you are
+     exalted. For the being elected to the first magistracy of a
+     free people is certainly the pinnacle of human glory; and I
+     am persuaded that they could not have made a happier choice.
+     Will you excuse me,--but I am myself so extremely
+     democratical, that I think it a fault in your constitution
+     that the governor should be eligible for three years
+     successively. It appears to me that a government of three
+     years may furnish an opportunity of acquiring a very
+     dangerous influence. But this is not the worst.... A man who
+     is fond of office, and has his eye upon reëlection, will be
+     courting favor and popularity at the expense of his duty....
+     There is a barbarism crept in among us that extremely shocks
+     me: I mean those tinsel epithets with which (I come in for
+     my share) we are so beplastered,--'his excellency,' and 'his
+     honor,' 'the honorable president of the honorable congress,'
+     or 'the honorable convention.' This fulsome, nauseating
+     cant may be well enough adapted to barbarous monarchies, or
+     to gratify the adulterated pride of the 'magnifici' in
+     pompous aristocracies; but in a great, free, manly, equal
+     commonwealth, it is quite abominable. For my own part, I
+     would as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as the
+     'excellency' with which I am daily crammed. How much more
+     true dignity was there in the simplicity of address amongst
+     the Romans,--'Marcus Tullius Cicero,' 'Decimo Bruto
+     Imperatori,' or 'Caio Marcello Consuli,'--than to 'his
+     excellency Major-General Noodle,' or to 'the honorable John
+     Doodle.' ... If, therefore, I should sometimes address a
+     letter to you without the 'excellency' tacked, you must not
+     esteem it a mark of personal or official disrespect, but the
+     reverse."[257]
+
+Of all the words of congratulation which poured in upon the new
+governor, probably none came so straight from the heart, and none
+could have been quite so sweet to him, as those which, on the 12th of
+August, were uttered by some of the persecuted dissenters in Virginia,
+who, in many an hour of need, had learned to look up to Patrick Henry
+as their strong and splendid champion, in the legislature and in the
+courts. On the date just mentioned, "the ministers and delegates of
+the Baptist churches" of the State, being met in convention at Louisa,
+sent to him this address:--
+
+     MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,--As your advancement to the
+     honorable and important station as governor of this
+     commonwealth affords us unspeakable pleasure, we beg leave
+     to present your excellency with our most cordial
+     congratulations.
+
+     Your public virtues are such that we are under no temptation
+     to flatter you. Virginia has done honor to her judgment in
+     appointing your excellency to hold the reins of government
+     at this truly critical conjuncture, as you have always
+     distinguished yourself by your zeal and activity for her
+     welfare, in whatever department has been assigned you.
+
+     As a religious community, we have nothing to request of you.
+     Your constant attachment to the glorious cause of liberty
+     and the rights of conscience, leaves us no room to doubt of
+     your excellency's favorable regards while we worthily demean
+     ourselves.
+
+     May God Almighty continue you long, very long, a public
+     blessing to this your native country, and, after a life of
+     usefulness here, crown you with immortal felicity in the
+     world to come.
+
+                    Signed by order: JEREMIAH WALKER, _Moderator_.
+                                     JOHN WILLIAMS, _Clerk_.
+
+To these loving and jubilant words, the governor replied in an
+off-hand letter, the deep feeling of which is not the less evident
+because it is restrained,--a letter which is as choice and noble in
+diction as it is in thought:--
+
+     TO THE MINISTERS AND DELEGATES OF THE BAPTIST CHURCHES, AND
+     THE MEMBERS OF THAT COMMUNION.
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--I am exceedingly obliged to you for your very
+     kind address, and the favorable sentiments you are pleased
+     to entertain respecting my conduct and the principles which
+     have directed it. My constant endeavor shall be to guard the
+     rights of all my fellow-citizens from every encroachment.
+
+     I am happy to find a catholic spirit prevailing in our
+     country, and that those religious distinctions, which
+     formerly produced some heats, are now forgotten. Happy must
+     every friend to virtue and America feel himself, to perceive
+     that the only contest among us, at this most critical and
+     important period, is, who shall be foremost to preserve our
+     religious and civil liberties.
+
+     My most earnest wish is, that Christian charity,
+     forbearance, and love, may unite all our different
+     persuasions, as brethren who must perish or triumph
+     together; and I trust that the time is not far distant when
+     we shall greet each other as the peaceable possessors of
+     that just and equal system of liberty adopted by the last
+     convention, and in support of which may God crown our arms
+     with success.
+
+     I am, gentlemen, your most obedient and very humble servant,
+
+                                              P. HENRY, JUN.[258]
+
+     August 13, 1776.
+
+On the day on which Governor Henry was sworn into office, the
+convention finally adjourned, having made provision for the meeting of
+the General Assembly on the first Monday of the following October. In
+the mean time, therefore, all the interests of the State were to be in
+the immediate keeping of the governor and privy council; and, for a
+part of that time, as it turned out, the governor himself was disabled
+for service. For we now encounter in the history of Patrick Henry, the
+first mention of that infirm health from which he seems to have
+suffered, in some degree, during the remaining twenty-three years of
+his life. Before taking full possession of the governor's palace,
+which had to be made ready for his use, he had likewise to prepare for
+this great change in his life by returning to his home in the county
+of Hanover. There he lay ill for some time;[259] and upon his recovery
+he removed with his family to Williamsburg, which continued to be
+their home for the next three years.
+
+The people of Virginia had been accustomed, for more than a century,
+to look upon their governors as personages of very great dignity.
+Several of those governors had been connected with the English
+peerage; all had served in Virginia in a vice-regal capacity; many had
+lived there in a sort of vice-regal pomp and magnificence. It is not
+to be supposed that Governor Henry would be able or willing to assume
+so much state and grandeur as his predecessors had done; and yet he
+felt, and the people of Virginia felt, that in the transition from
+royal to republican forms the dignity of that office should not be
+allowed to decline in any important particular. Moreover, as a
+contemporary observer mentions, Patrick Henry had been "accused by the
+big-wigs of former times as being a coarse and common man, and utterly
+destitute of dignity; and perhaps he wished to show them that they
+were mistaken."[260] At any rate, by the testimony of all, he seems to
+have displayed his usual judgment and skill in adapting himself to
+the requirements of his position; and, while never losing his
+gentleness and his simplicity of manner, to have borne himself as the
+impersonation, for the time being, of the executive authority of a
+great and proud commonwealth. He ceased to appear frequently upon the
+streets; and whenever he did appear, he was carefully arrayed in a
+dressed wig, in black small-clothes, and in a scarlet cloak; and his
+presence and demeanor were such as to sustain, in the popular mind,
+the traditional respect for his high office.
+
+He had so far recovered from the illness which had prostrated him
+during the summer, as to be at his post of duty when the General
+Assembly of the State began its first session, on Monday, the 7th of
+October, 1776. His health, however, was still extremely frail; for on
+the 30th of that month he was obliged to notify the House "that the
+low state of his health rendered him unable to attend to the duties of
+his office, and that his physicians had recommended to him to retire
+therefrom into the country, till he should recover his strength."[261]
+His absence seems not to have been very long. By the 16th of November,
+as one may infer from entries in the journal of the House,[262] he was
+able to resume his official duties.
+
+The summer and autumn of that year proved to be a dismal period for
+the American cause. Before our eyes, as we now look back over those
+days, there marches this grim procession of dates: August 27, the
+battle of Long Island; August 29, Washington's retreat across East
+River; September 15, the panic among the American troops at Kip's Bay,
+and the American retreat from New York; September 16, the battle of
+Harlem Plains; September 20, the burning of New York; October 28, the
+battle of White Plains; November 16, the surrender of Fort Washington;
+November 20, the abandonment of Fort Lee, followed by Washington's
+retreat across the Jerseys. In the midst of these disasters,
+Washington found time to write, from the Heights of Harlem, on the 5th
+of October, to his old friend, Patrick Henry, congratulating him on
+his election as governor of Virginia and on his recovery from
+sickness; explaining the military situation at headquarters; advising
+him about military appointments in Virginia; and especially giving to
+him important suggestions concerning the immediate military defence of
+Virginia "against the enemy's ships and tenders, which," as Washington
+says to the governor, "may go up your rivers in quest of provisions,
+or for the purpose of destroying your towns."[263] Indeed, Virginia
+was just then exposed to hostile attacks on all sides;[264] and it was
+so plain that any attack by water would have found an easy approach to
+Williamsburg, that, in the course of the next few months, the public
+records and the public stores were removed to Richmond, as being, on
+every account, a "more secure site."[265] Apparently, however, the
+prompt recognition of this danger by Governor Henry, early in the
+autumn of 1776, and his vigorous military preparations against it,
+were interpreted by some of his political enemies as a sign both of
+personal cowardice and of official self-glorification,--as is
+indicated by a letter written by the aged Landon Carter to General
+Washington, on the 31st of October, and filled with all manner of
+caustic garrulity and insinuation,--a letter from which it may be
+profitable for us to quote a few sentences, as qualifying somewhat
+that stream of honeyed testimony respecting Patrick Henry which
+commonly flows down upon us so copiously from all that period.
+
+     "If I don't err in conjecture," says Carter, "I can't help
+     thinking that the head of our Commonwealth has as great a
+     palace of fear and apprehension as can possess the heart of
+     any being; and if we compare rumor with actual movements, I
+     believe it will prove itself to every sensible man. As soon
+     as the Congress sent for our first, third, fourth, fifth,
+     and sixth regiments to assist you in contest against the
+     enemy where they really were ... there got a report among
+     the soldiery that Dignity had declared it would not reside
+     in Williamsburg without two thousand men under arms to guard
+     him. This had like to have occasioned a mutiny. A desertion
+     of many from the several companies did follow; boisterous
+     fellows resisting, and swearing they would not leave their
+     county.... What a finesse of popularity was this?... As soon
+     as the regiments were gone, this great man found an interest
+     with the council of state, perhaps timorous as himself, to
+     issue orders for the militia of twenty-six counties, and
+     five companies of a minute battalion, to march to
+     Williamsburg, to protect him only against his own fears; and
+     to make this the more popular, it was endeavored that the
+     House of Delegates should give it a countenance, but, as
+     good luck would have it, it was with difficulty
+     refused.[266] ... Immediately then, ... a bill is brought in
+     to remove the seat of government,--some say, up to Hanover,
+     to be called Henry-Town."[267]
+
+This gossip of a disappointed Virginian aristocrat, in vituperation of
+the public character of Governor Henry, naturally leads us forward in
+our story to that more stupendous eruption of gossip which relates, in
+the first instance, to the latter part of December, 1776, and which
+alleges that a conspiracy was then formed among certain members of the
+General Assembly to make Patrick Henry the dictator of Virginia. The
+first intimation ever given to the public concerning it, was given by
+Jefferson several years afterward, in his "Notes on Virginia," a
+fascinating brochure which was written by him in 1781 and 1782, was
+first printed privately in Paris in 1784, and was first published in
+England in 1787, in America in 1788.[268] The essential portions of
+his statement are as follows:--
+
+     "In December, 1776, our circumstances being much distressed,
+     it was proposed in the House of Delegates to create a
+     dictator, invested with every power legislative, executive,
+     and judiciary, civil and military, of life and death, over
+     our persons and over our properties.... One who entered into
+     this contest from a pure love of liberty, and a sense of
+     injured rights, who determined to make every sacrifice and
+     to meet every danger, for the reëstablishment of those
+     rights on a firm basis, ... must stand confounded and
+     dismayed when he is told that a considerable portion of" the
+     House "had meditated the surrender of them into a single
+     hand, and in lieu of a limited monarchy, to deliver him over
+     to a despotic one.... The very thought alone was treason
+     against the people; was treason against man in general; as
+     riveting forever the chains which bow down their necks, by
+     giving to their oppressors a proof, which they would have
+     trumpeted through the universe, of the imbecility of
+     republican government, in times of pressing danger, to
+     shield them from harm.... Those who meant well, of the
+     advocates of this measure (and most of them meant well, for
+     I know them personally, had been their fellow-laborer in the
+     common cause, and had often proved the purity of their
+     principles), had been seduced in their judgment by the
+     example of an ancient republic, whose constitution and
+     circumstances were fundamentally different."[269]
+
+With that artistic tact and that excellent prudence which seem never
+to have failed Jefferson in any of his enterprises for the
+disparagement of his associates, he here avoids, as will be observed,
+all mention of the name of the person for whose fatal promotion this
+classic conspiracy was formed,--leaving that interesting item to come
+out, as it did many years afterward, when the most of those who could
+have borne testimony upon the subject were in their graves, and when
+the damning stigma could be comfortably fastened to the name of
+Patrick Henry without the direct intervention of Jefferson's own
+hands. Accordingly, in 1816, a French gentleman, Girardin, a near
+neighbor of Jefferson's, who enjoyed "the incalculable benefit of a
+free access to Mr. Jefferson's library,"[270] and who wrote the
+continuation of Burk's "History of Virginia" under Jefferson's very
+eye,[271] gave in that work a highly wrought account of the alleged
+conspiracy of December, 1776, as involving "nothing less than the
+substitution of a despotic in lieu of a limited monarch;" and then
+proceeded to bring the accusation down from those lurid generalities
+of condemnation in which Jefferson himself had cautiously left it, by
+adding this sentence: "That Mr. Henry was the person in view for the
+dictatorship, is well ascertained."[272]
+
+Finally, in 1817, William Wirt, whose "Life of Henry" was likewise
+composed under nearly the same inestimable advantages as regards
+instruction and oversight furnished by Jefferson, repeated the fearful
+tale, and added some particulars; but, in doing so, Wirt could not
+fail--good lawyer and just man, as he was--to direct attention to the
+absence of all evidence of any collusion on the part of Patrick Henry
+with the projected folly and crime.
+
+     "Even the heroism of the Virginia legislature," says Wirt,
+     "gave way; and, in a season of despair, the mad project of a
+     dictator was seriously meditated. That Mr. Henry was thought
+     of for this office, has been alleged, and is highly
+     probable; but that the project was suggested by him, or even
+     received his countenance, I have met with no one who will
+     venture to affirm. There is a tradition that Colonel
+     Archibald Cary, the speaker of the Senate, was principally
+     instrumental in crushing this project; that meeting Colonel
+     Syme, the step-brother of Colonel Henry, in the lobby of the
+     House, he accosted him very fiercely in terms like these: 'I
+     am told that your brother wishes to be dictator. Tell him
+     from me, that the day of his appointment shall be the day of
+     his death;--for he shall feel my dagger in his heart before
+     the sunset of that day.' And the tradition adds that Colonel
+     Syme, in great agitation, declared that 'if such a project
+     existed, his brother had no hand in it; for that nothing
+     could be more foreign to him, than to countenance any office
+     which could endanger, in the most distant manner, the
+     liberties of his country.' The intrepidity and violence of
+     Colonel Cary's character renders the tradition probable; but
+     it furnishes no proof of Mr. Henry's implication in the
+     scheme."[273]
+
+A disinterested study of this subject, in the light of all the
+evidence now attainable, will be likely to convince any one that this
+enormous scandal must have been very largely a result of the extreme
+looseness at that time prevailing in the use of the word "dictator,"
+and of its being employed, on the one side, in an innocent sense, and,
+on the other side, in a guilty one. In strict propriety, of course,
+the word designates a magistrate created in an emergency of public
+peril, and clothed for a time with unlimited power. It is an extreme
+remedy, and in itself a remedy extremely dangerous, and can never be
+innocently resorted to except when the necessity for it is
+indubitable; and it may well be questioned whether, among people and
+institutions like our own, a necessity can ever arise which would
+justify the temporary grant of unlimited power to any man. If this be
+true, it follows that no man among us can, without dire political
+guilt, ever consent to bestow such power; and that no man can, without
+the same guilt, ever consent to receive it.
+
+Yet it is plain that even among us, between the years 1776 and 1783,
+emergencies of terrific public peril did arise, sufficient to justify,
+nay, even to compel, the bestowment either upon the governor of some
+State, or upon the general of the armies, not of unlimited power,
+certainly, but of extraordinary power,--such extraordinary power, for
+example, as was actually conferred by the Continental Congress, more
+than once, on Washington; as was conferred by the legislature of South
+Carolina on Governor John Rutledge; as was repeatedly conferred by the
+legislature of Virginia upon Governor Patrick Henry; and afterward, in
+still higher degree, by the same legislature, on Governor Thomas
+Jefferson himself. Nevertheless, so loose was the meaning then
+attached to the word "dictator," that it was not uncommon for men to
+speak of these very cases as examples of the bestowment of a
+dictatorship, and of the exercise of dictatorial power; although, in
+every one of the cases mentioned, there was lacking the essential
+feature of a true dictatorship, namely, the grant of unlimited power
+to one man. It is perfectly obvious, likewise, that when, in those
+days, men spoke thus of a dictatorship, and of dictatorial power, they
+attached no suggestion of political guilt either to the persons who
+bestowed such power, or to the persons who severally accepted it,--the
+tacit understanding being that, in every instance, the public danger
+required and justified some grant of extraordinary power; that no more
+power was granted than was necessary; and that the man to whom, in any
+case, the grant was made, was a man to whom, there was good reason to
+believe, the grant could be made with safety. Obviously, it was upon
+this tacit understanding of its meaning that the word was used, for
+instance, by Edmund Randolph, in 1788, in the Virginia Constitutional
+Convention, when, alluding to the extraordinary power bestowed by
+Congress on Washington, he said: "We had an American dictator in
+1781." Surely, Randolph did not mean to impute political crime, either
+to the Congress which made Washington a dictator, or to Washington
+himself who consented to be made one. It was upon the same tacit
+understanding, also, that Patrick Henry, in reply to Randolph, took up
+the word, and extolled the grant of dictatorial power to Washington on
+the occasion referred to: "In making a dictator," said Henry, "we
+followed the example of the most glorious, magnanimous, and skilful
+nations. In great dangers, this power has been given. Rome has
+furnished us with an illustrious example. America found a person for
+that trust: she looked to Virginia for him. We gave a dictatorial
+power to hands that used it gloriously, and which were rendered more
+glorious by surrendering it up."[274]
+
+Thus it is apparent that the word "dictator" was frequently used in
+those times in a sense perfectly innocent. As all men know, however,
+the word is one capable of suggesting the possibilities of dreadful
+political crime; and it is not hard to see how, when employed by one
+person to describe the bestowment and acceptance of extraordinary
+power,--implying a perfectly innocent proposition, it could be easily
+taken by another person as describing the bestowment and acceptance of
+unlimited power,--implying a proposition which among us, probably,
+would always be a criminal one.
+
+With the help which this discussion may give us, let us now return to
+the General Assembly of Virginia, at Williamsburg, approaching the
+close of its first session, in the latter part of December, 1776. It
+was on the point of adjourning, not to meet again until the latter
+part of March, 1777. At that moment, by the arrival of most alarming
+news from the seat of war, it was forced to make special provision for
+the public safety during the interval which must elapse before its
+next session. Its journal indicates that, prior to the 20th of
+December, it had been proceeding with its business in a quiet way,
+under no apparent consciousness of imminent peril. On that day,
+however, there are traces of a panic; for, on that day, "The Virginia
+Gazette" announced to them the appalling news of "the crossing of the
+Delaware by the British forces, from twelve to fifteen thousand
+strong; the position of General Washington, at Bristol, on the south
+side of the river, with only six thousand men;" and the virtual flight
+of Congress from Philadelphia.[275] At this rate, how long would it be
+before the Continental army would be dispersed or captured, and the
+troops of the enemy sweeping in vengeance across the borders of
+Virginia? Accordingly, the House of Delegates immediately resolved
+itself into "a committee to take into their consideration the state of
+America;" but not being able to reach any decision that day, it voted
+to resume the subject on the day following, and for that purpose to
+meet an hour earlier than usual. So, on Saturday, the 21st of
+December, the House passed a series of resolutions intended to provide
+for the crisis into which the country was plunged, and, among the
+other resolutions, this:--
+
+     "And whereas the present imminent danger of America, and the
+     ruin and misery which threatens the good people of this
+     Commonwealth, and their posterity, calls for the utmost
+     exertion of our strength, and it is become necessary for the
+     preservation of the State that the usual forms of government
+     be suspended during a limited time, for the more speedy
+     execution of the most vigorous and effectual measures to
+     repel the invasion of the enemy;
+
+     "_Resolved, therefore_, That the governor be, and he is
+     hereby fully authorized and empowered, by and with the
+     advice and consent of the privy council, from henceforward,
+     until ten days next after the first meeting of the General
+     Assembly, to carry into execution such requisitions as may
+     be made to this Commonwealth by the American Congress for
+     the purpose of encountering or repelling the enemy; to order
+     the three battalions on the pay of this Commonwealth to
+     march, if necessary, to join the Continental army, or to the
+     assistance of any of our sister States; to call forth any
+     and such greater military force as they shall judge
+     requisite, either by embodying and arraying companies or
+     regiments of volunteers, or by raising additional
+     battalions, appointing and commissioning the proper
+     officers, and to direct their operations within this
+     Commonwealth, under the command of the Continental generals
+     or other officers according to their respective ranks, or
+     order them to march to join and act in concert with the
+     Continental army, or the troops of any of the American
+     States; and to provide for their pay, supply of provisions,
+     arms, and other necessaries, at the charge of this
+     Commonwealth, by drawing on the treasurer for the money
+     which may be necessary from time to time; and the said
+     treasurer is authorized to pay such warrants out of any
+     public money which may be in his hands, and the General
+     Assembly will, at their next session, make ample provision
+     for any deficiency which may happen. But that this departure
+     from the constitution of government, being in this instance
+     founded only on the most evident and urgent necessity, ought
+     not hereafter to be drawn into precedent."
+
+These resolutions, having been pressed rapidly through the forms of
+the House, were at once carried up to the Senate for its concurrence.
+The answer of the Senate was promptly returned, agreeing to all the
+resolutions of the lower House, but proposing an important amendment
+in the phraseology of the particular resolution which we have just
+quoted. Instead of this clause--"the usual forms of government should
+be suspended," it suggested the far more accurate and far more prudent
+expression which here follows,--"additional powers be given to the
+governor and council." This amendment was assented to by the House;
+and almost immediately thereafter it adjourned until the last Thursday
+in March, 1777, "then to meet in the city of Williamsburg, or at such
+other place as the governor and council, for good reasons, may
+appoint."[276]
+
+Such, undoubtedly, was the occasion on which, if at any time during
+that session, the project for a dictatorship in Virginia was under
+consideration by the House of Delegates. The only evidence for the
+reality of such a project is derived from the testimony of Jefferson;
+and Jefferson, though a member of the House, was not then in
+attendance, having procured, on the 29th of the previous month,
+permission to be absent during the remainder of the session.[277] Is
+it not probable that the whole terrible plot, as it afterward lay in
+the mind of Jefferson, may have originated in reports which reached
+him elsewhere, to the effect that, in the excitement of the House over
+the public danger and over the need of energetic measures against that
+danger, some members had demanded that the governor should be invested
+with what they perhaps called dictatorial power, meaning thereby no
+more than extraordinary power; and that all the criminal accretions to
+that meaning, which Jefferson attributed to the project, were simply
+the work of his own imagination, always sensitive and quick to take
+alarm on behalf of human liberty, and, on such a subject as this,
+easily set on fire by examples of awful political crime which would
+occur to him from Roman history? This suggestion, moreover, is not out
+of harmony with one which has been made by a thorough and most candid
+student of the subject, who says: "I am very much inclined to think
+that some sneering remark of Colonel Cary, on that occasion, has given
+rise to the whole story about a proposed dictator at that time."[278]
+
+At any rate, this must not be forgotten: if the project of a
+dictatorship, in the execrable sense affirmed by Jefferson, was,
+during that session, advocated by any man or by any cabal in the
+Assembly, history must absolve Patrick Henry of all knowledge of it,
+and of all responsibility for it. Not only has no tittle of evidence
+been produced, involving his connivance at such a scheme, but the
+Assembly itself, a few months later, unwittingly furnished to
+posterity the most conclusive proof that no man in that body could
+have believed him to be smirched with even the suggestion of so horrid
+a crime. Had Patrick Henry been suspected, during the autumn and early
+winter of 1776, of any participation in the foul plot to create a
+despotism in Virginia, is it to be conceived that, at its very next
+session, in the spring of 1777, that Assembly, composed of nearly the
+same members as before, would have reëlected to the governorship so
+profligate and dangerous a man, and that too without any visible
+opposition in either House? Yet that is precisely what the Virginia
+Assembly did in May, 1777. Moreover, one year later, this same
+Assembly reëlected this same profligate and dangerous politician for
+his third and last permissible year in the governorship, and it did so
+with the same unbroken unanimity. Moreover, during all that time,
+Thomas Jefferson was a member, and a most conspicuous and influential
+member, of the Virginia Assembly. If, indeed, he then believed that
+his old friend, Patrick Henry, had stood ready in 1776, to commit
+"treason against the people" of America, and "treason against mankind
+in general," why did he permit the traitor to be twice reëlected to
+the chief magistracy, without the record of even one brave effort
+against him on either occasion?
+
+On the 26th of December, 1776, in accordance with the special
+authority thus conferred upon him by the General Assembly, Governor
+Henry issued a vigorous proclamation, declaring that the "critical
+situation of American affairs" called for "the utmost exertion of
+every sister State to put a speedy end to the cruel ravages of a
+haughty and inveterate enemy, and secure our invaluable rights," and
+"earnestly exhorting and requiring" all the good people of Virginia to
+assist in the formation of volunteer companies for such service as
+might be required.[279] The date of that proclamation was also the
+date of Washington's famous matutinal surprise of the Hessians at
+Trenton,--a bit of much-needed good luck, which was followed by his
+fortunate engagement with the enemy near Princeton, on the 3d of
+January, 1777. On these and a very few other extremely small crumbs of
+comfort, the struggling revolutionists had to nourish their burdened
+hearts for many a month thereafter; Washington himself, during all
+that time, with his little army of tattered and barefoot warriors,
+majestically predominating over the scene from the heights of
+Morristown; while the good-humored British commander, Sir William
+Howe, considerately abstained from any serious military disturbance
+until the middle of the following summer. Thus the chief duty of the
+governor of Virginia, during the winter and spring of 1777, as it had
+been in the previous autumn, was that of trying to keep in the field
+Virginia's quota of troops, and of trying to furnish Virginia's share
+of military supplies,--no easy task, it should seem, in those times of
+poverty, confusion, and patriotic languor. The official correspondence
+of the governor indicates the unslumbering anxiety, the energy, the
+fertility of device with which, in spite of defective health, he
+devoted himself to these hard tasks.[280]
+
+In his great desire for exact information as to the real situation at
+headquarters, Governor Henry had sent to Washington a secret messenger
+by the name of Walker, who was to make his observations at Morristown
+and to report the results to himself. Washington at once perceived the
+embarrassments to which such a plan might lead; and accordingly, on
+the 24th of February, 1777, he wrote to the governor, gently
+explaining why he could not receive Mr. Walker as a mere visiting
+observer:--
+
+     "To avoid the precedent, therefore, and from your character
+     of Mr. Walker, and the high opinion I myself entertain of
+     his abilities, honor, and prudence, I have taken him into my
+     family as an extra aide-de-camp, and shall be happy if, in
+     this character, he can answer your expectations. I sincerely
+     thank you, sir, for your kind congratulations on the late
+     success of the Continental arms (would to God it may
+     continue), and for your polite mention of me. Let me
+     earnestly entreat that the troops raised in Virginia for
+     this army be forwarded on by companies, or otherwise,
+     without delay, and as well equipped as possible for the
+     field, or we shall be in no condition to open the
+     campaign."[281]
+
+On the 29th of the following month, the governor wrote to Washington
+of the overwhelming difficulty attending all his efforts to comply
+with the request mentioned in the letter just cited:--
+
+     "I am very sorry to inform you that the recruiting business
+     of late goes on so badly, that there remains but little
+     prospect of filling the six new battalions from this State,
+     voted by the Assembly. The Board of Council see this with
+     great concern, and, after much reflection on the subject,
+     are of opinion that the deficiency in our regulars can no
+     way be supplied so properly as by enlisting volunteers.
+     There is reason to believe a considerable number of these
+     may be got to serve six or eight months.... I believe you
+     can receive no assistance by drafts from the militia. From
+     the battalions of the Commonwealth none can be drawn as yet,
+     because they are not half full.... Virginia will find some
+     apology with you for this deficiency in her quota of
+     regulars, when the difficulties lately thrown in our way are
+     considered. The Georgians and Carolinians have enlisted [in
+     Virginia] probably two battalions at least. A regiment of
+     artillery is in great forwardness. Besides these, Colonels
+     Baylor and Grayson are collecting regiments; and three
+     others are forming for this State. Add to all this our
+     Indian wars and marine service, almost total want of
+     necessaries, the false accounts of deserters,--many of whom
+     lurk here,--the terrors of the smallpox and the many deaths
+     occasioned by it, and the deficient enlistments are
+     accounted for in the best manner I can. As no time can be
+     spared, I wish to be honored with your answer as soon as
+     possible, in order to promote the volunteer scheme, if it
+     meets your approbation. I should be glad of any improvements
+     on it that may occur to you. I believe about four of the six
+     battalions may be enlisted, but have seen no regular
+     [return] of their state. Their scattered situation, and
+     being many of them in broken quotas, is a reason for their
+     slow movement. I have issued repeated orders for their march
+     long since."[282]
+
+The General Assembly of Virginia, at its session in the spring of
+1777, was required to elect a governor, to serve for one year from the
+day on which that session should end. As no candidate was named in
+opposition to Patrick Henry, the Senate proposed to the House of
+Delegates that he should be reappointed without ballot. This,
+accordingly, was done, by resolution of the latter body on the 29th of
+May, and by that of the Senate on the 1st of June. On the 5th of June,
+the committee appointed to inform the governor of this action laid
+before the House his answer:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The signal honor conferred on me by the General
+     Assembly, in their choice of me to be governor of this
+     Commonwealth, demands my best acknowledgments, which I beg
+     the favor of you to convey to them in the most acceptable
+     manner.
+
+     I shall execute the duties of that high station to which I
+     am again called by the favor of my fellow-citizens,
+     according to the best of my abilities, and I shall rely upon
+     the candor and wisdom of the Assembly to excuse and supply
+     my defects. The good of the Commonwealth shall be the only
+     object of my pursuit, and I shall measure my happiness
+     according to the success which shall attend my endeavors to
+     establish the public liberty. I beg to be presented to the
+     Assembly, and that they and you will be assured that I am,
+     with every sentiment of the highest regard, their and your
+     most obedient and very humble servant,
+
+                                                P. HENRY.[283]
+
+After a perusal of this nobly written letter, the gentle reader will
+have no difficulty in concluding that, if indeed the author of it was
+then lying in wait for an opportunity to set up a despotism in
+Virginia, he had already become an adept in the hypocrisy which
+enabled him, not only to conceal the fact, but to convey an impression
+quite the opposite.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[255] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 154.
+
+[256] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1602, 1603, note.
+
+[257] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 631.
+
+[258] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 905, 906.
+
+[259] George Rogers Clark's _Campaign in the Illinois_, 11.
+
+[260] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[261] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32.
+
+[262] _Ibid._ 57-59.
+
+[263] _Writings of Washington_, iv. 138.
+
+[264] See Letters from the president of Va. Privy Council and from
+General Lewis, in 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 736.
+
+[265] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 229.
+
+[266] Compare _Jour. Va. House Del._ 8.
+
+[267] 5 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1305-1306.
+
+[268] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 363, 413; and _Hist. Mag._ i.
+52.
+
+[269] _Writings of Jefferson_, viii. 368-371; also Phila. ed. of
+_Notes_, 1825, 172-176.
+
+[270] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. Pref. Rem. vi.
+
+[271] See Jefferson's explicit endorsement of Girardin's book in his
+own _Writings_, i. 50.
+
+[272] Burk, _Hist. Va._ 189, 190.
+
+[273] Wirt, _Life of Henry_, 204-205.
+
+[274] Elliot's _Debates_, iii. 160.
+
+[275] Cited by William Wirt Henry, _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 349.
+
+[276] _Jour. Va. House of Del._ 106-108.
+
+[277] _Jour. Va. H. Del._ 75; and Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i.
+205.
+
+[278] William Wirt Henry, _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 350.
+
+[279] 5 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1425-1426.
+
+[280] I refer, for example, to his letters of Oct. 11, 1776; of Nov.
+19, 1776; of Dec. 6, 1776; of Jan. 8, 1777; of March 20, 1777; of
+March 28, 1777; of June 20, 1777; besides the letters cited in the
+text.
+
+[281] _Writings of Washington_, iv. 330.
+
+[282] Sparks, _Corr. Rev._ i. 361, 362.
+
+[283] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 61.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+GOVERNOR A SECOND TIME
+
+
+Patrick Henry's second term as governor extended from the 28th of
+June, 1777, to the 28th of June, 1778: a twelvemonth of vast and even
+decisive events in the struggle for national independence,--its awful
+disasters being more than relieved by the successes, both diplomatic
+and military, which were compressed within that narrow strip of time.
+Let us try, by a glance at the chief items in the record of that year,
+to bring before our eyes the historic environment amid which the
+governor of Virginia then wrought at his heavy tasks: July 6, 1777,
+American evacuation of Ticonderoga at the approach of Burgoyne; August
+6, defeat of Herkimer by the British under St. Leger; August 16,
+Stark's victory over the British at Bennington; September 11, defeat
+of Washington at Brandywine; September 27, entrance of the British
+into Philadelphia; October 4, defeat of Washington at Germantown;
+October 16, surrender of Burgoyne and his entire army; December 11,
+Washington's retirement into winter quarters at Valley Forge; February
+6, 1778, American treaty of alliance with France; May 11, death of
+Lord Chatham; June 13, Lord North's peace commissioners propose to
+Congress a cessation of hostilities; June 18, the British evacuate
+Philadelphia; June 28, the battle of Monmouth.
+
+The story of the personal life of Patrick Henry during those stern and
+agitating months is lighted up by the mention of his marriage, on the
+9th of October, 1777, to Dorothea Dandridge, a granddaughter of the
+old royal governor, Alexander Spotswood,--a lady who was much younger
+than her husband, and whose companionship proved to be the solace of
+all the years that remained to him on earth.
+
+The pressure of official business upon him can hardly have been less
+than during the previous year. The General Assembly was in session
+from the 20th of October, 1777, until the 24th of January, 1778, and
+from the 4th of May to the 1st of June, 1778,--involving, of course, a
+long strain of attention by the governor to the work of the two
+houses. Moreover, the prominence of Virginia among the States, and, at
+the same time, her exemption from the most formidable assaults of the
+enemy, led to great demands being made upon her both for men and for
+supplies. To meet these demands, either by satisfying them or by
+explaining his failure to do so, involved a copious and laborious
+correspondence on the part of Governor Henry, not only with his own
+official subordinates in the State, but with the president of
+Congress, with the board of war, and with the general of the army.
+The official letters which he thus wrote are a monument of his ardor
+and energy as a war governor, his attention to details, his broad
+practical sense, his hopefulness and patience under galling
+disappointments and defeats.[284]
+
+Perhaps nothing in the life of Governor Henry during his second term
+of office has so touching an interest for us now, as has the course
+which he took respecting the famous intrigue, which was developed into
+alarming proportions during the winter of 1777 and 1778, for the
+displacement of Washington, and for the elevation of the shallow and
+ill-balanced Gates to the supreme command of the armies. It is
+probable that several men of prominence in the army, in Congress, and
+in the several state governments, were drawn into this cabal, although
+most of them had too much caution to commit themselves to it by any
+documentary evidence which could rise up and destroy them in case of
+its failure. The leaders in the plot very naturally felt the great
+importance of securing the secret support of men of high influence in
+Washington's own State; and by many it was then believed that they
+had actually won over no less a man than Richard Henry Lee. Of course,
+if also the sanction of Governor Patrick Henry could be secured, a
+prodigious advantage would be gained. Accordingly, from the town of
+York, in Pennsylvania, whither Congress had fled on the advance of the
+enemy towards Philadelphia, the following letter was sent to him,--a
+letter written in a disguised hand, without signature, but evidently
+by a personal friend, a man of position, and a master of the art of
+plausible statement:--
+
+                                      YORKTOWN, 12 January, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--The common danger of our country first brought
+     you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the influence
+     of your conversation and eloquence upon the opinions of this
+     country in the beginning of the present controversy. You
+     first taught us to shake off our idolatrous attachment to
+     royalty, and to oppose its encroachments upon our liberties
+     with our very lives. By these means you saved us from ruin.
+     The independence of America is the offspring of that liberal
+     spirit of thinking and acting, which followed the
+     destruction of the sceptres of kings, and the mighty power
+     of Great Britain.
+
+     But, Sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A dreary
+     wilderness is still before us; and unless a Moses or a
+     Joshua are raised up in our behalf, we must perish before we
+     reach the promised land. We have nothing to fear from our
+     enemies on the way. General Howe, it is true, has taken
+     Philadelphia, but he has only changed his prison. His
+     dominions are bounded on all sides by his out-sentries.
+     America can only be undone by herself. She looks up to her
+     councils and arms for protection; but, alas! what are they?
+     Her representation in Congress dwindled to only twenty-one
+     members; her Adams, her Wilson, her Henry are no more among
+     them. Her councils weak, and partial remedies applied
+     constantly for universal diseases. Her army, what is it? A
+     major-general belonging to it called it a few days ago, in
+     my hearing, a mob. Discipline unknown or wholly neglected.
+     The quartermaster's and commissary's departments filled with
+     idleness, ignorance, and peculation; our hospitals crowded
+     with six thousand sick, but half provided with necessaries
+     or accommodations, and more dying in them in one month than
+     perished in the field during the whole of the last campaign.
+     The money depreciating, without any effectual measures being
+     taken to raise it; the country distracted with the Don
+     Quixote attempts to regulate the price of provisions; an
+     artificial famine created by it, and a real one dreaded from
+     it; the spirit of the people failing through a more intimate
+     acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes; many
+     submitting daily to General Howe; and more wishing to do it,
+     only to avoid the calamities which threaten our country. But
+     is our case desperate? By no means. We have wisdom, virtue
+     and strength enough to save us, if they could be called into
+     action. The northern army has shown us what Americans are
+     capable of doing with a General at their head. The spirit of
+     the southern army is no way inferior to the spirit of the
+     northern. A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway, would in a few weeks
+     render them an irresistible body of men. The last of the
+     above officers has accepted of the new office of
+     inspector-general of our army, in order to reform abuses;
+     but the remedy is only a palliative one. In one of his
+     letters to a friend he says, 'A great and good God hath
+     decreed America to be free, or the [General] and weak
+     counsellors would have ruined her long ago.' You may rest
+     assured of each of the facts related in this letter. The
+     author of it is one of your Philadelphia friends. A hint of
+     his name, if found out by the handwriting, must not be
+     mentioned to your most intimate friend. Even the letter must
+     be thrown into the fire. But some of its contents ought to
+     be made public, in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our
+     country. I rely upon your prudence, and am, dear Sir, with
+     my usual attachment to you, and to our beloved independence,
+
+                                                 Yours sincerely.
+
+How was Patrick Henry to deal with such a letter as this? Even though
+he should reject its reasoning, and spurn the temptation with which it
+assailed him, should he merely burn it, and be silent? The incident
+furnished a fair test of his loyalty in friendship, his faith in
+principle, his soundness of judgment, his clear and cool grasp of the
+public situation,--in a word, of his manliness and his statesmanship.
+This is the way in which he stood the test:--
+
+     PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+                                 WILLIAMSBURG, 20 February, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--You will, no doubt, be surprised at seeing the
+     enclosed letter, in which the encomiums bestowed on me are
+     as undeserved, as the censures aimed at you are unjust. I am
+     sorry there should be one man who counts himself my friend,
+     who is not yours.
+
+     Perhaps I give you needless trouble in handing you this
+     paper. The writer of it may be too insignificant to deserve
+     any notice. If I knew this to be the case, I should not have
+     intruded on your time, which is so precious. But there may
+     possibly be some scheme or party forming to your prejudice.
+     The enclosed leads to such a suspicion. Believe, me, Sir, I
+     have too high a sense of the obligations America has to you,
+     to abet or countenance so unworthy a proceeding. The most
+     exalted merit has ever been found to attract envy. But I
+     please myself with the hope that the same fortitude and
+     greatness of mind, which have hitherto braved all the
+     difficulties and dangers inseparable from your station, will
+     rise superior to every attempt of the envious partisan. I
+     really cannot tell who is the writer of this letter, which
+     not a little perplexes me. The handwriting is altogether
+     strange to me.
+
+     To give you the trouble of this gives me pain. It would suit
+     my inclination better to give you some assistance in the
+     great business of the war. But I will not conceal anything
+     from you, by which you may be affected; for I really think
+     your personal welfare and the happiness of America are
+     intimately connected. I beg you will be assured of that high
+     regard and esteem with which I ever am, dear sir, your
+     affectionate friend and very humble servant.
+
+Fifteen days passed after the dispatch of that letter, when, having as
+yet no answer, but with a heart still full of anxiety respecting this
+mysterious and ill-boding cabal against his old friend, Governor
+Henry wrote again:--
+
+     PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+                                     WILLIAMSBURG, 5 March, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--By an express, which Colonel Finnie sent to camp,
+     I enclosed to you an anonymous letter which I hope got safe
+     to hand. I am anxious to hear something that will serve to
+     explain the strange affair, which I am now informed is taken
+     up respecting you. Mr. Custis has just paid us a visit, and
+     by him I learn sundry particulars concerning General
+     Mifflin, that much surprised me. It is very hard to trace
+     the schemes and windings of the enemies to America. I really
+     thought that man its friend; however, I am too far from him
+     to judge of his present temper.
+
+     While you face the armed enemies of our liberty in the
+     field, and by the favor of God have been kept unhurt, I
+     trust your country will never harbor in her bosom the
+     miscreant, who would ruin her best supporter. I wish not to
+     flatter; but when arts, unworthy honest men, are used to
+     defame and traduce you, I think it not amiss, but a duty, to
+     assure you of that estimation in which the public hold you.
+     Not that I think any testimony I can bear is necessary for
+     your support, or private satisfaction; for a bare
+     recollection of what is past must give you sufficient
+     pleasure in every circumstance of life. But I cannot help
+     assuring you, on this occasion, of the high sense of
+     gratitude which all ranks of men in this our native country
+     bear to you. It will give me sincere pleasure to manifest my
+     regards, and render my best services to you or yours. I do
+     not like to make a parade of these things, and I know you
+     are not fond of it; however, I hope the occasion will plead
+     my excuse. Wishing you all possible felicity, I am, my dear
+     Sir, your ever affectionate friend and very humble servant.
+
+Before Washington received this second letter, he had already begun to
+write the following reply to the first:--
+
+     GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY.
+
+                                   VALLEY FORGE, 27 March, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--About eight days ago I was honored with your
+     favor of the 20th ultimo. Your friendship, sir, in
+     transmitting to me the anonymous letter you had received,
+     lays me under the most grateful obligations, and if my
+     acknowledgments can be due for anything more, it is for the
+     polite and delicate terms in which you have been pleased to
+     communicate the matter.
+
+     I have ever been happy in supposing that I had a place in
+     your esteem, and the proof you have afforded on this
+     occasion makes me peculiarly so. The favorable light in
+     which you hold me is truly flattering; but I should feel
+     much regret, if I thought the happiness of America so
+     intimately connected with my personal welfare, as you so
+     obligingly seem to consider it. All I can say is, that she
+     has ever had, and I trust she ever will have, my honest
+     exertions to promote her interest. I cannot hope that my
+     services have been the best; but my heart tells me they have
+     been the best that I could render.
+
+     That I may have erred in using the means in my power for
+     accomplishing the objects of the arduous, exalted station
+     with which I am honored, I cannot doubt; nor do I wish my
+     conduct to be exempted from reprehension farther than it may
+     deserve. Error is the portion of humanity, and to censure
+     it, whether committed by this or that public character, is
+     the prerogative of freemen. However, being intimately
+     acquainted with the man I conceive to be the author of the
+     letter transmitted, and having always received from him the
+     strongest professions of attachment and regard, I am
+     constrained to consider him as not possessing, at least, a
+     great degree of candor and sincerity, though his views in
+     addressing you should have been the result of conviction,
+     and founded in motives of public good. This is not the only
+     secret, insidious attempt that has been made to wound my
+     reputation. There have been others equally base, cruel, and
+     ungenerous, because conducted with as little frankness, and
+     proceeding from views, perhaps, as personally interested. I
+     am, dear sir, with great esteem and regard, your much
+     obliged friend, etc.
+
+The writing of the foregoing letter was not finished, when Governor
+Henry's second letter reached him; and this additional proof of
+friendship so touched the heart of Washington that, on the next day,
+he wrote again, this time with far less self-restraint than before:--
+
+     GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY
+
+                                           CAMP, 28 March, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Just as I was about to close my letter of
+     yesterday, your favor of the 5th instant came to hand. I can
+     only thank you again, in the language of the most
+     undissembled gratitude, for your friendship; and assure you,
+     that the indulgent disposition, which Virginia in
+     particular, and the States in general, entertain towards me,
+     gives me the most sensible pleasure. The approbation of my
+     country is what I wish; and as far as my abilities and
+     opportunities will permit, I hope I shall endeavor to
+     deserve it. It is the highest reward to a feeling mind; and
+     happy are they, who so conduct themselves as to merit it.
+
+     The anonymous letter with which you were pleased to favor
+     me, was written by Dr. Rush, so far as I can judge from a
+     similitude of hands. This man has been elaborate and studied
+     in his professions of regard for me; and long since the
+     letter to you. My caution to avoid anything which could
+     injure the service, prevented me from communicating, but to
+     a very few of my friends, the intrigues of a faction which I
+     know was formed against me, since it might serve to publish
+     our internal dissensions; but their own restless zeal to
+     advance their views has too clearly betrayed them, and made
+     concealment on my part fruitless. I cannot precisely mark
+     the extent of their views, but it appeared, in general, that
+     General Gates was to be exalted on the ruin of my reputation
+     and influence. This I am authorized to say, from undeniable
+     facts in my own possession, from publications, the evident
+     scope of which could not be mistaken, and from private
+     detractions industriously circulated. General Mifflin, it is
+     commonly supposed, bore the second part in the cabal; and
+     General Conway, I know, was a very active and malignant
+     partisan; but I have good reason to believe that their
+     machinations have recoiled most sensibly upon themselves.
+     With sentiments of great esteem and regard, I am, dear sir,
+     your affectionate humble servant.[285]
+
+This incident in the lives of Washington and Patrick Henry is to be
+noted by us, not only for its own exquisite delicacy and nobility, but
+likewise as the culminating fact in the growth of a very deep and true
+friendship between the two men,--a friendship which seems to have
+begun many years before, probably in the House of Burgesses, and which
+lasted with increasing strength and tenderness, and with but a single
+episode of estrangement, during the rest of their lives. Moreover, he
+who tries to interpret the later career of Patrick Henry, especially
+after the establishment of the government under the Constitution, and
+who leaves out of the account Henry's profound friendship for
+Washington, and the basis of moral and intellectual congeniality on
+which that friendship rested, will lose an important clew to the
+perfect naturalness and consistency of Henry's political course during
+his last years. A fierce partisan outcry was then raised against him
+in Virginia, and he was bitterly denounced as a political apostate,
+simply because, in the parting of the ways of Washington and of
+Jefferson, Patrick Henry no longer walked with Jefferson. In truth,
+Patrick Henry was never Washington's follower nor Jefferson's: he was
+no man's follower. From the beginning, he had always done for himself
+his own thinking, whether right or wrong. At the same time, a careful
+student of the three men may see that, in his thinking, Patrick Henry
+had a closer and a truer moral kinship with Washington than with
+Jefferson. At present, however, we pause before the touching incident
+that has just been narrated in the relations between Washington and
+Henry, in order to mark its bearing on their subsequent intercourse.
+Washington, in whose nature confidence was a plant of slow growth, and
+who was quick neither to love nor to cease from loving, never forgot
+that proof of his friend's friendship. Thenceforward, until that one
+year in which they both died, the letters which passed between them,
+while never effusive, were evidently the letters of two strong men who
+loved and trusted each other without reserve.
+
+Not long before the close of the governor's second term in office, he
+had occasion to write to Richard Henry Lee two letters, which are of
+considerable interest, not only as indicating the cordial intimacy
+between these two great rivals in oratory, but also for the light they
+throw both on the under-currents of bitterness then ruffling the
+politics of Virginia, and on Patrick Henry's attitude towards the one
+great question at that time uppermost in the politics of the nation.
+During the previous autumn, it seems, also, Lee had fallen into great
+disfavor in Virginia, from which he had so far emerged by the 23d of
+January, 1778, as to be then reëlected to Congress, to fill out an
+unexpired term.[286] Shortly afterward, however, harsh speech against
+him was to be heard in Virginia once more, of which his friend, the
+governor, thus informed him, in a letter dated April 4, 1778:--
+
+     "You are again traduced by a certain set who have drawn in
+     others, who say that you are engaged in a scheme to discard
+     General Washington. I know you too well to suppose that you
+     would engage in anything not evidently calculated to serve
+     the cause of whiggism.... But it is your fate to suffer the
+     constant attacks of disguised Tories who take this measure
+     to lessen you. Farewell, my dear friend. In praying for your
+     welfare, I pray for that of my country, to which your life
+     and service are of the last moment."[287]
+
+Furthermore, on the 30th of May, the General Assembly made choice of
+their delegates in Congress for the following year. Lee was again
+elected, but by so small a vote that his name stood next to the lowest
+on the list.[288] Concerning this stinging slight, he appears to have
+spoken in his next letters to the governor; for, on the 18th of June,
+the latter addressed to him, from Williamsburg, this reply:--
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Both your last letters came to hand to-day. I
+     felt for you, on seeing the order in which the balloting
+     placed the delegates in Congress. It is an effect of that
+     rancorous malice that has so long followed you, through that
+     arduous path of duty which you have invariably travelled,
+     since America resolved to resist her oppressors.
+
+     Is it any pleasure to you to remark, that at the same era in
+     which these men figure against you, public spirit seems to
+     have taken its flight from Virginia? It is too much the
+     case; for the quota of our troops is not half made up, and
+     no chance seems to remain for completing it. The Assembly
+     voted three hundred and fifty horse, and two thousand men,
+     to be forthwith raised, and to join the grand army. Great
+     bounties are offered; but, I fear, the only effect will be
+     to expose our state to contempt,--for I believe no soldiers
+     will enlist, especially in the infantry.
+
+     Can you credit it?--no effort was made for supporting or
+     restoring public credit. I pressed it warmly on some, but in
+     vain. This is the reason we get no soldiers.
+
+     We shall issue fifty or sixty thousand dollars in cash to
+     equip the cavalry, and their time is to expire at Christmas.
+     I believe they will not be in the field before that time.
+
+     Let not Congress rely on Virginia for soldiers. I tell you
+     my opinion: they will not be got here, until a different
+     spirit prevails.
+
+In the next paragraph of his letter, the governor passes from these
+local matters to what was then the one commanding topic in national
+affairs. Lord North's peace commissioners had already arrived, and
+were seeking to win back the Americans into free colonial relations
+with the mother country, and away from their new-formed friendship
+with perfidious France. With what energy Patrick Henry was prepared to
+reject all these British blandishments, may be read in the passionate
+sentences which conclude his letter:--
+
+     I look at the past condition of America, as at a dreadful
+     precipice, from which we have escaped by means of the
+     generous French, to whom I will be ever-lastingly bound by
+     the most heartfelt gratitude. But I must mistake matters, if
+     some of those men who traduce you, do not prefer the offers
+     of Britain. You will have a different game to play now with
+     the commissioners. How comes Governor Johnstone there? I do
+     not see how it comports with his past life.
+
+     Surely Congress will never recede from our French friends.
+     Salvation to America depends upon our holding fast our
+     attachment to them. I shall date our ruin from the moment
+     that it is exchanged for anything Great Britain can say, or
+     do. She can never be cordial with us. Baffled, defeated,
+     disgraced by her colonies, she will ever meditate revenge.
+     We can find no safety but in her ruin, or, at least, in her
+     extreme humiliation; which has not happened, and cannot
+     happen, until she is deluged with blood, or thoroughly
+     purged by a revolution, which shall wipe from existence the
+     present king with his connections, and the present system
+     with those who aid and abet it.
+
+     For God's sake, my dear sir, quit not the councils of your
+     country, until you see us forever disjoined from Great
+     Britain. The old leaven still works. The fleshpots of Egypt
+     are still savory to degenerate palates. Again we are undone,
+     if the French alliance is not religiously observed. Excuse
+     my freedom. I know your love to our country,--and this is my
+     motive. May Heaven give you health and prosperity.
+
+                                     I am yours affectionately,
+                                               PATRICK HENRY.[289]
+
+Before coming to the end of our story of Governor Henry's second
+term, it should be mentioned that twice during this period did the
+General Assembly confide to him those extraordinary powers which by
+many were spoken of as dictatorial; first, on the 22d of January,
+1778,[290] and again, on the 28th of May, of the same year.[291]
+Finally, so safe had been this great trust in his hands, and so
+efficiently had he borne himself, in all the labors and
+responsibilities of his high office, that, on the 29th of May, the
+House of Delegates, by resolution, unanimously elected him as governor
+for a third term,--an act in which, on the same day, the Senate voted
+its concurrence. On the 30th of May, Thomas Jefferson, from the
+committee appointed to notify the governor of his reëlection, reported
+to the House the following answer:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The General Assembly, in again electing me
+     governor of this commonwealth, have done me very signal
+     honor. I trust that their confidence, thus continued in me,
+     will not be misplaced. I beg you will be pleased, gentlemen,
+     to present me to the General Assembly in terms of grateful
+     acknowledgment for this fresh instance of their favor
+     towards me; and to assure them, that my best endeavors shall
+     be used to promote the public good, in that station to which
+     they have once more been pleased to call me.[292]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[284] Of the official letters of Governor Henry, doubtless many have
+perished; a few have been printed in Sparks, Force, Wirt, and
+elsewhere; a considerable number, also, are preserved in manuscript in
+the archives of the Department of State at Washington. Copies of the
+latter are before me as I write. As justifying the statement made in
+the text, I would refer to his letters of August 30, 1777; of October
+29, 1777; of October 30, 1777; of December 6, 1777; of December 9,
+1777; of January 20, 1778; of January 28, 1778; and of June 18, 1778.
+
+[285] _Writings of Washington_, v. 495-497; 512-515.
+
+[286] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 131.
+
+[287] Given in Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of_ 1776, 142 note.
+
+[288] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 27, 33.
+
+[289] Lee, _Life of Richard Henry Lee_, i. 195 196.
+
+[290] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 72, 81, 85, 125, 126.
+
+[291] _Ibid._ 15, 16, 17.
+
+[292] _Ibid._ 26, 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THIRD YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP
+
+
+Governor Henry's third official year was marked, in the great struggle
+then in progress, by the arrival of the French fleet, and by its
+futile attempts to be of any use to those hard-pressed rebels whom the
+king of France had undertaken to encourage in their insubordination;
+by awful scenes of carnage and desolation in the outlying settlements
+at Wyoming, Cherry Valley, and Schoharie; by British predatory
+expeditions along the Connecticut coast; by the final failure and
+departure of Lord North's peace commissioners; and by the transfer of
+the chief seat of war to the South, beginning with the capture of
+Savannah by the British on the 29th of December, 1778, followed by
+their initial movement on Charleston, in May, 1779. In the month just
+mentioned, likewise, the enemy, under command of General Matthews and
+of Sir George Collier, suddenly swooped down on Virginia, first
+seizing Portsmouth and Norfolk, and then, after a glorious military
+debauch of robbery, ruin, rape, and murder, and after spreading terror
+and anguish among the undefended populations of Suffolk, Kemp's
+Landing, Tanner's Creek, and Gosport, as suddenly gathered up their
+booty, and went back in great glee to New York.
+
+In the autumn of 1778, the governor had the happiness to hear of the
+really brilliant success of the expedition which, with statesmanlike
+sagacity, he had sent out under George Rogers Clark, into the Illinois
+country, in the early part of the year.[293] Some of the more
+important facts connected with this expedition, he thus announced to
+the Virginia delegates in Congress:--
+
+                              WILLIAMSBURG, November 14, 1778.
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The executive power of this State having been
+     impressed with a strong apprehension of incursions on the
+     frontier settlements from the savages situated about the
+     Illinois, and supposing the danger would be greatly obviated
+     by an enterprise against the English forts and possessions
+     in that country, which were well known to inspire the
+     savages with their bloody purposes against us, sent a
+     detachment of militia, consisting of one hundred and seventy
+     or eighty men commanded by Colonel George Rogers Clark, on
+     that service some time last spring. By despatches which I
+     have just received from Colonel Clark, it appears that his
+     success has equalled the most sanguine expectations. He has
+     not only reduced Fort Chartres and its dependencies, but has
+     struck such a terror into the Indian tribes between that
+     settlement and the lakes that no less than five of them,
+     viz., the Puans, Sacks, Renards, Powtowantanies, and Miamis,
+     who had received the hatchet from the English emissaries,
+     have submitted to our arms all their English presents, and
+     bound themselves by treaties and promises to be peaceful in
+     the future.
+
+     The great Blackbird, the Chappowow chief, has also sent a
+     belt of peace to Colonel Clark, influenced, he supposes, by
+     the dread of Detroit's being reduced by American arms. This
+     latter place, according to Colonel Clark's representation,
+     is at present defended by so inconsiderable a garrison and
+     so scantily furnished with provisions, for which they must
+     be still more distressed by the loss of supplies from the
+     Illinois, that it might be reduced by any number of men
+     above five hundred. The governor of that place, Mr.
+     Hamilton, was exerting himself to engage the savages to
+     assist him in retaking the places that had fallen into our
+     hands; but the favorable impression made on the Indians in
+     general in that quarter, the influence of the French on
+     them, and the reënforcement of their militia Colonel Clark
+     expected, flattered him that there was little danger to be
+     apprehended.... If the party under Colonel Clark can
+     coöperate in any respect with the measures Congress are
+     pursuing or have in view, I shall with pleasure give him the
+     necessary orders. In order to improve and secure the
+     advantages gained by Colonel Clark, I propose to support him
+     with a reënforcement of militia. But this will depend on the
+     pleasure of the Assembly, to whose consideration the measure
+     is submitted.
+
+     The French inhabitants have manifested great zeal and
+     attachment to our cause, and insist on garrisons remaining
+     with them under Colonel Clark. This I am induced to agree
+     to, because the safety of our own frontiers as well as that
+     of these people demands a compliance with this request. Were
+     it possible to secure the St. Lawrence and prevent the
+     English attempts up that river by seizing some post on it,
+     peace with the Indians would seem to me to be secured.
+
+                With great regard I have the honor to be, Gentn,
+                            Your most obedient servant,
+                                                    P. HENRY.[294]
+
+During the autumn session of the General Assembly, that body showed
+its continued confidence in the governor by passing several acts
+conferring on him extraordinary powers, in addition to those already
+bestowed.[295]
+
+A letter which the governor wrote at this period to the president of
+Congress, respecting military aid from Virginia to States further
+south, may give us some idea, not only of his own practical
+discernment in the matters involved, but of the confusion which, in
+those days, often attended military plans issuing from a many-headed
+executive:--
+
+                                 WILLIAMSBURG, November 28, 1778.
+
+     SIR,--Your favor of the 16th instant is come to hand,
+     together with the acts of Congress of the 26th of August for
+     establishing provision for soldiers and sailors maimed or
+     disabled in the public service,--of the 26th of September
+     for organizing the treasury, a proclamation for a general
+     thanksgiving, and three copies of the alliance between his
+     most Christian Majesty and these United States.
+
+     I lost no time in laying your letter before the privy
+     council, and in deliberating with them on the subject of
+     sending 1000 militia to Charlestown, South Carolina. I beg
+     to assure Congress of the great zeal of every member of the
+     executive here to give full efficacy to their designs on
+     every occasion. But on the present, I am very sorry to
+     observe, that obstacles great and I fear unsurmountable are
+     opposed to the immediate march of the men. Upon requisition
+     to the deputy quartermaster-general in this department for
+     tents, kettles, blankets, and wagons, he informs they cannot
+     be had. The season when the march must begin will be severe
+     and inclement, and, without the forementioned necessaries,
+     impracticable to men indifferently clad and equipped as they
+     are in the present general scarcity of clothes.
+
+     The council, as well as myself, are not a little perplexed
+     on comparing this requisition to defend South Carolina and
+     Georgia from the assaults of the enemy, with that made a few
+     days past for galleys to conquer East Florida. The galleys
+     have orders to rendezvous at Charlestown, which I was taught
+     to consider as a place of acknowledged safety; and I beg
+     leave to observe, that there seems some degree of
+     inconsistency in marching militia such a distance in the
+     depth of winter, under the want of necessaries, to defend a
+     place which the former measures seemed to declare safe.
+
+     The act of Assembly whereby it is made lawful to order their
+     march, confines the operations to measures merely defensive
+     to a sister State, and of whose danger there is certain
+     information received.
+
+     However, as Congress have not been pleased to explain the
+     matters herein alluded to, and altho' a good deal of
+     perplexity remains with me on the subject, I have by advice
+     of the privy council given orders for 1000 men to be
+     instantly got into readiness to march to Charlestown, and
+     they will march as soon as they are furnished with tents,
+     kettles, and wagons. In the mean time, if intelligence is
+     received that their march is essential to the preservation
+     of either of the States of South Carolina or Georgia the men
+     will encounter every difficulty, and have orders to proceed
+     in the best way they can without waiting to be supplied with
+     those necessaries commonly afforded to troops even on a
+     summer's march.
+
+     I have to beg that Congress will please to remember the
+     state of embarrassment in which I must necessarily remain
+     with respect to the ordering galleys to Charlestown, in
+     their way to invade Florida, while the militia are getting
+     ready to defend the States bordering on it, and that they
+     will please to favor me with the earliest intelligence of
+     every circumstance that is to influence the measures either
+     offensive or defensive.
+
+     I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and very
+     humble servant,
+
+                                                  P. HENRY.[296]
+
+By the early spring of 1779, it became still more apparent that the
+purpose of the enemy was to shift the scene of their activity from the
+middle States to the South, and that Virginia, whose soil had never
+thus far been bruised by the tread of a hostile army, must soon
+experience that dire calamity. Perhaps no one saw this more clearly
+than did Governor Henry. At the same time, he also saw that Virginia
+must in part defend herself by helping to defend her sister States at
+the South, across whose territories the advance of the enemy into
+Virginia was likely to be attempted. His clear grasp of the military
+situation, in all the broad relations of his own State to it, is thus
+revealed in a letter to Washington, dated at Williamsburg, 13th of
+March, 1779:--
+
+     "My last accounts from the South are unfavorable. Georgia is
+     said to be in full possession of the enemy, and South
+     Carolina in great danger. The number of disaffected there is
+     said to be formidable, and the Creek Indians inclining
+     against us. One thousand militia are ordered thither from
+     our southern counties; but a doubt is started whether they
+     are by law obliged to march. I have also proposed a scheme
+     to embody volunteers for this service; but I fear the length
+     of the march, and a general scarcity of bread, which
+     prevails in some parts of North Carolina and this State, may
+     impede this service. About five hundred militia are ordered
+     down the Tennessee River, to chastise some new settlements
+     of renegade Cherokees that infest our southwestern frontier,
+     and prevent our navigation on that river, from which we
+     began to hope for great advantages. Our militia have full
+     possession of the Illinois and the posts on the Wabash; and
+     I am not without hopes that the same party may overawe the
+     Indians as far as Detroit. They are independent of General
+     McIntosh, whose numbers, although upwards of two thousand, I
+     think could not make any great progress, on account, it is
+     said, of the route they took, and the lateness of the
+     season.
+
+     "The conquest of Illinois and Wabash was effected with less
+     than two hundred men, who will soon be reënforced; and, by
+     holding posts on the back of the Indians, it is hoped may
+     intimidate them. Forts Natchez and Morishac are again in the
+     enemy's hands; and from thence they infest and ruin our
+     trade on the Mississippi, on which river the Spaniards wish
+     to open a very interesting commerce with us. I have
+     requested Congress to authorize the conquest of those two
+     posts, as the possession of them will give a colorable
+     pretence to retain all West Florida, when a treaty may be
+     opened."[297]
+
+Within two months after that letter was written, the dreaded warships
+of the enemy were ploughing the waters of Virginia: it was the
+sorrow-bringing expedition of Matthews and Sir George Collier. The
+news of their arrival was thus conveyed by Governor Henry to the
+president of Congress:--
+
+                                   WILLIAMSBURG, 11 May, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--On Saturday last, in the evening, a British fleet
+     amounting to about thirty sail ... came into the Bay of
+     Chesapeake, and the next day proceeded to Hampton Road,
+     where they anchored and remained quiet until yesterday about
+     noon, when several of the ships got under way, and proceeded
+     towards Portsmouth, which place I have no doubt they intend
+     to attack by water or by land or by both, as they have many
+     flat-bottomed boats with them for the purpose of landing
+     their troops. As I too well know the weakness of that
+     garrison, I am in great pain for the consequences, there
+     being great quantities of merchandise, the property of
+     French merchants and others in this State, at that place, as
+     well as considerable quantities of military stores, which,
+     tho' measures some time since were taken to remove, may
+     nevertheless fall into the enemy's hands. Whether they may
+     hereafter intend to fortify and maintain this post is at
+     present unknown to me, but the consequences which will
+     result to this State and to the United States finally if
+     such a measure should be adopted must be obvious. Whether it
+     may be in the power of Congress to adopt any measures which
+     can in any manner counteract the design of the enemy is
+     submitted to their wisdom. At present, I cannot avoid
+     intimating that I have the greatest reason to think that
+     many vessels from France with public and private merchandise
+     may unfortunately arrive while the enemy remain in perfect
+     possession of the Bay of Chesapeake, and fall victims
+     unexpectedly.
+
+     Every precaution will be taken to order lookout boats on the
+     seacoasts to furnish proper intelligence; but the success
+     attending this necessary measure will be precarious in the
+     present situation of things.[298]
+
+On the next day the governor had still heavier tidings for the same
+correspondent:--
+
+                                      WILLIAMSBURG, May 12, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--I addressed you yesterday upon a subject of the
+     greatest consequence. The last night brought me the fatal
+     account of Portsmouth being in possession of the enemy.
+     Their force was too great to be resisted, and therefore the
+     fort was evacuated after destroying one capital ship
+     belonging to the State and one or two private ones loaded
+     with tobacco. Goods and merchandise, however, of very great
+     value fall into the enemy's hands. If Congress could by
+     solicitations procure a fleet superior to the enemy's force
+     to enter Chesapeake at this critical period, the prospect of
+     gain and advantage would be great indeed. I have the honor
+     to be, with the greatest regard, Sir,
+
+     Your most humble and obedient servant,
+
+                                                P. HENRY.[299]
+
+To meet this dreadful invasion, the governor attempted to arouse and
+direct vigorous measures, in part by a proclamation, on the 14th of
+May, announcing to the people of Virginia the facts of the case, "and
+requiring the county lieutenants and other military officers in the
+Commonwealth, and especially those on the navigable waters, to hold
+their respective militias in readiness to oppose the attempts of the
+enemy wherever they might be made."[300]
+
+On the 21st of the month, in a letter to the president of Congress, he
+reported the havoc then wrought by the enemy:--
+
+                                     WILLIAMSBURG, May 21, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--Being in the greatest haste to dispatch your express,
+     I have not time to give you any very particular information
+     concerning the present invasion. Let it suffice therefore to
+     inform Congress that the number of the enemy's ships are
+     nearly the same as was mentioned in my former letter; with
+     regard to the number of the troops which landed and took
+     Portsmouth, and afterwards proceeded and burnt, plundered,
+     and destroyed Suffolk, committing various barbarities, etc.,
+     we are still ignorant, as the accounts from the deserters
+     differ widely; perhaps, however, it may not exceed 2000 or
+     2500 men.
+
+     I trust that a sufficient number of troops are embodied and
+     stationed in certain proportions at this place, York,
+     Hampton, and on the south side of James River.... When any
+     further particulars come to my knowledge they shall be
+     communicated to Congress without delay.
+
+     I have the honor to be, Sir, your humble servant,
+
+                                                     P. HENRY.
+
+     P. S. I am pretty certain that the land forces are commanded
+     by Gen'l Matthews and the fleet by Sir George Collier.[301]
+
+In the very midst of this ugly storm, it was required that the ship of
+state should undergo a change of commanders. The third year for which
+Governor Henry had been elected was nearly at an end. There were some
+members of the Assembly who thought him eligible as governor for still
+another year, on the ground that his first election was by the
+convention, and that the year of office which that body gave to him
+"was merely provisory," and formed no proper part of his
+constitutional term.[302] Governor Henry himself, however, could not
+fail to perceive the unfitness of any struggle upon such a question at
+such a time, as well as the futility which would attach to that high
+office, if held, amid such perils, under a clouded title. Accordingly,
+on the 28th of May, he cut short all discussion by sending to the
+speaker of the House of Delegates the following letter:--
+
+                                                  May 28, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--The term for which I had the honor to be elected
+     governor by the late Assembly being just about to expire,
+     and the Constitution, as I think, making me ineligible to
+     that office, I take the liberty to communicate to the
+     Assembly through you, Sir, my intention to retire in four or
+     five days.
+
+     I have thought it necessary to give this notification of my
+     design, in order that the Assembly may have the earliest
+     opportunity of deliberating upon the choice of a successor
+     to me in office.
+
+     With great regard, I have the honor to be, Sir, your most
+     obedient servant,
+
+                                                P. HENRY.[303]
+
+On the first of June, Thomas Jefferson was elected to succeed him in
+office, but by a majority of only six votes out of one hundred and
+twenty-eight.[304] On the following day Patrick Henry, having received
+certain resolutions from the General Assembly[305] commending him for
+his conduct while governor, graciously closed this chapter of his
+official life by the following letter:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The House of Delegates have done me very great
+     honor in the vote expressive of their approbation of my
+     public conduct. I beg the favor of you, gentlemen, to convey
+     to that honorable house my most cordial acknowledgments, and
+     to assure them that I shall ever retain a grateful
+     remembrance of the high honor they have now conferred on
+     me.[306]
+
+In the midst of these frank voices of public appreciation over the
+fidelity and efficiency of his service as governor, there were
+doubtless the usual murmurs of partisan criticism or of personal
+ill-will. For example, a few days after Jefferson had taken his seat
+in the stately chair which Patrick Henry had just vacated, St. George
+Tucker, in a letter to Theophilus Bland, gave expression to this
+sneer: "_Sub rosa_, I wish his excellency's activity may be equal to
+the abilities he possesses in so eminent a degree.... But if he should
+tread in the steps of his predecessor, there is not much to be
+expected from the brightest talents."[307] Over against a taunt like
+this, one can scarcely help placing the fact that the general of the
+armies who, for three stern years, had been accustomed to lean heavily
+for help on this governor of Virginia, and who never paid idle
+compliments, nevertheless paid many a tribute to the intelligence,
+zeal, and vigorous activity of Governor Henry's administration. Thus,
+on the 27th of December, 1777, Washington writes to him: "In several
+of my late letters I addressed you on the distress of the troops for
+want of clothing. Your ready exertions to relieve them have given me
+the highest satisfaction."[308] On the 19th of February, 1778,
+Washington again writes to him: "I address myself to you, convinced
+that our alarming distresses will engage your most serious
+consideration, and that the full force of that zeal and vigor you
+have manifested upon every other occasion, will now operate for our
+relief, in a matter that so nearly affects the very existence of our
+contest."[309] On the 19th of April, 1778, Washington once more writes
+to him: "I hold myself infinitely obliged to the legislature for the
+ready attention which they have paid to my representation of the wants
+of the army, and to you for the strenuous manner in which you have
+recommended to the people an observance of my request."[310] Finally,
+if any men had even better opportunities than Washington for
+estimating correctly Governor Henry's efficiency in his great office,
+surely those men were his intimate associates, the members of the
+Virginia legislature. It is quite possible that their first election
+of him as governor may have been in ignorance of his real qualities as
+an executive officer; but this cannot be said of their second and of
+their third elections of him, each one of which was made, as we have
+seen, without one audible lisp of opposition. Is it to be believed
+that, if he had really shown that lack of executive efficiency which
+St. George Tucker's sneer implies, such a body of men, in such a
+crisis of public danger, would have twice and thrice elected him to
+the highest executive office in the State, and that, too, without one
+dissenting vote? To say so, indeed, is to fix a far more damning
+censure upon them than upon him.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[293] Clark's _Campaign in the Illinois_, 95-97, where Governor
+Henry's public and private instructions are given in full.
+
+[294] MS.
+
+[295] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 30, 36, 66; also Hening, ix. 474-476;
+477-478; 530-532; 584-585.
+
+[296] MS.
+
+[297] Sparks, _Corr. Rev_. ii. 261-262.
+
+[298] MS.
+
+[299] MS.
+
+[300] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 338.
+
+[301] MS.
+
+[302] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 350.
+
+[303] Wirt, 225.
+
+[304] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 29.
+
+[305] Burk, _Hist. Va._ 350.
+
+[306] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32.
+
+[307] _Bland Papers_, ii. 11.
+
+[308] MS.
+
+[309] MS.
+
+[310] MS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AT HOME AND IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES
+
+
+The high official rank which Governor Henry had borne during the first
+three years of American independence was so impressive to the
+imaginations of the French allies who were then in the country, that
+some of them addressed their letters to him as "Son Altesse Royale,
+Monsieur Patrick Henri, Gouverneur de l'Etat de Virginie."[311] From
+this titular royalty he descended, as we have seen, about the 1st of
+June, 1779; and for the subsequent five and a half years, until his
+recall to the governorship, he is to be viewed by us as a very retired
+country gentleman in delicate health, with episodes of labor and of
+leadership in the Virginia House of Delegates.
+
+A little more than a fortnight after his descent from the governor's
+chair, he was elected by the General Assembly as a delegate in
+Congress.[312] It is not known whether he at any time thought it
+possible for him to accept this appointment; but, on the 28th of the
+following October, the body that had elected him received from him a
+letter declining the service.[313] Moreover, in spite of all
+invitations and entreaties, Patrick Henry never afterwards served in
+any public capacity outside the State of Virginia.
+
+During his three years in the governorship, he had lived in the palace
+at Williamsburg. In the course of that time, also, he had sold his
+estate of Scotchtown, in Hanover County, and had purchased a large
+tract of land in the new county of Henry,--a county situated about two
+hundred miles southwest from Richmond, along the North Carolina
+boundary, and named, of course, in honor of himself. To his new estate
+there, called Leatherwood, consisting of about ten thousand acres, he
+removed early in the summer of 1779. This continued to be his home
+until he resumed the office of governor in November, 1784.[314]
+
+After the storm and stress of so many years of public life, and of
+public life in an epoch of revolution, the invalid body, the
+care-burdened spirit, of Patrick Henry must have found great
+refreshment in this removal to a distant, wild, and mountainous
+solitude. In undisturbed seclusion, he there remained during the
+summer and autumn of 1779, and even the succeeding winter and
+spring,--scarcely able to hear the far-off noises of the great
+struggle in which he had hitherto borne so rugged a part, and of which
+the victorious issue was then to be seen by him, though dimly, through
+many a murky rack of selfishness, cowardice, and crime.
+
+His successor in the office of governor was Thomas Jefferson, the
+jovial friend of his own jovial youth, bound to him still by that
+hearty friendship which was founded on congeniality of political
+sentiment, but was afterward to die away, at least on Jefferson's
+side, into alienation and hate. To this dear friend Patrick Henry
+wrote late in that winter, from his hermitage among the eastward
+fastnesses of the Blue Ridge, a remarkable letter, which has never
+before been in print, and which is full of interest for us on account
+of its impulsive and self-revealing words. Its tone of despondency,
+almost of misanthropy,--so unnatural to Patrick Henry,--is perhaps a
+token of that sickness of body which had made the soul sick too, and
+had then driven the writer into the wilderness, and still kept him
+there:--
+
+     TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+
+                                   LEATHERWOOD, 15th Feby., 1780.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I return you many thanks for your favor by Mr.
+     Sanders. The kind notice you were pleased to take of me was
+     particularly obliging, as I have scarcely heard a word of
+     public matters since I moved up in the retirement where I
+     live.
+
+     I have had many anxieties for our commonwealth, principally
+     occasioned by the depreciation of our money. To judge by
+     this, which somebody has called the pulse of the state, I
+     have feared that our body politic was dangerously sick. God
+     grant it may not be unto death. But I cannot forbear
+     thinking, the present increase of prices is in great part
+     owing to a kind of habit, which is now of four or five
+     years' growth, which is fostered by a mistaken avarice, and
+     like other habits hard to part with. For there is really
+     very little money hereabouts.
+
+     What you say of the practice of our distinguished Tories
+     perfectly agrees with my own observation, and the attempts
+     to raise prejudices against the French, I know, were begun
+     when I lived below. What gave me the utmost pain was to see
+     some men, indeed very many, who were thought good Whigs,
+     keep company with the miscreants,--wretches who, I am
+     satisfied, were laboring our destruction. This countenance
+     shown them is of fatal tendency. They should be shunned and
+     execrated, and this is the only way to supply the place of
+     legal conviction and punishment. But this is an effort of
+     virtue, small as it seems, of which our countrymen are not
+     capable.
+
+     Indeed, I will own to you, my dear Sir, that observing this
+     impunity and even respect, which some wicked individuals
+     have met with while their guilt was clear as the sun, has
+     sickened me, and made me sometimes wish to be in retirement
+     for the rest of my life. I will, however, be down, on the
+     next Assembly, if I am chosen. My health, I am satisfied,
+     will never again permit a close application to sedentary
+     business, and I even doubt whether I can remain below long
+     enough to serve in the Assembly. I will, however, make the
+     trial.
+
+     But tell me, do you remember any instance where tyranny was
+     destroyed and freedom established on its ruins, among a
+     people possessing so small a share of virtue and public
+     spirit? I recollect none, and this, more than the British
+     arms, makes me fearful of final success without a reform.
+     But when or how this is to be effected, I have not the means
+     of judging. I most sincerely wish you health and prosperity.
+     If you can spare time to drop me a line now and then, it
+     will be highly obliging to, dear Sir, your affectionate
+     friend and obedient servant,
+
+                                              P. HENRY.[315]
+
+The next General Assembly, which he thus promised to attend in case he
+should be chosen, met at Richmond on the 1st of May, 1780. It hardly
+needs to be mentioned that the people of Henry County were proud to
+choose him as one of their members in that body; but he seems not to
+have taken his seat there until about the 19th of May.[316] From the
+moment of his arrival in the House of Delegates, every kind of
+responsibility and honor was laid upon him. This was his first
+appearance in such an assembly since the proclamation of independence;
+and the prestige attaching to his name, as well as his own undimmed
+genius for leadership, made him not only the most conspicuous person
+in the house, but the nearly absolute director of its business in
+every detail of opinion and of procedure on which he should choose to
+express himself,--his only rival, in any particular, being Richard
+Henry Lee. It helps one now to understand the real reputation he had
+among his contemporaries for practical ability, and for a habit of
+shrinking from none of the commonplace drudgeries of legislative work,
+that during the first few days after his accession to the House he
+was placed on the committee of ways and means; on a committee "to
+inquire into the present state of the account of the commonwealth
+against the United States, and the most speedy and effectual method of
+finally settling the same;" on a committee to prepare a bill for the
+repeal of a part of the act "for sequestering British property,
+enabling those indebted to British subjects to pay off such debts, and
+directing the proceedings in suits where such subjects are parties;"
+on three several committees respecting the powers and duties of high
+sheriffs and of grand juries; and, finally, on a committee to notify
+Jefferson of his reëlection as governor, and to report his answer to
+the House. On the 7th of June, however, after a service of little more
+than two weeks, his own sad apprehensions respecting his health seem
+to have been realized, and he was obliged to ask leave to withdraw
+from the House for the remainder of the session.[317]
+
+At the autumn session of the legislature he was once more in his
+place. On the 6th of November, the day on which the House was
+organized, he was made chairman of the committee on privileges and
+elections, and also of a committee "for the better defence of the
+southern frontier," and was likewise placed on the committee on
+propositions and grievances, as well as on the committee on courts of
+justice. On the following day he was made a member of a committee for
+the defence of the eastern frontier. On the 10th of November he was
+placed on a committee to bring in a bill relating to the enlistment of
+Virginia troops, and to the redemption of the state bills of credit
+then in circulation, and the emission of new bills. On the 22d of
+November he was made a member of a committee to which was again
+referred the account between the State and the United States. On the
+9th of December he was made a member of a committee to draw up bills
+for the organization and maintenance of a navy for the State, and the
+protection of navigation and commerce upon its waters. On the 14th of
+December he was made chairman of a committee to draw up a bill for the
+better regulation and discipline of the militia, and of still another
+committee to prepare a bill "for supplying the army with clothes and
+provisions."[318] On the 28th of December, the House having knowledge
+of the arrival in town of poor General Gates, then drooping under the
+burden of those Southern willows which he had so plentifully gathered
+at Camden, Patrick Henry introduced the following magnanimous
+resolution:--
+
+     "That a committee of four be appointed to wait on Major
+     General Gates, and to assure him of the high regard and
+     esteem of this House; that the remembrance of his former
+     glorious services cannot be obliterated by any reverse of
+     fortune; but that this House, ever mindful of his great
+     merit, will omit no opportunity of testifying to the world
+     the gratitude which, as a member of the American Union, this
+     country owes to him in his military character."[319]
+
+On the 2d of January, 1781, the last day of the session, the House
+adopted, on Patrick Henry's motion, a resolution authorizing the
+governor to convene the next meeting of the legislature at some other
+place than Richmond, in case its assembling in that city should "be
+rendered inconvenient by the operations of an invading enemy,"[320] a
+resolution reflecting their sense of the peril then hanging over the
+State.
+
+Before the legislature could again meet, events proved that it was no
+imaginary danger against which Patrick Henry's resolution had been
+intended to provide. On the 2d of January, 1781, the very day on which
+the legislature had adjourned, a hostile fleet conveyed into the James
+River a force of about eight hundred men under command of Benedict
+Arnold, whose eagerness to ravage Virginia was still further
+facilitated by the arrival, on the 26th of March, of two thousand men
+under General Phillips. Moreover, Lord Cornwallis, having beaten
+General Greene at Guilford, in North Carolina, on the 15th of March,
+seemed to be gathering force for a speedy advance into Virginia. That
+the roar of his guns would soon be heard in the outskirts of their
+capital, was what all Virginians then felt to be inevitable.
+
+Under such circumstances, it is not strange that a session of the
+legislature, which is said to have been held on the 1st of March,[321]
+should have been a very brief one, or that when the 7th of May
+arrived--the day for its reassembling at Richmond--no quorum should
+have been present; or that, on the 10th of May, the few members who
+had arrived in Richmond should have voted, in deference to "the
+approach of an hostile army,"[322] to adjourn to Charlottesville,--a
+place of far greater security, ninety-seven miles to the northwest,
+among the mountains of Albemarle. By the 20th of May, Cornwallis
+reached Petersburg, twenty-three miles south of Richmond; and shortly
+afterward, pushing across the James and the Chickahominy, he encamped
+on the North Anna, in the county of Hanover. Thus, at last, the single
+county of Louisa then separated him from that county in which was the
+home of the governor of the State, and where was then convened its
+legislature,--Patrick Henry himself being present and in obvious
+direction of all its business. The opportunity to bag such game, Lord
+Cornwallis was not the man to let slip. Accordingly, on Sunday, the 3d
+of June, he dispatched a swift expedition under Tarleton, to surprise
+and capture the members of the legislature, "to seize on the person of
+the governor," and "to spread on his route devastation and
+terror."[323] In this entire scheme, doubtless, Tarleton would have
+succeeded, had it not been that as he and his troopers, on that fair
+Sabbath day, were hurrying past the Cuckoo tavern in Louisa, one
+Captain John Jouette, watching from behind the windows, espied them,
+divined their object, and mounting a fleet horse, and taking a shorter
+route, got into Charlottesville a few hours in advance of them, just
+in time to give the alarm, and to set the imperiled legislators
+a-flying to the mountains for safety.
+
+Then, by all accounts, was witnessed a display of the locomotive
+energies of grave and potent senators, such as this world has not
+often exhibited. Of this tragically comical incident, of course, the
+journal of the House of Delegates makes only the most placid and
+forbearing mention. For Monday, June 4, its chief entry is as follows:
+"There being reason to apprehend an immediate incursion of the enemy's
+cavalry to this place, which renders it indispensable that the General
+Assembly should forthwith adjourn to a place of greater security;
+resolved, that this House be adjourned until Thursday next, then to
+meet at the town of Staunton, in the county of Augusta,"--a town
+thirty-nine miles farther west, beyond a chain of mountains, and only
+to be reached by them or their pursuers through difficult passes in
+the Blue Ridge. The next entry in the journal is dated at Staunton, on
+the 7th of June, and, very properly, is merely a prosaic and
+business-like record of the reassembling of the House according to the
+adjournment aforesaid.[324]
+
+But as to some of the things that happened in that interval of panic
+and of scrambling flight, popular tradition has not been equally
+forbearing; and while the anecdotes upon that subject, which have
+descended to our time, are very likely decorated by many tassels of
+exaggeration and of myth, they yet have, doubtless, some slight
+framework of truth, and do really portray for us the actual beliefs of
+many people in Virginia respecting a number of their celebrated men,
+and especially respecting some of the less celebrated traits of those
+men. For example, it is related that on the sudden adjournment of the
+House, caused by this dusty and breathless apparition of the speedful
+Jouette, and his laconic intimation that Tarleton was coming, the
+members, though somewhat accustomed to ceremony, stood not upon the
+order of their going, but went at once,--taking first to their horses,
+and then to the woods; and that, breaking up into small parties of
+fugitives, they thus made their several ways, as best they could,
+through the passes of the mountains leading to the much-desired
+seclusion of Staunton. One of these parties consisted of Benjamin
+Harrison, Colonel William Christian, John Tyler, and Patrick Henry.
+Late in the day, tired and hungry, they stopped their horses at the
+door of a small hut, in a gorge of the hills, and asked for food. An
+old woman, who came to the door, and who was alone in the house,
+demanded of them who they were, and where they were from. Patrick
+Henry, who acted as spokesman of the party, answered: "We are members
+of the legislature, and have just been compelled to leave
+Charlottesville on account of the approach of the enemy." "Ride on,
+then, ye cowardly knaves," replied she, in great wrath; "here have my
+husband and sons just gone to Charlottesville to fight for ye, and you
+running away with all your might. Clear out--ye shall have nothing
+here." "But," rejoined Mr. Henry, in an expostulating tone, "we were
+obliged to fly. It would not do for the legislature to be broken up by
+the enemy. Here is Mr. Speaker Harrison; you don't think he would have
+fled had it not been necessary?" "I always thought a great deal of Mr.
+Harrison till now," answered the old woman; "but he'd no business to
+run from the enemy," and she was about to shut the door in their
+faces. "Wait a moment, my good woman," urged Mr. Henry; "you would
+hardly believe that Mr. Tyler or Colonel Christian would take to
+flight if there were not good cause for so doing?" "No, indeed, that I
+wouldn't," she replied. "But," exclaimed he, "Mr. Tyler and Colonel
+Christian are here." "They here? Well, I never would have thought it;"
+and she stood for a moment in doubt, but at once added, "No matter. We
+love these gentlemen, and I didn't suppose they would ever run away
+from the British; but since they have, they shall have nothing to eat
+in my house. You may ride along." In this desperate situation Mr.
+Tyler then stepped forward and said, "What would you say, my good
+woman, if I were to tell you that Patrick Henry fled with the rest of
+us?" "Patrick Henry! I should tell you there wasn't a word of truth in
+it," she answered angrily; "Patrick Henry would never do such a
+cowardly thing." "But this is Patrick Henry," said Mr. Tyler, pointing
+to him. The old woman was amazed; but after some reflection, and with
+a convulsive twitch or two at her apron string, she said, "Well, then,
+if that's Patrick Henry, it must be all right. Come in, and ye shall
+have the best I have in the house."[325]
+
+The pitiless tongue of tradition does not stop here, but proceeds to
+narrate other alleged experiences of this our noble, though somewhat
+disconcerted, Patrick. Arrived at last in Staunton, and walking
+through its reassuring streets, he is said to have met one Colonel
+William Lewis, to whom the face of the orator was then unknown; and to
+have told to this stranger the story of the flight of the legislature
+from Albemarle. "If Patrick Henry had been in Albemarle," was the
+stranger's comment, "the British dragoons never would have passed over
+the Rivanna River."[326]
+
+The tongue of tradition, at last grown quite reckless, perhaps, of
+its own credit, still further relates that even at Staunton these
+illustrious fugitives did not feel entirely sure that they were beyond
+the reach of Tarleton's men. A few nights after their arrival there,
+as the story runs, upon some sudden alarm, several of them sprang from
+their beds, and, imperfectly clapping on their clothes, fled out of
+the town, and took refuge at the plantation of one Colonel George
+Moffett, near which, they had been told, was a cave in which they
+might the more effectually conceal themselves. Mrs. Moffett, though
+not knowing the names of these flitting Solons, yet received them with
+true Virginian hospitality: but the next morning, at breakfast, she
+made the unlucky remark that there was one member of the legislature
+who certainly would not have run from the enemy. "Who is he?" was then
+asked. Her reply was, "Patrick Henry." At that moment a gentleman of
+the party, himself possessed of but one boot, was observed to blush
+considerably. Furthermore, as soon as possible after breakfast, these
+imperiled legislators departed in search of the cave; shortly after
+which a negro from Staunton rode up, carrying in his hand a solitary
+boot, and inquiring earnestly for Patrick Henry. In that way, as the
+modern reporter of this very debatable tradition unkindly adds, the
+admiring Mrs. Moffett ascertained who it was that the boot fitted; and
+he further suggests that, whatever Mrs. Moffett's emotions were at
+that time, those of Patrick must have been, "Give me liberty, but not
+death."[327]
+
+Passing by these whimsical tales, we have now to add that the
+legislature, having on the 7th of June entered upon its work at
+Staunton, steadily continued it there until the 23d of the month, when
+it adjourned in orderly fashion, to meet again in the following
+October. Governor Jefferson, whose second year of office had expired
+two days before the flight of himself and the legislature from
+Charlottesville, did not accompany that body to Staunton, but pursued
+his own way to Poplar Forest and to Bedford, where, "remote from the
+legislature,"[328] he remained during the remainder of its session. On
+the 12th of June, Thomas Nelson was elected as his successor in
+office.[329]
+
+It was during this period of confusion and terror that, as Jefferson
+alleges, the legislature once more had before it the project of a
+dictator, in the criminal sense of that word; and, upon Jefferson's
+private authority, both Wirt and Girardin long afterward named Patrick
+Henry as the man who was intended for this profligate honor.[330] We
+need not here repeat what was said, in our narrative of the closing
+weeks of 1776, concerning this terrible posthumous imputation upon the
+public and private character of Patrick Henry. Nearly everything which
+then appeared to the discredit of this charge in connection with the
+earlier date, is equally applicable to it in connection with the later
+date also. Moreover, as regards this later date, there has recently
+been discovered a piece of contemporaneous testimony which shows that,
+whatever may have been the scheme for a dictatorship in Virginia in
+1781, it was a great military chieftain who was wanted for the
+position; and, apparently, that Patrick Henry was not then even
+mentioned in the affair. On the 9th of June, 1781, Captain H. Young,
+though not a member of the House of Delegates, writes from Staunton to
+Colonel William Davies as follows: "Two days ago, Mr. Nicholas gave
+notice that he should this day move to have a dictator appointed.
+General Washington and General Greene are talked of. I dare say your
+knowledge of these worthy gentlemen will be sufficient to convince you
+that neither of them will, or ought to, accept of such an
+appointment.... We have but a thin House of Delegates; but they are
+zealous, I think, in the cause of virtue."[331] Furthermore, the
+journal of that House contains no record of any such motion having
+been made; and it is probable that it never was made, and that the
+subject never came before the legislature in any such form as to call
+for its notice.
+
+Finally, with respect to both the dates mentioned by Jefferson for the
+appearance of the scheme, Edmund Randolph has left explicit testimony
+to the effect that such a scheme never had any substantial existence
+at all: "Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, speaks with great
+bitterness against those members of the Assembly in the years 1776 and
+1781, who espoused the erection of a dictator. Coming from such
+authority, the invective infects the character of the legislature,
+notwithstanding he has restricted the charge to less than a majority,
+and acknowledged the spotlessness of most of them.... The subject was
+never before them, except as an article of newspaper intelligence, and
+even then not in a form which called for their attention. Against this
+unfettered monster, which deserved all the impassioned reprobation of
+Mr. Jefferson, their tones, it may be affirmed, would have been loud
+and tremendous."[332]
+
+For its autumn session, in 1781, the legislature did not reach an
+organization until the 19th of November,--just one month after the
+surrender of Cornwallis. Eight days after the organization of the
+House, Patrick Henry took his seat;[333] and after a service of less
+than four weeks, he obtained leave of absence for the remainder of the
+session.[334] During 1782 his attendance upon the House seems to have
+been limited to the spring session. At the organization of the House,
+on the 12th of May, 1783, he was in his place again, and during that
+session, as well as the autumnal one, his attendance was close and
+laborious. At both sessions of the House in 1784 he was present and
+in full force; but in the very midst of these employments he was
+interrupted by his election as governor, on the 17th of
+November,--shortly after which, he withdrew to his country-seat in
+order to remove his family thence to the capital.
+
+In the course of all these labors in the legislature, and amid a
+multitude of topics merely local and temporary, Patrick Henry had
+occasion to deal publicly, and under the peculiar responsibilities of
+leadership, with nearly all the most important and difficult questions
+that came before the American people during the later years of the war
+and the earlier years of the peace. The journal of the House for that
+period omits all mention of words spoken in debate; and although it
+does occasionally enable us to ascertain on which side of certain
+questions Patrick Henry stood, it leaves us in total ignorance of his
+reasons for any position which he chose to take. In trying, therefore,
+to estimate the quality of his statesmanship when dealing with these
+questions, we lack a part of the evidence which is essential to any
+just conclusion; and we are left peculiarly at the mercy of those
+sweeping censures which have been occasionally applied to his
+political conduct during that period.[335]
+
+On the assurance of peace, in the spring of 1783, perhaps the earliest
+and the knottiest problem which had to be taken up was the one
+relating to that vast body of Americans who then bore the
+contumelious name of Tories,--those Americans who, against all loss
+and ignominy, had steadily remained loyal to the unity of the British
+empire, unflinching in their rejection of the constitutional heresy of
+American secession. How should these execrable beings--the defeated
+party in a long and most rancorous civil war--be treated by the party
+which was at last victorious? Many of them were already in exile:
+should they be kept there? Many were still in this country: should
+they be banished from it? As a matter of fact, the exasperation of
+public feeling against the Tories was, at that time, so universal and
+so fierce that no statesman could then lift up his voice in their
+favor without dashing himself against the angriest currents of popular
+opinion and passion, and risking the loss of the public favor toward
+himself. Nevertheless, precisely this is what Patrick Henry had the
+courage to do. While the war lasted, no man spoke against the Tories
+more sternly than did he. The war being ended, and its great purpose
+secured, no man, excepting perhaps Alexander Hamilton, was so prompt
+and so energetic in urging that all animosities of the war should be
+laid aside, and that a policy of magnanimous forbearance should be
+pursued respecting these baffled opponents of American independence.
+It was in this spirit that, as soon as possible after the cessation of
+hostilities, he introduced a bill for the repeal of an act "to
+prohibit intercourse with, and the admission of British subjects
+into" Virginia,[336]--language well understood to refer to the Tories.
+This measure, we are told, not only excited surprise, but "was, at
+first, received with a repugnance apparently insuperable." Even his
+intimate friend John Tyler, the speaker of the House, hotly resisted
+it in the committee of the whole, and in the course of his argument,
+turning to Patrick Henry, asked "how he, above all other men, could
+think of inviting into his family an enemy from whose insults and
+injuries he had suffered so severely?"
+
+In reply to this appeal, Patrick Henry declared that the question
+before them was not one of personal feeling; that it was a national
+question; and that in discussing it they should be willing to
+sacrifice all personal resentments, all private wrongs. He then
+proceeded to unfold the proposition that America had everything out of
+which to make a great nation--except people.
+
+     "Your great want, sir, is the want of men; and these you
+     must have, and will have speedily, if you are wise. Do you
+     ask how you are to get them? Open your doors, sir, and they
+     will come in. The population of the Old World is full to
+     overflowing; that population is ground, too, by the
+     oppressions of the governments under which they live. Sir,
+     they are already standing on tiptoe upon their native
+     shores, and looking to your coasts with a wishful and
+     longing eye.... But gentlemen object to any accession from
+     Great Britain, and particularly to the return of the British
+     refugees. Sir, I feel no objection to the return of those
+     deluded people. They have, to be sure, mistaken their own
+     interests most wofully, and most wofully have they suffered
+     the punishment due to their offences. But the relations
+     which we bear to them and to their native country are now
+     changed. Their king hath acknowledged our independence. The
+     quarrel is over. Peace hath returned, and found us a free
+     people. Let us have the magnanimity, sir, to lay aside our
+     antipathies and prejudices, and consider the subject in a
+     political light. Those are an enterprising, moneyed people.
+     They will be serviceable in taking off the surplus produce
+     of our lands, and supplying us with necessaries during the
+     infant state of our manufactures. Even if they be inimical
+     to us in point of feeling and principle, I can see no
+     objection, in a political view, in making them tributary to
+     our advantage. And, as I have no prejudices to prevent my
+     making this use of them, so, sir, I have no fear of any
+     mischief that they can do us. Afraid of them? What, sir
+     [said he, rising to one of his loftiest attitudes, and
+     assuming a look of the most indignant and sovereign
+     contempt], shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at
+     our feet, now be afraid of his whelps?"[337]
+
+In the same spirit he dealt with the restraints on British commerce
+imposed during the war,--a question similar to the one just mentioned,
+at least in this particular, that it was enveloped in the angry
+prejudices born of the conflict just ended. The journal for the 13th
+of May, 1783, has this entry: "Mr. Henry presented, according to
+order, a bill 'to repeal the several Acts of Assembly for seizure and
+condemnation of British goods found on land;' and the same was
+received and read the first time, and ordered to be read a second
+time." In advocating this measure, he seems to have lifted the
+discussion clear above all petty considerations to the plane of high
+and permanent principle, and, according to one of his chief
+antagonists in that debate, to have met all objections by arguments
+that were "beyond all expression eloquent and sublime." After
+describing the embarrassments and distresses of the situation and
+their causes, he took the ground that perfect freedom was as necessary
+to the health and vigor of commerce as it was to the health and vigor
+of citizenship. "Why should we fetter commerce? If a man is in chains,
+he droops and bows to the earth, for his spirits are broken; but let
+him twist the fetters from his legs, and he will stand erect. Fetter
+not commerce, sir. Let her be as free as air; she will range the whole
+creation, and return on the wings of the four winds of heaven, to
+bless the land with plenty."[338]
+
+Besides these and other problems in the foreign relations of the
+country, there remained, of course, at the end of the war, several
+vast domestic problems for American statesmanship to grapple
+with,--one of these being the relations of the white race to their
+perpetual neighbors, the Indians. In the autumn session of 1784, in a
+series of efforts said to have been marked by "irresistible
+earnestness and eloquence," he secured the favorable attention of the
+House to this ancient problem, and even to his own daring and
+statesmanlike solution of it. The whole subject, as he thought, had
+been commonly treated by the superior race in a spirit not only mean
+and hard, but superficial also; the result being nearly two centuries
+of mutual suspicion, hatred, and slaughter. At last the time had come
+for the superior race to put an end to this traditional disaster and
+disgrace. Instead of tampering with the difficulty by remedies applied
+merely to the surface, he was for striking at the root of it, namely,
+at the deep divergence in sympathy and in interest between the two
+races. There was but one way in which to do this: it was for the white
+race to treat the Indians, consistently, as human beings, and as fast
+as possible to identify their interests with our own along the entire
+range of personal concerns,--in property, government, society, and,
+especially, in domestic life. In short, he proposed to encourage, by a
+system of pecuniary bounties, the practice of marriage between members
+of the two races, believing that such ties, once formed, would be an
+inviolable pledge of mutual friendship, fidelity, and forbearance, and
+would gradually lead to the transformation of the Indians into a
+civilized and Christian people. His bill for this purpose, elaborately
+drawn up, was carried through its second reading and "engrossed for
+its final passage," when, by his sudden removal from the floor of the
+House to the governor's chair, the measure was deprived of its
+all-conquering champion, and, on the third reading, it fell a
+sacrifice to the Caucasian rage and scorn of the members.
+
+It is proper to note, also, that during this period of service in the
+legislature Patrick Henry marched straight against public opinion, and
+jeoparded his popularity, on two or three other subjects. For example,
+the mass of the people of Virginia were then so angrily opposed to the
+old connection between church and state that they occasionally saw
+danger even in projects which in no way involved such a connection.
+This was the case with Patrick Henry's necessary and most innocent
+measure "for the incorporation of all societies of the Christian
+religion which may apply for the same;" likewise, his bill for the
+incorporation of the clergy of the Episcopal Church; and, finally, his
+more questionable and more offensive resolution for requiring all
+citizens of the State to contribute to the expense of supporting some
+form of religious worship according to their own preference.
+
+Whether, in these several measures, Patrick Henry was right or wrong,
+one thing, at least, is obvious: no politician who could thus beard in
+his very den the lion of public opinion can be accurately described as
+a demagogue.
+
+With respect to those amazing gifts of speech by which, in the House
+of Delegates, he thus repeatedly swept all opposition out of his way,
+and made people think as he wished them to do, often in the very
+teeth of their own immediate interests or prepossessions, an amusing
+instance was mentioned, many years afterward, by President James
+Madison. During the war Virginia had paid her soldiers in certificates
+for the amounts due them, to be redeemed in cash at some future time.
+In many cases, the poverty of the soldiers had induced them to sell
+these certificates, for trifling sums in ready money, to certain
+speculators, who were thus making a traffic out of the public
+distress. For the purpose of checking this cruel and harmful business,
+Madison brought forward a suitable bill, which, as he told the story,
+Patrick Henry supported with an eloquence so irresistible that it was
+carried through the House without an opposing vote; while a notorious
+speculator in these very certificates, having listened from the
+gallery to Patrick Henry's speech, at its conclusion so far forgot his
+own interest in the question as to exclaim, "That bill ought to
+pass."[339]
+
+Concerning his appearance and his manner of speech in those days, a
+bit of testimony comes down to us from Spencer Roane, who, as he tells
+us, first "met with Patrick Henry in the Assembly of 1783." He adds:--
+
+     "I also then met with R. H. Lee.... I lodged with Lee one or
+     two sessions, and was perfectly acquainted with him, while I
+     was yet a stranger to Mr. H. These two gentlemen were the
+     great leaders in the House of Delegates, and were almost
+     constantly opposed. Notwithstanding my habits of intimacy
+     with Mr. Lee, I found myself obliged to vote with P. H.
+     against him in '83, and against Madison in '84, ... but with
+     several important exceptions. I voted against him (P. H.), I
+     recollect, on the subject of the refugees,--he was for
+     permitting their return; on the subject of a general
+     assessment; and the act incorporating the Episcopal Church.
+     I voted with him, in general, because he was, I thought, a
+     more practical statesman than Madison (time has made Madison
+     more practical), and a less selfish one than Lee. As an
+     orator, Mr. Henry demolished Madison with as much ease as
+     Samson did the cords that bound him before he was shorn. Mr.
+     Lee held a greater competition.... Mr. Lee was a polished
+     gentleman. His person was not very good; and he had lost the
+     use of one of his hands; but his manner was perfectly
+     graceful. His language was always chaste, and, although
+     somewhat too monotonous, his speeches were always pleasing;
+     yet he did not ravish your senses, nor carry away your
+     judgment by storm.... Henry was almost always victorious. He
+     was as much superior to Lee in temper as in eloquence....
+     Mr. Henry was inferior to Lee in the gracefulness of his
+     action, and perhaps also in the chasteness of his language;
+     yet his language was seldom incorrect, and his address
+     always striking. He had a fine blue eye; and an earnest
+     manner which made it impossible not to attend to him. His
+     speaking was unequal, and always rose with the subject and
+     the exigency. In this respect, he entirely differed from Mr.
+     Lee, who always was equal. At some times, Mr. Henry would
+     seem to hobble, especially in the beginning of his speeches;
+     and, at others, his tones would be almost disagreeable; yet
+     it was by means of his tones, and the happy modulation of
+     his voice, that his speaking perhaps had its greatest
+     effect. He had a happy articulation, and a clear, distinct,
+     strong voice; and every syllable was distinctly uttered. He
+     was very unassuming as to himself, amounting almost to
+     humility, and very respectful towards his competitor; the
+     consequence was that no feeling of disgust or animosity was
+     arrayed against him. His exordiums in particular were often
+     hobbling and always unassuming. He knew mankind too well to
+     promise much.... He was great at a reply, and greater in
+     proportion to the pressure which was bearing upon him. The
+     resources of his mind and of his eloquence were equal to any
+     drafts which could be made upon them. He took but short
+     notes of what fell from his adversaries, and disliked the
+     drudgery of composition; yet it is a mistake to say that he
+     could not write well."[340]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[311] Rives, _Life of Madison_, i. 189, note.
+
+[312] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 54.
+
+[313] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 27.
+
+[314] MS.
+
+[315] MS.
+
+[316] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 14.
+
+[317] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 14, 15, 18, 25, 28, 31, 39.
+
+[318] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 7, 8, 10, 14, 24, 45, 50, 51.
+
+[319] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 71.
+
+[320] _Ibid._ 79.
+
+[321] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 491.
+
+[322] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 1.
+
+[323] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 496-497.
+
+[324] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 10.
+
+[325] L. G. Tyler, _Letters and Times of the Tylers_, i. 81-83, where
+it is said to be taken from Abel's _Life of John Tyler_.
+
+[326] Peyton, _Hist. Augusta Co._ 211.
+
+[327] Peyton, _Hist. Augusta Co._ 211.
+
+[328] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 352.
+
+[329] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 15.
+
+[330] _Jefferson's Writings_, viii. 368; Wirt, 231; Girardin, in Burk.
+_Hist. Va._ iv. App. pp. xi.-xii.; Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i.
+348-352.
+
+[331] _Calendar Va. State Papers_, ii. 152.
+
+[332] MS. _Hist. Va._
+
+[333] _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Nov. 27.
+
+[334] _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Dec. 21.
+
+[335] For example, _Bland Papers_, ii. 51; Rives, _Life of Madison_,
+i. 536; ii. 240, note.
+
+[336] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 42.
+
+[337] John Tyler, in Wirt, 233, 236.
+
+[338] John Tyler, in Wirt, 237-238.
+
+[339] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222.
+
+[340] MS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SHALL THE CONFEDERATION BE MADE STRONGER?
+
+
+We have now arrived at the second period of Patrick Henry's service as
+governor of Virginia, beginning with the 30th of November, 1784. For
+the four or five years immediately following that date, the salient
+facts in his career seem to group themselves around the story of his
+relation to that vast national movement which ended in an entire
+reorganization of the American Republic under a new Constitution.
+Whoever will take the trouble to examine the evidence now at hand
+bearing upon the case, can hardly fail to convince himself that the
+true story of Patrick Henry's opposition to that great movement has
+never yet been told. Men have usually misconceived, when they have not
+altogether overlooked, the motives for his opposition, the spirit in
+which he conducted it, and the beneficent effects which were
+accomplished by it; while his ultimate and firm approval of the new
+Constitution, after it had received the chief amendments called for by
+his criticisms, has been passionately described as an example of gross
+political fickleness and inconsistency, instead of being, as it really
+was, a most logical proceeding on his part, and in perfect harmony
+with the principles underlying his whole public career.
+
+Before entering on a story so fascinating for the light it throws on
+the man and on the epoch, it is well that we should stay long enough
+to glance at what we may call the incidental facts in his life, for
+these four or five years now to be looked into.
+
+Not far from the time of his thus entering once more upon the office
+of governor, occurred the death of his aged mother, at the home of his
+brother-in-law, Colonel Samuel Meredith of Winton, who, in a letter to
+the governor, dated November 22, 1784, speaks tenderly of the long
+illness which had preceded the death of the venerable lady, and
+especially of the strength and beauty of her character:--
+
+     "She has been in my family upwards of eleven years; and from
+     the beginning of that time to the end, her life appeared to
+     me most evidently to be a continued manifestation of piety
+     and devotion, guided by such a great share of good sense as
+     rendered her amiable and agreeable to all who were so happy
+     as to be acquainted with her. Never have I known a Christian
+     character equal to hers."[341]
+
+On bringing his family to the capital, in November, 1784, from the
+far-away solitude of Leatherwood, the governor established them, not
+within the city itself, but across the James River, at a place called
+Salisbury. What with children and with grandchildren, his family had
+now become a patriarchal one; and some slight glimpse of himself and
+of his manner of life at that time is given us in the memorandum of
+Spencer Roane. In deference to "the ideas attached to the office of
+governor, as handed down from the royal government," he is said to
+have paid careful attention to his costume and personal bearing before
+the public, never going abroad except in black coat, waistcoat, and
+knee-breeches, in scarlet cloak, and in dressed wig. Moreover, his
+family "were furnished with an excellent coach, at a time when these
+vehicles were not so common as at present. They lived as genteelly,
+and associated with as polished society, as that of any governor
+before or since has ever done. He entertained as much company as
+others, and in as genteel a style; and when, at the end of two years,
+he resigned the office, he had greatly exceeded the salary, and [was]
+in debt, which was one cause that induced him to resume the practice
+of the law."[342]
+
+During his two years in the governorship, his duties concerned matters
+of much local importance, indeed, but of no particular interest at
+present. To this remark one exception may be found in some passages of
+friendly correspondence between the governor and Washington,--the
+latter then enjoying the long-coveted repose of Mt. Vernon. In
+January, 1785, the Assembly of Virginia vested in Washington certain
+shares in two companies, just then formed, for opening and extending
+the navigation of the James and Potomac rivers.[343] In response to
+Governor Henry's letter communicating this act, Washington wrote on
+the 27th of February, stating his doubts about accepting such a
+gratuity, but at the same time asking the governor as a friend to
+assist him in the matter by his advice. Governor Henry's reply is of
+interest to us, not only for its allusion to his own domestic
+anxieties at the time, but for its revelation of the frank and cordial
+relations between the two men:--
+
+                                       RICHMOND, March 12th, 1785.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--The honor you are pleased to do me, in your favor
+     of the 27th ultimo, in which you desire my opinion in a
+     friendly way concerning the act enclosed you lately, is very
+     flattering to me. I did not receive the letter till
+     Thursday, and since that my family has been very sickly. My
+     oldest grandson, a fine boy indeed, about nine years old,
+     lays at the point of death. Under this state of uneasiness
+     and perturbation, I feel some unfitness to consider a
+     subject of so delicate a nature as that you have desired my
+     thoughts on. Besides, I have some expectation of a
+     conveyance more proper, it may be, than the present, when I
+     would wish to send you some packets received from Ireland,
+     which I fear the post cannot carry at once. If he does not
+     take them free, I shan't send them, for they are heavy.
+     Captain Boyle, who had them from Sir Edward Newenham, wishes
+     for the honor of a line from you, which I have promised to
+     forward to him.
+
+     I will give you the trouble of hearing from me next post,
+     if no opportunity presents sooner, and, in the mean time, I
+     beg you to be persuaded that, with the most sincere
+     attachment, I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant,
+
+                                                  P. HENRY.[344]
+
+     GENERAL WASHINGTON.
+
+The promise contained in this letter was fulfilled on the 19th of the
+same month, when the governor wrote to Washington a long and careful
+statement of the whole case, urging him to accept the shares, and
+closing his letter with an assurance of his "unalterable affection"
+and "most sincere attachment,"[345]--a subscription not common among
+public men at that time.
+
+On the 30th of November, 1786, having declined to be put in nomination
+for a third year, as permitted by the Constitution, he finally retired
+from the office of governor. The House of Delegates, about the same
+time, by unanimous vote, crowned him with the public thanks, "for his
+wise, prudent, and upright administration, during his last appointment
+of chief magistrate of this Commonwealth; assuring him that they
+retain a perfect sense of his abilities in the discharge of the duties
+of that high and important office, and wish him all domestic happiness
+on his return to private life."[346]
+
+This return to private life meant, among other things, his return,
+after an interruption of more than twelve years, to the practice of
+the law. For this purpose he deemed it best to give up his remote home
+at Leatherwood, and to establish himself in Prince Edward County,--a
+place about midway between his former residence and the capital, and
+much better suited to his convenience, as an active practitioner in
+the courts. Accordingly, in Prince Edward County he continued to
+reside from the latter part of 1786 until 1795. Furthermore, by that
+county he was soon elected as one of its delegates in the Assembly;
+and, resuming there his old position as leader, he continued to serve
+in every session until the end of 1790, at which time he finally
+withdrew from all official connection with public life. Thus it
+happened that, by his retirement from the governorship in 1786, and by
+his almost immediate restoration to the House of Delegates, he was put
+into a situation to act most aggressively and most powerfully on
+public opinion in Virginia during the whole period of the struggle
+over the new Constitution.
+
+As regards his attitude toward that great business, we need, first of
+all, to clear away some obscurity which has gathered about the
+question of his habitual views respecting the relations of the several
+States to the general government. It has been common to suppose that,
+even prior to the movement for the new Constitution, Patrick Henry had
+always been an extreme advocate of the rights of the States as
+opposed to the central authority of the Union; and that the tremendous
+resistance which he made to the new Constitution in all stages of the
+affair prior to the adoption of the first group of amendments is to be
+accounted for as the effect of an original and habitual tendency of
+his mind.[347] Such, however, seems not to have been the case.
+
+In general it may be said that, at the very outset of the Revolution,
+Patrick Henry was one of the first of our statesmen to recognize the
+existence and the imperial character of a certain cohesive central
+authority, arising from the very nature of the revolutionary act which
+the several colonies were then taking. As early as 1774, in the first
+Continental Congress, it was he who exclaimed: "All distinctions are
+thrown down. All America is thrown into one mass." "The distinctions
+between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders
+are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American." In the spring of
+1776, at the approach of the question of independence, it was he who
+even incurred reproach by his anxiety to defer independence until
+after the basis for a general government should have been established,
+lest the several States, in separating from England, should lapse into
+a separation from one another also. As governor of Virginia from 1776
+to 1779, his official correspondence with the president of Congress,
+with the board of war, and with the general of the army is pervaded
+by proofs of his respect for the supreme authority of the general
+government within its proper sphere. Finally, as a leader in the
+Virginia House of Delegates from 1780 to 1784, he was in the main a
+supporter of the policy of giving more strength and dignity to the
+general government. During all that period, according to the admission
+of his most unfriendly modern critic, Patrick Henry showed himself
+"much more disposed to sustain and strengthen the federal authority"
+than did, for example, his great rival in the House, Richard Henry
+Lee; and for the time those two great men became "the living and
+active exponents of two adverse political systems in both state and
+national questions."[348] In 1784, by which time the weakness of the
+general government had become alarming, Patrick Henry was among the
+foremost in Virginia to express alarm, and to propose the only
+appropriate remedy. For example, on the assembling of the legislature,
+in May of that year, he took pains to seek an early interview with two
+of his prominent associates in the House of Delegates, Madison and
+Jones, for the express purpose of devising with them some method of
+giving greater strength to the Confederation. "I find him," wrote
+Madison to Jefferson immediately after the interview, "strenuous for
+invigorating the federal government, though without any precise
+plan."[349] A more detailed account of the same interview was sent to
+Jefferson by another correspondent. According to the latter, Patrick
+Henry then declared that "he saw ruin inevitable, unless something was
+done to give Congress a compulsory process on delinquent States;" that
+"a bold example set by Virginia" in that direction "would have
+influence on the other States;" and that "this conviction was his only
+inducement for coming into the present Assembly." Whereupon, it was
+then agreed between them that "Jones and Madison should sketch some
+plan for giving greater power to the federal government; and Henry
+promised to sustain it on the floor."[350] Finally, such was the
+impression produced by Patrick Henry's political conduct during all
+those years that, as late as in December, 1786, Madison could speak of
+him as having "been hitherto the champion of the federal cause."[351]
+
+Not far, however, from the date last mentioned Patrick Henry ceased to
+be "the champion of the federal cause," and became its chief
+antagonist, and so remained until some time during Washington's first
+term in the presidency. What brought about this sudden and total
+revolution? It can be explained only by the discovery of some new
+influence which came into his life between 1784 and 1786, and which
+was powerful enough to reverse entirely the habitual direction of his
+political thought and conduct. Just what that influence was can now
+be easily shown.
+
+On the 3d of August, 1786, John Jay, as secretary for foreign affairs,
+presented to Congress some results of his negotiations with the
+Spanish envoy, Gardoqui, respecting a treaty with Spain; and he then
+urged that Congress, in view of certain vast advantages to our foreign
+commerce, should consent to surrender the navigation of the
+Mississippi for twenty-five or thirty years,[352]--a proposal which,
+very naturally, seemed to the six Southern States as nothing less than
+a cool invitation to them to sacrifice their own most important
+interests for the next quarter of a century, in order to build up
+during that period the interests of the seven States of the North. The
+revelation of this project, and of the ability of the Northern States
+to force it through, sent a shock of alarm and of distrust into every
+Southern community. Moreover, full details of these transactions in
+Congress were promptly conveyed to Governor Henry by James Monroe, who
+added this pungent item,--that a secret project was then under the
+serious consideration of "committees" of Northern men, for a
+dismemberment of the Union, and for setting the Southern States
+adrift, after having thus bartered away from them the use of the
+Mississippi.[353]
+
+On the same day that Monroe was writing from New York that letter to
+Governor Henry, Madison was writing from Philadelphia a letter to
+Jefferson. Having mentioned a plan for strengthening the
+Confederation, Madison says:--
+
+     "Though my wishes are in favor of such an event, yet I
+     despair so much of its accomplishment at the present crisis,
+     that I do not extend my views beyond a commercial reform. To
+     speak the truth, I almost despair even of this. You will
+     find the cause in a measure now before Congress, ... a
+     proposed treaty with Spain, one article of which shuts the
+     Mississippi for twenty or thirty years. Passing by the other
+     Southern States, figure to yourself the effect of such a
+     stipulation on the Assembly of Virginia, already jealous of
+     Northern politics, and which will be composed of thirty
+     members from the Western waters,--of a majority of others
+     attached to the Western country from interests of their own,
+     of their friends, or their constituents.... Figure to
+     yourself its effect on the people at large on the Western
+     waters, who are impatiently waiting for a favorable result
+     to the negotiation with Gardoqui, and who will consider
+     themselves sold by their Atlantic brethren. Will it be an
+     unnatural consequence if they consider themselves absolved
+     from every federal tie, and court some protection for their
+     betrayed rights?"[354]
+
+How truly Madison predicted the fatal construction which in the South,
+and particularly in Virginia, would be put upon the proposed surrender
+of the Mississippi, may be seen by a glance at some of the resolutions
+which passed the Virginia House of Delegates on the 29th of the
+following November:--
+
+     "That the common right of navigating the river Mississippi,
+     and of communicating with other nations through that
+     channel, ought to be considered as the bountiful gift of
+     nature to the United States, as proprietors of the
+     territories watered by the said river and its eastern
+     branches, and as moreover secured to them by the late
+     revolution.
+
+     "That the Confederacy, having been formed on the broad basis
+     of equal rights, in every part thereof, to the protection
+     and guardianship of the whole, a sacrifice of the rights of
+     any one part, to the supposed or real interest of another
+     part, would be a flagrant violation of justice, a direct
+     contravention of the end for which the federal government
+     was instituted, and an alarming innovation in the system of
+     the Union."[355]
+
+One day after the passage of those resolutions, Patrick Henry ceased
+to be the governor of Virginia; and five days afterward he was chosen
+by Virginia as one of its seven delegates to a convention to be held
+at Philadelphia in the following May for the purpose of revising the
+federal Constitution. But amid the widespread excitement, amid the
+anger and the suspicion then prevailing as to the liability of the
+Southern States, even under a weak confederation, to be slaughtered,
+in all their most important concerns, by the superior weight and
+number of the Northern States, it is easy to see how little inclined
+many Southern statesmen would be to increase that liability by making
+this weak confederation a strong one. In the list of such Southern
+statesmen Patrick Henry must henceforth be reckoned; and, as it was
+never his nature to do anything tepidly or by halves, his hostility
+to the project for strengthening the Confederation soon became as hot
+as it was comprehensive. On the 7th of December, only three days after
+he was chosen as a delegate to the Philadelphia convention, Madison,
+then at Richmond, wrote concerning him thus anxiously to Washington:--
+
+     "I am entirely convinced from what I observe here, that
+     unless the project of Congress can be reversed, the hopes of
+     carrying this State into a proper federal system will be
+     demolished. Many of our most federal leading men are
+     extremely soured with what has already passed. Mr. Henry,
+     who has been hitherto the champion of the federal cause, has
+     become a cold advocate, and, in the event of an actual
+     sacrifice of the Mississippi by Congress, will
+     unquestionably go over to the opposite side."[356]
+
+But in spite of this change in his attitude toward the federal cause,
+perhaps he would still go to the great convention. On that subject he
+appears to have kept his own counsel for several weeks; but by the 1st
+of March, 1787, Edmund Randolph, at Richmond, was able to send this
+word to Madison, who was back in his place in Congress: "Mr. Henry
+peremptorily refuses to go;" and Randolph mentions as Henry's reasons
+for this refusal, not only his urgent professional duties, but his
+repugnance to the proceedings of Congress in the matter of the
+Mississippi.[357] Five days later, from the same city, John Marshall
+wrote to Arthur Lee: "Mr. Henry, whose opinions have their usual
+influence, has been heard to say that he would rather part with the
+Confederation than relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi."[358]
+On the 18th of the same month, in a letter to Washington, Madison
+poured out his solicitude respecting the course which Henry was going
+to take: "I hear from Richmond, with much concern, that Mr. Henry has
+positively declined his mission to Philadelphia. Besides the loss of
+his services on that theatre, there is danger, I fear, that this step
+has proceeded from a wish to leave his conduct unfettered on another
+theatre, where the result of the convention will receive its destiny
+from his omnipotence."[359] On the next day, Madison sent off to
+Jefferson, who was then in Paris, an account of the situation: "But
+although it appears that the intended sacrifice of the Mississippi
+will not be made, the consequences of the intention and the attempt
+are likely to be very serious. I have already made known to you the
+light in which the subject was taken up by Virginia. Mr. Henry's
+disgust exceeds all measure, and I am not singular in ascribing his
+refusal to attend the convention, to the policy of keeping himself
+free to combat or espouse the result of it according to the result of
+the Mississippi business, among other circumstances."[360]
+
+Finally, on the 25th of March Madison wrote to Randolph, evidently in
+reply to the information given by the latter on the 1st of the month:
+"The refusal of Mr. Henry to join in the task of revising the
+Confederation is ominous; and the more so, I fear, if he means to be
+governed by the event which you conjecture."[361]
+
+That Patrick Henry did not attend the great convention, everybody
+knows; but the whole meaning of his refusal to do so, everybody may
+now understand somewhat more clearly, perhaps, than before.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[341] MS.
+
+[342] MS.
+
+[343] Hening, xi. 525-526.
+
+[344] MS.
+
+[345] Sparks, _Corr. Rev._ iv. 93-96. See, also, Washington's letter
+to Henry, for Nov. 30, 1785, in _Writings of W._ xii. 277-278.
+
+[346] _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Nov. 25, 1786.
+
+[347] For example, Curtis, _Hist. Const._ ii. 553-554.
+
+[348] Rives, _Life of Madison_, i. 536-537.
+
+[349] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 80.
+
+[350] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ i. 162.
+
+[351] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 264.
+
+[352] _Secret Jour. Cong._ iv. 44-63.
+
+[353] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 122.
+
+[354] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 119-120.
+
+[355] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 66-67.
+
+[356] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 264.
+
+[357] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 238-239.
+
+[358] R. H. Lee, _Life of A. Lee_, ii. 321.
+
+[359] Sparks, _Corr. Rev._ iv. 168.
+
+[360] _Madison Papers_, ii. 623.
+
+[361] _Madison Papers_, 627.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE BATTLE IN VIRGINIA OVER THE NEW CONSTITUTION
+
+
+The great convention at Philadelphia, after a session of four months,
+came to the end of its noble labors on the 17th of September, 1787.
+Washington, who had been not merely its presiding officer but its
+presiding genius, then hastened back to Mt. Vernon, and, in his great
+anxiety to win over to the new Constitution the support of his old
+friend Patrick Henry, he immediately dispatched to him a copy of that
+instrument, accompanied by a very impressive and conciliatory
+letter,[362] to which, about three weeks afterwards, was returned the
+following reply:--
+
+                                      RICHMOND, October 19, 1787.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I was honored by the receipt of your favor,
+     together with a copy of the proposed federal Constitution, a
+     few days ago, for which I beg you to accept my thanks. They
+     are also due to you from me as a citizen, on account of the
+     great fatigue necessarily attending the arduous business of
+     the late convention.
+
+     I have to lament that I cannot bring my mind to accord with
+     the proposed Constitution. The concern I feel on this
+     account is really greater than I am able to express. Perhaps
+     mature reflections may furnish me with reasons to change my
+     present sentiments into a conformity with the opinions of
+     those personages for whom I have the highest reverence. Be
+     that as it may, I beg you will be persuaded of the
+     unalterable regard and attachment with which I shall be,
+
+     Dear Sir, your obliged and very humble servant,
+
+                                                   P. HENRY.[363]
+
+Four days before the date of this letter the legislature of Virginia
+had convened at Richmond for its autumn session, and Patrick Henry had
+there taken his usual place on the most important committees, and as
+the virtual director of the thought and work of the House. Much
+solicitude was felt concerning the course which he might advise the
+legislature to adopt on the supreme question then before the
+country,--some persons even fearing that he might try to defeat the
+new Constitution in Virginia by simply preventing the call of a state
+convention. Great was Washington's satisfaction on receiving from one
+of his correspondents in the Assembly, shortly after the session
+began, this cheerful report:--
+
+     "I have not met with one in all my inquiries (and I have
+     made them with great diligence) opposed to it, except Mr.
+     Henry, who I have heard is so, but could only conjecture it
+     from a conversation with him on the subject.... The
+     transmissory note of Congress was before us to-day, when
+     Mr. Henry declared that it transcended our powers to decide
+     on the Constitution, and that it must go before a
+     convention. As it was insinuated he would aim at preventing
+     this, much pleasure was discovered at the declaration."[364]
+
+On the 24th of October, from his place in Congress, Madison sent over
+to Jefferson, in Paris, a full account of the results of the
+Philadelphia convention, and of the public feeling with reference to
+its work: "My information from Virginia is as yet extremely
+imperfect.... The part which Mr. Henry will take is unknown here. Much
+will depend on it. I had taken it for granted, from a variety of
+circumstances, that he would be in the opposition, and still think
+that will be the case. There are reports, however, which favor a
+contrary supposition."[365] But, by the 9th of December, Madison was
+able to send to Jefferson a further report, which indicated that all
+doubt respecting the hostile attitude of Patrick Henry was then
+removed. After mentioning that a majority of the people of Virginia
+seemed to be in favor of the Constitution, he added: "What change may
+be produced by the united influence and exertions of Mr. Henry, Mr.
+Mason, and the governor, with some pretty able auxiliaries, is
+uncertain.... Mr. Henry is the great adversary who will render the
+event precarious. He is, I find, with his usual address, working up
+every possible interest into a spirit of opposition."[366]
+
+Long before the date last mentioned, the legislature had regularly
+declared for a state convention, to be held at Richmond on the first
+Monday in June, 1788, then and there to determine whether or not
+Virginia would accept the new Constitution. In view of that event,
+delegates were in the mean time to be chosen by the people; and thus,
+for the intervening months, the fight was to be transferred to the
+arena of popular debate. In such a contest Patrick Henry, being once
+aroused, was not likely to take a languid or a hesitating part; and of
+the importance then attached to the part which he did take, we catch
+frequent glimpses in the correspondence of the period. Thus, on the
+19th of February, 1788, Madison, still at New York, sent this word to
+Jefferson: "The temper of Virginia, as far as I can learn, has
+undergone but little change of late. At first, there was an enthusiasm
+for the Constitution. The tide next took a sudden and strong turn in
+the opposite direction. The influence and exertions of Mr. Henry,
+Colonel Mason, and some others, will account for this.... I am told
+that a very bold language is held by Mr. Henry and some of his
+partisans."[367] On the 10th of April, Madison, then returned to his
+home in Virginia, wrote to Edmund Randolph: "The declaration of Henry,
+mentioned in your letter, is a proof to me that desperate measures
+will be his game."[368] On the 22d of the same month Madison wrote to
+Jefferson: "The adversaries take very different grounds of opposition.
+Some are opposed to the substance of the plan; others, to particular
+modifications only. Mr. Henry is supposed to aim at disunion."[369] On
+the 24th of April, Edward Carrington, writing from New York, told
+Jefferson: "Mr. H. does not openly declare for a dismemberment of the
+Union, but his arguments in support of his opposition to the
+Constitution go directly to that issue. He says that three
+confederacies would be practicable, and better suited to the good of
+commerce than one."[370] On the 28th of April, Washington wrote to
+Lafayette on account of the struggle then going forward; and after
+naming some of the leading champions of the Constitution, he adds
+sorrowfully: "Henry and Mason are its great adversaries."[371]
+Finally, as late as on the 12th of June, the Rev. John Blair Smith, at
+that time president of Hampden-Sidney College, conveyed to Madison, an
+old college friend, his own deep disapproval of the course which had
+been pursued by Patrick Henry in the management of the canvass against
+the Constitution:--
+
+     "Before the Constitution appeared, the minds of the people
+     were artfully prepared against it; so that all opposition
+     [to Mr. Henry] at the election of delegates to consider it,
+     was in vain. That gentleman has descended to lower artifices
+     and management on the occasion than I thought him capable
+     of.... If Mr. Innes has shown you a speech of Mr. Henry to
+     his constituents, which I sent him, you will see something
+     of the method he has taken to diffuse his poison.... It
+     grieves me to see such great natural talents abused to such
+     purposes."[372]
+
+On Monday, the 2d of June, 1788, the long-expected convention
+assembled at Richmond. So great was the public interest in the event
+that a full delegation was present, even on the first day; and in
+order to make room for the throngs of citizens from all parts of
+Virginia and from other States, who had flocked thither to witness the
+impending battle, it was decided that the convention should hold its
+meetings in the New Academy, on Shockoe Hill, the largest
+assembly-room in the city.
+
+Eight States had already adopted the Constitution. The five States
+which had yet to act upon the question were New Hampshire, Rhode
+Island, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia. For every reason, the
+course then to be taken by Virginia would have great consequences.
+Moreover, since the days of the struggle over independence, no
+question had so profoundly moved the people of Virginia; none had
+aroused such hopes and such fears; none had so absorbed the thoughts,
+or so embittered the relations of men. It is not strange, therefore,
+that this convention, consisting of one hundred and seventy members,
+should have been thought to represent, to an unusual degree, the
+intelligence, the character, the experience, the reputation of the
+State. Perhaps it would be true to say that, excepting Washington,
+Jefferson, and Richard Henry Lee, no Virginian of eminence was absent
+from it.
+
+Furthermore, the line of division, which from the outset parted into
+two hostile sections these one hundred and seventy Virginians, was
+something quite unparalleled. In other States it had been noted that
+the conservative classes, the men of education and of property, of
+high office, of high social and professional standing, were nearly all
+on the side of the new Constitution. Such was not the case in
+Virginia. Of the conservative classes throughout that State, quite as
+many were against the new Constitution as were in favor of it. Of the
+four distinguished citizens who had been its governors, since Virginia
+had assumed the right to elect governors,--Patrick Henry, Jefferson,
+Nelson, and Harrison,--each in turn had denounced the measure as
+unsatisfactory and dangerous; while Edmund Randolph, the governor then
+in office, having attended the great convention at Philadelphia, and
+having there refused to sign the Constitution, had published an
+impressive statement of his objections to it, and, for several months
+thereafter, had been counted among its most formidable opponents.
+Concerning the attitude of the legal profession,--a profession always
+inclined to conservatism,--Madison had written to Jefferson: "The
+general and admiralty courts, with most of the bar, oppose the
+Constitution."[373] Finally, among Virginians who were at that time
+particularly honored and trusted for patriotic services during the
+Revolution, such men as these, Theodoric Bland, William Grayson, John
+Tyler, Meriwether Smith, James Monroe, George Mason, and Richard Henry
+Lee, had declared their disapproval of the document.
+
+Nevertheless, within the convention itself, at the opening of the
+session, it was claimed by the friends of the new government that they
+then outnumbered their opponents by at least fifty votes.[374] Their
+great champion in debate was James Madison, who was powerfully
+assisted, first or last, by Edmund Pendleton, John Marshall, George
+Nicholas, Francis Corbin, George Wythe, James Innes, General Henry
+Lee, and especially by that same Governor Randolph who, after
+denouncing the Constitution for "features so odious" that he could not
+"agree to it,"[375] had finally swung completely around to its
+support.
+
+Against all this array of genius, learning, character, logical acumen,
+and eloquence, Patrick Henry held the field as protagonist for
+twenty-three days,--his chief lieutenants in the fight being Mason,
+Grayson, and John Dawson, with occasional help from Harrison, Monroe,
+and Tyler. Upon him alone fell the brunt of the battle. Out of the
+twenty-three days of that splendid tourney, there were but five days
+in which he did not take the floor. On each of several days he made
+three speeches; on one day he made five speeches; on another day
+eight. In one speech alone, he was on his legs for seven hours. The
+words of all who had any share in that debate were taken down,
+according to the imperfect art of the time, by the stenographer, David
+Robertson, whose reports, however, are said to be little more than a
+pretty full outline of the speeches actually made: but in the volume
+which contains these abstracts, one of Patrick Henry's speeches fills
+eight pages, another ten pages, another sixteen, another twenty-one,
+another forty; while, in the aggregate, his speeches constitute nearly
+one quarter of the entire book,--a book of six hundred and sixty-three
+pages.[376]
+
+Any one who has fallen under the impression, so industriously
+propagated by the ingenious enmity of Jefferson's old age, that
+Patrick Henry was a man of but meagre information and of extremely
+slender intellectual resources, ignorant especially of law, of
+political science, and of history, totally lacking in logical power
+and in precision of statement, with nothing to offset these
+deficiencies excepting a strange gift of overpowering, dithyrambic
+eloquence, will find it hard, as he turns over the leaves on which are
+recorded the debates of the Virginia convention, to understand just
+how such a person could have made the speeches which are there
+attributed to Patrick Henry, or how a mere rhapsodist could have thus
+held his ground, in close hand-to-hand combat, for twenty-three days,
+against such antagonists, on all the difficult subjects of law,
+political science, and history involved in the Constitution of the
+United States,--while showing at the same time every quality of good
+generalship as a tactician and as a party leader. "There has been, I
+am aware," says an eminent historian of the Constitution, "a modern
+scepticism concerning Patrick Henry's abilities; but I cannot share
+it.... The manner in which he carried on the opposition to the
+Constitution in the convention of Virginia, for nearly a whole month,
+shows that he possessed other powers besides those of great natural
+eloquence."[377]
+
+But, now, what were Patrick Henry's objections to the new
+Constitution?
+
+First of all, let it be noted that his objections did not spring from
+any hostility to the union of the thirteen States, or from any
+preference for a separate union of the Southern States. Undoubtedly
+there had been a time, especially under the provocations connected
+with the Mississippi business, when he and many other Southern
+statesmen sincerely thought that there might be no security for their
+interests even under the Confederation, and that this lack of security
+would be even more glaring and disastrous under the new Constitution.
+Such, for example, seems to have been the opinion of Governor Benjamin
+Harrison, as late as October the 4th, 1787, on which date he thus
+wrote to Washington: "I cannot divest myself of an opinion that ... if
+the Constitution is carried into effect, the States south of the
+Potomac will be little more than appendages to those to the northward
+of it."[378] It is very probable that this sentence accurately
+reflects, likewise, Patrick Henry's mood of thought at that time.
+Nevertheless, whatever may have been his thought under the sectional
+suspicions and alarms of the preceding months, it is certain that, at
+the date of the Virginia convention, he had come to see that the
+thirteen States must, by all means, try to keep together. "I am
+persuaded," said he, in reply to Randolph, "of what the honorable
+gentleman says, 'that separate confederacies will ruin us.'" "Sir," he
+exclaimed on another occasion, "the dissolution of the Union is most
+abhorrent to my mind. The first thing I have at heart is American
+liberty; the second thing is American union." Again he protested: "I
+mean not to breathe the spirit, nor utter the language, of
+secession."[379]
+
+In the second place, he admitted that there were great defects in the
+old Confederation, and that those defects ought to be cured by proper
+amendments, particularly in the direction of greater strength to the
+federal government. But did the proposed Constitution embody such
+amendments? On the contrary, that Constitution, instead of properly
+amending the old Confederation, simply annihilated it, and replaced
+it by something radically different and radically dangerous.
+
+     "The federal convention ought to have amended the old
+     system; for this purpose they were solely delegated; the
+     object of their mission extended to no other consideration."
+     "The distinction between a national government and a
+     confederacy is not sufficiently discerned. Had the delegates
+     who were sent to Philadelphia a power to propose a
+     consolidated government, instead of a confederacy?" "Here is
+     a resolution as radical as that which separated us from
+     Great Britain. It is radical in this transition; our rights
+     and privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the
+     States will be relinquished: and cannot we plainly see that
+     this is actually the case? The rights of conscience, trial
+     by jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities and
+     franchises, all pretensions to human rights and privileges,
+     are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change, so
+     loudly talked of by some, so inconsiderately by others." "A
+     number of characters, of the greatest eminence in this
+     country, object to this government for its consolidating
+     tendency. This is not imaginary. It is a formidable reality.
+     If consolidation proves to be as mischievous to this country
+     as it has been to other countries, what will the poor
+     inhabitants of this country do? This government will operate
+     like an ambuscade. It will destroy the state governments,
+     and swallow the liberties of the people, without giving
+     previous notice. If gentlemen are willing to run the hazard,
+     let them run it; but I shall exculpate myself by my
+     opposition and monitory warnings within these walls."[380]
+
+But, in the third place, besides transforming the old confederacy into
+a centralized and densely consolidated government, and clothing that
+government with enormous powers over States and over individuals, what
+had this new Constitution provided for the protection of States and of
+individuals? Almost nothing. It had created a new and a tremendous
+power over us; it had failed to cover us with any shield, or to
+interpose any barrier, by which, in case of need, we might save
+ourselves from the wanton and fatal exercise of that power. In short,
+the new Constitution had no bill of rights. But "a bill of rights," he
+declared, is "indispensably necessary."
+
+     "A general positive provision should be inserted in the new
+     system, securing to the States and the people every right
+     which was not conceded to the general government." "I trust
+     that gentlemen, on this occasion, will see the great objects
+     of religion, liberty of the press, trial by jury,
+     interdiction of cruel punishments, and every other sacred
+     right, secured, before they agree to that paper." "Mr.
+     Chairman, the necessity of a bill of rights appears to me to
+     be greater in this government than ever it was in any
+     government before. I have observed already that the sense of
+     European nations, and particularly Great Britain, is against
+     the construction of rights being retained which are not
+     expressly relinquished. I repeat, that all nations have
+     adopted the construction, that all rights not expressly and
+     unequivocally reserved to the people are impliedly and
+     incidentally relinquished to rulers, as necessarily
+     inseparable from delegated powers.... Let us consider the
+     sentiments which have been entertained by the people of
+     America on this subject. At the Revolution, it must be
+     admitted that it was their sense to set down those great
+     rights which ought, in all countries, to be held inviolable
+     and sacred. Virginia did so, we all remember. She made a
+     compact to reserve, expressly, certain rights.... She most
+     cautiously and guardedly reserved and secured those
+     invaluable, inestimable rights and privileges which no
+     people, inspired with the least glow of patriotic liberty,
+     ever did, or ever can, abandon. She is called upon now to
+     abandon them, and dissolve that compact which secured them
+     to her.... Will she do it? This is the question. If you
+     intend to reserve your unalienable rights, you must have the
+     most express stipulation; for, if implication be allowed,
+     you are ousted of those rights. If the people do not think
+     it necessary to reserve them, they will be supposed to be
+     given up.... If you give up these powers, without a bill of
+     rights, you will exhibit the most absurd thing to mankind
+     that ever the world saw,--a government that has abandoned
+     all its powers,--the powers of direct taxation, the sword,
+     and the purse. You have disposed of them to Congress,
+     without a bill of rights, without check, limitation, or
+     control. And still you have checks and guards; still you
+     keep barriers--pointed where? Pointed against your weakened,
+     prostrated, enervated, state government! You have a bill of
+     rights to defend you against the state government--which is
+     bereaved of all power, and yet you have none against
+     Congress--though in full and exclusive possession of all
+     power. You arm yourselves against the weak and defenceless,
+     and expose yourselves naked to the armed and powerful. Is
+     not this a conduct of unexampled absurdity?"[381]
+
+Again and again, in response to his demand for an express assertion,
+in the instrument itself, of the rights of individuals and of States,
+he was told that every one of those rights was secured, since it was
+naturally and fairly implied. "Even say," he rejoined, "it is a
+natural implication,--why not give us a right ... in express terms, in
+language that could not admit of evasions or subterfuges? If they can
+use implication for us, they can also use implication against us. We
+are giving power; they are getting power; judge, then, on which side
+the implication will be used." "Implication is dangerous, because it
+is unbounded; if it be admitted at all, and no limits prescribed, it
+admits of the utmost extension." "The existence of powers is
+sufficiently established. If we trust our dearest rights to
+implication, we shall be in a very unhappy situation."[382]
+
+Then, in addition to his objections to the general character of the
+Constitution, namely, as a consolidated government, unrestrained by an
+express guarantee of rights, he applied his criticisms in great
+detail, and with merciless rigor, to each department of the proposed
+government,--the legislative, the executive, and the judicial; and
+with respect to each one of these he insisted that its intended
+functions were such as to inspire distrust and alarm. Of course, we
+cannot here follow this fierce critic of the Constitution into all the
+detail of his criticisms; but, as a single example, we may cite a
+portion of his assault upon the executive department,--an assault, as
+will be seen, far better suited to the political apprehensions of his
+own time than of ours:--
+
+     "The Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but
+     when I come to examine these features, sir, they appear to
+     me horribly frightful. Among other deformities, it has an
+     awful squinting; it squints towards monarchy. And does not
+     this raise indignation in the breast of every true American?
+     Your president may easily become king.... Where are your
+     checks in this government? Your strongholds will be in the
+     hands of your enemies. It is on a supposition that your
+     American governors shall be honest, that all the good
+     qualities of this government are founded; but its defective
+     and imperfect construction puts it in their power to
+     perpetrate the worst of mischiefs, should they be bad men.
+     And, sir, would not all the world, from the eastern to the
+     western hemispheres, blame our distracted folly in resting
+     our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being good or
+     bad? Show me that age and country where the rights and
+     liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of
+     their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of
+     liberty.... If your American chief be a man of ambition and
+     abilities, how easy is it for him to render himself
+     absolute! The army is in his hands; and if he be a man of
+     address, it will be attached to him, and it will be the
+     subject of long meditation with him to seize the first
+     auspicious moment to accomplish his design. And, sir, will
+     the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens? I
+     would rather infinitely--and I am sure most of this
+     convention are of the same opinion--have a king, lords, and
+     commons, than a government so replete with such
+     insupportable evils. If we make a king, we may prescribe the
+     rules by which he shall rule his people, and interpose such
+     checks as shall prevent him from infringing them; but the
+     president, in the field, at the head of his army, can
+     prescribe the terms on which he shall reign master, so far
+     that it will puzzle any American ever to get his neck from
+     under the galling yoke.... Will not the recollection of his
+     crimes teach him to make one bold push for the American
+     throne? Will not the immense difference between being master
+     of everything, and being ignominiously tried and punished,
+     powerfully excite him to make this bold push? But, sir,
+     where is the existing force to punish him? Can he not, at
+     the head of his army, beat down every opposition? Away with
+     your president! we shall have a king. The army will salute
+     him monarch. Your militia will leave you, and assist in
+     making him king, and fight against you. And what have you to
+     oppose this force? What will then become of you and your
+     rights? Will not absolute despotism ensue?"[383]
+
+Without reproducing here, in further detail, Patrick Henry's
+objections to the new Constitution, it may now be stated that they all
+sprang from a single idea, and all revolved about that idea, namely,
+that the new plan of government, as it then stood, seriously
+endangered the rights and liberties of the people of the several
+States. And in holding this opinion he was not at all peculiar. Very
+many of the ablest and noblest statesmen of the time shared it with
+him. Not to name again his chief associates in Virginia, nor to cite
+the language of such men as Burke and Rawlins Lowndes, of South
+Carolina; as Timothy Bloodworth, of North Carolina; as Samuel Chase
+and Luther Martin, of Maryland; as George Clinton, of New York; as
+Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts; as
+Joshua Atherton, of New Hampshire, it may sufficiently put us into the
+tone of contemporary opinion upon the subject, to recall certain grave
+words of Jefferson, who, watching the whole scene from the calm
+distance of Paris, thus wrote on the 2d of February, 1788, to an
+American friend:--
+
+     "I own it astonishes me to find such a change wrought in the
+     opinions of our countrymen since I left them, as that three
+     fourths of them should be contented to live under a system
+     which leaves to their governors the power of taking from
+     them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion,
+     freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus
+     laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. That is a
+     degeneracy in the principles of liberty, to which I had
+     given four centuries, instead of four years."[384]
+
+Holding such objections to the proposed Constitution, what were
+Patrick Henry and his associates in the Virginia convention to do?
+Were they to reject the measure outright? Admitting that it had some
+good features, they yet thought that the best course to be taken by
+Virginia would be to remit the whole subject to a new convention of
+the States,--a convention which, being summoned after a year or more
+of intense and universal discussion, would thus represent the later,
+the more definite, and the more enlightened desires of the American
+people. But despairing of this, Patrick Henry and his friends
+concentrated all their forces upon this single and clear line of
+policy: so to press their objections to the Constitution as to induce
+the convention, not to reject it, but to postpone its adoption until
+they could refer to the other States in the American confederacy the
+following momentous proposition, namely, "a declaration of rights,
+asserting, and securing from encroachment, the great principles of
+civil and religious liberty, and the undeniable rights of the people,
+together with amendments to the most exceptionable parts of the said
+constitution of government."[385]
+
+Such, then, was the real question over which in that assemblage, from
+the first day to the last, the battle raged. The result of the battle
+was reached on Wednesday, the 25th of June; and that result was a
+victory for immediate adoption, but by a majority of only ten votes,
+instead of the fifty votes that were claimed for it at the beginning
+of the session. Moreover, even that small majority for immediate
+adoption was obtained only by the help, first, of a preamble solemnly
+affirming it to be the understanding of Virginia in this act that it
+retained every power not expressly granted to the general government;
+and, secondly, of a subsidiary resolution promising to recommend to
+Congress "whatsoever amendments may be deemed necessary."
+
+Just before the decisive question was put, Patrick Henry, knowing that
+the result would be against him, and knowing, also, from the angry
+things uttered within that House and outside of it, that much
+solicitude was abroad respecting the course likely to be taken by the
+defeated party, then and there spoke these noble words:--
+
+     "I beg pardon of this House for having taken up more time
+     than came to my share, and I thank them for the patience and
+     polite attention with which I have been heard. If I shall be
+     in the minority, I shall have those painful sensations which
+     arise from a conviction of being overpowered in a good
+     cause. Yet I will be a peaceable citizen. My head, my hand,
+     and my heart shall be at liberty to retrieve the loss of
+     liberty, and remove the defects of that system in a
+     constitutional way. I wish not to go to violence, but will
+     wait, with hopes that the spirit which predominated in the
+     Revolution is not yet gone, nor the cause of those who are
+     attached to the Revolution yet lost. I shall therefore
+     patiently wait in expectation of seeing that government
+     changed, so as to be compatible with the safety, liberty,
+     and happiness of the people."[386]
+
+Those words of the great Virginian leader proved to be a message of
+reassurance to many an anxious citizen, in many a State,--not least
+so to that great citizen who, from the slopes of Mount Vernon, was
+then watching, night and day, for signs of some abatement in the storm
+of civil discord. Those words, too, have, in our time, won for the
+orator who spoke them the deliberate, and the almost lyrical, applause
+of the greatest historian who has yet laid hand on the story of the
+Constitution: "Henry showed his genial nature, free from all
+malignity. He was like a billow of the ocean on the first bright day
+after the storm, dashing itself against the rocky cliff, and then,
+sparkling with light, retreating to its home."[387]
+
+Long after the practical effects of the Virginia convention of 1788
+had been merged in the general political life of the country, that
+convention was still proudly remembered for the magnificent exertions
+of intellectual power, and particularly of eloquence, which it had
+called forth. So lately as the year 1857, there was still living a man
+who, in his youth, had often looked in upon that famous convention,
+and whose enthusiasm, in recalling its great scenes, was not to be
+chilled even by the frosts of his ninety winters:--
+
+     "The impressions made by the powerful arguments of Madison
+     and the overwhelming eloquence of Henry can never fade from
+     my mind. I thought them almost supernatural. They seemed
+     raised up by Providence, each in his way, to produce great
+     results: the one by his grave, dignified, and irresistible
+     arguments to convince and enlighten mankind; the other, by
+     his brilliant and enrapturing eloquence to lead
+     whithersoever he would."[388]
+
+Those who had heard Patrick Henry on the other great occasions of his
+career were ready to say that his eloquence in the convention of 1788
+was, upon the whole, fully equal to anything ever exhibited by him in
+any other place. The official reports of his speeches in that
+assemblage were always declared to be inferior in "strength and
+beauty" to those actually made by him there.[389] "In forming an
+estimate of his eloquence," says one gentleman who there heard him,
+"no reliance can be placed on the printed speeches. No reporter
+whatever could take down what he actually said; and if he could, it
+would fall far short of the original."[390]
+
+In his arguments against the Constitution Patrick Henry confined
+himself to no systematic order. The convention had indeed resolved
+that the document should be discussed, clause by clause, in a regular
+manner; but in spite of the complaints and reproaches of his
+antagonists, he continually broke over all barriers, and delivered his
+"multiform and protean attacks" in such order as suited the workings
+of his own mind.
+
+In the course of that long and eager controversy, he had several
+passages of sharp personal collision with his opponents, particularly
+with Governor Randolph, whose vacillating course respecting the
+Constitution had left him exposed to the most galling comments, and
+who on one occasion, in his anguish, turned upon Patrick Henry with
+the exclamation: "I find myself attacked in the most illiberal manner
+by the honorable gentleman. I disdain his aspersions and his
+insinuations. His asperity is warranted by no principle of
+parliamentary decency, nor compatible with the least shadow of
+friendship; and if our friendship must fall, let it fall, like
+Lucifer, never to rise again."[391] Like all very eloquent men, he was
+taunted, of course, for having more eloquence than logic; for "his
+declamatory talents;" for his "vague discourses and mere sports of
+fancy;" for discarding "solid argument;" and for "throwing those
+bolts" which he had "so peculiar a dexterity at discharging."[392] On
+one occasion, old General Adam Stephen tried to burlesque the orator's
+manner of speech;[393] on another occasion, that same petulant warrior
+bluntly told Patrick that if he did "not like this government," he
+might "go and live among the Indians," and even offered to facilitate
+the orator's self-expatriation among the savages: "I know of several
+nations that live very happily; and I can furnish him with a
+vocabulary of their language."[394]
+
+Knowing, as he did, every passion and prejudice of his audience, he
+adopted, it appears, almost every conceivable method of appeal. "The
+variety of arguments," writes one witness, "which Mr. Henry generally
+presented in his speeches, addressed to the capacities, prejudices,
+and individual interests of his hearers, made his speeches very
+unequal. He rarely made in that convention a speech which Quintilian
+would have approved. If he soared at times, like the eagle, and seemed
+like the bird of Jove to be armed with thunder, he did not disdain to
+stoop like the hawk to seize his prey,--but the instant that he had
+done it, rose in pursuit of another quarry."[395]
+
+Perhaps the most wonderful example of his eloquence, if we may judge
+by contemporary descriptions, was that connected with the famous scene
+of the thunder-storm, on Tuesday, the 24th of June, only one day
+before the decisive vote was taken. The orator, it seems, had gathered
+up all his forces for what might prove to be his last appeal against
+immediate adoption, and was portraying the disasters which the new
+system of government, unless amended, was to bring upon his
+countrymen, and upon all mankind: "I see the awful immensity of the
+dangers with which it is pregnant. I see it. I feel it. I see beings
+of a higher order anxious concerning our decision. When I see beyond
+the horizon that bounds human eyes, and look at the final consummation
+of all human things, and see those intelligent beings which inhabit
+the ethereal mansions reviewing the political decisions and
+revolutions which, in the progress of time, will happen in America,
+and the consequent happiness or misery of mankind, I am led to believe
+that much of the account, on one side or the other, will depend on
+what we now decide. Our own happiness alone is not affected by the
+event. All nations are interested in the determination. We have it in
+our power to secure the happiness of one half of the human race. Its
+adoption may involve the misery of the other hemisphere." Thus far the
+stenographer had proceeded, when he suddenly stopped, and placed
+within brackets the following note: "[Here a violent storm arose,
+which put the House in such disorder, that Mr. Henry was obliged to
+conclude.]"[396] But the scene which is thus quietly despatched by the
+official reporter of the convention was again and again described, by
+many who were witnesses of it, as something most sublime and even
+appalling. After having delineated with overpowering vividness the
+calamities which were likely to befall mankind from their adoption of
+the proposed frame of government, the orator, it is said, as if
+wielding an enchanter's wand, suddenly enlarged the arena of the
+debate and the number of his auditors; for, peering beyond the veil
+which shuts in mortal sight, and pointing "to those celestial beings
+who were hovering over the scene," he addressed to them "an invocation
+that made every nerve shudder with supernatural horror, when, lo! a
+storm at that instant rose, which shook the whole building, and the
+spirits whom he had called seemed to have come at his bidding. Nor did
+his eloquence, or the storm, immediately cease; but availing himself
+of the incident, with a master's art, he seemed to mix in the fight of
+his ethereal auxiliaries, and, 'rising on the wings of the tempest, to
+seize upon the artillery of heaven, and direct its fiercest thunders
+against the heads of his adversaries.' The scene became insupportable;
+and the House rose without the formality of adjournment, the members
+rushing from their seats with precipitation and confusion."[397]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[362] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 265-266.
+
+[363] MS.
+
+[364] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 273.
+
+[365] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 356.
+
+[366] _Ibid._ i. 364-365.
+
+[367] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 378.
+
+[368] _Ibid._ i. 387.
+
+[369] Madison, _Letters_, i. 388.
+
+[370] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._, ii. 465.
+
+[371] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 356.
+
+[372] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 544, note.
+
+[373] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 541.
+
+[374] _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 274.
+
+[375] Elliot, _Debates_, i. 491; v. 502, 534-535.
+
+[376] Elliot, _Debates_, iii.
+
+[377] Curtis, _Hist. Const._ ii. 561, note.
+
+[378] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 266, note.
+
+[379] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 161, 57, 63.
+
+[380] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 23, 52, 44, 156.
+
+[381] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 150, 462, 445-446.
+
+[382] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 149-150.
+
+[383] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 58-60.
+
+[384] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 459-460.
+
+[385] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 653.
+
+[386] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 652.
+
+[387] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 316-317.
+
+[388] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 610.
+
+[389] Kennedy, _Life of Wirt_, i. 345.
+
+[390] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[391] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 187.
+
+[392] _Ibid._ iii. 406, 104, 248, 177.
+
+[393] St. George Tucker, MS.
+
+[394] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 580.
+
+[395] St. George Tucker, MS.
+
+[396] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 625.
+
+[397] Wirt, 296-297. Also Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE AFTER-FIGHT FOR AMENDMENTS
+
+
+Thus, on the question of adopting the new Constitution, the fight was
+over; but on the question of amending that Constitution, now that it
+had been adopted, the fight, of course, was only just begun.
+
+For how could this new Constitution be amended? A way was
+provided,--but an extremely strait and narrow way. No amendment
+whatsoever could become valid until it had been accepted by three
+fourths of the States; and no amendment could be submitted to the
+States for their consideration until it had first been approved,
+either by two thirds of both houses of Congress, or else by a majority
+of a convention specially called by Congress at the request of two
+thirds of the States.
+
+Clearly, the framers of the Constitution intended that the supreme law
+of the land, when once agreed to, should have within it a principle of
+fixedness almost invincible. At any rate, the process by which alone
+alterations can be made, involves so wide an area of territory, so
+many distinct groups of population, and is withal, in itself, so
+manifold and complex, so slow, and so liable to entire stoppage, that
+any proposition looking toward change must inevitably perish long
+before reaching the far-away goal of final endorsement, unless that
+proposition be really impelled by a public demand not only very
+energetic and persistent, but well-nigh universal. Indeed, the
+constitutional provision for amendments seemed, at that time, to many,
+to be almost a constitutional prohibition of amendments.
+
+It was, in part, for this very reason that Patrick Henry had urged
+that those amendments of the Constitution which, in his opinion, were
+absolutely necessary, should be secured before its adoption, and not
+be left to the doubtful chance of their being obtained afterward, as
+the result of a process ingeniously contrived, as it were, to prevent
+their being obtained at all. But at the close of that June day on
+which he and his seventy-eight associates walked away from the
+convention wherein, on this very proposition, they had just been voted
+down, how did the case stand? The Constitution, now become the supreme
+law of the land, was a Constitution which, unless amended, would, as
+they sincerely believed, effect the political ruin of the American
+people. As good citizens, as good men, what was left for them to do?
+They had fought hard to get the Constitution amended before adoption.
+They had failed. They must now fight hard to get it amended after
+adoption. Disastrous would it be, to assume that the needed amendments
+would now be carried at any rate. True, the Virginia convention, like
+the conventions of several other States, had voted to recommend
+amendments. But the hostility to amendments, as Patrick Henry
+believed, was too deeply rooted to yield to mere recommendations. The
+necessary amendments would not find their way through all the hoppers
+and tubes and valves of the enormous mill erected within the
+Constitution, unless forced onward by popular agitation,--and by
+popular agitation widespread, determined, vehement, even alarming. The
+powerful enemies of amendments must be convinced that, until
+amendments were carried through that mill, there would be no true
+peace or content among the surrounding inhabitants.
+
+This gives us the clew to the policy steadily and firmly pursued by
+Patrick Henry as a party leader, from June, 1788, until after the
+ratification of the first ten amendments, on the 15th of December,
+1791. It was simply a strategic policy dictated by his honest view of
+the situation; a bold, manly, patriotic policy; a policy, however,
+which was greatly misunderstood, and grossly misrepresented, at the
+time; a policy, too, which grieved the heart of Washington, and for
+several years raised between him and his ancient friend the one cloud
+of distrust that ever cast a shadow upon their intercourse.
+
+In fact, at the very opening of the Virginia convention, and in view
+of the possible defeat of his demand for amendments, Patrick Henry had
+formed a clear outline of this policy, even to the extent of
+organizing throughout the State local societies for stirring up, and
+for keeping up, the needed agitation. All this is made evident by an
+important letter written by him to General John Lamb of New York, and
+dated at Richmond, June 9, 1788,--when the convention had been in
+session just one week. In this letter, after some preliminary words,
+he says:--
+
+     It is matter of great consolation to find that the
+     sentiments of a vast majority of Virginians are in unison
+     with those of our Northern friends. I am satisfied four
+     fifths of our inhabitants are opposed to the new scheme of
+     government. Indeed, in the part of this country lying south
+     of James River, I am confident, nine tenths are opposed to
+     it. And yet, strange as it may seem, the numbers in
+     convention appear equal on both sides: so that the majority,
+     which way soever it goes, will be small. The friends and
+     seekers of power have, with their usual subtilty, wriggled
+     themselves into the choice of the people, by assuming shapes
+     as various as the faces of the men they address on such
+     occasions.
+
+     If they shall carry their point, and preclude previous
+     amendments, which we have ready to offer, it will become
+     highly necessary to form the society you mention. Indeed, it
+     appears the only chance for securing a remnant of those
+     invaluable rights which are yielded by the new plan. Colonel
+     George Mason has agreed to act as chairman of our republican
+     society. His character I need not describe. He is every way
+     fit; and we have concluded to send you by Colonel Oswald a
+     copy of the Bill of Rights, and of the particular amendments
+     we intend to propose in our convention. The fate of them is
+     altogether uncertain; but of that you will be informed. To
+     assimilate our views on this great subject is of the last
+     moment; and our opponents expect much from our dissension.
+     As we see the danger, I think it is easily avoided.
+
+     I can assure you that North Carolina is more decidedly
+     opposed to the new government than Virginia. The people
+     there seem rife for hazarding all, before they submit.
+     Perhaps the organization of our system may be so contrived
+     as to include lesser associations dispersed throughout the
+     State. This will remedy in some degree the inconvenience
+     arising from our dispersed situation. Colonel Oswald's short
+     stay here prevents my saying as much on the subject as I
+     could otherwise have done. And after assuring you of my
+     ardent wishes for the happiness of our common country, and
+     the best interests of humanity, I beg leave to subscribe
+     myself, with great respect and regard,
+
+                         Sir, your obedient, humble servant,
+                                            P. HENRY.[398]
+
+On the 27th of June, within a few hours, very likely, after the final
+adjournment of the convention, Madison hastened to report to
+Washington the great and exhilarating result, but with this anxious
+and really unjust surmise respecting the course then to be pursued by
+Patrick Henry:--
+
+     "Mr. H----y declared, previous to the final question, that
+     although he should submit as a quiet citizen, he should
+     seize the first moment that offered for shaking off the yoke
+     in a constitutional way. I suspect the plan will be to
+     encourage two thirds of the legislatures in the task of
+     undoing the work; or to get a Congress appointed in the
+     first instance that will commit suicide on their own
+     authority."[399]
+
+At the same sitting, probably, Madison sent off to Hamilton, at New
+York, another report, in which his conjecture as to Patrick Henry's
+intended policy is thus stated:--
+
+     "I am so uncharitable as to suspect that the ill-will to the
+     Constitution will produce every peaceable effort to disgrace
+     and destroy it. Mr. Henry declared ... that he should wait
+     with impatience for the favorable moment of regaining, in a
+     constitutional way, the lost liberties of his country."[400]
+
+Two days afterward, by which time, doubtless, Madison's letter had
+reached Mount Vernon, Washington wrote to Benjamin Lincoln of
+Massachusetts, respecting the result of the convention:--
+
+     "Our accounts from Richmond are that ... the final decision
+     exhibited a solemn scene, and that there is every reason to
+     expect a perfect acquiescence therein by the minority. Mr.
+     Henry, the great leader of it, has signified that, though he
+     can never be reconciled to the Constitution in its present
+     form, and shall give it every constitutional opposition in
+     his power, yet he will submit to it peaceably."[401]
+
+Thus, about the end of June, 1788, there came down upon the fierce
+political strife in Virginia a lull, which lasted until the 20th of
+October, at which time the legislature assembled for its autumnal
+session. Meantime, however, the convention of New York had adopted the
+Constitution, but after a most bitter fight, and by a majority of only
+three votes, and only in consequence of the pledge that every possible
+effort should be made to obtain speedily those great amendments that
+were at last called for by a determined public demand. One of the
+efforts contemplated by the New York convention took the form of a
+circular letter to the governors of the several States, urging almost
+pathetically that "effectual measures be immediately taken for calling
+a convention" to propose those amendments which are necessary for
+allaying "the apprehensions and discontents" then so prevalent.[402]
+
+This circular letter "rekindled," as Madison then wrote to Jefferson,
+"an ardor among the opponents of the federal Constitution for an
+immediate revision of it by another general convention, ... Mr. Henry
+and his friends in Virginia enter with great zeal into the
+scheme."[403] In a letter written by Washington, nearly a month before
+the meeting of the legislature, it is plainly indicated that his mind
+was then grievously burdened by the anxieties of the situation, and
+that he was disposed to put the very worst construction upon the
+expected conduct of Patrick Henry and his party in the approaching
+session:--
+
+     "Their expedient will now probably be an attempt to procure
+     the election of so many of their own junto under the new
+     government, as, by the introduction of local and
+     embarrassing disputes, to impede or frustrate its
+     operation.... I assure you I am under painful apprehensions
+     from the single circumstance of Mr. H. having the whole game
+     to play in the Assembly of this State; and the effect it may
+     have in others should be counteracted if possible."[404]
+
+No sooner had the Assembly met, than Patrick Henry's ascendency became
+apparent. His sway over that body was such that it was described as
+"omnipotent." And by the time the session had been in progress not
+quite a month, Washington informed Madison that "the accounts from
+Richmond" were "very unpropitious to federal measures." "In one word,"
+he added, "it is said that the edicts of Mr. H. are enregistered with
+less opposition in the Virginia Assembly than those of the grand
+monarch by his parliaments. He has only to say, Let this be law, and
+it is law."[405] Within ten days from the opening of the session, the
+House showed its sensitive response to Patrick Henry's leadership by
+adopting a series of resolutions, the chief purpose of which was to
+ask Congress to call immediately a national convention for proposing
+to the States the required amendments. In the debate on the subject,
+he is said to have declared "that he should oppose every measure
+tending to the organization of the government, unless accompanied with
+measures for the amendment of the Constitution."[406]
+
+Some phrases in one of his resolutions were most offensive to those
+members of the House who had "befriended the new Constitution," and
+who, by implication at least, were held forth as "betrayers of the
+dearest rights of the people." "If Mr. Henry pleases," so wrote a
+correspondent of Washington, "he will carry the resolution in its
+present terms, than which none, in my opinion, can be more
+exceptionable or inflammatory; though, as he is sometimes kind and
+condescending, he may perhaps be induced to alter it."[407]
+
+In accordance with these resolutions, a formal application to Congress
+for a national convention was prepared by Patrick Henry, and adopted
+by the House on the 14th of November. Every word of that document
+deserves now to be read, as his own account of the spirit and purpose
+of a measure then and since then so profoundly and so cruelly
+misinterpreted:--
+
+     "The good people of this commonwealth, in convention
+     assembled, having ratified the Constitution submitted to
+     their consideration, this legislature has, in conformity to
+     that act, and the resolutions of the United States in
+     Congress assembled to them transmitted, thought proper to
+     make the arrangements that were _necessary_ for carrying it
+     into effect. Having thus shown themselves obedient to the
+     voice of their constituents, all America will find that, so
+     far as it depends on them, that plan of government will be
+     carried into immediate operation.
+
+     "But the sense of the people of Virginia would be but in
+     part complied with, and but little regarded, if we went no
+     further. In the very moment of adoption, and coeval with the
+     ratification of the new plan of government, the general
+     voice of the convention of this State pointed to objects no
+     less interesting to the people we represent, and equally
+     entitled to your attention. At the same time that, from
+     motives of affection for our sister States, the convention
+     yielded their assent to the ratification, they gave the most
+     unequivocal proofs that they dreaded its operation under the
+     present form.
+
+     "In acceding to a government under this impression, painful
+     must have been the prospect, had they not derived
+     consolation from a full expectation of its imperfections
+     being speedily amended. In this resource, therefore, they
+     placed their confidence,--a confidence that will continue to
+     support them whilst they have reason to believe they have
+     not calculated upon it in vain.
+
+     "In making known to you the objections of the people of this
+     Commonwealth to the new plan of government, we deem it
+     unnecessary to enter into a particular detail of its
+     defects, which they consider as involving all the great and
+     unalienable rights of freemen: for their sense on this
+     subject, we refer you to the proceedings of their late
+     convention, and the sense of this General Assembly, as
+     expressed in their resolutions of the     day of     .
+
+     "We think proper, however, to declare that in our opinion,
+     as those objections were not founded in speculative theory,
+     but deduced from principles which have been established by
+     the melancholy example of other nations, in different ages,
+     so they will never be removed until the cause itself shall
+     cease to exist. The sooner, therefore, the public
+     apprehensions are quieted, and the government is possessed
+     of the confidence of the people, the more salutary will be
+     its operations, and the longer its duration.
+
+     "The cause of amendments we consider as a common cause; and
+     since concessions have been made from political motives,
+     which we conceive may endanger the republic, we trust that a
+     commendable zeal will be shown for obtaining those
+     provisions which, experience has taught us, are necessary to
+     secure from danger the unalienable rights of human nature.
+
+     "The anxiety with which our countrymen press for the
+     accomplishment of this important end, will ill admit of
+     delay. The slow forms of congressional discussion and
+     recommendation, if indeed they should ever agree to any
+     change, would, we fear, be less certain of success. Happily
+     for their wishes, the Constitution hath presented an
+     alternative, by admitting the submission to a convention of
+     the States. To this, therefore, we resort, as the source
+     from whence they are to derive relief from their present
+     apprehensions. We do, therefore, in behalf of our
+     constituents, in the most earnest and solemn manner, make
+     this application to Congress, that a convention be
+     immediately called, of deputies from the several States,
+     with full power to take into their consideration the defects
+     of this Constitution, that have been suggested by the state
+     conventions, and report such amendments thereto, as they
+     shall find best suited to promote our common interests, and
+     secure to ourselves and our latest posterity the great and
+     unalienable rights of mankind."[408]
+
+Such was the purpose, such was the temper, of Virginia's appeal,
+addressed to Congress, and written by Patrick Henry, on behalf of
+immediate measures for curing the supposed defects of the
+Constitution. Was it not likely that this appeal would be granted? One
+grave doubt haunted the mind of Patrick Henry. If, in the elections
+for senators and representatives then about to occur in the several
+States, very great care was not taken, it might easily happen that a
+majority of the members of Congress would be composed of men who would
+obstruct, and perhaps entirely defeat, the desired amendments. With
+the view of doing his part towards the prevention of such a result, he
+determined that both the senators from Virginia, and as many as
+possible of its representatives, should be persons who could be
+trusted to help, and not to hinder, the great project.
+
+Accordingly, when the day came for the election of senators by the
+Assembly of Virginia, he just stood up in his place and named "Richard
+Henry Lee and William Grayson, Esquires," as the two men who ought to
+be elected as senators; and, furthermore, he named James Madison as
+the one man who ought not to be elected as senator. Whereupon the vote
+was taken; "and after some time," as the journal expresses it, the
+committee to examine the ballot-boxes "returned into the House, and
+reported that they had ... found a majority of votes in favor of
+Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson, Esquires."[409] On the 8th of
+December, 1788, just one month afterward, Madison himself, in a letter
+to Jefferson, thus alluded to the incident: "They made me a candidate
+for the Senate, for which I had not allotted my pretensions. The
+attempt was defeated by Mr. Henry, who is omnipotent in the present
+legislature, and who added to the expedients common on such occasions
+a public philippic against my federal principles."[410]
+
+Virginia's delegation in the Senate was thus made secure. How about
+her delegation in the lower house? That, also, was an affair to be
+sharply looked to. Above all things, James Madison, as the supposed
+foe of amendments, was to be prevented, if possible, from winning an
+election. Therefore the committee of the House of Delegates, which was
+appointed for the very purpose, among other things, of dividing the
+State into its ten congressional districts, so carved out those
+districts as to promote the election of the friends of the good cause,
+and especially to secure, as was hoped, the defeat of its great enemy.
+Of this committee Patrick Henry was not a member; but as a majority of
+its members were known to be his devoted followers, very naturally
+upon him, at the time, was laid the burden of the blame for
+practising this ignoble device in politics,--a device which, when
+introduced into Massachusetts several years afterward, also by a
+Revolutionary father, came to be christened with the satiric name of
+"gerrymandering." Surely it was a rare bit of luck, in the case of
+Patrick Henry, that the wits of Virginia did not anticipate the wits
+of Massachusetts by describing this trick as "henrymandering;" and
+that he thus narrowly escaped the ugly immortality of having his name
+handed down from age to age in the coinage of a base word which should
+designate a base thing,--one of the favorite, shabby manoeuvres of
+less scrupulous American politicians.[411]
+
+Thus, however, within four weeks from the opening of the session, he
+had succeeded in pressing through the legislature, in the exact form
+he wished, all these measures for giving effect to Virginia's demand
+upon Congress for amendments. This being accomplished, he withdrew
+from the service of the House for the remainder of the session,
+probably on account of the great urgency of his professional
+engagements at that time. The journal of the House affords us no trace
+of his presence there after the 18th of November; and although the
+legislature continued in session until the 13th of December, its
+business did not digress beyond local topics. To all these facts,
+rather bitter allusion is made in a letter to the governor of New
+Hampshire, written from Mount Vernon, on the 31st of January, 1789, by
+the private secretary of Washington, Tobias Lear, who thus reflected,
+no doubt, the mood of his chief:--
+
+     "Mr. Henry, the leader of the opposition in this State,
+     finding himself beaten off the ground by fair argument in
+     the state convention, and outnumbered upon the important
+     question, collected his whole strength, and pointed his
+     whole force against the government, in the Assembly. He here
+     met with but a feeble opposition.... He led on his almost
+     unresisted phalanx, and planted the standard of hostility
+     upon the very battlements of federalism. In plain English,
+     he ruled a majority of the Assembly; and his edicts were
+     registered by that body with less opposition than those of
+     the Grand Monarque have met with from his parliaments. He
+     chose the two senators.... He divided the State into
+     districts, ... taking care to arrange matters so as to have
+     the county, of which Mr. Madison is an inhabitant, thrown
+     into a district of which a majority were supposed to be
+     unfriendly to the government, and by that means exclude him
+     from the representative body in Congress. He wrote the
+     answer to Governor Clinton's letter, and likewise the
+     circular letter to the executives of the several States....
+     And after he had settled everything relative to the
+     government wholly, I suppose, to his satisfaction, he
+     mounted his horse and rode home, leaving the little business
+     of the State to be done by anybody who chose to give
+     themselves the trouble of attending to it."[412]
+
+How great was the effect of these strategic measures, forced by
+Patrick Henry through the legislature of Virginia in the autumn of
+1788, was not apparent, of course, until after the organization of the
+first Congress of the United States, in the spring of 1789. Not until
+the 5th of May could time be found by that body for paying the least
+attention to the subject of amendments. On that day Theodoric Bland,
+from Virginia, presented to the House of Representatives the solemn
+application of his State for a new convention; and, after some
+discussion, this document was entered on the journals of the
+House.[413] The subject was then dropped until the 8th of June, when
+Madison, who had been elected to Congress in spite of Patrick Henry,
+and who had good reason to know how dangerous it would be for Congress
+to trifle with the popular demand for amendments, succeeded, against
+much opposition, in getting the House to devote that day to a
+preliminary discussion of the business. It was again laid aside for
+nearly six weeks, and again got a slight hearing on the 21st of July.
+On the 13th of August it was once more brought to the reluctant
+attention of the House, and then proved the occasion of a debate which
+lasted until the 24th of that month, when the House finished its work
+on the subject, and sent up to the Senate seventeen articles of
+amendment. Only twelve of these articles succeeded in passing the
+Senate; and of these twelve, only ten received from the States that
+approval which was necessary to their ratification. This was obtained
+on the 15th of December, 1791.
+
+The course thus taken by Congress, in itself proposing amendments, was
+not at the time pleasing to the chiefs of that party which, in the
+several States, had been clamorous for amendments.[414] These men,
+desiring more radical changes in the Constitution than could be expected
+from Congress, had set their hearts on a new convention,--which,
+undoubtedly, had it been called, would have reconstructed, from top to
+bottom, the work done by the convention of 1787. Yet it should be
+noticed that the ten amendments, thus obtained under the initiative of
+Congress, embodied "nearly every material change suggested by
+Virginia;"[415] and that it was distinctly due, in no small degree, to
+the bitter and implacable urgency of the popular feeling in Virginia,
+under the stimulus of Patrick Henry's leadership, that Congress was
+induced by Madison to pay any attention to the subject. In the matter of
+amendments, therefore, Patrick Henry and his party did not get all that
+they demanded, nor in the way that they demanded; but even so much as
+they did get, they would not then have got at all, had they not demanded
+more, and demanded more, also, through the channel of a new convention,
+the dread of which, it is evident, drove Madison and his brethren in
+Congress into the prompt concession of amendments which they themselves
+did not care for. Those amendments were really a tub to the whale; but
+then that tub would not have been thrown overboard at all, had not the
+whale been there, and very angry, and altogether too troublesome with
+his foam-compelling tail, and with that huge head of his which could
+batter as well as spout.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[398] Leake, _Life of Gen. John Lamb_, 307-308.
+
+[399] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 402.
+
+[400] _Works of Hamilton_, i. 463.
+
+[401] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 392.
+
+[402] Elliot, _Debates_, ii. 414.
+
+[403] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 418.
+
+[404] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 433.
+
+[405] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 483.
+
+[406] _Corr. Rev._ iv. 240-241.
+
+[407] _Ibid._ iv. 241.
+
+[408] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 42-43.
+
+[409] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32.
+
+[410] Madison, _Letters_, etc., i. 443-444.
+
+[411] For contemporary allusions to this first example of
+gerrymandering, see _Writings of Washington_, ix. 446-447; _Writings
+of Jefferson_, ii. 574; Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 653-655;
+Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 485.
+
+[412] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 488-489.
+
+[413] Gales, _Debates_, i. 258-261.
+
+[414] Marshall, _Life of Washington_, v. 209-210; Story, _Const._ i.
+211.
+
+[415] Howison, _Hist. Va._ ii. 333.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+LAST LABORS AT THE BAR
+
+
+The incidents embraced within the last three chapters cover the period
+from 1786 to 1791, and have been thus narrated by themselves for the
+purpose of exhibiting as distinctly as possible, and in unbroken
+sequence, Patrick Henry's relations to each succeeding phase of that
+immense national movement which produced the American Constitution,
+with its first ten amendments.
+
+During those same fervid years, however, in which he was devoting, as
+it might seem, every power of body and mind to his great labors as a
+party leader, and as a critic and moulder of the new Constitution, he
+had resumed, and he was sturdily carrying forward, most exacting
+labors in the practice of the law.
+
+Late in the year 1786, as will be remembered, being then poor and in
+debt, he declined another election to the governorship, and set
+himself to the task of repairing his private fortunes, so sadly fallen
+to decay under the noble neglect imposed by his long service of the
+public. One of his kinsmen has left on record a pleasant anecdote to
+the effect that the orator happened to mention at that time to a
+friend how anxious he was under the great burden of his debts. "Go
+back to the bar," said his friend; "your tongue will soon pay your
+debts. If you will promise to go, I will give you a retaining fee on
+the spot."[416] This course, in fact, he had already determined to
+take; and thus at the age of fifty, at no time robust in health, and
+at that time grown prematurely old under the storm and stress of all
+those unquiet years, he again buckled on his professional armor, rusty
+from long disuse, and pluckily began his life over again, in the hope
+of making some provision for his own declining days, as well as for
+the honor and welfare of his great brood of children and
+grandchildren. To this task, accordingly, he then bent himself, with a
+grim wilfulness that would not yield either to bodily weakness, or to
+the attractions or the distractions of politics. It is delightful to
+be permitted to add, that his energy was abundantly rewarded; and that
+in exactly eight years thereafter, namely in 1794, he was able to
+retire, in comfort and wealth, from all public and professional
+employments of every sort.
+
+Of course the mere announcement, in 1786, that Patrick Henry was then
+ready once more to receive clients, was enough to excite the attention
+of all persons in Virginia who might have important interests in
+litigation. His great renown throughout the country, his high personal
+character, his overwhelming gifts in argument, his incomparable gifts
+in persuasion, were such as to ensure an almost dominant advantage to
+any cause which he should espouse before any tribunal. Confining
+himself, therefore, to his function as an advocate, and taking only
+such cases as were worth his attention, he was immediately called to
+appear in the courts in all parts of the State.
+
+It is not necessary for us to try to follow this veteran and brilliant
+advocate in his triumphal progress from one court-house to another, or
+to give the detail of the innumerable causes in which he was engaged
+during these last eight years of his practice at the bar. Of all the
+causes, however, in which he ever took part as a lawyer, in any period
+of his career, probably the most difficult and important, in a legal
+aspect, was the one commonly referred to as that of the British debts,
+argued by him in the Circuit Court of the United States at Richmond,
+first in 1791, and again, in the same place, in 1793.[417]
+
+A glance at the origin of this famous cause will help us the better to
+understand the significance of his relation to it. By the treaty with
+Great Britain in 1783, British subjects were empowered "to recover
+debts previously contracted to them by our citizens, notwithstanding a
+payment of the debt into a state treasury had been made during the
+war, under the authority of a state law of sequestration." According
+to this provision a British subject, one William Jones, brought an
+action of debt in the federal court at Richmond, against a citizen of
+Virginia, Thomas Walker, on a bond dated May, 1772. The real question
+was "whether payment of a debt due before the war of the Revolution,
+from a citizen of Virginia to British subjects, into the loan office
+of Virginia, pursuant to a law of that State, discharged the debtor."
+
+The case, as will readily be seen, involved many subtle and difficult
+points of law, municipal, national, and international; and the defence
+was contained in the following five pleas: (1.) That of payment,
+generally; (2.) That of the Virginia act of sequestration, October 20,
+1777; (3.) That of the Virginia act of forfeiture, May 3, 1779; (4.)
+That of British violations of the treaty of 1783; (5.) That of the
+necessary annulment of the debt, in consequence of the dissolution of
+the co-allegiance of the two parties, on the declaration of
+independence.[418]
+
+Some idea of the importance attached to the case may be inferred from
+the assertion of Wirt, that "the whole power of the bar of Virginia
+was embarked" in it; and that the "learning, argument, and eloquence"
+exhibited in the discussion were such "as to have placed that bar, in
+the estimation of the federal judges, ... above all others in the
+United States."[419] Associated with Patrick Henry, for the defendant,
+were John Marshall, Alexander Campbell, and James Innes.
+
+For several weeks before the trial of this cause in 1791, Patrick
+Henry secluded himself from all other engagements, and settled down to
+intense study in the retirement of his home in the country. A grandson
+of the orator, Patrick Henry Fontaine, who was there as a student of
+the law, relates that he himself was sent off on a journey of sixty
+miles to procure a copy of Vattel's Law of Nations. From this and
+other works of international law, the old lawyer "made many
+quotations; and with the whole syllabus of notes and heads of
+arguments, he filled a manuscript volume more than an inch thick, and
+closely written; a book ... bound with leather, and convenient for
+carrying in his pocket. He had in his yard ... an office, built at
+some distance from his dwelling, and an avenue of fine black locusts
+shaded a walk in front of it.... He usually walked and meditated, when
+the weather permitted, in this shaded avenue.... For several days in
+succession, before his departure to Richmond to attend the court," the
+orator was seen "walking frequently in this avenue, with his note-book
+in his hand, which he often opened and read; and from his gestures,
+while promenading alone in the shade of the locusts," it was supposed
+that he was committing his speech to memory.[420] According to another
+account, so eager was his application to this labor that, in one stage
+of it, "he shut himself up in his office for three days, during which
+he did not see his family; his food was handed by a servant through
+the office door."[421] Of all this preparation, not unworthy to be
+called Demosthenic, the result was, if we may accept the opinion of
+one eminent lawyer, that Patrick Henry "came forth, on this occasion,
+a perfect master of every law, national and municipal, which touched
+the subject of investigation in the most distant point."[422]
+
+It was on the 14th of November, 1791, that the cause came on to be
+argued in the court-house at Richmond, before Judges Johnson and Blair
+of the Supreme Court, and Judge Griffin of that district. The case of
+the plaintiff was opened by Mr. Counsellor Baker, whose argument
+lasted till the evening of that day. Patrick Henry was to begin his
+argument in reply the next morning.
+
+     "The legislature was then in session; but when eleven
+     o'clock, the hour for the meeting of the court, arrived, the
+     speaker found himself without a house to do business. All
+     his authority and that of his sergeant at arms were
+     unavailing to keep the members in their seats: every
+     consideration of public duty yielded to the anxiety which
+     they felt, in common with the rest of their fellow citizens,
+     to hear this great man on this truly great and extensively
+     interesting question. Accordingly, when the court was ready
+     to proceed to business, the court-room of the capitol, large
+     as it is, was insufficient to contain the vast concourse
+     that was pressing to enter it. The portico, and the area in
+     which the statue of Washington stands, were filled with a
+     disappointed crowd, who nevertheless maintained their stand
+     without. In the court-room itself, the judges, through
+     condescension to the public anxiety, relaxed the rigor of
+     respect which they were in the habit of exacting, and
+     permitted the vacant seats of the bench, and even the
+     windows behind it, to be occupied by the impatient
+     multitude. The noise and tumult occasioned by seeking a more
+     favorable station was at length hushed, and the profound
+     silence which reigned within the room gave notice to those
+     without that the orator had risen, or was on the point of
+     rising. Every eye in front of the bar was riveted upon him
+     with the most eager attention; and so still and deep was the
+     silence that every one might hear the throbbing of his own
+     heart. Mr. Henry, however, appeared wholly unconscious that
+     all this preparation was on his account, and rose with as
+     much simplicity and composure as if the occasion had been
+     one of ordinary occurrence.... It may give the reader some
+     idea of the amplitude of the argument, when he is told that
+     Mr. Henry was engaged three days successively in its
+     delivery; and some faint conception of the enchantment which
+     he threw over it, when he learns that although it turned
+     entirely on questions of law, yet the audience, mixed as it
+     was, seemed so far from being wearied, that they followed
+     him throughout with increased enjoyment. The room continued
+     full to the last; and such was 'the listening silence' with
+     which he was heard, that not a syllable that he uttered is
+     believed to have been lost. When he finally sat down, the
+     concourse rose, with a general murmur of admiration; the
+     scene resembled the breaking up and dispersion of a great
+     theatrical assembly, which had been enjoying, for the first
+     time, the exhibition of some new and splendid drama; the
+     speaker of the House of Delegates was at length able to
+     command a quorum for business; and every quarter of the
+     city, and at length every part of the State, was filled with
+     the echoes of Mr. Henry's eloquent speech."[423]
+
+In the spring of 1793 this cause was argued a second time, before the
+same district judge, and, in addition, before Mr. Chief Justice Jay,
+and Mr. Justice Iredell of the Supreme Court. On this occasion,
+apparently, there was the same eagerness to hear Patrick Henry as
+before,--an eagerness which was shared in by the two visiting judges,
+as is indicated in part by a letter from Judge Iredell, who, on the
+27th of May, thus wrote to his wife: "We began on the great British
+causes the second day of the court, and are now in the midst of them.
+The great Patrick Henry is to speak to-day."[424] Among the throng of
+people who then poured into the court-room was John Randolph of
+Roanoke, then a stripling of twenty years, who, having got a position
+very close to the judges, was made aware of their conversation with
+one another as the case proceeded. He describes the orator as not
+expecting to speak at that time; "as old, very much wrapped up, and
+resting his head on the bar." Meanwhile the chief justice, who, in
+earlier days, had often heard Henry in the Continental Congress, told
+Iredell that that feeble old gentleman in mufflers, with his head
+bowed wearily down upon the bar, was "the greatest of orators."
+"Iredell doubted it; and, becoming impatient to hear him, they
+requested him to proceed with his argument, before he had intended to
+speak.... As he arose, he began to complain that it was a hardship,
+too great, to put the laboring oar into the hands of a decrepit old
+man, trembling, with one foot in the grave, weak in his best days, and
+far inferior to the able associate by him." Randolph then gives an
+outline of his progress through the earlier and somewhat tentative
+stages of his speech, comparing his movement to the exercise "of a
+first-rate, four-mile race-horse, sometimes displaying his whole power
+and speed for a few leaps, and then taking up again." "At last,"
+according to Randolph, the orator "got up to full speed; and took a
+rapid view of what England had done, when she had been successful in
+arms; and what would have been our fate, had we been unsuccessful. The
+color began to come and go in the face of the chief justice; while
+Iredell sat with his mouth and eyes stretched open, in perfect wonder.
+Finally, Henry arrived at his utmost height and grandeur. He raised
+his hands in one of his grand and solemn pauses.... There was a
+tumultuous burst of applause; and Judge Iredell exclaimed, 'Gracious
+God! he is an orator indeed!'"[425] It is said, also, by another
+witness, that Henry happened that day to wear on his finger a diamond
+ring; and that in the midst of the supreme splendor of his eloquence,
+a distinguished English visitor who had been given a seat on the
+bench, said with significant emphasis to one of the judges, "The
+diamond is blazing!"[426]
+
+As examples of forensic eloquence, on a great subject, before a great
+and a fit assemblage, his several speeches in the case of the British
+debts were, according to all the testimony, of the highest order of
+merit. What they were as examples of legal learning and of legal
+argumentation, may be left for every lawyer to judge for himself, by
+reading, if he so pleases, the copious extracts which have been
+preserved from the stenographic reports of these speeches, as taken by
+Robertson. Even from that point of view, they appear not to have
+suffered by comparison with the efforts made, in that cause, on the
+same side, by John Marshall himself. No inconsiderable portion of his
+auditors were members of the bar; and those keen and competent critics
+are said to have acknowledged themselves as impressed "not less by the
+matter than the manner" of his speeches.[427] Moreover, though not
+expressly mentioned, Patrick Henry's argument is pointedly referred to
+in the high compliment pronounced by Judge Iredell, when giving his
+opinion in this case:--
+
+     "The cause has been spoken to, at the bar, with a degree of
+     ability equal to any occasion.... I shall, as long as I
+     live, remember with pleasure and respect the arguments which
+     I have heard in this case. They have discovered an
+     ingenuity, a depth of investigation, and a power of
+     reasoning fully equal to anything I have ever witnessed; and
+     some of them have been adorned with a splendor of eloquence
+     surpassing what I have ever felt before. Fatigue has given
+     way under its influence, and the heart has been warmed,
+     while the understanding has been instructed."[428]
+
+It will be readily understood, however, that while Patrick Henry's
+practice included important causes turning, like the one just
+described, on propositions of law, and argued by him before the
+highest tribunals, the larger part of the practice to be had in
+Virginia at that time must have been in actions tried before juries,
+in which his success was chiefly due to his amazing endowments of
+sympathy, imagination, tact, and eloquence. The testimony of
+contemporary witnesses respecting his power in this direction is most
+abundant, and also most interesting; and, for obvious reasons, such
+portions of it as are now to be reproduced should be given in the very
+language of the persons who thus heard him, criticised him, and made
+deliberate report concerning him.
+
+First of all, in the way of preliminary analysis of Henry's genius and
+methods as an advocate before juries, may be cited a few sentences of
+Wirt, who, indeed, never heard him, but who, being himself a very
+gifted and a very ambitious advocate, eagerly collected and keenly
+scanned the accounts of many who had heard him:--
+
+     "He adapted himself, without effort, to the character of the
+     cause; seized with the quickness of intuition its defensible
+     point, and never permitted the jury to lose sight of it. Sir
+     Joshua Reynolds has said of Titian, that, by a few strokes
+     of his pencil, he knew how to mark the image and character
+     of whatever object he attempted; and produced by this means
+     a truer representation than any of his predecessors, who
+     finished every hair. In like manner Mr. Henry, by a few
+     master-strokes upon the evidence, could in general stamp
+     upon the cause whatever image or character he pleased; and
+     convert it into tragedy or comedy, at his sovereign will,
+     and with a power which no efforts of his adversary could
+     counteract. He never wearied the jury by a dry and minute
+     analysis of the evidence; he did not expend his strength in
+     finishing the hairs; he produced all his high effect by
+     those rare master-touches, and by the resistless skill with
+     which, in a very few words, he could mould and color the
+     prominent facts of a cause to his purpose. He had wonderful
+     address, too, in leading off the minds of his hearers from
+     the contemplation of unfavorable points, if at any time they
+     were too stubborn to yield to his power of
+     transformation.... It required a mind of uncommon vigilance,
+     and most intractable temper, to resist this charm with which
+     he decoyed away his hearers; it demanded a rapidity of
+     penetration, which is rarely, if ever, to be found in the
+     jury-box, to detect the intellectual juggle by which he
+     spread his nets around them; it called for a stubbornness
+     and obduracy of soul which does not exist, to sit unmoved
+     under the pictures of horror or of pity which started from
+     his canvas. They might resolve, if they pleased, to decide
+     the cause against him, and to disregard everything which he
+     could urge in the defence of his client. But it was all in
+     vain. Some feint in an unexpected direction threw them off
+     their guard, and they were gone; some happy phrase, burning
+     from the soul; some image fresh from nature's mint, and
+     bearing her own beautiful and genuine impress, struck them
+     with delightful surprise, and melted them into conciliation;
+     and conciliation towards Mr. Henry was victory inevitable.
+     In short, he understood the human character so perfectly;
+     knew so well all its strength and all its weaknesses,
+     together with every path and by-way which winds around the
+     citadel of the best fortified heart and mind, that he never
+     failed to take them, either by stratagem or storm."[429]
+
+Still further, in the way of critical analysis, should be cited the
+opinion of a distinguished student and master of eloquence, the Rev.
+Archibald Alexander of Princeton, who, having more than once heard
+Patrick Henry, wrote out, with a scholar's precision, the results of
+his own keen study into the great advocate's success in subduing men,
+and especially jurymen:--
+
+     "The power of Henry's eloquence was due, first, to the
+     greatness of his emotion and passion, accompanied with a
+     versatility which enabled him to assume at once any emotion
+     or passion which was suited to his ends. Not less
+     indispensable, secondly, was a matchless perfection of the
+     organs of expression, including the entire apparatus of
+     voice, intonation, pause, gesture, attitude, and
+     indescribable play of countenance. In no instance did he
+     ever indulge in an expression that was not instantly
+     recognized as nature itself; yet some of his penetrating and
+     subduing tones were absolutely peculiar, and as inimitable
+     as they were indescribable. These were felt by every hearer,
+     in all their force. His mightiest feelings were sometimes
+     indicated and communicated by a long pause, aided by an
+     eloquent aspect, and some significant use of his finger. The
+     sympathy between mind and mind is inexplicable. Where the
+     channels of communication are open, the faculty of revealing
+     inward passion great, and the expression of it sudden and
+     visible, the effects are extraordinary. Let these shocks of
+     influence be repeated again and again, and all other
+     opinions and ideas are for the moment absorbed or excluded;
+     the whole mind is brought into unison with that of the
+     speaker; and the spell-bound listener, till the cause
+     ceases, is under an entire fascination. Then perhaps the
+     charm ceases, upon reflection, and the infatuated hearer
+     resumes his ordinary state.
+
+     "Patrick Henry, of course, owed much to his singular insight
+     into the feelings of the common mind. In great cases he
+     scanned his jury, and formed his mental estimate; on this
+     basis he founded his appeals to their predilections and
+     character. It is what other advocates do, in a lesser
+     degree. When he knew that there were conscientious or
+     religious men among the jury, he would most solemnly address
+     himself to their sense of right, and would adroitly bring in
+     scriptural citations. If this handle was not offered, he
+     would lay bare the sensibility of patriotism. Thus it was,
+     when he succeeded in rescuing the man who had deliberately
+     shot down a neighbor; who moreover lay under the odious
+     suspicion of being a Tory, and who was proved to have
+     refused supplies to a brigade of the American army."[430]
+
+Passing now from these general descriptions to particular instances,
+we may properly request Dr. Alexander to remain somewhat longer in the
+witness-stand, and to give us, in detail, some of his own
+recollections of Patrick Henry. His testimony, accordingly, is in
+these words:--
+
+     "From my earliest childhood I had been accustomed to hear of
+     the eloquence of Patrick Henry. On this subject there
+     existed but one opinion in the country. The power of his
+     eloquence was felt equally by the learned and the unlearned.
+     No man who ever heard him speak, on any important occasion,
+     could fail to admit his uncommon power over the minds of his
+     hearers.... Being then a young man, just entering on a
+     profession in which good speaking was very important, it was
+     natural for me to observe the oratory of celebrated men. I
+     was anxious to ascertain the true secret of their power; or
+     what it was which enabled them to sway the minds of hearers,
+     almost at their will.
+
+     "In executing a mission from the synod of Virginia, in the
+     year 1794, I had to pass through the county of Prince
+     Edward, where Mr. Henry then resided. Understanding that he
+     was to appear before the circuit court, which met in that
+     county, in defence of three men charged with murder, I
+     determined to seize the opportunity of observing for myself
+     the eloquence of this extraordinary orator. It was with
+     some difficulty I obtained a seat in front of the bar, where
+     I could have a full view of the speaker, as well as hear him
+     distinctly. But I had to submit to a severe penance in
+     gratifying my curiosity; for the whole day was occupied with
+     the examination of witnesses, in which Mr. Henry was aided
+     by two other lawyers. In person, Mr. Henry was lean rather
+     than fleshy. He was rather above than below the common
+     height, but had a stoop in the shoulders which prevented him
+     from appearing as tall as he really was. In his moments of
+     animation, he had the habit of straightening his frame, and
+     adding to his apparent stature. He wore a brown wig, which
+     exhibited no indication of any great care in the dressing.
+     Over his shoulders he wore a brown camlet cloak. Under this
+     his clothing was black, something the worse for wear. The
+     expression of his countenance was that of solemnity and deep
+     earnestness. His mind appeared to be always absorbed in
+     what, for the time, occupied his attention. His forehead was
+     high and spacious, and the skin of his face more than
+     usually wrinkled for a man of fifty. His eyes were small and
+     deeply set in his head, but were of a bright blue color, and
+     twinkled much in their sockets. In short, Mr. Henry's
+     appearance had nothing very remarkable, as he sat at rest.
+     You might readily have taken him for a common planter, who
+     cared very little about his personal appearance. In his
+     manners he was uniformly respectful and courteous. Candles
+     were brought into the court-house, when the examination of
+     the witnesses closed; and the judges put it to the option of
+     the bar whether they would go on with the argument that
+     night or adjourn until the next day. Paul Carrington,
+     Junior, the attorney for the State, a man of large size,
+     and uncommon dignity of person and manner, and also an
+     accomplished lawyer, professed his willingness to proceed
+     immediately, while the testimony was fresh in the minds of
+     all. Now for the first time I heard Mr. Henry make anything
+     of a speech; and though it was short, it satisfied me of one
+     thing, which I had particularly desired to have decided:
+     namely, whether like a player he merely assumed the
+     appearance of feeling. His manner of addressing the court
+     was profoundly respectful. He would be willing to proceed
+     with the trial, 'but,' said he, 'my heart is so oppressed
+     with the weight of responsibility which rests upon me,
+     having the lives of three fellow citizens depending,
+     probably, on the exertions which I may be able to make in
+     their behalf (here he turned to the prisoners behind him),
+     that I do not feel able to proceed to-night. I hope the
+     court will indulge me, and postpone the trial till the
+     morning.' The impression made by these few words was such as
+     I assure myself no one can ever conceive by seeing them in
+     print. In the countenance, action, and intonation of the
+     speaker, there was expressed such an intensity of feeling,
+     that all my doubts were dispelled; never again did I
+     question whether Henry felt, or only acted a feeling.
+     Indeed, I experienced an instantaneous sympathy with him in
+     the emotions which he expressed; and I have no doubt the
+     same sympathy was felt by every hearer.
+
+     "As a matter of course, the proceedings were deferred till
+     the next morning. I was early at my post; the judges were
+     soon on the bench, and the prisoners at the bar. Mr.
+     Carrington ... opened with a clear and dignified speech, and
+     presented the evidence to the jury. Everything seemed
+     perfectly plain. Two brothers and a brother-in-law met two
+     other persons in pursuit of a slave, supposed to be harbored
+     by the brothers. After some altercation and mutual abuse,
+     one of the brothers, whose name was John Ford, raised a
+     loaded gun which he was carrying, and presenting it at the
+     breast of one of the other pair, shot him dead, in open day.
+     There was no doubt about the fact. Indeed, it was not
+     denied. There had been no other provocation than opprobrious
+     words. It is presumed that the opinion of every juror was
+     made up from merely hearing the testimony; as Tom Harvey,
+     the principal witness, who was acting as constable on the
+     occasion, appeared to be a respectable man. For the clearer
+     understanding of what follows, it must be observed that said
+     constable, in order to distinguish him from another of the
+     name, was commonly called Butterwood Harvey, as he lived on
+     Butterwood Creek. Mr. Henry, it is believed, understanding
+     that the people were on their guard against his faculty of
+     moving the passions and through them influencing the
+     judgment, did not resort to the pathetic as much as was his
+     usual practice in criminal cases. His main object appeared
+     to be, throughout, to cast discredit on the testimony of Tom
+     Harvey. This he attempted by causing the law respecting
+     riots to be read by one of his assistants. It appeared in
+     evidence that Tom Harvey had taken upon him to act as
+     constable, without being in commission; and that with a
+     posse of men he had entered the house of one of the Fords in
+     search of the negro, and had put Mrs. Ford, in her husband's
+     absence, into a great terror, while she was in a very
+     delicate condition, near the time of her confinement. As he
+     descanted on the evidence, he would often turn to Tom
+     Harvey--a large, bold-looking man--and with the most
+     sarcastic look would call him by some name of contempt;
+     'this Butterwood Tom Harvey,' 'this would-be constable,'
+     etc. By such expressions, his contempt for the man was
+     communicated to the hearers. I own I felt it gaining on me,
+     in spite of my better judgment; so that before he was done,
+     the impression was strong on my mind that Butterwood Harvey
+     was undeserving of the smallest credit. This impression,
+     however, I found I could counteract the moment I had time
+     for reflection. The only part of the speech in which he
+     manifested his power of touching the feelings strongly, was
+     where he dwelt on the irruption of the company into Ford's
+     house, in circumstances so perilous to the solitary wife.
+     This appeal to the sensibility of husbands--and he knew that
+     all the jury stood in this relation--was overwhelming. If
+     the verdict could have been rendered immediately after this
+     burst of the pathetic, every man, at least every husband, in
+     the house, would have been for rejecting Harvey's testimony,
+     if not for hanging him forthwith."[431]
+
+A very critical and cool-headed witness respecting Patrick Henry's
+powers as an advocate was Judge Spencer Roane, who presided in one of
+the courts in which the orator was much engaged after his return to
+the bar in 1786:--
+
+     "When I saw him there," writes Judge Roane, "he must
+     necessarily have been very rusty; yet I considered him as a
+     good lawyer.... It was as a criminal lawyer that his
+     eloquence had the finest scope.... He was a perfect master
+     of the passions of his auditory, whether in the tragic or
+     the comic line. The tones of his voice, to say nothing of
+     his matter and gesture, were insinuated into the feelings of
+     his hearers, in a manner that baffled all description. It
+     seemed to operate by mere sympathy, and by his tones alone
+     it seemed to me that he could make you cry or laugh at
+     pleasure. Yet his gesture came powerfully in aid, and, if
+     necessary, would approach almost to the ridiculous.... I
+     will try to give some account of his tragic and comic effect
+     in two instances that came before me. About the year 1792,
+     one Holland killed a young man in Botetourt.... Holland had
+     gone up from Louisa as a schoolmaster, but had turned out
+     badly, and was very unpopular. The killing was in the night,
+     and was generally believed to be murder.... At the instance
+     of the father and for a reasonable fee, Mr. H. undertook to
+     go to Greenbrier court to defend Holland. Mr. Winston and
+     myself were the judges. Such were the prejudices there, as I
+     was afterwards informed by Thomas Madison, that the people
+     there declared that even Patrick Henry need not come to
+     defend Holland, unless he brought a jury with him. On the
+     day of the trial the court-house was crowded, and I did not
+     move from my seat for fourteen hours, and had no wish to do
+     so. The examination took up a great part of the time, and
+     the lawyers were probably exhausted. Breckenridge was
+     eloquent, but Henry left no dry eye in the court-house. The
+     case, I believe, was murder, though, possibly, manslaughter
+     only; and Henry laid hold of this possibility with such
+     effect as to make all forget that Holland had killed the
+     storekeeper, and presented the deplorable case of the jury's
+     killing Holland, an innocent man. He also presented, as it
+     were, at the clerk's table, old Holland and his wife, who
+     were then in Louisa, and asked what must be the feeling of
+     this venerable pair at this awful moment, and what the
+     consequences to them of a mistaken verdict affecting the
+     life of their son. He caused the jury to lose sight of the
+     murder they were then trying, and weep with old Holland and
+     his wife, whom he painted, and perhaps proved to be, very
+     respectable. All this was done in a manner so solemn and
+     touching, and a tone so irresistible, that it was impossible
+     for the stoutest heart not to take sides with the
+     criminal.... The result of the trial was, that, after a
+     retirement of an half or quarter of an hour, the jury
+     brought in a verdict of not guilty! But on being reminded by
+     the court that they might find an inferior degree of
+     homicide, they brought in a verdict of manslaughter.
+
+     "Mr. Henry was equally successful in the comic line.... The
+     case was that a wagoner and the plaintiff were travelling to
+     Richmond, and the wagoner knocked down a turkey and put it
+     into his wagon. Complaint was made to the defendant, a
+     justice; both the parties were taken up; and the wagoner
+     agreed to take a whipping rather than be sent to jail. But
+     the plaintiff refused. The justice, however, gave him, also,
+     a small whipping; and for this the suit was brought. The
+     plaintiff's plea was that he was wholly innocent of the act
+     committed. Mr. H., on the contrary, contended that he was a
+     party aiding and assisting. In the course of his remarks he
+     thus expressed himself: 'But, gentlemen of the jury, this
+     plaintiff tells you that he had nothing to do with the
+     turkey. I dare say, gentlemen,--not until it was roasted!'
+     and he pronounced the word--'roasted'--with such rotundity
+     of voice, and comicalness of manner and gesture, that it
+     threw every one into a fit of laughter at the plaintiff,
+     who stood up in the place usually allotted to the criminals;
+     and the defendant was let off with little or no
+     damages."[432]
+
+Finally, we must recall, in illustration of our present subject, an
+anecdote left on record in 1813, by the Rev. Conrad Speece, highly
+distinguished during his lifetime, in the Presbyterian communion:--
+
+     "Many years ago," he then wrote, "I was at the trial, in one
+     of our district courts, of a man charged with murder. The
+     case was briefly this: the prisoner had gone, in execution
+     of his office as a constable, to arrest a slave who had been
+     guilty of some misconduct, and bring him to justice.
+     Expecting opposition in the business, the constable took
+     several men with him, some of them armed. They found the
+     slave on the plantation of his master, within view of the
+     house, and proceeded to seize and bind him. His mistress,
+     seeing the arrest, came down and remonstrated vehemently
+     against it. Finding her efforts unavailing, she went off to
+     a barn where her husband was, who was presently perceived
+     running briskly to the house. It was known he always kept a
+     loaded rifle over his door. The constable now desired his
+     company to remain where they were, taking care to keep the
+     slave in custody, while he himself would go to the house to
+     prevent mischief. He accordingly ran towards the house. When
+     he arrived within a short distance of it, the master
+     appeared coming out of the door with his rifle in his hand.
+     Some witnesses said that as he came to the door he drew the
+     cock of the piece, and was seen in the act of raising it to
+     the position of firing. But upon these points there was
+     not an entire agreement in the evidence. The constable,
+     standing near a small building in the yard, at this instant
+     fired, and the fire had a fatal effect. No previous malice
+     was proved against him; and his plea upon the trial was,
+     that he had taken the life of his assailant in necessary
+     self-defence.
+
+     "A great mass of testimony was delivered. This was commented
+     upon with considerable ability by the lawyer for the
+     commonwealth, and by another lawyer engaged by the friends
+     of the deceased for the prosecution. The prisoner was also
+     defended, in elaborate speeches, by two respectable
+     advocates. These proceedings brought the day to a close. The
+     general whisper through a crowded house was, that the man
+     was guilty and could not be saved.
+
+     "About dusk, candles were brought, and Henry arose. His
+     manner was ... plain, simple, and entirely unassuming.
+     'Gentlemen of the jury,' said he, 'I dare say we are all
+     very much fatigued with this tedious trial. The prisoner at
+     the bar has been well defended already; but it is my duty to
+     offer you some further observations in behalf of this
+     unfortunate man. I shall aim at brevity. But should I take
+     up more of your time than you expect, I hope you will hear
+     me with patience, when you consider that blood is
+     concerned.'
+
+     "I cannot admit the possibility that any one, who never
+     heard Henry speak, should be made fully to conceive the
+     force of impression which he gave to these few words, 'blood
+     is concerned.' I had been on my feet through the day, pushed
+     about in the crowd, and was excessively weary. I was
+     strongly of opinion, too, notwithstanding all the previous
+     defensive pleadings, that the prisoner was guilty of
+     murder; and I felt anxious to know how the matter would
+     terminate. Yet when Henry had uttered these words, my
+     feelings underwent an instantaneous change. I found
+     everything within me answering,--'Yes, since blood is
+     concerned, in the name of all that is righteous, go on; we
+     will hear you with patience until the rising of to-morrow's
+     sun!' This bowing of the soul must have been universal; for
+     the profoundest silence reigned, as if our very breath had
+     been suspended. The spell of the magician was upon us, and
+     we stood like statues around him. Under the touch of his
+     genius, every particular of the story assumed a new aspect,
+     and his cause became continually more bright and promising.
+     At length he arrived at the fatal act itself: 'You have been
+     told, gentlemen, that the prisoner was bound by every
+     obligation to avoid the supposed necessity of firing, by
+     leaping behind a house near which he stood at that moment.
+     Had he been attacked with a club, or with stones, the
+     argument would have been unanswerable, and I should feel
+     myself compelled to give up the defence in despair. But
+     surely I need not tell you, gentlemen, how wide is the
+     difference between sticks or stones, and double-triggered,
+     loaded rifles cocked at your breast!' The effect of this
+     terrific image, exhibited in this great orator's peerless
+     manner, cannot be described. I dare not attempt to delineate
+     the paroxysm of emotion which it excited in every heart. The
+     result of the whole was, that the prisoner was acquitted;
+     with the perfect approbation, I believe, of the numerous
+     assembly who attended the trial. What was it that gave such
+     transcendent force to the eloquence of Henry? His reasoning
+     powers were good; but they have been equalled, and more than
+     equalled, by those of many other men. His imagination was
+     exceedingly quick, and commanded all the stores of nature,
+     as materials for illustrating his subject. His voice and
+     delivery were inexpressibly happy. But his most irresistible
+     charm was the vivid feeling of his cause, with which he
+     spoke. Such feeling infallibly communicates itself to the
+     breast of the hearer."[433]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[416] Winston, in Wirt, 260.
+
+[417] Ware, Administrator of Jones, Plaintiff in Error, _v._ Hylton
+_et al._, Curtis, _Decisions_, i. 164-229.
+
+[418] Wirt, 316-318.
+
+[419] _Ibid._ 312.
+
+[420] Edward Fontaine, MS.
+
+[421] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 221.
+
+[422] Wirt, 312.
+
+[423] Wirt, 320-321; 368-369.
+
+[424] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 394.
+
+[425] Memorandum of J. W. Bouldin, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 274-275.
+
+[426] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222.
+
+[427] Judge Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[428] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 395.
+
+[429] Wirt, 75-76.
+
+[430] J. W. Alexander, _Life of A. Alexander_, 191-192.
+
+[431] J. W. Alexander, _Life of Archibald Alexander_, 183-187.
+
+[432] MS.
+
+[433] Howe. _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222-223.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+IN RETIREMENT
+
+
+In the year 1794, being then fifty-eight years old, and possessed at
+last of a competent fortune, Patrick Henry withdrew from his
+profession, and resolved to spend in retirement the years that should
+remain to him on earth. Removing from Prince Edward County, he lived
+for a short time at Long Island, in Campbell County; but in 1795 he
+finally established himself in the county of Charlotte, on an estate
+called Red Hill,--an estate which continued to be his home during the
+rest of his life, which gave to him his burial place, and which still
+remains in the possession of his descendants.
+
+The rapidity with which he had thus risen out of pecuniary
+embarrassments was not due alone to the earnings of his profession
+during those few years; for while his eminence as an advocate
+commanded the highest fees, probably, that were then paid in Virginia,
+it is apparent from his account-books that those fees were not at all
+exorbitant, and for a lawyer of his standing would not now be regarded
+as even considerable. The truth is that, subsequently to his youthful
+and futile attempts at business, he had so profited by the experiences
+of his life as to have become a sagacious and an expert man of
+business. "He could buy or sell a horse, or a negro, as well as
+anybody, and was peculiarly a judge of the value and quality of
+lands."[434] It seems to have been chiefly from his investments in
+lands, made by him with foresight and judgment, and from which, for a
+long time, he had reaped only burdens and anxieties, that he derived
+the wealth that secured for him the repose of his last years. The
+charge long afterward made by Jefferson, that Patrick Henry's fortune
+came either from a mean use of his right to pay his land debts in a
+depreciated currency "not worth oak-leaves," or from any connection on
+his part with the profligate and infamous Yazoo speculation, has been
+shown, by ample evidence, to be untrue.[435]
+
+The descriptions which have come down to us of the life led by the old
+statesman in those last five years of retirement make a picture
+pleasant to look upon. The house at Red Hill, which then became his
+home, "is beautifully situated on an elevated ridge, the dividing line
+of Campbell and Charlotte, within a quarter of a mile of the junction
+of Falling River with the Staunton. From it the valley of the Staunton
+stretches southward about three miles, varying from a quarter to
+nearly a mile in width, and of an oval-like form. Through most fertile
+meadows waving in their golden luxuriance, slowly winds the river,
+overhung by mossy foliage, while on all sides gently sloping hills,
+rich in verdure, enclose the whole, and impart to it an air of
+seclusion and repose. From the brow of the hill, west of the house, is
+a scene of an entirely different character: the Blue Ridge, with the
+lofty peaks of Otter, appears in the horizon at a distance of nearly
+sixty miles." Under the trees which shaded his lawn, and "in full view
+of the beautiful valley beneath, the orator was accustomed, in
+pleasant weather, to sit mornings and evenings, with his chair leaning
+against one of their trunks, and a can of cool spring-water by his
+side, from which he took frequent draughts. Occasionally, he walked to
+and fro in the yard from one clump of trees to the other, buried in
+revery, at which times he was never interrupted."[436] "His great
+delight," says one of his sons-in-law, "was in conversation, in the
+society of his friends and family, and in the resources of his own
+mind."[437] Thus beneath his own roof, or under the shadow of his own
+trees, he loved to sit, like a patriarch, with his family and his
+guests gathered affectionately around him, and there, free from
+ceremony as from care, to give himself up to the interchange of
+congenial thought whether grave or playful, and even to the sports of
+the children. "His visitors," writes one of them, "have not
+unfrequently caught him lying on the floor, with a group of these
+little ones climbing over him in every direction, or dancing around
+him with obstreperous mirth, to the tune of his violin, while the only
+contest seemed to be who should make the most noise."[438]
+
+The evidence of contemporaries respecting the sweetness of his spirit
+and his great lovableness in private life is most abundant. One who
+knew him well in his family, and who was also quite willing to be
+critical upon occasion, has said:--
+
+     "With respect to the domestic character of Mr. Henry,
+     nothing could be more amiable. In every relation, as a
+     husband, father, master, and neighbor, he was entirely
+     exemplary. As to the disposition of Mr. Henry, it was the
+     best imaginable. I am positive that I never saw him in a
+     passion, nor apparently even out of temper. Circumstances
+     which would have highly irritated other men had no such
+     visible effect on him. He was always calm and collected; and
+     the rude attacks of his adversaries in debate only whetted
+     the poignancy of his satire.... Shortly after the
+     Constitution was adopted, a series of the most abusive and
+     scurrilous pieces came out against him, under the signature
+     of Decius. They were supposed to be written by John
+     Nicholas, ... with the assistance of other more important
+     men. They assailed Mr. Henry's conduct in the Convention,
+     and slandered his character by various stories hatched up
+     against him. These pieces were extremely hateful to all Mr.
+     Henry's friends, and, indeed, to a great portion of the
+     community. I was at his house in Prince Edward during the
+     thickest of them.... He evinced no feeling on the occasion,
+     and far less condescended to parry the effects on the public
+     mind. It was too puny a contest for him, and he reposed upon
+     the consciousness of his own integrity.... With many sublime
+     virtues, he had no vice that I knew or ever heard of, and
+     scarcely a foible. I have thought, indeed, that he was too
+     much attached to property,--a defect, however, which might
+     be excused when we reflect on the largeness of a beloved
+     family, and the straitened circumstances in which he had
+     been confined during a great part of his life."[439]
+
+Concerning his personal habits, we have, through his grandson, Patrick
+Henry Fontaine, some testimony which has the merit of placing the
+great man somewhat more familiarly before us. "He was," we are told,
+"very abstemious in his diet, and used no wine or alcoholic
+stimulants. Distressed and alarmed at the increase of drunkenness
+after the Revolutionary war, he did everything in his power to arrest
+the vice. He thought that the introduction of a harmless beverage, as
+a substitute for distilled spirits, would be beneficial. To effect
+this object, he ordered from his merchant in Scotland a consignment of
+barley, and a Scotch brewer and his wife to cultivate the grain, and
+make small beer. To render the beverage fashionable and popular, he
+always had it upon his table while he was governor during his last
+term of office; and he continued its use, but drank nothing stronger,
+while he lived."[440]
+
+Though he was always a most loyal Virginian, he became, particularly
+in his later years, very unfriendly to that renowned and consolatory
+herb so long associated with the fame and fortune of his native State.
+
+     "In his old age, the condition of his nervous system made
+     the scent of a tobacco-pipe very disagreeable to him. The
+     old colored house-servants were compelled to hide their
+     pipes, and rid themselves of the scent of tobacco, before
+     they ventured to approach him.... They protested that they
+     had not smoked, or seen a pipe; and he invariably proved the
+     culprit guilty by following the scent, and leading them to
+     the corn-cob pipes hid in some crack or cranny, which he
+     made them take and throw instantly into the kitchen fire,
+     without reforming their habits, or correcting the evil,
+     which is likely to continue as long as tobacco will
+     grow."[441]
+
+Concerning another of his personal habits, during the years thus
+passed in retirement at Red Hill, there is a charming description,
+also derived from the grandson to whom we are indebted for the facts
+just mentioned:--
+
+     "His residence overlooked a large field in the bottom of
+     Staunton River, the most of which could be seen from his
+     yard. He rose early; and in the mornings of the spring,
+     summer, and fall, before sunrise, while the air was cool and
+     calm, reflecting clearly and distinctly the sounds of the
+     lowing herds and singing birds, he stood upon an eminence,
+     and gave orders and directions to his servants at work a
+     half mile distant from him. The strong, musical voices of
+     the negroes responded to him. During this elocutionary
+     morning exercise, his enunciation was clear and distinct
+     enough to be heard over an area which ten thousand people
+     could not have filled; and the tones of his voice were as
+     melodious as the notes of an Alpine horn."[442]
+
+Of course the house-servants and the field-servants just mentioned
+were slaves; and, from the beginning to the end of his life, Patrick
+Henry was a slaveholder. He bought slaves, he sold slaves, and, along
+with the other property--the lands, the houses, the cattle--bequeathed
+by him to his heirs, were numerous human beings of the African race.
+What, then, was the opinion respecting slavery held by this great
+champion of the rights of man? "Is it not amazing"--thus he wrote in
+1773--"that, at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and
+understood with precision, in a country above all others fond of
+liberty, in such an age, we find men, professing a religion the most
+humane, mild, meek, gentle, and generous, adopting a principle as
+repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and
+destructive to liberty?... Would any one believe that I am master of
+slaves of my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general
+inconvenience of living without them. I will not, I cannot, justify
+it; however culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my 'devoir' to
+virtue as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and to
+lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time will come when
+an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil:
+everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if
+not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a
+pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence of slavery. We owe to
+the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that
+law which warrants slavery."[443] After the Revolution, and before the
+adoption of the Constitution, he earnestly advocated, in the Virginia
+House of Delegates, some method of emancipation; and even in the
+Convention of 1788, where he argued against the Constitution on the
+ground that it obviously conferred upon the general government, in an
+emergency, that power of emancipation which, in his opinion, should be
+retained by the States, he still avowed his hostility to slavery, and
+at the same time his inability to see any practicable means of ending
+it: "Slavery is detested: we feel its fatal effects,--we deplore it
+with all the pity of humanity.... As we ought with gratitude to admire
+that decree of Heaven which has numbered us among the free, we ought
+to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow-men in
+bondage. But is it practicable, by any human means, to liberate them
+without producing the most dreadful and ruinous consequences?"[444]
+
+During all the years of his retirement, his great fame drew to him
+many strangers, who came to pay their homage to him, to look upon his
+face, to listen to his words. Such guests were always received by him
+with a cordiality that was unmistakable, and so modest and simple as
+to put them at once at their ease. Of course they desired most of all
+to hear him talk of his own past life, and of the great events in
+which he had borne so brilliant a part; but whenever he was persuaded
+to do so, it was always with the most quiet references to himself. "No
+man," says one who knew him well, "ever vaunted less of his
+achievements than Mr. H. I hardly ever heard him speak of those great
+achievements which form the prominent part of his biography. As for
+boasting, he was entirely a stranger to it, unless it be that, in his
+latter days, he seemed proud of the goodness of his lands, and, I
+believe, wished to be thought wealthy. It is my opinion that he was
+better pleased to be flattered as to his wealth than as to his great
+talents. This I have accounted for by recollecting that he had long
+been under narrow and difficult circumstances as to property, from
+which he was at length happily relieved; whereas there never was a
+time when his talents had not always been conspicuous, though he
+always seemed unconscious of them."[445]
+
+It should not be supposed that, in his final withdrawal from public
+and professional labors, he surrendered himself to the enjoyment of
+domestic happiness, without any positive occupation of the mind. From
+one of his grandsons, who was much with him in those days, the
+tradition is derived that, besides "setting a good example of honesty,
+benevolence, hospitality, and every social virtue," he assisted "in
+the education of his younger children," and especially devoted much
+time "to earnest efforts to establish true Christianity in our
+country."[446] He gave himself more than ever to the study of the
+Bible, as well as of two or three of the great English divines,
+particularly Tillotson, Butler, and Sherlock. The sermons of the
+latter, he declared, had removed "all his doubts of the truth of
+Christianity;" and from a volume which contained them, and which was
+full of his pencilled notes, he was accustomed to read "every Sunday
+evening to his family; after which they all joined in sacred music,
+while he accompanied them on the violin."[447]
+
+There seems to have been no time in his life, after his arrival at
+manhood, when Patrick Henry was not regarded by his private
+acquaintances as a positively religious person. Moreover, while he was
+most tolerant of all forms of religion, and was on peculiarly friendly
+terms with their ministers, to whose preaching he often listened, it
+is inaccurate to say, as Wirt has done, that, though he was a
+Christian, he was so "after a form of his own;" that "he was never
+attached to any particular religious society, and never ... communed
+with any church."[448] On the contrary, from a grandson who spent
+many years in his household comes the tradition that "his parents were
+members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which his uncle,
+Patrick Henry, was a minister;" that "he was baptized and made a
+member of it in early life;" and that "he lived and died an exemplary
+member of it."[449] Furthermore, in 1830, the Rev. Charles Dresser,
+rector of Antrim Parish, Halifax County, Virginia, wrote that the
+widow of Patrick Henry told him that her husband used to receive "the
+communion as often as an opportunity was offered, and on such
+occasions always fasted until after he had communicated, and spent the
+day in the greatest retirement. This he did both while governor and
+afterward."[450] In a letter to one of his daughters, written in 1796,
+he makes this touching confession:--
+
+     "Amongst other strange things said of me, I hear it is said
+     by the deists that I am one of the number; and, indeed, that
+     some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives
+     me much more pain than the appellation of Tory; because I
+     think religion of infinitely higher importance than
+     politics; and I find much cause to reproach myself that I
+     have lived so long, and have given no decided and public
+     proofs of my being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child,
+     this is a character which I prize far above all this world
+     has, or can boast."[451]
+
+While he thus spoke, humbly and sorrowfully, of his religious position
+as a thing so little known to the public that it could be entirely
+misunderstood by a portion of them, it is plain that no one who had
+seen him in the privacy of his life at home could have had any
+misunderstanding upon that subject. For years before his retirement
+from the law, it had been his custom, we are told, to spend "one hour
+every day ... in private devotion. His hour of prayer was the close of
+the day, including sunset; ... and during that sacred hour, none of
+his family intruded upon his privacy."[452]
+
+As regards his religious faith, Patrick Henry, while never
+ostentatious of it, was always ready to avow it, and to defend it. The
+French alliance during our Revolution, and our close intercourse with
+France immediately afterward, hastened among us the introduction of
+certain French writers who were assailants of Christianity, and who
+soon set up among the younger and perhaps brighter men of the country
+the fashion of casting off, as parts of an outworn and pitiful
+superstition, the religious ideas of their childhood, and even the
+morality which had found its strongest sanctions in those ideas. Upon
+all this, Patrick Henry looked with grief and alarm. In his opinion, a
+far deeper, a far wiser and nobler handling of all the immense
+questions involved in the problem of the truth of Christianity was
+furnished by such English writers as Sherlock and Bishop Butler, and,
+for popular use, even Soame Jenyns. Therefore, as French scepticism
+then had among the Virginia lawyers and politicians its diligent
+missionaries, so, with the energy and directness that always
+characterized him, he determined to confront it, if possible, with an
+equal diligence; and he then deliberately made himself, while still a
+Virginia lawyer and politician, a missionary also,--a missionary on
+behalf of rational and enlightened Christian faith. Thus during his
+second term as governor he caused to be printed, on his own account,
+an edition of Soame Jenyns's "View of the Internal Evidence of
+Christianity;" likewise, an edition of Butler's "Analogy;" and
+thenceforward, particularly among the young men of Virginia, assailed
+as they were by the fashionable scepticism, this illustrious
+colporteur was active in the defence of Christianity, not only by his
+own sublime and persuasive arguments, but by the distribution, as the
+fit occasion offered, of one or the other of these two books.
+
+Accordingly when, during the first two years of his retirement, Thomas
+Paine's "Age of Reason" made its appearance, the old statesman was
+moved to write out a somewhat elaborate treatise in defence of the
+truth of Christianity. This treatise it was his purpose to have
+published. "He read the manuscript to his family as he progressed with
+it, and completed it a short time before his death." When it was
+finished, however, being "diffident about his own work," and
+impressed, also, by the great ability of the replies to Paine which
+were then appearing in England, "he directed his wife to destroy" what
+he had written. She "complied literally with his directions," and thus
+put beyond the chance of publication a work which seemed, to some who
+heard it, to be "the most eloquent and unanswerable argument in the
+defence of the Bible which was ever written."[453]
+
+Finally, in his last will and testament, bearing the date of November
+20, 1798, and written throughout, as he says, "with my own hand," he
+chose to insert a touching affirmation of his own deep faith in
+Christianity. After distributing his estate among his descendants, he
+thus concludes: "This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear
+family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them
+rich indeed."[454]
+
+It is not to be imagined that this deep seclusion and these eager
+religious studies implied in Patrick Henry any forgetfulness of the
+political concerns of his own country, or any indifference to those
+mighty events which, during those years, were taking place in Europe,
+and were reacting with tremendous effect upon the thought, the
+emotion, and even the material interests of America. Neither did he
+succeed in thus preserving the retirement which he had resolved upon,
+without having to resist the attempts of both political parties to
+draw him forth again into official life. All these matters, indeed,
+are involved in the story of his political attitude from the close of
+his struggle for amending the Constitution down to the very close of
+his life,--a story which used to be told with angry vituperation on
+one side, perhaps with some meek apologies on the other. Certainly,
+the day for such comment is long past. In the disinterestedness which
+the lapse of time has now made an easy virtue for us, we may see,
+plainly enough, that such ungentle words as "apostate" and "turncoat,"
+with which his name used to be plentifully assaulted, were but the
+missiles of partisan excitement; and that by his act of intellectual
+readjustment with respect to the new conditions forced upon human
+society, on both sides of the Atlantic, by the French Revolution, he
+developed no occasion for apologies, since he therein did nothing that
+was unusual at that time among honest and thoughtful men everywhere,
+and nothing that was inconsistent with the professions or the
+tendencies of his own previous life. It becomes our duty, however, to
+trace this story over again, as concisely as possible, but in the
+light of much historical evidence that has never hitherto been
+presented in connection with it.
+
+Upon the adoption, in 1791, of the first ten amendments to the
+Constitution, every essential objection which he had formerly urged
+against that instrument was satisfied; and there then remained no
+good reason why he should any longer hold himself aloof from the
+cordial support of the new government, especially as directed, first
+by Washington, and afterward by John Adams,--two men with whom, both
+personally and politically, he had always been in great harmony,
+excepting only upon this single matter of the Constitution in its
+original form. Undoubtedly, the contest which he had waged on that
+question had been so hot and so bitter that, even after it was ended,
+some time would be required for his recovery from the soreness of
+spirit, from the tone of suspicion and even of enmity, which it had
+occasioned. Accordingly, in the correspondence and other records of
+the time, we catch some glimpses of him, which show that even after
+Congress had passed the great amendments, and after their approval by
+the States had become a thing assured, he still looked askance at the
+administration, and particularly at some of the financial measures
+proposed by Hamilton.[455] Nevertheless, as year by year went on, and
+as Washington and his associates continued to deal fairly, wisely,
+and, on the whole, successfully, with the enormous problems which they
+encountered; moreover, as Jefferson and Madison gradually drew off
+from Washington, and formed a party in opposition, which seemed to
+connive at the proceedings of Genet, and to encourage the formation
+among us of political clubs in apparent sympathy with the wildest and
+most anarchic doctrines which were then flung into words and into
+deeds in the streets of Paris, it happened that Patrick Henry found
+himself, like Richard Henry Lee, and many another of his companions in
+the old struggle against the Constitution, drawn more and more into
+support of the new government.
+
+In this frame of mind, probably, was he in the spring of 1793, when,
+during the session of the federal court at Richmond, he had frequent
+conversations with Chief Justice Jay and with Judge Iredell. The
+latter, having never before met Henry, had felt great dislike of him
+on account of the alleged violence of his opinions against the
+Constitution; but after making his acquaintance, Iredell thus wrote
+concerning him: "I never was more agreeably disappointed than in my
+acquaintance with him. I have been much in his company; and his
+manners are very pleasing, and his mind, I am persuaded, highly
+liberal. It is a strong additional reason I have, added to many
+others, to hold in high detestation violent party prejudice."[456]
+
+In the following year, General Henry Lee, then governor of Virginia,
+appointed Patrick Henry as a senator of the United States, to fill out
+an unexpired term. This honor he felt compelled to decline.
+
+In the course of the same year, General Lee, finding that Patrick
+Henry, though in virtual sympathy with the administration, was yet
+under the impression that Washington had cast off their old
+friendship, determined to act the part of a peacemaker between them,
+and, if possible, bring together once more two old friends who had
+been parted by political differences that no longer existed. On the
+17th of August, 1794, Lee, at Richmond, thus wrote to the President:--
+
+     "When I saw you in Philadelphia, I had many conversations
+     with you respecting Mr. Henry, and since my return I have
+     talked very freely and confidentially with that gentleman. I
+     plainly perceive that he has credited some information,
+     which he has received (from whom I know not), which induces
+     him to believe that you consider him a factious, seditious
+     character.... Assured in my own mind that his opinions are
+     groundless, I have uniformly combated them, and lament that
+     my endeavors have been unavailing. He seems to be deeply and
+     sorely affected. It is very much to be regretted; for he is
+     a man of positive virtue as well as of transcendent talents;
+     and were it not for his feelings above expressed, I verily
+     believe, he would be found among the most active supporters
+     of your administration. Excuse me for mentioning this matter
+     to you. I have long wished to do it, in the hope that it
+     would lead to a refutation of the sentiments entertained by
+     Mr. Henry."[457]
+
+To this letter Washington sent a reply which expressed unabated regard
+for his old friend; and this reply, having been shown by Lee to Henry,
+drew from him this noble-minded answer:--
+
+     TO GENERAL HENRY LEE.
+
+                                   RED HILL, 27 June, 1795.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Your very friendly communication of so much of
+     the President's letter as relates to me, demands my sincere
+     thanks. Retired as I am from the busy world, it is still
+     grateful to me to know that some portion of regard remains
+     for me amongst my countrymen; especially those of them whose
+     opinions I most value. But the esteem of that personage, who
+     is contemplated in this correspondence, is highly flattering
+     indeed.
+
+     The American Revolution was the grand operation, which
+     seemed to be assigned by the Deity to the men of this age in
+     our country, over and above the common duties of life. I
+     ever prized at a high rate the superior privilege of being
+     one in that chosen age, to which Providence intrusted its
+     favorite work. With this impression, it was impossible for
+     me to resist the impulse I felt to contribute my mite
+     towards accomplishing that event, which in future will give
+     a superior aspect to the men of these times. To the man,
+     especially, who led our armies, will that aspect belong; and
+     it is not in nature for one with my feelings to revere the
+     Revolution, without including him who stood foremost in its
+     establishment.
+
+     Every insinuation that taught me to believe I had forfeited
+     the good-will of that personage, to whom the world had
+     agreed to ascribe the appellation of good and great, must
+     needs give me pain; particularly as he had opportunities of
+     knowing my character both in public and in private life. The
+     intimation now given me, that there was no ground to believe
+     I had incurred his censure, gives very great pleasure.
+
+     Since the adoption of the present Constitution, I have
+     generally moved in a narrow circle. But in that I have never
+     omitted to inculcate a strict adherence to the principles of
+     it. And I have the satisfaction to think, that in no part of
+     the Union have the laws been more pointedly obeyed, than in
+     that where I have resided and spent my time. Projects,
+     indeed, of a contrary tendency have been hinted to me; but
+     the treatment of the projectors has been such as to prevent
+     all intercourse with them for a long time. Although a
+     democrat myself, I like not the late democratic societies.
+     As little do I like their suppression by law. Silly things
+     may amuse for awhile, but in a little time men will perceive
+     their delusions. The way to preserve in men's minds a value
+     for them, is to enact laws against them.
+
+     My present views are to spend my days in privacy. If,
+     however, it shall please God, during my life, so to order
+     the course of events as to render my feeble efforts
+     necessary for the safety of the country, in any, even the
+     smallest degree, that little which I can do shall be done.
+     Whenever you may have an opportunity, I shall be much
+     obliged by your presenting my best respects and duty to the
+     President, assuring him of my gratitude for his favorable
+     sentiments towards me.
+
+     Be assured, my dear sir, of the esteem and regard with which
+     I am yours, etc.,
+
+                                          PATRICK HENRY.[458]
+
+After seeing this letter, Washington took an opportunity to convey to
+Patrick Henry a strong practical proof of his confidence in him, and
+of his cordial friendship. The office of secretary of state having
+become vacant, Washington thus tendered the place to Patrick Henry:--
+
+                                  MOUNT VERNON, 9 October, 1795.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Whatever may be the reception of this letter,
+     truth and candor shall mark its steps. You doubtless know
+     that the office of state is vacant; and no one can be more
+     sensible than yourself of the importance of filling it with
+     a person of abilities, and one in whom the public would have
+     confidence.
+
+     It would be uncandid not to inform you that this office has
+     been offered to others; but it is as true, that it was from
+     a conviction in my own mind that you would not accept it
+     (until Tuesday last, in a conversation with General Lee, he
+     dropped sentiments which made it less doubtful), that it was
+     not offered first to you.
+
+     I need scarcely add, that if this appointment could be made
+     to comport with your own inclination, it would be as
+     pleasing to me, as I believe it would be acceptable to the
+     public. With this assurance, and with this belief, I make
+     you the offer of it. My first wish is that you would accept
+     it; the next is that you would be so good as to give me an
+     answer as soon as you conveniently can, as the public
+     business in that department is now suffering for want of a
+     secretary.[459]
+
+Though Patrick Henry declined this proposal, he declined it for
+reasons that did not shut the door against further overtures of a
+similar kind; for, within the next three months, a vacancy having
+occurred in another great office,--that of chief justice of the
+United States,--Washington again employed the friendly services of
+General Lee, whom he authorized to offer the place to Patrick Henry.
+This was done by Lee in a letter dated December 26, 1795:--
+
+     "The Senate have disagreed to the President's nomination of
+     Mr. Rutledge, and a vacancy in that important office has
+     taken place. For your country's sake, for your friends'
+     sake, for your family's sake, tell me you will obey a call
+     to it. You know my friendship for you; you know my
+     circumspection; and, I trust, you know, too, I would not
+     address you on such a subject without good grounds. Surely
+     no situation better suits you. You continue at home, only
+     [except] when on duty. Change of air and exercise will add
+     to your days. The salary excellent, and the honor very
+     great. Be explicit in your reply."[460]
+
+On the same day on which Lee thus wrote to Henry he likewise wrote to
+Washington, informing him that he had done so; but, for some cause now
+unknown, Washington received no further word from Lee for more than
+two weeks. Accordingly, on the 11th of January, 1796, in his anxiety
+to know what might be Patrick Henry's decision concerning the office
+of chief justice, Washington wrote to Lee as follows:--
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 26th ult. has been
+     received, but nothing from you since,--which is embarrassing
+     in the extreme; for not only the nomination of chief
+     justice, but an associate judge, and secretary of war, is
+     suspended on the answer you were to receive from Mr. Henry;
+     and what renders the want of it more to be regretted is,
+     that the first Monday of next month (which happens on the
+     first day of it) is the term appointed by law for the
+     meeting of the Superior Court of the United States, in this
+     city; at which, for particular reasons, the bench ought to
+     be full. I will add no more at present than that I am your
+     affectionate,
+
+                                         GEO. WASHINGTON.[461]
+
+Although Patrick Henry declined this great compliment also, his
+friendliness to the administration had become so well understood that,
+among the Federal leaders, who in the spring of 1796 were planning for
+the succession to Washington and Adams, there was a strong inclination
+to nominate Patrick Henry for the vice-presidency,--their chief doubt
+being with reference to his willingness to take the nomination.[462]
+
+All these overtures to Patrick Henry were somewhat jealously watched
+by Jefferson, who, indeed, in a letter to Monroe, on the 10th of July,
+1796, interpreted them with that easy recklessness of statement which
+so frequently embellished his private correspondence and his private
+talk. "Most assiduous court," he says of the Federalists, "is paid to
+Patrick Henry. He has been offered everything which they knew he would
+not accept."[463]
+
+A few weeks after Jefferson penned those sneering words, the person
+thus alluded to wrote to his daughter, Mrs. Aylett, concerning certain
+troublesome reports which had reached her:--
+
+     "As to the reports you have heard, of my changing sides in
+     politics, I can only say they are not true. I am too old to
+     exchange my former opinions, which have grown up into fixed
+     habits of thinking. True it is, I have condemned the conduct
+     of our members in Congress, because, in refusing to raise
+     money for the purposes of the British treaty, they, in
+     effect, would have surrendered our country bound, hand and
+     foot, to the power of the British nation.... The treaty is,
+     in my opinion, a very bad one indeed. But what must I think
+     of those men, whom I myself warned of the danger of giving
+     the power of making laws by means of treaty to the President
+     and Senate, when I see these same men denying the existence
+     of that power, which, they insisted in our convention, ought
+     properly to be exercised by the President and Senate, and by
+     none other? The policy of these men, both then and now,
+     appears to me quite void of wisdom and foresight. These
+     sentiments I did mention in conversation in Richmond, and
+     perhaps others which I don't remember.... It seems that
+     every word was watched which I casually dropped, and wrested
+     to answer party views. Who can have been so meanly employed,
+     I know not, neither do I care; for I no longer consider
+     myself as an actor on the stage of public life. It is time
+     for me to retire; and I shall never more appear in a public
+     character, unless some unlooked-for circumstance shall
+     demand from me a transient effort, not inconsistent with
+     private life--in which I have determined to continue."[464]
+
+In the autumn of 1796 the Assembly of Virginia, then under the
+political control of Jefferson, and apparently eager to compete with
+the Federalists for the possession of a great name, elected Patrick
+Henry to the governorship of the State. But the man whose purpose to
+refuse office had been proof against the attractions of the United
+States Senate, and of the highest place in Washington's cabinet, and
+of the highest judicial position in the country, was not likely to
+succumb to the opportunity of being governor of Virginia for the
+sixth time.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[434] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[435] _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 93; 369-370.
+
+[436] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 221.
+
+[437] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[438] Cited in Wirt, 380-381.
+
+[439] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[440] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[441] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[442] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[443] Bancroft, ed. 1869, vi. 416-417.
+
+[444] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 455-456; 590-591.
+
+[445] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[446] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[447] J. W. Alexander, _Life of A. Alexander_, 193; Howe, _Hist. Coll.
+Va._ 221.
+
+[448] Wirt, 402.
+
+[449] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[450] Meade, _Old Churches_, etc. ii. 12.
+
+[451] Wirt, 387.
+
+[452] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[453] Fontaine, MS. Also Meade, _Old Churches_, etc. ii. 12; and Wm.
+Wirt Henry, MS.
+
+[454] MS. Certified copy.
+
+[455] For example, D. Stuart's letter, in _Writings of Washington_, x.
+94-96; also, _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Nov. 3, 1790.
+
+[456] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 394-395.
+
+[457] _Writings of Washington_, x. 560-561.
+
+[458] _Writings of Washington_, x. 562-563.
+
+[459] _Writings of Washington_, xi. 81-82.
+
+[460] MS.
+
+[461] Lee, _Observations_, etc. 116.
+
+[462] Gibbs, _Administration of Washington_, etc. i. 337; see, also,
+Hamilton, _Works_, vi. 114.
+
+[463] Jefferson, _Writings_, iv. 148.
+
+[464] Entire letter in Wirt, 385-387.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+LAST DAYS
+
+
+The intimation given by Patrick Henry to his daughter, in the summer
+of 1796, that, though he could never again engage in a public career,
+he yet might be compelled by "some unlooked-for circumstance" to make
+"a transient effort" for the public safety, was not put to the test
+until nearly three years afterward, when it was verified in the midst
+of those days in which he was suddenly to find surcease of all earthly
+care and pain.
+
+Our story, therefore, now passes hurriedly by the year 1797,--which
+saw the entrance of John Adams into the presidency, the return of
+Monroe from France in great anger at the men who had recalled him, the
+publication of Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, everywhere an increasing
+bitterness and even violence in partisan feeling. In the same manner,
+also, must we pass by the year 1798,--which saw the popular uprising
+against France, the mounting of the black cockade against her, the
+suspension of commercial intercourse with her, the summons to
+Washington to come forth once more and lead the armies of America
+against the enemy; then the moonstruck madness of the Federalists,
+forcing upon the country the naturalization act, the alien acts, the
+sedition act; then the Kentucky resolutions, as written by Jefferson,
+declaring the acts just named to be "not law, but utterly void and of
+no force," and liable, "unless arrested on the threshold," "to drive
+these States into revolution and blood;" then the Virginia
+resolutions, as written by Madison, denouncing the same acts as
+"palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution;" finally, the
+preparations secretly making by the government of Virginia[465] for
+armed resistance to the government of the United States.
+
+Just seven days after the passage of the Virginia resolutions, an
+eminent citizen of that State appealed by letter to Patrick Henry for
+some written expression of his views upon the troubled situation, with
+the immediate object of aiding in the election of John Marshall, who,
+having just before returned from his baffled embassy to Paris, was
+then in nomination for Congress, and was encountering assaults
+directed by every energy and art of the opposition. In response to
+this appeal, Patrick Henry wrote, in the early part of the year 1799,
+the following remarkable letter, which is of deep interest still, not
+only as showing his discernment of the true nature of that crisis, but
+as furnishing a complete answer to the taunt that his mental
+faculties were then fallen into decay:--
+
+     TO ARCHIBALD BLAIR.
+
+                               RED HILL, CHARLOTTE, 8 January, 1799.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 28th of last month I have
+     received. Its contents are a fresh proof that there is cause
+     for much lamentation over the present state of things in
+     Virginia. It is possible that most of the individuals who
+     compose the contending factions are sincere, and act from
+     honest motives. But it is more than probable, that certain
+     leaders meditate a change in government. To effect this, I
+     see no way so practicable as dissolving the confederacy. And
+     I am free to own, that, in my judgment, most of the measures
+     lately pursued by the opposition party, directly and
+     certainly lead to that end. If this is not the system of the
+     party, they have none, and act 'ex tempore.'
+
+     I do acknowledge that I am not capable to form a correct
+     judgment on the present politics of the world. The wide
+     extent to which the present contentions have gone will
+     scarcely permit any observer to see enough in detail to
+     enable him to form anything like a tolerable judgment on the
+     final result, as it may respect the nations in general. But,
+     as to France, I have no doubt in saying that to her it will
+     be calamitous. Her conduct has made it the interest of the
+     great family of mankind to wish the downfall of her present
+     government; because its existence is incompatible with that
+     of all others within its reach. And, whilst I see the
+     dangers that threaten ours from her intrigues and her arms,
+     I am not so much alarmed as at the apprehension of her
+     destroying the great pillars of all government and of social
+     life,--I mean virtue, morality, and religion. This is the
+     armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us
+     invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we
+     lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed. In vain may
+     France show and vaunt her diplomatic skill, and brave
+     troops: so long as our manners and principles remain sound,
+     there is no danger. But believing, as I do, that these are
+     in danger, that infidelity in its broadest sense, under the
+     name of philosophy, is fast spreading, and that, under the
+     patronage of French manners and principles, everything that
+     ought to be dear to man is covertly but successfully
+     assailed, I feel the value of those men amongst us, who hold
+     out to the world the idea, that our continent is to exhibit
+     an originality of character; and that, instead of that
+     imitation and inferiority which the countries of the old
+     world have been in the habit of exacting from the new, we
+     shall maintain that high ground upon which nature has placed
+     us, and that Europe will alike cease to rule us and give us
+     modes of thinking.
+
+     But I must stop short, or else this letter will be all
+     preface. These prefatory remarks, however, I thought proper
+     to make, as they point out the kind of character amongst our
+     countrymen most estimable in my eyes. General Marshall and
+     his colleagues exhibited the American character as
+     respectable. France, in the period of her most triumphant
+     fortune, beheld them as unappalled. Her threats left them,
+     as she found them, mild, temperate, firm. Can it be thought
+     that, with these sentiments, I should utter anything tending
+     to prejudice General Marshall's election? Very far from it
+     indeed. Independently of the high gratification I felt from
+     his public ministry, he ever stood high in my esteem as a
+     private citizen. His temper and disposition were always
+     pleasant, his talents and integrity unquestioned. These
+     things are sufficient to place that gentleman far above any
+     competitor in the district for Congress. But, when you add
+     the particular information and insight which he has gained,
+     and is able to communicate to our public councils, it is
+     really astonishing that even blindness itself should
+     hesitate in the choice.... Tell Marshall I love him, because
+     he felt and acted as a republican, as an American.... I am
+     too old and infirm ever again to undertake public concerns.
+     I live much retired, amidst a multiplicity of blessings from
+     that Gracious Ruler of all things, to whom I owe unceasing
+     acknowledgments for his unmerited goodness to me; and if I
+     was permitted to add to the catalogue one other blessing, it
+     should be, that my countrymen should learn wisdom and
+     virtue, and in this their day to know the things that
+     pertain to their peace. Farewell.
+
+                         I am, dear Sir, yours,
+                                          PATRICK HENRY.[466]
+
+The appeal from Archibald Blair, which evoked this impressive letter,
+had suggested to the old statesman no effort which could not be made
+in his retirement. Before, however, he was to pass beyond the reach of
+all human appeals, two others were to be addressed to him, the one by
+John Adams, the other by Washington, both asking him to come forth
+into the world again; the former calling for his help in averting war
+with France, the latter for his help in averting the triumph of
+violent and dangerous counsels at home.
+
+On the 25th of February, 1799, John Adams, shaking himself free of
+his partisan counsellors,--all hot for war with France,--suddenly
+changed the course of history by sending to the Senate the names of
+these three citizens, Oliver Ellsworth, Patrick Henry, and William
+Vans Murray, "to be envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary
+to the French republic, with full powers to discuss and settle, by a
+treaty, all controversies between the United States and France." In
+his letter of the 16th of April declining the appointment, Patrick
+Henry spoke of himself as having been "confined for several weeks by a
+severe indisposition," and as being "still so sick as to be scarcely
+able to write this." "My advanced age," he added, "and increasing
+debility compel me to abandon every idea of serving my country, where
+the scene of operation is far distant, and her interests call for
+incessant and long continued exertion.... I cannot, however, forbear
+expressing, on this occasion, the high sense I entertain of the honor
+done me by the President and Senate in the appointment. And I beg you,
+sir, to present me to them in terms of the most dutiful regard,
+assuring them that this mark of their confidence in me, at a crisis so
+eventful, is an agreeable and flattering proof of their consideration
+towards me, and that nothing short of an absolute necessity could
+induce me to withhold my little aid from an administration whose
+ability, patriotism, and virtue deserve the gratitude and reverence of
+all their fellow citizens."[467]
+
+Such was John Adams's appeal to Patrick Henry and its result. The
+appeal to him from Washington--an appeal which he could not resist,
+and which induced him, even in his extreme feebleness of body, to make
+one last and noble exertion of his genius--happened in this wise. On
+the 15th of January, 1799, from Mount Vernon, Washington wrote to his
+friend a long letter, marked "confidential," in which he stated with
+great frankness his own anxieties respecting the dangers then
+threatening the country:--
+
+     "It would be a waste of time to attempt to bring to the view
+     of a person of your observation and discernment, the
+     endeavors of a certain party among us to disquiet the public
+     mind with unfounded alarms; to arraign every act of the
+     administration; to set the people at variance with their
+     government; and to embarrass all its measures. Equally
+     useless would it be to predict what must be the inevitable
+     consequences of such a policy, if it cannot be arrested.
+
+     "Unfortunately,--and extremely do I regret it,--the State of
+     Virginia has taken the lead in this opposition.... It has
+     been said that the great mass of the citizens of this State
+     are well-affected, notwithstanding, to the general
+     government and the Union; and I am willing to believe it,
+     nay, do believe it. But how is this to be reconciled with
+     their suffrages at the elections of representatives, ... who
+     are men opposed to the former, and by the tendency of their
+     measures would destroy the latter?... One of the reasons
+     assigned is, that the most respectable and best qualified
+     characters among us will not come forward.... But, at such a
+     crisis as this, when everything dear and valuable to us is
+     assailed; when this party hangs upon the wheels of
+     government as a dead weight, opposing every measure that is
+     calculated for defence and self-preservation, abetting the
+     nefarious views of another nation upon our rights; ... when
+     measures are systematically and pertinaciously pursued,
+     which must eventually dissolve the Union, or produce
+     coercion; I say, when these things have become so obvious,
+     ought characters who are best able to rescue their country
+     from the pending evil, to remain at home? Rather ought they
+     not to come forward, and by their talents and influence
+     stand in the breach which such conduct has made on the peace
+     and happiness of this country, and oppose the widening of
+     it?...
+
+     "I come, now, my good Sir, to the object of my letter, which
+     is to express a hope and an earnest wish, that you will come
+     forward at the ensuing elections (if not for Congress, which
+     you may think would take you too long from home), as a
+     candidate for representative in the General Assembly of this
+     Commonwealth.
+
+     "There are, I have no doubt, very many sensible men who
+     oppose themselves to the torrent that carries away others
+     who had rather swim with, than stem it without an able pilot
+     to conduct them; but these are neither old in legislation,
+     nor well known in the community. Your weight of character
+     and influence in the House of Representatives would be a
+     bulwark against such dangerous sentiments as are delivered
+     there at present. It would be a rallying point for the
+     timid, and an attraction of the wavering. In a word, I
+     conceive it to be of immense importance at this crisis, that
+     you should be there; and I would fain hope that all minor
+     considerations will be made to yield to the measure."[468]
+
+There can be little doubt that it was this solemn invocation on the
+part of Washington which induced the old statesman, on whom Death had
+already begun to lay his icy hands, to come forth from the solitude in
+which he had been so long buried, and offer himself for the suffrages
+of his neighbors, as their representative in the next House of
+Delegates, there to give check, if possible, to the men who seemed to
+be hurrying Virginia upon violent courses, and the republic into civil
+war. Accordingly, before the day for the usual March[469] court in
+Charlotte, the word went out through all that country that old Patrick
+Henry, whose wondrous voice in public no man had heard for those many
+years, who had indeed been almost numbered among the dead ones of
+their heroic days foregone, was to appear before all the people once
+more, and speak to them as in the former time, and give to them his
+counsel amid those thickening dangers which alone could have drawn him
+forth from the very borders of the grave.
+
+When the morning of that day came, from all the region thereabout the
+people began to stream toward the place where the orator was to speak.
+So widespread was the desire to hear him that even the college in the
+next county--the college of Hampden-Sidney--suspended its work for
+that day, and thus enabled all its members, the president himself, the
+professors, and the students, to hurry over to Charlotte court-house.
+One of those students, John Miller, of South Carolina, according to an
+account said to have been given by him in conversation forty years
+afterward, having with his companions reached the town,--
+
+     "and having learned that the great orator would speak in the
+     porch of a tavern fronting the large court-green, ... pushed
+     his way through the gathering crowd, and secured the
+     pedestal of a pillar, where he stood within eight feet of
+     him. He was very infirm, and seated in a chair conversing
+     with some old friends, waiting for the assembling of the
+     immense multitudes who were pouring in from all the
+     surrounding country to hear him. At length he arose with
+     difficulty, and stood somewhat bowed with age and weakness.
+     His face was almost colorless. His countenance was careworn;
+     and when he commenced his exordium, his voice was slightly
+     cracked and tremulous. But in a few moments a wonderful
+     transformation of the whole man occurred, as he warmed with
+     his theme. He stood erect; his eye beamed with a light that
+     was almost supernatural; his features glowed with the hue
+     and fire of youth; and his voice rang clear and melodious
+     with the intonations of some grand musical instrument whose
+     notes filled the area, and fell distinctly and delightfully
+     upon the ears of the most distant of the thousands gathered
+     before him."[470]
+
+As regards the substance of the speech then made, it will not be safe
+for us to confide very much in the supposed recollections of old men
+who heard it when they were young. Upon the whole, probably, the most
+trustworthy outline of it now to be had is that of a gentleman who
+declares that he wrote down his recollections of the speech not long
+after its delivery. According to this account, Patrick Henry--
+
+     "told them that the late proceedings of the Virginian
+     Assembly had filled him with apprehensions and alarm; that
+     they had planted thorns upon his pillow; that they had drawn
+     him from that happy retirement which it had pleased a
+     bountiful Providence to bestow, and in which he had hoped to
+     pass, in quiet, the remainder of his days; that the State
+     had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the
+     Constitution, and, in daring to pronounce upon the validity
+     of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a
+     manner not warranted by any authority, and in the highest
+     degree alarming to every considerate man; that such
+     opposition, on the part of Virginia, to the acts of the
+     general government, must beget their enforcement by military
+     power; that this would probably produce civil war, civil war
+     foreign alliances, and that foreign alliances must
+     necessarily end in subjugation to the powers called in. He
+     conjured the people to pause and consider well, before they
+     rushed into such a desperate condition, from which there
+     could be no retreat. He painted to their imaginations
+     Washington, at the head of a numerous and well-appointed
+     army, inflicting upon them military execution. 'And where,'
+     he asked, 'are our resources to meet such a conflict? Where
+     is the citizen of America who will dare to lift his hand
+     against the father of his country?' A drunken man in the
+     crowd threw up his arm, and exclaimed that he dared to do
+     it. 'No,' answered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his
+     majesty, 'you dare not do it: in such a parricidal attempt,
+     the steel would drop from your nerveless arm!' ... Mr.
+     Henry, proceeding in his address to the people, asked
+     whether the county of Charlotte would have any authority to
+     dispute an obedience to the laws of Virginia; and he
+     pronounced Virginia to be to the Union what the county of
+     Charlotte was to her. Having denied the right of a State to
+     decide upon the constitutionality of federal laws, he added,
+     that perhaps it might be necessary to say something of the
+     merits of the laws in question.[471] His private opinion was
+     that they were good and proper. But whatever might be their
+     merits, it belonged to the people, who held the reins over
+     the head of Congress, and to them alone, to say whether they
+     were acceptable or otherwise to Virginians; and that this
+     must be done by way of petition; that Congress were as much
+     our representatives as the Assembly, and had as good a right
+     to our confidence. He had seen with regret the unlimited
+     power over the purse and sword consigned to the general
+     government; but ... he had been overruled, and it was now
+     necessary to submit to the constitutional exercise of that
+     power. 'If,' said he, 'I am asked what is to be done, when a
+     people feel themselves intolerably oppressed, my answer is
+     ready,--Overturn the government. But do not, I beseech you,
+     carry matters to this length without provocation. Wait at
+     least until some infringement is made upon your rights, and
+     which cannot otherwise be redressed; for if ever you recur
+     to another change, you may bid adieu forever to
+     representative government. You can never exchange the
+     present government but for a monarchy.... Let us preserve
+     our strength for the French, the English, the Germans, or
+     whoever else shall dare to invade our territory, and not
+     exhaust it in civil commotions and intestine wars.' He
+     concluded by declaring his design to exert himself in the
+     endeavor to allay the heart-burnings and jealousies which
+     had been fomented in the state legislature; and he fervently
+     prayed, if he was deemed unworthy to effect it, that it
+     might be reserved to some other and abler hand to extend
+     this blessing over the community."[472]
+
+The outline thus given may be inaccurate in several particulars: it is
+known to be so in one. Respecting the alien and sedition acts, the
+orator expressed no opinion at all;[473] but accepting them as the law
+of the land, he counselled moderation, forbearance, and the use of
+constitutional means of redress. Than that whole effort, as has been
+said by a recent and a sagacious historian, "nothing in his life was
+nobler."[474]
+
+Upon the conclusion of the old man's speech the stand was taken by a
+very young man, John Randolph of Roanoke, who undertook to address the
+crowd, offering himself to them as a candidate for Congress, but on
+behalf of the party then opposed to Patrick Henry. By reason of
+weariness, no doubt, the latter did not remain upon the platform; but
+having "requested a friend to report to him anything which might
+require an answer," he stepped back into the tavern. "Randolph began
+by saying that he had admired that man more than any on whom the sun
+had shone, but that now he was constrained to differ from him '_toto
+coelo_.'" Whatever else Randolph may have said in his speech, whether
+important or otherwise, was spoken under the disadvantage of a cold
+and a hoarseness so severe as to render him scarcely able to "utter an
+audible sentence." Furthermore, Patrick Henry "made no reply, nor did
+he again present himself to the people."[475] There is, however, a
+tradition, not improbable, that when Randolph had finished his speech,
+and had come back into the room where the aged statesman was resting,
+the latter, taking him gently by the hand, said to him, with great
+kindness: "Young man, you call me father. Then, my son, I have
+something to say unto thee: keep justice, keep truth,--and you will
+live to think differently."
+
+As a result of the poll, Patrick Henry was, by a great majority,
+elected to the House of Delegates. But his political enemies, who, for
+sufficient reasons, greatly dreaded his appearance upon that scene of
+his ancient domination, were never any more to be embarrassed by his
+presence there. For, truly, they who, on that March day, at Charlotte
+court-house, had heard Patrick Henry, "had heard an immortal orator
+who would never speak again."[476] He seems to have gone thence to his
+home, and never to have left it. About the middle of the next month,
+being too sick to write many words, he lifted himself up in bed long
+enough to tell the secretary of state that he could not go on the
+mission to France, and to send his dying blessing to his old friend,
+the President. Early in June, his eldest daughter, Martha Fontaine,
+living at a distance of two days' travel from Red Hill, received from
+him a letter beginning with these words: "Dear Patsy, I am very
+unwell, and have Dr. Cabell with me."[477] Upon this alarming news,
+she and others of his kindred in that neighborhood made all haste to
+go to him. On arriving at Red Hill "they found him sitting in a large,
+old-fashioned armchair, in which he was easier than upon a bed." The
+disease of which he was dying was intussusception. On the 6th of June,
+all other remedies having failed, Dr. Cabell proceeded to administer
+to him a dose of liquid mercury. Taking the vial in his hand, and
+looking at it for a moment, the dying man said: "I suppose, doctor,
+this is your last resort?" The doctor replied: "I am sorry to say,
+governor, that it is. Acute inflammation of the intestine has already
+taken place; and unless it is removed, mortification will ensue, if it
+has not already commenced, which I fear." "What will be the effect of
+this medicine?" said the old man. "It will give you immediate relief,
+or"--the kind-hearted doctor could not finish the sentence. His
+patient took up the word: "You mean, doctor, that it will give relief,
+or will prove fatal immediately?" The doctor answered: "You can only
+live a very short time without it, and it may possibly relieve you."
+Then Patrick Henry said, "Excuse me, doctor, for a few minutes;" and
+drawing down over his eyes a silken cap which he usually wore, and
+still holding the vial in his hand, he prayed, in clear words, a
+simple childlike prayer, for his family, for his country, and for his
+own soul then in the presence of death. Afterward, in perfect
+calmness, he swallowed the medicine. Meanwhile, Dr. Cabell, who
+greatly loved him, went out upon the lawn, and in his grief threw
+himself down upon the earth under one of the trees, weeping bitterly.
+Soon, when he had sufficiently mastered himself, the doctor came back
+to his patient, whom he found calmly watching the congealing of the
+blood under his finger-nails, and speaking words of love and peace to
+his family, who were weeping around his chair. Among other things, he
+told them that he was thankful for that goodness of God, which, having
+blessed him through all his life, was then permitting him to die
+without any pain. Finally, fixing his eyes with much tenderness on his
+dear friend, Dr. Cabell, with whom he had formerly held many arguments
+respecting the Christian religion, he asked the doctor to observe how
+great a reality and benefit that religion was to a man about to die.
+And after Patrick Henry had spoken to his beloved physician these few
+words in praise of something which, having never failed him in all his
+life before, did not then fail him in his very last need of it, he
+continued to breathe very softly for some moments; after which they
+who were looking upon him saw that his life had departed.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[465] Henry Adams, _Life of J. Randolph,_ 27-28.
+
+[466] _Writings of Washington_, xi. 557-559.
+
+[467] _Works of John Adams_, ix. 162; viii. 641-642.
+
+[468] _Writings of Washington_, xi. 387-391.
+
+[469] Garland, _Life of John Randolph_, 130.
+
+[470] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[471] The alien and sedition acts.
+
+[472] Wirt, 393-395.
+
+[473] _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 353.
+
+[474] Henry Adams, _John Randolph_, 29.
+
+[475] J. W. Alexander, _Life of A. Alexander_, 188-189. About this
+whole scene have gathered many myths, of which several first appeared
+in a Life of Henry, in the _New Edinb. Encycl._ 1817; were thence
+copied into Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 224-225; and have thence been
+engulfed in that rich mass of unwhipped hyperboles and of unexploded
+fables still patriotically swallowed by the American public as
+American history.
+
+[476] Henry Adams.
+
+[477] Fontaine, MS.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS
+
+CITED IN THIS BOOK, WITH TITLES, PLACES, AND DATES OF THE EDITIONS
+USED.
+
+
+  ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS. (See John Adams.)
+
+  ADAMS, HENRY, The Life of Albert Gallatin. Philadelphia: 1880.
+
+  ADAMS, HENRY, John Randolph. Am. Statesmen Series. Boston: 1882.
+
+  ADAMS, JOHN. (See Novanglus, etc.)
+
+  ADAMS, JOHN, Letters of, Addressed to his Wife. Ed. by Charles
+      Francis Adams. 2 vols. Boston: 1841.
+
+  ADAMS, JOHN, The Works of. Ed. by Charles Francis Adams. 10 vols.
+      Boston: 1856.
+
+  ADAMS, SAMUEL, Life of. (See Wm. V. Wells.)
+
+  ALEXANDER, JAMES W., The Life of Archibald Alexander. New York:
+      1854.
+
+  American Archives. (Peter Force.) 9 vols. Washington: 1837-1853.
+
+  The American Quarterly Review. Vol. i. Philadelphia: 1827.
+
+  BANCROFT, GEORGE, History of the United States. 10 vols. Boston:
+      1870-1874.
+
+  BANCROFT, GEORGE, History of the United States. The Author's Last
+      Revision. 6 vols. New York: 1883-1885.
+
+  BANCROFT, GEORGE, History of the Formation of the Constitution of
+      the United States of America. 2 vols. New York: 1882.
+
+  BLAND, RICHARD, A Letter to the Clergy of Virginia, n. p. 1760.
+
+  BROUGHAM, HENRY, LORD, The Life and Times of, Written by himself. 3
+      vols. New York: 1871.
+
+  BURK, JOHN (DALY), The History of Virginia. 4 vols. Petersburg:
+      1804-1816. Last volume by Skelton Jones and Louis Hue Girardin.
+
+  BYRD, WILLIAM, Byrd Manuscripts. 2 vols. Richmond: 1866.
+
+  Calendar of Virginia State Papers. Vol. ii. Richmond: 1881.
+
+  CAMPBELL, CHARLES, The Bland Papers: Being a Selection from the
+      Manuscripts of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Jr. 2 vols. Petersburg:
+      1840.
+
+  CAMPBELL, CHARLES, History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of
+      Virginia. Philadelphia: 1860.
+
+  Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. Vol. ii.
+      Hartford: 1870.
+
+  Colonel George Rogers Clark's Sketch of his Campaign in the Illinois
+      in 1778-79. Cincinnati: 1869.
+
+  COOKE, JOHN ESTEN, Virginia: A History of the People. (Commonwealth
+      Series.) Boston: 1884.
+
+  COOLEY, THOMAS M. (See Joseph Story.)
+
+  Correspondence of the American Revolution. Edited by Jared Sparks. 4
+      vols. Boston: 1853.
+
+  CURTIS, B. R., Reports of Decisions in the Supreme Court of the
+      United States. Boston: 1855.
+
+  CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR, History of the Origin, Formation, and
+      Adoption of the Constitution of the United States. 2 vols.
+      London and New York: 1854, 1858.
+
+  CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR, Life of Daniel Webster. New York: 1872.
+
+  DE COSTA, B. F. (See William White.)
+
+  DICKINSON, JOHN, The Political Writings of. 2 vols. Wilmington:
+      1801.
+
+  ELLIOT, JONATHAN, The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on
+      the adoption of the Federal Constitution, etc. 5 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1876.
+
+  EVERETT, ALEXANDER H., Life of Patrick Henry. In Sparks's Library of
+      Am. Biography. 2d series, vol. i. Boston: 1844.
+
+  FROTHINGHAM, RICHARD, The Rise of the Republic of the United States.
+      Boston: 1872.
+
+  GALES, JOSEPH, The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the
+      United States. 2 vols. Washington: 1834.
+
+  GALLATIN, ALBERT. (See Henry Adams.)
+
+  GARLAND, HUGH A., The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke. 2 vols. New
+      York: 1860.
+
+  GIBBS, GEORGE, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John
+      Adams, edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott. New York:
+      1846.
+
+  GIRARDIN, LOUIS HUE. (See John Burk.)
+
+  GORDON, WILLIAM, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of
+      the Independence of the United States of America; including an
+      account of the Late War, and of the Thirteen Colonies from their
+      origin to that period. 3 vols. New York: 1789.
+
+  GRIGSBY, HUGH BLAIR, The Virginia Convention of 1776. Richmond:
+      1855.
+
+  HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, Works of. Edited by John C. Hamilton. 7 vols.
+      New York: 1850-1851.
+
+  HANSARD, T. C., The Parliamentary History of England. Vol. xviii.
+      London: 1813.
+
+  HAWKS, FRANCIS L., Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of
+      the United States of America. Vol. i. New York: 1836.
+
+  HENING, WILLIAM WALLER, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of
+      all the Laws of Virginia. 13 vols. Richmond, New York, and
+      Philadelphia: 1819-1823.
+
+  HENRY, PATRICK, Life of. (See Wirt, William, and Everett, Alexander
+      H.)
+
+  HENRY, WILLIAM WIRT, Character and Public Career of Patrick Henry.
+      Pamphlet. Charlotte Court-house, Va.: 1867.
+
+  HENRY, WILLIAM WIRT, Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence, and
+      Speeches. 3 vols. New York: 1891.
+
+  HERRING, JAMES. (See National Portrait Gallery.)
+
+  HILDRETH, RICHARD, The History of the United States of America. 6
+      vols. New York: 1871-1874.
+
+  The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the
+      Antiquities, History, and Biography of America. (Henry B.
+      Dawson.) Vol. ii. 2d series, and vol. ii. 3d series. Morrisania:
+      1867 and 1873.
+
+  HOWE, HENRY, Historical Collections of Virginia. Charleston: 1845.
+
+  HOWISON, ROBERT R., A History of Virginia. Vol. i. Philadelphia:
+      1846. Vol. ii. Richmond, New York, and London: 1848.
+
+  IREDELL, JAMES, Life of. (See McRee, G. J.)
+
+  JAY, WILLIAM, The Life of John Jay. 2 vols. New York: 1833.
+
+  JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Notes on the State of Virginia. Philadelphia:
+      1825.
+
+  JEFFERSON, THOMAS, The Writings of. Ed. by H. A. Washington. 9 vols.
+      New York: 1853-1854.
+
+  JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Life of. (See H. S. Randall.)
+
+  JONES, SKELTON. (See John Burk.)
+
+  Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
+      (From 1777 to 1790.) 3 vols. Richmond: 1827-1828.
+
+  KENNEDY, JOHN P., Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt. 2 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1850.
+
+  LAMB, GENERAL JOHN, Memoir of. (See Leake, Isaac Q.)
+
+  LAMB, MARTHA J. (See Magazine of American History.)
+
+  LEAKE, ISAAC Q., Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb.
+      Albany: 1850.
+
+  LEE, CHARLES CARTER. (See Lee, Henry, Observations, etc.)
+
+  LEE, HENRY, Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, with
+      Particular Reference to the Attack they contain on the Memory of
+      the late Gen. Henry Lee. In a series of Letters. Second ed.,
+      with an Introduction and Notes by Charles Carter Lee.
+      Philadelphia: 1839.
+
+  LEE, RICHARD HENRY. (See Richard Henry Lee, 2d.)
+
+  LEE, RICHARD HENRY, 2d, Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee. 2
+      vols. Philadelphia: 1825.
+
+  LEE, RICHARD HENRY, 2d, Life of Arthur Lee, LL. D. 2 vols. Boston:
+      1829.
+
+  LEONARD, DANIEL. (See Novanglus, etc.)
+
+  LONGACRE, JAMES B. (See National Portrait Gallery.)
+
+  MACKAY, CHARLES, The Founders of the American Republic. Edinburgh
+      and London: 1885.
+
+  MACMASTER, JOHN BACH, History of the People of the United States. 2
+      vols. New York: 1883-1885.
+
+  MCREE, GRIFFITH J., Life and Correspondence of James Iredell. 2
+      vols. New York: 1857-1858.
+
+  MADISON, JAMES, The Papers of. 3 vols. Washington: 1840.
+
+  MADISON, JAMES, Letters and Other Writings of. 4 vols. Philadelphia:
+      1867.
+
+  MADISON, JAMES, Life and Times of. (See William C. Rives.)
+
+  The Magazine of American History, with Notes and Queries. Ed. by
+      Martha J. Lamb. Vol. xi. New York: 1884.
+
+  MAGRUDER, ALLAN B., John Marshall. (Am. Statesmen Series.) Boston:
+      1885.
+
+  MARSHALL, JOHN, The Life of George Washington. 5 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1804-1807.
+
+  MARSHALL, JOHN. (See Magruder, Allan B.)
+
+  MAURY, ANN, Memoirs of a Huguenot Family. New York: 1872.
+
+  MEADE, WILLIAM, Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. 2
+      vols. Philadelphia: 1872.
+
+  The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, Conducted
+      by James B. Longacre and James Herring. 2d vol. Philadelphia,
+      New York, and London: 1835.
+
+  Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, Political Essays Published in
+      the years 1774 and 1775. Boston: 1819.
+
+  PERRY, WILLIAM STEVENS, Historical Collections relating to the
+      American Colonial Church. Vol. i. Virginia. Hartford: 1870.
+
+  PEYTON, J. LEWIS, History of Augusta County, Virginia. Staunton:
+      1882.
+
+  Prior Documents. A Collection of Interesting, Authentic Papers
+      relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and America,
+      Shewing the Causes and Progress of that Misunderstanding from
+      1764 to 1775. (Almon.) London: 1777.
+
+  The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates for the Counties and
+      Corporations in the Colony of Virginia, Held at Richmond Town,
+      in the County of Henrico, on the 20th of March, 1775. Richmond:
+      1816.
+
+  RANDALL, HENRY STEPHENS, The Life of Thomas Jefferson. 3 vols. New
+      York: 1858.
+
+  RANDOLPH, JOHN. (See Adams, Henry, and Garland, Hugh A.)
+
+  REED, WILLIAM B., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed. 2 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1847.
+
+  RIVES, WILLIAM C., History of the Life and Times of James Madison.
+      Boston: Vol. i. 2d ed. 1873. Vol. ii. 1870. Vol. iii. 1868.
+
+  ROWLAND, KATE MASON, The Life of George Mason, Including his
+      Speeches, Public Papers, and Correspondence, with an
+      Introduction by General Fitzhugh Lee. 2 vols. New York: 1892.
+
+  SLAUGHTER, REV. PHILIP, A History of St. Mark's Parish, Culpeper
+      County, Virginia, n. p. 1877.
+
+  SPARKS, JARED. (See Corr. Am. Revolution, and Washington, Writings
+      of.)
+
+  STORY, JOSEPH, Commentaries of the Constitution of the United
+      States. Ed. by Thomas M. Cooley. 2 vols. Boston: 1873.
+
+  TYLER, LYON G., The Letters and Times of the Tylers. 2 vols.
+      Richmond: 1884-1885.
+
+  The Virginia Historical Register and Literary Note-Book. Vol. iii.
+      Richmond: 1850.
+
+  Virginia State Papers, Calendar of. Vol. ii. Richmond: 1881.
+
+  WASHINGTON, GEORGE, The Writings of; Being his Correspondence,
+      Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private;
+      Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts, with a
+      Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations. Edited by Jared
+      Sparks. 12 vols. Boston and New York: 1834-1847.
+
+  WASHINGTON, GEORGE, Life of. (See John Marshall.)
+
+  WASHINGTON, H. A. (See Jefferson, Thomas, Writings of.)
+
+  WEBSTER, DANIEL, Life of. (See Geo. Ticknor Curtis.)
+
+  WELLS, WILLIAM V., The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams. 3
+      vols. Boston: 1865.
+
+  WHITE, WILLIAM, Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
+      United States of America. Ed. by B. F. De Costa. New York: 1880.
+
+  WIRT, WILLIAM, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry.
+      Third ed., corrected by the Author. Philadelphia: 1818.
+
+  WIRT, WILLIAM, Life of. (See Kennedy, John P.)
+
+  WISE, HENRY A., Seven Decades of the Union. Philadelphia: 1872.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Adams, John, on Henry's confession of illiteracy, 12;
+    early recognizes Henry's importance, 88;
+    describes enthusiasm of Virginians over oratory of Henry and Lee, 101;
+    describes social festivities at Philadelphia, 104-106;
+    in Congress asks Duane to explain motion to prepare regulations, 108;
+    describes Henry's first speech, 110;
+    debates method of voting in Congress, 110;
+    gives summary of Henry's speech against Galloway's plan, 116;
+    on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+    forms a high opinion of Henry's abilities, 124;
+    discusses with Henry the probability of war, 125;
+    on Henry's apparent profanity, 126;
+    has brief military aspirations, 154;
+    envious of military glory, 154;
+    on committees in second Continental Congress, 172, 175;
+    as likely as Henry to have been a good fighter, 188;
+    but unlike him in not offering, 188;
+    urged by Henry to advocate French alliance, 199;
+    on importance of Virginia's action in adopting a constitution, 201;
+    advocates a democratic constitution in "Thoughts on Government," 202;
+    praised for it by Henry, 204-206;
+    his complimentary reply, 206;
+    comments on Virginia aristocrats, 207;
+    his friendship with Henry, 397;
+    becomes president, 407;
+    sends French mission, 411, 412;
+    appoints Henry envoy to France, 412;
+    thanked by Henry, 412.
+
+  Adams, Samuel, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    of the second, 173;
+    friendship of Henry for, 206;
+    unfavorable to federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Alexander, Rev. Archibald, of Princeton, analyzes Henry's success
+    as a jury lawyer, 370;
+    gives anecdotes of his success, 371-375.
+
+  Alsop, John, member of second Continental Congress, 173.
+
+  Arnold, Benedict, commands marauding expedition in Virginia, 278.
+
+  Articles of Confederation, their weakness deplored by Henry, 305;
+    plans of Henry and others to strengthen, 305, 306.
+
+  Assembly, General, of Virginia. See Legislature.
+
+  Atherton, Joshua, opposes federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Atkinson, Roger, describes Virginia delegates in Continental Congress,
+    102.
+
+  Aylett, Mrs. Betsy, letter of Henry to, describing his political
+    opinions, in 1796, 405.
+
+
+  Baker, Counsellor, opposes Henry in British debts case, 362.
+
+  Baptists, petition convention for religious liberty, 209;
+    congratulate Henry on his election as governor, 216;
+    his reply, 217.
+
+  Bar of Virginia, examination for, 22-25;
+    its ability, 90;
+    leaders of, 93;
+    opposes, as a rule, the federal Constitution, 319;
+    its eminence and participation in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Barrell, William, entertains delegates to first Continental Congress,
+    at his store, 106.
+
+  Bayard, ----, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Bernard, Sir Francis, describes exciting effect of Virginia Resolves
+    in Boston, 82.
+
+  Bill of Rights, the demand for in the new federal Constitution, 324,
+    325, 326, 331;
+    secured in first ten amendments, 354, 355.
+
+  Blair, Archibald, draws forth Henry's opinions on American foreign
+    policy, 409.
+
+  Blair, John, prominent in Virginia bar, 93;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, 212;
+    tries British debts case, 362.
+
+  Bland, Richard, on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    believes submission inevitable, 67;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    by John Adams, 106;
+    in debate on manner of voting, 112;
+    opposes Henry's motion to arm militia, 137;
+    on committees, 152;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and constitution, 200.
+
+  Bland, Theodoric, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    presents to Congress Virginia's appeal for a new federal convention,
+    354.
+
+  Bland, Theophilus, letter of Tucker to, sneering at Henry, 269.
+
+  Bloodworth, Timothy, of North Carolina, opposes federal Constitution,
+    330.
+
+  Boston Port Bill, its day of going into operation made a public fast
+    day by Virginia Assembly, 97.
+
+  Boyce, Captain, asks Washington, through Henry, for a letter, 301.
+
+  Braxton, Carter, wishes an aristocratic state constitution in Virginia,
+    201;
+    recommends a pamphlet in favor of such a government, 203, 206;
+    condemned by Henry, 204, 206.
+
+  Breckenridge, ----, against Henry in murder trial, 376.
+
+  British debts case, cause for the action, 359, 360;
+    question at issue, did treaty of 1783 override a Virginia sequestration
+    act, 360;
+    the counsel, 360;
+    Henry's preparation for, 361, 362;
+    first trial and Henry's speech, 362-364;
+    intense popular interest, 363;
+    second trial before Chief Justice Jay and Justice Iredell, 364-367;
+    comparison of Henry's and Marshall's pleas, 366;
+    Iredell's opinion, 367.
+
+  Brougham, Lord, third cousin of Patrick Henry, 3;
+    resemblance between the two orators, 3, 4.
+
+  Burgesses, House of. See Legislature of Virginia.
+
+  Burgoyne, John, his campaign and capture, 240.
+
+  Burke, Aedanus, opposed to federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Butler, Bishop Joseph, his "Analogy" Henry's favorite book, 20, 391;
+    an edition printed and distributed by Henry to counteract skepticism,
+    394.
+
+  Byrd, William, of Westover, describes Sarah Syme, Henry's mother, 1, 2.
+
+
+  Cabell, Dr. George, Henry's physician in his last illness, 421, 422.
+
+  Cadwallader, John, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress,
+    105.
+
+  Campbell, Alexander, with Henry in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Carrington, Clement, son of Paul, explains Henry's military defect to
+    be lack of discipline, 187.
+
+  Carrington, Edward, on Henry's desire for disunion in 1788, 317.
+
+  Carrington, Paul, friendly with Henry at time of Virginia Resolutions,
+    74;
+    on committee of convention to frame Constitution, 200.
+
+  Carrington, Paul, Jr., opposes Henry in a murder case, 372, 373.
+
+  Carter, Charles, of Stafford, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Carter, Landon, on committee to prepare remonstrances against Stamp Act,
+    66;
+    deplores to Washington the number of inexperienced men in Virginia
+    convention of 1776, 191;
+    writes to Washington sneering at Henry's military preparations, 222,
+    223.
+
+  Cary, Archibald, on committee of Virginia convention, 152;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft constitution and bill of rights, 200;
+    reports plan to the convention, 210;
+    his reported threat to kill Henry if he should be made dictator, 226;
+    another version, 234.
+
+  Chase, Samuel, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    overwhelmed at first by Lee's and Henry's oratory, 119;
+    later discovers them to be mere men, 119;
+    opposed to federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Chatham, Lord, praises state papers of first Continental Congress, 117;
+    his death, 240.
+
+  Christian, William, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151;
+    with Henry in flight from Tarleton, 281, 282.
+
+  Clapham, Josias, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Clark, George Rogers, sent by Henry to punish Northwestern Indians, 258;
+    success of his expedition described by Henry, 258-260, 263.
+
+  Clergy of Virginia, paid in tobacco by colony, 37;
+    their sufferings from fluctuations in its value, 38;
+    their salaries cut down by Option Laws, 40, 41;
+    apply in vain to governor, 43;
+    appeal to England, 44;
+    bring suits to secure damages, 44.
+    See Parsons' Cause.
+
+  Clinton, George, opposes federal Constitution, 330;
+    his letter answered by Henry, 353.
+
+  Collier, Sir George, commands British fleet which ravages Virginia, 257,
+    264, 267.
+
+  Collins, ----, calls on John Adams, 105.
+
+  Committee of Correspondence, established, 96.
+
+  Committee of Safety, of Virginia, given control of Virginia militia, 177;
+    ignores Henry's nominal command, and keeps him from serving in field,
+    180, 181;
+    causes for its action, 184-187.
+
+  Congress, Continental, called for by Virginia Burgesses, 98;
+    delegates elected to in Virginia, 99;
+    members of described, 101-108;
+    convivialities attending session, 104-106;
+    holds first meeting and plans organization, 107-111;
+    debates method of voting, 108, 111-113;
+    elects a president and secretary, 107, 108;
+    resolves to vote by colonies, 113;
+    appoints committee to state grievances, and others, 113, 114;
+    absence of reports of its action, 114;
+    debates and rejects Galloway's plan of union, 115, 116;
+    discusses non-importation, 117;
+    appoints committees to draft state papers, 117, 118;
+    rejects Lee's draft of address to king, 118;
+    mythical account of proceedings in by Wirt, 119-122;
+    fails, according to Adams, to appreciate dangers of situation, 124;
+    warns people to be prepared for war, 129;
+    selects Washington for commander-in-chief, 152, 153;
+    second Congress convenes in 1775, 166;
+    its proceedings secret and reports meagre, 168, 171-172;
+    question as to Henry's behavior in, 168-170;
+    the important questions decided by it, 170, 171;
+    committees in, 172-175;
+    adjourns, 176;
+    decides to adopt Virginia troops, 181;
+    sends Henry a colonel's commission, 181;
+    urged by Virginia to declare independence, 197;
+    flies from Philadelphia, 230;
+    cabal in against Washington, 242-250;
+    reports of Henry to, concerning sending militia south, 260-262;
+    and concerning Matthews' invasion, 264-266.
+
+  Congress of the United States, reluctantly led by Madison to propose
+    first ten amendments, 354-355.
+
+  Connecticut, prepares for war, 131, 133.
+
+  Constitution of the United States, convention for forming it called, 309;
+    opposition to in South for fear of unfriendly action of Northern
+    States, 309-311;
+    refusal of Henry to attend convention, 310-312;
+    formed by the convention, 313;
+    its adoption urged upon Henry by Washington, 313;
+    struggle over its ratification in Virginia, 314-338;
+    at outset favored by majority in Virginia, 315;
+    campaign of Henry, Mason, and others against, 316, 317;
+    opposed by Virginia bar and bench, 319;
+    struggles in the convention, 320-338;
+    Henry's objections to, 322-330;
+    policy of opposition to work for amendments, 330;
+    ratified by convention with reservation of sovereignty, 331, 332;
+    obedience to it promised by Henry for his party, 332, 333;
+    struggle for amendments, 339-356;
+    difficulties in amending, 339, 340;
+    doubts expressed by Henry of its possibility, 341;
+    organization of a party to agitate for amendments, 341-345;
+    Virginia demands a new convention, 347-350;
+    twelve amendments proposed by Congress, 354;
+    this action probably due to Virginia's demands, 355, 356.
+
+  Constitution of Virginia, its adoption, 200-211;
+    its democratic character, 211.
+
+  Convention of Virginia. See Legislature.
+
+  Conway, General Thomas, praised in anonymous letter to Henry, 244;
+    his cabal against Washington, 250.
+
+  Conway cabal, its origin, 242;
+    attempts to prejudice Henry against Washington, 243-246;
+    explained by Washington to Henry, 248-250;
+    supposed connection of R. H. Lee with, discredits him in Virginia,
+    252, 253.
+
+  Cootes, ----, of James River, laments Henry's treasonable speech in
+    Parsons' Cause, 58, 59.
+
+  Corbin, Francis, favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Corbin, Richard, on Dunmore's order pays for gunpowder, 161.
+
+  Cornwallis, Lord, defeats Greene at Guilford, 278;
+    invades Virginia, 279;
+    sends Tarleton to capture the legislature, 279.
+
+  Cushing, Thomas, member of second Continental Congress, 174.
+
+  Custis, John, informs Henry of Conway cabal, 247.
+
+
+  Dandridge, Bartholomew, on committee to notify Henry of his election as
+    governor, 212.
+
+  Dandridge, Dorothea, second wife of Patrick Henry, 241;
+    on his religious habits, 392.
+
+  Dandridge, Colonel Nathan, Jefferson meets Henry at house of, 8.
+
+  Dandridge, Nathaniel West, contests seat of Littlepage, 61;
+    employs Henry as counsel, 61.
+
+  Davies, William, letter to concerning dictatorship in 1781, 286.
+
+  Dawson, John, assists Henry in debate on ratifying federal Constitution,
+    320.
+
+  Deane, Silas, describes Southern delegates to first Continental Congress,
+    especially Patrick Henry, 114, 115;
+    on committees of second Continental Congress, 173, 174.
+
+  Democratic party, disliked by Henry for its French sympathies, 397;
+    its attempt in Congress to block Jay treaty condemned by Henry, 405;
+    its subserviency to France and defiance of government denounced by
+    Henry, 409.
+
+  Dickinson, John, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105,
+    106;
+    on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+    prepares final draft of address, 118;
+    thinks war inevitable, 130.
+
+  Dictatorship, supposed projects for in Virginia during Revolution in
+    1776, 223-235;
+    in 1781, 285-287;
+    real meaning of term in those years, 227-229.
+
+  Digges, Dudley, in Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and constitution, 200;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, 212.
+
+  Dresser, Rev. Charles, on Henry's religious habits, 392.
+
+  Duane, James, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    moves a committee to prepare regulations for voting, 108;
+    favors Galloway's plan of home rule, 115;
+    on committee of second Continental Congress, 172.
+
+  Dunmore, Lord, dissolves House of Burgesses for protesting against
+    Boston Port Bill, 97;
+    makes a campaign against Indians, 131;
+    reports to home government the military preparations of Virginia, 133;
+    sends force to seize gunpowder, 156;
+    alarmed at advance of Henry's force, 160;
+    offers to pay for gunpowder, 160;
+    issues a proclamation against Henry, 162, 163;
+    suspected of intention to arrest him, 166;
+    describes to General Howe his operations against rebels, 178, 179;
+    his palace occupied by Henry, 214.
+
+
+  Education in Virginia, 5.
+
+  Ellsworth, Oliver, appointed envoy to France, 412.
+
+  Episcopal Church, established in Virginia, 37;
+    its increasing unpopularity, 43, 57;
+    virtually disestablished by declaration of rights, 209;
+    its incorporation proposed by Henry, 294;
+    Henry a member of, 391, 392.
+
+
+  Fauquier, Governor Francis, condemns Henry's speech against the Stamp
+    Act, 86.
+
+  Federalist party, at first viewed with suspicion by Henry, 397;
+    later sympathized with by him, 398, 399;
+    sincerity of its leaders in offering Henry office questioned by
+    Jefferson, 404;
+    its folly in passing alien and sedition acts, 408.
+
+  Fleming, John, Henry's assistant in introducing the Virginia Resolves,
+    69.
+
+  Fontaine, Edward, gives Roane's description of Henry's speech for
+    organizing militia, 146, 150.
+
+  Fontaine, Mrs. Martha, with Henry in last illness, 421.
+
+  Fontaine, Colonel Patrick Henry, statement as to Henry's classical
+    training, 15;
+    finds his examinations rigorous, 16;
+    tells story of his grandfather's conversation in Latin with a French
+    visitor, 16, 17;
+    describes his grandfather's preparation in British debts case, 361;
+    describes his abstemiousness, 386.
+
+  Ford, John, defended by Henry in a murder case, 374, 375.
+
+  France, alliance with desired by Henry as preliminary to declaring
+    independence, 194, 198, 199;
+    discussed by Charles Lee, 195;
+    adherence to, advocated strongly by Henry, 254, 255;
+    infidelity of, combated by Henry, 393;
+    its quarrel with United States during Adams's administration, 407-412;
+    its conduct toward Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry condemned by Henry,
+    409, 410;
+    commission to, nominated by Adams, 412.
+
+  Franklin, Benjamin, on committee with Henry in second Continental
+    Congress, 174, 175.
+
+  Frazer, ----, recommended to Washington by Henry, 175.
+
+  Free trade, advocated by Henry, 291, 292.
+
+  French Revolution, effect of its excesses on Henry and others, 398;
+    its infidelity condemned by Henry, 409.
+
+
+  Gadsden, Christopher, at Continental Congress, meets John Adams, 104,
+    105;
+    a member of Congress, 108;
+    in debate on manner of voting, 112;
+    on gunpowder committee of second Continental Congress, 175.
+
+  Gage, General Thomas, describes the exciting effect of the Virginia
+    Resolves over the continent, 82.
+
+  Gallatin, Albert, his alleged Latin conversation with Henry, 16, 17.
+
+  Galloway, Joseph, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    offers plan of reconciliation with England, 115;
+    its close approach to success, 115.
+
+  Gardoqui, ----, Spanish envoy, negotiates with Jay respecting navigation
+    of the Mississippi, 307, 308.
+
+  Gates, General Horatio, cabal to place him in supreme command, 242, 250;
+    praised in anonymous letter to Henry, 244;
+    consoled after battle of Camden by Virginia Assembly 277.
+
+  Genet, Edmond Charles, upheld by Jefferson and Madison, 397.
+
+  Gerry, Elbridge, opposes adoption of federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Gerrymandering, employed in 1788 against Madison in Virginia, 351, 352.
+
+  Girardin, Louis Hue, in his continuation of Burk's "History of Virginia,"
+    written under Jefferson's supervision, accuses Henry of plan to
+    establish a dictatorship in 1776, 225;
+    says the same for the year 1781, 285.
+
+  Gordon, Rev. William, describes circulation of the Virginia resolutions
+    in the Northern colonies, 80.
+
+  Grayson, William, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    assists Henry in debate, 320;
+    elected senator at Henry's dictation, 350, 353.
+
+  Greene, General Nathanael, beaten at Guilford, 278;
+    considered as possible dictator in 1781, 286.
+
+  Griffin, Judge Cyrus, tries British debts case, 362, 364.
+
+  Grigsby, Hugh Blair, considers Wirt's version of Henry's speech for
+    arming militia apocryphal, 149;
+    but admits that outline is authentic, 150;
+    reports statement of Clement Carrington regarding Henry's military
+    failings, 187;
+    on the injustice of Henry's treatment, 188.
+
+
+  Hamilton, Alexander, urges magnanimous treatment of Tories, 289;
+    letter of Madison to, warning of Henry's intention to defeat operation
+    of Constitution, 344;
+    his financial schemes disapproved by Henry, 397.
+
+  Hamilton, Colonel Henry, governor of Detroit, 259.
+
+  Hampden-Sidney College, 16;
+    suspends work to hear Henry's last speech, 415.
+
+  Hancock, John, his military aspirations, 153, 154;
+    doubtful about federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Hardwicke, Lord, declares Virginia option law invalid, 44.
+
+  Harrison, Benjamin, on committee to remonstrate against Stamp Act, 66;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    described by John Adams, 106;
+    opposes Henry's motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, 137;
+    on committee to arm militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    returns to Virginia convention, 176;
+    his flight from Tarleton, 281, 282;
+    denounces Constitution as dangerous, 319, 322;
+    assists Henry in debate, 320.
+
+  Harvey, "Butterwood Tom," his evidence assailed by Henry in a murder
+    trial, 374, 375.
+
+  Hawley, Joseph, his letter prophesying war read by John Adams to Henry,
+    125.
+
+  Henry, David, manager of "Gentleman's Magazine," kinsman of Henry, 3.
+
+  Henry, John, marries Sarah Syme, 2;
+    father of Patrick Henry, 2;
+    his education and character, 2, 3;
+    distinguished Scotch relatives, 3;
+    educates his son, 6, 13;
+    sets him up in trade, 6;
+    after his failure and marriage establishes him on a farm, 7;
+    hears his son's speech in Parsons' Cause, 49, 50.
+
+  Henry, Patrick, his birth, 2;
+      ancestry and relatives, 2-5;
+      education, 5, 6;
+      apprenticed at fifteen to a tradesman, 6;
+      fails in business with his brother, 6;
+      marries Sarah Skelton, 7;
+      established as planter by relative and fails, 7;
+      again tries store-keeping and fails, 8;
+      not cast down by embarrassments, 8, 9;
+      decides to study law, 9;
+      discussion of his alleged illiteracy, 10-19;
+      his pronunciation, 10, 11;
+      habits of self-depreciation, 11, 12;
+      his teachers, 13, 15;
+      knowledge of Latin and Greek, 13, 15;
+      mastery of language, 13;
+      signs of culture in his letters, 14;
+      anecdotes illustrating his knowledge of Latin, 16, 17;
+      his taste for reading, 18;
+      fondness for history, 19;
+      liking for Butler's "Analogy" and the Bible, 20;
+      his natural qualifications for the law, 21;
+      studies law, 22;
+      goes to Williamsburg to be examined, 22;
+      Jefferson's stories of his difficulties in passing examination, 23;
+      his own statement, 24, 25;
+      returns to Hanover to practice law, 25;
+      lives in his father-in-law's tavern, 26;
+      not a "barkeeper," 26;
+      not dependent on his father-in-law, 27;
+      stories of his lack of practice, 27;
+      their falsity shown by record of his numerous cases, 27, 28;
+      statements by Wirt and Jefferson as to his ignorance, 29, 30;
+      their impossibility, 31, 32, 34;
+      proof of technical character of his practice, 32;
+      his legal genius, 34;
+      becomes celebrated through "Parsons' Cause," 36;
+      undertakes to defend vestrymen in suit for damages, 46;
+      insists on acceptance of a jury of common people, 47;
+      description of his speech by Wirt, 49-52;
+      its overwhelming effect, 51, 52;
+      description by Maury, 53, 54;
+      denies royal authority to annul colonial laws, 54;
+      apologizes to Maury, 55, 57;
+      not really an enemy of the clergy, 56, 57;
+      his geniality, 58;
+      popularity with the masses in Virginia, 59;
+      gains great reputation and increased practice, 60;
+      goes to Williamsburg as counsel in contested election case, 60;
+      despised by committee on account of appearance, 61;
+      his speech, 61.
+    _Member of Virginia Legislature._
+      Elected representative from Louisa County, 62;
+      attacks in his first speech a project for a corrupt loan office, 64;
+      introduces resolutions against Stamp Act, 69;
+      his fiery speeches in their behalf, 72, 73;
+      after their passage leaves for home, 74;
+      neglects to preserve records of his career, 77;
+      the exception his care to record authorship of Virginia resolutions,
+      78;
+      leaves a sealed account together with his will, 83, 84, 85;
+      doubts as to his authorship, 84, note;
+      condemned in Virginia by the officials, 86;
+      denounced by Governor Fauquier, 86;
+      and by Commissary Robinson, 86, 87;
+      begins to be known in other colonies, 88;
+      gains immediate popularity in Virginia, 88, 89;
+      becomes political leader, 90;
+      his large law practice, 91, 92;
+      buys an estate, 91;
+      his great success in admiralty case, 93;
+      succeeds to practice of R. C. Nicholas, 93, 94;
+      evidence of high legal attainments, 94;
+      leads radical party in politics, 95;
+      his great activity, 96;
+      member of Committee of Correspondence, 96;
+      leads deliberations of Burgesses over Boston Port Bill, 98;
+      appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+      member of convention of county delegates, 100.
+    _Member of Continental Congress._
+      His journey to Philadelphia, 100, 101;
+      his oratory heralded by associates, 101;
+      described by Atkinson, 102;
+      speaks in favor of committee to settle method of voting, 110;
+      protests against small colonies having equal vote with large, 111;
+      urges that old constitutions are abolished, 112;
+      wishes proportional representation, excluding slaves, 112;
+      his speech not that of a mere rhetorician, 113, 114;
+      on committee on colonial trade and manufactures, 114;
+      opposes Galloway's plan, 116;
+      expects war, 116;
+      wishes non-intercourse postponed, 117;
+      on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+      his share in its composition, 117, 118;
+      on committee to declare rights of colonies, 118;
+      his practical ability not so extraordinary as his oratory, 119;
+      misrepresented as a mere declaimer, 120;
+      mythical account by Wirt of an impressive speech, 120-121;
+      asserted also to be author of rejected draft of address to the king,
+      122;
+      and to be cast in the shade by more practical men, 122;
+      this passage a slander due to Jefferson, 123;
+      not considered a mere talker by associates, 124;
+      high tribute to his practical ability by John Adams, 124, 125;
+      agrees with Adams that war must come, 125;
+      allusion of his mother to him in 1774, 126;
+      fame of his speech for arming Virginia militia, 128;
+      danger of an overestimate, 129;
+      in Virginia convention offers resolutions to prepare for war, 134;
+      opposed by his political rivals, 137;
+      and by all who dreaded an open rupture, 138, 139;
+      his speech, 140-145;
+      description of Henry's manner by St. George Tucker, 143;
+      by Randall, 146;
+      by John Roane, 146-149;
+      question as to its authenticity, 149-151;
+      chairman of committee for arming militia, 151;
+      also on committees on public lands and on encouragement of
+      manufactures, 151, 152;
+      his possible expectations of a military career, 155;
+      summary of his military beginnings, 155, 156;
+      disgusted at failure of militia to resist Governor Dunmore's
+      seizure of gunpowder, 158;
+      wishes to emphasize situation by defying governor, 158;
+      rallies county militia and marches against him, 159;
+      receives protests from conservatives, 160;
+      reinforced by thousands, 160;
+      secures money compensation for gunpowder, 160;
+      gives receipt for it, 161;
+      offers to protect colonial treasurer, 161;
+      rebuffed by him, 162;
+      denounced in proclamation by Dunmore, 162, 163;
+      condemned by conservatives, 164;
+      thanked and applauded by county conventions, 164-166;
+      returns to Continental Congress, 166;
+      escorted by volunteer guard, 167;
+      said by Jefferson to have been insignificant in Congress, 168, 169;
+      falsity of his assertions, 169, 170;
+      their lack of probability, 171;
+      his activity proved by records of Congress, 172-175;
+      interested in Indian relations, 172;
+      on committees requiring business intelligence, 172, 173;
+      commissioner to treat with Indians, 174;
+      on committee to secure lead and salt, 174;
+      asks Washington to let a Virginian serve in army for sake of
+      acquiring military training, 175;
+      returns to Virginia, 176.
+    _Political Leader in Virginia._
+      Resumes services in Virginia convention, 176;
+      purchases powder for colony, 176;
+      thanked by convention, 176;
+      appointed commander-in-chief of Virginia forces, 177;
+      his authority limited by convention and Committee of Safety, 177;
+      organizes troops, 178;
+      not permitted to lead attack on Dunmore, 180;
+      ignored by nominal subordinates, 180;
+      practically superseded by Colonel Howe of North Carolina, 180;
+      appointed colonel of a Virginia regiment, 181;
+      resigns, 181;
+      indignation of his officers and soldiers, 181-182;
+      persuades soldiers not to mutiny, 183;
+      again receives an address from officers of his own and other
+      regiments, 183, 184;
+      his military ability doubted by Committee of Safety, 185;
+      by Washington and others, 186;
+      lack of definiteness in criticisms, 186;
+      real defect seems to have been lack of discipline, 187;
+      never given a real chance to show his abilities, 188;
+      saddened by wife's death, 189;
+      reëlected to Virginia convention, 190;
+      his followers oppose Pendleton for president, 191;
+      serves on all important committees, 192, 193;
+      presents numerous reports, 193;
+      eager for independence, 193;
+      but wishes first a colonial union and a foreign alliance, 194;
+      letter of Charles Lee to, on the subject, 194-196;
+      influences convention to instruct delegates to advocate all three
+      things, 197;
+      advocates colonial union and French alliance in letters to Lee and
+      Adams, 198;
+      willing to offer free trade, 199;
+      on committee to draft declaration of rights and plan of government,
+      200;
+      leads party advocating a democratic constitution, 201;
+      complains of lack of assistance, 203;
+      fears aristocratic tendencies of committee, 203, 204-206;
+      thanks John Adams for his pamphlet, 205;
+      hearty letter of Adams in reply, 206, 207;
+      writes fifteenth and sixteenth articles of Virginia bill of rights,
+      208;
+      elected governor of State, 211;
+      his letter of acceptance, 212-213;
+      takes oath of office and occupies Dunmore's palace, 214;
+      congratulated by his old troops, 214, 215;
+      by Charles Lee, 215;
+      by the Baptists of Virginia, 216, 217;
+      his reply to the latter, 217;
+      suffers from illness, 218;
+      moves family from Hanover to Williamsburg, 219;
+      seeks to maintain dignity of office, 219, 220;
+      continues in ill-health but resumes duties of office, 220;
+      receives letter from Washington advising preparations for defense,
+      221;
+      his activity in military preparations, 222;
+      sneered at by his enemies, 222, 223;
+      alleged by Jefferson to have planned a "dictatorship," 223-225;
+      doubted by Wirt, 226;
+      real meaning of the term at that time only extraordinary power,
+      227-229;
+      authorized by legislature in 1776 to exercise military powers in
+      emergency, 231, 232;
+      utter baselessness of Jefferson's charges against, 233;
+      has continued confidence of Assembly, 234;
+      reëlected governor, 234;
+      issues proclamation urging Virginians to volunteer, 235;
+      labors to keep Virginia troops in field, 236;
+      sends a secret messenger to Washington for exact information, 236;
+      explains to Washington the difficulties of raising troops in
+      Virginia, 237, 238;
+      second letter accepting governorship, 239;
+      marries Dorothea Dandridge, 241;
+      his labors in trying to furnish supplies, 241;
+      great official correspondence, 241, 242;
+      his aid desired by Conway cabal, 243;
+      receives an anonymous letter against Washington, 243-245;
+      sends it to Washington with a warning, 245, 246;
+      sends second letter assuring him of his confidence, 247;
+      replies of Washington to, 248-250;
+      his strong friendship with Washington, 251, 252;
+      its significance in his later career, 251;
+      warns R. H. Lee of prejudices against him in Virginia, 252, 253;
+      despairs of public spirit in Virginia, 254;
+      urges adherence to French alliance and rejection of North's peace
+      offers, 255;
+      twice receives extraordinary powers in 1777, 256;
+      reëlected to a third term, 256; his reply, 256;
+      reports the success of George R. Clark's expedition, 258-260;
+      again receives extraordinary powers, 260;
+      writes to president of Congress concerning military situation,
+      260-262;
+      foresees shifting of British attack to Virginia, 262;
+      reports situation to Washington, 263;
+      reports Matthews's raid to Congress, 264-267;
+      issues a proclamation to warn State, 266;
+      declines reëlection on ground of unconstitutionality, 268;
+      complimented by General Assembly, his reply, 268;
+      his administration sneered at by Tucker, 269;
+      complimented by Washington, 269, 270;
+      declines election to Congress, 271;
+      retires to his estate, Leatherwood, 272;
+      remains in retirement a year, 272;
+      writes despondent letter to Jefferson, 273-275;
+      chosen to General Assembly, 275;
+      at once assumes leadership, 275;
+      overwhelmed by committee work, 276;
+      again in later session, 276-278;
+      introduces resolutions to console Gates after Camden, 277;
+      introduces resolution authorizing governor to convene legislature
+      elsewhere in case of invasion, 278;
+      his flight with legislature from Tarleton's raid, 281;
+      ludicrous anecdotes of popular surprise at his flight, 282-284;
+      said by Jefferson to have been again considered for a dictatorship,
+      285;
+      contrary evidence, 286, 287;
+      his further labors in sessions of 1782, 1783, 1784, 287;
+      again elected governor, 288;
+      difficulty of estimating his labors in legislature, 288;
+      favors rescinding of measures against Tories after war, 289;
+      his speech in their behalf, 290, 291;
+      urges economic benefits of their return, 291;
+      presents bill repealing acts against British goods, 292;
+      advocates free trade, 292;
+      wishes to solve Indian problem by encouraging intermarriage, 292,
+      293;
+      almost succeeds in carrying bill to that effect, 293;
+      antagonizes popular opinion in the foregoing projects, and also in
+      religious liberality, 294;
+      his amazing mastery over the House, 294, 295;
+      his appearance in legislature described by Roane, 295-297;
+      more practical than Madison, 296;
+      superior to Madison and Lee in debate, 296;
+      death of his mother, 299;
+      brings his family from Leatherwood to Salisbury, 299;
+      his showy style of living, 300;
+      letter to Washington, 301;
+      urges him to accept shares in James and Potomac navigation companies,
+      302;
+      declines a third term and retires, 302;
+      publicly thanked by delegates, 302;
+      resumes practice of law in Prince Edward County, 303;
+      returns to Assembly until 1790, 303;
+      continues popular leader, 303.
+    _Opponent of the Federal Constitution._
+      His relation to the Constitution not understood, 298;
+      not an extreme advocate of state rights, 303;
+      an early advocate of a central authority, 304;
+      supports in the main the policy of strengthening the federal
+      government, 305;
+      proposes to Madison to "invigorate" the government, 305;
+      considered by Madison a "champion of the federal cause" until 1787,
+      306;
+      learns of Jay's offer to surrender navigation of Mississippi, 307;
+      elected a delegate to the federal convention, 309;
+      refuses, because of the Mississippi scheme, to attend, 310, 311;
+      anxiety over his refusal, 311, 312;
+      receives appeal from Washington in behalf of Constitution, 313;
+      replies stating his disapproval, 313;
+      fears expressed that he would prevent calling of a state convention,
+      314;
+      but considers one necessary, 315;
+      labors to turn public opinion against the Constitution, 315, 316;
+      said to favor disunion, 317;
+      his political methods censured by President Smith, 317;
+      leads opposition to Constitution in the convention, 320;
+      his great activity in debate, 321;
+      great ability of his arguments, 321;
+      not, in the convention at least, a disunionist, 322, 323;
+      willing to admit defects in Confederation, 323;
+      objects that a new Constitution was beyond powers of federal
+      convention, 324;
+      further holds that state sovereignty is threatened, 324;
+      objects that the individual is protected by no bill of rights, 325,
+      326;
+      dreads implied powers, 327;
+      criticises the proposed government, 327;
+      considers the executive dangerous, 328, 329;
+      fears danger to popular liberties, 329;
+      wishes to submit matter to a new convention, 330;
+      failing that, wishes it postponed until a bill of rights be added,
+      331;
+      foreseeing defeat, he promises submission to majority, 332;
+      effectiveness of his eloquence, 333, 334;
+      his unwillingness to debate regularly, 334;
+      provokes Randolph into accusing him of unparliamentary behavior, 335;
+      taunted by Stephen and others as a mere declaimer, 335;
+      the variety and effectiveness of his arguments, 335, 336;
+      episode of his speech in the thunder-storm, 336-338;
+      fears amendments cannot be adopted, 341;
+      begins a campaign for them, 341, 342;
+      urges formation of societies to agitate for a bill of rights, 342,
+      343;
+      suspected by Madison of purpose to revoke ratification or block
+      action of Congress, 343, 344;
+      satisfaction produced by his announcement of submission, 344;
+      enters with zeal into plan for a second convention, 345;
+      gains complete control of Virginia Assembly, 346;
+      causes passage of resolutions asking Congress to call a national
+      convention, 346;
+      threatens to fight government unless amendments are adopted, 347;
+      condemned bitterly by Federalists, 347;
+      wishes to control Virginia delegation to Congress, 350;
+      prevents choice of Madison and dictates election of R. H. Lee and
+      Grayson as senators, 350;
+      his followers gerrymander the congressional districts, 351;
+      retires from the legislature, 352;
+      bitter comments on his action, 353;
+      fails to prevent election of Madison, 354;
+      probable effect of his action in leading Congress itself to propose
+      amendments, 355;
+      virtual success of his policy, 355, 356.
+    _In Retirement._
+      Resumes practice of law, 357;
+      driven to it by debt, 357, 358;
+      prematurely old at fifty, 358;
+      in eight years succeeds in gaining wealth enough to retire, 358;
+      great demand for his services, 359;
+      his part in the British debts case, 359-367;
+      associated with Marshall, Campbell, and Innes, 360;
+      his laborious preparations for the trial, 361;
+      masters subject completely, 362;
+      description of his plea before the district court, 363;
+      description of his second plea in same case, 1793, 364-366;
+      complimented by Justice Iredell for ability of argument, 366, 367;
+      his even greater effectiveness in criminal cases, 367;
+      analysis by Wirt of his methods, 368;
+      another description of his eloquence by A. Alexander, 369-371;
+      description by Alexander of his part in a murder case, 371-375;
+      another murder case described by Roane, 375-378;
+      also his ability in the comic line, 377;
+      description of his powers in another murder trial by Conrad Speece,
+      378-381;
+      retires permanently in 1794, 382;
+      lives at Long Island, and eventually settles at Red Hill, 382;
+      his successful investments, 383;
+      not rich through dishonorable means as suggested by Jefferson, 383;
+      his life at Red Hill, 384-395;
+      happy relations with his family, 384;
+      calmness of temper, 385;
+      unruffled by scurrilous attacks, 385, 386;
+      his advocacy of temperance, 386;
+      tries to introduce a substitute for wine, 386;
+      his dislike of tobacco, 387;
+      his elocutionary manner of directing negroes in the morning, 387;
+      his ownership of slaves and dislike of slavery, 388;
+      advocates emancipation, 389;
+      his hospitality, 389;
+      his modesty, 390;
+      tendency to plume himself on wealth, 390;
+      assists in education of children, 391;
+      his enjoyment of religious writings and sacred music, 391;
+      his religious character and habits, 391;
+      a member of the Episcopal Church, 392;
+      his anger at being called an infidel, 392;
+      alarmed at French skepticism, 393;
+      causes Butler's "Analogy" and other books to be distributed, 394;
+      writes a reply to Paine's "Age of Reason," but causes it to be
+      destroyed, 394, 395;
+      inserts an affirmation of his faith in his will, 395;
+      continues to take interest in current events, 395;
+      satisfied with the Constitution after the ten amendments, 396;
+      but finds it hard to approve at once the Federalist government, 397;
+      dislikes Hamilton's financial measures, 397;
+      gradually drawn toward Federalists and away from Jeffersonians, 398;
+      testimony of Iredell to his liberality, 398;
+      declines appointment as United States senator, 398;
+      believes that Washington considers him an enemy, 399;
+      reconciled to Washington by Henry Lee, 399;
+      his letter to Lee, 400, 401;
+      dislikes democratic societies, 401;
+      offered position as secretary of state, 402;
+      declines it, 402;
+      receives from Washington through Lee an offer of chief justiceship,
+      402, 403;
+      Washington's anxiety for his acceptance, 403;
+      declines it, 404; considered by Federalists for vice-presidency, 404;
+      sneered at by Jefferson, 404;
+      denies that he has changed opinions, 405;
+      dislikes Jay treaty, but condemns attempt of House to participate in
+      treaty power, 405;
+      elected governor of Virginia, declines, 406;
+      asked to express his opinion on political situation in 1799, 408;
+      believes that Jefferson's party plans disunion, 409;
+      alarmed at French Revolution, 409;
+      especially at infidelity, 410;
+      compliments Marshall's bearing in France, and wishes his election to
+      Congress, 410, 411;
+      urges American national feeling, 410;
+      declines Adams's nomination as minister to France, 412;
+      but expresses his sympathy with him, 412;
+      appealed to by Washington to come forward against the Democrats, 413,
+      414;
+      comes out from retirement as candidate for legislature, 415;
+      great public interest, 415;
+      description of his last speech, 416-419;
+      dissuades from resistance to the government, 417;
+      denies the power of a State to decide on federal laws, 418;
+      urges harmony and use of constitutional means of redress, 418, 419;
+      his meeting with John Randolph, 420;
+      elected by a great majority, 420;
+      returns home, 421;
+      his last illness and death, 421-423.
+    _Characteristics._
+      Absence of self-consciousness, 77;
+      abstemiousness, 386, 387;
+      audacity, 64, 69, 294;
+      business inefficiency, 6, 7, 8, 388;
+      early fondness for the woods, 5, 29, 30;
+      education, 6, 10, 13-17, 122;
+      eloquence, 48-52, 61, 64, 72, 93, 98, 115, 128, 140-151, 159, 295,
+      297, 333-338, 363, 365, 368-381, 418;
+      friendships, 251, 252, 273, 399;
+      geniality and kindliness, 57, 58, 117, 220, 277, 332, 385, 398,
+      399-401;
+      high spirits, 8, 9, 18, 76;
+      honor, 245, 251;
+      indolence in youth, 5, 6, 29;
+      influence with the people, 59, 60, 88, 89, 102, 160, 164-167,
+      181-184, 282-284, 316, 346, 415, 420;
+      keenness and quickness, 21, 33, 34;
+      legal ability, 24, 25, 29, 33, 92, 93, 94, 359-381;
+      military ability, 155, 185-188;
+      modesty, 212, 239;
+      not a mere declaimer, 98, 113, 119-125, 169, 321;
+      personal appearance, 220, 296, 300, 364, 416;
+      political sense, 109, 110, 117, 124, 125, 158, 195, 245, 258,
+      289-291;
+      practical ability, 30, 172-175, 192-193, 241, 242, 260-270, 275;
+      reading habits, 18, 19, 391;
+      religious views, 20, 56, 126, 208, 218, 389-395, 422, 423;
+      rusticity in early life, 10, 61;
+      self-depreciation, 11, 12;
+      simplicity of manners, 220, 379, 384;
+      unfriendly views of, 222, 269, 396.
+      See Jefferson, Thomas.
+    _Political Opinions._
+      Amendments to the Constitution, 340-349, 355;
+      bill of rights, 327;
+      church establishment, 53, 208-210;
+      colonial union, 116, 193-199;
+      Democratic party, 409;
+      democracy, 201, 204;
+      disunion, 317, 323, 409;
+      executive power, 328, 329;
+      federal Constitution, 313, 323-331, 405, 418;
+      French alliance, 193-199, 254, 255;
+      French Revolution, 409;
+      free trade, 291, 292;
+      gerrymandering, 351;
+      independence of colonies, 193 ff.;
+      Indians, 172, 173, 258, 292, 293;
+      Jay treaty, 405;
+      Mississippi navigation, 309-311;
+      necessity for central authority, 304-306, 322;
+      not connected with plan for a dictatorship, 224-229, 233, 234,
+      286, 287;
+      nullification, 417, 418;
+      power of crown to annul a colonial law, 53;
+      power of Parliament over colonies, 69-71, 95;
+      resistance to England, 125, 140-145;
+      slavery, 388, 389;
+      state rights, 323 ff.;
+      theory that colonies are dissolved by revolution, 111, 112;
+      Tories, 289-291;
+      treaty power, 405;
+      Virginia state Constitution, 201-206.
+
+  Henry, Rev. Patrick, uncle of Patrick Henry, helps in his education, 6;
+    a good classical scholar, 13, 15;
+    persuaded by Henry not to be present at Parsons' Cause, 57.
+
+  Henry, William, elder brother of Patrick Henry, becomes his partner in
+    trade, 6.
+
+  Henry, William Wirt, on difficulty of reconciling Jefferson's statements
+    regarding Henry's ignorance of law with his large practice, 33;
+    on baselessness of Jefferson's dictatorship story, 233.
+
+  Herkimer, his defeat by St. Leger, 240.
+
+  Holland, ----, defended by Henry on charge of murder, 376, 377.
+
+  Holt, James, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Hopkins, Stephen, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105;
+    a member, 108;
+    in second Continental Congress, 175.
+
+  Howe, General Robert, commands North Carolina and Virginia troops and
+    ignores Henry, 180.
+
+  Howe, General Sir William, letter of Dunmore to, describing military
+    operations in Virginia, 178;
+    his sluggishness in 1777, 236;
+    his movements in that year, 240, 241;
+    his capture of Philadelphia, 243.
+
+
+  Independence, brought unavoidably before country in 1776, 190, 193;
+    sentiment in Virginia convention in favor of, 193;
+    its postponement wished by Henry until a colonial union and foreign
+    alliances be formed, 194;
+    letter of Charles Lee urging its immediate declaration, 194.
+
+  Indians, troubles with in Virginia in 1774, 126, 131;
+    negotiations with in Continental Congress, 171, 172, 173, 174;
+    in Virginia convention, 192;
+    expedition of G. R. Clark against, 258-260, 263;
+    dealings with Southwestern Indians, 263;
+    proposals of Henry to encourage intermarriage with, 292, 293.
+
+  Innes, James, receives a speech of Henry to his constituents from
+    Rev. J. B. Smith, 317;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    with Henry in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Iredell, Judge James, tries British debts case, 364;
+    describes eagerness to hear Henry, 364;
+    effect of Henry's oratory upon, 365;
+    compliments him in opinion, 366;
+    won over from dislike of Henry by his moderation and liberality, 398.
+
+
+  Jay, John, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    opposes Henry's proposal to frame a new Constitution, 112;
+    favors Galloway's plan of reconciliation, 115;
+    as likely as Henry to be a good fighter, 188;
+    but inferior to him in not offering, 188;
+    proposes to Congress to surrender navigation of Mississippi, 307;
+    as chief justice, tries British debts case, 364;
+    points out Henry to Iredell as the "greatest of orators," 364;
+    affected by Henry's oratory, 365;
+    converses with him on politics, 398.
+
+  Jay treaty, condemned by Henry, 405.
+
+  Jefferson, Thomas, meets Patrick Henry, 8;
+    describes his hilarity, 9;
+    his vulgar pronunciation, 10;
+    calls him illiterate, 12;
+    yet admits his mastery over language, 13;
+    at Williamsburg when Henry comes for his bar examination, 22;
+    his stories of Henry's examination, 23;
+    says Henry was a barkeeper, 26;
+    describes him as ignorant of the law and inefficient, 29, 30;
+    comparison of his legal business with Henry's, 31;
+    baselessness of his imputations, 32, 33;
+    describes Henry's maiden speech in legislature against "loan office,"
+    64;
+    present at debate over Virginia resolutions, 73, 74;
+    his conflicting statements for and against Henry's authorship of the
+    resolves, 84, note;
+    describes Henry's attainment to leadership, 88;
+    prominent member of bar, 93;
+    declines offer of practice of R. C. Nicholas, 94;
+    asserts that Henry was totally ignorant of law, 94;
+    with radical group in politics, 95;
+    furnishes Wirt with statements of Henry's insignificance in Congress,
+    123;
+    induces Wirt not to mention his name, 123;
+    admits Henry's leadership in Virginia, 139;
+    on committee for arming militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    says that Henry committed the first overt act of war in Virginia, 155;
+    says Henry was a silent member of second Continental Congress and glad
+    to leave, 168, 169;
+    errors of fact in his statement, 169, 170;
+    appears as delegate to second Continental Congress, 173;
+    returns to Virginia convention, 176;
+    favors a democratic Constitution, 202;
+    describes plan to establish a dictatorship in Virginia, 224;
+    intimates that Henry was the proposed tyrant, 225;
+    induces Girardin to state fact in "History of Virginia," 225;
+    furnishes the story to Wirt, 226;
+    unhistorical character of his narrative, 227-229;
+    himself the recipient as governor of extraordinary powers from
+    legislature, 228;
+    probably invents the whole story, 233;
+    makes no opposition to subsequent reëlections of Henry, 235;
+    his later dislike of Henry, 251;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his second reëlection as governor, 256;
+    elected governor, 268;
+    fears of Tucker as to his energy, 269;
+    continues on friendly terms with Henry while governor, 273;
+    despondent letter of Henry to, on political decay, 273-275;
+    reëlected, 276;
+    his flight from Tarleton, 285;
+    his story of second plan to make Henry dictator, 285;
+    unhistorical character of the story, 285-287;
+    his statement flatly contradicted by Edmund Randolph, 286;
+    told by Madison of Henry's desire to strengthen central government,
+    305;
+    and of Virginian opposition to abandoning Mississippi navigation,
+    307, 308, 311;
+    informed by Madison of opposition to Constitution in Virginia, 315,
+    316, 345;
+    not in Virginia ratifying Convention, 319;
+    opposes new constitution, 319;
+    thinks it dangerous to liberty, 330;
+    letter from Madison to, explaining his defeat for senator, 351;
+    charges Henry with paying debts in worthless paper, and with
+    connection with the Yazoo scheme, 383;
+    forms opposition party to Washington, 397;
+    sneers at Federalist advances to Henry, 404;
+    secures his election as governor of Virginia, 406;
+    his letter to Mazzei published, 407;
+    writes Kentucky resolutions, 408.
+
+  Jenyns, Soame, his "View of the Internal Evidence of Christianity,"
+    printed by Henry for private distribution, 394.
+
+  Johnson, Thomas, on committee of Continental Congress to prepare address
+    to the king, 117;
+    opposes Pendleton for president of Virginia convention, 191.
+
+  Johnston, George, aids Henry in introducing Virginia Resolves, 69, 72;
+    said by Jefferson to have written them, 84, note.
+
+  Johnstone, Governor George, his membership of North's peace commission
+    a surprise to Henry, 255.
+
+  Jones, Allen, confers with Henry over weakness of Confederation, 305,
+    306.
+
+  Jones, William, plaintiff in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Jouette, Captain John, warns Virginia legislature of Tarleton's
+    approach, 280, 281.
+
+
+  Kentucky resolutions written by Jefferson, 408.
+
+  King, address to the, in Continental Congress, 117, 118;
+    its authorship wrongly accredited to Henry, 118, 122.
+
+  Kirkland, Rev. Samuel, urged by Continental Congress to secure
+    neutrality of the Six Nations, 174.
+
+
+  Lamb, General John, letter from Henry to, on Virginia opposition to
+    Constitution, 342.
+
+  Langdon, John, on gunpowder and salt committee of the second Continental
+    Congress, 175.
+
+  Lear, Tobias, describes Henry's control of Virginia politics in 1788,
+    353.
+
+  Lee, Arthur, letter of Marshall to, 311.
+
+  Lee, General Charles, describes military preparations of colonies in
+    1774, and predicts war, 130, 131;
+    envied by Adams on his departure to command colonial army, 154;
+    appointed by Congress major-general, 172;
+    special difficulties of his situation, 173;
+    tells Washington that Virginia is ready for independence, 193;
+    eager for independence, 194;
+    urges its immediate declaration upon Henry, 194-196;
+    congratulates Henry on his election as governor, 215;
+    ridicules popular fondness for titles, 215, 216;
+    praised in anonymous letter to Henry, 244.
+
+  Lee, Henry, in Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and state Constitution, 200;
+    on committee to notify Henry of election as governor, 212;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    appoints Henry United States senator in 1794, 398;
+    determines to reconcile Washington and Henry, 398;
+    describes Henry's friendly attitude to Washington, 399;
+    acts as successful intermediary, 399-403;
+    offers to Henry, in behalf of Washington, the office of chief justice,
+    403.
+
+  Lee, Richard Henry, on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    leader of radicals in politics, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    praised by Virginia delegates as the Cicero of the age, 101;
+    meets John Adams and is praised by him, 106;
+    in debate over manner of voting, 112;
+    on committee to prepare address to king, 117;
+    author of draft rejected by Congress, 118;
+    on committee of Virginia convention for organizing militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    in second Continental Congress, 173;
+    letter of Pendleton to, describing military situation in Virginia, 178;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    urged by Henry to promote French alliance, 198;
+    favors a democratic constitution, 202;
+    appealed to for aid by Henry, 204;
+    supposed to have been won by Conway cabal, 243, 253;
+    loses popularity in Virginia, 252;
+    barely succeeds in reëlection to Congress, 253;
+    consoled by Henry, 253;
+    warned of decay of public spirit in Virginia, 254;
+    Henry's only rival in leadership of General Assembly, 275;
+    compared with Henry by S. Roane, 295-296;
+    opposes a strong central government, 305;
+    not a member of Virginia ratifying convention, 319;
+    opposes ratification of Constitution, 320;
+    his election as senator dictated by Henry, 350, 353;
+    turns from Jefferson to support of Washington, 398.
+
+  Lee, Thomas Ludwell, suggested as messenger by Henry, 205.
+
+  Legislature of Virginia, first appearance of Henry before Burgesses in
+    election case, 61;
+    corruption of speaker in, 63;
+    motion for a "loan office" in, defeated by Henry, 64;
+    protests against proposed Stamp Act, 65;
+    doubts among members as to course after its passage, 66-68;
+    deliberates on Stamp Act, 68;
+    introduction of Henry's resolutions, 69;
+    opposition of old leaders, 69, 71;
+    debate in, 71-74;
+    passes, then amends resolutions, 74, 75;
+    deplores Boston Port Bill, 97;
+    dissolved by Governor Dunmore, 97;
+    its members call for a Continental Congress, 98;
+    recommend a colonial convention, 99;
+    which meets, 99;
+    appoints delegates to first Continental Congress, 99, 100;
+    adjourns, 100;
+    second convention meets, 134;
+    its determination to prepare for war, 135;
+    causes for objections to Henry's resolutions to arm militia, 136-139;
+    adopts his resolutions to arm militia, and prepares for war, 151, 152;
+    return of Virginia congressional delegates to, 176;
+    thanks them, 176;
+    appoints Henry commander-in-chief with limited powers, 177;
+    meets at Williamsburg, 190;
+    its able membership, 190;
+    struggle for presidency between Pendleton's and Henry's factions, 191;
+    committees and business transacted by, 192, 193;
+    sentiment in, said to favor independence, 193;
+    instructs delegates to Congress to propose independence, foreign
+    alliance, and a confederation, 197;
+    appoints committee to draw up state Constitution and bill of rights,
+    200;
+    aristocratic and democratic parties in, 201-207;
+    adopts declaration of rights, 207-210;
+    establishes religious liberty, 208, 209;
+    adopts state Constitution, 210;
+    its democratic form, 210, 211;
+    elects Henry governor, 211;
+    General Assembly holds first session, 220;
+    said to have planned to make Henry dictator, 223, 224, 226;
+    confers extraordinary powers on Governors Henry and Jefferson, 228,
+    231, 233;
+    adjourns, 232;
+    no trace of a plot in, as described by Jefferson, 233-235;
+    reëlects Henry governor, 238, 239;
+    its sessions during 1777 and 1778, 241;
+    elects delegates to Congress, 253;
+    again confers extraordinary powers on Henry, 256;
+    and reëlects him governor, 256;
+    again confers on Henry extraordinary powers, 260;
+    desires to reëlect Henry for fourth term, 267;
+    on his refusal, elects Jefferson, 268;
+    passes resolutions complimenting Henry, 268;
+    elects Henry delegate to Congress, 271;
+    led by Henry in 1780 and afterwards, 275;
+    work done by it, 275-278;
+    reëlects Jefferson, 276;
+    fears approach of Cornwallis, 278, 279;
+    its flight from Tarleton, 280-284;
+    reassembles at Staunton, 284, 285;
+    elects Thomas Nelson governor, 285;
+    again said to have planned to make Henry dictator, 285;
+    contrary evidence, 286, 287;
+    subsequent sessions of, 287-288;
+    its scanty reports, 288;
+    mastery of Henry over, 294-297;
+    passes bill to prevent speculation in soldiers' certificates, 295;
+    again elects Henry governor, 298;
+    offers Washington shares in canal companies, 300;
+    publicly thanks Henry on his retirement from governorship, 302;
+    passes resolutions condemning proposed surrender of Mississippi
+    navigation, 308;
+    chooses Henry delegate to constitutional convention, 309;
+    feared that it will refuse to submit Constitution to a ratifying
+    convention, 314;
+    summons a state convention, 316;
+    dominated by Henry, 346;
+    asks Congress to call a second convention, 346, 347-350;
+    elects R. H. Lee and Grayson senators at Henry's dictation, and
+    rejects Madison, 350, 351;
+    gerrymanders the State in hopes of defeating Federalists, 351;
+    unable to assemble a quorum during Henry's speech in British debts
+    case, 362, 364;
+    controlled by Jefferson, 406;
+    elects Henry governor for sixth time in 1796, 406;
+    passes resolutions condemning alien and sedition laws, 408;
+    Henry asked by Washington to become a candidate for, 414;
+    he presents himself, 415;
+    action of Assembly deplored by him, 417;
+    its action called unconstitutional, 417, 418.
+
+  Leonard, Daniel, describes the effect of the Virginia Resolves in New
+    England, 82, 83.
+
+  Lewis, Andrew, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151.
+
+  Lewis, William, his remark to Henry on the flight of the legislature
+    from Tarleton, 283.
+
+  Lincoln, Benjamin, informed by Washington of Henry's submission to the
+    Constitution, 344.
+
+  Littlepage, James, his seat in Virginia legislature contested by
+    Dandridge, 61.
+
+  Livingston, Philip, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    of the second, 172, 173;
+    as likely as Henry to have proved a good fighter, but, unlike him,
+    never offered, 188.
+
+  Livingston, William, member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Lowndes, Rawlins, opposes federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Lynch, Thomas, meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 104, 105;
+    praised by him, 105;
+    nominates Peyton Randolph for president, 107;
+    also Charles Thomson as secretary, 107;
+    debates question of manner of voting, 112;
+    member of second Continental Congress, 172.
+
+  Lyons, ----, in Parsons' Cause with Henry, 49, 53;
+    cries "treason" against his speech, 54.
+
+
+  Madison, James, doubts Henry's authorship of Virginia Resolves, 84, note;
+    member of Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, 200;
+    his slight influence, 204;
+    introduces bill to check speculation in soldiers' certificates, 295;
+    describes Henry's eloquent support of the measure, 295;
+    less practical than Henry, 296;
+    inferior to him in debate, 296;
+    confers with Henry and finds him zealous for strengthening federal
+    government, 305, 306;
+    predicts intense opposition in South to treaty abandoning Mississippi
+    navigation, 308;
+    warns Washington of Henry's change of mind on matter of strengthening
+    the Confederation, 310;
+    informed by Randolph of Henry's refusal to attend convention, 310;
+    comments on his reasons, 311, 312;
+    informs Jefferson and Randolph of Henry's opposition to the
+    Constitution, 315, 316;
+    accuses Henry of wishing disunion, 317;
+    letter of J. B. Smith to, condemning Henry's methods, 317;
+    describes elements of opposition to Constitution, 319;
+    the principal champion of ratification, 320;
+    his power in debate, 333;
+    suspects Henry of intention to destroy effect of Constitution, 343,
+    344;
+    Washington's letters to on same subject, 346;
+    defeated for senator through Henry's influence, 351;
+    his defeat for representative attempted by gerrymandering, 351, 353;
+    elected nevertheless, 354;
+    leads House to consider constitutional amendments, 354, 355;
+    probably led by fear of Henry's opposition, 355;
+    forms opposition party to Washington, 397;
+    writes Virginia resolutions, 408.
+
+  Madison, Thomas, on Henry's defense of Holland for murder, 376.
+
+  Marshall, John, on Henry's determination to have Mississippi navigation
+    for the South, 311;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    with Henry in British debts case, 360;
+    his argument not legally superior to Henry's, 366;
+    commended for his conduct in France as a candidate for Congress by
+    Henry, 410, 411.
+
+  Martin, Luther, opposes federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Maryland, its convention recommends organization of militia, 132;
+    its resolutions justifying this action imitated elsewhere, 133.
+
+  Mason, George, leader of radicals in Virginia, 95;
+    his high opinion of Henry's abilities, 98;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, 200, 204;
+    favors a democratic government, 202;
+    author of first fourteen articles of bill of rights, 208;
+    a devout Episcopalian, 210;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, 212;
+    opposes ratification of Constitution, 315, 316, 320;
+    chief assistant of Henry in debate, 320;
+    agrees to act as chairman of Virginia republican society, 342.
+
+  Mason, Thompson, prominent member of Virginia bar, 93;
+    surpassed by Henry in admiralty case, 93.
+
+  Massachusetts, calls for Stamp Act Congress, 80, 81;
+    enthusiasm in for Virginia resolutions, 81, 82;
+    prepares for war, 134.
+
+  Matthews, General Edward, commands British raid into Virginia, 257,
+    264, 267.
+
+  Maury, Rev. James, wins his case for damages after annulling of option
+    law, 45;
+    describes Henry's speech in Parsons' Cause, 52-55.
+
+  Mazzei, Philip, publication of Jefferson's letter to, 407.
+
+  McIntosh, General Lachan, commander in the Northwest in 1779, 263.
+
+  McKean, Thomas, member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Meade, Rt. Rev. William, explains Henry's apology to Maury, 57.
+
+  Mercer, James, prominent member of Virginia bar, 93;
+    on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Meredith, Samuel, Henry's brother-in-law, describes character of
+    Henry's mother, 299.
+
+  Middleton, Henry, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress,
+    105, 106;
+    a member of it, 108.
+
+  Mifflin, Thomas, entertains delegates to first Continental Congress,
+    104, 105, 106, 107;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    accompanies Washington to Boston as aide-de-camp, 154;
+    his connection with the Conway cabal, 247, 250.
+
+  Miller, John, describes Henry's last speech, 416.
+
+  Mississippi, navigation of, its abandonment proposed by Jay in
+    Congress, 307;
+    violent opposition aroused in South to its surrender, 308, 309;
+    Henry's desire to retain it makes him fear a closer union with
+    Northern States, 310, 311.
+
+  Moffett, Colonel George, flight of legislature from Tarleton to his
+    farm, 284.
+
+  Monroe, James, tells Henry of Jay's proposal to abandon Mississippi
+    navigation, 307;
+    says Northern States plan to dismember the union, 307;
+    opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    helps Henry in debate, 320;
+    letter of Jefferson to on Henry, 404;
+    recalled from France, 407.
+
+  Murray, William Vans, appointed envoy to France, 412.
+
+
+  Nelson, Hugh, remark of Henry to, 19.
+
+  Nelson, Thomas, offers resolution in Virginia convention, instructing
+    delegates to propose independence, 197;
+    conveys resolutions to Congress, 198;
+    defeated for governor by Henry in 1776, 211;
+    succeeds Jefferson as governor, 285;
+    opposes ratification of Constitution, 319.
+
+  New England, effect of Virginia resolutions in, 80, 82, 88.
+
+  Newenham, Sir Edward, sends presents to Washington, 301.
+
+  New Jersey, Assembly of, disapproves of Stamp Act Congress, 81.
+
+  Newton, Thomas, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  New York, Virginia Resolves brought to, 80, 82;
+    ratifies the Constitution conditionally, 345;
+    sends circular letter proposing call for a second convention, 345;
+    its effect in Virginia, 345.
+
+  Nicholas, George, favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Nicholas, John, supposed author of scurrilous attacks on Henry, 385.
+
+  Nicholas, Robert Carter, one of Henry's legal examiners, 23;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    prominent in Virginia bar, 93;
+    on retiring leaves his practice to Henry, 94;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    opposes Henry's motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, 137;
+    on committee to arm militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    declines as treasurer Henry's offer of protection, 162;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, 200;
+    favors aristocratic government, 201;
+    alleged to have made motion to appoint a dictator, 286.
+
+  North, Lord, sends peace commissioners after Burgoyne's surrender,
+    241, 254;
+    protested against by Henry, 255;
+    their failure and departure, 257.
+
+
+  Oswald, Eleazer, carries proposed constitutional amendments from Henry
+    to New York, 342, 343.
+
+
+  Page, John, describes Henry's vulgar pronunciation, 10, 11;
+    a radical in politics, 95;
+    receives a vote for governor in 1776, 211.
+
+  Page, Mann, a radical leader in Virginia, 95;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to frame bill of rights and a constitution, 200.
+
+  Paine, Thomas, his "Age of Reason" moves Henry to write a reply, 374.
+
+  Parsons' Cause, 36-55;
+    establishment of church in Virginia, 37;
+    payment of clergy, 37, 38;
+    legislation to enforce payment by vestry, 39;
+    option laws to prevent clergy profiting by high price, 40, 41;
+    royal veto, 44;
+    suits brought by clergy for damages, 44, 45;
+    suit of Maury against Fredericksville parish, 45-55;
+    selection of an unfair jury, 46, 47;
+    illegal verdict, 48;
+    Henry's speech and its effect, 48-52;
+    comments of Maury, 53-55;
+    excitement produced by, 58, 60;
+    reported to England, 86.
+
+  Pendleton, Edmund, his pronunciation an example of dialect, 11;
+    said by Jefferson to have been one of Henry's bar examiners, 23;
+    on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    believes submission necessary, 67;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    prominent at Virginia bar, 93;
+    surpassed by Henry in admiralty case, 93;
+    leader of conservative party, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    his journey with Henry and Washington, 101;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    in debate on manner of voting, 112;
+    opposes Henry's motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, 137;
+    on committee for arming militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    returns from Congress to Virginia convention, 176;
+    thanked by Virginia, 176;
+    at head of Virginia Committee of Safety, describes situation to
+    R. H. Lee, 178;
+    explains his objections to Henry's serving in field, 185;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    opposed for president by Henry's friends, 191;
+    drafts resolution instructing delegates in Congress to propose
+    independence, 197;
+    favors aristocratic government, 201;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Pennsylvania, prepares to resist England by force, 133.
+
+  Phillips, General William, commands British force invading Virginia, 278.
+
+  Powell, ----, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Providence, R. I., people of, approve Virginia Resolutions, 82.
+
+
+  Raleigh Tavern, meeting-place of Burgesses after dissolution of
+    Assembly, 98.
+
+  Randall, Henry Stephens, describes at third hand Henry's speech for
+    organizing militia, 146.
+
+  Randolph, Edmund, gives a version of Henry's warning to George III.,
+    73, note;
+    says the Virginia Resolves were written by William Fleming, 84, note;
+    in Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    testimony as to authorship of Virginia resolution favoring
+    independence, 197;
+    on committee to frame Constitution, 200;
+    says Henry drafted two articles of bill of rights, 208;
+    calls Washington a dictator in 1781, 229;
+    denies Jefferson's story of a Virginia dictatorship in 1781, 287;
+    informs Madison of Henry's refusal to go to constitutional convention,
+    310;
+    receives Madison's reply, 312;
+    correspondence with Madison relative to Virginia opposition to
+    ratification of Constitution, 316;
+    refuses to sign Constitution and publishes objections, 319;
+    supports it in the convention, 320;
+    twitted by Henry, turns on him fiercely, 334, 335.
+
+  Randolph, John, his part in Henry's bar examination, 23-26;
+    leader of bar in Virginia, 43.
+
+  Randolph, John, of Roanoke, describes Henry's appearance in British
+    debts case, 364, 365;
+    answers Henry's last speech, 419;
+    Henry's parting advice to, 420.
+
+  Randolph, Peyton, attorney-general, his part in Henry's bar
+    examination, 23;
+    on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    counsels submission, 67;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    his anger at their passage, 74;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 106;
+    chosen to preside, 107;
+    assures Virginia troops that gunpowder affair will be satisfactorily
+    settled, 157.
+
+  Read, George, member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Reed, Joseph, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 106;
+    doubts Henry's ability to command in the field, 186.
+
+  Religious liberty in Virginia, asserted in sixteenth article of
+    declaration of rights written by Henry, 208;
+    hitherto limited, 209;
+    petition of Baptists for, 209;
+    proposals of Henry involving, 294.
+
+  Revolution, war of, predicted by Henry, 116, 125;
+    by Hawley and John Adams, 125;
+    by Dickinson, Charles Lee, 130;
+    prepared for by Connecticut, 131, 133;
+    by Rhode Island, 132;
+    by Maryland, 132;
+    and other colonies, 133, 134;
+    by Virginia, 133-152;
+    considered inevitable by Henry, 138;
+    events of in 1776, 221;
+    in 1777, 235, 236;
+    in 1777 and 1778, 240, 241, 257.
+
+  Rhoades, Samuel, at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Riddick, Lemuel, on committee of Virginia convention for arming
+    militia, 151.
+
+  Roane, John, describes in detail Henry's delivery of the speech for
+    arming militia, 146-149;
+    said to have verified Wirt's version, 150.
+
+  Roane, Spencer, on Henry's pronunciation, 11;
+    meets Henry and R. H. Lee in Virginia Assembly, 295;
+    considers Henry more practical than Madison, less selfish than Lee,
+    296;
+    describes his superiority to Madison in debate, 296;
+    contrasts him with Lee, 296;
+    describes his manner, 296, 297;
+    describes Henry's manner of living as governor, 300;
+    gives anecdotes illustrating Henry's power as a criminal lawyer,
+    375-378.
+
+  Robertson, David, reports Henry's speeches in Virginia ratifying
+    convention, 321.
+
+  Robertson, William, of Edinburgh University, kinsman of Patrick Henry, 3.
+
+  Robertson, Rev. William, uncle of Patrick Henry, 3.
+
+  Robinson, John, speaker of House of Burgesses and treasurer of Virginia,
+    63;
+    attempt to conceal his defalcation by a "loan office," 63;
+    prevented by Henry, 64, 65.
+
+  Robinson, Rev. William, condemns Henry's behavior in Parsons' Cause, 86;
+    and describes his speech against the Stamp Act, 87.
+
+  Rodney, Cćsar, a member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    of second, 175.
+
+  Rush, Dr. Benjamin, said by Washington to be author of anonymous letter
+    to Henry, 249, 250.
+
+  Rutledge, Edward, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105,
+    106;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    praises Galloway's plan of reconciliation, 115.
+
+  Rutledge, John, meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 106;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    debates question of manner of voting, 112;
+    on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+    at second Continental Congress, 173;
+    as governor of South Carolina receives extraordinary powers, 228;
+    nomination for chief justice rejected by Senate, 403.
+
+
+  Schuyler, General Philip, his departure from Philadelphia as general
+    envied by John Adams, 154;
+    on committee of second Continental Congress, 172.
+
+  Shelton, Sarah, marries Patrick Henry, 7;
+    her death, 189.
+
+  Sherlock, Bishop Thomas, his sermons favorite reading of Henry, 391, 394.
+
+  Sherman, Roger, a member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Shippen, William, entertains delegates to Continental Congress, 106.
+
+  Slavery, opinions of Henry concerning, 388-389.
+
+  Simcoe, John Graves, a dashing partisan fighter, 188.
+
+  Smith, Rev. John Blair, condemns Henry's agitation against ratifying
+    the Constitution, 317.
+
+  Smith, Meriwether, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Smith, Rev. William, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Spain, alliance with, desired by Henry in 1776, 194;
+    offers commercial privileges in return for abandonment of Mississippi
+    navigation, 307.
+
+  Speece, Rev. Conrad, describes Henry's eloquence in a murder trial,
+    378-381.
+
+  Spotswood, Alexander, grandfather of Henry's second wife, 241.
+
+  Sprout, Rev. ----, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Stamp Act, protested against by Virginia Assembly, 65;
+    discussion whether to resist or submit after its passage, 66, 67;
+    resolutions against, introduced by Henry, 69, 71;
+    debate over, 71-74;
+    passage, reconsideration, and amendment, 75, 76;
+    influence in rousing other colonies against, 77-88.
+
+  Stamp Act Congress, proposed by Massachusetts, 80;
+    its success caused by Virginia resolutions, 81 ff.
+
+  Stark, John, his victory in 1777 at Bennington, 240.
+
+  State sovereignty, declared to be abolished by Henry before 1774, 111,
+    112;
+    its preservation demanded by Virginia in any confederation, 197;
+    not advocated in its extreme form by Henry during Revolution and
+    Confederation, 303-306;
+    considered by Henry to be threatened by federal Constitution, 324-330;
+    expressly reserved by convention in ratifying, 331.
+
+  Stephen, Adam, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151;
+    taunts Henry in ratifying convention of 1788, 335.
+
+  Steptoe, Dr. ----, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 106.
+
+  Sullivan, John, at first Continental Congress, 108;
+    answers Henry's speech in first day's debate, 110.
+
+  Syme, Mrs. Sarah, described by Colonel William Byrd, 1, 2;
+    marries John Henry, 2;
+    mother of Patrick Henry, 2;
+    her family, 4;
+    letter mentioning his absence in Congress, 126;
+    her death and character, 299.
+
+  Syme, Colonel ----, step-brother of Henry, reported to have denied his
+    complicity in dictatorship project, 226.
+
+
+  Tarleton, Sir Banastre, a dashing partisan fighter, 188;
+    sent by Cornwallis to capture Virginia legislature, 279;
+    nearly succeeds, 280.
+
+  Taylor, John, of Caroline, his pronunciation, 11.
+
+  Thacher, Oxenbridge, expresses his admiration for the Virginia
+    Resolves, 82.
+
+  Thomson, Charles, the "Sam Adams" of Philadelphia, 104;
+    meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 105;
+    nominated for secretary, 107;
+    accepts position, 108, 109;
+    describes Henry's first speech, 109.
+
+  Tillotson, Archbishop John, his sermons enjoyed by Henry, 391.
+
+  Tobacco, its use as currency and to pay salaries, 37 ff.
+
+  Tories, loathed by Henry, 274;
+    popular execration of, 289;
+    repeal of their exile favored by Henry, 290-291.
+
+  Tucker, St. George, describes debate on military resolutions in
+    Virginia convention, 137;
+    describes motives of Henry's opponents, 137;
+    describes his speech, 143, 144;
+    agreement of his version with Wirt's, 150;
+    fears that Jefferson will be no more active than Henry, 269.
+
+  Tyler, Judge John, reports Henry's narrative of his bar examination,
+    24, 25;
+    gives anecdote of Henry's speech against Stamp Act, 73, note;
+    said to have been author of Wirt's version of Henry's militia speech,
+    150;
+    with Henry in flight from Tarleton, 281, 282;
+    opposes Henry's bill to relieve Tories, 290;
+    opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    helps Henry in debate, 320.
+
+
+  Union of the colonies, advocated by Henry as necessary prelude to
+    independence, 194, 199, 304.
+
+
+  Virginia, education in, 5, 13;
+    dialects in, 11;
+    society in, 21;
+    church government in, 37;
+    pays ministers in tobacco, 37, 38;
+    makes vestry liable for salary, 39;
+    passes option laws to prevent clergy from profiting from high price
+    of tobacco, 40, 41;
+    injustice of action, 42;
+    popularity of laws in, 43;
+    popular reluctance to grant clergy legal redress, 44, 45, 48;
+    the Parsons' Cause, 46-55;
+    enthusiasm in, for eloquence, 60;
+    popular affection for Henry begun by Parsons' Cause, 59, 60;
+    repudiation of Stamp Act, 66-76;
+    old leaders of, displaced by Henry, 66, 71, 88, 89;
+    officials of, angered by Henry's resolutions, 86;
+    popular enthusiasm for Henry, 88, 89;
+    courts in, closed by Revolution, 92;
+    conservative and radical parties in, 95;
+    practical unanimity of opinion, 95, 96;
+    its influence in Continental Congress, 113;
+    officers of its militia prepared for war, 131;
+    raises militia in various counties, 131, 133, 136;
+    first overt act of war in, committed by Henry, 155;
+    popular indignation at Dunmore's seizure of gunpowder, 157;
+    its volunteer companies persuaded not to attack him, 157;
+    expedition led by Henry forces Dunmore to make restitution, 158-160;
+    outbreak of popular approval of Henry's action, 164-167;
+    defense of, intrusted to Henry under Committee of Safety, 177;
+    operations of Dunmore in, 178, 179;
+    its troops defeat him, 179, 180;
+    indignation among them at Henry's treatment by Committee of Safety,
+    181-184;
+    celebrates with enthusiasm the resolution in favor of independence,
+    199;
+    effect of its example, 200;
+    aristocratic and democratic parties in, 200-202;
+    Virginia troops congratulate Henry on election as governor, 214;
+    high ideal held by Virginians of dignity of governor, 219, 300;
+    danger of attacks upon State urged by Washington, 221;
+    prepares for defense, 222, 223;
+    efforts of Henry to recruit in, 237, 238;
+    receives great demands for supplies, 241;
+    popular opinion condemns R. H. Lee for hostility to Washington, 252,
+    253;
+    decay of military spirit in, 253, 254;
+    ravaged by Matthews and Collier, 257, 264-267;
+    sends Clark's successful expedition into Northwest, 258-260;
+    decline of patriotism in, 274;
+    ravaged by Arnold and Phillips, 278;
+    great antipathy in, to project of abandoning Mississippi navigation,
+    308;
+    majority of people at outset favor Constitution, 315;
+    effect of Henry's exertions in turning tide, 316, 317;
+    supposed disunion feeling, 317;
+    importance Of Virginia's action, 318;
+    party divisions in State, 319, 320;
+    party divisions and leaders in convention, 320;
+    influence of Virginia's demands in forcing Congress to propose ten
+    amendments, 355, 356;
+    prepares to resist government at time of alien and sedition laws, 408;
+    its leaders condemned by Henry, 409;
+    its policy deplored by Washington, 413.
+
+  Virginia resolutions of 1765, 69-75;
+    their effect, 77-89.
+    See Legislature of Virginia, and Stamp Act, authorship of, 83-85.
+
+  Virginia resolutions of 1798, written by Madison, 408;
+    condemned by Henry as unconstitutional, 417, 418.
+
+
+  Walker, Benjamin, sent by Henry to Washington as secret messenger, 236;
+    taken by Washington as an aide-de-camp, 237.
+
+  Walker, Jeremiah, moderator of Baptist convention, 217.
+
+  Walker, Thomas, defendant in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Ward, Samuel, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105;
+    debates question of manner of voting, 112;
+    chairman of committee of the whole in second Continental Congress, 171.
+
+  Warrington, Rev. Thomas, brings suit for damages after annulling of
+    option law, 44.
+
+  Washington, George, appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    describes journey, 101;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    his military command envied by Hancock and Adams, 154;
+    notified by Virginia troops of readiness to attack Dunmore, 157;
+    letter of Henry to, recommending Frazer, 175;
+    thanked by Virginia convention, 176;
+    doubts Henry's fitness to command in the field, 186;
+    his defeats in 1776, 221;
+    congratulates Henry on his election as governor, 221;
+    warns him against British raids, 221;
+    letter of Carter to, sneering at Henry, 222, 223;
+    receives extraordinary powers from Congress, 227;
+    called a dictator in 1781, 229;
+    surprises Hessians at Trenton, 235;
+    his situation in 1777, 236;
+    embarrassed by Henry's sending Walker to observe the army, 236, 237;
+    letter of Henry to, on military situation in Virginia, 238;
+    his movements in 1777-1778, 240, 241;
+    Conway cabal formed against, 242;
+    attacked in anonymous letter to Henry, 244, 245;
+    receives two letters of warning from Henry on the subject, 245-248;
+    his grateful replies to Henry's letters, 248-250;
+    describes Dr. Rush as author of the anonymous letter, 249, 250;
+    describes other members of cabal, 250;
+    his deep friendship for Henry, 251, 252;
+    letter of Henry to, describing Indian troubles, 263;
+    repeatedly praises Henry's activity and assistance, 269, 270;
+    considered as possible dictator in 1781, 286;
+    asks Henry's advice concerning shares in canal companies, 300, 301;
+    receives Henry's replies, 301, 302;
+    told by Madison of Henry's change of opinion relative to strengthening
+    the Confederation, 310, 311;
+    sends copy of new Constitution to Henry, 313;
+    his reply, 313;
+    assured that Henry will not prevent a convention in Virginia, 314;
+    not in Virginia ratifying convention, 319;
+    grieved by Henry's persistent opposition, 341;
+    letters of Madison to, on Henry's opposition to Constitution, 343;
+    rejoices that Henry will submit, yet fears his opposition, 344, 346;
+    his administration at first criticised then approved by Henry, 397;
+    reconciled to Henry by Lee, 399-401;
+    expresses unabated regard for him, 399;
+    receives Henry's warm reply, 400, 401;
+    offers Henry secretaryship of state, 402;
+    offers him the chief-justiceship, 403;
+    appointed to command provisional army, 407;
+    appeals to Henry to leave retirement to combat Virginia Democratic
+    party, 413, 414.
+
+  Webster, Daniel, his interview with Jefferson concerning Henry, 10, 23.
+
+  White, Rev. Alexander, brings suit for damages after annulling of option
+    law, 45.
+
+  William and Mary College, studies of Jefferson at, 22.
+
+  Williams, John, clerk of Baptist convention in Virginia, 217.
+
+  Wilson, James, member of second Continental Congress, on committees, 172,
+    174.
+
+  Winston, William, uncle of Patrick Henry, his eloquence, 5.
+
+  Winston, ----, judges murder case, 376.
+
+  Winstons of Virginia, kinsmen of Patrick Henry, 4;
+    their characteristics, 4, 5.
+
+  Wirt, William, biographer of Henry, accepts Jefferson's statements of his
+    illiteracy, 15;
+    also his statements of his failure to gain a living as a lawyer, 27;
+    and his ignorance of law, 29;
+    describes Henry's speech in the Parsons' Cause, 48-52;
+    describes him as, in consequence of Stamp Act debate, the idol of
+    Virginia, 89;
+    accepts Jefferson's statement of Henry's ignorance of law, 94;
+    says Henry was author of draft of address rejected by Congress, 117,
+    122;
+    error of his statement, 118;
+    his whole treatment of Henry's part in Congress untrustworthy, 119,
+    120;
+    describes him as a mere declaimer, 120;
+    his mythical description of Henry's opening speech, 121;
+    describes his insignificance after the opening day, 122;
+    his error due to taking Jefferson's account, 123;
+    his version of Henry's militia speech considered by some apocryphal,
+    149;
+    question of its genuineness, 149, 150;
+    accepts Jefferson's story of a projected dictatorship, but doubts
+    Henry's connection, 226;
+    accepts a similar story for 1781, 285;
+    considers Virginia bar the finest in United States, 360;
+    describes Henry's method of argument, 368, 369;
+    gives false account of Henry's religious views, 391.
+
+  Witherspoon, John, at first Continental Congress, 106;
+    instructor of Madison, 190.
+
+  Woodford, General William, commands Virginia troops in the field to
+    exclusion of Henry, 179;
+    ignores him in his reports, 180;
+    defeats Dunmore at Great Bridge, 180;
+    permits Rowe of North Carolina to supersede himself, 180;
+    his officers, however, prefer Henry, 183;
+    letter of Pendleton to, on Henry's unfitness to command, 185.
+
+  Wythe, George, one of Henry's legal examiners, 23;
+    on committee to protest to England against Stamp Act, 66;
+    believes submission necessary, 67;
+    opposes Henry's resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    prominent at Virginia bar, 93;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+
+  Young, Captain H., testimony concerning a proposed dictatorship in 1781,
+    286.
+
+
+  Zane, Isaac, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151.
+
+
+
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS
+
+   Biographies of our most eminent American Authors,
+   written by men who are themselves prominent in the
+                   field of letters.
+
+    _The writers of these biographies are themselves
+  Americans, generally familiar with the surroundings
+    in which their subjects lived and the conditions
+   under which their work was done. Hence the volumes
+   are peculiar for the rare combination of critical
+        judgment with sympathetic understanding.
+     Collectively, the series offers a biographical
+            history of American Literature._
+
+    WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. By John Bigelow.
+    J. FENIMORE COOPER. By T. R. Lounsbury.
+    GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. By Edward Cary.
+    RALPH WALDO EMERSON. By Oliver Wendell Holmes.
+    BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By John Bach McMaster.
+    NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. By George E. Woodberry.
+    WASHINGTON IRVING. By Charles Dudley Warner.
+    SIDNEY LANIER. By Edwin Mims.
+    THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. By Ferris Greenslet.
+    HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. By T. W. Higginson.
+    JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. By Ferris Greenslet.
+    FRANCIS PARKMAN. By H. D. Sedgwick.
+    EDGAR ALLAN POE. By George E. Woodberry.
+    WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. By Rollo Ogden.
+    WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS. By William P. Trent.
+    NOAH WEBSTER. By Horace E. Scudder.
+    WALT WHITMAN. By Bliss Perry.
+    JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. By Geo. R. Carpenter.
+    NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. By Henry A. Beers.
+
+              _Other titles to be added._
+
+                HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+                 AMERICAN COMMONWEALTHS
+
+  Volumes devoted to such States of the Union as have
+   a striking political, social, or economic history.
+
+  _The books which form this series are scholarly and
+    readable individually; collectively, the series,
+     when completed, will present a history of the
+   nation, setting forth in lucid and vigorous style
+  the varieties of government and of social life to be
+   found in the various commonwealths included in the
+                    federal union._
+
+    CALIFORNIA. By Josiah Royce.
+    CONNECTICUT. By Alexander Johnston. (Revised Ed.)
+    INDIANA. By J. P. Dunn, Jr (Revised Edition.)
+    KANSAS. By Leverett W. Spring. (Revised Edition.)
+    KENTUCKY. By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.
+    LOUISIANA. By Albert Phelps.
+    MARYLAND. By William Hand Browne. (Revised Ed.)
+    MICHIGAN. By Thomas M. Cooley. (Revised Edition.)
+    MINNESOTA. By Wm. W. Folwell.
+    MISSOURI. By Lucien Carr.
+    NEW HAMPSHIRE. By Frank B. Sanborn.
+    NEW YORK. By Ellis H. Roberts. 2 vols. (Revised Ed.)
+    OHIO. By Rufus King. (Revised Edition.)
+    RHODE ISLAND. By Irving B. Richman.
+    TEXAS. By George P. Garrison.
+    VERMONT. By Rowland E. Robinson.
+    VIRGINIA. By John Esten Cooke. (Revised Edition.)
+    WISCONSIN. By Reuben Gold Thwaites.
+
+                    _In preparation_
+
+    GEORGIA. By Ulrich B. Phillips.
+    ILLINOIS. By John H. Finley.
+    IOWA. By Albert Shaw.
+    MASSACHUSETTS. By Edward Channing.
+    NEW JERSEY. By Austin Scott.
+    OREGON. By F. H. Hodder.
+    PENNSYLVANIA. By Talcott Williams.
+
+                HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+                   AMERICAN STATESMEN
+
+   Biographies of Men famous in the Political History
+   of the United States. Edited by John T. Morse, Jr.
+
+   _Separately they are interesting and entertaining
+    biographies of our most eminent public men; as a
+        series they are especially remarkable as
+    constituting a history of American politics and
+       policies more complete and more useful for
+   instruction and reference than any that I am aware
+      of._--HON. JOHN W. GRIGGS, Ex-United States
+                   Attorney-General.
+
+    BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    SAMUEL ADAMS. By James K. Hosmer.
+    PATRICK HENRY. By Moses Coit Tyler.
+    GEORGE WASHINGTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 2 volumes.
+    JOHN ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    ALEXANDER HAMILTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
+    GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. By Theodore Roosevelt.
+    JOHN JAY. By George Pellew.
+    JOHN MARSHALL. By Allan B. Magruder.
+    THOMAS JEFFERSON. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    JAMES MADISON. By Sydney Howard Gay.
+    ALBERT GALLATIN. By John Austin Stevens.
+    JAMES MONROE. By D. C. Gilman.
+    JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    JOHN RANDOLPH. By Henry Adams.
+    ANDREW JACKSON. By W. G. Sumner.
+    MARTIN VAN BUREN. By Edward W. Shepard.
+    HENRY CLAY. By Carl Schurz. 2 volumes.
+    DANIEL WEBSTER. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
+    JOHN C. CALHOUN. By Dr. H. Von Holst.
+    THOMAS H. BENTON. By Theodore Roosevelt.
+    LEWIS CASS. By Andrew C. McLaughlin.
+    ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By John T. Morse, Jr. 2 volumes.
+    WILLIAM H. SEWARD. By Thornton K. Lothrop.
+    SALMON P. CHASE. By Albert Bushnell Hart.
+    CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. By C. F. Adams, Jr.
+    CHARLES SUMNER. By Moorfield Storey.
+    THADDEUS STEVENS. By Samuel W. McCall.
+
+
+                    _SECOND SERIES_
+
+   Biographies of men particularly influential in the
+        recent Political History of the Nation.
+
+   _This second series is intended to supplement the
+  original list of American Statesmen by the addition
+    of the names of men who have helped to make the
+   history of the United States since the Civil War._
+
+    JAMES G. BLAINE. By Edward Stanwood.
+    JOHN SHERMAN. By Theodore E. Burton.
+    ULYSSES S. GRANT. By Samuel W. McCall. In preparation.
+
+  _Other interesting additions to the list to be made
+                    in the future._
+
+                HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling have been retained as they
+appear in the original book. Only the following possible misprints
+have been changed for this etext:
+
+Page  iv PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
+         U.S.A changed to U.S.A.
+
+Page  xi LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS CITED IN THIS BOOK 424
+         added to Table of Contents
+
+Page  28 being a needy dependent
+         dependant changed to dependent
+
+Page  40 Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 508, 509.
+         comma added after 508
+
+Page 145 What would they have?
+         what changed to What
+
+Page 268 opportunity of deliberating upon
+         opportuity changed to opportunity
+
+Page 278 General Greene at Guilford, in North Carolina
+         Guildford changed to Guilford
+
+Page 284 Furthermore, as soon as possible after breakfast
+         Futhermore changed to Furthermore
+
+Page 351 expedients common on such occasions
+         occassions changed to occasions
+
+Page 383 embarrassments was not due alone
+         embarassments changed to embarrassments
+
+Page 420 mass of unwhipped hyperboles
+         hyberbole changed to hyperbole
+
+Page 432 Breckenridge, ----,
+         Breckinridge changed to Breckenridge
+
+Page 442 Absence of self-consciousness
+         conciousness changed to consciousness
+
+Page 442 Holt, James, on committee of Virginia convention
+         Virgia changed to Virginia
+
+Page 449 Randolph, John, of Roanoke
+         Roanoake change to Roanoke
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PATRICK HENRY***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Patrick Henry, by Moses Coit Tyler</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Patrick Henry</p>
+<p>Author: Moses Coit Tyler</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 10, 2009  [eBook #29368]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PATRICK HENRY***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="tpage">
+
+<p><br /><br /><span class="hspr fh3">American Statesmen</span></p>
+
+<hr class="thirty" />
+
+<h1><span class="hspr">PATRICK HENRY</span></h1>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="fh4">BY</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="fh2">MOSES COIT TYLER</span><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/logo.png" width="150" height="194" alt="Riverside Press Logo" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="fh3">BOSTON AND NEW YORK</span><br />
+
+<span class="fh2">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</span><br />
+
+<span class="hspr fh3">The Riverside Press Cambridge</span></p>
+
+<hr class="sixty" />
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+<p>
+<span class="fh3">COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY MOSES COIT TYLER<br />
+COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY MOSES COIT TYLER AND HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &amp; CO.<br />
+COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY JEANNETTE G. TYLER</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="hspr fh3">The Riverside Press</span><br />
+<span class="fh3">CAMBRIDGE &middot; MASSACHUSETTS<br />
+PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<hr class="sixty" />
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>In this book I have tried to embody the chief
+results derived from a study of all the materials
+known to me, in print and in manuscript, relating
+to Patrick Henry,&mdash;many of these materials
+being now used for the first time in any formal
+presentation of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the great popular interest attaching
+to the name of Patrick Henry, he has
+hitherto been the subject of but one memoir
+founded on original investigation, and that, of
+course, is the Life by William Wirt. When it is
+considered, however, that Wirt&#8217;s book was finished
+as long ago as the year 1817,&mdash;before the time
+had fairly come for the publication of the correspondence,
+diaries, personal memoranda, and official
+records of every sort, illustrating the great
+period covered by Patrick Henry&#8217;s career,&mdash;it
+will be easy to infer something as to the quantity
+and the value of those printed materials bearing
+upon the subject, which are now to be had by us,
+but which were not within the reach of Wirt.
+Accordingly, in his lack of much of the detailed
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>
+testimony that then lay buried in inaccessible documents,
+Wirt had to trust largely to the somewhat
+imaginative traditions concerning Patrick Henry
+which he found floating in the air of Virginia;
+and especially to the supposed recollections of old
+people,&mdash;recollections which, in this case, were
+nearly always vague, not always disinterested,
+often inaccurate, and generally made up of emotional
+impressions rather than of facts. Any one
+who will take the trouble to ascertain the enormous
+disadvantages under which Wirt wrote, and
+which, as we now know, gave him great discouragement,
+will be inclined to applaud him for making
+so good a book, rather than to blame him for
+not making a better one.</p>
+
+<p>It is proper for me to state that, besides the
+copious printed materials now within reach, I have
+been able to make use of a large number of manuscripts
+relating to my subject. Of these may be
+specified a document, belonging to Cornell University,
+written by a great-grandson of Patrick
+Henry, the late Rev. Edward Fontaine, and giving,
+among other things, several new anecdotes
+of the great orator, as told to the writer by his
+own father, Colonel Patrick Henry Fontaine, who
+was much with Patrick Henry during the later
+years of his life. I may add that, through the
+kindness of the Hon. William Wirt Henry of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span>
+Richmond, I have had access to the manuscripts
+which were collected by Wirt for the purposes of
+his book, but were only in part used by him.
+With unstinted generosity, Mr. Henry likewise
+placed in my hands all the papers relating to his
+illustrious grandfather, which, during the past
+thirty years or more, he has succeeded in bringing
+together, either from different branches of the
+family, or from other sources. A portion of the
+manuscripts thus accumulated by him consists of
+copies of the letters, now preserved in the Department
+of State, written by Patrick Henry, chiefly
+while governor of Virginia, to General Washington,
+to the president of Congress, to Virginia&#8217;s
+delegation in Congress, and to the Board of War.</p>
+
+<p>In the very front of this book, therefore, I record
+my grateful acknowledgments to Mr. William
+Wirt Henry; acknowledgments not alone
+for the sort of generosity of which I have just
+spoken, but for another sort, also, which is still
+more rare, and which I cannot so easily describe,&mdash;his
+perfect delicacy, while promoting my more
+difficult researches by his invaluable help, in never
+once encumbering that help with the least effort to
+hamper my judgment, or to sway it from the natural
+conclusions to which my studies might lead.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, it gives me pleasure to mention that,
+in the preparation of this book, I have received
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>
+courteous assistance from Mr. Theodore F. Dwight
+and Mr. S. M. Hamilton of the library of the
+Department of State; from the Rev. Professor
+W. M. Hughes, of Hobart College; and from the
+Rev. Stephen H. Synnott, rector of St. John&#8217;s,
+Ithaca.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">M. C. T.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Cornell University</span>, 3 June, 1887.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE <br />
+<span class="hsub">TO REVISED EDITION</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>I have gladly used the opportunity afforded by
+a new edition of this book to give the text a minute
+revision from beginning to end, and to make
+numerous changes both in its substance and in its
+form.</p>
+
+<p>During the eleven years that have passed since
+it first came from the press, considerable additions
+have been made to our documentary materials for
+the period covered by it, the most important for
+our purpose being the publication, for the first
+time, of the correspondence and the speeches of
+Patrick Henry and of George Mason, the former
+with a life, in three volumes, by William Wirt
+Henry, the latter also with a life, in two volumes,
+by Kate Mason Rowland. Besides procuring for
+my own pages whatever benefit I could draw from
+these texts, I have tried, while turning over very
+frequently the writings of Patrick Henry&#8217;s contemporaries,
+to be always on the watch for the
+means of correcting any mistakes I may have
+made concerning him, whether as to fact or as to
+opinion.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>In this work of rectification I have likewise
+been aided by suggestions from many persons, of
+whom I would particularly mention the Right
+Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., D. D., Bishop
+of North Carolina, and Mr. William Wirt Henry.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">M. C. T.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Cornell University</span>, 31 March, 1898</p>
+
+<hr class="sixty" />
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table class="toc" summary="">
+<tr><th><span class="fsmcap">CHAP.</span></th><th></th><th><span class="fsmcap">PAGE</span></th></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td class="chap">I.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Early Years</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">II.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Was He Illiterate?</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">III.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Becomes a Lawyer</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">IV.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">A Celebrated Case</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">V.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">First Triumphs at the Capital</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">VI.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Consequences</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">VII.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Steady Work</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">VIII.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">In the First Continental Congress</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">IX.</td>
+<td>&#8220;<span class="smcap">After all, We must Fight</span>&#8221;</td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">X.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Rape of the Gunpowder</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XI.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">In Congress and in Camp</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XII.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Independence</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XIII.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">First Governor of the State of Virginia</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XIV.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Governor a Second Time</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XV.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Third Year in the Governorship</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XVI.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">At Home and in the House of Delegates</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XVII.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Shall the Confederation be made Stronger?</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_298">298</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XVIII.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The Battle in Virginia over the New Constitution</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XIX.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">The After-Fight for Amendments</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XX.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Last Labors at the Bar</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_357">357</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XXI.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">In Retirement</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_382">382</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="chap">XXII.</td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Last Days</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_407">407</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td>
+<td><span class="smcap">List of Printed Documents Cited in this Book</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_424">424</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td>
+<td><span class="smcap">Index</span></td>
+<td class="page"><a href="#Page_431">431</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<hr class="sixty" />
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h1>PATRICK HENRY</h1>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I <br />
+<span class="hsub">EARLY YEARS</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>On the evening of October 7, 1732, that merry
+Old Virginian, Colonel William Byrd of Westover,
+having just finished a journey through King
+William County for the inspection of his estates,
+was conducted, for his night&#8217;s lodging, to the
+house of a blooming widow, Mistress Sarah Syme,
+in the county of Hanover. This lady, at first
+supposing her guest to be some new suitor for
+her lately disengaged affections, &#8220;put on a Gravity
+that becomes a Weed;&#8221; but so soon as she learned
+her mistake and the name of her distinguished
+visitor, she &#8220;brighten&#8217;d up into an unusual cheerfulness
+and Serenity. She was a portly, handsome
+Dame, of the Family of Esau, and seem&#8217;d not to
+pine too much for the Death of her Husband, who
+was of the Family of the Saracens.&hellip; This
+widow is a person of a lively &amp; cheerful Conversation,
+with much less Reserve than most of her
+Countrywomen. It becomes her very well, and
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+sets off her other agreeable Qualities to Advantage.
+We tost off a Bottle of honest Port, which
+we relisht with a broil&#8217;d Chicken. At Nine I retir&#8217;d
+to my Devotions, And then Slept so Sound
+that Fancy itself was Stupify&#8217;d, else I shou&#8217;d have
+dreamt of my most obliging Landlady.&#8221; The next
+day being Sunday, &#8220;the courteous Widow invited
+me to rest myself there that good day, and go to
+Church with Her, but I excus&#8217;d myself by telling
+her she wou&#8217;d certainly spoil my Devotion. Then
+she civilly entreated me to make her House my
+Home whenever I visited my Plantations, which
+made me bow low, and thank her very
+kindly.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor1" id="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote-1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>Not very long after that notable visit, the
+sprightly widow gave her hand in marriage to a
+young Scotchman of good family, John Henry, of
+Aberdeen, a prot&eacute;g&eacute; and probably a kinsman of
+her former husband; and continuing to reside on
+her estate of Studley, in the county of Hanover,
+she became, on May 29, 1736, the mother of Patrick
+Henry.</p>
+
+<p>Through the lineage of both his parents, this
+child had some claim to an inheritance of brains.
+The father, a man of firm and sound intellect, had
+been liberally educated in Scotland; among the
+country gentlemen of his neighborhood in Virginia,
+he was held in high esteem for superior intelligence
+and character, as is shown by the positions he long
+held of county surveyor, colonel of his regiment,
+and presiding judge of the county court; while he
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+could number among his near kinsmen at home
+several persons of eminence as divines, orators, or
+men of letters,&mdash;such as his uncle, William Robertson,
+minister of Borthwick in Mid Lothian
+and afterward of the Old Greyfriars&#8217; Church
+in Edinburgh; his cousin, David Henry, the successor
+of Edward Cave in the management of
+the &#8220;Gentleman&#8217;s Magazine;&#8221; and especially his
+cousin, William Robertson, principal of the University
+of Edinburgh, and author of the &#8220;History of
+the Reign of the Emperor Charles V.&#8221; Moreover,
+among the later paternal relatives of Patrick Henry
+may be mentioned one person of oratorical and
+forensic genius very brilliant and in quality not
+unlike his own. Patrick Henry&#8217;s father was second
+cousin to that beautiful Eleanor Syme of
+Edinburgh, who, in 1777, became the wife of
+Henry Brougham of Brougham Hall, Westmoreland.
+Their eldest son was Lord Brougham, who
+was thus the third cousin of Patrick Henry. To
+some it will perhaps seem not a mere caprice of
+ingenuity to discover in the fiery, eccentric, and
+truculent eloquence of the great English advocate
+and parliamentary orator a family likeness to that
+of his renowned American kinsman; or to find in
+the fierceness of the champion of Queen Caroline
+against George IV., and of English anti-slavery reform
+and of English parliamentary reform against
+aristocratic and commercial selfishness, the same
+bitter and eager radicalism that burned in the
+blood of him who, on this side of the Atlantic,
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+was, in popular oratory, the great champion of the
+colonies against George III., and afterward of
+the political autonomy of the State of Virginia
+against the all-dominating centralization which he
+saw coiled up in the projected Constitution of the
+United States.<a name="FNanchor2" id="FNanchor2"></a><a href="#Footnote-2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Those, however, who knew the mother of Patrick
+Henry, and her family, the Winstons, were
+accustomed to think that it was from her side of
+the house that he derived the most characteristic
+traits not only of his genius, but of his disposition.
+The Winstons of Virginia were of Welsh stock;
+a family marked by vivacity of spirit, conversational
+talent, a lyric and dramatic turn, a gift for
+music and for eloquent speech, at the same time
+by a fondness for country life, for inartificial pleasures,
+for fishing and hunting, for the solitude
+and the unkempt charms of nature. It was said,
+too, of the Winstons that their talents were in
+excess of their ambition or of their energy, and
+were not brought into use except in a fitful way,
+and under the stimulus of some outward and passing
+occasion. They seem to have belonged to that
+very considerable class of persons in this world of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+whom more might have been made. Especially
+much talk used to be heard, among old men in
+Virginia, of Patrick Henry&#8217;s uncle, his mother&#8217;s
+own brother, William Winston, as having a gift
+of eloquence dazzling and wondrous like Patrick&#8217;s,
+nay, as himself unsurpassed in oratory among all
+the great speakers of Virginia except by Patrick
+himself.<a name="FNanchor3" id="FNanchor3"></a><a href="#Footnote-3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>The system of education prevailing in Virginia
+during Patrick Henry&#8217;s early years was extremely
+simple. It consisted of an almost entire lack of
+public schools, mitigated by the sporadic and irregular
+exercise of domestic tuition. Those who
+could afford to import instruction into their homes
+got it, if they desired; those who could not, generally
+went without. As to the youthful Patrick,
+he and education never took kindly to each other.
+From nearly all quarters the testimony is to this
+effect,&mdash;that he was an indolent, dreamy, frolicsome
+creature, with a mortal enmity to books,
+supplemented by a passionate regard for fishing-rods
+and shot-guns; disorderly in dress, slouching,
+vagrant, unambitious; a roamer in woods, a loiterer
+on river-banks; having more tastes and aspirations
+in common with trappers and frontiersmen
+than with the toilers of civilized life; giving no
+hint nor token, by word or act, of the possession
+of any intellectual gift that could raise him above
+mediocrity, or even up to it.</p>
+
+<p>During the first ten years of his life, he seems
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+to have made, at a small school in the neighborhood,
+some small and reluctant progress into the
+mysteries of reading, writing, and arithmetic;
+whereupon his father took personal charge of the
+matter, and conducted his further education at
+home, along with that of other children, being
+aided in the task by the very competent help of
+a brother, the Rev. Patrick Henry, rector of St.
+Paul&#8217;s parish, in Hanover, and apparently a good
+Scotch classicist. In this way our Patrick acquired
+some knowledge of Latin and Greek, and
+rather more knowledge of mathematics,&mdash;the latter
+being the only branch of book-learning for
+which, in those days, he showed the least liking.
+However, under such circumstances, with little
+real discipline, doubtless, and amid plentiful interruptions,
+the process of ostensible education
+went forward with the young man; and even this
+came to an end by the time that he was fifteen
+years old.</p>
+
+<p>At that age, he was duly graduated from the
+domestic schoolroom into the shop of a country
+tradesman hard by. After an apprenticeship there
+of a single year, his father set him up in trade,
+joining with him in the conduct of a country store
+his elder brother, William, a youth more indolent,
+if possible, as well as more disorderly and uncommercial,
+than Patrick himself. One year of this
+odd partnership brought the petty concern to its
+inevitable fate. Just one year after that, having
+attained the ripe age of eighteen, and being then
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+entirely out of employment, and equally out of
+money, Patrick rounded out his embarrassments,
+and gave symmetry to them, as it were, by getting
+married,&mdash;and that to a young woman quite
+as impecunious as himself. The name of this
+damsel was Sarah Shelton; her father being a small
+farmer, and afterward a small tavern-keeper in
+the neighborhood. In the very rashness and absurdity
+of this proceeding on the part of these two
+interesting young paupers, irresistibly smitten with
+each other&#8217;s charms, and mutually resolved to defy
+their own helplessness by doubling it, there seems
+to have been a sort of semi-ludicrous pathos which
+constituted an irresistible call for help.</p>
+
+<p>The parents on both sides heard the call, and by
+their joint efforts soon established the young couple
+on a little farm near at hand, from which, by
+their own toil, re&euml;nforced by that of half a dozen
+slaves, they were expected to extort a living. This
+experiment, the success of which depended on exactly
+those qualities which Patrick did not then
+possess,&mdash;industry, order, sharp calculation, persistence,&mdash;turned
+out as might have been predicted.
+At the end of two years he made a forced
+sale of some of his slaves, and invested the proceeds
+in the stock of a country store once more.
+But as he had now proved himself to be a bad
+farmer, and a still worse merchant, it is not easy
+to divine by what subtle process of reasoning he
+had been able to conclude that there would be any
+improvement in his circumstances by getting out
+of agriculture and back into merchandise.
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When he undertook this last venture he was
+still but a youth of twenty. By the time that he
+was twenty-three, that is, by the autumn of 1759,
+he had become convinced that his little store was
+to prove for him merely a consumer of capital and
+a producer of bad debts; and in view of the necessity
+of soon closing it, he had ample excuse for
+taking into consideration what he should do next.
+Already was he the happy father of sundry small
+children, with the most trustworthy prospect of a
+steady enlargement and multiplication of his paternal
+honors. Surely, to a man of twenty-three, a
+husband and a father, who, from the age of fifteen,
+had been engaged in a series of enterprises
+to gain his livelihood, and had perfectly failed in
+every one of them, the question of his future
+means of subsistence must have presented itself
+as a subject of no little pertinence, not to say urgency.
+However, at that time Patrick seems to
+have been a young fellow of superabounding health
+and of inextinguishable spirits, and even in that
+crisis of his life he was able to deal gayly with
+its problems. In that very year, 1759, Thomas
+Jefferson, then a lad of sixteen, and on his way
+to the College of William and Mary, happened
+to spend the Christmas holidays at the house of
+Colonel Nathan Dandridge, in Hanover, and there
+first met Patrick Henry. Long afterward, recalling
+these days, Jefferson furnished this picture of
+him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Henry had, a little before, broken up his store, or<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+rather it had broken him up; but his misfortunes were
+not to be traced either in his countenance or conduct.&#8221;
+&#8220;During the festivity of the season I met him in society
+every day, and we became well acquainted, although I
+was much his junior.&hellip; His manners had something
+of coarseness in them. His passion was music, dancing,
+and pleasantry. He excelled in the last, and it attached
+every one to him.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor4" id="FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote-4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Shortly after Jefferson left those hilarious scenes
+for the somewhat more restrained festivities of the
+little college at Williamsburg, Patrick succeeded
+in settling in his own mind what he was going to
+do next. He could not dig, so it seemed, neither
+could he traffic, but perhaps he could talk. Why
+not get a living by his tongue? Why not be a
+lawyer?</p>
+
+<p>But before we follow him through the gates of
+that superb profession,&mdash;gates which, after some
+preliminary creaking of the hinges, threw open to
+him the broad pathway to wealth, renown, unbounded
+influence,&mdash;let us stop a moment longer
+on the outside, and get a more distinct idea, if we
+can, of his real intellectual outfit for the career on
+which he was about to enter.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote-1" id="Footnote-1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+<i>Byrd Manuscripts</i>, ii. 79, 80.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-2" id="Footnote-2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>
+I have
+from private sources information that Brougham was
+aware of his relationship to Patrick Henry, and that in recognition
+of it he showed marked attentions to a grand-nephew of
+Patrick Henry, the late W. C. Preston, of South Carolina, when
+the latter was in England. Moreover, in his <i>Life and Times</i>, i. 17,
+18, Brougham declares that he derived from his maternal ancestors
+the qualities which lifted him above the mediocrity that had
+always attached to his ancestors on the paternal side.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-3" id="Footnote-3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
+Wirt, 3.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-4" id="Footnote-4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>
+In a letter to Wirt, in 1815, <i>Life of Henry</i>, 14, 15; also
+<i>Writings of Jefferson</i>, vi. 487, 488, where the letter is given, apparently,
+from the first draft.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER II <br />
+<span class="hsub">WAS HE ILLITERATE?</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Concerning the quality and extent of Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s early education, it is perhaps impossible
+now to speak with entire confidence. On the one
+hand there seems to have been a tendency, in his
+own time and since, to overstate his lack of education,
+and this partly, it may be, from a certain
+instinctive fascination which one finds in pointing
+to so dramatic a contrast as that between the sway
+which the great orator wielded over the minds of
+other men and the untrained vigor and illiterate
+spontaneity of his own mind. Then, too, it must
+be admitted that, whatever early education Patrick
+Henry may have received, he did, in certain companies
+and at certain periods of his life, rather too
+perfectly conceal it under an uncouth garb and
+manner, and under a pronunciation which, to say
+the least, was archaic and provincial. Jefferson
+told Daniel Webster that Patrick Henry&#8217;s &#8220;pronunciation
+was vulgar and vicious,&#8221; although, as
+Jefferson adds, this &#8220;was forgotten while he was
+speaking.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor5" id="FNanchor5"></a><a href="#Footnote-5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+Governor John Page &#8220;used to relate,
+on the testimony of his own ears,&#8221; that Patrick
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+Henry would speak of &#8220;the yearth,&#8221; and of
+&#8220;men&#8217;s naiteral parts being improved by
+larnin&#8217;;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor6" id="FNanchor6"></a><a href="#Footnote-6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+while Spencer Roane mentions his pronunciation
+of China as &#8220;Cheena.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor7" id="FNanchor7"></a><a href="#Footnote-7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+All this, however, it
+should be noted, does not prove illiteracy. If,
+indeed, such was his ordinary speech, and not, as
+some have suggested, a manner adopted on particular
+occasions for the purpose of identifying himself
+with the mass of his hearers, the fact is evidence
+merely that he retained through his mature
+life, on the one hand, some relics of an old-fashioned
+good usage, and, on the other, some traces
+of the brogue of the district in which he was born,
+just as Edmund Pendleton used to say &#8220;scaicely&#8221;
+for scarcely, and as John Taylor, of Caroline,
+would say &#8220;bare&#8221; for bar; just as Thomas Chalmers
+always retained the brogue of Fifeshire, and
+Thomas Carlyle that of Ecclefechan. Certainly
+a brogue can never be elegant, but as it has many
+times coexisted with very high intellectual cultivation,
+its existence in Patrick Henry does not prove
+him to have been uncultivated.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, it must be remembered that he himself
+had a habit of depreciating his own acquaintance
+with books, and his own dependence on them.
+He did this, it would seem, partly from a consciousness
+that it would only increase his hold on
+the sympathy and support of the mass of the people
+of Virginia if they should regard him as absolutely
+one of themselves, and in no sense raised
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+above them by artificial advantages. Moreover,
+this habit of self-depreciation would be brought
+into play when he was in conversation with such
+professed devourers of books as John Adams and
+Jefferson, compared with whom he might very
+properly feel an unfeigned conviction that he was
+no reader at all,&mdash;a conviction in which they
+would be quite likely to agree with him, and which
+they would be very likely to express. Thus, John
+Adams mentions that, in the first intimacy of their
+friendship begun at the Congress of 1774, the
+Virginian orator, at his lodgings, confessed one
+night that, for himself, he had &#8220;had no public
+education;&#8221; that at fifteen he had &#8220;read Virgil
+and Livy,&#8221; but that he had &#8220;not looked into a
+Latin book since.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor8" id="FNanchor8"></a><a href="#Footnote-8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+Upon Jefferson, who of course
+knew Henry far longer and far more closely, the
+impression of his disconnection from books seems
+to have been even more decided, especially if we
+may accept the testimony of Jefferson&#8217;s old age,
+when his memory had taken to much stumbling,
+and his imagination even more to extravagance
+than in his earlier life. Said Jefferson, in 1824,
+of his ancient friend: &#8220;He was a man of very little
+knowledge of any sort. He read nothing, and had
+no books.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor9" id="FNanchor9"></a><a href="#Footnote-9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, there are certain facts concerning
+Henry&#8217;s early education and intellectual
+habits which may be regarded as pretty well established.
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+Before the age of ten, at a petty neighborhood
+school, he had got started upon the three
+primary steps of knowledge. Then, from ten to
+fifteen, whatever may have been his own irregularity
+and disinclination, he was member of a home
+school, under the immediate training of his father
+and his uncle, both of them good Scotch classical
+scholars, and one of them at least a proficient in
+mathematics. No doubt the human mind, especially
+in its best estate of juvenile vigor and frivolity,
+has remarkable aptitude for the repulsion
+of unwelcome knowledge; but it can hardly be
+said that even Patrick Henry&#8217;s gift in that direction
+could have prevented his becoming, under two
+such masters, tolerably well grounded in Latin, if
+not in Greek, or that the person who at fifteen is
+able to read Virgil and Livy, no matter what may
+be his subsequent neglect of Latin authors, is not
+already imbued with the essential and indestructible
+rudiments of the best intellectual culture.</p>
+
+<p>It is this early initiation, on the basis of a drill
+in Latin, into the art and mystery of expression,
+which Patrick Henry received from masters so
+competent and so deeply interested in him, which
+helps us to understand a certain trait of his, which
+puzzled Jefferson, and which, without this clue,
+would certainly be inexplicable. From his first
+appearance as a speaker to the end of his days, he
+showed himself to be something more than a declaimer,&mdash;indeed,
+an adept in language. &#8220;I have
+been often astonished,&#8221; said Jefferson, &#8220;at his
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+command of proper language; how he obtained the
+knowledge of it I never could find out, as he read
+little, and conversed little with
+educated men.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor10" id="FNanchor10"></a><a href="#Footnote-10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+It is true, probably, that we have no perfect report
+of any speech he ever made; but even through
+the obvious imperfections of his reporters there
+always gleams a certain superiority in diction,&mdash;a
+mastery of the logic and potency of fitting words;
+such a mastery as genius alone, without special
+training, cannot account for. Furthermore, we
+have in the letters of his which survive, and which
+of course were generally spontaneous and quite unstudied
+effusions, absolutely authentic and literal
+examples of his ordinary use of words. Some of
+these letters will be found in the following pages.
+Even as manuscripts, I should insist that the letters
+of Patrick Henry are witnesses to the fact and
+quality of real intellectual cultivation: these are
+not the manuscripts of an uneducated person. In
+penmanship, punctuation, spelling, syntax, they
+are, upon the whole, rather better than the letters
+of most of the great actors in our Revolution.
+But, aside from the mere mechanics of written
+speech, there is in the diction of Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+letters the nameless felicity which, even with great
+natural endowments, is only communicable by genuine
+literary culture in some form. Where did
+Patrick Henry get such literary culture? The
+question can be answered only by pointing to that
+painful drill in Latin which the book-hating boy
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+suffered under his uncle and his father, when, to
+his anguish, Virgil and Livy detained him anon
+from the true joys of existence.</p>
+
+<p>Wirt seems to have satisfied himself, on evidence
+carefully gathered from persons who were contemporaries
+of Patrick Henry, that the latter had
+received in his youth no mean classical education;
+but, in the final revision of his book for publication,
+Wirt abated his statements on that subject,
+in deference to the somewhat vehement assertions
+of Jefferson. It may be that, in its present lessened
+form, Wirt&#8217;s account of the matter is the
+more correct one; but this is the proper place in
+which to mention one bit of direct testimony upon
+the subject, which, probably, was not known to
+Wirt. Patrick Henry is said to have told his
+eldest grandson, Colonel Patrick Henry Fontaine,
+that he was instructed by his uncle &#8220;not only in
+the catechism, but in the Greek and Latin
+classics.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor11" id="FNanchor11"></a><a href="#Footnote-11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>
+It may help us to realize something of
+the moral stamina entering into the training which
+the unfledged orator thus got that, as he related,
+his uncle taught him these maxims of conduct:
+&#8220;To be true and just in all my dealings. To bear
+no malice nor hatred in my heart. To keep my
+hands from picking and stealing. Not to covet
+other men&#8217;s goods; but to learn and labor truly to
+get my own living, and to do my duty in that state
+of life unto which it shall please God to
+call me.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor12" id="FNanchor12"></a><a href="#Footnote-12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>Under such a teacher Patrick Henry was so
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+thoroughly grounded, at least in Latin and Greek
+grammar, that when, long afterward, his eldest
+grandson was a student in Hampden-Sidney College,
+the latter found &#8220;his grandfather&#8217;s examinations
+of his progress in Greek and Latin&#8221; so rigorous
+that he dreaded them &#8220;much more than he
+did his recitations to his
+professors.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor13" id="FNanchor13"></a><a href="#Footnote-13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>
+Colonel
+Fontaine also states that he was present when a
+certain French visitor, who did not speak English,
+was introduced to Governor Henry, who did not
+speak French. During the war of the Revolution
+and just afterwards a similar embarrassment was
+not infrequent here in the case of our public men,
+among whom the study of French had been very
+uncommon; and for many of them the old colonial
+habit of fitting boys for college by training them
+to the colloquial use of Latin proved to be a great
+convenience. Colonel Fontaine&#8217;s anecdote implies,
+what is altogether probable, that Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+early drill in Latin had included the ordinary colloquial
+use of it; for he says that in the case of
+the visitor in question his grandfather was able,
+by means of his early stock of Latin words, to
+carry on the conversation in that
+language.<a name="FNanchor14" id="FNanchor14"></a><a href="#Footnote-14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>This anecdote, implying Patrick Henry&#8217;s ability
+to express himself in Latin, I give for what it may
+be worth. Some will think it incredible, and that
+impression will be further increased by the fact
+that Colonel Fontaine names Albert Gallatin as
+the visitor with whom, on account of his ignorance
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+of English, the conversation was thus carried on
+in Latin. This, of course, must be a mistake;
+for, at the time of his first visit to Virginia, Gallatin
+could speak English very well, so well, in fact,
+that he went to Virginia expressly as English interpreter
+to a French gentleman who could not
+speak our language.<a name="FNanchor15" id="FNanchor15"></a><a href="#Footnote-15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+However, as, during all
+that period, Governor Henry had many foreign
+visitors, Colonel Fontaine, in his subsequent account
+of that particular visitor, might easily have
+misplaced the name without thereby discrediting
+the substance of his narrative. Indeed, the substance
+of his narrative, namely, that he, Colonel
+Fontaine, did actually witness, in the case of some
+foreign visitor, such an exhibition of his grandfather&#8217;s
+good early training in Latin, cannot be
+rejected without an impeachment of the veracity
+of the narrator, or at least of that of his son, who
+has recorded the alleged incident. Of course, if
+that narrative be accepted as substantially true, it
+will be necessary to conclude that the Jeffersonian
+tradition of Patrick Henry&#8217;s illiteracy is, at any
+rate, far too highly tinted.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far we have been dealing with the question
+of Patrick Henry&#8217;s education down to the time of
+his leaving school, at the age of fifteen. It was
+not until nine years afterward that he began the
+study of the law. What is the intellectual record
+of these nine years? It is obvious that they were
+years unfavorable to systematic training of any
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+sort, or to any regulated acquisition of knowledge.
+During all that time in his life, as we now look
+back upon it, he has for us the aspect of some lawless,
+unkempt genius, in untoward circumstances,
+groping in the dark, not without wild joy, towards
+his inconceivable, true vocation; set to tasks for
+which he was grotesquely unfit; blundering on
+from misfortune to misfortune, with an overflow
+of unemployed energy and vivacity that swept him
+often into rough fun, into great gusts of innocent
+riot and horseplay; withal borne along, for many
+days together, by the mysterious undercurrents of
+his nature, into that realm of reverie where the
+soul feeds on immortal fruit and communes with
+unseen associates, the body meanwhile being left
+to the semblance of idleness; of all which the man
+himself might have given this valid justification:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8220;I loafe and invite my soul,<br />
+I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, these nine years of groping, blundering,
+and seeming idleness were not without their
+influence on his intellectual improvement even
+through direct contact with books. While still a
+boy in his teens, and put prematurely to uncongenial
+attempts at shopkeeping and farmkeeping,
+he at any rate made the great discovery that in
+books and in the gathering of knowledge from
+books could be found solace and entertainment; in
+short, he then acquired a taste for reading. No
+one pretends that Patrick Henry ever became a
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+bookish person. From the first and always the
+habit of his mind was that of direct action upon
+every subject that he had to deal with, through his
+own reflection, and along the broad primary lines
+of common sense. There is never in his thought
+anything subtle or recondite,&mdash;no mental movement
+through the media of books; but there is
+good evidence for saying that this bewildered and
+undeveloped youth, drifting about in chaos, did
+in those days actually get a taste for reading, and
+that he never lost it. The books which he first
+read are vaguely described as &#8220;a few light and
+elegant
+authors,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor16" id="FNanchor16"></a><a href="#Footnote-16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+probably in English essays and
+fiction. As the years passed and the boy&#8217;s mind
+matured, he rose to more serious books. He became
+fond of geography and of history, and he
+pushed his readings, especially, into the history of
+Greece and of Rome. He was particularly fascinated
+by Livy, which he read in the English translation;
+and then it was, as he himself related it to
+Judge Hugh Nelson, that he made the rule to read
+Livy through &#8220;once at least in every year during
+the early part of his
+life.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor17" id="FNanchor17"></a><a href="#Footnote-17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>
+He read also, it is
+apparent, the history of England and of the English
+colonies in America, and especially of his own
+colony; for the latter finding, no doubt, in Beverley
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+and in the grave and noble pages of Stith, and
+especially in the colonial charters given by Stith,
+much material for those incisive opinions which he
+so early formed as to the rights of the colonies,
+and as to the barriers to be thrown up against the
+encroaching authority of the mother country.</p>
+
+<p>There is much contemporaneous evidence to show
+that Patrick Henry was throughout life a deeply
+religious person. It certainly speaks well for his
+intellectual fibre, as well as for his spiritual tendencies,
+that his favorite book, during the larger
+part of his life, was &#8220;Butler&#8217;s Analogy,&#8221; which
+was first published in the very year in which he
+was born. It is possible that even during these
+years of his early manhood he had begun his enduring
+intimacy with that robust book. Moreover,
+we can hardly err in saying that he had then also
+become a steady reader of the English Bible, the
+diction of which is stamped upon his style as unmistakably
+as it is upon that of the elder Pitt.</p>
+
+<p>Such, I think it may fairly be said, was Patrick
+Henry when, at the age of twenty-four, having
+failed in every other pursuit, he turned for bread
+to the profession of the law. There is no evidence
+that either he or any other mortal man was aware
+of the extraordinary gifts that lay within him for
+success in that career. Not a scholar surely, not
+even a considerable miscellaneous reader, he yet
+had the basis of a good education; he had the
+habit of reading over and over again a few of the
+best books; he had a good memory; he had an
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+intellect strong to grasp the great commanding
+features of any subject; he had a fondness for the
+study of human nature, and singular proficiency
+in that branch of science; he had quick and warm
+sympathies, particularly with persons in trouble,&mdash;an
+invincible propensity to take sides with the
+under-dog in any fight. Through a long experience
+in offhand talk with the men whom he had
+thus far chiefly known in his little provincial
+world,&mdash;with an occasional clergyman, pedagogue,
+or legislator, small planters and small traders,
+sportsmen, loafers, slaves and the drivers of slaves,
+and, more than all, those bucolic Solons of old
+Virginia, the good-humored, illiterate, thriftless
+Caucasian consumers of tobacco and whiskey, who,
+cordially consenting that all the hard work of the
+world should be done by the children of Ham,
+were thus left free to commune together in endless
+debate on the tavern porch or on the shady side
+of the country store,&mdash;young Patrick had learned
+somewhat of the lawyer&#8217;s art of putting things;
+he could make men laugh, could make them serious,
+could set fire to their enthusiasms. What
+more he might do with such gifts nobody seems to
+have guessed; very likely few gave it any thought
+at all. In that rugged but munificent profession
+at whose outward gates he then proceeded to knock,
+it was altogether improbable that he would burden
+himself with much more of its erudition than was
+really necessary for a successful general practice
+in Virginia in his time, or that he would permanently
+content himself with less.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-5" id="Footnote-5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Curtis, <i>Life of Webster</i>, i. 585.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-6" id="Footnote-6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-7" id="Footnote-7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-8" id="Footnote-8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 396.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-9" id="Footnote-9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Curtis, <i>Life of Webster</i>, i. 585.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-10" id="Footnote-10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Curtis, <i>Life of Webster</i>, i. 585.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-11" id="Footnote-11"></a><a href="#FNanchor11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-12" id="Footnote-12"></a><a href="#FNanchor12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-13" id="Footnote-13"></a><a href="#FNanchor13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-14" id="Footnote-14"></a><a href="#FNanchor14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-15" id="Footnote-15"></a><a href="#FNanchor15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Henry Adams, <i>Life of Gallatin</i>, 59, 60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-16" id="Footnote-16"></a><a href="#FNanchor16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Wirt, 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-17" id="Footnote-17"></a><a href="#FNanchor17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Wirt, 13. This is the passage on which Jefferson, in his extreme
+old age, made the characteristically inaccurate comment:
+&#8220;His biographer says, &#8216;He read Plutarch every year.&#8217; I doubt
+if he ever read a volume of it in his life.&#8221; Curtis, <i>Life of Webster</i>,
+i. 585.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER III <br />
+<span class="hsub">BECOMES A LAWYER</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Some time in the early spring of 1760, Thomas
+Jefferson, then a lad in the College of William and
+Mary, was surprised by the arrival in Williamsburg
+of his jovial acquaintance, Patrick Henry,
+and still more by the announcement of the latter
+that, in the brief interval since their merrymakings
+together at Hanover, he had found time to study
+law, and had actually come up to the capital to
+seek an admission to the bar.</p>
+
+<p>In the accounts that we have from Henry&#8217;s contemporaries
+respecting the length of time during
+which he was engaged in preparing for his legal
+examination, there are certain discrepancies,&mdash;some
+of these accounts saying that it was nine
+months, others six or eight months, others six
+weeks. Henry himself told a friend that his original
+study of the law lasted only one month, and
+consisted in the reading of Coke upon Littleton
+and of the Virginia laws.<a name="FNanchor18" id="FNanchor18"></a><a href="#Footnote-18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>Concerning the encounter of this obscure and
+raw country youth with the accomplished men who
+examined him as to his fitness to receive a license
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+to practice law, there are three primary narratives,&mdash;two
+by Jefferson, and a third by Judge John
+Tyler. In his famous talk with Daniel Webster
+and the Ticknors at Monticello, in 1824, Jefferson
+said: &#8220;There were four examiners,&mdash;Wythe, Pendleton,
+Peyton Randolph, and John Randolph.
+Wythe and Pendleton at once rejected his application;
+the two Randolphs were, by his importunity,
+prevailed upon to sign the license; and, having
+obtained their signatures, he again applied to Pendleton,
+and after much entreaty, and many promises
+of future study, succeeded also in obtaining his.
+He then turned out for a practicing lawyer.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor19" id="FNanchor19"></a><a href="#Footnote-19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+<p>In a memorandum<a name="FNanchor20" id="FNanchor20"></a><a href="#Footnote-20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> prepared nearly ten years
+before the conversation just mentioned, Jefferson
+described somewhat differently the incidents of
+Henry&#8217;s examination:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Two of the examiners, however, Peyton and John
+Randolph, men of great facility of temper, signed his
+license with as much reluctance as their dispositions
+would permit them to show. Mr. Wythe absolutely
+refused. Rob. C. Nicholas refused also at first; but on
+repeated importunities, and promises of future reading,
+he signed. These facts I had afterwards from the gentlemen
+themselves; the two Randolphs acknowledging
+he was very ignorant of law, but that they perceived
+him to be a young man of genius, and did not doubt he
+would soon qualify himself.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor21" id="FNanchor21"></a><a href="#Footnote-21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>Long afterward, and when all this anxious affair
+had become for Patrick Henry an amusing thing
+of the past, he himself, in the confidence of an
+affectionate friendship, seems to have related one
+remarkable phase of his experience to Judge John
+Tyler, by whom it was given to Wirt. One of
+the examiners was &#8220;Mr. John Randolph, who was
+afterwards the king&#8217;s attorney-general for the
+colony,&mdash;a gentleman of the most courtly elegance
+of person and manners, a polished wit, and a profound
+lawyer. At first, he was so much shocked
+by Mr. Henry&#8217;s very ungainly figure and address,
+that he refused to examine him. Understanding,
+however, that he had already obtained two signatures,
+he entered with manifest reluctance on the
+business. A very short time was sufficient to satisfy
+him of the erroneous conclusion which he had
+drawn from the exterior of the candidate. With
+evident marks of increasing surprise (produced, no
+doubt, by the peculiar texture and strength of Mr.
+Henry&#8217;s style, and the boldness and originality of
+his combinations), he continued the examination
+for several hours; interrogating the candidate, not
+on the principles of municipal law, in which he no
+doubt soon discovered his deficiency, but on the
+laws of nature and of nations, on the policy of the
+feudal system, and on general history, which last
+he found to be his stronghold. During the very
+short portion of the examination which was devoted
+to the common law, Mr. Randolph dissented, or
+affected to dissent, from one of Mr. Henry&#8217;s answers,
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+and called upon him to assign the reasons
+of his opinion. This produced an argument, and
+Mr. Randolph now played off on him the same arts
+which he himself had so often practiced on his
+country customers; drawing him out by questions,
+endeavoring to puzzle him by subtleties, assailing
+him with declamation, and watching continually
+the defensive operations of his mind. After a considerable
+discussion, he said, &#8216;You defend your
+opinions well, sir; but now to the law and to the
+testimony.&#8217; Hereupon he carried him to his office,
+and, opening the authorities, said to him: &#8216;Behold
+the force of natural reason! You have never seen
+these books, nor this principle of the law; yet you
+are right and I am wrong. And from the lesson
+which you have given me (you must excuse me for
+saying it) I will never trust to appearances again.
+Mr. Henry, if your industry be only half equal to
+your genius, I augur that you will do well, and
+become an ornament and an honor to your
+profession.&#8217;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor22" id="FNanchor22"></a><a href="#Footnote-22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>After such an ordeal at Williamsburg, the young
+man must have ridden back to Hanover with some
+natural elation over his success, but that elation
+not a little tempered by serious reflection upon his
+own deficiencies as a lawyer, and by an honest
+purpose to correct them. Certainly nearly everything
+that was dear to him in life must then have
+risen before his eyes, and have incited him to industry
+in the further study of his profession.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At that time, his father-in-law had become the
+keeper of a tavern in Hanover; and for the next
+two or three years, while he was rapidly making
+his way as a general practitioner of the law in that
+neighborhood, Patrick seems occasionally to have
+been a visitor at this tavern. It was in this way,
+undoubtedly, that he sometimes acted as host, especially
+in the absence of his father-in-law,&mdash;receiving
+all comers, and providing for their entertainment;
+and it was from this circumstance that
+the tradition arose, as Jefferson bluntly expressed
+it, that Patrick Henry &#8220;was originally a
+barkeeper,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor23" id="FNanchor23"></a><a href="#Footnote-23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>
+or, as it is more vivaciously expressed
+by a recent writer, that &#8220;for three years&#8221; after
+getting his license to practice law, he &#8220;tended
+travelers and drew
+corks.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor24" id="FNanchor24"></a><a href="#Footnote-24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
+
+<p>These statements, however, are but an exaggeration
+of the fact that, whenever visiting at the tavern
+of his father-in-law, he had the good sense and
+the good feeling to lend a hand, in case of need,
+in the business of the house; and that no more
+than this is true may be proved, not only from
+the written testimony of
+survivors,<a name="FNanchor25" id="FNanchor25"></a><a href="#Footnote-25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>
+who knew him
+in those days, but from the contemporary records,
+carefully kept by himself, of his own earliest business
+as a lawyer. These records show that, almost
+at once after receiving his license to practice law,
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+he must have been fully occupied with the appropriate
+business of his profession.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite apparent, also, from the evidence just
+referred to, that the common history of his life
+has, in another particular, done great injustice to
+this period of it. According to the recollection of
+one old man who outlived him, &#8220;he was not distinguished
+at the bar for near four
+years.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor26" id="FNanchor26"></a><a href="#Footnote-26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a>
+Wirt
+himself, relying upon the statements of several
+survivors of Patrick Henry, speaks of his lingering
+&#8220;in the background for three years,&#8221; and of
+&#8220;the profits of his practice&#8221; as being so inadequate
+for the supply of even &#8220;the necessaries of life,&#8221;
+that &#8220;for the first two or three years&#8221; he was living
+with his family in dependence upon his
+father-in-law.<a name="FNanchor27" id="FNanchor27"></a><a href="#Footnote-27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>
+Fortunately, however, we are not left in
+this case to grope our way toward the truth amid
+the ruins of the confused and decaying memories
+of old men. Since Wirt&#8217;s time, there have come
+to light the fee-books of Patrick Henry, carefully
+and neatly kept by him from the beginning of his
+practice, and covering nearly his entire professional
+life down to old
+age.<a name="FNanchor28" id="FNanchor28"></a><a href="#Footnote-28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
+The first entry in
+these books is for September, 1760; and from that
+date onward to the end of the year 1763,&mdash;by
+which time he had suddenly sprung into great
+professional prominence by his speech in &#8220;the
+Parsons&#8217; Cause,&#8221;&mdash;he is found to have charged
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+fees in 1185 suits, besides many other fees for the
+preparation of legal papers out of court. From
+about the time of his speech in &#8220;the Parsons&#8217;
+Cause,&#8221; as his fee-books show, his practice became
+enormous, and so continued to the end of his days,
+excepting when public duties or broken health
+compelled him to turn away clients. Thus it is
+apparent that, while the young lawyer did not
+attain anything more than local professional reputation
+until his speech against the parsons, he did
+acquire a very considerable practice almost immediately
+after his admission to the bar. Moreover,
+so far from his being a needy dependent on his
+father-in-law for the first two or three years, the
+same quiet records show that his practice enabled
+him, even during that early period, to assist his
+father-in-law by an important advance of money.</p>
+
+<p>The fiction that Patrick Henry, during the first
+three or four years of his nominal career as a lawyer,
+was a briefless barrister,&mdash;earning his living
+at the bar of a tavern rather than at the bar of
+justice,&mdash;is the very least of those disparaging
+myths, which, through the frailty of human memory
+and the bitterness of partisan ill-will, have
+been permitted to settle upon his reputation.
+Certainly, no one would think it discreditable, or
+even surprising, if Patrick Henry, while still a
+very young lawyer, should have had little or no
+practice, provided only that, when the practice
+did come, the young lawyer had shown himself to
+have been a good one. It is precisely this
+honor
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+which, during the past seventy years, has been
+denied him. Upon the evidence thus far most
+prominently before the public, one is compelled to
+conceive of him as having been destitute of nearly
+all the qualifications of a good lawyer, excepting
+those which give success with juries, particularly
+in criminal practice: he is represented as ignorant
+of the law, indolent, and grossly negligent of business,&mdash;with
+nothing, in fact, to give him the least
+success in the profession but an abnormal and
+quite unaccountable gift of persuasion through
+speech.</p>
+
+<p>Referring to this period of his life, Wirt says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Of the science of law he knew almost nothing; of
+the practical part he was so wholly ignorant that he was
+not only unable to draw a declaration or a plea, but incapable,
+it is said, of the most common or simple business
+of his profession, even of the mode of ordering a
+suit, giving a notice, or making a motion in
+court.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor29" id="FNanchor29"></a><a href="#Footnote-29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This conception of Henry&#8217;s professional character,
+to which Wirt seems to have come reluctantly, was
+founded, as is now evident, on the long-suppressed
+memorandum of Jefferson, who therein states that,
+after failing in merchandise, Patrick &#8220;turned his
+views to the law, for the acquisition or practice of
+which however, he was too lazy. Whenever the
+courts were closed for the winter session, he would
+make up a party of poor hunters of his neighborhood,
+would go off with them to the piny woods of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+Fluvanna, and pass weeks in hunting deer, of
+which he was passionately fond, sleeping under a
+tent before a fire, wearing the same shirt the whole
+time, and covering all the dirt of his dress with
+a hunting-shirt. He never undertook to draw
+pleadings, if he could avoid it, or to manage that
+part of a cause, and very unwillingly engaged but
+as an assistant to speak in the cause. And the
+fee was an indispensable preliminary, observing to
+the applicant that he kept no accounts, never putting
+pen to paper, which was true.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor30" id="FNanchor30"></a><a href="#Footnote-30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
+
+<p>The last sentence of this passage, in which Jefferson
+declares that it was true that Henry &#8220;kept
+no accounts, never putting pen to paper,&#8221; is, of
+course, now utterly set aside by the discovery of
+the precious fee-books; and these orderly and circumstantial
+records almost as completely annihilate
+the trustworthiness of all the rest of the passage.
+Let us consider, for example, Jefferson&#8217;s statement
+that for the acquisition of the law, or for the practice
+of it, Henry was too lazy, and that much of
+the time between the sessions of the courts was
+passed by him in deer-hunting in the woods.
+Confining ourselves to the first three and a half
+years of his actual practice, in which, by the record,
+his practice was the smallest that he ever had,
+it is not easy for one to understand how a mere
+novice in the profession, and one so perfectly ignorant
+of its most rudimental forms, could have
+earned, during that brief period, the fees which he
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+charged in 1185 suits, and in the preparation of
+many legal papers out of court, and still have been
+seriously addicted to laziness. Indeed, if so much
+legal business could have been transacted within
+three years and a half, by a lawyer who, besides
+being young and incompetent, was also extremely
+lazy, and greatly preferred to go off to the woods
+and hunt for deer while his clients were left to
+hunt in vain for him, it becomes an interesting
+question just how much legal business we ought to
+expect to be done by a young lawyer who was not
+incompetent, was not lazy, and had no inordinate
+fondness for deer-hunting. It happens that young
+Thomas Jefferson himself was just such a lawyer.
+He began practice exactly seven years after Patrick
+Henry, and at precisely the same time of life,
+though under external circumstances far more favorable.
+As a proof of his uncommon zeal and success
+in the profession, his biographer, Randall,
+cites from Jefferson&#8217;s fee-books the number of
+cases in which he was employed until he was finally
+drawn off from the law into political life. Oddly
+enough, for the first four years of his practice,
+the cases registered by Jefferson<a name="FNanchor31" id="FNanchor31"></a><a href="#Footnote-31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> number, in all,
+but 504. It should be mentioned that this number,
+as it includes only Jefferson&#8217;s cases in the
+General Court, does not indicate all the business
+done by him during those first four years; and
+yet, even with this allowance, we are left standing
+rather helpless before the problem presented by
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+the fact that this competent and diligent young
+lawyer&mdash;whom, forsooth, the rustling leaves of
+the forest could never for once entice from the
+rustle of the leaves of his law-books&mdash;did nevertheless
+transact, during his own first four years of
+practice, probably less than one half as much business
+as seems to have been done during a somewhat
+shorter space of time by our poor, ignorant,
+indolent, slovenly, client-shunning and forest-haunting
+Patrick.</p>
+
+<p>But, if Jefferson&#8217;s charge of professional indolence
+and neglect on the part of his early friend
+fares rather ill when tested by those minute and
+plodding records of his professional employments
+which were kept by Patrick Henry, a fate not
+much more prosperous overtakes Jefferson&#8217;s other
+charge,&mdash;that of professional incompetence. It
+is more than intimated by Jefferson that, even had
+Patrick been disposed to engage in a general law
+practice, he did not know enough to do so successfully
+by reason of his ignorance of the most ordinary
+legal principles and legal forms. But the
+intellectual embarrassment which one experiences
+in trying to accept this view of Patrick Henry
+arises from the simple fact that these incorrigible
+fee-books show that it was precisely this general
+law practice that he did engage in, both in court
+and out of court; a practice only a small portion
+of which was criminal, the larger part of it consisting
+of the ordinary suits in country litigation; a
+practice which certainly involved the drawing of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+pleadings, and the preparation of many sorts of
+legal papers; a practice, moreover, which he seems
+to have acquired with extraordinary rapidity, and
+to have maintained with increasing success as long
+as he cared for it. These are items of history
+which are likely to burden the ordinary reader
+with no little perplexity,&mdash;a perplexity the elements
+of which are thus modestly stated by a living
+grandson of Patrick Henry: &#8220;How he acquired or
+retained a practice so large and continually increasing,
+so perfectly unfit for it as Mr. Jefferson
+represents him, I am at a loss to understand.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor32" id="FNanchor32"></a><a href="#Footnote-32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p>
+
+<p>As we go further in the study of this man&#8217;s life,
+we shall have before us ample materials for dealing
+still further and still more definitely with the
+subject of his professional character, as that character
+itself became developed and matured. Meantime,
+however, the evidence already in view seems
+quite enough to enable us to form a tolerably clear
+notion of the sort of lawyer he was down to the
+end of 1763, which may be regarded as the period
+of his novitiate at the bar. It is perfectly evident
+that, at the time of his admission to the bar, he
+knew very little of the law, either in its principles
+or in its forms: he knew no more than could have
+been learned by a young man of genius in the
+course of four weeks in the study of Coke upon
+Littleton, and of the laws of Virginia. If, now,
+we are at liberty to suppose that his study of the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+law then ceased, we may accept the view of his
+professional incompetence held up by Jefferson;
+but precisely that is what we are not at liberty to
+suppose. All the evidence, fairly sifted, warrants
+the belief that, on his return to Hanover with his
+license to practice law, he used the next few months
+in the further study of it; and that thenceforward,
+just so fast as professional business came to his
+hands, he tried to qualify himself to do that business,
+and to do it so well that his clients should
+be inclined to come to him again in case of need.
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s is not the first case, neither is it
+the last one, of a man coming to the bar miserably
+unqualified for its duties, but afterward becoming
+well qualified. We need not imagine, we do not
+imagine, that he ever became a man of great learning
+in the law; but we do find it impossible to
+believe that he continued to be a man of great
+ignorance in it. The law, indeed, is the one profession
+on earth in which such success as he is
+proved to have had, is impossible to such incompetence
+as he is said to have had. Moreover, in
+trying to form a just idea of Patrick Henry, it is
+never safe to forget that we have to do with a man
+of genius, and that the ways by which a man of
+genius reaches his results are necessarily his own,&mdash;are
+often invisible, are always somewhat mysterious,
+to the rest of us. The genius of Patrick
+Henry was powerful, intuitive, swift; by a glance
+of the eye he could take in what an ordinary man
+might spend hours in toiling for; his memory held
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+whatever was once committed to it; all his resources
+were at instant command; his faculty for
+debate, his imagination, humor, tact, diction, elocution,
+were rich and exquisite; he was also a man
+of human and friendly ways, whom all men loved,
+and whom all men wanted to help; and it would
+not have been strange if he actually fitted himself
+for the successful practice of such law business as
+was then to be had in Virginia, and actually entered
+upon its successful practice with a quickness
+the exact processes of which were unperceived even
+by his nearest neighbors.</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-18" id="Footnote-18"></a><a href="#FNanchor18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Wirt, 16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-19" id="Footnote-19"></a><a href="#FNanchor19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Curtis, <i>Life of Webster</i>, i. 584.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-20" id="Footnote-20"></a><a href="#FNanchor20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> First printed in the Philadelphia <i>Age</i>, in 1867; and again
+printed, from the original manuscript, in <i>The Historical Magazine</i>,
+August, 1867, 90-93. I quote from the latter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-21" id="Footnote-21"></a><a href="#FNanchor21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Jefferson&#8217;s memorandum, <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for August, 1867, 90.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-22" id="Footnote-22"></a><a href="#FNanchor22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Wirt, 16, 17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-23" id="Footnote-23"></a><a href="#FNanchor23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Curtis, <i>Life of Webster</i>, i. 584.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-24" id="Footnote-24"></a><a href="#FNanchor24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> McMaster, <i>Hist. of U. S.</i> i. 489.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-25" id="Footnote-25"></a><a href="#FNanchor25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> I have carefully examined this testimony, which is still in
+manuscript.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-26" id="Footnote-26"></a><a href="#FNanchor26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Judge Winston, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-27" id="Footnote-27"></a><a href="#FNanchor27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Wirt, 18, 19.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-28" id="Footnote-28"></a><a href="#FNanchor28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> These fee-books are now in the possession of Mr. William
+Wirt Henry, of Richmond.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-29" id="Footnote-29"></a><a href="#FNanchor29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Wirt, 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-30" id="Footnote-30"></a><a href="#FNanchor30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1867, 93.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-31" id="Footnote-31"></a><a href="#FNanchor31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 47, 48.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-32" id="Footnote-32"></a><a href="#FNanchor32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> William Wirt Henry, <i>Character and Public Career of Patrick
+Henry</i>, 3.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IV <br />
+<span class="hsub">A CELEBRATED CASE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Thus Patrick Henry had been for nearly four
+years in the practice of the law, with a vigor and a
+success quite extraordinary, when, late in the year
+1763, he became concerned in a case so charged
+with popular interest, and so well suited to the
+display of his own marvellous genius as an advocate,
+as to make both him and his case immediately
+celebrated.</p>
+
+<p>The side upon which he was retained happened
+to be the wrong side,&mdash;wrong both in law and in
+equity; having only this element of strength in it,
+namely, that by a combination of circumstances
+there were enlisted in its favor precisely those
+passions of the multitude which are the most selfish,
+the most blinding, and at the same time the
+most energetic. It only needed an advocate skilful
+enough to play effectively upon these passions,
+and a storm would be raised before which mere
+considerations of law and of equity would be swept
+out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand the real issue presented
+by &#8220;the Parsons&#8217; Cause,&#8221; and consequently the
+essential weakness of the side to the service of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+which our young lawyer was now summoned, we
+shall need to turn about and take a brief tour into
+the earlier history of Virginia. In that colony,
+from the beginning, the Church of England was
+established by law, and was supported, like any
+other institution of the government, by revenues
+derived from taxation,&mdash;taxation levied in this
+case upon nearly all persons in the colony above
+the age of sixteen years. Moreover, those local
+subdivisions which, in the Northern colonies, were
+called towns, in Virginia were called parishes; and
+accordingly, in the latter, the usual local officers
+who manage the public business for each civil
+neighborhood were called, not selectmen or supervisors,
+as at the North, but vestrymen. Among
+the functions conferred by the law upon these local
+officers in Virginia was that of hiring the rector or
+minister, and of paying him his salary; and the
+same authority which gave to the vestry this power
+fixed likewise the precise amount of salary which
+they were to pay. Ever since the early days of
+the colony, this amount had been stated, not in
+money, which hardly existed there, but in tobacco,
+which was the staple of the colony. Sometimes
+the market value of tobacco would be very low,&mdash;so
+low that the portion paid to the minister would
+yield a sum quite insufficient for his support; and
+on such occasions, prior to 1692, the parishes had
+often kindly made up for such depreciation by
+voluntarily paying an extra quantity of tobacco.<a name="FNanchor33" id="FNanchor33"></a><a href="#Footnote-33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+After 1692, however, for reasons which need not
+now be detailed, this generous custom seems to
+have disappeared. For example, from 1709 to
+1714, the price of tobacco was so low as to make
+its shipment to England, in many instances, a
+positive loss to its owner; while the sale of it on
+the spot was so disadvantageous as to reduce the
+minister&#8217;s salary to about &pound;25 a year, as reckoned
+in the depreciated paper currency of the colony.
+Of course, during those years, the distress of the
+clergy was very great; but, whatever it may have
+been, they were permitted to bear it, without any
+suggestion, either from the legislature or from the
+vestries, looking toward the least addition to the
+quantity of tobacco then to be paid them. On
+the other hand, from 1714 to 1720, the price of
+tobacco rose considerably above the average, and
+did something towards making up to the clergy the
+losses which they had recently incurred. Then,
+again, from 1720 to 1724, tobacco fell to the low
+price of the former period, and of course with the
+same results of unrelieved loss to the clergy.<a name="FNanchor34" id="FNanchor34"></a><a href="#Footnote-34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>
+Thus, however, in the process of time, there had
+become established, in the fiscal relations of each
+vestry to its minister, a rough but obvious system
+of fair play. When the price of tobacco was
+down, the parson was expected to suffer the loss;
+when the price of tobacco was up, he was allowed
+to enjoy the gain. Probably it did not then occur
+to any one that a majority of the good people of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+Virginia could ever be brought to demand such a
+mutilation of justice as would be involved in depriving
+the parson of the occasional advantage of
+a very good market, and of making up for this by
+always leaving to him the undisturbed enjoyment
+of every occasional bad one. Yet it was just this
+mutilation of justice which, only a few years later,
+a majority of the good people of Virginia were
+actually brought to demand, and which, by the
+youthful genius of Patrick Henry, they were too
+well aided in effecting.</p>
+
+<p>Returning now from our brief tour into a period
+of Virginian history just prior to that upon which
+we are at present engaged, we find ourselves arrived
+at the year 1748, in which year the legislature
+of Virginia, revising all previous regulations
+respecting the hiring and paying of the clergy,
+passed an act, directing that every parish minister
+should &#8220;receive an annual salary of 16,000 pounds
+of tobacco, &hellip; to be levied, assessed, collected,
+and paid&#8221; by the vestry. &#8220;And if the vestry of
+any parish&#8221; should &#8220;neglect or refuse to levy the
+tobacco due to the minister,&#8221; they should &#8220;be liable
+to the action of the party grieved &hellip; for
+all damages which he &hellip; shall sustain by such
+refusal or
+neglect.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor35" id="FNanchor35"></a><a href="#Footnote-35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>
+This act of the colonial legislature,
+having been duly approved by the king,
+became a law, and consequently was not liable to
+repeal or even to suspension except by the king&#8217;s
+approval. Thus, at the period now reached, there
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+was between every vestry and its minister a valid
+contract for the annual payment, by the former to
+the latter, of that particular quantity of tobacco,&mdash;the
+clergy to take their chances as to the market
+value of the product from year to year.</p>
+
+<p>Thus matters ran on until 1755, when, by reason
+of a diminished crop of tobacco, the legislature
+passed an option
+law,<a name="FNanchor36" id="FNanchor36"></a><a href="#Footnote-36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>
+virtually suspending for
+the next ten months the Act of 1748, and requiring
+the clergy, at the option of the vestries, to
+receive their salaries for that year, not in tobacco,
+but in the depreciated paper currency of the colony,
+at the rate of two pence for each pound of
+tobacco due,&mdash;a price somewhat below the market
+value of the article for that year. Most clearly
+this act, which struck an arbitrary blow at the
+validity of all contracts in Virginia, was one which
+exceeded the constitutional authority of the legislature;
+since it suspended, without the royal approval,
+a law which had been regularly ratified by
+the king. However, the operation of this act was
+shrewdly limited to ten months,&mdash;a period just
+long enough to accomplish its object, but too short
+for the royal intervention against it to be of any
+direct avail. Under these circumstances, the clergy
+bore their losses for that year with some murmuring
+indeed, but without any formal
+protest.<a name="FNanchor37" id="FNanchor37"></a><a href="#Footnote-37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>Just three years afterward, in 1758, the legislature,
+with even less excuse than before, passed an
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+act<a name="FNanchor38" id="FNanchor38"></a><a href="#Footnote-38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>
+similar to that of 1755,&mdash;its force, however,
+being limited to twelve months. The operation of
+this act, as affecting each parish minister, may be
+conveyed in very few words. In lieu of what was
+due him under the law for his year&#8217;s services,
+namely, 16,000 pounds of tobacco, the market
+value of which for the year in question proved to
+be about &pound;400 sterling, it compelled him to take,
+in the paper money of the colony, the sum of about
+&pound;133. To make matters still worse, while the
+tobacco which was due him was an instant and an
+advantageous medium of exchange everywhere,
+and especially in England whence nearly all his
+merchant supplies were obtained, this paper money
+that was forced upon him was a depreciated currency
+even within the colony, and absolutely worthless
+outside of it; so that the poor parson, who
+could never demand his salary for any year until
+six full months after its close, would have proffered
+to him, at the end, perhaps, of another six months,
+just one third of the nominal sum due him, and
+that in a species of money of no value at all except
+in Virginia, and even in Virginia of a purchasing
+value not exceeding that of &pound;20 sterling in
+England.<a name="FNanchor39" id="FNanchor39"></a><a href="#Footnote-39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>Nor, in justification of such a measure, could it
+be truthfully said that there was at that time in
+the colony any general &#8220;dearth and
+scarcity,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor40" id="FNanchor40"></a><a href="#Footnote-40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>
+or
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+any such public distress of any sort as might overrule
+the ordinary maxims of justice, and excuse,
+in the name of humanity, a merely technical violation
+of law. As a matter of fact, the only &#8220;dearth
+and scarcity&#8221; in Virginia that year was &#8220;confined
+to one or two counties on James River, and that
+entirely owing to their own
+fault;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor41" id="FNanchor41"></a><a href="#Footnote-41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>
+wherever
+there was any failure of the tobacco crop, it was
+due to the killing of the plants so early in the
+spring, that such land did not need to lie uncultivated,
+and in most cases was planted &#8220;in corn and
+pease, which always turned to good
+account;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor42" id="FNanchor42"></a><a href="#Footnote-42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>
+and although, for the whole colony, the crop of
+tobacco &#8220;was short in quantity,&#8221; yet &#8220;in cash
+value it proved to be the best crop that Virginia
+had ever had&#8221; since the settlement of the
+colony.<a name="FNanchor43" id="FNanchor43"></a><a href="#Footnote-43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>
+Finally, it was by no means the welfare of the
+poor that &#8220;was the object, or the effect, of the
+law;&#8221; but it was &#8220;the rich planters&#8221; who, first
+selling their tobacco at about fifty shillings the
+hundred, and then paying to the clergy and others
+their tobacco debts at the rate of sixteen shillings
+the hundred, were &#8220;the chief gainers&#8221; by the
+act.<a name="FNanchor44" id="FNanchor44"></a><a href="#Footnote-44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>Such, then, in all its fresh and unadorned rascality,
+was the famous &#8220;option law,&#8221; or &#8220;two-penny
+act,&#8221; of 1758: an act firmly opposed, on its
+first appearance in the legislature, by a noble
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+minority of honorable men; an act clearly indicating
+among a portion of the people of Virginia a
+survival of the old robber instincts of our Norse
+ancestors; an act having there the sort of frantic
+popularity that all laws are likely to have which
+give a dishonest advantage to the debtor class,&mdash;and
+in Virginia, unfortunately, on the subject of
+salaries due to the clergy, nearly all persons above
+sixteen years of age belonged to that
+class.<a name="FNanchor45" id="FNanchor45"></a><a href="#Footnote-45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>At the time when this act was before the legislature
+for consideration, the clergy applied for a
+hearing, but were refused. Upon its passage by
+the two houses, the clergy applied to the acting
+governor, hoping to obtain his disapproval of the
+act; but his reply was an unblushing avowal of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+his determination to pursue any course, right or
+wrong, which would bring him popular favor.
+They then sent one of their own number to England,
+for the purpose of soliciting the royal disallowance
+of the act. After a full hearing of both
+sides, the privy council gave it as their opinion
+that the clergy of Virginia had their &#8220;certain
+remedy at law;&#8221; Lord Hardwicke, in particular,
+declaring that &#8220;there was no occasion to dispute
+about the authority by which the act was passed;
+for that no court in the judicature whatever could
+look upon it to be law, by reason of its manifest
+injustice
+alone.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor46" id="FNanchor46"></a><a href="#Footnote-46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a>
+Accordingly, the royal disallowance
+was granted. Upon the arrival in Virginia
+of these tidings, several of the clergy began
+suits against their respective vestries, for the purpose
+of compelling them to pay the amounts then
+legally due upon their salaries for the year 1758.</p>
+
+<p>Of these suits, the first to come to trial was that
+of the Rev. Thomas Warrington, in the County
+Court of Elizabeth City. In that case, &#8220;a jury
+of his own parishioners found for him considerable
+damages, allowing on their oaths that there was
+above twice as much justly due to him as the act
+had granted;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor47" id="FNanchor47"></a><a href="#Footnote-47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a>
+but &#8220;the court hindered him from
+immediately coming at the damages, by judging
+the act to be law, in which it is thought they were
+influenced more by the fear of giving offense to
+their superiors, than by their own opinion of the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+reasonableness of the act,&mdash;they privately professing
+that they thought the parson ought to have
+his right.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor48" id="FNanchor48"></a><a href="#Footnote-48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>Soon afterward came to trial, in the court of
+King William County, the suit of the Rev. Alexander
+White, rector of St. David&#8217;s parish. In
+this case, the court, instead of either sustaining or
+rejecting the disallowed act, simply shirked their
+responsibility, &#8220;refused to meddle in the matter,
+and insisted on leaving the whole affair to the
+jury;&#8221; who being thus freed from all judicial control,
+straightway rendered a verdict of neat and
+comprehensive lawlessness: &#8220;We bring in for the
+defendant.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor49" id="FNanchor49"></a><a href="#Footnote-49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>It was at this stage of affairs that the court of
+Hanover County reached the case of the Rev.
+James Maury, rector of Fredericksville parish,
+Louisa; and the court, having before it the evidence
+of the royal disallowance of the Act of 1758,
+squarely &#8220;adjudged the act to be no law.&#8221; Of
+course, under this decision, but one result seemed
+possible. As the court had thus rejected the validity
+of the act whereby the vestry had withheld
+from their parson two thirds of his salary for the
+year 1758, it only remained to summon a special
+jury on a writ of inquiry to determine the damages
+thus sustained by the parson; and as this was a
+very simple question of arithmetic, the counsel for
+the defendants expressed his desire to withdraw
+from the case.
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<p>Such was the situation, when these defendants,
+having been assured by their counsel that all further
+struggle would be hopeless, turned for help
+to the enterprising young lawyer who, in that very
+place, had been for the previous three and a half
+years pushing his way to notice in his profession.
+To him, accordingly, they brought their cause,&mdash;a
+desperate cause, truly,&mdash;a cause already lost
+and abandoned by veteran and eminent counsel.
+Undoubtedly, by the ethics of his profession, Patrick
+Henry was bound to accept the retainer that
+was thus tendered him; and, undoubtedly, by the
+organization of his own mind, having once accepted
+that retainer, he was likely to devote to the cause
+no tepid or half-hearted service.</p>
+
+<p>The decision of the court, which has been referred
+to, was rendered at its November session.
+On the first day of the session in December, the
+order was executed for summoning a select jury
+&#8220;to examine whether the plaintiff had sustained
+any damages, and
+what.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor50" id="FNanchor50"></a><a href="#Footnote-50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>
+Obviously, in the determination
+of these two questions, much would
+depend on the personal composition of the jury;
+and it is apparent that this matter was diligently
+attended to by the sheriff. His plan seems to
+have been to secure a good, honest jury of twelve
+adult male persons, but without having among
+them a single one of those over-scrupulous and
+intractable people who, in Virginia, at that time,
+were still technically described as gentlemen.
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+With what delicacy and efficiency he managed this
+part of the business was thus described shortly afterward
+by the plaintiff, of course a deeply interested
+eye-witness:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The sheriff went into a public room full of gentlemen,
+and told his errand. One excused himself &hellip; as
+having already given his opinion in a similar case. On
+this, &hellip; he immediately left the room, without summoning
+any one person there. He afterwards met another
+gentleman &hellip; on the green, and, on saying he
+was not fit to serve, being a church warden, he took upon
+himself to excuse him, too, and, as far as I can learn
+made no further attempts to summon gentlemen.&hellip; Hence
+he went among the vulgar herd. After he had
+selected and set down upon his list about eight or ten of
+these, I met him with it in his hand, and on looking
+over it, observed to him that they were not such jurors
+as the court had directed him to get,&mdash;being people of
+whom I had never heard before, except one whom, I told
+him, he knew to be a party in the cause.&hellip; Yet this
+man&#8217;s name was not erased. He was even called in
+court, and had he not excused himself, would probably
+have been admitted. For I cannot recollect that the
+court expressed either surprise or dislike that a more
+proper jury had not been summoned. Nay, though I
+objected against them, yet, as Patrick Henry, one of the
+defendants&#8217; lawyers, insisted they were honest men, and,
+therefore, unexceptionable, they were immediately called
+to the book and
+sworn.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor51" id="FNanchor51"></a><a href="#Footnote-51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having thus secured a jury that must have been
+reasonably satisfactory to the defendants, the hearing
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+began. Two gentlemen, being the largest purchasers
+of tobacco in the county, were then sworn
+as witnesses to prove the market price of the article
+in 1759. By their testimony it was established
+that the price was then more than three times as
+much as had been estimated in the payment of
+paper money actually made to the plaintiff in that
+year. Upon this state of facts, &#8220;the lawyers on
+both sides&#8221; proceeded to display &#8220;the force and
+weight of the evidence;&#8221; after which the case was
+given to the jury. &#8220;In less than five minutes,&#8221;
+they &#8220;brought in a verdict for the plaintiff,&mdash;one
+penny damages.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor52" id="FNanchor52"></a><a href="#Footnote-52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>Just how the jury were induced, in the face of
+the previous judgment of that very court, to render
+this astounding verdict, has been described in
+two narratives: one by William Wirt, written
+about fifty years after the event; the other by the
+injured plaintiff himself, the Rev. James Maury,
+written exactly twelve days after the event. Few
+things touching the life of Patrick Henry can be
+more notable or more instructive than the contrast
+presented by these two narratives.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the scene of action, on the 1st of
+December, Patrick Henry &#8220;found,&#8221; says Wirt,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;on the courtyard such a concourse as would have appalled
+any other man in his situation. They were not people
+of the county merely who were there, but visitors from
+all the counties to a considerable distance around. The
+decision upon the demurrer had produced a violent ferment
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+among the people, and equal exultation on the
+part of the clergy, who attended the court in a large
+body, either to look down opposition, or to enjoy the
+final triumph of this hard fought contest, which they
+now considered as perfectly secure.&hellip; Soon after the
+opening of the court the cause was called.&hellip; The
+array before Mr. Henry&#8217;s eyes was now most fearful.
+On the bench sat more than twenty clergymen, the most
+learned men in the colony.&hellip; The courthouse was
+crowded with an overwhelming multitude, and surrounded
+with an immense and anxious throng, who, not
+finding room to enter, were endeavoring to listen without
+in the deepest attention. But there was something
+still more awfully disconcerting than all this; for in the
+chair of the presiding magistrate sat no other person
+than his own father. Mr. Lyons opened the cause very
+briefly.&hellip; And now came on the first trial of Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s strength. No one had ever heard him
+speak,<a name="FNanchor53" id="FNanchor53"></a><a href="#Footnote-53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a>
+and curiosity was on tiptoe. He rose very awkwardly,
+and faltered much in his exordium. The people hung
+their heads at so unpromising a commencement; the
+clergy were observed to exchange sly looks with each
+other; and his father is described as having almost
+sunk with confusion, from his seat. But these feelings
+were of short duration, and soon gave place to others
+of a very different character. For now were those wonderful
+faculties which he possessed, for the first time
+developed; and now was first witnessed that mysterious
+and almost supernatural transformation of appearance,
+which the fire of his own eloquence never failed to work
+in him. For as his mind rolled along, and began to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+glow from its own action, all the exuvi&aelig; of the clown
+seemed to shed themselves spontaneously. His attitude,
+by degrees, became erect and lofty. The spirit of his
+genius awakened all his features. His countenance
+shone with a nobleness and grandeur which it had never
+before exhibited. There was a lightning in his eyes
+which seemed to rive the spectator. His action became
+graceful, bold, and commanding; and in the tones of
+his voice, but more especially in his emphasis, there was
+a peculiar charm, a magic, of which any one who ever
+heard him will speak as soon as he is named, but of
+which no one can give any adequate description. They
+can only say that it struck upon the ear and upon the
+heart, in a manner which language cannot tell. Add to
+all these, his wonder-working fancy, and the peculiar
+phraseology in which he clothed its images: for he
+painted to the heart with a force that almost petrified it.
+In the language of those who heard him on this occasion,
+&#8216;he made their blood run cold, and their hair to
+rise on end.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It will not be difficult for any one who ever heard
+this most extraordinary man, to believe the whole account
+of this transaction which is given by his surviving
+hearers; and from their account, the court house of
+Hanover County must have exhibited, on this occasion,
+a scene as picturesque as has been ever witnessed in
+real life. They say that the people, whose countenance
+had fallen as he arose, had heard but a very few sentences
+before they began to look up; then to look at
+each other with surprise, as if doubting the evidence
+of their own senses; then, attracted by some strong gesture,
+struck by some majestic attitude, fascinated by the
+spell of his eye, the charm of his emphasis, and the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+varied and commanding expression of his countenance,
+they could look away no more. In less than twenty
+minutes, they might be seen in every part of the house,
+on every bench, in every window, stooping forward from
+their stands, in death-like silence; their features fixed
+in amazement and awe; all their senses listening and
+riveted upon the speaker, as if to catch the least strain
+of some heavenly visitant. The mockery of the clergy
+was soon turned into alarm; their triumph into confusion
+and despair; and at one burst of his rapid and
+overwhelming invective, they fled from the house in precipitation
+and terror. As for the father, such was his
+surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that, forgetting
+where he was, and the character which he was
+filling, tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks, without
+the power or inclination to repress them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The jury seem to have been so completely bewildered,
+that they lost sight not only of the Act of 1748,
+but that of 1758 also; for, thoughtless even of the admitted
+right of the plaintiff, they had scarcely left the
+bar, when they returned with a verdict of one penny
+damages. A motion was made for a new trial; but the
+court, too, had now lost the equipoise of their judgment,
+and overruled the motion by an unanimous vote. The
+verdict and judgment overruling the motion were followed
+by redoubled acclamations, from within and without
+the house. The people, who had with difficulty
+kept their hands off their champion from the moment
+of closing his harangue, no sooner saw the fate of the
+cause finally sealed, than they seized him at the bar;
+and in spite of his own exertions, and the continued cry
+of order from the sheriffs and the court, they bore him
+out of the courthouse, and raising him on their shoulders,
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+carried him about the yard, in a kind of electioneering
+triumph.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor54" id="FNanchor54"></a><a href="#Footnote-54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the time when Wirt wrote this rhapsody, he
+was unable, as he tells us, to procure from any
+quarter a rational account of the line of argument
+taken by Patrick Henry, or even of any other than
+a single topic alluded to by him in the course of
+his speech,&mdash;they who heard the speech saying
+&#8220;that when it was over, they felt as if they had
+just awaked from some ecstatic dream, of which
+they were unable to recall or connect the
+particulars.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor55" id="FNanchor55"></a><a href="#Footnote-55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>There was present in that assemblage, however,
+at least one person who listened to the young orator
+without falling into an ecstatic dream, and whose
+senses were so well preserved to him through it all
+that he was able, a few days afterward, while the
+whole occasion was fresh in his memory, to place
+upon record a clear and connected version of the
+wonder-working speech. This version is to be
+found in a letter written by the plaintiff on the
+12th of December, 1763, and has been brought to
+light only within recent years.</p>
+
+<p>After giving, for the benefit of the learned
+counsel by whom the cause was to be managed, on
+appeal, in the general court, a lucid and rather
+critical account of the whole proceeding, Maury
+adds:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;One occurrence more, though not essential to the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+cause, I can&#8217;t help mentioning.&hellip; Mr. Henry, mentioned
+above (who had been called in by the defendants,
+as we suspected, to do what I some time ago told you
+of), after Mr. Lyons had opened the cause, rose and
+harangued the jury for near an hour. This harangue
+turned upon points as much out of his own depth, and
+that of the jury, as they were foreign from the purpose,&mdash;which
+it would be impertinent to mention here.
+However, after he had discussed those points, he labored
+to prove &#8216;that the Act of 1758 had every characteristic
+of a good law; that it was a law of general utility,
+and could not, consistently with what he called the
+original compact between the king and people &hellip; be
+annulled.&#8217; Hence he inferred, &#8216;that a king, by disallowing
+acts of this salutary nature, from being the father
+of his people, degenerated into a tyrant, and forfeits
+all right to his subjects&#8217; obedience.&#8217; He further urged
+&#8216;that the only use of an established church and clergy
+in society, is to enforce obedience to civil sanctions, and
+the observance of those which are called duties of imperfect
+obligation; that when a clergy ceases to answer
+these ends, the community have no further need of their
+ministry, and may justly strip them of their appointments;
+that the clergy of Virginia, in this particular
+instance of their refusing to acquiesce in the law in question,
+had been so far from answering, that they had
+most notoriously counteracted, those great ends of their
+institution; that, therefore, instead of useful members
+of the state, they ought to be considered as enemies of
+the community; and that, in the case now before them,
+Mr. Maury, instead of countenance, and protection, and
+damages, very justly deserved to be punished with signal
+severity.&#8217; And then he perorates to the following
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+purpose, &#8216;that excepting they (the jury) were disposed
+to rivet the chains of bondage on their own necks, he
+hoped they would not let slip the opportunity which
+now offered, of making such an example of him as
+might, hereafter, be a warning to himself and his brethren,
+not to have the temerity, for the future, to dispute
+the validity of such laws, authenticated by the only authority
+which, in his conception, could give force to laws
+for the government of this colony,&mdash;the authority of a
+legal representative of a council, and of a kind and benevolent
+and patriot governor.&#8217; You&#8217;ll observe I do
+not pretend to remember his words, but take this to
+have been the sum and substance of this part of his
+labored oration. When he came to that part of it where
+he undertook to assert &#8216;that a king, by annulling or disallowing
+acts of so salutary a nature, from being the
+father of his people, degenerated into a tyrant, and forfeits
+all right to his subjects&#8217; obedience,&#8217; the more sober
+part of the audience were struck with horror. Mr.
+Lyons called out aloud, and with an honest warmth, to
+the Bench, &#8216;that the gentleman had spoken treason,&#8217;
+and expressed his astonishment, &#8216;that their worships
+could hear it without emotion, or any mark of dissatisfaction.&#8217;
+At the same instant, too, amongst some gentlemen
+in the crowd behind me, was a confused murmur
+of &#8216;treason, treason!&#8217; Yet Mr. Henry went on in
+the same treasonable and licentious strain, without interruption
+from the Bench, nay, even without receiving the
+least exterior notice of their disapprobation. One of
+the jury, too, was so highly pleased with these doctrines,
+that, as I was afterwards told, he every now and then
+gave the traitorous declaimer a nod of approbation. After
+the court was adjourned, he apologized to me for what he
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+had said, alleging that his sole view in engaging in the
+cause, and in saying what he had, was to render himself
+popular. You see, then, it is so clear a point in this
+person&#8217;s opinion that the ready road to popularity here
+is to trample under foot the interests of religion, the
+rights of the church, and the prerogatives of the
+crown.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor56" id="FNanchor56"></a><a href="#Footnote-56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-33" id="Footnote-33"></a><a href="#FNanchor33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> i. 12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-34" id="Footnote-34"></a><a href="#FNanchor34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> 316, 317.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-35" id="Footnote-35"></a><a href="#FNanchor35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Hening, <i>Statutes at Large</i>, vi. 88, 89.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-36" id="Footnote-36"></a><a href="#FNanchor36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> vi. 568, 569.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-37" id="Footnote-37"></a><a href="#FNanchor37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> i. 508, 509.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-38" id="Footnote-38"></a><a href="#FNanchor38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Hening, <i>Statutes at Large</i>, vii. 240, 241.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-39" id="Footnote-39"></a><a href="#FNanchor39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> i. 467, 468.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-40" id="Footnote-40"></a><a href="#FNanchor40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> As was alleged in Richard Bland&#8217;s <i>Letter to the Clergy</i>, 17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-41" id="Footnote-41"></a><a href="#FNanchor41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> i. 467.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-42" id="Footnote-42"></a><a href="#FNanchor42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 466.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-43" id="Footnote-43"></a><a href="#FNanchor43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 465, 466.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-44" id="Footnote-44"></a><a href="#FNanchor44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Meade, <i>Old Families of Virginia</i>, i. 223.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-45" id="Footnote-45"></a><a href="#FNanchor45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> In the account here given of these Virginia &#8220;option laws,&#8221;
+I have been obliged, by lack of space, to give somewhat curtly
+the bald results of rather careful studies which I have made upon
+the question in all accessible documents of the period; and I have
+not been at liberty to state many things, on both sides of the question,
+which would be necessary to a complete discussion of the
+subject. For instance, among the motives to be mentioned for
+the popularity of laws whose chief effects were to diminish the
+pay of the established clergy, should be considered those connected
+with a growing dissent from the established church in Virginia,
+and particularly with the very human dislike which even
+churchmen might have to paying in the form of a compulsory tax
+what they would have cheerfully paid in the form of a voluntary
+contribution. Perhaps the best modern defense of these laws is
+by A. H. Everett, in his <i>Life of Henry</i>, 230-233; but his statements
+seem to be founded on imperfect information. Wirt, publishing
+his opinion under the responsibility of his great professional
+and official position, affirms that on the whole question,
+&#8220;the clergy had much the best of the argument.&#8221; <i>Life of Henry,</i>
+22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-46" id="Footnote-46"></a><a href="#FNanchor46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> i. 510.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-47" id="Footnote-47"></a><a href="#FNanchor47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 513, 514.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-48" id="Footnote-48"></a><a href="#FNanchor48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 496, 497.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-49" id="Footnote-49"></a><a href="#FNanchor49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> i. 497.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-50" id="Footnote-50"></a><a href="#FNanchor50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Maury, <i>Mem. of a Huguenot Family</i>, 419.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-51" id="Footnote-51"></a><a href="#FNanchor51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Maury, <i>Mem. of a Huguenot Family</i>, 419, 420.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-52" id="Footnote-52"></a><a href="#FNanchor52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 420.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-53" id="Footnote-53"></a><a href="#FNanchor53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> This cannot be true except in the sense that he had never before
+spoken to such an assemblage or in any great cause.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-54" id="Footnote-54"></a><a href="#FNanchor54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Wirt, 23-27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-55" id="Footnote-55"></a><a href="#FNanchor55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-56" id="Footnote-56"></a><a href="#FNanchor56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Maury, <i>Mem. of a Huguenot Family</i>, 418-424, where the entire
+letter is given in print for the first time.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER V <br />
+<span class="hsub">FIRST TRIUMPHS AT THE CAPITAL</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>It is not in the least strange that the noble-minded
+clergyman, who was the plaintiff in the
+famous cause of the Virginia parsons, should have
+been deeply offended by the fierce and victorious
+eloquence of the young advocate on the opposite
+side, and should have let fall, with reference to
+him, some bitter words. Yet it could only be in
+a moment of anger that any one who knew him
+could ever have said of Patrick Henry that he was
+disposed &#8220;to trample under foot the interests of
+religion,&#8221; or that he had any ill-will toward the
+church or its ministers. It is very likely that, in
+the many irritations growing out of a civil establishment
+of the church in his native colony, he
+may have shared in feelings that were not uncommon
+even among devout churchmen there; but in
+spite of this, then and always, to the very end of
+his life, his most sacred convictions and his tenderest
+affections seem to have been on the side of
+the institutions and ministers of Christianity, and
+even of Christianity in its historic form. Accordingly,
+both before and after his great speech, he
+tried to indicate to the good men whose
+legal
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+claims it had become his professional duty to resist,
+that such resistance must not be taken by them as
+implying on his part any personal unkindness. To
+his uncle and namesake, the Reverend Patrick
+Henry, who was even then a plaintiff in a similar
+suit, and whom he had affectionately persuaded
+not to remain at the courthouse to hear the coming
+speech against the pecuniary demands of himself
+and his order, he said &#8220;that the clergy had
+not thought him worthy of being retained on their
+side,&#8221; and that &#8220;he knew of no moral principle
+by which he was bound to refuse a fee from their
+adversaries.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor57" id="FNanchor57"></a><a href="#Footnote-57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a>
+So, too, the conciliatory words,
+which, after the trial, he tried to speak to the indignant
+plaintiff, and which the latter has reported
+in the blunt form corresponding to his own angry
+interpretation of them, after all may have borne
+the better meaning given to them by Bishop Meade,
+who says that Patrick Henry, in his apology to
+Maury, &#8220;pleaded as an excuse for his course, that
+he was a young lawyer, a candidate for practice
+and reputation, and therefore must make the best
+of his cause.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor58" id="FNanchor58"></a><a href="#Footnote-58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>These genial efforts at pacification are of rather
+more than casual significance: they are indications
+of character. They mark a distinct quality of the
+man&#8217;s nature, of which he continued to give evidence
+during the rest of his life,&mdash;a certain sweetness
+of spirit, which never deserted him through
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+all the stern conflicts of his career. He was always
+a good fighter: never a good hater. He had
+the brain and the temperament of an advocate;
+his imagination and his heart always kindled hotly
+to the side that he had espoused, and with his imagination
+and his heart always went all the rest of
+the man; in his advocacy of any cause that he had
+thus made his own, he hesitated at no weapon
+either of offence or of defence; he struck hard
+blows&mdash;he spoke hard words&mdash;and he usually
+triumphed; and yet, even in the paroxysms of the
+combat, and still more so when the combat was
+over, he showed how possible it is to be a redoubtable
+antagonist without having a particle of
+malice.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, from this first great scene in his public
+life, there comes down to us another incident
+that has its own story to tell. In all the roar of
+talk within and about the courthouse, after the
+trial was over, one &#8220;Mr. Cootes, merchant of
+James River,&#8221; was heard to say that &#8220;he would
+have given a considerable sum out of his own
+pocket rather than his friend Patrick should have
+been guilty of a crime but little, if any thing, inferior
+to that which brought Simon Lord Lovat to
+the block,&#8221;&mdash;adding that Patrick&#8217;s speech had
+&#8220;exceeded the most seditious and inflammatory
+harangues of the Tribunes of Old
+Rome.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor59" id="FNanchor59"></a><a href="#Footnote-59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a>
+Here,
+then, thus early in his career, even in this sorrowful
+and alarmed criticism on the supposed error of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+his speech, we find a token of that loving interest
+in him and in his personal fate, which even in
+those days began to possess the heartstrings of
+many a Virginian all about the land, and which
+thenceforward steadily broadened and deepened
+into a sort of popular idolization of him. The
+mysterious hold which Patrick Henry came to have
+upon the people of Virginia is an historic fact, to
+be recognized, even if not accounted for. He was
+to make enemies in abundance, as will appear; he
+was to stir up against himself the alarm of many
+thoughtful and conservative minds, the deadly
+hatred of many an old leader in colonial politics,
+the deadly envy of many a younger aspirant to
+public influence; he was to go on ruffling the
+plumage and upsetting the combinations of all
+sorts of good citizens, who, from time to time, in
+making their reckonings without him, kept finding
+that they had reckoned without their host. But
+for all that, the willingness of this worthy Mr.
+Cootes of James River to part with his money, if
+need be, rather than his friend Patrick should go
+far wrong, seems to be one token of the beginning
+of that deep and swelling passion of love for him
+that never abated among the mass of the people of
+Virginia so long as Patrick lived, and perhaps has
+never abated since.</p>
+
+<p>It is not hard to imagine the impulse which so
+astonishing a forensic success must have given to
+the professional and political career of the young
+advocate. Not only was he immediately retained
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+by the defendants in all the other suits of the same
+kind then instituted in the courts of the colony,
+but, as his fee-books show, from that hour his legal
+practice of every sort received an enormous increase.
+Moreover, the people of Virginia, always
+a warm-hearted people, were then, to a degree
+almost inconceivable at the North, sensitive to
+oratory, and admirers of eloquent men. The first
+test by which they commonly ascertained the fitness
+of a man for public office, concerned his ability
+to make a speech; and it cannot be doubted
+that from the moment of Patrick Henry&#8217;s amazing
+harangue in the &#8220;Parsons&#8217; Cause,&#8221;&mdash;a piece of
+oratory altogether surpassing anything ever before
+heard in Virginia,&mdash;the eyes of men began to
+fasten upon him as destined to some splendid and
+great part in political life.</p>
+
+<p>During the earlier years of his career, Williamsburg
+was the capital of the colony,&mdash;the official
+residence of its governor, the place of assemblage
+for its legislature and its highest courts, and, at
+certain seasons of the year, the scene of no little
+vice-regal and provincial magnificence.</p>
+
+<p>Thither our Patrick had gone in 1760 to get
+permission to be a lawyer. Thither he now goes
+once more, in 1764, to give some proof of his quality
+in the profession to which he had been reluctantly
+admitted, and to win for himself the first of
+a long series of triumphs at the colonial capital,&mdash;triumphs
+which gave food for wondering talk
+to all his contemporaries, and long lingered in the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+memories of old men. Soon after the assembling
+of the legislature, in the fall of 1764, the committee
+on privileges and elections had before them the
+case of James Littlepage, who had taken his seat
+as member for the county of Hanover, but whose
+right to the seat was contested, on a charge of
+bribery and corruption, by Nathaniel West Dandridge.
+For a day or two before the hearing of
+the case, the members of the house had &#8220;observed
+an ill-dressed young man sauntering in the lobby,&#8221;
+apparently a stranger to everybody, moving &#8220;awkwardly
+about &hellip; with a countenance of abstraction
+and total unconcern as to what was passing
+around him;&#8221; but who, when the committee convened
+to consider the case of Dandridge against
+Littlepage, at once took his place as counsel for
+the former. The members of the committee, either
+not catching his name or not recalling the association
+attaching to it from the scene at Hanover
+Court House nearly a twelvemonth before, were
+so affected by his rustic and ungainly appearance
+that they treated him with neglect and even with
+discourtesy; until, when his turn came to argue
+the cause of his client, he poured forth such a torrent
+of eloquence, and exhibited with so much
+force and splendor the sacredness of the suffrage
+and the importance of protecting it, that the incivility
+and contempt of the committee were turned
+into admiration.<a name="FNanchor60" id="FNanchor60"></a><a href="#Footnote-60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a>
+Nevertheless, it appears from
+the journals of the House that, whatever may have
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+been the admiration of the committee for the eloquence
+of Mr. Dandridge&#8217;s advocate, they did not
+award the seat to Mr. Dandridge.</p>
+
+<p>Such was Patrick Henry&#8217;s first contact with the
+legislature of Virginia,&mdash;a body of which he was
+soon to become a member, and over which, in
+spite of the social prestige, the talents, and the
+envious opposition of its old leaders, he was
+promptly to gain an ascendancy that constituted
+him, almost literally, the dictator of its proceedings,
+so long as he chose to hold a place in it. On
+the present occasion, having finished the somewhat
+obscure business that had brought him before the
+committee, it is probable that he instantly disappeared
+from the scene, not to return to it until the
+following spring, when he came back to transact
+business with the House itself. For, early in
+May, 1765, a vacancy having occurred in the representation
+for the county of Louisa, Patrick
+Henry, though not then a resident in that county,
+was elected as its member. The first entry to be
+met with in the journals, indicating his presence
+in the House, is that of his appointment, on the
+20th of May, as an additional member of the committee
+for courts of justice. Between that date
+and the 1st of June, when the House was angrily
+dissolved by the governor, this young and very
+rural member contrived to do two or three quite
+notable things&mdash;things, in fact, so notable that
+they conveyed to the people of Virginia the tidings
+of the advent among them of a great political
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+leader, gave an historic impulse to the series of
+measures which ended in the disruption of the
+British Empire, and set his own name a ringing
+through the world,&mdash;not without lively imputations
+of treason, and comforting assurances that he
+was destined to be hanged.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these notable things is one which
+incidentally throws a rather painful glare on the
+corruptions of political life in our old and belauded
+colonial days. The speaker of the House of Burgesses
+at that time was John Robinson, a man of
+great estate, foremost among all the landed aristocracy
+of Virginia. He had then been speaker for
+about twenty-five years; for a long time, also, he
+had been treasurer of the colony; and in the latter
+capacity he had been accustomed for many years
+to lend the public money, on his own private account,
+to his personal and political friends, and
+particularly to those of them who were members
+of the House. This profligate business had continued
+so long that Robinson had finally become a
+defaulter to an enormous amount; and in order
+to avert the shame and ruin of an exposure, he
+and his particular friends, just before the arrival
+of Patrick Henry, had invented a very pretty device,
+to be called a &#8220;public loan office,&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;from
+which monies might be lent on public account, and
+on good landed security, to individuals,&#8221; and by
+which, as was expected, the debts due to Robinson
+on the loans which he had been granting might be
+&#8220;transferred to the public, and his deficit thus
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+completely
+covered.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor61" id="FNanchor61"></a><a href="#Footnote-61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a>
+Accordingly, the scheme
+was brought forward under nearly every possible
+advantage of influential support. It was presented
+to the House and to the public as a measure eminently
+wise and beneficial. It was supported in
+the House by many powerful and honorable members
+who had not the remotest suspicion of the
+corrupt purpose lying at the bottom of it. Apparently
+it was on the point of adoption when, from
+among the members belonging to the upper counties,
+there arose this raw youth, who had only just
+taken his seat, and who, without any information
+respecting the secret intent of the measure, and
+equally without any disposition to let the older
+and statelier members do his thinking for him,
+simply attacked it, as a scheme to be condemned
+on general principles. From the door of the lobby
+that day there stood peering into the Assembly
+Thomas Jefferson, then a law student at Williamsburg,
+who thus had the good luck to witness the
+d&eacute;but of his old comrade. &#8220;He laid open with so
+much energy the spirit of favoritism on which the
+proposition was founded, and the abuses to which
+it would lead, that it was crushed in its
+birth.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor62" id="FNanchor62"></a><a href="#Footnote-62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a>
+He &#8220;attacked the scheme &hellip; in that style of
+bold, grand, and overwhelming eloquence for which
+he became so justly celebrated afterwards. He
+carried with him all the members of the upper
+counties, and left a minority composed merely of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+the aristocracy of the country. From this time
+his popularity swelled apace; and Robinson dying
+four years after, his deficit was brought to light,
+and discovered the true object of the
+proposition.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor63" id="FNanchor63"></a><a href="#Footnote-63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>But a subject far greater than John Robinson&#8217;s
+project for a loan office was then beginning to
+weigh on men&#8217;s minds. Already were visible far
+off on the edge of the sky, the first filmy threads
+of a storm-cloud that was to grow big and angry
+as the years went by, and was to accompany a
+political tempest under which the British Empire
+would be torn asunder, and the whole structure of
+American colonial society wrenched from its foundations.
+Just one year before the time now reached,
+news had been received in Virginia that the British
+ministry had announced in parliament their purpose
+to introduce, at the next session, an act for
+laying certain stamp duties on the American colonies.
+Accordingly, in response to these tidings,
+the House of Burgesses, in the autumn of 1764,
+had taken the earliest opportunity to send a respectful
+message to the government of England,
+declaring that the proposed act would be deemed
+by the loyal and affectionate people of Virginia as
+an alarming violation of their ancient constitutional
+rights. This message had been elaborately drawn
+up, in the form of an address to the king, a memorial
+to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to
+the Commons;<a name="FNanchor64" id="FNanchor64"></a><a href="#Footnote-64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a>
+the writers being a committee composed
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+of gentlemen prominent in the legislature,
+and of high social standing in the colony, including
+Landon Carter, Richard Henry Lee, George
+Wythe, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison,
+Richard Bland, and even Peyton Randolph, the
+king&#8217;s attorney-general.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, to this appeal no direct answer had
+been returned; instead of which, however, was
+received by the House of Burgesses, in May, 1765,
+about the time of Patrick Henry&#8217;s accession to
+that body, a copy of the Stamp Act itself. What
+was to be done about it? What was to be done
+by Virginia? What was to be done by her sister
+colonies? Of course, by the passage of the Stamp
+Act, the whole question of colonial procedure on
+the subject had been changed. While the act
+was, even in England, merely a theme for consideration,
+and while the colonies were virtually under
+invitation to send thither their views upon the
+subject, it was perfectly proper for colonial pamphleteers
+and for colonial legislatures to express, in
+every civilized form, their objections to it. But
+all this was now over. The Stamp Act had been
+discussed; the discussion was ended; the act had
+been decided on; it had become a law. Criticism
+upon it now, especially by a legislative body, was
+a very different matter from what criticism upon
+it had been, even by the same body, a few months
+before. Then, the loyal legislature of Virginia
+had fittingly spoken out, concerning the contemplated
+act, its manly words of disapproval and of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+protest; but now that the contemplated act had
+become an adopted act&mdash;had become the law of
+the land&mdash;could that same legislature again speak
+even those same words, without thereby becoming
+disloyal,&mdash;without venturing a little too near the
+verge of sedition,&mdash;without putting itself into an
+attitude, at least, of incipient nullification respecting
+a law of the general government?</p>
+
+<p>It is perfectly evident that by all the old leaders
+of the House at that moment,&mdash;by Peyton Randolph,
+and Pendleton, and Wythe, and Bland,
+and the rest of them,&mdash;this question was answered
+in the negative. Indeed, it could be answered in
+no other way. Such being the case, it followed
+that, for Virginia and for all her sister colonies,
+an entirely new state of things had arisen. A
+most serious problem confronted them,&mdash;a problem
+involving, in fact, incalculable interests. On
+the subject of immediate concern, they had endeavored,
+freely and rightfully, to influence legislation,
+while that legislation was in process; but
+now that this legislation was accomplished, what
+were they to do? Were they to submit to it quietly,
+trusting to further negotiations for ultimate
+relief, or were they to reject it outright, and try
+to obstruct its execution? Clearly, here was a
+very great problem, a problem for statesmanship,&mdash;the
+best statesmanship anywhere to be had.
+Clearly this was a time, at any rate, for wise and
+experienced men to come to the front; a time, not
+for rash counsels, nor for spasmodic and isolated
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+action on the part of any one colony, but for deliberate
+and united action on the part of all the colonies;
+a time in which all must move forward, or
+none. But, thus far, no colony had been heard
+from: there had not been time. Let Virginia
+wait a little. Let her make no mistake; let her
+not push forward into any ill-considered and dangerous
+measure; let her wait, at least, for some
+signal of thought or of purpose from her sister
+colonies. In the meanwhile, let her old and tried
+leaders continue to lead.</p>
+
+<p>Such, apparently, was the state of opinion in
+the House of Burgesses when, on the 29th of May,
+a motion was made and carried, &#8220;that the House
+resolve itself into a committee of the whole House,
+immediately to consider the steps necessary to be
+taken in consequence of the resolutions of the
+House of Commons of Great Britain, relative to
+the charging certain stamp duties in the colonies
+and plantations in
+America.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor65" id="FNanchor65"></a><a href="#Footnote-65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a>
+On thus going
+into committee of the whole, to deliberate on the
+most difficult and appalling question that, up to
+that time, had ever come before an American legislature,
+the members may very naturally have turned
+in expectation to those veteran politicians and to
+those able constitutional lawyers who, for many
+years, had been accustomed to guide their deliberations,
+and who, especially in the last session, had
+taken charge of this very question of the Stamp
+Act. It will not be hard for us to imagine the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+disgust, the anger, possibly even the alarm, with
+which many may have beheld the floor now taken,
+not by Peyton Randolph, nor Richard Bland, nor
+George Wythe, nor Edmund Pendleton, but by
+this new and very unabashed member for the
+county of Louisa,&mdash;this rustic and clownish youth
+of the terrible tongue,&mdash;this eloquent but presumptuous
+stripling, who was absolutely without
+training or experience in statesmanship, and was
+the merest novice even in the forms of the House.</p>
+
+<p>For what precise purpose the new member had
+thus ventured to take the floor, was known at the
+moment of his rising by only two other members,&mdash;George
+Johnston, the member for Fairfax, and
+John Fleming, the member for Cumberland. But
+the measureless audacity of his purpose, as being
+nothing less than that of assuming the leadership
+of the House, and of dictating the policy of Virginia
+in this stupendous crisis of its fate, was instantly
+revealed to all, as he moved a series of
+resolutions, which he proceeded to read from the
+blank leaf of an old law book, and which, probably,
+were as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;<i>Whereas</i>, the honorable House of Commons in England
+have of late drawn into question how far the General
+Assembly of this colony hath power to enact laws for
+laying of taxes and imposing duties, payable by the people
+of this, his majesty&#8217;s most ancient colony: for settling
+and ascertaining the same to all future times, the House
+of Burgesses of this present General Assembly have
+come to the following resolves:&mdash;
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;1. <i>Resolved</i>, That the first adventurers and settlers
+of this, his majesty&#8217;s colony and dominion, brought with
+them and transmitted to their posterity, and all other
+his majesty&#8217;s subjects, since inhabiting in this, his majesty&#8217;s
+said colony, all the privileges, franchises, and
+immunities that have at any time been held, enjoyed,
+and possessed, by the people of Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;2. <i>Resolved</i>, That by two royal charters, granted
+by king James the First, the colonists aforesaid are declared
+entitled to all the privileges, liberties, and immunities
+of denizens and natural born subjects, to all
+intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding and
+born within the realm of England.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;3. <i>Resolved</i>, That the taxation of the people by
+themselves or by persons chosen by themselves to represent
+them, who can only know what taxes the people
+are able to bear, and the easiest mode of raising them,
+and are equally affected by such taxes themselves, is the
+distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, and
+without which the ancient constitution cannot subsist.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;4. <i>Resolved</i>, That his majesty&#8217;s liege people of this
+most ancient colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the
+right of being thus governed by their own Assembly in
+the article of their taxes and internal police, and that
+the same hath never been forfeited, or any other way
+given up, but hath been constantly recognized by the
+kings and people of Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;5. <i>Resolved</i>, therefore, That the General Assembly
+of this colony have the only and sole exclusive right and
+power to lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants
+of this colony; and that every attempt to vest such
+power in any person or persons whatsoever, other than
+the General Assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency
+to destroy British as well as American
+freedom.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;6. <i>Resolved</i>, That his majesty&#8217;s liege people, the
+inhabitants of this colony, are not bound to yield obedience
+to any law or ordinance whatever, designed to impose
+any taxation whatsoever upon them, other than the
+laws or ordinances of the General Assembly aforesaid.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;7. <i>Resolved</i>, That any person who shall, by speaking
+or writing, assert or maintain that any person or
+persons, other than the General Assembly of this colony,
+have any right or power to impose or lay any taxation
+on the people here, shall be deemed an enemy to his
+majesty&#8217;s
+colony.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor66" id="FNanchor66"></a><a href="#Footnote-66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>No reader will find it hard to accept Jefferson&#8217;s
+statement that the debate on these resolutions was
+&#8220;most bloody.&#8221; &#8220;They were opposed by Randolph,
+Bland, Pendleton, Nicholas, Wythe, and
+all the old members, whose influence in the House
+had till then been
+unbroken.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor67" id="FNanchor67"></a><a href="#Footnote-67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a>
+There was every
+reason, whether of public policy or of private feeling,
+why the old party leaders in the House should
+now bestir themselves, and combine, and put forth
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+all their powers in debate, to check, and if possible
+to rout and extinguish, this self-conceited but most
+dangerous young man. &#8220;Many threats were uttered,
+and much abuse cast on me,&#8221; said Patrick
+himself, long afterward. Logic, learning, eloquence,
+denunciation, derision, intimidation, were
+poured from all sides of the House upon the head
+of the presumptuous intruder; but alone, or almost
+alone, he confronted and defeated all his assailants.
+&#8220;Torrents of sublime eloquence from Mr.
+Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of Johnston,
+prevailed.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor68" id="FNanchor68"></a><a href="#Footnote-68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>It was sometime in the course of this tremendous
+fight, extending through the 29th and 30th of
+May, that the incident occurred which has long
+been familiar among the anecdotes of the Revolution,
+and which may be here recalled as a reminiscence
+not only of his own consummate mastery of
+the situation, but of a most dramatic scene in an
+epoch-making debate. Reaching the climax of a
+passage of fearful invective, on the injustice and
+the impolicy of the Stamp Act, he said in tones
+of thrilling solemnity, &#8220;C&aelig;sar had his Brutus;
+Charles the First, his Cromwell; and George the
+Third [&#8216;Treason,&#8217; shouted the speaker. &#8216;Treason,&#8217;
+&#8216;treason,&#8217; rose from all sides of the room.
+The orator paused in stately defiance till these
+rude exclamations were ended, and then, rearing
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+himself with a look and bearing of still prouder
+and fiercer determination, he so closed the sentence
+as to baffle his accusers, without in the least flinching
+from his own position,]&mdash;and George the
+Third may profit by their example. If this be
+treason, make the most of
+it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor69" id="FNanchor69"></a><a href="#Footnote-69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>Of this memorable struggle nearly all other
+details have perished with the men who took part
+in it. After the House, in committee of the
+whole, had, on the 29th of May, spent sufficient
+time in the discussion, &#8220;Mr. Speaker resumed the
+chair,&#8221; says the Journal, &#8220;and Mr. Attorney reported
+that the said committee had had the said
+matter under consideration, and had come to several
+resolutions thereon, which he was ready to
+deliver in at the table. Ordered that the said report
+be received to-morrow.&#8221; It is probable that
+on the morrow the battle was renewed with even
+greater fierceness than before. The Journal proceeds:
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+&#8220;May 30. Mr. Attorney, from the committee
+of the whole House, reported according to
+order, that the committee had considered the steps
+necessary to be taken in consequence of the resolutions
+of the House of Commons of Great Britain,
+relative to the charging certain stamp duties in
+the colonies and plantations in America, and that
+they had come to several resolutions thereon, which
+he read in his place and then delivered at the
+table; when they were again twice read, and agreed
+to by the House, with some amendments.&#8221; Then
+were passed by the House, probably, the first five
+resolutions as offered by Henry in the committee,
+but &#8220;passed,&#8221; as he himself afterward wrote, &#8220;by
+a very small majority, perhaps of one or two only.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Upon this final discomfiture of the old leaders,
+one of their number, Peyton Randolph, swept
+angrily out of the house, and brushing past young
+Thomas Jefferson, who was standing in the door
+of the lobby, he swore, with a great oath, that he
+&#8220;would have given five hundred guineas for a single
+vote.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor70" id="FNanchor70"></a><a href="#Footnote-70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a>
+On the afternoon of that day, Patrick
+Henry, knowing that the session was practically
+ended, and that his own work in it was done,
+started for his home. He was seen &#8220;passing along
+Duke of Gloucester Street, &hellip; wearing buckskin
+breeches, his saddle bags on his arm, leading
+a lean horse, and chatting with Paul Carrington,
+who walked by his
+side.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor71" id="FNanchor71"></a><a href="#Footnote-71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>That was on the 30th of May. The next morning,
+the terrible Patrick being at last quite out of
+the way, those veteran lawyers and politicians of
+the House, who had found this young protagonist
+alone too much for them all put together, made
+bold to undo the worst part of the work he had
+done the day before; they expunged the fifth resolution.
+In that mutilated form, without the preamble,
+and with the last three of the original resolutions
+omitted, the first four then remained on
+the journal of the House as the final expression of
+its official opinion. Meantime, on the wings of
+the wind, and on the eager tongues of men, had
+been borne, past recall, far northward and far
+southward, the fiery unchastised words of nearly
+the entire series, to kindle in all the colonies a
+great flame of dauntless
+purpose;<a name="FNanchor72" id="FNanchor72"></a><a href="#Footnote-72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a>
+while Patrick
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+himself, perhaps then only half conscious of the
+fateful work he had just been doing, travelled
+homeward along the dusty highway, at once the
+jolliest, the most popular, and the least pretentious
+man in all Virginia, certainly its greatest orator,
+possibly even its greatest statesman.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-57" id="Footnote-57"></a><a href="#FNanchor57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Wirt, 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-58" id="Footnote-58"></a><a href="#FNanchor58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Meade, <i>Old Families and Churches of Va.</i> i. 220.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-59" id="Footnote-59"></a><a href="#FNanchor59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Maury, <i>Mem. of a Huguenot Fam.</i> 423.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-60" id="Footnote-60"></a><a href="#FNanchor60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Wirt, 39-41.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-61" id="Footnote-61"></a><a href="#FNanchor61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Mem. by Jefferson, in <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1867, 91.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-62" id="Footnote-62"></a><a href="#FNanchor62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Jefferson&#8217;s <i>Works</i>, vi. 365.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-63" id="Footnote-63"></a><a href="#FNanchor63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Mem. by Jefferson, in <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1867, 91.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-64" id="Footnote-64"></a><a href="#FNanchor64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> These documents are given in full in the Appendix to Wirt&#8217;s
+<i>Life of Henry</i>, as Note A.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-65" id="Footnote-65"></a><a href="#FNanchor65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House of Burgesses.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-66" id="Footnote-66"></a><a href="#FNanchor66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Of this famous series of resolutions, the first five are here
+given precisely as they are given in Patrick Henry&#8217;s own certified
+copy still existing in manuscript, and in the possession of Mr. W.
+W. Henry; but as that copy evidently contains only that portion
+of the series which was reported from the committee of the whole,
+and was adopted by the House, I have here printed also what I
+believe to have been the preamble, and the last two resolutions in
+the series as first drawn and introduced by Patrick Henry. For
+this portion of the series, I depend on the copy printed in the <i>Boston
+Gazette</i>, for July 1, 1765, and reprinted in R. Frothingham,
+<i>Rise of the Republic</i>, 180 note. In Wirt&#8217;s <i>Life of Henry</i>, 56-59, is
+a transcript of the first five resolutions as given in Henry&#8217;s handwriting:
+but it is inaccurate in two places.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-67" id="Footnote-67"></a><a href="#FNanchor67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Mem. by Jefferson, in <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1867, 91.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-68" id="Footnote-68"></a><a href="#FNanchor68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Mem. by Jefferson, in <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1867, 91. Henry was
+aided in this debate by Robert Munford, also, and by John Fleming:
+W. W. Henry, <i>Life, Corr. and Speeches of P. Henry</i>, i. 82<i>n.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-69" id="Footnote-69"></a><a href="#FNanchor69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> For this splendid anecdote we are indebted to Judge John
+Tyler, who, then a youth of eighteen, listened to the speech as
+he stood in the lobby by the side of Jefferson. Edmund Randolph,
+in his <i>History of Virginia</i>, still in manuscript, has a somewhat
+different version of the language of the orator, as follows:
+&#8220;&#8216;C&aelig;sar had his Brutus, Charles the First, his Cromwell, and
+George the Third&#8217;&mdash;&#8216;Treason, Sir,&#8217; exclaimed the Speaker; to
+which Mr. Henry instantly replied, &#8216;and George the Third, may
+he never have either.&#8217;&#8221; The version furnished by John Tyler is, of
+course, the more effective and characteristic; and as Tyler actually
+heard the speech, and as, moreover, his account is confirmed
+by Jefferson who also heard it, his account can hardly be
+set aside by that of Randolph who did not hear it, and was indeed
+but a boy of twelve at the time it was made. L. G. Tyler, <i>Letters
+and Times of the Tylers</i>, i. 56; Wirt, 65.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-70" id="Footnote-70"></a><a href="#FNanchor70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Mem. by Jefferson, <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1867, 91.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-71" id="Footnote-71"></a><a href="#FNanchor71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Campbell, <i>Hist. Va.</i> 542.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-72" id="Footnote-72"></a><a href="#FNanchor72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> The subject of the Virginia resolutions presents several difficulties
+which I have not thought it best to discuss in the text,
+where I have given merely the results of my own rather careful
+and repeated study of the question. In brief, my conclusion is
+this: That the series as given above, consisting of a preamble and
+seven resolutions, is the series as originally prepared by Patrick
+Henry, and introduced by him on Wednesday, May 29, in the committee
+of the whole, and probably passed by the committee on that
+day; that at once, without waiting for the action of the House
+upon the subject, copies of the series got abroad, and were soon
+published in the newspapers of the several colonies, as though actually
+adopted by the House; that on Thursday, May 30, the series
+was cut down in the House by rejection of the preamble and the
+resolutions 6 and 7, and by the adoption of only the first five as
+given above; that on the day after that, when Patrick Henry had
+gone home, the House still further cut down the series by expunging
+the resolution which is above numbered as 5: and that, many
+years afterwards, when Patrick Henry came to prepare a copy for
+transmission to posterity, he gave the resolutions just as they stood
+when adopted by the House on May 30, and not as they stood
+when originally introduced by him in committee of the whole on
+the day before, nor as they stood when mutilated by the cowardly
+act of the House on the day after. It will be noticed, therefore,
+that the so-called resolutions of Virginia, which were actually
+published and known to the colonies in 1765, and which did so
+much to fire their hearts, were not the resolutions as adopted by
+the House, but were the resolutions as first introduced, and probably
+passed, in committee of the whole; and that even this copy of
+them was inaccurately given, since it lacked the resolution numbered
+above as 3, probably owing to an error in the first hurried
+transcription of them. Those who care to study the subject further
+will find the materials in <i>Prior Documents</i>, 6, 7; Marshall,
+<i>Life of Washington</i>, i. note iv.; Frothingham, <i>Rise of the Republic</i>,
+180 note; Gordon, <i>Hist. Am. Rev.</i>, i. 129-139; <i>Works of Jefferson</i>,
+vi. 366, 367; Wirt, <i>Life of Henry</i>, 56-63; Everett, <i>Life
+of Henry</i>, 265-273, with important note by Jared Sparks in Appendix,
+391-398. It may be mentioned that the narrative given
+in Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i>, iii. 305-310, is untrustworthy.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VI <br />
+<span class="hsub">CONSEQUENCES</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Seldom has a celebrated man shown more indifference
+to the preservation of the records and
+credentials of his career than did Patrick Henry.
+While some of his famous associates in the Revolution
+diligently kept both the letters they received,
+and copies of the letters they wrote, and made, for
+the benefit of posterity, careful memoranda concerning
+the events of their lives, Patrick Henry
+did none of these things. Whatever letters he
+wrote, he wrote at a dash, and then parted with
+them utterly; whatever letters were written to
+him, were invariably handed over by him to the
+comfortable custody of luck; and as to the correct
+historic perpetuation of his doings, he seems almost
+to have exhausted his interest in each one of
+them so soon as he had accomplished it, and to
+have been quite content to leave to other people
+all responsibility for its being remembered correctly,
+or even remembered at all.</p>
+
+<p>To this statement, however, a single exception
+has to be made. It relates to the great affair described
+in the latter part of the previous chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, it was perceived at the time that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+the passing of the Virginia resolutions against the
+Stamp Act was a great affair; but just how great
+an affair it was, neither Patrick Henry nor any
+other mortal man could tell until years had gone
+by, and had unfolded the vast sequence of world-resounding
+events, in which that affair was proved
+to be a necessary factor. It deserves to be particularly
+mentioned that, of all the achievements
+of his life, the only one which he has taken the
+pains to give any account of is his authorship of
+the Virginia resolutions, and his successful championship
+of them. With reference to this achievement,
+the account he gave of it was rendered with
+so much solemnity and impressiveness as to indicate
+that, in the final survey of his career, he regarded
+this as the one most important thing he
+ever did. But before we cite the words in which
+he thus indicated this judgment, it will be well for
+us to glance briefly at the train of historic incidents
+which now set forth the striking connection between
+that act of Patrick Henry and the early
+development of that intrepid policy which culminated
+in American independence.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the 29th of May, 1765, as will be remembered,
+that Patrick Henry moved in the committee
+of the whole the adoption of his series of
+resolutions against the Stamp Act; and before the
+sun went down that day, the entire series, as is
+probable, was adopted by the committee. On the
+following day, the essential portion of the series
+was adopted, likewise, by the House. But what
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+was the contemporary significance of these resolutions?
+As the news of them swept from colony
+to colony, why did they so stir men&#8217;s hearts to
+excitement, and even to alarm? It was not that
+the language of those resolutions was more radical
+or more trenchant than had been the language
+already used on the same subject, over and over
+again, in the discussions of the preceding twelve
+months. It was that, in the recent change of the
+political situation, the significance of that language
+had changed. Prior to the time referred to, whatever
+had been said on the subject, in any of the
+colonies, had been said for the purpose of dissuading
+the government from passing the Stamp Act.
+But the government had now passed the Stamp
+Act; and, accordingly, these resolutions must have
+been meant for a very different purpose. They
+were a virtual declaration of resistance to the
+Stamp Act; a declaration of resistance made, not
+by an individual writer, nor by a newspaper, but
+by the legislature of a great colony; and, moreover,
+they were the very first declaration of resistance
+which was so
+made.<a name="FNanchor73" id="FNanchor73"></a><a href="#Footnote-73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>This it is which gives us the contemporary key
+to their significance, and to the vast excitement
+produced by them, and to the enormous influence
+they had upon the trembling purposes of the colonists
+at that precise moment. Hence it was, as
+a sagacious writer of that period has told us, that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+merely upon the adoption of these resolves by the
+committee of the whole, men recognized their momentous
+bearing, and could not be restrained from
+giving publicity to them, without waiting for their
+final adoption by the House. &#8220;A manuscript of
+the unrevised resolves,&#8221; says William Gordon,
+&#8220;soon reached Philadelphia, having been sent off
+immediately upon their passing, that the earliest
+information of what had been done might be obtained
+by the Sons of Liberty.&hellip; At New
+York the resolves were handed about with great
+privacy: they were accounted so treasonable, that
+the possessors of them declined printing them in
+that city.&#8221; But a copy of them having been procured
+with much difficulty by an Irish gentleman
+resident in Connecticut, &#8220;he carried them to New
+England, where they were published and circulated
+far and wide in the newspapers, without any reserve,
+and proved eventually the occasion of those
+disorders which afterward broke out in the colonies.&hellip;
+The Virginia resolutions gave a spring
+to all the disgusted; and they began to adopt different
+measures.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor74" id="FNanchor74"></a><a href="#Footnote-74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p>
+
+<p>But while the tidings of these resolutions were
+thus moving toward New England, and before they
+had arrived there, the assembly of the great colony
+of Massachusetts had begun to take action. Indeed,
+it had first met on the very day on which
+Patrick Henry had introduced his resolutions into
+the committee of the whole at Williamsburg. On
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+the 8th of June, it had resolved upon a circular
+letter concerning the Stamp Act, addressed to all
+the sister colonies, and proposing that all should
+send delegates to a congress to be held at New
+York, on the first Tuesday of the following October,
+to deal with the perils and duties of the situation.
+This circular letter at once started upon its
+tour.</p>
+
+<p>The first reception of it, however, was discouraging.
+From the speaker of the New Jersey assembly
+came the reply that the members of that
+body were &#8220;unanimously against uniting on the
+present occasion;&#8221; and for several weeks thereafter,
+&#8220;no movement appeared in favor of the
+great and wise measure of convening a congress.&#8221;
+At last, however, the project of Massachusetts
+began to feel the accelerating force of a mighty
+impetus. The Virginia resolutions, being at last
+divulged throughout the land, &#8220;had a marked effect
+on public opinion.&#8221; They were &#8220;heralded as the
+voice of a colony.&hellip; The fame of the resolves
+spread as they were circulated in the journals.&hellip;
+The Virginia action, like an alarum, roused
+the patriots to pass similar
+resolves.<a name="FNanchor75" id="FNanchor75"></a><a href="#Footnote-75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a>
+&#8220;On the
+8th of July, &#8220;The Boston Gazette&#8221; uttered this
+most significant sentence: &#8220;The people of Virginia
+have spoken very sensibly, and the frozen
+politicians of a more northern government say they
+have spoken
+treason.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor76" id="FNanchor76"></a><a href="#Footnote-76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a>
+On the same day, in that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+same town of Boston, an aged lawyer and
+patriot<a name="FNanchor77" id="FNanchor77"></a><a href="#Footnote-77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a>
+lay upon his death bed; and in his admiration for
+the Virginians on account of these resolves, he exclaimed,
+&#8220;They are men; they are noble
+spirits.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor78" id="FNanchor78"></a><a href="#Footnote-78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a>
+On the 13th of August, the people of Providence
+instructed their representatives in the legislature
+to vote in favor of the congress, and to procure
+the passage of a series of resolutions in which
+were incorporated those of
+Virginia.<a name="FNanchor79" id="FNanchor79"></a><a href="#Footnote-79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a>
+On the 15th
+of August, from Boston, Governor Bernard wrote
+home to the ministry: &#8220;Two or three months ago,
+I thought that this people would submit to the
+Stamp Act. Murmurs were indeed continually
+heard; but they seemed to be such as would die
+away. But the publishing of the Virginia resolves
+proved an alarm bell to the
+disaffected.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor80" id="FNanchor80"></a><a href="#Footnote-80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a>
+On the 23d of September, General Gage, the commander
+of the British forces in America, wrote
+from New York to Secretary Conway that the
+Virginia resolves had given &#8220;the signal for a
+general outcry over the
+continent.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor81" id="FNanchor81"></a><a href="#Footnote-81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a>
+And finally,
+in the autumn of 1774, an able loyalist writer,
+looking back over the political history of the colonies
+from the year of the Stamp Act, singled out
+the Virginia resolves as the baleful cause of all
+the troubles that had then come upon the land.
+&#8220;After it was known,&#8221; said he, &#8220;that the Stamp
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+Act was passed, some resolves of the House of
+Burgesses in Virginia, denying the right of Parliament
+to tax the colonies, made their appearance.
+We read them with wonder; they savored of independence;
+they flattered the human passions; the
+reasoning was specious; we wished it conclusive.
+The transition to believing it so was easy; and we,
+and almost all America, followed their example,
+in resolving that Parliament had no such
+right.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor82" id="FNanchor82"></a><a href="#Footnote-82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>All these facts, and many more that might be
+produced, seem to point to the Virginia resolutions
+of 1765 as having come at a great primary crisis
+of the Revolution,&mdash;a crisis of mental confusion
+and hesitation,&mdash;and as having then uttered, with
+trumpet voice, the very word that was fitted to the
+hour, and that gave to men&#8217;s minds clearness of
+vision, and to their hearts a settled purpose. It
+must have been in the light of such facts as these
+that Patrick Henry, in his old age, reviewing his
+own wonderful career, determined to make a sort
+of testamentary statement concerning his relation
+to that single transaction,&mdash;so vitally connected
+with the greatest epoch in American history.</p>
+
+<p>Among the papers left by him at his death was
+one significantly placed by the side of his will,
+carefully sealed, and bearing this superscription:
+&#8220;Inclosed are the resolutions of the Virginia Assembly
+in 1765, concerning the Stamp Act. Let
+my executors open this paper.&#8221; On opening the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+document, his executors found on one side of the
+sheet the first five resolutions in the famous series
+introduced by him; and on the other side, these
+weighty words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The within resolutions passed the House of Burgesses
+in May, 1765. They formed the first opposition to the
+Stamp Act, and the scheme of taxing America by the
+British parliament. All the colonies, either through fear,
+or want of opportunity to form an opposition, or from
+influence of some kind or other, had remained silent. I
+had been for the first time elected a Burgess a few days
+before; was young, inexperienced, unacquainted with
+the forms of the House, and the members that composed
+it. Finding the men of weight averse to opposition, and
+the commencement of the tax at hand, and that no person
+was likely to step forth, I determined to venture;
+and alone, unadvised, and unassisted, on a blank leaf of
+an old law book, wrote the within.<a name="FNanchor83" id="FNanchor83"></a><a href="#Footnote-83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a>
+Upon offering them
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+to the House, violent debates ensued. Many threats
+were uttered, and much abuse cast on me by the party
+for submission. After a long and warm contest, the resolutions
+passed by a very small majority, perhaps of
+one or two only. The alarm spread throughout America
+with astonishing quickness, and the ministerial party
+were overwhelmed. The great point of resistance to
+British taxation was universally established in the colonies.
+This brought on the war, which finally separated
+the two countries, and gave independence to ours.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse, will depend
+upon the use our people make of the blessings
+which a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are
+wise, they will be great and happy. If they are of a contrary
+character, they will be miserable. Righteousness
+alone can exalt them as a nation.</p>
+
+<p>Reader! whoever thou art, remember this; and in
+thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in
+others.</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor84" id="FNanchor84"></a><a href="#Footnote-84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p>But while this renowned act in Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+life had consequences so notable in their bearing
+on great national and international movements, it
+is interesting to observe, also, its immediate effects
+on his own personal position in the world, and on
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+the development of his career. We can hardly be
+surprised to find, on the one hand, that his act
+gave deep offence to one very considerable class of
+persons in Virginia,&mdash;the official representatives
+of the English government, and their natural allies,
+those thoughtful and conscientious colonists
+who, by temperament and conviction, were inclined
+to lay a heavy accent on the principle of civil authority
+and order. Of course, as the official head
+of this not ignoble class, stood Francis Fauquier,
+the lieutenant-governor of the colony; and his
+letter to the lords of trade, written from Williamsburg
+a few days after the close of the session,
+contains a striking narrative of this stormy proceeding,
+and an almost amusing touch of official
+undervaluation of Patrick Henry: &#8220;In the course
+of the debate, I have heard that very indecent language
+was used by a Mr. Henry, a young lawyer,
+who had not been above a month a member of the
+House, and who carried all the young members
+with him.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor85" id="FNanchor85"></a><a href="#Footnote-85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a>
+But a far more specific and intense
+expression of antipathy came, a few weeks later,
+from the Reverend William Robinson, the colonial
+commissary of the Bishop of London. Writing,
+on the 12th of August, to his metropolitan, he
+gave an account of Patrick Henry&#8217;s very offensive
+management of the cause against the parsons, before
+becoming a member of the House of Burgesses;
+and then added:&mdash;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;He has since been chosen a representative for one of
+the counties, in which character he has lately distinguished
+himself in the House of Burgesses on occasion of the arrival
+of an act of Parliament for stamp duties, while the
+Assembly was sitting. He blazed out in a violent speech
+against the authority of Parliament and the king, comparing
+his majesty to a Tarquin, a C&aelig;sar, and a Charles the
+First, and not sparing insinuations that he wished another
+Cromwell would arise. He made a motion for several
+outrageous resolves, some of which passed and were
+again erased as soon as his back was turned.&hellip; Mr.
+Henry, the hero of whom I have been writing, is gone
+quietly into the upper parts of the country to recommend
+himself to his constituents by spreading treason and enforcing
+firm resolutions against the authority of the British
+Parliament.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor86" id="FNanchor86"></a><a href="#Footnote-86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Such was Patrick Henry&#8217;s introduction to the
+upper spheres of English society,&mdash;spheres in
+which his name was to become still better known
+as time rolled on, and for conduct not likely to
+efface the impression of this bitter beginning.</p>
+
+<p>As to his reputation in the colonies outside of
+Virginia, doubtless the progress of it, during this
+period, was slow and dim; for the celebrity acquired
+by the resolutions of 1765 attached to the
+colony rather than to the person. Moreover, the
+boundaries of each colony, in those days, were in
+most cases the boundaries likewise of the personal
+reputations it cherished. It was not until Patrick
+Henry came forward, in the Congress of 1774,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+upon an arena that may be called national, that his
+name gathered about it the splendor of a national
+fame. Yet, even before 1774, in the rather dull
+and ungossiping newspapers of that time, and in
+the letters and diaries of its public men, may be
+discovered an occasional allusion showing that already
+his name had broken over the borders of
+Virginia, had traveled even so far as to New England,
+and that in Boston itself he was a person
+whom people were beginning to talk about. For
+example, in his Diary for the 22d of July, 1770,
+John Adams speaks of meeting some gentlemen
+from Virginia, and of going out to Cambridge
+with them. One of them is mentioned by name
+as having this distinction,&mdash;that he &#8220;is an intimate
+friend of Mr. Patrick Henry, the first mover
+of the Virginia resolves in 1765.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor87" id="FNanchor87"></a><a href="#Footnote-87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a>
+ Thus, even
+so early, the incipient revolutionist in New England
+had got his thoughts on his brilliant political
+kinsman in Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>But it was chiefly within the limits of his own
+splendid and gallant colony, and among an eager
+and impressionable people whose habitual hatred
+of all restraints turned into undying love for this
+dashing champion of natural liberty, that Patrick
+Henry was now instantly crowned with his crown
+of sovereignty. By his resolutions against the
+Stamp Act, as Jefferson testifies, &#8220;Mr. Henry
+took the lead out of the hands of those who had
+heretofore guided the proceedings of the House,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Randolph,
+and Nicholas.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor88" id="FNanchor88"></a><a href="#Footnote-88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> Wirt does not put the
+case too strongly when he declares, that &#8220;after this
+debate there was no longer a question among the
+body of the people, as to Mr. Henry&#8217;s being the
+first statesman and orator in Virginia. Those,
+indeed, whose ranks he had scattered, and whom
+he had thrown into the shade, still tried to brand
+him with the names of declaimer and demagogue.
+But this was obviously the effect of envy and mortified
+pride.&hellip; From the period of which we
+have been speaking, Mr. Henry became the idol
+of the people of Virginia.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor89" id="FNanchor89"></a><a href="#Footnote-89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p>
+
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-73" id="Footnote-73"></a><a href="#FNanchor73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> See this view supported by Wirt, in his life by Kennedy, ii.
+73.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-74" id="Footnote-74"></a><a href="#FNanchor74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Gordon, <i>Hist. of Am. Rev.</i> i. 131.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-75" id="Footnote-75"></a><a href="#FNanchor75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Frothingham, <i>Rise of the Republic</i>, 178-181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-76" id="Footnote-76"></a><a href="#FNanchor76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Cited in Frothingham, 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-77" id="Footnote-77"></a><a href="#FNanchor77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Oxenbridge Thacher.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-78" id="Footnote-78"></a><a href="#FNanchor78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, x. 287.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-79" id="Footnote-79"></a><a href="#FNanchor79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Frothingham, 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-80" id="Footnote-80"></a><a href="#FNanchor80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Cited by Sparks, in Everett, <i>Life of Henry</i>, 396.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-81" id="Footnote-81"></a><a href="#FNanchor81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Frothingham, <i>Rise of the Republic</i>, 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-82" id="Footnote-82"></a><a href="#FNanchor82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Daniel Leonard, in <i>Novanglus and Massachusettensis</i>, 147,
+148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-83" id="Footnote-83"></a><a href="#FNanchor83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> As the historic importance of the Virginia resolutions became
+more and more apparent, a disposition was manifested to deny to
+Patrick Henry the honor of having written them. As early as
+1790, Madison, between whom and Henry there was nearly always
+a sharp hostility, significantly asked Edmund Pendleton to tell him
+&#8220;where the resolutions proposed by Mr. Henry really originated.&#8221;
+<i>Letters and Other Writings of Madison</i>, i. 515. Edmund Randolph
+is said to have asserted that they were written by William Fleming;
+a statement of which Jefferson remarked, &#8220;It is to me incomprehensible.&#8221;
+<i>Works</i>, vi. 484. But to Jefferson&#8217;s own testimony
+on the same subject, I would apply the same remark. In
+his Memorandum, he says without hesitation that the resolutions
+&#8220;were drawn up by George Johnston, a lawyer of the Northern
+Neck, a very able, logical, and correct speaker.&#8221; <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for
+1867, 91. But in another paper, written at about the same time,
+Jefferson said: &#8220;I can readily enough believe these resolutions
+were written by Mr. Henry himself. They bear the stamp of his
+mind, strong, without precision. That they were written by Johnston,
+who seconded them, was only the rumor of the day, and
+very possibly unfounded.&#8221; <i>Works</i>, vi. 484. In the face of all
+this tissue of rumor, guesswork, and self-contradiction, the deliberate
+statement of Patrick Henry himself that he wrote the five
+resolutions referred to by him, and that he wrote them &#8220;alone,
+unadvised, and unassisted,&#8221; must close the discussion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-84" id="Footnote-84"></a><a href="#FNanchor84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Verified from the original manuscript, now in possession of
+Mr. W. W. Henry.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-85" id="Footnote-85"></a><a href="#FNanchor85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Cited by Sparks, in Everett, <i>Life of Henry</i>, 392.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-86" id="Footnote-86"></a><a href="#FNanchor86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Perry, <i>Hist. Coll.</i> i. 514, 515.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-87" id="Footnote-87"></a><a href="#FNanchor87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 249.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-88" id="Footnote-88"></a><a href="#FNanchor88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> <i>Works of Jefferson</i>, vi. 368.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-89" id="Footnote-89"></a><a href="#FNanchor89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> <i>Life of Henry</i>, 66.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VII <br />
+<span class="hsub">STEADY WORK</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>From the close of Patrick Henry&#8217;s first term in
+the Virginia House of Burgesses, in the spring of
+1765, to the opening of his first term in the Continental
+Congress, in the fall of 1774, there stretches
+a period of about nine years, which, for the purposes
+of our present study, may be rapidly glanced
+at and passed by.</p>
+
+<p>In general, it may be described as a period
+during which he had settled down to steady work,
+both as a lawyer and as a politician. The first
+five years of his professional life had witnessed his
+advance, as we have seen, by strides which only
+genius can make, from great obscurity to great
+distinction; his advance from a condition of universal
+failure to one of success so universal that
+his career may be said to have become within that
+brief period solidly established. At the bar, upon
+the hustings, in the legislature, as a master of
+policies, as a leader of men, he had already proved
+himself to be, of his kind, without a peer in all
+the colony of Virginia,&mdash;a colony which was then
+the prolific mother of great men. With him,
+therefore, the period of training and of tentative
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+struggle had passed: the period now entered upon
+was one of recognized mastership and of assured
+performance, along lines certified by victories that
+came gayly, and apparently at his slightest call.</p>
+
+<p>We note, at the beginning of this period, an
+event indicating substantial prosperity in his life:
+he acquires the visible dignity of a country-seat.
+Down to the end of 1763, and probably even to
+the summer of 1765, he had continued to live in
+the neighborhood of Hanover Court House. After
+coming back from his first term of service in the
+House of Burgesses, where he had sat as member
+for the county of Louisa, he removed his residence
+into that county, and established himself there
+upon an estate called Roundabout, purchased by
+him of his father. In 1768 he returned to Hanover,
+and in 1771 he bought a place in that county
+called Scotch Town, which continued to be his seat
+until shortly after the Declaration of Independence,
+when, having become governor of the new
+State of Virginia, he took up his residence at
+Williamsburg, in the palace long occupied by the
+official representatives of royalty.</p>
+
+<p>For the practice of his profession, the earlier
+portion of this period was perhaps not altogether
+unfavorable. The political questions then in debate
+were, indeed, exciting, but they had not quite
+reached the ultimate issue, and did not yet demand
+from him the complete surrender of his life. Those
+years seem to have been marked by great professional
+activity on his part, and by considerable
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+growth in his reputation, even for the higher and
+more difficult work of the law. Of course, as the
+vast controversy between the colonists and Great
+Britain grew in violence, all controversies between
+one colonist and another began to seem petty, and
+to be postponed; even the courts ceased to meet
+with much regularity, and finally ceased to meet at
+all; while Patrick Henry himself, forsaking his
+private concerns, became entirely absorbed in the
+concerns of the public.</p>
+
+<p>The fluctuations in his engagements as a lawyer,
+during all these years, may be traced with some
+certainty by the entries in his fee-books. For the
+year 1765, he charges fees in 547 cases; for 1766,
+in 114 cases; for 1767, in 554 cases; for 1768, in
+354 cases. With the next year there begins a
+great falling off in the number of his cases; and
+the decline continues till 1774, when, in the convulsions
+of the time, his practice stops altogether.
+Thus, for 1769, there are registered 132 cases;
+for 1770, 94 cases; for 1771, 102 cases; for 1772,
+43 cases; for 1773, 7 cases; and for 1774, none.<a name="FNanchor90" id="FNanchor90"></a><a href="#Footnote-90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p>
+
+<p>The character of the professional work done by
+him during this period deserves a moment&#8217;s consideration.
+Prior to 1769, he had limited himself
+to practice in the courts of the several counties.
+In that year he began to practice in the general
+court,&mdash;the highest court in the colony,&mdash;where
+of course were tried the most important and difficult
+causes, and where thenceforward he had
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+constantly to encounter the most learned and
+acute lawyers at the bar, including such men as
+Pendleton, Wythe, Blair, Mercer, John Randolph,
+Thompson Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert
+C. Nicholas.<a name="FNanchor91" id="FNanchor91"></a><a href="#Footnote-91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p>
+
+<p>There could never have been any doubt of his
+supreme competency to deal with such criminal
+causes as he had to manage in that court or in any
+other; and with respect to the conduct of other
+than criminal causes, all purely contemporaneous
+evidence, now to be had, implies that he had not
+ventured to present himself before the higher tribunals
+of the land until he had qualified himself
+to bear his part there with success and honor.
+Thus, the instance may be mentioned of his appearing
+in the Court of Admiralty, &#8220;in behalf of
+a Spanish captain, whose vessel and cargo had
+been libeled. A gentleman who was present, and
+who was very well qualified to judge, was heard to
+declare, after the trial was over, that he never
+heard a more eloquent or argumentative speech in
+his life; that Mr. Henry was on that occasion
+greatly superior to Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Mason, or
+any other counsel who spoke to the subject; and
+that he was astonished how Mr. Henry could have
+acquired such a knowledge of the maritime law, to
+which it was believed he had never before turned
+his attention.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor92" id="FNanchor92"></a><a href="#Footnote-92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> Moreover, in 1771, just two
+years from the time when Patrick Henry began
+practice in the General Court, Robert C. Nicholas,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+then a veteran member of the profession, &#8220;who
+had enjoyed the first practice at the bar,&#8221; had
+occasion to retire, and began looking about among
+the younger men for some competent lawyer to
+whom he might safely intrust the unfinished business
+of his clients. He first offered his practice to
+Thomas Jefferson, who, however, was compelled
+to decline it. Afterward, he offered it to Patrick
+Henry, who accepted it; and accordingly, by public
+advertisement, Nicholas informed his clients
+that he had committed to Patrick Henry the further
+protection of their interests,<a name="FNanchor93" id="FNanchor93"></a><a href="#Footnote-93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a>&mdash;a perfectly
+conclusive proof, it should seem, of the real respect
+in which Patrick Henry&#8217;s qualifications as a lawyer
+were then held, not only by the public but by the
+profession. Certainly such evidence as this can
+hardly be set aside by the supposed recollections
+of one old gentleman, of broken memory and unbroken
+resentment, who long afterward tried to
+convince Wirt that, even at the period now in
+question, Patrick Henry was &#8220;wofully deficient as
+a lawyer,&#8221; was unable to contend with his associates
+&#8220;on a mere question of law,&#8221; and was &#8220;so
+little acquainted with the fundamental principles
+of his profession &hellip; as not to be able to see the
+remote bearings of the reported cases.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor94" id="FNanchor94"></a><a href="#Footnote-94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> The expressions
+here quoted are, apparently, Wirt&#8217;s own
+paraphrase of the statements which were made to
+him by Jefferson, and which, in many of their
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+details, can now be proved, on documentary evidence,
+to be the work of a hand that had forgot,
+not indeed its cunning, but at any rate its accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>As to the political history of Patrick Henry
+during this period, it may be easily described.
+The doctrine on which he had planted himself by
+his resolutions in 1765, namely, that the parliamentary
+taxation of unrepresented colonies is unconstitutional,
+became the avowed doctrine of Virginia,
+and of all her sister colonies; and nearly all
+the men who, in the House of Burgesses, had, for
+reasons of propriety, or of expediency, or of personal
+feeling, opposed the passage of his resolutions,
+soon took pains to make it known to their
+constituents that their opposition had not been to
+the principle which those resolutions expressed.
+Thenceforward, among the leaders in Virginian
+politics, there was no real disagreement on the
+fundamental question; only such disagreement
+touching methods as must always occur between
+spirits who are cautious and spirits who are bold.
+Chief among the former were Pendleton, Wythe,
+Bland, Peyton Randolph, and Nicholas. In the
+van of the latter always stood Patrick Henry, and
+with him Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, the
+Pages, and George Mason. But between the two
+groups, after all, was surprising harmony, which
+is thus explained by one who in all that business
+had a great part and who never was a laggard:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Sensible, however, of the importance of unanimity
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+among our constituents, although we often wished to
+have gone faster, we slackened our pace, that our less
+ardent colleagues might keep up with us; and they, on
+their part, differing nothing from us in principle, quickened
+their gait somewhat beyond that which their prudence
+might of itself have advised, and thus consolidated
+the phalanx which breasted the power of Britain. By
+this harmony of the bold with the cautious, we advanced
+with our constituents in undivided mass, and with fewer
+examples of separation than, perhaps, existed in any
+other part of the union.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor95" id="FNanchor95"></a><a href="#Footnote-95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>All deprecated a quarrel with Great Britain;
+all deprecated as a boundless calamity the possible
+issue of independence; all desired to remain in
+loyal, free, and honorable connection with the
+British empire; and against the impending danger
+of an assault upon the freedom, and consequently
+the honor, of this connection, all stood on guard.</p>
+
+<p>One result, however, of this practical unanimity
+among the leaders in Virginia was the absence,
+during all this period, of those impassioned and
+dramatic conflicts in debate, which would have
+called forth historic exhibitions of Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+eloquence and of his gifts for conduct and command.
+He had a leading part in all the counsels
+of the time; he was sent to every session of the
+House of Burgesses; he was at the front in all
+local committees and conventions; he was made a
+member of the first Committee of Correspondence;
+and all these incidents in this portion of his life
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+culminated in his mission as one of the deputies
+from Virginia to the first Continental Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Without here going into the familiar story of
+the occasion and purposes of the Congress of 1774,
+we may briefly indicate Patrick Henry&#8217;s relation
+to the events in Virginia which immediately preceded
+his appointment to that renowned assemblage.
+On the 24th of May, 1774, the House of
+Burgesses, having received the alarming news of
+the passage of the Boston Port Bill, designated
+the day on which that bill was to take effect&mdash;the
+first day of June&mdash;&#8220;as a day of fasting, humiliation,
+and prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine
+interposition for averting the heavy calamity
+which threatens destruction to our civil rights,
+and the evils of civil war; to give us one heart
+and one mind firmly to oppose, by all just and
+proper means, every injury to American rights;
+and that the minds of his majesty and his parliament
+may be inspired from above with wisdom,
+moderation, and justice, to remove from the loyal
+people of America all cause of danger, from a
+continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their
+ruin.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor96" id="FNanchor96"></a><a href="#Footnote-96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> Two days afterward, the governor, Lord
+Dunmore, having summoned the House to the
+council chamber, made to them this little speech:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses,
+I have in my hand a paper published by order of
+your House, conceived in such terms as reflect highly
+upon his majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+which makes it necessary for me to dissolve you, and
+you are dissolved accordingly.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor97" id="FNanchor97"></a><a href="#Footnote-97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At ten o&#8217;clock on the following day, May 27,
+the members of the late House met by agreement
+at the Raleigh Tavern, and there promptly passed
+a nobly-worded resolution, deploring the policy
+pursued by Parliament and suggesting the establishment
+of an annual congress of all the colonies,
+&#8220;to deliberate on those general measures which
+the united interests of America may from time to
+time require.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor98" id="FNanchor98"></a><a href="#Footnote-98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p>
+
+<p>During the anxious days and nights immediately
+preceding the dissolution of the House, its prominent
+members held many private conferences with
+respect to the course to be pursued by Virginia.
+In all these conferences, as we are told, &#8220;Patrick
+Henry was the leader;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor99" id="FNanchor99"></a><a href="#Footnote-99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> and a very able man,
+George Mason, who was just then a visitor at
+Williamsburg, and was admitted to the consultations
+of the chiefs, wrote at the time concerning
+him: &#8220;He is by far the most powerful speaker I
+ever heard.&hellip; But his eloquence is the smallest
+part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the first
+man upon this continent, as well in abilities as
+public virtues.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor100" id="FNanchor100"></a><a href="#Footnote-100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+In response to a recommendation made by leading
+members of the recent House of Burgesses, a
+convention of delegates from the several counties
+of Virginia assembled at Williamsburg, on August
+1, 1774, to deal with the needs of the hour, and
+especially to appoint deputies to the proposed
+congress at Philadelphia. The spirit in which
+this convention transacted its business is sufficiently
+shown in the opening paragraphs of the letter of
+instructions which it gave to the deputies whom it
+sent to the congress:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and
+her American colonies, which began about the third year
+of the reign of his present majesty, and since, continually
+increasing, have proceeded to lengths so dangerous
+and alarming as to excite just apprehensions in the
+minds of his majesty&#8217;s faithful subjects of this colony
+that they are in danger of being deprived of their natural,
+ancient, constitutional, and chartered rights, have
+compelled them to take the same into their most serious
+consideration; and being deprived of their usual and
+accustomed mode of making known their grievances,
+have appointed us their representatives, to consider what
+is proper to be done in this dangerous crisis of American
+affairs.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It being our opinion that the united wisdom of North
+America should be collected in a general congress of all
+the colonies, we have appointed the honorable Peyton
+Randolph, Esquire, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington,
+Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison,
+and Edmund Pendleton, Esquires, deputies to
+represent this colony in the said congress, to be held at
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+Philadelphia on the first Monday in September next.
+And that they may be the better informed of our sentiments
+touching the conduct we wish them to observe on
+this important occasion, we desire that they will express,
+in the first place, our faith and true allegiance to his
+majesty King George the Third, our lawful and rightful
+sovereign; and that we are determined, with our lives
+and fortunes, to support him in the legal exercise of all
+his just rights and prerogatives; and however misrepresented,
+we sincerely approve of a constitutional connection
+with Great Britain, and wish most ardently a return
+of that intercourse of affection and commercial connection
+that formerly united both countries; which can only
+be effected by a removal of those causes of discontent
+which have of late unhappily divided us.&hellip; The
+power assumed by the British Parliament to bind America
+by their statutes, in all cases whatsoever, is unconstitutional,
+and the source of these unhappy differences.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor101" id="FNanchor101"></a><a href="#Footnote-101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The convention at Williamsburg, of which, of
+course, Patrick Henry was a member, seems to
+have adjourned on Saturday, the 6th of August.
+Between that date and the time for his departure
+to attend the congress at Philadelphia, we may
+imagine him as busily engaged in arranging his
+affairs for a long absence from home, and even
+then as not getting ready to begin the long journey
+until many of his associates had nearly reached
+the end of it.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-90" id="Footnote-90"></a><a href="#FNanchor90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-91" id="Footnote-91"></a><a href="#FNanchor91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Wirt, 70, 71.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-92" id="Footnote-92"></a><a href="#FNanchor92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Wirt, 71, 72.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-93" id="Footnote-93"></a><a href="#FNanchor93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 49; Wirt, 77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-94" id="Footnote-94"></a><a href="#FNanchor94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Wirt, 71.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-95" id="Footnote-95"></a><a href="#FNanchor95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Jefferson&#8217;s <i>Works</i>, vi. 368.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-96" id="Footnote-96"></a><a href="#FNanchor96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 350.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-97" id="Footnote-97"></a><a href="#FNanchor97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Campbell, <i>Hist. Va.</i> 573.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-98" id="Footnote-98"></a><a href="#FNanchor98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 350, 351. The narrative of these events as given
+by Wirt and by Campbell has several errors. They seem to have
+been misled by Jefferson, who, in his account of the business
+(<i>Works</i>, i. 122, 123), is, if possible, rather more inaccurate than
+usual.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-99" id="Footnote-99"></a><a href="#FNanchor99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Campbell, <i>Hist. Va.</i> 573.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-100" id="Footnote-100"></a><a href="#FNanchor100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> Mason to Martin Cockburn, <i>Va. Hist. Reg.</i> iii. 27-29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-101" id="Footnote-101"></a><a href="#FNanchor101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> The full text of this letter of instructions is given in 4 <i>Am.
+Arch.</i> i. 689, 690. With this should be compared note C. in Jefferson&#8217;s
+<i>Works</i>, i. 122-142.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII <br />
+<span class="hsub">IN THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>On the morning of Tuesday, the 30th of August,
+Patrick Henry arrived on horseback at Mt. Vernon,
+the home of his friend and colleague, George
+Washington; and having remained there that day
+and night, he set out for Philadelphia on the following
+morning, in the company of Washington
+and of Edmund Pendleton. From the jottings in
+Washington&#8217;s diary,<a name="FNanchor102" id="FNanchor102"></a><a href="#Footnote-102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> we can so far trace the progress
+of this trio of illustrious horsemen, as to
+ascertain that on Sunday, the 4th of September,
+they &#8220;breakfasted at Christiana Ferry; dined at
+Chester;&#8221; and reached Philadelphia for supper&mdash;thus
+arriving in town barely in time to be present
+at the first meeting of the Congress on the morning
+of the 5th.</p>
+
+<p>John Adams had taken pains to get upon the
+ground nearly a week earlier; and carefully gathering
+all possible information concerning his future
+associates, few of whom he had then ever seen, he
+wrote in his diary that the Virginians were said
+to &#8220;speak in raptures about Richard Henry Lee
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+and Patrick Henry, one the Cicero, and the other
+the Demosthenes, of the age.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor103" id="FNanchor103"></a><a href="#Footnote-103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p>
+
+<p>Not far from the same time, also, a keen-witted
+Virginian, Roger Atkinson, at his home near Petersburg,
+was writing to a friend about the men
+who had gone to represent Virginia in the great
+Congress; and this letter of his, though not meant
+for posterity, has some neat, off-hand portraits
+which posterity may, nevertheless, be glad to look
+at. Peyton Randolph is &#8220;a venerable man &hellip;
+an honest man; has knowledge, temper, experience,
+judgment,&mdash;above all, integrity; a true
+Roman spirit.&#8221; Richard Bland is &#8220;a wary, old,
+experienced veteran at the bar and in the senate;
+has something of the look of old musty parchments,
+which he handleth and studieth much. He formerly
+wrote a treatise against the Quakers on
+water-baptism.&#8221; Washington &#8220;is a soldier,&mdash;a
+warrior; he is a modest man; sensible; speaks
+little; in action cool, like a bishop at his prayers.&#8221;
+Pendleton &#8220;is an humble and religious man, and
+must be exalted. He is a smooth-tongued speaker,
+and, though not so old, may be compared to old
+Nestor,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8216;Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skilled,<br />
+Words sweet as honey from his lips distilled.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Patrick Henry &#8220;is a real half-Quaker,&mdash;your
+brother&#8217;s man,&mdash;moderate and mild, and in
+religious matters a saint; but the very devil in
+politics; a son of thunder. He will shake the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+Senate. Some years ago he had liked to have
+talked treason into the House.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor104" id="FNanchor104"></a><a href="#Footnote-104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p>
+
+<p>Few of the members of this Congress had ever
+met before; and if all had arrived upon the scene
+as late as did these three members from Virginia,
+there might have been some difficulty, through a
+lack of previous consultation and acquaintance, in
+organizing the Congress on the day appointed, and
+in entering at once upon its business. In fact,
+however, more than a week before the time for the
+first meeting, the delegates had begun to make
+their appearance in Philadelphia; thenceforward
+with each day the arrivals continued; by Thursday,
+the 1st of September, twenty-five delegates,
+nearly one half of the entire body elected, were in
+town;<a name="FNanchor105" id="FNanchor105"></a><a href="#Footnote-105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> and probably, during all that week, no
+day and no night had passed without many an informal
+conference respecting the business before
+them, and the best way of doing it.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning these memorable men of the first
+Continental Congress, it must be confessed that as
+the mists of a hundred years of glorifying oratory
+and of semi-poetic history have settled down upon
+them, they are now enveloped in a light which
+seems to distend their forms to proportions almost
+superhuman, and to cast upon their faces a gravity
+that hardly belongs to this world; and it may,
+perhaps, help us to bring them and their work
+somewhat nearer to the plane of natural human
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+life and motive, and into a light that is as the
+light of reality, if, turning to the daily memoranda
+made at the time by one of their number, we can
+see how merrily, after all, nay, with what flowing
+feasts, with what convivial communings, passed
+those days and nights of preparation for the difficult
+business they were about to take in hand.</p>
+
+<p>For example, on Monday, the 29th of August,
+when the four members of the Massachusetts delegation
+had arrived within five miles of the city,
+they were met by an escort of gentlemen, partly
+residents of Philadelphia, and partly delegates
+from other colonies, who had come out in carriages
+to greet them.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;We were introduced,&#8221; writes John Adams, &#8220;to all
+these gentlemen, and most cordially welcomed to Philadelphia.
+We then rode into town, and dirty, dusty, and
+fatigued as we were, we could not resist the importunity
+to go to the tavern, the most genteel one in America.
+There we were introduced to a number of other gentlemen
+of the city, &hellip; and to Mr. Lynch and Mr. Gadsden,
+of South Carolina. Here we had a fresh welcome
+to the city of Philadelphia; and after some time spent
+in conversation, a curtain was drawn, and in the other
+half of the chamber a supper appeared as elegant as ever
+was laid upon a table. About eleven o&#8217;clock we retired.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;30, Tuesday. Walked a little about town; visited
+the market, the State House, the Carpenters&#8217; Hall, where
+the Congress is to sit, etc.; then called at Mr. Mifflin&#8217;s,
+a grand, spacious, and elegant house. Here we had
+much conversation with Mr. Charles Thomson, who is
+&hellip; the Sam Adams of Philadelphia, the life of the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+cause of liberty, they say. A Friend, Collins, came to
+see us, and invited us to dine on Thursday. We returned
+to our lodgings, and Mr. Lynch, Mr. Gadsden,
+Mr. Middleton, and young Mr. Rutledge came to visit us.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;31, Wednesday. Breakfasted at Mr. Bayard&#8217;s, of
+Philadelphia, with Mr. Sprout, a Presbyterian minister.
+Made a visit to Governor Ward of Rhode Island, at his
+lodgings. There we were introduced to several gentlemen.
+Mr. Dickinson, the Farmer of Pennsylvania,
+came in his coach with four beautiful horses to Mr.
+Ward&#8217;s lodgings, to see us.&hellip; We dined with Mr.
+Lynch, his lady and daughter, at their lodgings, &hellip;
+and a very agreeable dinner and afternoon we had, notwithstanding
+the violent heat. We were all vastly
+pleased with Mr. Lynch. He is a solid, firm, judicious
+man.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;September 1, Thursday. This day we breakfasted
+at Mr. Mifflin&#8217;s. Mr. C. Thomson came in, and soon
+after Dr. Smith, the famous Dr. Smith, the provost of
+the college.&hellip; We then went to return visits to the
+gentlemen who had visited us. We visited a Mr. Cadwallader,
+a gentleman of large fortune, a grand and elegant
+house and furniture. We then visited Mr. Powell,
+another splendid seat. We then visited the gentlemen
+from South Carolina, and, about twelve, were introduced
+to Mr. Galloway, the speaker of the House in Pennsylvania.
+We dined at Friend Collins&#8217; &hellip; with Governor
+Hopkins, Governor Ward, Mr. Galloway, Mr. Rhoades,
+etc. In the evening all the gentlemen of the Congress
+who were arrived in town, met at Smith&#8217;s, the new city
+tavern, and spent the evening together. Twenty-five
+members were come. Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland,
+and the city of New York were not arrived.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;2, Friday. Dined at Mr. Thomas Mifflin&#8217;s with
+Mr. Lynch, Mr. Middleton, and the two Rutledges with
+their ladies.&hellip; We were very sociable and happy.
+After coffee we went to the tavern, where we were introduced
+to Peyton Randolph, Esquire, speaker of Virginia,
+Colonel Harrison, Richard Henry Lee, Esquire,
+and Colonel Bland.&hellip; These gentlemen from Virginia
+appear to be the most spirited and consistent of
+any. Harrison said he would have come on foot rather
+than not come. Bland said he would have gone, upon
+this occasion, if it had been to Jericho.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;3, Saturday. Breakfasted at Dr. Shippen&#8217;s; Dr.
+Witherspoon was there. Col. R. H. Lee lodges there;
+he is a masterly man.&hellip; We went with Mr. William
+Barrell to his store, and drank punch, and ate dried
+smoked sprats with him; read the papers and our letters
+from Boston; dined with Mr. Joseph Reed, the
+lawyer; &hellip; spent the evening at Mr. Mifflin&#8217;s, with
+Lee and Harrison from Virginia, the two Rutledges, Dr.
+Witherspoon, Dr. Shippen, Dr. Steptoe, and another
+gentleman; an elegant supper, and we drank sentiments
+till eleven o&#8217;clock. Lee and Harrison were very high.
+Lee had dined with Mr. Dickinson, and drank Burgundy
+the whole afternoon.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor106" id="FNanchor106"></a><a href="#Footnote-106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Accordingly, at 10 o&#8217;clock on Monday morning,
+the 5th of September, when the delegates assembled
+at their rendezvous, the city tavern, and
+marched together through the streets to Carpenters&#8217;
+Hall, for most of them the stiffness of a first introduction
+was already broken, and they could
+greet one another that morning with something of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+the freedom and good fellowship of boon companions.
+Moreover, they were then ready to proceed
+to business under the advantage of having arranged
+beforehand an outline of what was first to be done.
+It had been discovered, apparently, that the first
+serious question which would meet them after
+their formal organization, was one relating to the
+method of voting in the Congress, namely, whether
+each deputy should have a vote, or only each colony;
+and if the latter, whether the vote of each
+colony should be proportioned to its population
+and property.</p>
+
+<p>Having arrived at the hall, and inspected it,
+and agreed that it would serve the purpose, the
+delegates helped themselves to seats. Then Mr.
+Lynch of South Carolina arose, and nominated
+Mr. Peyton Randolph of Virginia for president.
+This nomination having been unanimously adopted,
+Mr. Lynch likewise proposed Mr. Charles Thomson
+for secretary, which was carried without opposition;
+but as Mr. Thomson was not a delegate,
+and of course was not then present, the doorkeeper
+was instructed to go out and find him, and say to
+him that his immediate attendance was desired by
+the Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Next came the production and inspection of credentials.
+The roll indicated that of the fifty-two
+delegates appointed, forty-four were already upon
+the ground,&mdash;constituting an assemblage of representative
+Americans, which, for dignity of character
+and for intellectual eminence, was undoubtedly the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+most imposing that the colonies had ever seen.
+In that room that day were such men as John
+Sullivan, John and Samuel Adams, Stephen Hopkins,
+Roger Sherman, James Duane, John Jay,
+Philip and William Livingston, Joseph Galloway,
+Thomas Mifflin, C&aelig;sar Rodney, Thomas McKean,
+George Read, Samuel Chase, John and Edward
+Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Henry Middleton,
+Edmund Pendleton, George Washington, and
+Patrick Henry.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus got through with the mere routine
+of organization, which must have taken a considerable
+time, James Duane, of New York, moved the
+appointment of a committee &#8220;to prepare regulations
+for this Congress.&#8221; To this several gentlemen
+objected; whereupon John Adams, thinking
+that Duane&#8217;s purpose might have been misunderstood,
+&#8220;asked leave of the president to request of
+the gentleman from New York an explanation,
+and that he would point out some particular regulations
+which he had in his mind.&#8221; In reply to
+this request, Duane &#8220;mentioned particularly the
+method of voting, whether it should be by colonies,
+or by the poll, or by interests.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor107" id="FNanchor107"></a><a href="#Footnote-107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> Thus Duane
+laid his finger on perhaps the most sensitive nerve
+in that assemblage; but as he sat down, the discussion
+of the subject which he had mentioned was
+interrupted by a rather curious incident. This
+was the return of the doorkeeper, having under his
+escort Mr. Charles Thomson. The latter walked
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+up the aisle, and standing opposite to the president,
+said, with a bow, that he awaited his pleasure.
+The president replied: &#8220;Congress desire the favor
+of you, sir, to take their minutes.&#8221; Without a
+word, only bowing his acquiescence, the secretary
+took his seat at his desk, and began those modest
+but invaluable services from which he did not
+cease until the Congress of the Confederation was
+merged into that of the Union.</p>
+
+<p>The discussion, into which this incident had
+fallen as a momentary episode, was then resumed.
+&#8220;After a short silence,&#8221; says the man who was
+thus inducted into office, &#8220;Patrick Henry arose to
+speak. I did not then know him. He was dressed
+in a suit of parson&#8217;s gray, and from his appearance
+I took him for a Presbyterian clergyman, used to
+haranguing the people. He observed that we were
+here met in a time and on an occasion of great
+difficulty and distress; that our public circumstances
+were like those of a man in deep embarrassment
+and trouble, who had called his friends together
+to devise what was best to be done for his
+relief;&mdash;one would propose one thing, and another
+a different one, whilst perhaps a third would think
+of something better suited to his unhappy circumstances,
+which he would embrace, and think no
+more of the rejected schemes with which he would
+have nothing to do.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor108" id="FNanchor108"></a><a href="#Footnote-108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+Such is the rather meagre account, as given by
+one ear-witness, of Patrick Henry&#8217;s first speech in
+the Congress of 1774. From another ear-witness
+we have another account, likewise very meagre,
+but giving, probably, a somewhat more adequate
+idea of the drift and point of what he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Mr. Henry then arose, and said this was the first
+general congress which had ever happened; that no
+former congress could be a precedent; that we should
+have occasion for more general congresses, and therefore
+that a precedent ought to be established now; that it
+would be a great injustice if a little colony should have
+the same weight in the councils of America as a great
+one; and therefore he was for a committee.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor109" id="FNanchor109"></a><a href="#Footnote-109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The notable thing about both these accounts is
+that they agree in showing Patrick Henry&#8217;s first
+speech in Congress to have been not, as has been
+represented, an impassioned portrayal of &#8220;general
+grievances,&#8221; but a plain and quiet handling of a
+mere &#8220;detail of business.&#8221; In the discussion he
+was followed by John Sullivan, who merely observed
+that &#8220;a little colony had its all at stake as
+well as a great one.&#8221; The floor was then taken
+by John Adams, who seems to have made a searching
+and vigorous argument,&mdash;exhibiting the great
+difficulties attending any possible conclusion to
+which they might come respecting the method of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+voting. At the end of his speech, apparently, the
+House adjourned, to resume the consideration of
+the subject on the following day.<a name="FNanchor110" id="FNanchor110"></a><a href="#Footnote-110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a></p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, on Tuesday morning the discussion
+was continued, and at far greater length than on
+the previous day; the first speaker being Patrick
+Henry himself, who seems now to have gone into
+the subject far more broadly, and with much greater
+intensity of thought, than in his first speech.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Government,&#8217; said he, &#8216;is dissolved. Fleets and
+armies and the present state of things show that government
+is dissolved. Where are your landmarks, your
+boundaries of colonies? We are in a state of nature,
+sir. I did propose that a scale should be laid down;
+that part of North America which was once Massachusetts
+Bay, and that part which was once Virginia, ought
+to be considered as having a weight. Will not people
+complain,&mdash;&#8220;Ten thousand Virginians have not outweighed
+one thousand others?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I will submit, however; I am determined to submit,
+if I am overruled.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;A worthy gentleman near me [John Adams] seemed
+to admit the necessity of obtaining a more adequate
+representation.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I hope future ages will quote our proceedings with
+applause. It is one of the great duties of the democratical
+part of the constitution to keep itself pure. It
+is known in my province that some other colonies are
+not so numerous or rich as they are. I am for giving
+all the satisfaction in my power.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians,
+New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more.
+I am not a Virginian, but an American.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Slaves are to be thrown out of the question; and if
+the freemen can be represented according to their numbers,
+I am satisfied.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The subject was then debated at length by Lynch,
+Rutledge, Ward, Richard Henry Lee, Gadsden, Bland,
+and Pendleton, when Patrick Henry again rose:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I agree that authentic accounts cannot be had, if
+by authenticity is meant attestations of officers of the
+crown. I go upon the supposition that government is at
+an end. All distinctions are thrown down. All America
+is thrown into one mass. We must aim at the minuti&aelig;
+of rectitude.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Patrick Henry was then followed by John Jay,
+who seems to have closed the debate, and whose
+allusion to what his immediate predecessor had
+said gives us some hint of the variations in Revolutionary
+opinion then prevailing among the members,
+as well as of the advanced position always
+taken by Patrick Henry:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;&#8216;Could I suppose that we came to frame an American
+constitution, instead of endeavoring to correct the faults
+in an old one, I can&#8217;t yet think that all government is
+at an end. The measure of arbitrary power is not full;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+and I think it must run over, before we undertake to
+frame a new constitution. To the virtue, spirit, and
+abilities of Virginia we owe much. I should always,
+therefore, from inclination as well as justice, be for giving
+Virginia its full weight. I am not clear that we
+ought not to be bound by a majority, though ever so
+small; but I only mentioned it as a matter of danger
+worthy of consideration.&#8217;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor111" id="FNanchor111"></a><a href="#Footnote-111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of this entire debate, the most significant issue
+is indicated by the following passage from the
+journal for Tuesday, the 6th of September:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;<i>Resolved</i>, that in determining questions in this Congress,
+each colony or province shall have one vote; the
+Congress not being possessed of, or at present able to
+procure, proper materials for ascertaining the importance
+of each colony.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor112" id="FNanchor112"></a><a href="#Footnote-112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>So far as it is now possible to ascertain it, such
+was Patrick Henry&#8217;s part in the first discussion
+held by the first Continental Congress,&mdash;a discussion
+occupying parts of two days, and relating
+purely to methods of procedure by that body, and
+not to the matters of grievance between the colonies
+and Great Britain. We have a right to infer
+something as to the quality of the first impression
+made upon his associates by Patrick Henry in
+consequence of his three speeches in this discussion,
+from the fact that when, at the close of it, an
+order was taken for the appointment of two grand
+committees, one &#8220;to state the rights of the colonies,&#8221;
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+the other &#8220;to examine and report the several
+statutes which affect the trade and manufactures
+of the colonies,&#8221; Patrick Henry was chosen to
+represent Virginia on the latter
+committee,<a name="FNanchor113" id="FNanchor113"></a><a href="#Footnote-113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a>&mdash;a
+position not likely to have been selected for a man
+who, however eloquent he may have seemed, had
+not also shown business-like and lawyer-like qualities.</p>
+
+<p>The Congress kept steadily at work from Monday,
+the 5th of September, to Wednesday, the
+26th of October,&mdash;just seven weeks and two days.
+Though not a legislative body, it resembled all
+legislative bodies then in existence, in the fact
+that it sat with closed doors, and that it gave to
+the public only such results as it chose to give.
+Upon the difficult and exciting subjects which
+came before it, there were, very likely, many
+splendid passages of debate; and we cannot doubt
+that in all these discussions Patrick Henry took
+his usually conspicuous and powerful share. Yet
+no official record was kept of what was said by any
+member; and it is only from the hurried private
+memoranda of two of his colleagues that we are
+able to learn anything more respecting Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s participation in the debates of those seven
+weeks.</p>
+
+<p>For example, just two weeks after the opening
+of this Congress, one of its most critical members,
+Silas Deane of Connecticut, in a letter to his wife,
+gave some capital sketches of his more prominent
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+associates there, especially those from the South,&mdash;as
+Randolph, Harrison, Washington, Pendleton,
+Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry.
+The latter he describes as &#8220;a lawyer, and the
+completest speaker I ever heard. If his future
+speeches are equal to the small samples he has
+hitherto given us, they will be worth preserving;
+but in a letter I can give you no idea of the music
+of his voice, or the high-wrought yet natural elegance
+of his style and manner.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor114" id="FNanchor114"></a><a href="#Footnote-114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was on the 28th of September that Joseph
+Galloway brought forward his celebrated plan for
+a permanent reconciliation between Great Britain
+and her colonies. This was simply a scheme for
+what we should now call home rule, on a basis of
+colonial confederation, with an American parliament
+to be elected every three years by the legislatures
+of the several colonies, and with a governor-general
+to be appointed by the crown. The
+plan came very near to adoption.<a name="FNanchor115" id="FNanchor115"></a><a href="#Footnote-115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> The member
+who introduced it was a man of great ability and
+great influence; it was supported by James Duane
+and John Jay; it was pronounced by Edward Rutledge
+to be &#8220;almost a perfect plan;&#8221; and in the
+final trial it was lost only by a vote of six colonies
+to five. Could it have been adopted, the disruption
+of the British empire would certainly have
+been averted for that epoch, and, as an act of violence
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+and of unkindness, would perhaps have been
+averted forever; while the thirteen English colonies
+would have remained English colonies, without
+ceasing to be free.</p>
+
+<p>The plan, however, was distrusted and resisted,
+with stern and implacable hostility, by the more
+radical members of the Congress, particularly by
+those from Massachusetts and Virginia; and an
+outline of what Patrick Henry said in his assault
+upon it, delivered on the very day on which it was
+introduced, is thus given by John Adams:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;The original constitution of the colonies was founded
+on the broadest and most generous base. The regulation
+of our trade was compensation enough for all the
+protection we ever experienced from her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We shall liberate our constituents from a corrupt
+House of Commons, but throw them into the arms of an
+American legislature, that may be bribed by that nation
+which avows, in the face of the world, that bribery is a
+part of her system of government.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before we are obliged to pay taxes as they do, let
+us be as free as they; let us have our trade open with
+all the world.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We are not to consent by the representatives of
+representatives.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am inclined to think the present measures lead to
+war.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor116" id="FNanchor116"></a><a href="#Footnote-116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The only other trace to be discovered of Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s activity in the debates of this Congress
+belongs to the day just before the one on which
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+Galloway&#8217;s plan was introduced. The subject
+then under discussion was the measure for non-importation
+and non-exportation. On considerations
+of forbearance, Henry tried to have the date
+for the application of this measure postponed from
+November to December, saying, characteristically,
+&#8220;We don&#8217;t mean to hurt even our rascals, if we
+have any.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor117" id="FNanchor117"></a><a href="#Footnote-117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a></p>
+
+<p>Probably the most notable work done by this
+Congress was its preparation of those masterly
+state papers in which it interpreted and affirmed
+the constitutional attitude of the colonies, and
+which, when laid upon the table of the House of
+Lords, drew forth the splendid encomium of Chatham.<a name="FNanchor118" id="FNanchor118"></a><a href="#Footnote-118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a>
+In many respects the most important, and
+certainly the most difficult, of these state papers,
+was the address to the king. The motion for such
+an address was made on the 1st of October. On
+the same day the preparation of it was entrusted
+to a very able committee, consisting of Richard
+Henry Lee, John Adams, Thomas Johnson, Patrick
+Henry, and John Rutledge; and on the 21st
+of October the committee was strengthened by the
+accession of John Dickinson, who had entered the
+Congress but four days before.<a name="FNanchor119" id="FNanchor119"></a><a href="#Footnote-119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> Precisely what
+part Patrick Henry took in the preparation of this
+address is not now known; but there is no evidence
+whatever for the assertion<a name="FNanchor120" id="FNanchor120"></a><a href="#Footnote-120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> that the first draft,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+which, when submitted to Congress, proved to be
+unsatisfactory, was the work of Patrick Henry.
+That draft, as is now abundantly proved, was prepared
+by the chairman of the committee, Richard
+Henry Lee, but after full instructions from Congress
+and from the committee itself.<a name="FNanchor121" id="FNanchor121"></a><a href="#Footnote-121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> In its final
+form, the address was largely moulded by the expert
+and gentle hand of John Dickinson.<a name="FNanchor122" id="FNanchor122"></a><a href="#Footnote-122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> No one
+can doubt, however, that even though Patrick
+Henry may have contributed nothing to the literary
+execution of this fine address, he was not inactive
+in its construction,<a name="FNanchor123" id="FNanchor123"></a><a href="#Footnote-123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> and that he was not
+likely to have suggested any abatement from its
+free and manly spirit.</p>
+
+<p>The only other committee on which he is known
+to have served during this Congress was one to
+which his name was added on the 19th of September,&mdash;&#8220;the
+committee appointed to state the rights
+of the colonies,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor124" id="FNanchor124"></a><a href="#Footnote-124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> an object, certainly, far better
+suited to the peculiarities of his talents and of his
+temper than that of the committee for the conciliation
+of a king.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the one gift in which Patrick Henry
+excelled all other men of his time and neighborhood
+was the gift of eloquence; and it is not to be
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+doubted that in many other forms of effort, involving,
+for example, plain sense, practical experience,
+and knowledge of details, he was often equaled,
+and perhaps even surpassed, by men who had not
+a particle of his genius for oratory. This fact,
+the analogue of which is common in the history of
+all men of genius, seems to be the basis of an anecdote
+which, possibly, is authentic, and which, at
+any rate, has been handed down by one who was
+always a devoted friend<a name="FNanchor125" id="FNanchor125"></a><a href="#Footnote-125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> of the great orator. It
+is said that, after Henry and Lee had made their
+first speeches, Samuel Chase of Maryland was so
+impressed by their superiority that he walked over
+to the seat of one of his colleagues and said: &#8220;We
+might as well go home; we are not able to legislate
+with these men.&#8221; But some days afterward, perhaps
+in the midst of the work of the committee on
+the statutes affecting trade and commerce, the
+same member was able to relieve himself by the
+remark: &#8220;Well, after all, I find these are but
+men, and, in mere matters of business, but very
+common men.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor126" id="FNanchor126"></a><a href="#Footnote-126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p>
+
+<p>It seems hardly right to pass from these studies
+upon the first Continental Congress, and upon
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s part in it, without some reference
+to Wirt&#8217;s treatment of the subject in a book which
+has now been, for nearly three quarters of a century,
+the chief source of public information concerning
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+Patrick Henry. There is perhaps no other
+portion of this book which is less worthy of respect.<a name="FNanchor127" id="FNanchor127"></a><a href="#Footnote-127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a>
+It is not only unhistoric in nearly all the
+very few alleged facts of the narrative, but it does
+great injustice to Patrick Henry by representing
+him virtually as a mere declaimer, as an ill-instructed
+though most impressive rhapsodist in debate,
+and as without any claim to the character of
+a serious statesman, or even of a man of affairs;
+while, by the somewhat grandiose and melodramatic
+tone of some portion of the narrative, it is
+singularly out of harmony with the real tone of
+that famous assemblage,&mdash;an assemblage of Anglo-Saxon
+lawyers, politicians, and men of business,
+who were probably about as practical and
+sober-minded a company as had been got together
+for any manly undertaking since that of Runnymede.</p>
+
+<p>Wirt begins by convening his Congress one day
+too soon, namely, on the 4th of September, which
+was Sunday; and he represents the members as
+&#8220;personally strangers&#8221; to one another, and as sitting,
+after their preliminary organization, in a
+&#8220;long and deep silence,&#8221; the members meanwhile
+looking around upon each other with a sort of
+helpless anxiety, &#8220;every individual&#8221; being reluctant
+&#8220;to open a business so fearfully momentous.&#8221;
+But</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;in the midst of this deep and death-like silence, and
+just when it was beginning to become painfully embarrassing,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+Mr. Henry arose slowly, as if borne down by
+the weight of the subject. After faltering, according
+to his habit, through a most impressive exordium, in
+which he merely echoed back the consciousness of every
+other heart in deploring his inability to do justice to
+the occasion, he launched gradually into a recital of the
+colonial wrongs. Rising, as he advanced, with the grandeur
+of his subject, and glowing at length with all the
+majesty and expectation of the occasion, his speech
+seemed more than that of mortal man. Even those who
+had heard him in all his glory in the House of Burgesses
+of Virginia were astonished at the manner in which his
+talents seemed to swell and expand themselves to fill the
+vaster theatre in which he was now placed. There was
+no rant, no rhapsody, no labor of the understanding, no
+straining of the voice, no confusion of the utterance.
+His countenance was erect, his eye steady, his action
+noble, his enunciation clear and firm, his mind poised on
+its centre, his views of his subject comprehensive and
+great, and his imagination coruscating with a magnificence
+and a variety which struck even that assembly
+with amazement and awe. He sat down amidst murmurs
+of astonishment and applause; and, as he had
+been before proclaimed the greatest orator of Virginia,
+he was now on every hand admitted to be the first orator
+of America.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor128" id="FNanchor128"></a><a href="#Footnote-128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This great speech from Patrick Henry, which
+certainly was not made on that occasion, and probably
+was never made at all, Wirt causes to be followed
+by a great speech from Richard Henry Lee,
+although the journal could have informed him that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+Lee was not even in the House on that day.
+Moreover, he makes Patrick Henry to be the
+author of the unfortunate first draft of the address
+to the king,&mdash;a document which was written by
+another man; and on this fiction he founds two
+or three pages of lamentation and of homily with
+reference to Patrick Henry&#8217;s inability to express
+himself in writing, in consequence of &#8220;his early
+neglect of literature.&#8221; Finally, he thinks it due &#8220;to
+historic truth to record that the superior powers&#8221;
+of Patrick Henry &#8220;were manifested only in debate;&#8221;
+and that, although he and Richard Henry
+Lee &#8220;took the undisputed lead in the Assembly,&#8221;
+&#8220;during the first days of the session, while general
+grievances were the topic,&#8221; yet they were both
+&#8220;completely thrown into the shade&#8221; &#8220;when called
+down from the heights of declamation to that
+severer test of intellectual excellence, the details
+of business,&#8221;&mdash;the writer here seeming to forget
+that &#8220;general grievances&#8221; were not the topic
+&#8220;during the first days of the session,&#8221; and that
+the very speeches by which these two men are said
+to have made their mark there, were speeches on
+mere rules of the House relating to methods of
+procedure.<a name="FNanchor129" id="FNanchor129"></a><a href="#Footnote-129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p>
+
+<p>Since the death of Wirt, and the publication of
+the biography of him by Kennedy, it has been
+possible for us to ascertain just how the genial
+author of &#8220;The Life and Character of Patrick
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+Henry&#8221; came to be so gravely misled in this part
+of his book. &#8220;The whole passage relative to the
+first Congress&#8221; appears to have been composed
+from data furnished by Jefferson, who, however,
+was not a member of that Congress; and in the
+original manuscript the very words of Jefferson
+were surrounded with quotation marks, and were
+attributed to him by name. When, however, that
+great man, who loved not to send out calumnies
+into the world with his own name attached to
+them, came to inspect this portion of Wirt&#8217;s manuscript,
+he was moved by his usual prudence to
+write such a letter as drew from Wirt the following
+consolatory assurance:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Your repose shall never be endangered by any act
+of mine, if I can help it. Immediately on the receipt of
+your last letter, and before the manuscript had met any
+other eye, I wrote over again the whole passage relative
+to the first Congress, omitting the marks of quotation,
+and removing your name altogether from the communication.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor130" id="FNanchor130"></a><a href="#Footnote-130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The final adjournment of the first Continental
+Congress, it will be remembered, did not occur
+until its members had spent together more than
+seven weeks of the closest intellectual intimacy.
+Surely, no mere declaimer however enchanting, no
+sublime babbler on the rights of man, no political
+charlatan strutting about for the display of his
+preternatural gift of articulate wind, could have
+grappled in keen debate, for all those weeks, on
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+the greatest of earthly subjects, with fifty of the
+ablest men in America, without exposing to their
+view all his own intellectual poverty, and without
+losing the very last shred of their intellectual respect
+for him. Whatever may have been the impression
+formed of Patrick Henry as a mere orator
+by his associates in that Congress, nothing can be
+plainer than that those men carried with them to
+their homes that report of him as a man of extraordinary
+intelligence, integrity, and power, which
+was the basis of his subsequent fame for many
+years among the American people. Long afterward,
+John Adams, who formed his estimate of
+Patrick Henry chiefly from what he saw of him in
+that Congress, and who was never much addicted
+to bestowing eulogiums on any man but John
+Adams, wrote to Jefferson that &#8220;in the Congress
+of 1774 there was not one member, except Patrick
+Henry, who appeared &hellip; sensible of the precipice,
+or rather the pinnacle, on which we stood,
+and had candor and courage enough to acknowledge
+it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor131" id="FNanchor131"></a><a href="#Footnote-131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> To Wirt likewise, a few years later,
+the same hard critic of men testified that Patrick
+Henry always impressed him as a person &#8220;of deep
+reflection, keen sagacity, clear foresight, daring
+enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted
+integrity, with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the
+honor, and felicity of his country and his species.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor132" id="FNanchor132"></a><a href="#Footnote-132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></p>
+
+<p>Of the parting interview between these two
+men, at the close of that first period of thorough
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+personal acquaintance, there remains from the
+hand of one of them a graphic account that reveals
+to us something of the conscious kinship which
+seems ever afterward to have bound together their
+robust and impetuous natures.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;When Congress,&#8221; says John Adams, &#8220;had finished
+their business, as they thought, in the autumn of 1774,
+I had with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each
+other, some familiar conversation, in which I expressed
+a full conviction that our resolves, declarations of rights,
+enumeration of wrongs, petitions, remonstrances, and
+addresses, associations, and non-importation agreements,
+however they might be expected by the people in America,
+and however necessary to cement the union of the
+colonies, would be but waste paper in England. Mr.
+Henry said they might make some impression among the
+people of England, but agreed with me that they would
+be totally lost upon the government. I had but just
+received a short and hasty letter, written to me by
+Major Hawley, of Northampton, containing &#8216;a few
+broken hints,&#8217; as he called them, of what he thought was
+proper to be done, and concluding<a name="FNanchor133" id="FNanchor133"></a><a href="#Footnote-133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> with these words:
+&#8216;After all, we must fight.&#8217; This letter I read to Mr.
+Henry, who listened with great attention; and as soon
+as I had pronounced the words, &#8216;After all, we must
+fight,&#8217; he raised his head, and with an energy and vehemence
+that I can never forget, broke out with: &#8216;By
+God, I am of that man&#8217;s mind!&#8217;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor134" id="FNanchor134"></a><a href="#Footnote-134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+This anecdote, it may be mentioned, contains
+the only instance on record, for any period of Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s life, implying his use of what at first
+may seem a profane oath. John Adams, upon
+whose very fallible memory in old age the story
+rests, declares that he did not at the time regard
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s words as an oath, but rather as
+a solemn asseveration, affirmed religiously, upon
+a very great occasion. At any rate, that asseveration
+proved to be a prophecy; for from it there
+then leaped a flame that lighted up for an instant
+the next inevitable stage in the evolution of events,&mdash;the
+tragic and bloody outcome of all these wary
+lucubrations and devices of the assembled political
+wizards of America.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to note that, at the very time
+when the Congress at Philadelphia was busy with
+its stern work, the people of Virginia were grappling
+with the peril of an Indian war assailing
+them from beyond their western mountains. There
+has recently been brought to light a letter written
+at Hanover, on the 15th of October, 1774, by the
+aged mother of Patrick Henry, to a friend living
+far out towards the exposed district; and this letter
+is a touching memorial both of the general anxiety
+over the two concurrent events, and of the motherly
+pride and piety of the writer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;My son Patrick has been gone to Philadelphia near
+seven weeks. The affairs of Congress are kept with
+great secrecy, nobody being allowed to be present. I
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+assure you we have our lowland troubles and fears with
+respect to Great Britain. Perhaps our good God may
+bring good to us out of these many evils which threaten
+us, not only from the mountains but from the seas.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor135" id="FNanchor135"></a><a href="#Footnote-135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-102" id="Footnote-102"></a><a href="#FNanchor102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> <i>Washington&#8217;s Writings</i>, ii. 503.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-103" id="Footnote-103"></a><a href="#FNanchor103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 357.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-104" id="Footnote-104"></a><a href="#FNanchor104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Meade, <i>Old Churches and Families of Va.</i> i. 220, 221.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-105" id="Footnote-105"></a><a href="#FNanchor105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 361.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-106" id="Footnote-106"></a><a href="#FNanchor106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 357-364.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-107" id="Footnote-107"></a><a href="#FNanchor107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 365.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-108" id="Footnote-108"></a><a href="#FNanchor108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> <i>Am. Quarterly Review</i>, i. 30, whence it is quoted in <i>Works of
+John Adams</i>, iii. 29, 30, note. As regards the value of this testimony
+of Charles Thomson, we should note that it is something
+alleged to have been said by him at the age of ninety, in a conversation
+with a friend, and by the latter reported to the author
+of the article above cited in the <i>Am. Quart. Rev.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-109" id="Footnote-109"></a><a href="#FNanchor109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 365.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-110" id="Footnote-110"></a><a href="#FNanchor110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> It seems to me that the second paragraph on page 366 of volume
+ii. of the <i>Works of John Adams</i> must be taken as his memorandum
+of his own speech; and that what follows on that page,
+as well as on page 367, and the first half of page 368, is erroneously
+understood by the editor as belonging to the first day&#8217;s
+debate. It must have been an outline of the second day&#8217;s debate.
+This is proved partly by the fact that it mentions Lee as taking
+part in the debate; but according to the journal, Lee did not
+appear in Congress until the second day. 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 898.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-111" id="Footnote-111"></a><a href="#FNanchor111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 366-368.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-112" id="Footnote-112"></a><a href="#FNanchor112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 898, 899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-113" id="Footnote-113"></a><a href="#FNanchor113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-114" id="Footnote-114"></a><a href="#FNanchor114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> <i>Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll.</i> ii. 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-115" id="Footnote-115"></a><a href="#FNanchor115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> The text of Galloway&#8217;s plan is given in 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 905,
+906.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-116" id="Footnote-116"></a><a href="#FNanchor116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 390.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-117" id="Footnote-117"></a><a href="#FNanchor117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 385.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-118" id="Footnote-118"></a><a href="#FNanchor118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Hansard, <i>Parl. Hist.</i> xviii. 155, 156 note, 157.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-119" id="Footnote-119"></a><a href="#FNanchor119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 906, 907, 927.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-120" id="Footnote-120"></a><a href="#FNanchor120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> Wirt, 109.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-121" id="Footnote-121"></a><a href="#FNanchor121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, x. 79; ii. 396, note; Lee&#8217;s <i>Life of R.
+H. Lee</i>, i. 116-118, 270-272.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-122" id="Footnote-122"></a><a href="#FNanchor122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> <i>Political Writings</i>, ii. 19-29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-123" id="Footnote-123"></a><a href="#FNanchor123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> Thus John Adams, on 11th October, writes: &#8220;Spent the
+evening with Mr. Henry at his lodgings consulting about a petition
+to the king.&#8221; <i>Works</i>, ii. 396.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-124" id="Footnote-124"></a><a href="#FNanchor124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 904.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-125" id="Footnote-125"></a><a href="#FNanchor125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> Judge John Tyler, in Wirt, 109, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-126" id="Footnote-126"></a><a href="#FNanchor126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> For another form of this tradition, see Curtis&#8217;s <i>Life of Webster</i>,
+i. 588.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-127" id="Footnote-127"></a><a href="#FNanchor127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> Pages 105-113.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-128" id="Footnote-128"></a><a href="#FNanchor128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> Wirt, 105, 106.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-129" id="Footnote-129"></a><a href="#FNanchor129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> The exact rules under debate during those first two days are
+given in 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 898, 899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-130" id="Footnote-130"></a><a href="#FNanchor130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Kennedy, <i>Mem. of Wirt</i>, i. 364.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-131" id="Footnote-131"></a><a href="#FNanchor131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, x. 78.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-132" id="Footnote-132"></a><a href="#FNanchor132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> x. 277.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-133" id="Footnote-133"></a><a href="#FNanchor133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> As a matter of fact, the letter from Hawley began with these
+words, instead of &#8220;concluding&#8221; with them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-134" id="Footnote-134"></a><a href="#FNanchor134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, x. 277, 278.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-135" id="Footnote-135"></a><a href="#FNanchor135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> Peyton, <i>History of Augusta County</i>, 345, where will be found
+the entire letter.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IX <br />
+<span class="hsub">&#8220;AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT&#8221;</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>We now approach that brilliant passage in the
+life of Patrick Henry when, in the presence of
+the second revolutionary convention of Virginia,
+he proclaimed the futility of all further efforts
+for peace, and the instant necessity of preparing for
+war.</p>
+
+<p>The speech which he is said to have made on
+that occasion has been committed to memory and
+declaimed by several generations of American
+schoolboys, and is now perhaps familiarly known to
+a larger number of the American people than any
+other considerable bit of secular prose in our language.
+The old church at Richmond, in which he
+made this marvelous speech, is in our time visited
+every year, as a patriotic shrine, by thousands of
+pilgrims, who seek curiously the very spot upon
+the floor where the orator is believed to have stood
+when he uttered those words of flame. It is chiefly
+the tradition of that one speech which to-day keeps
+alive, in millions of American homes, the name of
+Patrick Henry, and which lifts him, in the popular
+faith, almost to the rank of some mythical hero
+of romance.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In reality, that speech, and the resolutions in
+support of which that speech was made, constituted
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s individual declaration of war
+against Great Britain. But the question is: To
+what extent, if any, was he therein original, or
+even in advance of his fellow-countrymen, and
+particularly of his associates in the Virginia convention?</p>
+
+<p>It is essential to a just understanding of the
+history of that crisis in revolutionary thought, and
+it is of very high importance, likewise, to the historic
+position of Patrick Henry, that no mistake
+be committed here; especially that he be not made
+the victim of a disastrous reaction from any overstatement<a name="FNanchor136" id="FNanchor136"></a><a href="#Footnote-136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a>
+respecting the precise nature and extent
+of the service then rendered by him to the cause
+of the Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>We need, therefore, to glance for a moment at
+the period between October, 1774, and March,
+1775, with the purpose of tracing therein the more
+important tokens of the growth of the popular
+conviction that a war with Great Britain had become
+inevitable, and was to be immediately prepared
+for by the several colonies,&mdash;two propositions
+which form the substance of all that Patrick
+Henry said on the great occasion now before us.</p>
+
+<p>As early as the 21st of October, 1774, the first
+Continental Congress, after having suggested all
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+possible methods for averting war, made this solemn
+declaration to the people of the colonies:
+&#8220;We think ourselves bound in duty to observe to
+you that the schemes agitated against these colonies
+have been so conducted as to render it prudent
+that you should extend your views to mournful
+events, and be in all respects prepared for every
+emergency.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor137" id="FNanchor137"></a><a href="#Footnote-137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> Just six days later, John Dickinson,
+a most conservative and peace-loving member
+of that Congress, wrote to an American friend in
+England: &#8220;I wish for peace ardently; but must
+say, delightful as it is, it will come more grateful
+by being unexpected. The first act of violence on
+the part of administration in America, or the attempt
+to reinforce General Gage this winter or
+next year, will put the whole continent in arms,
+from Nova Scotia to Georgia.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor138" id="FNanchor138"></a><a href="#Footnote-138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> On the following
+day, the same prudent statesman wrote to another
+American friend, also in England: &#8220;The most
+peaceful provinces are now animated; and a civil
+war is unavoidable, unless there be a quick change
+of British measures.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor139" id="FNanchor139"></a><a href="#Footnote-139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> On the 29th of October,
+the eccentric Charles Lee, who was keenly watching
+the symptoms of colonial discontent and resistance,
+wrote from Philadelphia to an English nobleman:
+&#8220;Virginia, Rhode Island, and Carolina are
+forming corps. Massachusetts Bay has long had
+a sufficient number instructed to become instructive
+of the rest. Even this Quakering province is
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+following the example.&hellip; In short, unless the
+banditti at Westminster speedily undo everything
+they have done, their royal paymaster will hear of
+reviews and man&#339;uvres not quite so entertaining
+as those he is presented with in Hyde Park and
+Wimbledon Common.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor140" id="FNanchor140"></a><a href="#Footnote-140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> On the 1st of November,
+a gentleman in Maryland wrote to a kinsman
+in Glasgow: &#8220;The province of Virginia is raising
+one company in every county.&hellip; This province
+has taken the hint, and has begun to raise men in
+every county also; and to the northward they have
+large bodies, capable of acquitting themselves with
+honor in the field.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor141" id="FNanchor141"></a><a href="#Footnote-141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> At about the same time,
+the General Assembly of Connecticut ordered that
+every town should at once supply itself with &#8220;double
+the quantity of powder, balls, and flints&#8221; that
+had been hitherto required by law.<a name="FNanchor142" id="FNanchor142"></a><a href="#Footnote-142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> On the 5th
+of November, the officers of the Virginia troops
+accompanying Lord Dunmore on his campaign
+against the Indians held a meeting at Fort Gower,
+on the Ohio River, and passed this resolution:
+&#8220;That we will exert every power within us for the
+defence of American liberty, and for the support
+of her just rights and privileges, not in any precipitate,
+riotous, or tumultuous manner, but when
+regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of
+our countrymen.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor143" id="FNanchor143"></a><a href="#Footnote-143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> Not far from the same time,
+the people of Rhode Island carried off to Providence
+from the batteries at Newport forty-four
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+pieces of cannon; and the governor frankly told
+the commander of a British naval force near at
+hand that they had done this in order to prevent
+these cannon from falling into his hands, and with
+the purpose of using them against &#8220;any power that
+might offer to molest the colony.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor144" id="FNanchor144"></a><a href="#Footnote-144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> Early in
+December, the Provincial Convention of Maryland
+recommended that all persons between sixteen and
+fifty years of age should form themselves into military
+companies, and &#8220;be in readiness to act on any
+emergency,&#8221;&mdash;with a sort of grim humor prefacing
+their recommendation by this exquisite morsel
+of argumentative irony:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;<i>Resolved</i> unanimously, that a well-regulated militia,
+composed of the gentlemen freeholders and other freemen,
+is the natural strength and only stable security of
+a free government; and that such militia will relieve
+our mother country from any expense in our protection
+and defence, will obviate the pretence of a necessity for
+taxing us on that account, and render it unnecessary to
+keep any standing army&mdash;ever dangerous to liberty&mdash;in
+this province.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor145" id="FNanchor145"></a><a href="#Footnote-145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The shrewdness of this courteous political thrust
+on the part of the convention of Maryland seems
+to have been so heartily relished by others that it
+was thenceforward used again and again by similar
+conventions elsewhere; and in fact, for the next
+few months, these sentences became almost the
+stereotyped formula by which revolutionary assemblages
+justified the arming and drilling of the militia,&mdash;as,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+for example, that of Newcastle County,
+Delaware,<a name="FNanchor146" id="FNanchor146"></a><a href="#Footnote-146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> on the 21st of December; that of Fairfax
+County, Virginia,<a name="FNanchor147" id="FNanchor147"></a><a href="#Footnote-147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> on the 17th of January,
+1775; and that of Augusta County, Virginia,<a name="FNanchor148" id="FNanchor148"></a><a href="#Footnote-148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> on
+the 22d of February.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time Lord Dunmore was not blind
+to all these military preparations in Virginia;
+and so early as the 24th of December, 1774, he
+had written to the Earl of Dartmouth: &#8220;Every
+county, besides, is now arming a company of men,
+whom they call an independent company, for the
+avowed purpose of protecting their committees,
+and to be employed against government, if occasion
+require.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor149" id="FNanchor149"></a><a href="#Footnote-149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> Moreover, this alarming fact of
+military preparation, which Lord Dunmore had
+thus reported concerning Virginia, could have
+been reported with equal truth concerning nearly
+every other colony. In the early part of January,
+1775, the Assembly of Connecticut gave order that
+the entire militia of that colony should be mustered
+every week.<a name="FNanchor150" id="FNanchor150"></a><a href="#Footnote-150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> In the latter part of January, the
+provincial convention of Pennsylvania, though representing
+a colony of Quakers, boldly proclaimed
+that, if the administration &#8220;should determine by
+force to effect a submission to the late arbitrary
+acts of the British Parliament,&#8221; it would &#8220;resist
+such force, and at every hazard &hellip; defend the
+rights and liberties of America.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor151" id="FNanchor151"></a><a href="#Footnote-151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> On the 15th
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+of February, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts
+urged the people to &#8220;spare neither time,
+pains, nor expense, at so critical a juncture, in
+perfecting themselves forthwith in military discipline.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor152" id="FNanchor152"></a><a href="#Footnote-152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a></p>
+
+<p>When, therefore, so late as Monday, the 20th
+of March, 1775, the second revolutionary convention
+of Virginia assembled at Richmond, its members
+were well aware that one of the chief measures
+to come before them for consideration must be
+that of recognizing the local military preparations
+among their own constituents, and of placing them
+all under some common organization and control.
+Accordingly, on Thursday, the 23d of March, after
+three days had been given to necessary preliminary
+subjects, the inevitable subject of military preparations
+was reached. Then it was that Patrick
+Henry took the floor and moved the adoption of
+the following resolutions, supporting his motion,
+undoubtedly, with a speech:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;<i>Resolved</i>, That a well-regulated militia, composed
+of gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength and
+only security of a free government; that such a militia
+in this colony would forever render it unnecessary for
+the mother country to keep among us for the purpose
+of our defence any standing army of mercenary forces,
+always subversive of the quiet and dangerous to the liberties
+of the people, and would obviate the pretext of
+taxing us for their support.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Resolved</i>, That the establishment of such a militia
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+is at this time peculiarly necessary, by the state of our
+laws for the protection and defence of the country, some
+of which have already expired, and others will shortly
+do so; and that the known remissness of government in
+calling us together in a legislative capacity, renders it
+too insecure, in this time of danger and distress, to rely
+that opportunity will be given of renewing them in general
+assembly, or making any provision to secure our
+inestimable rights and liberties from those further violations
+with which they are threatened.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Resolved, therefore</i>, That this colony be immediately
+put into a posture of defence; and that &hellip; be a committee
+to prepare a plan for the embodying, arming, and
+disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient
+for that purpose.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor153" id="FNanchor153"></a><a href="#Footnote-153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>No one who reads these resolutions in the light
+of the facts just given, can find in them anything
+by which to account for the opposition which they
+are known to have met with in that assemblage.
+For that assemblage, it must be remembered, was
+not the Virginia legislature: it was a mere convention,
+and a revolutionary convention at that, gathered
+in spite of the objections of Lord Dunmore,
+representing simply the deliberate purpose of those
+Virginians who meant not finally to submit to
+unjust laws; some of its members, likewise, being
+under express instructions from their constituents
+to take measures for the immediate and adequate
+military organization of the colony. Not a man,
+probably, was sent to that convention, not a man
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+surely would have gone to it, who was not in substantial
+sympathy with the prevailing revolutionary
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, even they who were in sympathy with
+that spirit might have objected to Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+resolutions, had those resolutions been marked by
+any startling novelty in doctrine, or by anything
+extreme or violent in expression. But, plainly,
+they were neither extreme nor violent; they were
+not even novel. They contained nothing essential
+which had not been approved, in almost the same
+words, more than three months before, by similar
+conventions in Maryland and in Delaware; which
+had not been approved, in almost the same words,
+many weeks before, by county conventions in Virginia,&mdash;in
+one instance, by a county convention
+presided over by Washington himself; which had
+not been approved, in other language, either weeks
+or months before, by Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
+Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and other colonies;
+which was not sanctioned by the plainest prudence
+on the part of all persons who intended to make
+any further stand whatsoever against the encroachments
+of Parliament. It is safe to say that no
+man who had within him enough of the revolutionary
+spirit to have prompted his attendance at a
+revolutionary convention could have objected to
+any essential item in Patrick Henry&#8217;s resolutions.</p>
+
+<p>Why, then, were they objected to? Why was
+their immediate passage resisted? The official
+journal of the convention throws no light upon the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+question: it records merely the adoption of the
+resolutions, and is entirely silent respecting any
+discussion that they may have provoked. Thirty
+years afterward, however, St. George Tucker,
+who, though not a member of this convention, had
+yet as a visitor watched its proceedings that day,
+gave from memory some account of them; and to
+him we are indebted for the names of the principal
+men who stood out against Patrick Henry&#8217;s motion.
+&#8220;This produced,&#8221; he says, &#8220;an animated
+debate, in which Colonel Richard Bland, Mr.
+Nicholas, the treasurer, and I think Colonel Harrison,
+of Berkeley, and Mr. Pendleton, were opposed
+to the resolution, as conceiving it to be
+premature;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor154" id="FNanchor154"></a><a href="#Footnote-154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> all these men being prudent politicians,
+indeed, but all fully committed to the cause
+of the Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>At first, this testimony may seem to leave us as
+much in the dark as before; and yet all who are
+familiar with the politics of Virginia at that period
+will see in this cluster of names some clew to the
+secret of their opposition. It was an opposition to
+Patrick Henry himself, and as far as possible to
+any measure of which he should be the leading
+champion. Yet even this is not enough. Whatever
+may have been their private motives in resisting
+a measure advocated by Patrick Henry, they
+must still have had some reason which they would
+be willing to assign. St. George Tucker tells us
+that they conceived his resolutions to be &#8220;premature.&#8221;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+But in themselves his resolutions, so far
+from being premature, were rather tardy; they
+lagged weeks and even months behind many of the
+best counties in Virginia itself, as well as behind
+those other colonies to which in political feeling
+Virginia was always most nearly akin.</p>
+
+<p>The only possible explanation of the case seems
+to be found, not in the resolutions themselves, but
+in the special interpretation put upon them by
+Patrick Henry in the speech which, according to
+parliamentary usage, he seems to have made in
+moving their adoption. What was that interpretation?
+In the true answer to that question, no
+doubt, lies the secret of the resistance which his
+motion encountered. For, down to that day, no
+public body in America, and no public man, had
+openly spoken of a war with Great Britain in any
+more decisive way than as a thing highly probable,
+indeed, but still not inevitable. At last Patrick
+Henry spoke of it, and he wanted to induce the
+convention of Virginia to speak of it, as a thing
+inevitable. Others had said, &#8220;The war must come,
+and will come,&mdash;unless certain things are done.&#8221;
+Patrick Henry, brushing away every prefix or suffix
+of uncertainty, every half-despairing &#8220;if,&#8221; every
+fragile and pathetic &#8220;unless,&#8221; exclaimed, in the
+hearing of all men: &#8220;Why talk of things being
+now done which can avert the war? Such things
+will not be done. The war is coming: it has come
+already.&#8221; Accordingly, other conventions in the
+colonies, in adopting similar resolutions, had merely
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+announced the probability of war. Patrick Henry
+would have this convention, by adopting his resolutions,
+virtually declare war itself.</p>
+
+<p>In this alone, it is apparent, consisted the real
+priority and offensiveness of Patrick Henry&#8217;s position
+as a revolutionary statesman on the 23d of
+March, 1775. In this alone were his resolutions
+&#8220;premature.&#8221; The very men who opposed them
+because they were to be understood as closing the
+door against the possibility of peace, would have
+favored them had they only left that door open, or
+even ajar. But Patrick Henry demanded of the
+people of Virginia that they should treat all further
+talk of peace as mere prattle; that they should
+seize the actual situation by a bold grasp of it in
+front; that, looking upon the war as a fact, they
+should instantly proceed to get ready for it. And
+therein, once more, in revolutionary ideas, was
+Patrick Henry one full step in advance of his contemporaries.
+Therein, once more, did he justify
+the reluctant praise of Jefferson, who was a member
+of that convention, and who, nearly fifty years
+afterward, said concerning Patrick Henry to a
+great statesman from Massachusetts: &#8220;After all,
+it must be allowed that he was our leader in the
+measures of the Revolution in Virginia, and in that
+respect more is due to him than to any other person.&hellip;
+He left all of us far behind.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor155" id="FNanchor155"></a><a href="#Footnote-155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such, at any rate, we have a right to suppose,
+was the substantial issue presented by the resolutions
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+of Patrick Henry, and by his introductory
+speech in support of them; and upon this issue
+the little group of politicians&mdash;able and patriotic
+men, who always opposed his leadership&mdash;then
+arrayed themselves against him, making the most,
+doubtless, of everything favoring the possibility
+and the desirableness of a peaceful adjustment of
+the great dispute. But their opposition to him
+only produced the usual result,&mdash;of arousing him
+to an effort which simply overpowered and scattered
+all further resistance. It was in review of their
+whole quivering platoon of hopes and fears, of
+doubts, cautions, and delays, that he then made
+the speech which seems to have wrought astonishing
+effects upon those who heard it, and which,
+though preserved in a most inadequate report, now
+fills so great a space in the traditions of revolutionary
+eloquence:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;No man, Mr. President, thinks more highly than I
+do of the patriotism, as well as the abilities, of the very
+honorable gentlemen who have just addressed the House.
+But different men often see the same subject in different
+lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful
+to those gentlemen if, entertaining, as I do,
+opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I should
+speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve.
+This is no time for ceremony. The question before the
+house is one of awful moment to this country. For my
+own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of
+freedom or slavery. And in proportion to the magnitude
+of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive
+at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we
+hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my
+opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence,
+I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards
+my country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty
+of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the
+illusions of Hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against
+a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till
+she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise
+men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
+Are we disposed to be of the number of those
+who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not,
+the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
+For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may
+cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know
+the worst, and to provide for it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided,
+and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way
+of judging of the future but by the past. And, judging
+by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the
+conduct of the British ministry, for the last ten years,
+to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been
+pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that
+insidious smile with which our petition has been lately
+received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to
+your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a
+kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of
+our petition comports with those warlike preparations
+which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets
+and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation?
+Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our
+love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the
+implements of war and subjugation,&mdash;the last arguments
+to which kings resort.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array,
+if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can
+gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has
+Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world,
+to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies?
+No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they
+can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind
+and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry
+have been so long forging.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we
+try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the
+last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon
+the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up
+in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all
+in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty, and humble supplication?
+What terms shall we find which have not
+been already exhausted?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves
+longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be
+done to avert the storm which is now coming on. 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. Our petitions
+have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced
+additional violence and insult; our supplications have
+been disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt
+from the foot of the throne.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer
+any room for hope. 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,&mdash;we must fight! I repeat
+it, sir,&mdash;we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to
+the God of hosts, is all that is left us.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Up to this point in his address, the orator seems
+to have spoken with great deliberation and self-restraint.
+St. George Tucker, who was present,
+and who has left a written statement of his recollections
+both of the speech and of the scene, says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;It was on that occasion that I first felt a full impression
+of Mr. Henry&#8217;s powers. In vain should I
+attempt to give any idea of his speech. He was calm
+and collected; touched upon the origin and progress of
+the dispute between Great Britain and the colonies, the
+various conciliatory measures adopted by the latter, and
+the uniformly increasing tone of violence and arrogance
+on the part of the former.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Then follows, in Tucker&#8217;s narrative, the passage
+included in the last two paragraphs of the speech
+as given above, after which he adds:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Imagine to yourself this speech delivered with all
+the calm dignity of Cato of Utica; imagine to yourself
+the Roman senate assembled in the capitol when it was
+entered by the profane Gauls, who at first were awed
+by their presence as if they had entered an assembly of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+the gods; imagine that you heard that Cato addressing
+such a senate; imagine that you saw the handwriting on
+the wall of Belshazzar&#8217;s palace; imagine you heard a
+voice as from heaven uttering the words, &#8216;We must
+fight!&#8217; as the doom of fate,&mdash;and you may have some
+idea of the speaker, the assembly to whom he addressed
+himself, and the auditory of which I was one.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor156" id="FNanchor156"></a><a href="#Footnote-156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But, by a comparison of this testimony of St.
+George Tucker with that of others who heard the
+speech, it is made evident that, as the orator then
+advanced toward the conclusion and real climax of
+his argument, he no longer maintained &#8220;the calm
+dignity of Cato of Utica,&#8221; but that his manner
+gradually deepened into an intensity of passion
+and a dramatic power which were overwhelming.
+He thus continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;They tell us, sir, that we are weak,&mdash;unable to cope
+with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we
+be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next
+year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and
+when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?
+Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?
+Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by
+lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive
+phantom of Hope, until our enemies shall have bound
+us hand and foot?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of
+those means which the God of nature hath placed in our
+power. Three millions of people armed in the holy
+cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy
+can send against us.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
+There is a just God who presides over the destinies of
+nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles
+for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone: it is
+to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we
+have no election. If we were base enough to desire it,
+it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is
+no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains
+are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains
+of Boston. The war is inevitable. And let it come! I
+repeat it, sir, let it come!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen
+may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. The
+war is actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from
+the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding
+arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why
+stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish?
+What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so
+sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and
+slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what
+course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty,
+or give me death!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of this tremendous speech there are in existence
+two traditional descriptions, neither of which is
+inconsistent with the testimony given by St. George
+Tucker. He, as a lawyer and a judge, seems to
+have retained the impression of that portion of the
+speech which was the more argumentative and unimpassioned:
+the two other reporters seem to have
+remembered especially its later and more emotional
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+passages. Our first traditional description was
+obtained by Henry Stephens Randall from a
+clergyman, who had it from an aged friend, also a
+clergyman, who heard the speech itself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Henry rose with an unearthly fire burning in his
+eye. He commenced somewhat calmly, but the smothered
+excitement began more and more to play upon his
+features and thrill in the tones of his voice. The tendons
+of his neck stood out white and rigid like whip-cords.
+His voice rose louder and louder, until the walls
+of the building, and all within them, seemed to shake
+and rock in its tremendous vibrations. Finally, his pale
+face and glaring eye became terrible to look upon. Men
+leaned forward in their seats, with their heads strained
+forward, their faces pale, and their eyes glaring like the
+speaker&#8217;s. His last exclamation, &#8216;Give me liberty, or
+give me death!&#8217; was like the shout of the leader which
+turns back the rout of battle. The old man from whom
+this tradition was derived added that, &#8216;when the orator
+sat down, he himself felt sick with excitement. Every
+eye yet gazed entranced on Henry. It seemed as if a
+word from him would have led to any wild explosion of
+violence. Men looked beside themselves.&#8217;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor157" id="FNanchor157"></a><a href="#Footnote-157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The second traditional description of the speech
+is here given from a manuscript<a name="FNanchor158" id="FNanchor158"></a><a href="#Footnote-158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> of Edward Fontaine,
+who obtained it in 1834 from John Roane,
+who himself heard the speech. Roane told Fontaine
+that the orator&#8217;s &#8220;voice, countenance, and
+gestures gave an irresistible force to his words,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+which no description could make intelligible to
+one who had never seen him, nor heard him
+speak;&#8221; but, in order to convey some notion of
+the orator&#8217;s manner, Roane described the delivery
+of the closing sentences of the speech:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;You remember, sir, the conclusion of the speech, so
+often declaimed in various ways by school-boys,&mdash;&#8216;Is
+life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the
+price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
+I know not what course others may take, but as for me,
+give me liberty, or give me death!&#8217; He gave each of
+these words a meaning which is not conveyed by the
+reading or delivery of them in the ordinary way. When
+he said, &#8216;Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
+at the price of chains and slavery?&#8217; he stood in
+the attitude of a condemned galley slave, loaded with
+fetters, awaiting his doom. His form was bowed; his
+wrists were crossed; his manacles were almost visible as
+he stood like an embodiment of helplessness and agony.
+After a solemn pause, he raised his eyes and chained
+hands towards heaven, and prayed, in words and tones
+which thrilled every heart, &#8216;Forbid it, Almighty God!&#8217;
+He then turned towards the timid loyalists of the House,
+who were quaking with terror at the idea of the consequences
+of participating in proceedings which would be
+visited with the penalties of treason by the British crown;
+and he slowly bent his form yet nearer to the earth, and
+said, &#8216;I know not what course others may take,&#8217; and he
+accompanied the words with his hands still crossed,
+while he seemed to be weighed down with additional
+chains. The man appeared transformed into an oppressed,
+heart-broken, and hopeless felon. After remaining
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+in this posture of humiliation long enough to
+impress the imagination with the condition of the colony
+under the iron heel of military despotism, he arose
+proudly, and exclaimed, &#8216;but as for me,&#8217;&mdash;and the
+words hissed through his clenched teeth, while his body
+was thrown back, and every muscle and tendon was
+strained against the fetters which bound him, and, with
+his countenance distorted by agony and rage, he looked
+for a moment like Laoco&ouml;n in a death struggle with
+coiling serpents; then the loud, clear, triumphant notes,
+&#8216;Give me liberty,&#8217; electrified the assembly. It was not
+a prayer, but a stern demand, which would submit to no
+refusal or delay. The sound of his voice, as he spoke
+these memorable words, was like that of a Spartan p&aelig;an
+on the field of Plat&aelig;a; and, as each syllable of the word
+&#8216;liberty&#8217; echoed through the building, his fetters were
+shivered; his arms were hurled apart; and the links of
+his chains were scattered to the winds. When he spoke
+the word &#8216;liberty&#8217; with an emphasis never given it before,
+his hands were open, and his arms elevated and extended;
+his countenance was radiant; he stood erect and
+defiant; while the sound of his voice and the sublimity of
+his attitude made him appear a magnificent incarnation
+of Freedom, and expressed all that can be acquired or
+enjoyed by nations and individuals invincible and free.
+After a momentary pause, only long enough to permit
+the echo of the word &#8216;liberty&#8217; to cease, he let his left
+hand fall powerless to his side, and clenched his right
+hand firmly, as if holding a dagger with the point aimed
+at his breast. He stood like a Roman senator defying
+C&aelig;sar, while the unconquerable spirit of Cato of Utica
+flashed from every feature; and he closed the grand
+appeal with the solemn words, &#8216;or give me death!&#8217; which
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+sounded with the awful cadence of a hero&#8217;s dirge, fearless
+of death, and victorious in death; and he suited the
+action to the word by a blow upon the left breast with
+the right hand, which seemed to drive the dagger to the
+patriot&#8217;s heart.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor159" id="FNanchor159"></a><a href="#Footnote-159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before passing from this celebrated speech, it
+is proper to say something respecting the authenticity
+of the version of it which has come down to
+us, and which is now so universally known in
+America. The speech is given in these pages substantially
+as it was given by Wirt in his &#8220;Life of
+Henry.&#8221; Wirt himself does not mention whence
+he obtained his version; and all efforts to discover
+that version as a whole, in any writing prior to
+Wirt&#8217;s book, have thus far been unsuccessful.
+These facts have led even so genial a critic as
+Grigsby to incline to the opinion that &#8220;much of
+the speech published by Wirt is apocryphal.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor160" id="FNanchor160"></a><a href="#Footnote-160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a>
+It would, indeed, be an odd thing, and a source
+of no little disturbance to many minds, if such
+should turn out to be the case, and if we should
+have to conclude that an apocryphal speech written
+by Wirt, and attributed by him to Patrick
+Henry fifteen years after the great orator&#8217;s death,
+had done more to perpetuate the renown of Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s oratory than had been done by any
+and all the words actually spoken by the orator
+himself during his lifetime. On the other hand,
+it should be said that Grigsby himself admits that
+&#8220;the outline of the argument&#8221; and &#8220;some of its
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+expressions&#8221; are undoubtedly &#8220;authentic.&#8221; That
+this is so is apparent, likewise, from the written
+recollections of St. George Tucker, wherein the
+substance of the speech is given, besides one entire
+passage in almost the exact language of the version
+by Wirt. Finally, John Roane, in 1834, in
+his conversation with Edward Fontaine, is said
+to have &#8220;verified the correctness of the speech as
+it was written by Judge Tyler for Mr. Wirt.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor161" id="FNanchor161"></a><a href="#Footnote-161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a>
+This, unfortunately, is the only intimation that
+has anywhere been found attributing Wirt&#8217;s version
+to the excellent authority of Judge John
+Tyler. If the statement could be confirmed, it
+would dispel every difficulty at once. But, even
+though the statement should be set aside, enough
+would still remain to justify us in thinking that
+Wirt&#8217;s version of the famous speech by no means
+deserves to be called &#8220;apocryphal,&#8221; in any such
+sense as that word has when applied, for example,
+to the speeches in Livy and in Thucydides, or in
+Botta. In the first place, Wirt&#8217;s version certainly
+gives the substance of the speech as actually made
+by Patrick Henry on the occasion named; and,
+for the form of it, Wirt seems to have gathered
+testimony from all available living witnesses, and
+then, from such sentences or snatches of sentences
+as these witnesses could remember, as well as from
+his own conception of the orator&#8217;s method of expression,
+to have constructed the version which he
+has handed down to us. Even in that case, it is
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+probably far more accurate and authentic than are
+most of the famous speeches attributed to public
+characters before reporters&#8217; galleries were opened,
+and before the art of reporting was brought to its
+present perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Returning, now, from this long account of Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s most celebrated speech, to the assemblage
+in which it was made, it remains to be mentioned
+that the resolutions, as offered by Patrick
+Henry, were carried; and that the committee,
+called for by those resolutions, to prepare a plan
+for &#8220;embodying, arming, and disciplining&#8221; the
+militia,<a name="FNanchor162" id="FNanchor162"></a><a href="#Footnote-162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> was at once appointed. Of this committee
+Patrick Henry was chairman; and with him
+were associated Richard Henry Lee, Nicholas,
+Harrison, Riddick, Washington, Stephen, Lewis,
+Christian, Pendleton, Jefferson, and Zane. On
+the following day, Friday, the 24th of March, the
+committee brought in its report, which was laid
+over for one day, and then, after some amendment,
+was unanimously adopted.</p>
+
+<p>The convention did not close its labors until
+Monday, the 27th of March. The contemporaneous
+estimate of Patrick Henry, not merely as a
+leader in debate, but as a constitutional lawyer,
+and as a man of affairs, may be partly gathered
+from the fact of his connection with each of the
+two other important committees of this convention,&mdash;the
+committee &#8220;to inquire whether his majesty
+may of right advance the terms of granting lands
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+in this colony,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor163" id="FNanchor163"></a><a href="#Footnote-163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> on which his associates were the
+great lawyers, Bland, Jefferson, Nicholas, and
+Pendleton; and the committee &#8220;to prepare a plan
+for the encouragement of arts and manufactures
+in this colony,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor164" id="FNanchor164"></a><a href="#Footnote-164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> on which his associates were
+Nicholas, Bland, Mercer, Pendleton, Cary, Carter
+of Stafford, Harrison, Richard Henry Lee, Clapham,
+Washington, Holt, and Newton.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-136" id="Footnote-136"></a><a href="#FNanchor136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> For an example of such overstatement, see Wirt, 114-123.
+See, also, the damaging comments thereon by Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>,
+i. 63, 64.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-137" id="Footnote-137"></a><a href="#FNanchor137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 928.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-138" id="Footnote-138"></a><a href="#FNanchor138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> 4 <i>Ibid.</i> i. 947.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-139" id="Footnote-139"></a><a href="#FNanchor139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-140" id="Footnote-140"></a><a href="#FNanchor140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 949, 950.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-141" id="Footnote-141"></a><a href="#FNanchor141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 953.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-142" id="Footnote-142"></a><a href="#FNanchor142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-143" id="Footnote-143"></a><a href="#FNanchor143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 963.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-144" id="Footnote-144"></a><a href="#FNanchor144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> Hildreth, iii. 52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-145" id="Footnote-145"></a><a href="#FNanchor145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 1032.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-146" id="Footnote-146"></a><a href="#FNanchor146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 1022.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-147" id="Footnote-147"></a><a href="#FNanchor147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 1145.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-148" id="Footnote-148"></a><a href="#FNanchor148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 1254.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-149" id="Footnote-149"></a><a href="#FNanchor149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 1062.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-150" id="Footnote-150"></a><a href="#FNanchor150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 1139.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-151" id="Footnote-151"></a><a href="#FNanchor151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 1171.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-152" id="Footnote-152"></a><a href="#FNanchor152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 1340.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-153" id="Footnote-153"></a><a href="#FNanchor153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 167, 168.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-154" id="Footnote-154"></a><a href="#FNanchor154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-155" id="Footnote-155"></a><a href="#FNanchor155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> Curtis, <i>Life of Webster</i>, i. 585.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-156" id="Footnote-156"></a><a href="#FNanchor156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-157" id="Footnote-157"></a><a href="#FNanchor157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 101, 102.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-158" id="Footnote-158"></a><a href="#FNanchor158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> Now in the library of Cornell University.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-159" id="Footnote-159"></a><a href="#FNanchor159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-160" id="Footnote-160"></a><a href="#FNanchor160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> <i>Va. Conv. of 1776</i>, 150, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-161" id="Footnote-161"></a><a href="#FNanchor161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-162" id="Footnote-162"></a><a href="#FNanchor162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 168.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-163" id="Footnote-163"></a><a href="#FNanchor163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1742.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-164" id="Footnote-164"></a><a href="#FNanchor164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 170.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER X <br />
+<span class="hsub">THE RAPE OF THE GUNPOWDER</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Several of the famous men of the Revolution,
+whose distinction is now exclusively that of civilians,
+are supposed to have cherished very decided
+military aspirations; to have been rather envious
+of the more vivid renown acquired by some of
+their political associates who left the senate for
+the field; and, indeed, to have made occasional
+efforts to secure for themselves the opportunity
+for glory in the same pungent and fascinating
+form. A notable example of this class of Revolutionary
+civilians with abortive military desires, is
+John Hancock. In June, 1775, when Congress
+had before it the task of selecting one who should
+be the military leader of the uprisen colonists,
+John Hancock, seated in the president&#8217;s chair,
+gave unmistakable signs of thinking that the choice
+ought to fall upon himself. While John Adams
+was speaking in general terms of the military situation,
+involving, of course, the need of a commander-in-chief,
+Hancock heard him &#8220;with visible
+pleasure;&#8221; but when the orator came to point out
+Washington as the man best fitted for the leadership,
+&#8220;a sudden and striking change&#8221; came over
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+the countenance of the president. &#8220;Mortification
+and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his
+face could exhibit them;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor165" id="FNanchor165"></a><a href="#Footnote-165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> and it is probable that,
+to the end of his days, he was never able entirely
+to forgive Washington for having carried off the
+martial glory that he had really believed to be
+within his own reach. But even John Adams,
+who so pitilessly unveiled the baffled military desires
+of Hancock, was perhaps not altogether unacquainted
+with similar emotions in his own soul.
+Fully three weeks prior to that notable scene in
+Congress, in a letter to his wife in which he was
+speaking of the amazing military spirit then running
+through the continent, and of the military
+appointments then held by several of his Philadelphia
+friends, he exclaimed in his impulsive way,
+&#8220;Oh that I were a soldier! I will be.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor166" id="FNanchor166"></a><a href="#Footnote-166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> And on
+the very day on which he joined in the escort of
+the new generals, Washington, Lee, and Schuyler,
+on their first departure from Philadelphia for the
+American camp, he sent off to his wife a characteristic
+letter revealing something of the anguish
+with which he, a civilian, viewed the possibility
+of his being at a disadvantage with these military
+men in the race for glory:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The three generals were all mounted on horseback,
+accompanied by Major Mifflin, who is gone in the character
+of aide-de-camp. All the delegates from the Massachusetts,
+with their servants and carriages, attended.
+Many others of the delegates from the Congress; a large
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+troop of light horse in their uniforms; many officers of
+militia, besides, in theirs; music playing, etc., etc. Such
+is the pride and pomp of war. I, poor creature, worn
+out with scribbling for my bread and my liberty, low in
+spirits and weak in health, must leave to others to wear
+the laurels which I have sown; others to eat the bread
+which I have earned.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor167" id="FNanchor167"></a><a href="#Footnote-167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of Patrick Henry, however, it may be said that
+his permanent fame as an orator and a statesman
+has almost effaced the memory of the fact that,
+in the first year of the war, he had considerable
+prominence as a soldier; that it was then believed
+by many, and very likely by himself, that, having
+done as much as any man to bring on the war, he
+was next to do as much as any man in the actual
+conduct of it, and was thus destined to add to a
+civil renown of almost unapproached brilliance, a
+similar renown for splendid talents in the field.
+At any rate, the &#8220;first overt act of war&#8221; in Virginia,
+as Jefferson testifies,<a name="FNanchor168" id="FNanchor168"></a><a href="#Footnote-168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> was committed by
+Patrick Henry. The first physical resistance to
+a royal governor, which in Massachusetts was made
+by the embattled farmers at Lexington and Concord,
+was made in Virginia almost as early, under
+the direction and inspiration of Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+leadership. In the first organization of the Revolutionary
+army in Virginia, the chief command
+was given to Patrick Henry. Finally, that he
+never had the opportunity of proving in battle
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+whether or not he had military talents, and that,
+after some months of nominal command, he was
+driven by a series of official slights into an abandonment
+of his military career, may have been
+occasioned solely by a proper distrust of his military
+capacity on the part of the Virginia Committee
+of Safety, or it may have been due in some measure
+to the unslumbering jealousy of him which
+was at the time attributed to the leading members
+of that committee. The purpose of this chapter,
+and of the next, will be to present a rapid grouping
+of these incidents in his life,&mdash;incidents which
+now have the appearance of a mere episode, but
+which once seemed the possible beginnings of a
+deliberate and conspicuous military career.</p>
+
+<p>Within the city of Williamsburg, at the period
+now spoken of, had long been kept the public
+storehouse for gunpowder and arms. In the dead
+of the night<a name="FNanchor169" id="FNanchor169"></a><a href="#Footnote-169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> preceding the 21st of April, 1775,&mdash;a
+little less than a month, therefore, after the
+convention of Virginia had proclaimed the inevitable
+approach of a war with Great Britain,&mdash;a
+detachment of marines from the armed schooner
+Magdalen, then lying in the James River, stealthily
+visited this storehouse, and, taking thence fifteen
+half-barrels of gunpowder,<a name="FNanchor170" id="FNanchor170"></a><a href="#Footnote-170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> carried them off
+in Lord Dunmore&#8217;s wagon to Burwell&#8217;s Ferry,
+and put them on board their vessel. Of course,
+the news of this exploit flew fast through the colony,
+and everywhere awoke alarm and exasperation.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+Soon some thousands of armed men made
+ready to march to the capital to demand the restoration
+of the gunpowder. On Tuesday, the 25th
+of April, the independent company of Fredericksburg
+notified their colonel, George Washington,
+that, with his approbation, they would be prepared
+to start for Williamsburg on the following Saturday,
+&#8220;properly accoutred as light-horsemen,&#8221; and
+in conjunction with &#8220;any other bodies of armed
+men who&#8221; might be &#8220;willing to appear in support
+of the honor of Virginia.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor171" id="FNanchor171"></a><a href="#Footnote-171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></p>
+
+<p>Similar messages were promptly sent to Washington
+from the independent companies of Prince
+William<a name="FNanchor172" id="FNanchor172"></a><a href="#Footnote-172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a>
+and Albemarle counties.<a name="FNanchor173" id="FNanchor173"></a><a href="#Footnote-173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a>
+On Wednesday,
+the 26th of April, the men in arms who
+had already arrived at Fredericksburg sent to the
+capital a swift messenger &#8220;to inquire whether the
+gunpowder had been replaced in the public magazine.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor174" id="FNanchor174"></a><a href="#Footnote-174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a>
+On Saturday, the 29th,&mdash;being the day
+already fixed for the march upon Williamsburg,&mdash;one
+hundred and two gentlemen, representing
+fourteen companies of light-horse, met in council
+at Fredericksburg, and, after considering a letter
+from the venerable Peyton Randolph which their
+messenger had brought back with him, particularly
+Randolph&#8217;s assurance that the affair of the gunpowder
+was to be satisfactorily arranged, came to
+the resolution that they would proceed no further
+at that time; adding, however, this solemn declaration:
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+&#8220;We do now pledge ourselves to each other
+to be in readiness, at a moment&#8217;s warning, to reassemble,
+and by force of arms to defend the law,
+the liberty, and rights of this or any sister colony
+from unjust and wicked invasion.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor175" id="FNanchor175"></a><a href="#Footnote-175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is at this point that Patrick Henry comes
+upon the scene. Thus far, during the trouble, he
+appears to have been watching events from his
+home in Hanover County. As soon, however, as
+word was brought to him of the tame conclusion
+thus reached by the assembled warriors at Fredericksburg,
+his soul took fire at the lamentable mistake
+which he thought they had made. To him it
+seemed on every account the part of wisdom that
+the blow, which would have to be &#8220;struck sooner
+or later, should be struck at once, before an overwhelming
+force should enter the colony;&#8221; that the
+spell by which the people were held in a sort of
+superstitious awe of the governor should be broken;
+&#8220;that the military resources of the country should
+be developed;&#8221; that the people should be made to
+&#8220;see and feel their strength by being brought out
+together; that the revolution should be set in actual
+motion in the colony; that the martial prowess
+of the country should be awakened, and the soldiery
+animated by that proud and resolute confidence
+which a successful enterprise in the commencement
+of a contest never fails to inspire.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor176" id="FNanchor176"></a><a href="#Footnote-176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+Accordingly, he resolved that, as the troops
+lately rendezvoused at Fredericksburg had forborne
+to strike this needful blow, he would endeavor to
+repair the mistake by striking it himself. At
+once, therefore, he despatched expresses to the
+officers and men of the independent company of
+his own county, &#8220;requesting them to meet him in
+arms at New Castle on the second of May, on
+business of the highest importance to American
+liberty.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor177" id="FNanchor177"></a><a href="#Footnote-177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a>
+He also summoned the county committee
+to meet him at the same time and place.</p>
+
+<p>At the place and time appointed his neighbors
+were duly assembled; and when he had laid before
+them, in a speech of wonderful eloquence, his view
+of the situation, they instantly resolved to put
+themselves under his command, and to march at
+once to the capital, either to recover the gunpowder
+itself, or to make reprisals on the king&#8217;s property
+sufficient to replace it. Without delay the march
+began, Captain Patrick Henry leading. By sunset
+of the following day, they had got as far as to
+Doncastle&#8217;s Ordinary, about sixteen miles from
+Williamsburg, and there rested for the night.
+Meantime, the news that Patrick Henry was
+marching with armed men straight against Lord
+Dunmore, to demand the restoration of the gunpowder
+or payment for it, carried exhilaration or
+terror in all directions. On the one hand, many
+prudent and conservative gentlemen were horrified
+at his rashness, and sent messenger after messenger
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+to beg him to stay his fearful proceeding, to
+turn about, and to go home.<a name="FNanchor178" id="FNanchor178"></a><a href="#Footnote-178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> On the other hand,
+as the word flew from county to county that Patrick
+Henry had taken up the people&#8217;s cause in
+this vigorous fashion, five thousand men sprang to
+arms, and started across the country to join the
+ranks of his followers, and to lend a hand in case
+of need. At Williamsburg, the rumor of his approach
+brought on a scene of consternation. The
+wife and family of Lord Dunmore were hurried
+away to a place of safety. Further down the
+river, the commander of his majesty&#8217;s ship Fowey
+was notified that &#8220;his excellency the Lord Dunmore,
+governor of Virginia,&#8221; was &#8220;threatened
+with an attack at daybreak, &hellip; at his palace at
+Williamsburg;&#8221; and for his defence was speedily
+sent off a detachment of marines.<a name="FNanchor179" id="FNanchor179"></a><a href="#Footnote-179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> Before daybreak,
+however, the governor seems to have come
+to the prudent decision to avert, by a timely settlement
+with Patrick Henry, the impending attack;
+and accordingly, soon after daybreak, a messenger
+arrived at Doncastle&#8217;s Ordinary, there to tender
+immediate satisfaction in money for the gunpowder
+that had been ravished away.<a name="FNanchor180" id="FNanchor180"></a><a href="#Footnote-180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> The troops, having
+already resumed their march, were halted; and
+soon a settlement of the trouble was effected, according
+to the terms of the following singular
+document:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Doncastle&#8217;s Ordinary, New Kent</span>, May 4, 1775.</p>
+
+<p>Received from the Honorable Richard Corbin, Esq.,
+his majesty&#8217;s receiver-general, &pound;330, as a compensation
+for the gunpowder lately taken out of the public magazine
+by the governor&#8217;s order; which money I promise to
+convey to the Virginia delegates at the General Congress,
+to be under their direction laid out in gunpowder for
+the colony&#8217;s use, and to be stored as they shall direct,
+until the next colony convention or General Assembly;
+unless it shall be necessary, in the mean time, to use the
+same in defence of this colony. It is agreed, that in
+case the next convention shall determine that any part
+of the said money ought to be returned to his majesty&#8217;s
+receiver-general, that the same shall be done accordingly.</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Patrick Henry, Junior.</span><a name="FNanchor181" id="FNanchor181"></a><a href="#Footnote-181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The chief object for which Patrick Henry and
+his soldiers had taken the trouble to come to that
+place having been thus suddenly accomplished,
+there was but one thing left for them to do before
+they should return to their homes. Robert Carter
+Nicholas, the treasurer of the colony, was at
+Williamsburg; and to him Patrick Henry at once
+despatched a letter informing him of the arrangement
+that had been made, and offering to him any
+protection that he might in consequence require:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1">May 4, 1775.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;The affair of the powder is now settled, so as
+to produce satisfaction in me, and I earnestly wish to
+the colony in general. The people here have it in charge
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
+from the Hanover committee, to tender their services to
+you as a public officer, for the purpose of escorting the
+public treasury to any place in this colony where the
+money would be judged more safe than in the city of
+Williamsburg. The reprisal now made by the Hanover
+volunteers, though accomplished in a manner least liable
+to the imputation of violent extremity, may possibly be
+the cause of future injury to the treasury. If, therefore,
+you apprehend the least danger, a sufficient guard
+is at your service. I beg the return of the bearer may
+be instant, because the men wish to know their destination.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="right6">With great regard, I am, sir,</span><br />
+<span class="right3">Your most humble servant,</span><br />
+<span class="right1 smcap">Patrick Henry, Junior.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To Robert Carter Nicholas</span>, Esq., Treasurer.<a name="FNanchor182" id="FNanchor182"></a><a href="#Footnote-182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Patrick Henry&#8217;s desire for an immediate answer
+from the respectable Mr. Nicholas was gratified,
+although it came in the form of a dignified rebuff:
+Mr. Nicholas &#8220;had no apprehension of the necessity
+or propriety of the proffered service.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor183" id="FNanchor183"></a><a href="#Footnote-183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a></p>
+
+<p>No direct communication seems to have been
+had at that time with Lord Dunmore; but two
+days afterward his lordship, having given to Patrick
+Henry ample time to withdraw to a more
+agreeable distance, sent thundering after him this
+portentous proclamation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Whereas I have been informed from undoubted authority
+that a certain Patrick Henry, of the county of
+Hanover, and a number of deluded followers, have taken
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+up arms, chosen their officers, and styling themselves an
+independent company, have marched out of their county,
+encamped, and put themselves in a posture of war, and
+have written and dispatched letters to divers parts of
+the country, exciting the people to join in these outrageous
+and rebellious practices, to the great terror of all
+his majesty&#8217;s faithful subjects, and in open defiance of
+law and government; and have committed other acts of
+violence, particularly in extorting from his majesty&#8217;s
+receiver-general the sum of three hundred and thirty
+pounds, under pretence of replacing the powder I thought
+proper to order from the magazine; whence it undeniably
+appears that there is no longer the least security
+for the life or property of any man: wherefore, I have
+thought proper, with the advice of his majesty&#8217;s council,
+and in his majesty&#8217;s name, to issue this my proclamation,
+strictly charging all persons, upon their allegiance,
+not to aid, abet, or give countenance to the said Patrick
+Henry, or any other persons concerned in such unwarrantable
+combinations, but on the contrary to oppose
+them and their designs by every means; which designs
+must, otherwise, inevitably involve the whole country in
+the most direful calamity, as they will call for the vengeance
+of offended majesty and the insulted laws to be
+exerted here, to vindicate the constitutional authority of
+government.</p>
+
+<p>Given under my hand and the seal of the colony, at
+Williamsburg, this 6th day of May, 1775, and in the
+fifteenth year of his majesty&#8217;s reign.</p>
+
+<p class="right1 smcap">Dunmore.</p>
+
+<p>God save the king.<a name="FNanchor184" id="FNanchor184"></a><a href="#Footnote-184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
+Beyond question, there were in Virginia at that
+time many excellent gentlemen who still trusted
+that the dispute with Great Britain might be composed
+without bloodshed, and to whom Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s conduct in this affair must have appeared
+foolhardy, presumptuous, and even criminal. The
+mass of the people of Virginia, however, did not
+incline to take that view of the subject. They
+had no faith any longer in timid counsels, in hesitating
+measures. They believed that their most
+important earthly rights were in danger. They
+longed for a leader with vigor, promptitude, courage,
+caring less for technical propriety than for
+justice, and not afraid to say so, by word or deed,
+to Lord Dunmore and to Lord Dunmore&#8217;s master.
+Such a leader they thought they saw in Patrick
+Henry. Accordingly, even on his march homeward
+from Doncastle&#8217;s Ordinary, the heart of Virginia
+began to go forth to him in expressions of
+love, of gratitude, and of homage, such as no
+American colonist perhaps had ever before received.
+Upon his return home, his own county
+greeted him with its official approval.<a name="FNanchor185" id="FNanchor185"></a><a href="#Footnote-185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> On the 8th
+of May, the county of Louisa sent him her thanks;<a name="FNanchor186" id="FNanchor186"></a><a href="#Footnote-186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a>
+and on the following day, messages to the same
+effect were sent from the counties of Orange and
+Spottsylvania.<a name="FNanchor187" id="FNanchor187"></a><a href="#Footnote-187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> On the 19th of May, an address
+&#8220;to the inhabitants of Virginia,&#8221; under the signature
+of &#8220;Brutus,&#8221; saluted Patrick Henry as &#8220;his
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+country&#8217;s and America&#8217;s unalterable and unappalled
+great advocate and friend.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor188" id="FNanchor188"></a><a href="#Footnote-188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> On the 22d
+of May, Prince William County declared its thanks
+to be &#8220;justly due to Captain Patrick Henry, and
+the gentlemen volunteers who attended him, for
+their proper and spirited conduct.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor189" id="FNanchor189"></a><a href="#Footnote-189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> On the 26th
+of May, Loudoun County declared its cordial
+approval.<a name="FNanchor190" id="FNanchor190"></a><a href="#Footnote-190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> On the 9th of June, the volunteer
+company of Lancaster County resolved &#8220;that every
+member of this company do return thanks to the
+worthy Captain Patrick Henry and the volunteer
+company of Hanover, for their spirited conduct on
+a late expedition, and they are determined to protect
+him from any insult that may be offered him,
+on that account, at the risk of life and fortune.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor191" id="FNanchor191"></a><a href="#Footnote-191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a>
+On the 19th of June, resolutions of gratitude and
+confidence were voted by the counties of Prince
+Edward and of Frederick, the latter saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;We should blush to be thus late in our commendations
+of, and thanks to, Patrick Henry, Esquire, for his
+patriotic and spirited behavior in making reprisals for
+the powder so unconstitutionally &hellip; taken from the
+public magazine, could we have entertained a thought
+that any part of the colony would have condemned a
+measure calculated for the benefit of the whole; but as
+we are informed this is the case, we beg leave &hellip;
+to assure that gentleman that we did from the first, and
+still do, most cordially approve and commend his conduct
+in that affair. The good people of this county will
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+never fail to approve and support him to the utmost of
+their powers in every action derived from so rich a
+source as the love of his country. We heartily thank
+him for stepping forth to convince the tools of despotism
+that freeborn men are not to be intimidated, by any
+form of danger, to submit to the arbitrary acts of their
+rulers.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor192" id="FNanchor192"></a><a href="#Footnote-192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the 10th of July, the county of Fincastle prolonged
+the strain of public affection and applause
+by assuring Patrick Henry that it would support
+and justify him at the risk of life and fortune.<a name="FNanchor193" id="FNanchor193"></a><a href="#Footnote-193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, the second Continental Congress
+had already convened at Philadelphia, beginning
+its work on the 10th of May. The journal
+mentions the presence, on that day, of all the delegates
+from Virginia, excepting Patrick Henry,
+who, of course, had been delayed in his preparations
+for the journey by the events which we have
+just described. Not until the 11th of May was he
+able to set out from his home; and he was then
+accompanied upon his journey, to a point beyond
+the borders of the colony, by a spontaneous escort
+of armed men,&mdash;a token, not only of the popular
+love for him, but of the popular anxiety lest Dunmore
+should take the occasion of an unprotected
+journey to put him under arrest. &#8220;Yesterday,&#8221;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+says a document dated at Hanover, May the 12th,
+1775, &#8220;Patrick Henry, one of the delegates for
+this colony, escorted by a number of respectable
+young gentlemen, volunteers from this and King
+William and Caroline counties, set out to attend
+the General Congress. They proceeded with him
+as far as Mrs. Hooe&#8217;s ferry, on the Potomac, by
+whom they were most kindly and hospitably entertained,
+and also provided with boats and hands to
+cross the river; and after partaking of this lady&#8217;s
+beneficence, the bulk of the company took their
+leave of Mr. Henry, saluting him with two platoons
+and repeated huzzas. A guard accompanied
+that worthy gentleman to the Maryland side, who
+saw him safely landed; and committing him to
+the gracious and wise Disposer of all human events,
+to guide and protect him whilst contending for a
+restitution of our dearest rights and liberties, they
+wished him a safe journey, and happy return to
+his family and friends.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor194" id="FNanchor194"></a><a href="#Footnote-194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-165" id="Footnote-165"></a><a href="#FNanchor165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ii. 415-417.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-166" id="Footnote-166"></a><a href="#FNanchor166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> <i>Letters of John Adams to his Wife</i>, i. 40.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-167" id="Footnote-167"></a><a href="#FNanchor167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> <i>Letters of John Adams to his Wife</i>, i. 47, 48.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-168" id="Footnote-168"></a><a href="#FNanchor168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> <i>Works of Jefferson</i>, i. 116.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-169" id="Footnote-169"></a><a href="#FNanchor169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1227.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-170" id="Footnote-170"></a><a href="#FNanchor170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iii. 390.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-171" id="Footnote-171"></a><a href="#FNanchor171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 387.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-172" id="Footnote-172"></a><a href="#FNanchor172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 395.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-173" id="Footnote-173"></a><a href="#FNanchor173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 442, 443.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-174" id="Footnote-174"></a><a href="#FNanchor174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 426.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-175" id="Footnote-175"></a><a href="#FNanchor175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 443.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-176" id="Footnote-176"></a><a href="#FNanchor176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> Patrick Henry&#8217;s reasons were thus stated by him at the time
+to Colonel Richard Morris and Captain George Dabney, and by
+the latter were communicated to Wirt, 136, 137.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-177" id="Footnote-177"></a><a href="#FNanchor177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> Wirt, 137, 138.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-178" id="Footnote-178"></a><a href="#FNanchor178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> Wirt, 141.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-179" id="Footnote-179"></a><a href="#FNanchor179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 504</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-180" id="Footnote-180"></a><a href="#FNanchor180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> Cooke, <i>Virginia</i>, 432.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-181" id="Footnote-181"></a><a href="#FNanchor181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 540.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-182" id="Footnote-182"></a><a href="#FNanchor182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 541.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-183" id="Footnote-183"></a><a href="#FNanchor183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-184" id="Footnote-184"></a><a href="#FNanchor184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 516.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-185" id="Footnote-185"></a><a href="#FNanchor185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 540, 541.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-186" id="Footnote-186"></a><a href="#FNanchor186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 529.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-187" id="Footnote-187"></a><a href="#FNanchor187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 539, 540.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-188" id="Footnote-188"></a><a href="#FNanchor188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 641.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-189" id="Footnote-189"></a><a href="#FNanchor189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 667.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-190" id="Footnote-190"></a><a href="#FNanchor190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 710, 711.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-191" id="Footnote-191"></a><a href="#FNanchor191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 938.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-192" id="Footnote-192"></a><a href="#FNanchor192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1024.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-193" id="Footnote-193"></a><a href="#FNanchor193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 1620, 1621. For notable comments on Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s &#8220;striking and lucky <i>coup de main</i>,&#8221; see Rives, <i>Life of
+Madison</i>, i. 93, 94; <i>Works of Jefferson</i>, i. 116, 117; Charles Mackay,
+<i>Founders of the American Republic</i>, 232-234; 327.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-194" id="Footnote-194"></a><a href="#FNanchor194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 541.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XI <br />
+<span class="hsub">IN CONGRESS AND IN CAMP</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>On Thursday, the 18th of May, Patrick Henry
+took his seat in the second Continental Congress;
+and he appears thenceforward to have continued
+in attendance until the very end of the session,
+which occurred on the 1st of August. From the
+official journal of this Congress, it is impossible
+to ascertain the full extent of any member&#8217;s participation
+in its work. Its proceedings were transacted
+in secret; and only such results were announced
+to the public as, in the opinion of Congress,
+it was desirable that the public should know. Then,
+too, from the private correspondence and the diaries
+of its members but little help can be got. As
+affecting Patrick Henry, almost the only non-official
+testimony that has been found is that of Jefferson,
+who, however, did not enter this Congress
+until its session was half gone, and who, forty
+years afterward, wrote what he probably supposed
+to be his recollections concerning his old friend&#8217;s
+deportment and influence in that body:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;I found Mr. Henry to be a silent and almost unmeddling
+member in Congress. On the original opening of
+that body, while general grievances were the topic, he
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+was in his element, and captivated all by his bold and
+splendid eloquence. But as soon as they came to specific
+matters, to sober reasoning and solid argumentation,
+he had the good sense to perceive that his declamation,
+however excellent in its proper place, had no weight
+at all in such an assembly as that, of cool-headed, reflecting,
+judicious men. He ceased, therefore, in a great
+measure, to take any part in the business. He seemed,
+indeed, very tired of the place, and wonderfully relieved
+when, by appointment of the Virginia convention to be
+colonel of their first regiment, he was permitted to leave
+Congress about the last of July.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor195" id="FNanchor195"></a><a href="#Footnote-195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Perhaps the principal value of this testimony is
+to serve as an illustration of the extreme fragility
+of any man&#8217;s memory respecting events long passed,
+even in his own experience. Thus, Jefferson here
+remembers how &#8220;wonderfully relieved&#8221; Patrick
+Henry was at being &#8220;permitted to leave Congress&#8221;
+on account of his appointment by the Virginia
+convention &#8220;to be colonel of their first regiment.&#8221;
+But, from the official records of the time, it can
+now be shown that neither of the things which
+Jefferson thus remembers, ever had any existence
+in fact. In the first place, the journal of the Virginia
+convention<a name="FNanchor196" id="FNanchor196"></a><a href="#Footnote-196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> indicates that Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+appointment as colonel could not have been the
+occasion of any such relief from congressional duties
+as Jefferson speaks of; for that appointment
+was not made until five days after Congress itself
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+had adjourned, when, of course, Patrick Henry
+and his fellow delegates, including Jefferson, were
+already far advanced on their journey back to Virginia.
+In the second place, the journal of Congress<a name="FNanchor197" id="FNanchor197"></a><a href="#Footnote-197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a>
+indicates that Patrick Henry had no such
+relief from congressional duties, on any account,
+but was bearing his full share in its business, even
+in the plainest and most practical details, down to
+the very end of the session.</p>
+
+<p>Any one who now recalls the tremendous events
+that were taking place in the land while the second
+Continental Congress was in session, and the immense
+questions of policy and of administration
+with which it had to deal, will find it hard to believe
+that its deliberations were out of the range
+of Patrick Henry&#8217;s sympathies or capacities, or
+that he could have been the listless, speechless,
+and ineffective member depicted by the later pen
+of Jefferson. When that Congress first came together,
+the blood was as yet hardly dry on the
+grass in Lexington Common; on the very morning
+on which its session opened, the colonial troops
+burst into the stronghold at Ticonderoga; and
+when the session had lasted but six weeks, its
+members were conferring together over the ghastly
+news from Bunker Hill. The organization of some
+kind of national government for thirteen colonies
+precipitated into a state of war; the creation of a
+national army; the selection of a commander-in-chief,
+and of the officers to serve under him; the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+hurried fortification of coasts, harbors, cities; the
+supply of the troops with clothes, tents, weapons,
+ammunition, food, medicine; protection against
+the Indian tribes along the frontier of nearly every
+colony; the goodwill of the people of Canada, and
+of Jamaica; a solemn, final appeal to the king
+and to the people of England; an appeal to the
+people of Ireland; finally, a grave statement to all
+mankind of &#8220;the causes and necessity of their
+taking up arms,&#8221;&mdash;these were among the weighty
+and soul-stirring matters which the second Continental
+Congress had to consider and to decide
+upon. For any man to say, forty years afterward,
+even though he say it with all the authority of the
+renown of Thomas Jefferson, that, in the presence
+of such questions, the spirit of Patrick Henry was
+dull or unconcerned, and that, in a Congress which
+had to deal with such questions, he was &#8220;a silent
+and almost unmeddling member,&#8221; is to put a strain
+upon human confidence which it is unable to bear.</p>
+
+<p>The formula by which the daily labors of this
+Congress are frequently described in its own journal
+is, that &#8220;Congress met according to adjournment,
+and, agreeable to the order of the day, again
+resolved itself into a committee of the whole to
+take into consideration the state of America; and
+after some time spent therein, the president resumed
+the chair, and Mr. Ward, from the committee,
+reported that they had proceeded in the
+business, but, not having completed it, desired
+him to move for leave to sit again.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor198" id="FNanchor198"></a><a href="#Footnote-198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> And although,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+from the beginning to the end of the session,
+no mention is made of any word spoken in
+debate by any member, we can yet glean, even
+from that meagre record, enough to prove that
+upon Patrick Henry was laid about as much labor
+in the form of committee-work as upon any other
+member of the House,&mdash;a fair test, it is believed,
+of any man&#8217;s zeal, industry, and influence in any
+legislative body.</p>
+
+<p>Further, it will be noted that the committee-work
+to which he was thus assigned was often of
+the homeliest and most prosaic kind, calling not
+for declamatory gifts, but for common sense, discrimination,
+experience, and knowledge of men
+and things. He seems, also, to have had special
+interest and authority in the several anxious phases
+of the Indian question as presented by the exigencies
+of that awful crisis, and to have been placed
+on every committee that was appointed to deal
+with any branch of the subject. Thus, on the
+16th of June, he was placed with General Schuyler,
+James Duane, James Wilson, and Philip
+Livingston, on a committee &#8220;to take into consideration
+the papers transmitted from the convention
+of New York, relative to Indian affairs, and report
+what steps, in their opinion, are necessary to
+be taken for securing and preserving the friendship
+of the Indian nations.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor199" id="FNanchor199"></a><a href="#Footnote-199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> On the 19th of
+June, he served with John Adams and Thomas
+Lynch on a committee to inform Charles Lee of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+his appointment as second major-general; and when
+Lee&#8217;s answer imported that his situation and circumstances
+as a British officer required some further
+and very careful negotiations with Congress,
+Patrick Henry was placed upon the special committee
+to which this delicate business was intrusted.<a name="FNanchor200" id="FNanchor200"></a><a href="#Footnote-200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a>
+On the 21st of June, the very day on which, according
+to the journal, &#8220;Mr. Thomas Jefferson
+appeared as a delegate for the colony of Virginia,
+and produced his credentials,&#8221; his colleague, Patrick
+Henry, rose in his place and stated that Washington
+&#8220;had put into his hand sundry queries, to
+which he desired the Congress would give an answer.&#8221;
+These queries necessarily involved subjects
+of serious concern to the cause for which they were
+about to plunge into war, and would certainly require
+for their consideration &#8220;cool-headed, reflecting,
+and judicious men.&#8221; The committee appointed
+for the purpose consisted of Silas Deane, Patrick
+Henry, John Rutledge, Samuel Adams, and Richard
+Henry Lee.<a name="FNanchor201" id="FNanchor201"></a><a href="#Footnote-201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a>
+On the 10th of July, &#8220;Mr.
+Alsop informed the Congress that he had an invoice
+of Indian goods, which a gentleman in this
+town had delivered to him, and which the said
+gentleman was willing to dispose of to the Congress.&#8221;
+The committee &#8220;to examine the said invoice
+and report to the Congress&#8221; was composed
+of Philip Livingston, Patrick Henry, and John
+Alsop.<a name="FNanchor202" id="FNanchor202"></a><a href="#Footnote-202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a>
+On the 12th of July, it was resolved to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
+organize three departments for the management of
+Indian affairs, the commissioners to &#8220;have power
+to treat with the Indians in their respective departments,
+in the name and on behalf of the United
+Colonies, in order to preserve peace and friendship
+with the said Indians, and to prevent their taking
+any part in the present commotions.&#8221; On the
+following day the commissioners for the middle
+department were elected, namely, Franklin, Patrick
+Henry, and James Wilson.<a name="FNanchor203" id="FNanchor203"></a><a href="#Footnote-203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> On the 17th of
+July, a committee was appointed to negotiate with
+the Indian missionary, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland,
+respecting his past and future services among the
+Six Nations, &#8220;in order to secure their friendship,
+and to continue them in a state of neutrality with
+respect to the present controversy between Great
+Britain and these colonies.&#8221; This committee consisted
+of Thomas Cushing, Patrick Henry, and
+Silas Deane.<a name="FNanchor204" id="FNanchor204"></a><a href="#Footnote-204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> Finally, on the 31st of July, next
+to the last day of the session, a committee consisting
+of one member for each colony was appointed
+to serve in the recess of Congress, for the very
+practical and urgent purpose of inquiring &#8220;in all
+the colonies after virgin lead and leaden ore, and
+the best methods of collecting, smelting, and refining
+it;&#8221; also, after &#8220;the cheapest and easiest
+methods of making salt in these colonies.&#8221; This
+was not a committee on which any man could be
+useful who had only &#8220;declamation&#8221; to contribute
+to its work; and the several colonies were represented
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+upon it by their most sagacious and their
+weightiest men,&mdash;as New Hampshire by Langdon,
+Massachusetts by John Adams, Rhode Island by
+Stephen Hopkins, Pennsylvania by Franklin, Delaware
+by Rodney, South Carolina by Gadsden, Virginia
+by Patrick Henry.<a name="FNanchor205" id="FNanchor205"></a><a href="#Footnote-205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the day on which this committee was appointed,
+Patrick Henry wrote to Washington, then
+at the headquarters of the army near Boston, a
+letter which denoted on the part of the writer a
+perception, unusual at that time, of the gravity
+and duration of the struggle on which the colonies
+were just entering:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, July 31st, 1775.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;Give me leave to recommend the bearer, M<sup>r</sup>.
+Frazer, to your notice and regard. He means to enter
+the American camp, and there to gain that experience,
+of which the general cause may be avail&#8217;d. It is my
+earnest wish that many Virginians might see service.
+It is not unlikely that in the fluctuation of things our
+country may have occasion for great military exertions.
+For this reason I have taken the liberty to trouble you
+with this and a few others of the same tendency. The
+public good which you, sir, have so eminently promoted,
+is my only motive. That you may enjoy the protection
+of Heaven and live long and happy is the ardent wish
+of,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="right9">Sir,</span><br />
+<span class="right1">Y<sup>r</sup>. mo. ob<sup>t</sup>. hbl. serv.,</span><br />
+<span class="right1 smcap">P. Henry, Jr.<a name="FNanchor206" id="FNanchor206"></a><a href="#Footnote-206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His Excellency, <span class="smcap">Genl. Washington.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+On the following day Congress adjourned. As
+soon as possible after its adjournment, the Virginia
+delegates seem to have departed for home, to take
+their places in the convention then in session at
+Richmond; for the journal of that convention
+mentions that on Wednesday, August the 9th,
+&#8220;Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin
+Harrison, and Thomas Jefferson, Esquires, appeared
+in convention, and took their seats.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor207" id="FNanchor207"></a><a href="#Footnote-207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> On
+the next day an incident occurred in the convention
+implying that Patrick Henry, during his absence
+in Congress, had been able to serve his colony
+by other gifts as well as by those of &#8220;bold and
+splendid eloquence:&#8221; it was resolved that &#8220;the
+powder purchased by Patrick Henry, Esquire, for
+the use of this colony, be immediately sent for.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor208" id="FNanchor208"></a><a href="#Footnote-208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a>
+On the day following that, the convention resolved
+unanimously that &#8220;the thanks of this convention
+are justly due to his excellency, George Washington,
+Esquire, Patrick Henry, and Edmund Pendleton,
+Esquires, three of the worthy delegates
+who represented this colony in the late Continental
+Congress, for their faithful discharge of that
+important trust; and this body are only induced
+to dispense with their future services of the like
+kind, by the appointment of the two former to
+other offices in the public service, incompatible
+with their attendance on this, and the infirm state
+of health of the latter.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor209" id="FNanchor209"></a><a href="#Footnote-209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+Of course, the two appointments here referred
+to are of Washington as commander-in-chief of
+the forces of the United Colonies, and of Patrick
+Henry as commander-in-chief of the forces of Virginia,&mdash;the
+latter appointment having been made
+by the Virginia convention on the 5th of August.
+The commission, which passed the convention on
+the 28th of that month, constituted Patrick Henry
+&#8220;colonel of the first regiment of regulars, and
+commander-in-chief of all the forces to be raised
+for the protection and defence of this colony;&#8221;
+and while it required &#8220;all officers and soldiers,
+and every person whatsoever, in any way concerned,
+to be obedient&#8221; to him, &#8220;in all things touching
+the due execution of this commission,&#8221; it also required
+him to be obedient to &#8220;all orders and instructions
+which, from time to time,&#8221; he might
+&#8220;receive from the convention or Committee of
+Safety.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor210" id="FNanchor210"></a><a href="#Footnote-210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> Accordingly, Patrick Henry&#8217;s control
+of military proceedings in Virginia was, as it
+proved, nothing more than nominal: it was a supreme
+command on paper, tempered in actual experience
+by the incessant and distrustful interference
+of an ever-present body of civilians, who had
+all power over him.</p>
+
+<p>A newspaper of Williamsburg for the 23d of
+September announces the arrival there, two days
+before, of &#8220;Patrick Henry, Esquire, commander-in-chief
+of the Virginia forces. He was met and
+escorted to town by the whole body of volunteers,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>
+who paid him every mark of respect and distinction
+in their power.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor211" id="FNanchor211"></a><a href="#Footnote-211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> Thereupon he inspected
+the grounds about the city; and as a place suitable
+for the encampment, he fixed upon a site in the
+rear of the College of William and Mary. Soon
+troops began to arrive in considerable numbers,
+and to prepare themselves for whatever service
+might be required of them.<a name="FNanchor212" id="FNanchor212"></a><a href="#Footnote-212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> There was, however,
+a sad lack of arms and ammunition. On the 15th
+of October, Pendleton, who was at the head of the
+Committee of Safety, gave this account of the situation
+in a letter to Richard Henry Lee, then in
+Congress at Philadelphia:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Had we arms and ammunition, it would give vigor
+to our measures.&hellip; Nine companies of regulars are
+here, and seem very clever men; others, we hear, are
+ready, and only wait to collect arms. Lord Dunmore&#8217;s
+forces are only one hundred and sixty as yet, intrenched
+at Gosport, and supported by the ships drawn up before
+that and Norfolk.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor213" id="FNanchor213"></a><a href="#Footnote-213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the 30th of November, Lord Dunmore, who
+had been compelled by the smallness of his land
+force to take refuge upon his armed vessels off the
+coast, thus described the situation, in a letter to
+General Sir William Howe, then in command at
+Boston:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I must inform you that with our little corps, I think
+we have done wonders. We have taken and destroyed
+above four score pieces of ordnance, and, by landing in
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+different parts of the country, we keep them in continual
+hot water.&hellip; Having heard that a thousand chosen
+men belonging to the rebels, great part of whom were
+riflemen, were on their march to attack us here, or to
+cut off our provisions, I determined to take possession of
+the pass at the Great Bridge, which secures us the
+greatest part of two counties to supply us with provisions.
+I accordingly ordered a stockade fort to be
+erected there, which was done in a few days; and I put
+an officer and twenty-five men to garrison it, with some
+volunteers and negroes, who have defended it against all
+the efforts of the rebels for these eight days. We have
+killed several of their men; and I make no doubt we
+shall now be able to maintain our ground there; but
+should we be obliged to abandon it, we have thrown up
+an intrenchment on the land side of Norfolk, which I
+hope they will never be able to force. Here we are,
+with only the small part of a regiment contending
+against the extensive colony of Virginia.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor214" id="FNanchor214"></a><a href="#Footnote-214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But who were these &#8220;thousand chosen men belonging
+to the rebels,&#8221; who, on their march to
+attack Lord Dunmore at Norfolk, had thus been
+held in check by his little fort at the Great Bridge?
+We are told by Dunmore himself that they were
+Virginia troops. But why was not Patrick Henry
+in immediate command of them? Why was Patrick
+Henry held back from this service,&mdash;the only
+active service then to be had in the field? And
+why was the direction of this important enterprise
+given to his subordinate, Colonel William Woodford,
+of the second regiment? There is abundant
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+evidence that Patrick Henry had eagerly desired
+to conduct this expedition; that he had even solicited
+the Committee of Safety to permit him to do
+so; but that they, distrusting his military capacity,
+overruled his wishes, and gave this fine opportunity
+for military distinction to the officer next
+below him in command. Moreover, no sooner had
+Colonel Woodford departed upon the service, than
+he began to ignore altogether the commander-in-chief,
+and to make his communications directly to
+the Committee of Safety,&mdash;a course in which he
+was virtually sustained by that body, on appeal
+being made to them. Furthermore, on the 9th of
+December, Colonel Woodford won a brilliant victory
+over the enemy at the Great Bridge,<a name="FNanchor215" id="FNanchor215"></a><a href="#Footnote-215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> thus
+apparently justifying to the public the wisdom of
+the committee in assigning the work to him, and
+also throwing still more into the background the
+commander-in-chief, who was then chafing in camp
+over his enforced retirement from this duty. But
+this was not the only cup of humiliation which
+was pressed to his lips. Not long afterward, there
+arrived at the seat of war a few hundred North
+Carolina troops, under command of Colonel Robert
+Howe; and the latter, with the full consent of
+Woodford, at once took command of their united
+forces, and thenceforward addressed his official
+letters solely to the convention of Virginia, or to
+the Committee of Safety, paying not the slightest
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>
+attention to the
+commander-in-chief.<a name="FNanchor216" id="FNanchor216"></a><a href="#Footnote-216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a>
+Finally, on
+the 28th of December, Congress decided to raise
+in Virginia six battalions to be taken into continental
+pay;<a name="FNanchor217" id="FNanchor217"></a><a href="#Footnote-217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a>
+and, by a subsequent vote, it likewise
+resolved to include within these six battalions the
+first and the second Virginia regiments already
+raised.<a name="FNanchor218" id="FNanchor218"></a><a href="#Footnote-218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a>
+A commission was accordingly sent to
+Patrick Henry as colonel of the first Virginia
+battalion,<a name="FNanchor219" id="FNanchor219"></a><a href="#Footnote-219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a>&mdash;an
+official intimation that the expected
+commission of a brigadier-general for Virginia
+was to be given to some one else.</p>
+
+<p>On receiving this last affront, Patrick Henry
+determined to lay down his military appointments,
+which he did on the 28th of February, 1776, and
+at once prepared to leave the camp. As soon as
+this news got abroad among the troops, they all,
+according to a contemporary
+account,<a name="FNanchor220" id="FNanchor220"></a><a href="#Footnote-220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a>
+&#8220;went into
+mourning, and, under arms, waited on him at his
+lodgings,&#8221; when his officers presented to him an
+affectionate address:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To Patrick Henry, Junior, Esquire:</span></p>
+
+<p>Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the obligations
+we lie under to you for the polite, humane, and
+tender treatment manifested to us throughout the whole
+of your conduct, while we have had the honor of being
+under your command, permit us to offer to you our sincere
+thanks, as the only tribute we have in our power to
+pay to your real merits. Notwithstanding your withdrawing
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+yourself from service fills us with the most
+poignant sorrow, as it at once deprives us of our father
+and general, yet, as gentlemen, we are compelled to applaud
+your spirited resentment to the most glaring indignity.
+May your merit shine as conspicuous to the
+world in general as it hath done to us, and may Heaven
+shower its choicest blessings upon you.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, February 29, 1776.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>His reply to this warm-hearted message was in
+the following words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;I am extremely obliged to you for
+your approbation of my conduct. Your address does
+me the highest honor. This kind testimony of your
+regard to me would have been an ample reward for
+services much greater than I have had the power to perform.
+I return you, and each of you, gentlemen, my
+best acknowledgments for the spirit, alacrity, and zeal
+you have constantly shown in your several stations. I
+am unhappy to part with you. I leave the service, but
+I leave my heart with you. May God bless you, and
+give you success and safety, and make you the glorious
+instruments of saving our country.<a name="FNanchor221" id="FNanchor221"></a><a href="#Footnote-221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The grief and indignation thus exhibited by the
+officers who had served under Patrick Henry soon
+showed itself in a somewhat violent manner among
+the men. The &#8220;Virginia Gazette&#8221; for that time
+states that, &#8220;after the officers had received Colonel
+Henry&#8217;s kind answer to their address, they insisted
+upon his dining with them at the Raleigh Tavern,
+before his departure; and after the dinner, a number
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+of them proposed escorting him out of town,
+but were prevented by some uneasiness getting
+among the soldiery, who assembled in a tumultuous
+manner and demanded their discharge, and declared
+their unwillingness to serve under any other
+commander. Upon which Colonel Henry found it
+necessary to stay a night longer in town, which he
+spent in visiting the several barracks; and used
+every argument in his power with the soldiery to
+lay aside their imprudent resolution, and to continue
+in the service, which he had quitted from
+motives in which his honor alone was concerned.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor222" id="FNanchor222"></a><a href="#Footnote-222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a>
+Moreover, several days after he had left the camp
+altogether and had returned to his home, he was
+followed by an address signed by ninety officers
+belonging not only to his own regiment, but to
+that of Colonel Woodford,&mdash;a document which
+has no little value as presenting strongly one side
+of contemporary military opinion respecting Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s career as a soldier, and the treatment
+to which he had been subjected.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;Deeply concerned for the good of our country,
+we sincerely lament the unhappy necessity of your
+resignation, and with all the warmth of affection assure
+you that, whatever may have given rise to the indignity
+lately offered to you, we join with the general voice of
+the people, and think it our duty to make this public
+declaration of our high respect for your distinguished
+merit. To your vigilance and judgment, as a senator,
+this United Continent bears ample testimony, while she
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+prosecutes her steady opposition to those destructive
+ministerial measures which your eloquence first pointed
+out and taught to resent, and your resolution led forward
+to resist. To your extensive popularity the service,
+also, is greatly indebted for the expedition with
+which the troops were raised; and while they were continued
+under your command, the firmness, candor, and
+politeness, which formed the complexion of your conduct
+towards them, obtained the signal approbation of
+the wise and virtuous, and will leave upon our minds
+the most grateful impression.</p>
+
+<p>Although retired from the immediate concerns of
+war, we solicit the continuance of your kindly attention.
+We know your attachment to the best of causes; we
+have the fullest confidence in your abilities, and in the
+rectitude of your views; and, however willing the envious
+may be to undermine an established reputation, we
+trust the day will come when justice shall prevail, and
+thereby secure you an honorable and happy return to
+the glorious employment of conducting our councils and
+hazarding your life in the defence of your country.<a name="FNanchor223" id="FNanchor223"></a><a href="#Footnote-223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The public agitation over the alleged wrong
+which had thus been done to Patrick Henry during
+his brief military career, and which had brought
+that career to its abrupt and painful close, seems
+to have continued for a considerable time. Throughout
+the colony the blame was openly and bluntly
+laid upon the Committee of Safety, who, on account
+of envy, it was said, had tried &#8220;to bury in
+obscurity his martial talents.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor224" id="FNanchor224"></a><a href="#Footnote-224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> On the other
+hand, the course pursued by that committee was
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>
+ably defended by many, on the ground that Patrick
+Henry, with all his great gifts for civil life,
+really had no fitness for a leading military position.
+One writer asserted that even in the convention
+which had elected Patrick Henry as commander-in-chief,
+it was objected that &#8220;his studies
+had been directed to civil and not to military pursuits;
+that he was totally unacquainted with the
+art of war, and had no knowledge of military discipline;
+and that such a person was very unfit to
+be at the head of troops who were likely to be
+engaged with a well-disciplined army, commanded
+by experienced and able generals.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor225" id="FNanchor225"></a><a href="#Footnote-225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> In the very
+middle of the period of his nominal military service,
+this opinion of his unfitness was still more
+strongly urged by the chairman of the Committee
+of Safety, who, on the 24th of December, 1775,
+said in a letter to Colonel Woodford:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Believe me, sir, the unlucky step of calling that gentleman
+from our councils, where he was useful, into the
+field, in an important station, the duties of which he
+must, in the nature of things, be an entire stranger to,
+has given me many an anxious and uneasy moment. In
+consequence of this mistaken step, which can&#8217;t now be
+retracted or remedied,&mdash;for he has done nothing worthy
+of degradation, and must keep his rank,&mdash;we must be
+deprived of the service of some able officers, whose honor
+and former ranks will not suffer them to act under him
+in this juncture, when we so much need their services.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor226" id="FNanchor226"></a><a href="#Footnote-226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This seems to have been, in substance, the impression
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+concerning Patrick Henry held at that time
+by at least two friendly and most competent observers,
+who were then looking on from a distance,
+and who, of course, were beyond the range of any
+personal or partisan prejudice upon the subject.
+Writing from Cambridge, on the 7th of March,
+1776, before he had received the news of Henry&#8217;s
+resignation, Washington said to Joseph Reed, then
+at Philadelphia: &#8220;I think my countrymen made
+a capital mistake when they took Henry out of the
+senate to place him in the field; and pity it is that
+he does not see this, and remove every difficulty
+by a voluntary resignation.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor227" id="FNanchor227"></a><a href="#Footnote-227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> On the 15th of that
+month, Reed, in reply, gave to Washington this
+bit of news: &#8220;We have some accounts from Virginia
+that Colonel Henry has resigned in disgust
+at not being made a general officer; but it rather
+gives satisfaction than otherwise, as his abilities
+seem better calculated for the senate than the
+field.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor228" id="FNanchor228"></a><a href="#Footnote-228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, in all these contemporary judgments
+upon the alleged military defects of Patrick
+Henry, no reader can now fail to note an embarrassing
+lack of definiteness, and a tendency to infer
+that, because that great man was so great in civil
+life, as a matter of course, he could not be great,
+also, in military life,&mdash;a proposition that could
+be overthrown by numberless historical examples
+to the contrary. It would greatly aid us if we
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
+could know precisely what, in actual experience,
+were the defects found in Patrick Henry as a military
+man, and precisely how these defects were
+exhibited by him in the camp at Williamsburg.
+In the writings of that period, no satisfaction upon
+this point seems thus far to have been obtained.
+There is, however, a piece of later testimony,
+derived by authentic tradition from a prominent
+member of the Virginia Committee of Safety,
+which really helps one to understand what may
+have been the exact difficulty with the military
+character of Patrick Henry, and just why, also,
+it could not be more plainly stated at the time.
+Clement Carrington, a son of Paul Carrington,
+told Hugh Blair Grigsby that the real ground of
+the action of the Committee of Safety &#8220;was the
+want of discipline in the regiment under the command
+of Colonel Henry. None doubted his courage,
+or his alacrity to hasten to the field; but it
+was plain that he did not seem to be conscious of
+the importance of strict discipline in the army, but
+regarded his soldiers as so many gentlemen who
+had met to defend their country, and exacted from
+them little more than the courtesy that was proper
+among equals. To have marched to the sea-board
+at that time with a regiment of such men, would
+have been to insure their destruction; and it was
+a thorough conviction of this truth that prompted
+the decision of the committee.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor229" id="FNanchor229"></a><a href="#Footnote-229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a></p>
+
+<p>Yet, even with this explanation, the truth remains
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
+that Patrick Henry, as commander-in-chief
+of the Virginia forces, never was permitted to take
+command, or to see any real service in the field,
+or to look upon the face of an armed enemy, or to
+show, in the only way in which it could be shown,
+whether or not he had the gifts of a military leader
+in action. As an accomplished and noble-minded
+Virginian of our own time has said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;It may be doubted whether he possessed those qualities
+which make a wary partisan, and which are so often
+possessed in an eminent degree by uneducated men.
+Regular fighting there was none in the colony, until near
+the close of the war.&hellip; The most skilful partisan in
+the Virginia of that day, covered as it was with forests,
+cut up by streams, and beset by predatory bands, would
+have been the Indian warrior; and as a soldier approached
+that model, would he have possessed the proper
+tactics for the time. That Henry would not have made
+a better Indian fighter than Jay, or Livingston, or the
+Adamses, that he might not have made as dashing a
+partisan as Tarleton or Simcoe, his friends might readily
+afford to concede; but that he evinced, what neither
+Jay, nor Livingston, nor the Adamses did evince, a determined
+resolution to stake his reputation and his life
+on the issue of arms, and that he resigned his commission
+when the post of imminent danger was refused
+him, exhibit a lucid proof that, whatever may have been
+his ultimate fortune, he was not deficient in two grand
+elements of military success,&mdash;personal enterprise, and
+unquestioned courage.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor230" id="FNanchor230"></a><a href="#Footnote-230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-195" id="Footnote-195"></a><a href="#FNanchor195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for Aug. 1867, 92.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-196" id="Footnote-196"></a><a href="#FNanchor196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 375.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-197" id="Footnote-197"></a><a href="#FNanchor197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1902.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-198" id="Footnote-198"></a><a href="#FNanchor198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1834.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-199" id="Footnote-199"></a><a href="#FNanchor199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1849.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-200" id="Footnote-200"></a><a href="#FNanchor200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1850, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-201" id="Footnote-201"></a><a href="#FNanchor201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-202" id="Footnote-202"></a><a href="#FNanchor202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 1878.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-203" id="Footnote-203"></a><a href="#FNanchor203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1879, 1883.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-204" id="Footnote-204"></a><a href="#FNanchor204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> ii. 1884, 1885.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-205" id="Footnote-205"></a><a href="#FNanchor205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1902.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-206" id="Footnote-206"></a><a href="#FNanchor206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-207" id="Footnote-207"></a><a href="#FNanchor207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 377.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-208" id="Footnote-208"></a><a href="#FNanchor208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iii. 377, 378.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-209" id="Footnote-209"></a><a href="#FNanchor209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iii. 378.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-210" id="Footnote-210"></a><a href="#FNanchor210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 393. See, also, his oath of office, <i>ibid.</i> iii. 411.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-211" id="Footnote-211"></a><a href="#FNanchor211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 776.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-212" id="Footnote-212"></a><a href="#FNanchor212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> Wirt, 159.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-213" id="Footnote-213"></a><a href="#FNanchor213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 1067.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-214" id="Footnote-214"></a><a href="#FNanchor214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 1713-1715.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-215" id="Footnote-215"></a><a href="#FNanchor215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> Graphic contemporary accounts of this battle may be found in
+4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iv. 224, 228, 229.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-216" id="Footnote-216"></a><a href="#FNanchor216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> Wirt, 178.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-217" id="Footnote-217"></a><a href="#FNanchor217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 1962.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-218" id="Footnote-218"></a><a href="#FNanchor218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iv. 1669.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-219" id="Footnote-219"></a><a href="#FNanchor219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iv. 1517.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-220" id="Footnote-220"></a><a href="#FNanchor220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iv. 1515, 1516.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-221" id="Footnote-221"></a><a href="#FNanchor221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iv. 1516; also, Wirt, 180, 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-222" id="Footnote-222"></a><a href="#FNanchor222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iv. 1516.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-223" id="Footnote-223"></a><a href="#FNanchor223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iv. 1516, 1517.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-224" id="Footnote-224"></a><a href="#FNanchor224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iv. 1518.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-225" id="Footnote-225"></a><a href="#FNanchor225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iv. 1519.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-226" id="Footnote-226"></a><a href="#FNanchor226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> Wirt, 175.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-227" id="Footnote-227"></a><a href="#FNanchor227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, iii. 309.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-228" id="Footnote-228"></a><a href="#FNanchor228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> W. B. Reed, <i>Life of Joseph Reed</i>, i. 173.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-229" id="Footnote-229"></a><a href="#FNanchor229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> Grigsby, <i>Va. Conv. of 1776</i>, 52, 53, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-230" id="Footnote-230"></a><a href="#FNanchor230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> Grigsby, <i>Va. Conv. of 1776</i>, 151, 152.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XII <br />
+<span class="hsub">INDEPENDENCE</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Upon this mortifying close of a military career
+which had opened with so much expectation and
+even <i>&eacute;clat</i>, Patrick Henry returned, early in
+March, 1776, to his home in the county of Hanover,&mdash;a
+home on which then rested the shadow
+of a great sorrow. In the midst of the public engagements
+and excitements which absorbed him
+during the previous year, his wife, Sarah, the wife
+of his youth, the mother of his six children, had
+passed away. His own subsequent release from
+public labor, however bitter in its occasion, must
+have brought to him a great solace in the few
+weeks of repose which he then had under his own
+roof, with the privilege of ministering to the happiness
+of his motherless children, and of enjoying
+once more their loving companionship and sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>But in such a crisis of his country&#8217;s fate, such
+a man as Patrick Henry could not be permitted
+long to remain in seclusion; and the promptness
+and the heartiness with which he was now summoned
+back into the service of the public as a
+civilian, after the recent humiliations of his military
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+career, were accented, perhaps, on the part
+of his neighbors, by something of the fervor of intended
+compensation, if not of intended revenge.
+For, in the mean time, the American colonies had
+been swiftly advancing, along a path strewn with
+corpses and wet with blood, towards the doctrine
+that a total separation from the mother-country,&mdash;a
+thing hitherto contemplated by them only as a
+disaster and a crime,&mdash;might after all be neither,
+but on the contrary, the only resource left to them
+in their desperate struggle for political existence.
+This supreme question, it was plain, was to confront
+the very next Virginia convention, which
+was under appointment to meet early in the coming
+May. Almost at once, therefore, after his
+return home, Patrick Henry was elected by his
+native county to represent it in that convention.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday morning, the 6th of May, the convention
+gathered at Williamsburg for its first
+meeting. On its roll of members we see many of
+those names which have become familiar to us in
+the progress of this history,&mdash;the names of those
+sturdy and well-trained leaders who guided Virginia
+during all that stormy period,&mdash;Pendleton, Cary,
+Mason, Nicholas, Bland, the Lees, Mann Page,
+Dudley Digges, Wythe, Edmund Randolph, and
+a few others. For the first time also, on such a
+roll, we meet the name of James Madison, an
+accomplished young political philosopher, then but
+four years from the inspiring instruction of President
+Witherspoon at Princeton. But while a few
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+very able men had places in that convention, it
+was, at the time, by some observers thought to
+contain an unusually large number of incompetent
+persons. Three days after the opening of the session
+Landon Carter wrote to Washington:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;I could have wished that ambition had not so visibly
+seized so much ignorance all over the colony, as it seems
+to have done; for this present convention abounds with
+too many of the inexperienced creatures to navigate our
+bark on this dangerous coast; so that I fear the few skilful
+pilots who have hitherto done tolerably well to keep her
+clear from destruction, will not be able to conduct her
+with common safety any longer.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor231" id="FNanchor231"></a><a href="#Footnote-231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The earliest organization of the House was, on
+the part of the friends of Patrick Henry, made
+the occasion for a momentary flash of resentment
+against Edmund Pendleton, as the man who was
+believed by them to have been the guiding mind
+of the Committee of Safety in its long series of
+restraints upon the military activity of their chief.
+At the opening of the convention Pendleton was
+nominated for its president,&mdash;a most suitable
+nomination, and one which under ordinary circumstances
+would have been carried by acclamation.
+Thomas Johnson, however, a stanch follower of
+Patrick Henry, at once presented an opposing candidate;
+and although Pendleton was elected, he
+was not elected without a contest, or without this
+significant hint that the fires of indignation against
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>
+him were still burning in the hearts of a strong
+party in that house and throughout the colony.</p>
+
+<p>The convention lasted just two months lacking
+a day; and in all the detail and drudgery of its
+business, as the journal indicates, Patrick Henry
+bore a very large part. In the course of the session,
+he seems to have served on perhaps a majority
+of all its committees. On the 6th of May, he
+was made a member of the committee of privileges
+and elections; on the 7th, of a committee &#8220;to
+bring in an ordinance to encourage the making of
+salt, saltpetre, and gunpowder;&#8221; on the 8th, of
+the committee on &#8220;propositions and grievances;&#8221;
+on the 21st, of a committee &#8220;to inquire for a
+proper hospital for the reception and accommodation
+of the sick and wounded soldiers;&#8221; on the
+22d, of a committee to inquire into the truth of
+a complaint made by the Indians respecting encroachments
+on their lands; on the 23d, of a committee
+to bring in an ordinance for augmenting
+the ninth regiment, for enlisting four troops of
+horse, and for raising men for the defence of the
+frontier counties; on the 4th of June, of a committee
+to inquire into the causes for the depreciation
+of paper money in the colony, and into the
+rates at which goods are sold at the public store;
+on the 14th of June, of a committee to prepare an
+address to be sent by Virginia to the Shawanese
+Indians; on the 15th of June, of a committee to
+bring in amendments to the ordinance for prescribing
+a mode of punishment for the enemies of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+America in this colony; and on the 22d of June,
+of a committee to prepare an ordinance &#8220;for enabling
+the present magistrates to continue the administration
+of justice, and for settling the general
+mode of proceedings in criminal and other cases.&#8221;
+The journal also mentions his frequent activity in
+the House in the presentation of reports from some
+of these committees: for example, from the committee
+on propositions and grievances, on the 16th
+of May, on the 22d of May, and on the 15th of
+June. On the latter occasion, he made to the
+House three detailed reports on as many different
+topics.<a name="FNanchor232" id="FNanchor232"></a><a href="#Footnote-232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a></p>
+
+<p>Of course, the question overshadowing all others
+in that convention was the question of independence.
+General Charles Lee, whose military duties
+just then detained him at Williamsburg, and
+who was intently watching the currents of political
+thought in all the colonies, assured Washington,
+in a letter written on the 10th of May, that &#8220;a
+noble spirit&#8221; possessed the convention; and that
+the members were &#8220;almost unanimous for independence,&#8221;
+the only disagreement being &#8220;in their
+sentiments about the mode.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor233" id="FNanchor233"></a><a href="#Footnote-233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> That Patrick
+Henry was in favor of independence hardly needs
+to be mentioned; yet it does need to be mentioned
+that he was among those who disagreed with some
+of his associates &#8220;about the mode.&#8221; While he
+was as eager and as resolute for independence as
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>
+any man, he doubted whether the time had then
+fully come for declaring independence. He thought
+that the declaration should be so timed as to secure,
+beyond all doubt, two great conditions of success,&mdash;first,
+the firm union of the colonies themselves,
+and secondly, the friendship of foreign powers,
+particularly of France and Spain. For these reasons,
+he would have had independence delayed
+until a confederation of the colonies could be established
+by written articles, which, he probably
+supposed, would take but a few weeks; and also
+until American agents could have time to negotiate
+with the French and Spanish courts.</p>
+
+<p>On the first day of the session, General Charles
+Lee, who was hot for an immediate declaration of
+independence, seems to have had a conversation
+upon the subject with Patrick Henry, during which
+the latter stated his reasons for some postponement
+of the measure. This led General Lee, on the
+following day, to write to Henry a letter which is
+really remarkable, some passages from which will
+help us the better to understand the public situation,
+as well as Patrick Henry&#8217;s attitude towards
+it:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, May 7, 1776.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;If I had not the highest opinion of your
+character and liberal way of thinking, I should not venture
+to address myself to you. And if I were not equally
+persuaded of the great weight and influence which the
+transcendent abilities you possess must naturally confer,
+I should not give myself the trouble of writing, nor you
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>
+the trouble of reading this long letter. Since our conversation
+yesterday, my thoughts have been solely employed
+on the great question, whether independence
+ought or ought not to be immediately declared. Having
+weighed the argument on both sides, I am clearly of the
+opinion that we must, as we value the liberties of America,
+or even her existence, without a moment&#8217;s delay
+declare for independence.&hellip; The objection you made
+yesterday, if I understood you rightly, to an immediate
+declaration, was by many degrees the most specious,
+indeed, it is the only tolerable, one that I have yet heard.
+You say, and with great justice, that we ought previously
+to have felt the pulse of France and Spain. I more than
+believe, I am almost confident, that it has been done.&hellip;
+But admitting that we are utter strangers to their sentiments
+on the subject, and that we run some risk of this
+declaration being coldly received by these powers, such
+is our situation that the risk must be ventured.</p>
+
+<p>On one side there are the most probable chances of
+our success, founded on the certain advantages which
+must manifest themselves to French understandings by
+a treaty of alliance with America.&hellip; The superior
+commerce and marine force of England were evidently
+established on the monopoly of her American trade.
+The inferiority of France, in these two capital points,
+consequently had its source in the same origin. Any
+deduction from this monopoly must bring down her
+rival in proportion to this deduction. The French are
+and always have been sensible of these great truths.&hellip;
+But allowing that there can be no certainty, but mere
+chances, in our favor, I do insist upon it that these
+chances render it our duty to adopt the measure, as, by
+procrastination, our ruin is inevitable. Should it now
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+be determined to wait the result of a previous formal
+negotiation with France, a whole year must pass over
+our heads before we can be acquainted with the result.
+In the mean time, we are to struggle through a campaign,
+without arms, ammunition, or any one necessary
+of war. Disgrace and defeat will infallibly ensue; the
+soldiers and officers will become so disappointed that
+they will abandon their colors, and probably never be
+persuaded to make another effort.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another consideration still more cogent.
+I can assure you that the spirit of the people cries out
+for this declaration; the military, in particular, men
+and officers, are outrageous on the subject; and a man
+of your excellent discernment need not be told how
+dangerous it would be, in our present circumstances, to
+dally with the spirit, or disappoint the expectations, of
+the bulk of the people. May not despair, anarchy, and
+final submission be the bitter fruits? I am firmly persuaded
+that they will; and, in this persuasion, I most
+devoutly pray that you may not merely recommend, but
+positively lay injunctions on, your servants in Congress
+to embrace a measure so necessary to our salvation.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="right3">Yours, most sincerely,</span><br />
+
+<span class="right1"><span class="smcap">Charles Lee.</span><a name="FNanchor234" id="FNanchor234"></a><a href="#Footnote-234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Just eight days after that letter was written,
+the Virginia convention took what may, at first
+glance, seem to be the precise action therein described
+as necessary; and moreover, they did so
+under the influence, in part, of Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+powerful advocacy of it. On the 15th of May,
+after considerable debate, one hundred and twelve
+members being present, the convention unanimously
+resolved,</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;That the delegates appointed to represent this colony
+in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable
+body to declare the United Colonies free and
+independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or
+dependence upon, the crown or Parliament of Great Britain;
+and that they give the assent of this colony to such
+declaration, and to whatever measures may be thought
+proper and necessary by the Congress for forming foreign
+alliances and a confederation of the colonies, at such
+time, and in the manner, as to them shall seem best:
+provided, that the power of forming government for,
+and the regulations of the internal concerns of, each
+colony, be left to the respective colonial legislatures.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor235" id="FNanchor235"></a><a href="#Footnote-235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On the testimony of Edmund Randolph, who
+was a member of the convention, it is now known
+that this momentous resolution &#8220;was drawn by
+Pendleton, was offered in convention by Nelson,
+and was advocated on the floor by Henry.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor236" id="FNanchor236"></a><a href="#Footnote-236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> Any
+one who will carefully study it, however, will discover
+that this resolution was the result of a compromise;
+and especially, that it is so framed as to
+meet Patrick Henry&#8217;s views, at least to the extent
+of avoiding the demand for an immediate declaration,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>
+and of leaving it to Congress to determine
+the time and manner of making it. Accordingly,
+in letters of his, written five days afterward to his
+most intimate friends in Congress, we see that his
+mind was still full of anxiety about the two great
+prerequisites,&mdash;a certified union among the colonies,
+and a friendly arrangement with France.
+&#8220;Ere this reaches you,&#8221; he wrote to Richard
+Henry Lee, &#8220;our resolution for separating from
+Britain will be handed you by Colonel Nelson.
+Your sentiments as to the necessary progress of
+this great affair correspond with mine. For may
+not France, ignorant of the great advantages to
+her commerce we intend to offer, and of the
+permanency of that separation which is to take
+place, be allured by the partition you mention?
+To anticipate, therefore, the efforts of the enemy
+by sending instantly American ambassadors to
+France, seems to me absolutely necessary. Delay
+may bring on us total ruin. But is not a confederacy
+of our States previously necessary?&#8221;<a name="FNanchor237" id="FNanchor237"></a><a href="#Footnote-237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the same day, he wrote, also, a letter to
+John Adams, in which he developed still more
+vigorously his views as to the true order in which
+the three great measures,&mdash;confederation, foreign
+alliances, and independence,&mdash;should be dealt
+with:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Before this reaches you, the resolution for finally
+separating from Britain will be handed to Congress by
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+Colonel Nelson. I put up with it in the present form
+for the sake of unanimity. &#8217;T is not quite so pointed as
+I could wish. Excuse me for telling you of what I think
+of immense importance; &#8217;t is to anticipate the enemy at
+the French court. The half of our continent offered to
+France, may induce her to aid our destruction, which
+she certainly has the power to accomplish. I know the
+free trade with all the States would be more beneficial
+to her than any territorial possessions she might acquire.
+But pressed, allured, as she will be,&mdash;but, above all,
+ignorant of the great thing we mean to offer,&mdash;may we
+not lose her? The consequence is dreadful. Excuse
+me again. The confederacy:&mdash;that must precede an
+open declaration of independency and foreign alliances.
+Would it not be sufficient to confine it, for the present,
+to the objects of offensive and defensive nature, and a
+guaranty of the respective colonial rights? If a minute
+arrangement of things is attempted, such as equal representation,
+etc., etc., you may split and divide; certainly
+will delay the French alliance, which with me is everything.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor238" id="FNanchor238"></a><a href="#Footnote-238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, however, many of the people
+of Virginia had received with enthusiastic approval
+the news of the great step taken by their convention
+on the 15th of May. Thus &#8220;on the day following,&#8221;
+says the &#8220;Virginia Gazette,&#8221; published
+at Williamsburg, &#8220;the troops in this city, with
+the train of artillery, were drawn up and went
+through their firings and various other military
+man&#339;uvres, with the greatest exactness; a continental
+union flag was displayed upon the capitol;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+and in the evening many of the inhabitants illuminated
+their houses.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor239" id="FNanchor239"></a><a href="#Footnote-239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> Moreover, the great step
+taken by the Virginia convention, on the day just
+mentioned, committed that body to the duty of
+taking at once certain other steps of supreme importance.
+They were about to cast off the government
+of Great Britain: it was necessary for them,
+therefore, to provide some government to be put
+in the place of it. Accordingly, in the very same
+hour in which they instructed their delegates in
+Congress to propose a declaration of independence,
+they likewise resolved, &#8220;That a committee be appointed
+to prepare a declaration of rights, and
+such a plan of government as will be most likely
+to maintain peace and order in this colony, and
+secure substantial and equal liberty to the people.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor240" id="FNanchor240"></a><a href="#Footnote-240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a></p>
+
+<p>Of this committee, Patrick Henry was a member;
+and with him were associated Archibald Cary,
+Henry Lee, Nicholas, Edmund Randolph, Bland,
+Dudley Digges, Paul Carrington, Mann Page,
+Madison, George Mason, and others. The two
+tasks before the committee&mdash;that of drafting a
+statement of rights, and that of drafting a constitution
+for the new State of Virginia&mdash;must have
+pressed heavily upon its leading members. In the
+work of creating a new state government, Virginia
+was somewhat in advance of the other colonies;
+and for this reason, as well as on account of
+its general pre&euml;minence among the colonies, the
+course which it should take in this crisis was
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>
+watched with extraordinary attention. John
+Adams said, at the time, &#8220;We all look up to Virginia
+for examples.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor241" id="FNanchor241"></a><a href="#Footnote-241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> Besides, in Virginia itself,
+as well as in the other colonies, there was an unsettled
+question as to the nature of the state governments
+which were then to be instituted. Should
+they be strongly aristocratic and conservative, with
+a possible place left for the monarchical feature;
+or should the popular elements in each colony be
+more largely recognized, and a decidedly democratic
+character given to these new constitutions?
+On this question, two strong parties existed in
+Virginia. In the first place, there were the old
+aristocratic families, and those who sympathized
+with them. These people, numerous, rich, cultivated,
+influential, in objecting to the unfair encroachments
+of British authority, had by no means
+intended to object to the nature of the British
+constitution, and would have been pleased to see
+that constitution, in all its essential features, retained
+in Virginia. This party was led by such
+men as Robert Carter Nicholas, Carter Braxton,
+and Edmund Pendleton. In the second place,
+there were the democrats, the reformers, the radicals,&mdash;who
+were inclined to take the opportunity
+furnished by Virginia&#8217;s rejection of British authority
+as the occasion for rejecting, within the new
+State of Virginia, all the aristocratic and monarchical
+features of the British Constitution itself.
+This party was led by such men as Patrick Henry,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
+Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and George
+Mason. Which party was to succeed in stamping
+its impress the more strongly on the new plan for
+government in Virginia?</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, it is important to observe that, on
+this very question then at issue in Virginia, two
+pamphlets, taking opposite sides, were, just at that
+moment, attracting the notice of Virginians,&mdash;both
+pamphlets being noble in tone, of considerable
+learning, very suggestive, and very well expressed.
+The first, entitled &#8220;Thoughts on Government,&#8221;
+though issued anonymously, was soon
+known to be by John Adams. It advocated the
+formation of state constitutions on the democratic
+model; a lower house elected for a single year by
+the people; this house to elect an upper house of
+twenty or thirty members, who were to have a
+negative on the lower house, and to serve, likewise,
+for a single year; these two houses to elect a governor,
+who was to have a negative on them both,
+and whose term of office should also end with the
+year; while the judges, and all other officers, civil
+or military, were either to be appointed by the
+governor with the advice of the upper house, or to
+be chosen directly by the two houses themselves.<a name="FNanchor242" id="FNanchor242"></a><a href="#Footnote-242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a>
+The second pamphlet, which was in part a reply
+to the first, was entitled &#8220;Address to the Convention
+of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia,
+on the subject of Government in general,
+and recommending a particular form to their consideration.&#8221;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>
+It purported to be by &#8220;A native of
+the Colony.&#8221; Although the pamphlet was sent
+into Virginia under strong recommendations from
+Carter Braxton, one of the Virginian delegates in
+Congress, the authorship was then unknown to the
+public. It advocated the formation of state constitutions
+on a model far less democratic: first, a
+lower house, the members of which were to be
+elected for three years by the people; secondly,
+an upper house of twenty-four members, to be
+elected for life by the lower house; thirdly, a
+governor, to be elected for life by the lower house;
+fourthly, all judges, all military officers, and all
+inferior civil ones, to be appointed by the governor.<a name="FNanchor243" id="FNanchor243"></a><a href="#Footnote-243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such was the question over which the members
+of the committee, appointed on the 15th of May,
+must soon have come into sharp conflict. At its
+earliest meetings, apparently, Henry found the
+aristocratic tendencies of some of his associates so
+strong as to give him considerable uneasiness; and
+by his letter to John Adams, written on the 20th
+of the month, we may see that he was then complaining
+of the lack of any associate of adequate
+ability on his own side of the question. When
+we remember, however, that both James Madison
+and George Mason were members of that committee,
+we can but read Patrick Henry&#8217;s words with
+some astonishment.<a name="FNanchor244" id="FNanchor244"></a><a href="#Footnote-244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> The explanation is probably
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+to be found in the fact that Madison was not placed
+on the committee until the 16th, and, being very
+young and very unobtrusive, did not at first make
+his true weight felt; while Mason was not placed
+on the committee until the working day just before
+Henry&#8217;s letter was written, and very likely had
+not then met with it, and may not, at the moment,
+have been remembered by Henry as a member of
+it. At any rate, this is the way in which our
+eager Virginia democrat, in that moment of anxious
+conflict over the form of the future government
+of his State, poured out his anxieties to his
+two most congenial political friends in Congress.
+To Richard Henry Lee he wrote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;The grand work of forming a constitution for Virginia
+is now before the convention, where your love of
+equal liberty and your skill in public counsels might so
+eminently serve the cause of your country. Perhaps
+I&#8217;m mistaken, but I fear too great a bias to aristocracy
+prevails among the opulent. I own myself a democratic
+on the plan of our admired friend, J. Adams, whose
+pamphlet I read with great pleasure. A performance
+from Philadelphia is just come here, ushered in, I&#8217;m
+told, by a colleague of yours, B&mdash;&mdash;, and greatly recommended
+by him. I don&#8217;t like it. Is the author a
+Whig? One or two expressions in the book make me
+ask. I wish to divide you, and have you here to animate,
+by your manly eloquence, the sometimes drooping
+spirits of our country, and in Congress to be the ornament
+of your native country, and the vigilant, determined
+foe of tyranny. To give you colleagues of kindred
+sentiments, is my wish. I doubt you have them
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+not at present. A confidential account of the matter to
+Colonel Tom,<a name="FNanchor245" id="FNanchor245"></a><a href="#Footnote-245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> desiring him to use it according to his
+discretion, might greatly serve the public and vindicate
+Virginia from suspicions. Vigor, animation, and all
+the powers of mind and body must now be summoned
+and collected together into one grand effort. Moderation,
+falsely so called, hath nearly brought on us final
+ruin. And to see those, who have so fatally advised us,
+still guiding, or at least sharing, our public counsels,
+alarms me.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor246" id="FNanchor246"></a><a href="#Footnote-246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the same day, he wrote as follows to John
+Adams:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, May 20, 1776.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Your favor, with the pamphlet,
+came safe to hand. I am exceedingly obliged to you
+for it; and I am not without hopes it may produce good
+here, where there is among most of our opulent families
+a strong bias to aristocracy. I tell my friends you are
+the author. Upon that supposition, I have two reasons
+for liking the book. The sentiments are precisely the
+same I have long since taken up, and they come recommended
+by you. Go on, my dear friend, to assail the
+strongholds of tyranny; and in whatever form oppression
+may be found, may those talents and that firmness,
+which have achieved so much for America, be pointed
+against it.&hellip;</p>
+
+<p>Our convention is now employed in the great work of
+forming a constitution. My most esteemed republican
+form has many and powerful enemies. A silly thing,
+published in Philadelphia, by a native of Virginia, has
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+just made its appearance here, strongly recommended,
+&#8216;t is said, by one of our delegates now with you,&mdash;Braxton.
+His reasonings upon and distinction between private
+and public virtue, are weak, shallow, evasive, and
+the whole performance an affront and disgrace to this
+country; and, by one expression, I suspect his whiggism.</p>
+
+<p>Our session will be very long, during which I cannot
+count upon one coadjutor of talents equal to the task.
+Would to God you and your Sam Adams were here!
+It shall be my incessant study so to form our portrait of
+government that a kindred with New England may be
+discerned in it; and if all your excellences cannot be
+preserved, yet I hope to retain so much of the likeness,
+that posterity shall pronounce us descended from the
+same stock. I shall think perfection is obtained, if we
+have your approbation.</p>
+
+<p>I am forced to conclude; but first, let me beg to be
+presented to my ever-esteemed S. Adams. Adieu, my
+dear sir; may God preserve you, and give you every
+good thing.</p>
+
+<p class="right1 smcap">P. Henry, Jr.</p>
+
+<p>P. S. Will you and S. A. now and then write?<a name="FNanchor247" id="FNanchor247"></a><a href="#Footnote-247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To this hearty and even brotherly letter John
+Adams wrote from Philadelphia, on the 3d of
+June, a fitting reply, in the course of which he
+said, with respect to Henry&#8217;s labors in making a
+constitution for Virginia: &#8220;The subject is of infinite
+moment, and perhaps more than adequate to
+the abilities of any man in America. I know of
+none so competent to the task as the author of the
+first Virginia resolutions against the Stamp Act,
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+who will have the glory with posterity of beginning
+and concluding this great revolution. Happy
+Virginia, whose constitution is to be framed by so
+masterly a builder!&#8221; Then, with respect to the
+aristocratic features in the Constitution, as proposed
+by &#8220;A Native of the Colony,&#8221; John Adams
+exclaims:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians,
+the sachems, the nabobs, call them by what name you
+please, sigh, and groan, and fret, and sometimes stamp,
+and foam, and curse, but all in vain. The decree is
+gone forth, and it cannot be recalled, that a more equal
+liberty than has prevailed in other parts of the earth,
+must be established in America. That exuberance of
+pride which has produced an insolent domination in a
+few, a very few, opulent, monopolizing families, will be
+brought down nearer to the confines of reason and moderation
+than they have been used to.&hellip; I shall ever
+be happy in receiving your advice by letter, until I can
+be more completely so in seeing you here in person,
+which I hope will be soon.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor248" id="FNanchor248"></a><a href="#Footnote-248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the 12th of June, the convention adopted
+without a dissenting voice its celebrated &#8220;declaration
+of rights,&#8221; a compact, luminous, and powerful
+statement, in sixteen articles, of those great
+fundamental rights that were henceforth to be
+&#8220;the basis and foundation of government&#8221; in
+Virginia, and were to stamp their character upon
+that constitution on which the committee were even
+then engaged. Perhaps no political document of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>
+that time is more worthy of study in connection
+with the genesis, not only of our state constitutions,
+but of that of the nation likewise. That
+the first fourteen articles of the declaration were
+written by George Mason has never been disputed:
+that he also wrote the fifteenth and the sixteenth
+articles is now claimed by his latest and ablest
+biographer,<a name="FNanchor249" id="FNanchor249"></a><a href="#Footnote-249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> but in opposition to the testimony of
+Edmund Randolph, who was a member both of
+the convention itself and of the particular committee
+in charge of the declaration, and who has left
+on record the statement that those articles were
+the work of Patrick Henry.<a name="FNanchor250" id="FNanchor250"></a><a href="#Footnote-250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a> The fifteenth article
+was in these words: &#8220;That no free government,
+or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any
+people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation,
+temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by
+frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.&#8221;
+The sixteenth article is an assertion of the doctrine
+of religious liberty,&mdash;the first time that it was
+ever asserted by authority in Virginia. The original
+draft, in which the writer followed very closely
+the language used on that subject by the Independents
+in the Assembly of Westminster, stood as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;That religion, or the duty we owe our Creator, and
+the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by
+reason and conviction, and not by force or violence; and,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>
+therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration
+in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of
+conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate,
+unless, under color of religion, any man disturb
+the peace, the happiness, or the safety of society; and
+that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance,
+love, and charity towards each other.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor251" id="FNanchor251"></a><a href="#Footnote-251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The historic significance of this stately assertion
+of religious liberty in Virginia can be felt only by
+those who remember that, at that time, the Church
+of England was the established church of Virginia,
+and that the laws of Virginia then restrained the
+exercise there of every form of religious dissent,
+unless compliance had been made with the conditions
+of the toleration act of the first year of William
+and Mary. At the very moment, probably,
+when the committee were engaged in considering
+the tremendous innovation contained in this article,
+&#8220;sundry persons of the Baptist church in the
+county of Prince William&#8221; were putting their
+names to a petition earnestly imploring the convention,
+&#8220;That they be allowed to worship God
+in their own way, without interruption; that they
+be permitted to maintain their own ministers and
+none others; that they may be married, buried,
+and the like, without paying the clergy of other
+denominations;&#8221; and that, by the concession to
+them of such religious freedom, they be enabled
+to &#8220;unite with their brethren, and to the utmost
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
+of their ability promote the common cause&#8221; of
+political freedom.<a name="FNanchor252" id="FNanchor252"></a><a href="#Footnote-252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> Of course the adoption of the
+sixteenth article virtually carried with it every
+privilege which these people asked for. The author
+of that article, whether it was George Mason
+or Patrick Henry, was a devout communicant of
+the established church of Virginia; and thus, the
+first great legislative act for the reform of the
+civil constitution of that church, and for its deliverance
+from the traditional duty and curse of persecution,
+was an act which came from within the
+church itself.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday, the 24th of June, the committee,
+through Archibald Cary, submitted to the convention
+their plan of a constitution for the new State
+of Virginia; and on Saturday, the 29th of June,
+this plan passed its third reading, and was unanimously
+adopted. A glance at the document will
+show that in the sharp struggle between the aristocratic
+and the democratic forces in the convention,
+the latter had signally triumphed. It provided
+for a lower House of Assembly, whose members
+were to be elected annually by the people, in the
+proportion of two members from each county; for
+an upper House of Assembly to consist of twenty-four
+members, who were to be elected annually by
+the people, in the proportion of one member from
+each of the senatorial districts into which the several
+counties should be grouped; for a governor,
+to be elected annually by joint ballot of both
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
+houses, and not to &#8220;continue in that office longer
+than three years successively,&#8221; nor then to be eligible
+again for the office until after the lapse of
+four years from the close of his previous term; for
+a privy council of eight members, for delegates in
+Congress, and for judges in the several courts, all
+to be elected by joint ballot of the two Houses; for
+justices of the peace to be appointed by the governor
+and the privy council; and, finally, for an
+immediate election, by the convention itself, of a
+governor, and a privy council, and such other officers
+as might be necessary for the introduction of
+the new government.<a name="FNanchor253" id="FNanchor253"></a><a href="#Footnote-253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a></p>
+
+<p>In accordance with the last provision of this
+Constitution, the convention at once proceeded to
+cast their ballots for governor, with the following
+result:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">For Patrick Henry</td><td align="right">60</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">For Thomas Nelson&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">45</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">For John Page</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>By resolution, Patrick Henry was then formally
+declared to be the governor of the commonwealth
+of Virginia, to continue in office until the close of
+that session of the Assembly which should be held
+after the end of the following March.</p>
+
+<p>On the same day on which this action was taken,
+he wrote, in reply to the official notice of his election,
+the following letter of acceptance,&mdash;a graceful,
+manly, and touching composition:&mdash;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center">TO THE HONORABLE THE PRESIDENT AND HOUSE OF
+CONVENTION.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;The vote of this day, appointing me
+governor of this commonwealth, has been notified to
+me, in the most polite and obliging manner, by George
+Mason, Henry Lee, Dudley Digges, John Blair, and
+Bartholomew Dandridge, Esquires.</p>
+
+<p>A sense of the high and unmerited honor conferred
+upon me by the convention fills my heart with gratitude,
+which I trust my whole life will manifest. I take this
+earliest opportunity to express my thanks, which I wish
+to convey to you, gentlemen, in the strongest terms of
+acknowledgment.</p>
+
+<p>When I reflect that the tyranny of the British king
+and parliament hath kindled a formidable war, now raging
+throughout the wide-extended continent, and in the
+operations of which this commonwealth must bear so
+great a part, and that from the events of this war the
+lasting happiness or misery of a great proportion of the
+human species will finally result; that, in order to preserve
+this commonwealth from anarchy, and its attendant
+ruin, and to give vigor to our councils and effect to
+all our measures, government hath been necessarily assumed
+and new modelled; that it is exposed to numberless
+hazards and perils in its infantine state; that it can
+never attain to maturity or ripen into firmness, unless
+it is guarded by affectionate assiduity, and managed by
+great abilities,&mdash;I lament my want of talents; I feel
+my mind filled with anxiety and uneasiness to find myself
+so unequal to the duties of that important station to
+which I am called by favor of my fellow citizens at this
+truly critical conjuncture. The errors of my conduct
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>
+shall be atoned for, so far as I am able, by unwearied
+endeavors to secure the freedom and happiness of our
+common country.</p>
+
+<p>I shall enter upon the duties of my office whenever
+you, gentlemen, shall be pleased to direct, relying upon
+the known wisdom and virtue of your honorable house
+to supply my defects, and to give permanency and success
+to that system of government which you have
+formed, and which is so wisely calculated to secure equal
+liberty, and advance human happiness.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient
+and very humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1 smcap">P. Henry, Jr.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, June 29, 1776.<a name="FNanchor254" id="FNanchor254"></a><a href="#Footnote-254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-231" id="Footnote-231"></a><a href="#FNanchor231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 390.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-232" id="Footnote-232"></a><a href="#FNanchor232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> The journal of this convention is in 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 1509-1616.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-233" id="Footnote-233"></a><a href="#FNanchor233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 406.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-234" id="Footnote-234"></a><a href="#FNanchor234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> 5 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 95-97. Campbell, in his <i>History of Virginia</i>,
+645, 646, commits a rather absurd error in attributing this letter
+to Thomas Nelson, Jr.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-235" id="Footnote-235"></a><a href="#FNanchor235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 1524.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-236" id="Footnote-236"></a><a href="#FNanchor236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> Randolph&#8217;s address at the funeral of Pendleton, in <i>Va. Gazette</i>
+for 2 Nov. 1803, and cited by Grigsby, <i>Va. Conv. of 1776</i>, 203,
+204.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-237" id="Footnote-237"></a><a href="#FNanchor237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> <i>S. Lit. Messenger</i> for 1842; thence given in Campbell, <i>Hist.
+Va.</i> 647, 648.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-238" id="Footnote-238"></a><a href="#FNanchor238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, iv. 201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-239" id="Footnote-239"></a><a href="#FNanchor239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 462.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-240" id="Footnote-240"></a><a href="#FNanchor240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 1524.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-241" id="Footnote-241"></a><a href="#FNanchor241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ix. 387.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-242" id="Footnote-242"></a><a href="#FNanchor242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> John Adams&#8217;s pamphlet is given in his <i>Works</i>, iv. 189-200.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-243" id="Footnote-243"></a><a href="#FNanchor243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> The pamphlet is given in 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 748-754.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-244" id="Footnote-244"></a><a href="#FNanchor244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> See the unfavorable comment of Rives, <i>Life and Times of
+Madison</i>, i. 147, 148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-245" id="Footnote-245"></a><a href="#FNanchor245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> Probably Thomas Ludwell Lee.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-246" id="Footnote-246"></a><a href="#FNanchor246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> <i>S. Lit. Messenger</i> for 1842. Reprinted in Campbell, <i>Hist. Va.</i>
+647.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-247" id="Footnote-247"></a><a href="#FNanchor247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, iv. 201, 202.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-248" id="Footnote-248"></a><a href="#FNanchor248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ix. 386-388.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-249" id="Footnote-249"></a><a href="#FNanchor249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> Kate Mason Rowland, <i>Life of Mason</i>, i. 228-241.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-250" id="Footnote-250"></a><a href="#FNanchor250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> Edmund Randolph, MS. <i>Hist. Va.</i> See, also, W. W. Henry,
+<i>Life of P. Henry</i>, i. 422-436.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-251" id="Footnote-251"></a><a href="#FNanchor251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> Edmund Randolph, MS. <i>Hist. Va.</i> See, also, W. W. Henry,
+<i>Life of P. Henry</i>, i. 422-436.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-252" id="Footnote-252"></a><a href="#FNanchor252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 1582.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-253" id="Footnote-253"></a><a href="#FNanchor253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 1598-1601, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-254" id="Footnote-254"></a><a href="#FNanchor254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 1129, 1130.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII <br />
+<span class="hsub">FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>On Friday, the 5th of July, 1776, Patrick
+Henry took the oath of office,<a name="FNanchor255" id="FNanchor255"></a><a href="#Footnote-255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> and entered upon
+his duties as governor of the commonwealth of
+Virginia. The salary attached to the position was
+fixed at one thousand pounds sterling for the year;
+and the governor was invited to take up his residence
+in the palace at Williamsburg. No one
+had resided in the palace since Lord Dunmore
+had fled from it; and the people of Virginia could
+hardly fail to note the poetic retribution whereby
+the very man whom, fourteen months before, Lord
+Dunmore had contemptuously denounced as &#8220;a
+certain Patrick Henry of Hanover County,&#8221; should
+now become Lord Dunmore&#8217;s immediate successor
+in that mansion of state, and should be able, if he
+chose, to write proclamations against Lord Dunmore
+upon the same desk on which Lord Dunmore
+had so recently written the proclamation against
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>Among the first to bring their congratulations
+to the new governor, were his devoted friends, the
+first and second regiments of Virginia, who told
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
+him that they viewed &#8220;with the sincerest sentiments
+of respect and joy&#8221; his accession to the
+highest office in the State, and who gave to him
+likewise this affectionate assurance: &#8220;our hearts
+are willing, and arms ready, to maintain your
+authority as chief magistrate.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor256" id="FNanchor256"></a><a href="#Footnote-256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> On the 29th of
+July, the erratic General Charles Lee, who was
+then in Charleston, sent on his congratulations in
+a letter amusing for its tart cordiality and its peppery
+playfulness:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;I most sincerely congratulate you on the noble conduct
+of your countrymen; and I congratulate your country
+on having citizens deserving of the high honor to
+which you are exalted. For the being elected to the
+first magistracy of a free people is certainly the pinnacle
+of human glory; and I am persuaded that they could
+not have made a happier choice. Will you excuse me,&mdash;but
+I am myself so extremely democratical, that I think
+it a fault in your constitution that the governor should be
+eligible for three years successively. It appears to me
+that a government of three years may furnish an opportunity
+of acquiring a very dangerous influence. But this
+is not the worst.&hellip; A man who is fond of office, and
+has his eye upon re&euml;lection, will be courting favor and
+popularity at the expense of his duty.&hellip; There is a
+barbarism crept in among us that extremely shocks me:
+I mean those tinsel epithets with which (I come in for
+my share) we are so beplastered,&mdash;&#8216;his excellency,&#8217;
+and &#8216;his honor,&#8217; &#8216;the honorable president of the honorable
+congress,&#8217; or &#8216;the honorable convention.&#8217; This fulsome,
+nauseating cant may be well enough adapted to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>
+barbarous monarchies, or to gratify the adulterated pride
+of the &#8216;magnifici&#8217; in pompous aristocracies; but in a
+great, free, manly, equal commonwealth, it is quite
+abominable. For my own part, I would as lief they
+would put ratsbane in my mouth as the &#8216;excellency&#8217;
+with which I am daily crammed. How much more true
+dignity was there in the simplicity of address amongst
+the Romans,&mdash;&#8216;Marcus Tullius Cicero,&#8217; &#8216;Decimo Bruto
+Imperatori,&#8217; or &#8216;Caio Marcello Consuli,&#8217;&mdash;than to &#8216;his
+excellency Major-General Noodle,&#8217; or to &#8216;the honorable
+John Doodle.&#8217; &hellip; If, therefore, I should sometimes
+address a letter to you without the &#8216;excellency&#8217; tacked,
+you must not esteem it a mark of personal or official disrespect,
+but the reverse.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor257" id="FNanchor257"></a><a href="#Footnote-257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of all the words of congratulation which poured
+in upon the new governor, probably none came so
+straight from the heart, and none could have been
+quite so sweet to him, as those which, on the 12th
+of August, were uttered by some of the persecuted
+dissenters in Virginia, who, in many an hour of
+need, had learned to look up to Patrick Henry as
+their strong and splendid champion, in the legislature
+and in the courts. On the date just mentioned,
+&#8220;the ministers and delegates of the Baptist
+churches&#8221; of the State, being met in convention
+at Louisa, sent to him this address:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">May it please your Excellency</span>,&mdash;As your advancement
+to the honorable and important station as
+governor of this commonwealth affords us unspeakable
+pleasure, we beg leave to present your excellency with
+our most cordial congratulations.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Your public virtues are such that we are under no
+temptation to flatter you. Virginia has done honor to
+her judgment in appointing your excellency to hold the
+reins of government at this truly critical conjuncture,
+as you have always distinguished yourself by your zeal
+and activity for her welfare, in whatever department has
+been assigned you.</p>
+
+<p>As a religious community, we have nothing to request
+of you. Your constant attachment to the glorious cause
+of liberty and the rights of conscience, leaves us no
+room to doubt of your excellency&#8217;s favorable regards
+while we worthily demean ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>May God Almighty continue you long, very long, a
+public blessing to this your native country, and, after
+a life of usefulness here, crown you with immortal felicity
+in the world to come.</p>
+
+<p class="sigtwo">Signed by order:<br />
+<span class="smcap">Jeremiah Walker</span>, <i>Moderator</i>.<br />
+<span class="smcap">John Williams</span>, <i>Clerk</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To these loving and jubilant words, the governor
+replied in an off-hand letter, the deep feeling
+of which is not the less evident because it is restrained,&mdash;a
+letter which is as choice and noble
+in diction as it is in thought:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center">TO THE MINISTERS AND DELEGATES OF THE BAPTIST
+CHURCHES, AND THE MEMBERS OF THAT COMMUNION.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;I am exceedingly obliged to you for
+your very kind address, and the favorable sentiments
+you are pleased to entertain respecting my conduct and
+the principles which have directed it. My constant endeavor
+shall be to guard the rights of all my fellow-citizens
+from every encroachment.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I am happy to find a catholic spirit prevailing in our
+country, and that those religious distinctions, which
+formerly produced some heats, are now forgotten.
+Happy must every friend to virtue and America feel
+himself, to perceive that the only contest among us, at
+this most critical and important period, is, who shall be
+foremost to preserve our religious and civil liberties.</p>
+
+<p>My most earnest wish is, that Christian charity, forbearance,
+and love, may unite all our different persuasions,
+as brethren who must perish or triumph together;
+and I trust that the time is not far distant when we
+shall greet each other as the peaceable possessors of that
+just and equal system of liberty adopted by the last convention,
+and in support of which may God crown our
+arms with success.</p>
+
+<p>I am, gentlemen, your most obedient and very humble
+servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">P. Henry, Jun.</span><a name="FNanchor258" id="FNanchor258"></a><a href="#Footnote-258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a></p>
+
+<p>August 13, 1776.</p></div>
+
+<p>On the day on which Governor Henry was sworn
+into office, the convention finally adjourned, having
+made provision for the meeting of the General
+Assembly on the first Monday of the following October.
+In the mean time, therefore, all the interests
+of the State were to be in the immediate keeping
+of the governor and privy council; and, for a
+part of that time, as it turned out, the governor
+himself was disabled for service. For we now encounter
+in the history of Patrick Henry, the first
+mention of that infirm health from which he seems
+to have suffered, in some degree, during the remaining
+twenty-three years of his life. Before
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
+taking full possession of the governor&#8217;s palace,
+which had to be made ready for his use, he had
+likewise to prepare for this great change in his life
+by returning to his home in the county of Hanover.
+There he lay ill for some time;<a name="FNanchor259" id="FNanchor259"></a><a href="#Footnote-259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> and upon
+his recovery he removed with his family to Williamsburg,
+which continued to be their home for
+the next three years.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Virginia had been accustomed, for
+more than a century, to look upon their governors
+as personages of very great dignity. Several of
+those governors had been connected with the English
+peerage; all had served in Virginia in a vice-regal
+capacity; many had lived there in a sort of
+vice-regal pomp and magnificence. It is not to be
+supposed that Governor Henry would be able or
+willing to assume so much state and grandeur as
+his predecessors had done; and yet he felt, and
+the people of Virginia felt, that in the transition
+from royal to republican forms the dignity of that
+office should not be allowed to decline in any important
+particular. Moreover, as a contemporary
+observer mentions, Patrick Henry had been &#8220;accused
+by the big-wigs of former times as being a
+coarse and common man, and utterly destitute of
+dignity; and perhaps he wished to show them that
+they were mistaken.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor260" id="FNanchor260"></a><a href="#Footnote-260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> At any rate, by the testimony
+of all, he seems to have displayed his usual
+judgment and skill in adapting himself to the requirements
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+of his position; and, while never losing
+his gentleness and his simplicity of manner, to
+have borne himself as the impersonation, for the
+time being, of the executive authority of a great and
+proud commonwealth. He ceased to appear frequently
+upon the streets; and whenever he did
+appear, he was carefully arrayed in a dressed wig,
+in black small-clothes, and in a scarlet cloak; and
+his presence and demeanor were such as to sustain,
+in the popular mind, the traditional respect for
+his high office.</p>
+
+<p>He had so far recovered from the illness which
+had prostrated him during the summer, as to be
+at his post of duty when the General Assembly
+of the State began its first session, on Monday,
+the 7th of October, 1776. His health, however,
+was still extremely frail; for on the 30th of that
+month he was obliged to notify the House &#8220;that
+the low state of his health rendered him unable to
+attend to the duties of his office, and that his physicians
+had recommended to him to retire therefrom
+into the country, till he should recover his
+strength.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor261" id="FNanchor261"></a><a href="#Footnote-261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> His absence seems not to have been
+very long. By the 16th of November, as one may
+infer from entries in the journal of the House,<a name="FNanchor262" id="FNanchor262"></a><a href="#Footnote-262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> he
+was able to resume his official duties.</p>
+
+<p>The summer and autumn of that year proved to
+be a dismal period for the American cause. Before
+our eyes, as we now look back over those
+days, there marches this grim procession of dates:<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
+August 27, the battle of Long Island; August 29,
+Washington&#8217;s retreat across East River; September
+15, the panic among the American troops at
+Kip&#8217;s Bay, and the American retreat from New
+York; September 16, the battle of Harlem Plains;
+September 20, the burning of New York; October
+28, the battle of White Plains; November 16, the
+surrender of Fort Washington; November 20, the
+abandonment of Fort Lee, followed by Washington&#8217;s
+retreat across the Jerseys. In the midst of
+these disasters, Washington found time to write,
+from the Heights of Harlem, on the 5th of October,
+to his old friend, Patrick Henry, congratulating
+him on his election as governor of Virginia
+and on his recovery from sickness; explaining the
+military situation at headquarters; advising him
+about military appointments in Virginia; and especially
+giving to him important suggestions concerning
+the immediate military defence of Virginia
+&#8220;against the enemy&#8217;s ships and tenders, which,&#8221;
+as Washington says to the governor, &#8220;may go up
+your rivers in quest of provisions, or for the purpose
+of destroying your towns.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor263" id="FNanchor263"></a><a href="#Footnote-263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> Indeed, Virginia
+was just then exposed to hostile attacks on
+all sides;<a name="FNanchor264" id="FNanchor264"></a><a href="#Footnote-264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> and it was so plain that any attack by
+water would have found an easy approach to Williamsburg,
+that, in the course of the next few
+months, the public records and the public stores
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
+were removed to Richmond, as being, on every
+account, a &#8220;more secure site.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor265" id="FNanchor265"></a><a href="#Footnote-265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> Apparently, however,
+the prompt recognition of this danger by
+Governor Henry, early in the autumn of 1776,
+and his vigorous military preparations against it,
+were interpreted by some of his political enemies
+as a sign both of personal cowardice and of official
+self-glorification,&mdash;as is indicated by a letter written
+by the aged Landon Carter to General Washington,
+on the 31st of October, and filled with all
+manner of caustic garrulity and insinuation,&mdash;a
+letter from which it may be profitable for us to
+quote a few sentences, as qualifying somewhat that
+stream of honeyed testimony respecting Patrick
+Henry which commonly flows down upon us so
+copiously from all that period.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;If I don&#8217;t err in conjecture,&#8221; says Carter, &#8220;I can&#8217;t
+help thinking that the head of our Commonwealth has
+as great a palace of fear and apprehension as can possess
+the heart of any being; and if we compare rumor with
+actual movements, I believe it will prove itself to every
+sensible man. As soon as the Congress sent for our
+first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth regiments to assist
+you in contest against the enemy where they really were
+&hellip; there got a report among the soldiery that Dignity
+had declared it would not reside in Williamsburg without
+two thousand men under arms to guard him. This
+had like to have occasioned a mutiny. A desertion of
+many from the several companies did follow; boisterous
+fellows resisting, and swearing they would not leave their
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>
+county.&hellip; What a finesse of popularity was this?&hellip;
+As soon as the regiments were gone, this great man
+found an interest with the council of state, perhaps timorous
+as himself, to issue orders for the militia of twenty-six
+counties, and five companies of a minute battalion, to
+march to Williamsburg, to protect him only against his
+own fears; and to make this the more popular, it was
+endeavored that the House of Delegates should give it a
+countenance, but, as good luck would have it, it was
+with difficulty refused.<a name="FNanchor266" id="FNanchor266"></a><a href="#Footnote-266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a> &hellip; Immediately then, &hellip; a
+bill is brought in to remove the seat of government,&mdash;some
+say, up to Hanover, to be called Henry-Town.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor267" id="FNanchor267"></a><a href="#Footnote-267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>This gossip of a disappointed Virginian aristocrat,
+in vituperation of the public character of
+Governor Henry, naturally leads us forward in
+our story to that more stupendous eruption of gossip
+which relates, in the first instance, to the latter
+part of December, 1776, and which alleges that a
+conspiracy was then formed among certain members
+of the General Assembly to make Patrick
+Henry the dictator of Virginia. The first intimation
+ever given to the public concerning it, was
+given by Jefferson several years afterward, in his
+&#8220;Notes on Virginia,&#8221; a fascinating brochure which
+was written by him in 1781 and 1782, was first
+printed privately in Paris in 1784, and was first
+published in England in 1787, in America in
+1788.<a name="FNanchor268" id="FNanchor268"></a><a href="#Footnote-268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> The essential portions of his statement are
+as follows:&mdash;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;In December, 1776, our circumstances being much
+distressed, it was proposed in the House of Delegates to
+create a dictator, invested with every power legislative,
+executive, and judiciary, civil and military, of life and
+death, over our persons and over our properties.&hellip;
+One who entered into this contest from a pure love of
+liberty, and a sense of injured rights, who determined to
+make every sacrifice and to meet every danger, for the
+re&euml;stablishment of those rights on a firm basis, &hellip;
+must stand confounded and dismayed when he is told
+that a considerable portion of&#8221; the House &#8220;had meditated
+the surrender of them into a single hand, and in
+lieu of a limited monarchy, to deliver him over to a despotic
+one.&hellip; The very thought alone was treason
+against the people; was treason against man in general;
+as riveting forever the chains which bow down their
+necks, by giving to their oppressors a proof, which they
+would have trumpeted through the universe, of the imbecility
+of republican government, in times of pressing
+danger, to shield them from harm.&hellip; Those who
+meant well, of the advocates of this measure (and most
+of them meant well, for I know them personally, had
+been their fellow-laborer in the common cause, and had
+often proved the purity of their principles), had been seduced
+in their judgment by the example of an ancient
+republic, whose constitution and circumstances were
+fundamentally different.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor269" id="FNanchor269"></a><a href="#Footnote-269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>With that artistic tact and that excellent prudence
+which seem never to have failed Jefferson in
+any of his enterprises for the disparagement of his
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>
+associates, he here avoids, as will be observed, all
+mention of the name of the person for whose fatal
+promotion this classic conspiracy was formed,&mdash;leaving
+that interesting item to come out, as it did
+many years afterward, when the most of those who
+could have borne testimony upon the subject were
+in their graves, and when the damning stigma
+could be comfortably fastened to the name of Patrick
+Henry without the direct intervention of Jefferson&#8217;s
+own hands. Accordingly, in 1816, a
+French gentleman, Girardin, a near neighbor of
+Jefferson&#8217;s, who enjoyed &#8220;the incalculable benefit
+of a free access to Mr. Jefferson&#8217;s library,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor270" id="FNanchor270"></a><a href="#Footnote-270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> and
+who wrote the continuation of Burk&#8217;s &#8220;History of
+Virginia&#8221; under Jefferson&#8217;s very eye,<a name="FNanchor271" id="FNanchor271"></a><a href="#Footnote-271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> gave in
+that work a highly wrought account of the alleged
+conspiracy of December, 1776, as involving &#8220;nothing
+less than the substitution of a despotic in
+lieu of a limited monarch;&#8221; and then proceeded
+to bring the accusation down from those lurid
+generalities of condemnation in which Jefferson
+himself had cautiously left it, by adding this sentence:
+&#8220;That Mr. Henry was the person in view
+for the dictatorship, is well ascertained.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor272" id="FNanchor272"></a><a href="#Footnote-272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a></p>
+
+<p>Finally, in 1817, William Wirt, whose &#8220;Life
+of Henry&#8221; was likewise composed under nearly
+the same inestimable advantages as regards instruction
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>
+and oversight furnished by Jefferson,
+repeated the fearful tale, and added some particulars;
+but, in doing so, Wirt could not fail&mdash;good
+lawyer and just man, as he was&mdash;to direct attention
+to the absence of all evidence of any collusion
+on the part of Patrick Henry with the projected
+folly and crime.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Even the heroism of the Virginia legislature,&#8221; says
+Wirt, &#8220;gave way; and, in a season of despair, the mad
+project of a dictator was seriously meditated. That Mr.
+Henry was thought of for this office, has been alleged,
+and is highly probable; but that the project was suggested
+by him, or even received his countenance, I have
+met with no one who will venture to affirm. There is a
+tradition that Colonel Archibald Cary, the speaker of the
+Senate, was principally instrumental in crushing this project;
+that meeting Colonel Syme, the step-brother of
+Colonel Henry, in the lobby of the House, he accosted
+him very fiercely in terms like these: &#8216;I am told that
+your brother wishes to be dictator. Tell him from me,
+that the day of his appointment shall be the day of his
+death;&mdash;for he shall feel my dagger in his heart before
+the sunset of that day.&#8217; And the tradition adds that
+Colonel Syme, in great agitation, declared that &#8216;if such
+a project existed, his brother had no hand in it; for that
+nothing could be more foreign to him, than to countenance
+any office which could endanger, in the most distant
+manner, the liberties of his country.&#8217; The intrepidity
+and violence of Colonel Cary&#8217;s character renders
+the tradition probable; but it furnishes no proof of Mr.
+Henry&#8217;s implication in the scheme.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor273" id="FNanchor273"></a><a href="#Footnote-273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+A disinterested study of this subject, in the
+light of all the evidence now attainable, will be
+likely to convince any one that this enormous scandal
+must have been very largely a result of the
+extreme looseness at that time prevailing in the
+use of the word &#8220;dictator,&#8221; and of its being employed,
+on the one side, in an innocent sense, and,
+on the other side, in a guilty one. In strict propriety,
+of course, the word designates a magistrate
+created in an emergency of public peril, and clothed
+for a time with unlimited power. It is an extreme
+remedy, and in itself a remedy extremely dangerous,
+and can never be innocently resorted to except
+when the necessity for it is indubitable; and it
+may well be questioned whether, among people
+and institutions like our own, a necessity can ever
+arise which would justify the temporary grant of
+unlimited power to any man. If this be true, it
+follows that no man among us can, without dire
+political guilt, ever consent to bestow such power;
+and that no man can, without the same guilt, ever
+consent to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it is plain that even among us, between the
+years 1776 and 1783, emergencies of terrific public
+peril did arise, sufficient to justify, nay, even to
+compel, the bestowment either upon the governor
+of some State, or upon the general of the armies,
+not of unlimited power, certainly, but of extraordinary
+power,&mdash;such extraordinary power, for
+example, as was actually conferred by the Continental
+Congress, more than once, on Washington;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
+as was conferred by the legislature of South Carolina
+on Governor John Rutledge; as was repeatedly
+conferred by the legislature of Virginia upon Governor
+Patrick Henry; and afterward, in still higher
+degree, by the same legislature, on Governor
+Thomas Jefferson himself. Nevertheless, so loose
+was the meaning then attached to the word &#8220;dictator,&#8221;
+that it was not uncommon for men to speak
+of these very cases as examples of the bestowment
+of a dictatorship, and of the exercise of dictatorial
+power; although, in every one of the cases mentioned,
+there was lacking the essential feature of
+a true dictatorship, namely, the grant of unlimited
+power to one man. It is perfectly obvious, likewise,
+that when, in those days, men spoke thus of
+a dictatorship, and of dictatorial power, they attached
+no suggestion of political guilt either to the
+persons who bestowed such power, or to the persons
+who severally accepted it,&mdash;the tacit understanding
+being that, in every instance, the public
+danger required and justified some grant of extraordinary
+power; that no more power was granted
+than was necessary; and that the man to whom,
+in any case, the grant was made, was a man to
+whom, there was good reason to believe, the grant
+could be made with safety. Obviously, it was
+upon this tacit understanding of its meaning that
+the word was used, for instance, by Edmund Randolph,
+in 1788, in the Virginia Constitutional
+Convention, when, alluding to the extraordinary
+power bestowed by Congress on Washington, he
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+said: &#8220;We had an American dictator in 1781.&#8221;
+Surely, Randolph did not mean to impute political
+crime, either to the Congress which made Washington
+a dictator, or to Washington himself who
+consented to be made one. It was upon the same
+tacit understanding, also, that Patrick Henry, in
+reply to Randolph, took up the word, and extolled
+the grant of dictatorial power to Washington on
+the occasion referred to: &#8220;In making a dictator,&#8221;
+said Henry, &#8220;we followed the example of the most
+glorious, magnanimous, and skilful nations. In
+great dangers, this power has been given. Rome
+has furnished us with an illustrious example.
+America found a person for that trust: she looked
+to Virginia for him. We gave a dictatorial power
+to hands that used it gloriously, and which were
+rendered more glorious by surrendering it up.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor274" id="FNanchor274"></a><a href="#Footnote-274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a></p>
+
+<p>Thus it is apparent that the word &#8220;dictator&#8221; was
+frequently used in those times in a sense perfectly
+innocent. As all men know, however, the word
+is one capable of suggesting the possibilities of
+dreadful political crime; and it is not hard to see
+how, when employed by one person to describe
+the bestowment and acceptance of extraordinary
+power,&mdash;implying a perfectly innocent proposition,
+it could be easily taken by another person as
+describing the bestowment and acceptance of unlimited
+power,&mdash;implying a proposition which
+among us, probably, would always be a criminal
+one.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With the help which this discussion may give
+us, let us now return to the General Assembly of
+Virginia, at Williamsburg, approaching the close
+of its first session, in the latter part of December,
+1776. It was on the point of adjourning, not to
+meet again until the latter part of March, 1777.
+At that moment, by the arrival of most alarming
+news from the seat of war, it was forced to make
+special provision for the public safety during the
+interval which must elapse before its next session.
+Its journal indicates that, prior to the 20th of
+December, it had been proceeding with its business
+in a quiet way, under no apparent consciousness
+of imminent peril. On that day, however, there
+are traces of a panic; for, on that day, &#8220;The Virginia
+Gazette&#8221; announced to them the appalling
+news of &#8220;the crossing of the Delaware by the British
+forces, from twelve to fifteen thousand strong;
+the position of General Washington, at Bristol, on
+the south side of the river, with only six thousand
+men;&#8221; and the virtual flight of Congress from
+Philadelphia.<a name="FNanchor275" id="FNanchor275"></a><a href="#Footnote-275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> At this rate, how long would it
+be before the Continental army would be dispersed
+or captured, and the troops of the enemy sweeping
+in vengeance across the borders of Virginia? Accordingly,
+the House of Delegates immediately
+resolved itself into &#8220;a committee to take into their
+consideration the state of America;&#8221; but not being
+able to reach any decision that day, it voted to
+resume the subject on the day following, and for
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>
+that purpose to meet an hour earlier than usual.
+So, on Saturday, the 21st of December, the House
+passed a series of resolutions intended to provide
+for the crisis into which the country was plunged,
+and, among the other resolutions, this:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;And whereas the present imminent danger of America,
+and the ruin and misery which threatens the good
+people of this Commonwealth, and their posterity, calls
+for the utmost exertion of our strength, and it is become
+necessary for the preservation of the State that the usual
+forms of government be suspended during a limited time,
+for the more speedy execution of the most vigorous and
+effectual measures to repel the invasion of the enemy;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Resolved, therefore</i>, That the governor be, and he is
+hereby fully authorized and empowered, by and with
+the advice and consent of the privy council, from henceforward,
+until ten days next after the first meeting of
+the General Assembly, to carry into execution such requisitions
+as may be made to this Commonwealth by the
+American Congress for the purpose of encountering or
+repelling the enemy; to order the three battalions on the
+pay of this Commonwealth to march, if necessary, to join
+the Continental army, or to the assistance of any of our
+sister States; to call forth any and such greater military
+force as they shall judge requisite, either by embodying
+and arraying companies or regiments of volunteers, or
+by raising additional battalions, appointing and commissioning
+the proper officers, and to direct their operations
+within this Commonwealth, under the command of
+the Continental generals or other officers according to
+their respective ranks, or order them to march to join
+and act in concert with the Continental army, or the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>
+troops of any of the American States; and to provide
+for their pay, supply of provisions, arms, and other
+necessaries, at the charge of this Commonwealth, by
+drawing on the treasurer for the money which may be
+necessary from time to time; and the said treasurer is
+authorized to pay such warrants out of any public
+money which may be in his hands, and the General Assembly
+will, at their next session, make ample provision
+for any deficiency which may happen. But that this
+departure from the constitution of government, being
+in this instance founded only on the most evident and
+urgent necessity, ought not hereafter to be drawn into
+precedent.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>These resolutions, having been pressed rapidly
+through the forms of the House, were at once
+carried up to the Senate for its concurrence. The
+answer of the Senate was promptly returned, agreeing
+to all the resolutions of the lower House, but
+proposing an important amendment in the phraseology
+of the particular resolution which we have
+just quoted. Instead of this clause&mdash;&#8220;the usual
+forms of government should be suspended,&#8221; it suggested
+the far more accurate and far more prudent
+expression which here follows,&mdash;&#8220;additional powers
+be given to the governor and council.&#8221; This
+amendment was assented to by the House; and
+almost immediately thereafter it adjourned until
+the last Thursday in March, 1777, &#8220;then to meet
+in the city of Williamsburg, or at such other place
+as the governor and council, for good reasons, may
+appoint.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor276" id="FNanchor276"></a><a href="#Footnote-276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
+Such, undoubtedly, was the occasion on which,
+if at any time during that session, the project for
+a dictatorship in Virginia was under consideration
+by the House of Delegates. The only evidence
+for the reality of such a project is derived from
+the testimony of Jefferson; and Jefferson, though
+a member of the House, was not then in attendance,
+having procured, on the 29th of the previous
+month, permission to be absent during the
+remainder of the session.<a name="FNanchor277" id="FNanchor277"></a><a href="#Footnote-277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> Is it not probable that
+the whole terrible plot, as it afterward lay in the
+mind of Jefferson, may have originated in reports
+which reached him elsewhere, to the effect that, in
+the excitement of the House over the public danger
+and over the need of energetic measures against
+that danger, some members had demanded that
+the governor should be invested with what they
+perhaps called dictatorial power, meaning thereby
+no more than extraordinary power; and that all
+the criminal accretions to that meaning, which
+Jefferson attributed to the project, were simply
+the work of his own imagination, always sensitive
+and quick to take alarm on behalf of human liberty,
+and, on such a subject as this, easily set on
+fire by examples of awful political crime which
+would occur to him from Roman history? This
+suggestion, moreover, is not out of harmony with
+one which has been made by a thorough and most
+candid student of the subject, who says: &#8220;I am
+very much inclined to think that some sneering
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+remark of Colonel Cary, on that occasion, has
+given rise to the whole story about a proposed
+dictator at that time.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor278" id="FNanchor278"></a><a href="#Footnote-278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a></p>
+
+<p>At any rate, this must not be forgotten: if the
+project of a dictatorship, in the execrable sense
+affirmed by Jefferson, was, during that session,
+advocated by any man or by any cabal in the Assembly,
+history must absolve Patrick Henry of all
+knowledge of it, and of all responsibility for it.
+Not only has no tittle of evidence been produced,
+involving his connivance at such a scheme, but the
+Assembly itself, a few months later, unwittingly
+furnished to posterity the most conclusive proof
+that no man in that body could have believed him
+to be smirched with even the suggestion of so horrid
+a crime. Had Patrick Henry been suspected,
+during the autumn and early winter of 1776, of
+any participation in the foul plot to create a despotism
+in Virginia, is it to be conceived that, at its
+very next session, in the spring of 1777, that Assembly,
+composed of nearly the same members as
+before, would have re&euml;lected to the governorship
+so profligate and dangerous a man, and that too
+without any visible opposition in either House?
+Yet that is precisely what the Virginia Assembly
+did in May, 1777. Moreover, one year later, this
+same Assembly re&euml;lected this same profligate and
+dangerous politician for his third and last permissible
+year in the governorship, and it did so with
+the same unbroken unanimity. Moreover, during
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+all that time, Thomas Jefferson was a member,
+and a most conspicuous and influential member,
+of the Virginia Assembly. If, indeed, he then
+believed that his old friend, Patrick Henry, had
+stood ready in 1776, to commit &#8220;treason against
+the people&#8221; of America, and &#8220;treason against
+mankind in general,&#8221; why did he permit the traitor
+to be twice re&euml;lected to the chief magistracy, without
+the record of even one brave effort against him
+on either occasion?</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th of December, 1776, in accordance
+with the special authority thus conferred upon him
+by the General Assembly, Governor Henry issued a
+vigorous proclamation, declaring that the &#8220;critical
+situation of American affairs&#8221; called for &#8220;the
+utmost exertion of every sister State to put a
+speedy end to the cruel ravages of a haughty and
+inveterate enemy, and secure our invaluable rights,&#8221;
+and &#8220;earnestly exhorting and requiring&#8221; all the
+good people of Virginia to assist in the formation
+of volunteer companies for such service as might
+be required.<a name="FNanchor279" id="FNanchor279"></a><a href="#Footnote-279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> The date of that proclamation was
+also the date of Washington&#8217;s famous matutinal
+surprise of the Hessians at Trenton,&mdash;a bit of
+much-needed good luck, which was followed by
+his fortunate engagement with the enemy near
+Princeton, on the 3d of January, 1777. On these
+and a very few other extremely small crumbs of
+comfort, the struggling revolutionists had to nourish
+their burdened hearts for many a month thereafter;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>
+Washington himself, during all that time,
+with his little army of tattered and barefoot warriors,
+majestically predominating over the scene
+from the heights of Morristown; while the good-humored
+British commander, Sir William Howe,
+considerately abstained from any serious military
+disturbance until the middle of the following summer.
+Thus the chief duty of the governor of Virginia,
+during the winter and spring of 1777, as it
+had been in the previous autumn, was that of trying
+to keep in the field Virginia&#8217;s quota of troops,
+and of trying to furnish Virginia&#8217;s share of military
+supplies,&mdash;no easy task, it should seem, in
+those times of poverty, confusion, and patriotic
+languor. The official correspondence of the governor
+indicates the unslumbering anxiety, the energy,
+the fertility of device with which, in spite
+of defective health, he devoted himself to these
+hard tasks.<a name="FNanchor280" id="FNanchor280"></a><a href="#Footnote-280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a></p>
+
+<p>In his great desire for exact information as to
+the real situation at headquarters, Governor Henry
+had sent to Washington a secret messenger by
+the name of Walker, who was to make his observations
+at Morristown and to report the results to
+himself. Washington at once perceived the embarrassments
+to which such a plan might lead;
+and accordingly, on the 24th of February, 1777,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
+he wrote to the governor, gently explaining why
+he could not receive Mr. Walker as a mere visiting
+observer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;To avoid the precedent, therefore, and from your
+character of Mr. Walker, and the high opinion I myself
+entertain of his abilities, honor, and prudence, I have
+taken him into my family as an extra aide-de-camp, and
+shall be happy if, in this character, he can answer your
+expectations. I sincerely thank you, sir, for your kind
+congratulations on the late success of the Continental
+arms (would to God it may continue), and for your polite
+mention of me. Let me earnestly entreat that the
+troops raised in Virginia for this army be forwarded on
+by companies, or otherwise, without delay, and as well
+equipped as possible for the field, or we shall be in no
+condition to open the campaign.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor281" id="FNanchor281"></a><a href="#Footnote-281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On the 29th of the following month, the governor
+wrote to Washington of the overwhelming
+difficulty attending all his efforts to comply with
+the request mentioned in the letter just cited:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I am very sorry to inform you that the recruiting
+business of late goes on so badly, that there remains but
+little prospect of filling the six new battalions from this
+State, voted by the Assembly. The Board of Council
+see this with great concern, and, after much reflection
+on the subject, are of opinion that the deficiency in our
+regulars can no way be supplied so properly as by enlisting
+volunteers. There is reason to believe a considerable
+number of these may be got to serve six or eight
+months.&hellip; I believe you can receive no assistance by
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+drafts from the militia. From the battalions of the
+Commonwealth none can be drawn as yet, because they
+are not half full.&hellip; Virginia will find some apology
+with you for this deficiency in her quota of regulars,
+when the difficulties lately thrown in our way are considered.
+The Georgians and Carolinians have enlisted
+[in Virginia] probably two battalions at least. A regiment
+of artillery is in great forwardness. Besides these,
+Colonels Baylor and Grayson are collecting regiments;
+and three others are forming for this State. Add to all
+this our Indian wars and marine service, almost total
+want of necessaries, the false accounts of deserters,&mdash;many
+of whom lurk here,&mdash;the terrors of the smallpox
+and the many deaths occasioned by it, and the deficient
+enlistments are accounted for in the best manner I
+can. As no time can be spared, I wish to be honored
+with your answer as soon as possible, in order to promote
+the volunteer scheme, if it meets your approbation.
+I should be glad of any improvements on it that may
+occur to you. I believe about four of the six battalions
+may be enlisted, but have seen no regular [return] of
+their state. Their scattered situation, and being many
+of them in broken quotas, is a reason for their slow
+movement. I have issued repeated orders for their
+march long since.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor282" id="FNanchor282"></a><a href="#Footnote-282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>The General Assembly of Virginia, at its session
+in the spring of 1777, was required to elect a governor,
+to serve for one year from the day on which
+that session should end. As no candidate was
+named in opposition to Patrick Henry, the Senate
+proposed to the House of Delegates that he should
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
+be reappointed without ballot. This, accordingly,
+was done, by resolution of the latter body on the
+29th of May, and by that of the Senate on the
+1st of June. On the 5th of June, the committee
+appointed to inform the governor of this action
+laid before the House his answer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;The signal honor conferred on me
+by the General Assembly, in their choice of me to be
+governor of this Commonwealth, demands my best acknowledgments,
+which I beg the favor of you to convey
+to them in the most acceptable manner.</p>
+
+<p>I shall execute the duties of that high station to which
+I am again called by the favor of my fellow-citizens,
+according to the best of my abilities, and I shall rely
+upon the candor and wisdom of the Assembly to excuse
+and supply my defects. The good of the Commonwealth
+shall be the only object of my pursuit, and I shall measure
+my happiness according to the success which shall
+attend my endeavors to establish the public liberty. I
+beg to be presented to the Assembly, and that they and
+you will be assured that I am, with every sentiment of
+the highest regard, their and your most obedient and
+very humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor283" id="FNanchor283"></a><a href="#Footnote-283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After a perusal of this nobly written letter, the
+gentle reader will have no difficulty in concluding
+that, if indeed the author of it was then lying in
+wait for an opportunity to set up a despotism in
+Virginia, he had already become an adept in the
+hypocrisy which enabled him, not only to conceal
+the fact, but to convey an impression quite the
+opposite.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-255" id="Footnote-255"></a><a href="#FNanchor255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. 154.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-256" id="Footnote-256"></a><a href="#FNanchor256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> 4 <i>Am. Arch.</i> vi. 1602, 1603, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-257" id="Footnote-257"></a><a href="#FNanchor257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> 5 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 631.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-258" id="Footnote-258"></a><a href="#FNanchor258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> 5 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 905, 906.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-259" id="Footnote-259"></a><a href="#FNanchor259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> George Rogers Clark&#8217;s <i>Campaign in the Illinois</i>, 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-260" id="Footnote-260"></a><a href="#FNanchor260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-261" id="Footnote-261"></a><a href="#FNanchor261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 32.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-262" id="Footnote-262"></a><a href="#FNanchor262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 57-59.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-263" id="Footnote-263"></a><a href="#FNanchor263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, iv. 138.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-264" id="Footnote-264"></a><a href="#FNanchor264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> See Letters from the president of Va. Privy Council and from
+General Lewis, in 5 <i>Am. Arch.</i> i. 736.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-265" id="Footnote-265"></a><a href="#FNanchor265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. 229.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-266" id="Footnote-266"></a><a href="#FNanchor266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> Compare <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-267" id="Footnote-267"></a><a href="#FNanchor267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> 5 <i>Am. Arch.</i> ii. 1305-1306.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-268" id="Footnote-268"></a><a href="#FNanchor268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 363, 413; and <i>Hist. Mag.</i> i. 52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-269" id="Footnote-269"></a><a href="#FNanchor269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> <i>Writings of Jefferson</i>, viii. 368-371; also Phila. ed. of <i>Notes</i>,
+1825, 172-176.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-270" id="Footnote-270"></a><a href="#FNanchor270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. Pref. Rem. vi.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-271" id="Footnote-271"></a><a href="#FNanchor271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> See Jefferson&#8217;s explicit endorsement of Girardin&#8217;s book in his
+own <i>Writings</i>, i. 50.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-272" id="Footnote-272"></a><a href="#FNanchor272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> 189, 190.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-273" id="Footnote-273"></a><a href="#FNanchor273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> Wirt, <i>Life of Henry</i>, 204-205.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-274" id="Footnote-274"></a><a href="#FNanchor274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> Elliot&#8217;s <i>Debates</i>, iii. 160.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-275" id="Footnote-275"></a><a href="#FNanchor275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> Cited by William Wirt Henry, <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1873, 349.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-276" id="Footnote-276"></a><a href="#FNanchor276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House of Del.</i> 106-108.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-277" id="Footnote-277"></a><a href="#FNanchor277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. H. Del.</i> 75; and Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 205.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-278" id="Footnote-278"></a><a href="#FNanchor278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> William Wirt Henry, <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1873, 350.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-279" id="Footnote-279"></a><a href="#FNanchor279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> 5 <i>Am. Arch.</i> iii. 1425-1426.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-280" id="Footnote-280"></a><a href="#FNanchor280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> I refer, for example, to his letters of Oct. 11, 1776; of Nov.
+19, 1776; of Dec. 6, 1776; of Jan. 8, 1777; of March 20, 1777;
+of March 28, 1777; of June 20, 1777; besides the letters cited in
+the text.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-281" id="Footnote-281"></a><a href="#FNanchor281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, iv. 330.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-282" id="Footnote-282"></a><a href="#FNanchor282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> Sparks, <i>Corr. Rev.</i> i. 361, 362.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-283" id="Footnote-283"></a><a href="#FNanchor283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 61.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV <br />
+<span class="hsub">GOVERNOR A SECOND TIME</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Patrick Henry&#8217;s second term as governor extended
+from the 28th of June, 1777, to the 28th of
+June, 1778: a twelvemonth of vast and even decisive
+events in the struggle for national independence,&mdash;its
+awful disasters being more than
+relieved by the successes, both diplomatic and military,
+which were compressed within that narrow
+strip of time. Let us try, by a glance at the chief
+items in the record of that year, to bring before
+our eyes the historic environment amid which the
+governor of Virginia then wrought at his heavy
+tasks: July 6, 1777, American evacuation of Ticonderoga
+at the approach of Burgoyne; August 6,
+defeat of Herkimer by the British under St. Leger;
+August 16, Stark&#8217;s victory over the British at Bennington;
+September 11, defeat of Washington at
+Brandywine; September 27, entrance of the British
+into Philadelphia; October 4, defeat of Washington
+at Germantown; October 16, surrender of
+Burgoyne and his entire army; December 11,
+Washington&#8217;s retirement into winter quarters at
+Valley Forge; February 6, 1778, American treaty
+of alliance with France; May 11, death of Lord
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+Chatham; June 13, Lord North&#8217;s peace commissioners
+propose to Congress a cessation of hostilities;
+June 18, the British evacuate Philadelphia;
+June 28, the battle of Monmouth.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the personal life of Patrick Henry
+during those stern and agitating months is lighted
+up by the mention of his marriage, on the 9th
+of October, 1777, to Dorothea Dandridge, a granddaughter
+of the old royal governor, Alexander
+Spotswood,&mdash;a lady who was much younger than
+her husband, and whose companionship proved to
+be the solace of all the years that remained to him
+on earth.</p>
+
+<p>The pressure of official business upon him can
+hardly have been less than during the previous
+year. The General Assembly was in session from
+the 20th of October, 1777, until the 24th of January,
+1778, and from the 4th of May to the 1st of
+June, 1778,&mdash;involving, of course, a long strain
+of attention by the governor to the work of the two
+houses. Moreover, the prominence of Virginia
+among the States, and, at the same time, her exemption
+from the most formidable assaults of the
+enemy, led to great demands being made upon her
+both for men and for supplies. To meet these
+demands, either by satisfying them or by explaining
+his failure to do so, involved a copious and
+laborious correspondence on the part of Governor
+Henry, not only with his own official subordinates
+in the State, but with the president of Congress,
+with the board of war, and with the general of the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
+army. The official letters which he thus wrote are
+a monument of his ardor and energy as a war governor,
+his attention to details, his broad practical
+sense, his hopefulness and patience under galling
+disappointments and defeats.<a name="FNanchor284" id="FNanchor284"></a><a href="#Footnote-284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps nothing in the life of Governor Henry
+during his second term of office has so touching an
+interest for us now, as has the course which he
+took respecting the famous intrigue, which was developed
+into alarming proportions during the winter
+of 1777 and 1778, for the displacement of
+Washington, and for the elevation of the shallow
+and ill-balanced Gates to the supreme command of
+the armies. It is probable that several men of
+prominence in the army, in Congress, and in the
+several state governments, were drawn into this
+cabal, although most of them had too much caution
+to commit themselves to it by any documentary
+evidence which could rise up and destroy them in
+case of its failure. The leaders in the plot very
+naturally felt the great importance of securing the
+secret support of men of high influence in Washington&#8217;s
+own State; and by many it was then believed
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+that they had actually won over no less a
+man than Richard Henry Lee. Of course, if also
+the sanction of Governor Patrick Henry could be
+secured, a prodigious advantage would be gained.
+Accordingly, from the town of York, in Pennsylvania,
+whither Congress had fled on the advance of
+the enemy towards Philadelphia, the following letter
+was sent to him,&mdash;a letter written in a disguised
+hand, without signature, but evidently by a
+personal friend, a man of position, and a master of
+the art of plausible statement:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Yorktown</span>, 12 January, 1778.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;The common danger of our country
+first brought you and me together. I recollect with
+pleasure the influence of your conversation and eloquence
+upon the opinions of this country in the beginning
+of the present controversy. You first taught us to
+shake off our idolatrous attachment to royalty, and to
+oppose its encroachments upon our liberties with our
+very lives. By these means you saved us from ruin.
+The independence of America is the offspring of that
+liberal spirit of thinking and acting, which followed the
+destruction of the sceptres of kings, and the mighty
+power of Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>But, Sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A
+dreary wilderness is still before us; and unless a Moses
+or a Joshua are raised up in our behalf, we must perish
+before we reach the promised land. We have nothing
+to fear from our enemies on the way. General Howe,
+it is true, has taken Philadelphia, but he has only
+changed his prison. His dominions are bounded on all
+sides by his out-sentries. America can only be undone
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>
+by herself. She looks up to her councils and arms for
+protection; but, alas! what are they? Her representation
+in Congress dwindled to only twenty-one members;
+her Adams, her Wilson, her Henry are no more among
+them. Her councils weak, and partial remedies applied
+constantly for universal diseases. Her army, what is
+it? A major-general belonging to it called it a few
+days ago, in my hearing, a mob. Discipline unknown
+or wholly neglected. The quartermaster&#8217;s and commissary&#8217;s
+departments filled with idleness, ignorance, and
+peculation; our hospitals crowded with six thousand
+sick, but half provided with necessaries or accommodations,
+and more dying in them in one month than perished
+in the field during the whole of the last campaign.
+The money depreciating, without any effectual measures
+being taken to raise it; the country distracted with the
+Don Quixote attempts to regulate the price of provisions;
+an artificial famine created by it, and a real one
+dreaded from it; the spirit of the people failing through
+a more intimate acquaintance with the causes of our
+misfortunes; many submitting daily to General Howe;
+and more wishing to do it, only to avoid the calamities
+which threaten our country. But is our case desperate?
+By no means. We have wisdom, virtue and strength
+enough to save us, if they could be called into action.
+The northern army has shown us what Americans are
+capable of doing with a General at their head. The
+spirit of the southern army is no way inferior to the
+spirit of the northern. A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway,
+would in a few weeks render them an irresistible body
+of men. The last of the above officers has accepted of
+the new office of inspector-general of our army, in order
+to reform abuses; but the remedy is only a palliative
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
+one. In one of his letters to a friend he says, &#8216;A great
+and good God hath decreed America to be free, or the
+[General] and weak counsellors would have ruined her
+long ago.&#8217; You may rest assured of each of the facts
+related in this letter. The author of it is one of your
+Philadelphia friends. A hint of his name, if found out
+by the handwriting, must not be mentioned to your most
+intimate friend. Even the letter must be thrown into the
+fire. But some of its contents ought to be made public,
+in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our country.
+I rely upon your prudence, and am, dear Sir, with my
+usual attachment to you, and to our beloved independence,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">Yours sincerely.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>How was Patrick Henry to deal with such a letter
+as this? Even though he should reject its reasoning,
+and spurn the temptation with which it
+assailed him, should he merely burn it, and be
+silent? The incident furnished a fair test of his
+loyalty in friendship, his faith in principle, his
+soundness of judgment, his clear and cool grasp of
+the public situation,&mdash;in a word, of his manliness
+and his statesmanship. This is the way in which
+he stood the test:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, 20 February, 1778.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;You will, no doubt, be surprised at
+seeing the enclosed letter, in which the encomiums bestowed
+on me are as undeserved, as the censures aimed
+at you are unjust. I am sorry there should be one man
+who counts himself my friend, who is not yours.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps I give you needless trouble in handing you
+this paper. The writer of it may be too insignificant to
+deserve any notice. If I knew this to be the case, I
+should not have intruded on your time, which is so precious.
+But there may possibly be some scheme or party
+forming to your prejudice. The enclosed leads to such
+a suspicion. Believe, me, Sir, I have too high a sense
+of the obligations America has to you, to abet or countenance
+so unworthy a proceeding. The most exalted
+merit has ever been found to attract envy. But I please
+myself with the hope that the same fortitude and greatness
+of mind, which have hitherto braved all the difficulties
+and dangers inseparable from your station, will
+rise superior to every attempt of the envious partisan.
+I really cannot tell who is the writer of this letter, which
+not a little perplexes me. The handwriting is altogether
+strange to me.</p>
+
+<p>To give you the trouble of this gives me pain. It
+would suit my inclination better to give you some assistance
+in the great business of the war. But I will not conceal
+anything from you, by which you may be affected;
+for I really think your personal welfare and the happiness
+of America are intimately connected. I beg you
+will be assured of that high regard and esteem with
+which I ever am, dear sir, your affectionate friend and
+very humble servant.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Fifteen days passed after the dispatch of that
+letter, when, having as yet no answer, but with a
+heart still full of anxiety respecting this mysterious
+and ill-boding cabal against his old friend, Governor
+Henry wrote again:&mdash;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, 5 March, 1778.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;By an express, which Colonel Finnie
+sent to camp, I enclosed to you an anonymous letter
+which I hope got safe to hand. I am anxious to hear
+something that will serve to explain the strange affair,
+which I am now informed is taken up respecting you.
+Mr. Custis has just paid us a visit, and by him I learn
+sundry particulars concerning General Mifflin, that much
+surprised me. It is very hard to trace the schemes and
+windings of the enemies to America. I really thought
+that man its friend; however, I am too far from him to
+judge of his present temper.</p>
+
+<p>While you face the armed enemies of our liberty in
+the field, and by the favor of God have been kept unhurt,
+I trust your country will never harbor in her bosom
+the miscreant, who would ruin her best supporter. I
+wish not to flatter; but when arts, unworthy honest men,
+are used to defame and traduce you, I think it not
+amiss, but a duty, to assure you of that estimation in
+which the public hold you. Not that I think any testimony
+I can bear is necessary for your support, or private
+satisfaction; for a bare recollection of what is past
+must give you sufficient pleasure in every circumstance
+of life. But I cannot help assuring you, on this occasion,
+of the high sense of gratitude which all ranks of
+men in this our native country bear to you. It will give
+me sincere pleasure to manifest my regards, and render
+my best services to you or yours. I do not like to make
+a parade of these things, and I know you are not fond
+of it; however, I hope the occasion will plead my excuse.
+Wishing you all possible felicity, I am, my dear
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>
+Sir, your ever affectionate friend and very humble servant.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before Washington received this second letter,
+he had already begun to write the following reply
+to the first:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY.</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Valley Forge</span>, 27 March, 1778.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;About eight days ago I was honored
+with your favor of the 20th ultimo. Your friendship,
+sir, in transmitting to me the anonymous letter you had
+received, lays me under the most grateful obligations,
+and if my acknowledgments can be due for anything
+more, it is for the polite and delicate terms in which
+you have been pleased to communicate the matter.</p>
+
+<p>I have ever been happy in supposing that I had a
+place in your esteem, and the proof you have afforded
+on this occasion makes me peculiarly so. The favorable
+light in which you hold me is truly flattering; but I
+should feel much regret, if I thought the happiness of
+America so intimately connected with my personal welfare,
+as you so obligingly seem to consider it. All I can
+say is, that she has ever had, and I trust she ever will
+have, my honest exertions to promote her interest. I
+cannot hope that my services have been the best; but
+my heart tells me they have been the best that I could
+render.</p>
+
+<p>That I may have erred in using the means in my
+power for accomplishing the objects of the arduous, exalted
+station with which I am honored, I cannot doubt;
+nor do I wish my conduct to be exempted from reprehension
+farther than it may deserve. Error is the portion
+of humanity, and to censure it, whether committed
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+by this or that public character, is the prerogative of
+freemen. However, being intimately acquainted with
+the man I conceive to be the author of the letter transmitted,
+and having always received from him the strongest
+professions of attachment and regard, I am constrained
+to consider him as not possessing, at least, a
+great degree of candor and sincerity, though his views
+in addressing you should have been the result of conviction,
+and founded in motives of public good. This is
+not the only secret, insidious attempt that has been
+made to wound my reputation. There have been others
+equally base, cruel, and ungenerous, because conducted
+with as little frankness, and proceeding from views, perhaps,
+as personally interested. I am, dear sir, with
+great esteem and regard, your much obliged friend, etc.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The writing of the foregoing letter was not
+finished, when Governor Henry&#8217;s second letter
+reached him; and this additional proof of friendship
+so touched the heart of Washington that, on
+the next day, he wrote again, this time with far
+less self-restraint than before:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Camp</span>, 28 March, 1778.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Just as I was about to close my letter
+of yesterday, your favor of the 5th instant came to
+hand. I can only thank you again, in the language of
+the most undissembled gratitude, for your friendship;
+and assure you, that the indulgent disposition, which
+Virginia in particular, and the States in general, entertain
+towards me, gives me the most sensible pleasure.
+The approbation of my country is what I wish; and as
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+far as my abilities and opportunities will permit, I hope
+I shall endeavor to deserve it. It is the highest reward
+to a feeling mind; and happy are they, who so conduct
+themselves as to merit it.</p>
+
+<p>The anonymous letter with which you were pleased
+to favor me, was written by Dr. Rush, so far as I can
+judge from a similitude of hands. This man has been
+elaborate and studied in his professions of regard for
+me; and long since the letter to you. My caution to
+avoid anything which could injure the service, prevented
+me from communicating, but to a very few of
+my friends, the intrigues of a faction which I know was
+formed against me, since it might serve to publish our
+internal dissensions; but their own restless zeal to advance
+their views has too clearly betrayed them, and
+made concealment on my part fruitless. I cannot precisely
+mark the extent of their views, but it appeared,
+in general, that General Gates was to be exalted on the
+ruin of my reputation and influence. This I am authorized
+to say, from undeniable facts in my own possession,
+from publications, the evident scope of which
+could not be mistaken, and from private detractions industriously
+circulated. General Mifflin, it is commonly
+supposed, bore the second part in the cabal; and General
+Conway, I know, was a very active and malignant
+partisan; but I have good reason to believe that their
+machinations have recoiled most sensibly upon themselves.
+With sentiments of great esteem and regard,
+I am, dear sir, your affectionate humble servant.<a name="FNanchor285" id="FNanchor285"></a><a href="#Footnote-285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This incident in the lives of Washington and
+Patrick Henry is to be noted by us, not only for
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>
+its own exquisite delicacy and nobility, but likewise
+as the culminating fact in the growth of a
+very deep and true friendship between the two
+men,&mdash;a friendship which seems to have begun
+many years before, probably in the House of Burgesses,
+and which lasted with increasing strength
+and tenderness, and with but a single episode of
+estrangement, during the rest of their lives.
+Moreover, he who tries to interpret the later career
+of Patrick Henry, especially after the establishment
+of the government under the Constitution,
+and who leaves out of the account Henry&#8217;s profound
+friendship for Washington, and the basis
+of moral and intellectual congeniality on which
+that friendship rested, will lose an important clew
+to the perfect naturalness and consistency of
+Henry&#8217;s political course during his last years. A
+fierce partisan outcry was then raised against him
+in Virginia, and he was bitterly denounced as a
+political apostate, simply because, in the parting
+of the ways of Washington and of Jefferson, Patrick
+Henry no longer walked with Jefferson. In
+truth, Patrick Henry was never Washington&#8217;s follower
+nor Jefferson&#8217;s: he was no man&#8217;s follower.
+From the beginning, he had always done for himself
+his own thinking, whether right or wrong.
+At the same time, a careful student of the three
+men may see that, in his thinking, Patrick Henry
+had a closer and a truer moral kinship with Washington
+than with Jefferson. At present, however,
+we pause before the touching incident that has just
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+been narrated in the relations between Washington
+and Henry, in order to mark its bearing on their
+subsequent intercourse. Washington, in whose
+nature confidence was a plant of slow growth, and
+who was quick neither to love nor to cease from
+loving, never forgot that proof of his friend&#8217;s
+friendship. Thenceforward, until that one year in
+which they both died, the letters which passed between
+them, while never effusive, were evidently
+the letters of two strong men who loved and
+trusted each other without reserve.</p>
+
+<p>Not long before the close of the governor&#8217;s
+second term in office, he had occasion to write to
+Richard Henry Lee two letters, which are of considerable
+interest, not only as indicating the cordial
+intimacy between these two great rivals in
+oratory, but also for the light they throw both
+on the under-currents of bitterness then ruffling
+the politics of Virginia, and on Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+attitude towards the one great question at that
+time uppermost in the politics of the nation. During
+the previous autumn, it seems, also, Lee had
+fallen into great disfavor in Virginia, from which
+he had so far emerged by the 23d of January,
+1778, as to be then re&euml;lected to Congress, to fill
+out an unexpired term.<a name="FNanchor286" id="FNanchor286"></a><a href="#Footnote-286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> Shortly afterward, however,
+harsh speech against him was to be heard in
+Virginia once more, of which his friend, the governor,
+thus informed him, in a letter dated April 4,
+1778:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are again traduced by a certain set who have
+drawn in others, who say that you are engaged in a
+scheme to discard General Washington. I know you
+too well to suppose that you would engage in anything
+not evidently calculated to serve the cause of whiggism.&hellip;
+But it is your fate to suffer the constant attacks of
+disguised Tories who take this measure to lessen you.
+Farewell, my dear friend. In praying for your welfare,
+I pray for that of my country, to which your life and
+service are of the last moment.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor287" id="FNanchor287"></a><a href="#Footnote-287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Furthermore, on the 30th of May, the General
+Assembly made choice of their delegates in Congress
+for the following year. Lee was again
+elected, but by so small a vote that his name stood
+next to the lowest on the list.<a name="FNanchor288" id="FNanchor288"></a><a href="#Footnote-288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> Concerning this
+stinging slight, he appears to have spoken in his
+next letters to the governor; for, on the 18th of
+June, the latter addressed to him, from Williamsburg,
+this reply:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Both your last letters came to
+hand to-day. I felt for you, on seeing the order in
+which the balloting placed the delegates in Congress.
+It is an effect of that rancorous malice that has so long
+followed you, through that arduous path of duty which
+you have invariably travelled, since America resolved to
+resist her oppressors.</p>
+
+<p>Is it any pleasure to you to remark, that at the same
+era in which these men figure against you, public spirit
+seems to have taken its flight from Virginia? It is too
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>
+much the case; for the quota of our troops is not half
+made up, and no chance seems to remain for completing
+it. The Assembly voted three hundred and fifty horse,
+and two thousand men, to be forthwith raised, and to
+join the grand army. Great bounties are offered; but,
+I fear, the only effect will be to expose our state to contempt,&mdash;for
+I believe no soldiers will enlist, especially
+in the infantry.</p>
+
+<p>Can you credit it?&mdash;no effort was made for supporting
+or restoring public credit. I pressed it warmly on
+some, but in vain. This is the reason we get no soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>We shall issue fifty or sixty thousand dollars in cash
+to equip the cavalry, and their time is to expire at
+Christmas. I believe they will not be in the field before
+that time.</p>
+
+<p>Let not Congress rely on Virginia for soldiers. I
+tell you my opinion: they will not be got here, until a
+different spirit prevails.</p></div>
+
+<p>In the next paragraph of his letter, the governor
+passes from these local matters to what was
+then the one commanding topic in national affairs.
+Lord North&#8217;s peace commissioners had already arrived,
+and were seeking to win back the Americans
+into free colonial relations with the mother country,
+and away from their new-formed friendship
+with perfidious France. With what energy Patrick
+Henry was prepared to reject all these British
+blandishments, may be read in the passionate sentences
+which conclude his letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I look at the past condition of America, as at a
+dreadful precipice, from which we have escaped by
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>
+means of the generous French, to whom I will be ever-lastingly
+bound by the most heartfelt gratitude. But I
+must mistake matters, if some of those men who traduce
+you, do not prefer the offers of Britain. You will have
+a different game to play now with the commissioners.
+How comes Governor Johnstone there? I do not see
+how it comports with his past life.</p>
+
+<p>Surely Congress will never recede from our French
+friends. Salvation to America depends upon our holding
+fast our attachment to them. I shall date our ruin
+from the moment that it is exchanged for anything
+Great Britain can say, or do. She can never be cordial
+with us. Baffled, defeated, disgraced by her colonies,
+she will ever meditate revenge. We can find no safety
+but in her ruin, or, at least, in her extreme humiliation;
+which has not happened, and cannot happen, until she
+is deluged with blood, or thoroughly purged by a revolution,
+which shall wipe from existence the present king
+with his connections, and the present system with those
+who aid and abet it.</p>
+
+<p>For God&#8217;s sake, my dear sir, quit not the councils of
+your country, until you see us forever disjoined from
+Great Britain. The old leaven still works. The fleshpots
+of Egypt are still savory to degenerate palates.
+Again we are undone, if the French alliance is not religiously
+observed. Excuse my freedom. I know your
+love to our country,&mdash;and this is my motive. May
+Heaven give you health and prosperity.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="right3">I am yours affectionately,<br /></span>
+<span class="right1"><span class="smcap">Patrick Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor289" id="FNanchor289"></a><a href="#Footnote-289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before coming to the end of our story of Governor
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+Henry&#8217;s second term, it should be mentioned
+that twice during this period did the General Assembly
+confide to him those extraordinary powers
+which by many were spoken of as dictatorial; first,
+on the 22d of January, 1778,<a name="FNanchor290" id="FNanchor290"></a><a href="#Footnote-290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> and again, on the
+28th of May, of the same year.<a name="FNanchor291" id="FNanchor291"></a><a href="#Footnote-291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> Finally, so safe
+had been this great trust in his hands, and so efficiently
+had he borne himself, in all the labors and
+responsibilities of his high office, that, on the 29th
+of May, the House of Delegates, by resolution,
+unanimously elected him as governor for a third
+term,&mdash;an act in which, on the same day, the
+Senate voted its concurrence. On the 30th of
+May, Thomas Jefferson, from the committee appointed
+to notify the governor of his re&euml;lection, reported
+to the House the following answer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;The General Assembly, in again electing
+me governor of this commonwealth, have done me
+very signal honor. I trust that their confidence, thus
+continued in me, will not be misplaced. I beg you
+will be pleased, gentlemen, to present me to the General
+Assembly in terms of grateful acknowledgment for
+this fresh instance of their favor towards me; and to
+assure them, that my best endeavors shall be used to
+promote the public good, in that station to which they
+have once more been pleased to call me.<a name="FNanchor292" id="FNanchor292"></a><a href="#Footnote-292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a></p></div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-284" id="Footnote-284"></a><a href="#FNanchor284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> Of the official letters of Governor Henry, doubtless many have
+perished; a few have been printed in Sparks, Force, Wirt, and
+elsewhere; a considerable number, also, are preserved in manuscript
+in the archives of the Department of State at Washington.
+Copies of the latter are before me as I write. As justifying the
+statement made in the text, I would refer to his letters of August
+30, 1777; of October 29, 1777; of October 30, 1777; of December
+6, 1777; of December 9, 1777; of January 20, 1778; of
+January 28, 1778; and of June 18, 1778.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-285" id="Footnote-285"></a><a href="#FNanchor285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, v. 495-497; 512-515.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-286" id="Footnote-286"></a><a href="#FNanchor286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 131.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-287" id="Footnote-287"></a><a href="#FNanchor287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> Given in Grigsby, <i>Va. Conv. of</i> 1776, 142 note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-288" id="Footnote-288"></a><a href="#FNanchor288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 27, 33.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-289" id="Footnote-289"></a><a href="#FNanchor289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> Lee, <i>Life of Richard Henry Lee</i>, i. 195 196.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-290" id="Footnote-290"></a><a href="#FNanchor290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 72, 81, 85, 125, 126.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-291" id="Footnote-291"></a><a href="#FNanchor291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 15, 16, 17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-292" id="Footnote-292"></a><a href="#FNanchor292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 26, 30.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XV <br />
+<span class="hsub">THIRD YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Governor Henry&#8217;s third official year was
+marked, in the great struggle then in progress, by
+the arrival of the French fleet, and by its futile
+attempts to be of any use to those hard-pressed
+rebels whom the king of France had undertaken
+to encourage in their insubordination; by awful
+scenes of carnage and desolation in the outlying
+settlements at Wyoming, Cherry Valley, and Schoharie;
+by British predatory expeditions along the
+Connecticut coast; by the final failure and departure
+of Lord North&#8217;s peace commissioners; and by
+the transfer of the chief seat of war to the South,
+beginning with the capture of Savannah by the
+British on the 29th of December, 1778, followed
+by their initial movement on Charleston, in May,
+1779. In the month just mentioned, likewise, the
+enemy, under command of General Matthews and
+of Sir George Collier, suddenly swooped down on
+Virginia, first seizing Portsmouth and Norfolk,
+and then, after a glorious military debauch of robbery,
+ruin, rape, and murder, and after spreading
+terror and anguish among the undefended populations
+of Suffolk, Kemp&#8217;s Landing, Tanner&#8217;s Creek,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>
+and Gosport, as suddenly gathered up their booty,
+and went back in great glee to New York.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1778, the governor had the
+happiness to hear of the really brilliant success of
+the expedition which, with statesmanlike sagacity,
+he had sent out under George Rogers Clark, into
+the Illinois country, in the early part of the year.<a name="FNanchor293" id="FNanchor293"></a><a href="#Footnote-293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>
+Some of the more important facts connected with
+this expedition, he thus announced to the Virginia
+delegates in Congress:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, November 14, 1778.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;The executive power of this State
+having been impressed with a strong apprehension of
+incursions on the frontier settlements from the savages
+situated about the Illinois, and supposing the danger
+would be greatly obviated by an enterprise against the
+English forts and possessions in that country, which
+were well known to inspire the savages with their bloody
+purposes against us, sent a detachment of militia, consisting
+of one hundred and seventy or eighty men
+commanded by Colonel George Rogers Clark, on that
+service some time last spring. By despatches which I
+have just received from Colonel Clark, it appears that
+his success has equalled the most sanguine expectations.
+He has not only reduced Fort Chartres and its dependencies,
+but has struck such a terror into the Indian
+tribes between that settlement and the lakes that no less
+than five of them, viz., the Puans, Sacks, Renards, Powtowantanies,
+and Miamis, who had received the hatchet
+from the English emissaries, have submitted to our arms
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
+all their English presents, and bound themselves by
+treaties and promises to be peaceful in the future.</p>
+
+<p>The great Blackbird, the Chappowow chief, has also
+sent a belt of peace to Colonel Clark, influenced, he
+supposes, by the dread of Detroit&#8217;s being reduced by
+American arms. This latter place, according to Colonel
+Clark&#8217;s representation, is at present defended by so inconsiderable
+a garrison and so scantily furnished with
+provisions, for which they must be still more distressed
+by the loss of supplies from the Illinois, that it might
+be reduced by any number of men above five hundred.
+The governor of that place, Mr. Hamilton, was exerting
+himself to engage the savages to assist him in retaking
+the places that had fallen into our hands; but the favorable
+impression made on the Indians in general in that
+quarter, the influence of the French on them, and the
+re&euml;nforcement of their militia Colonel Clark expected,
+flattered him that there was little danger to be apprehended.&hellip;
+If the party under Colonel Clark can
+co&ouml;perate in any respect with the measures Congress are
+pursuing or have in view, I shall with pleasure give
+him the necessary orders. In order to improve and
+secure the advantages gained by Colonel Clark, I propose
+to support him with a re&euml;nforcement of militia.
+But this will depend on the pleasure of the Assembly, to
+whose consideration the measure is submitted.</p>
+
+<p>The French inhabitants have manifested great zeal
+and attachment to our cause, and insist on garrisons remaining
+with them under Colonel Clark. This I am
+induced to agree to, because the safety of our own frontiers
+as well as that of these people demands a compliance
+with this request. Were it possible to secure the
+St. Lawrence and prevent the English attempts up that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+river by seizing some post on it, peace with the Indians
+would seem to me to be secured.</p>
+
+<p>With great regard I have the honor to be, Gent<sup>n</sup>,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="right3">Your most obedient servant,<br /></span>
+<span class="right1"><span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor294" id="FNanchor294"></a><a href="#Footnote-294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>During the autumn session of the General Assembly,
+that body showed its continued confidence
+in the governor by passing several acts conferring
+on him extraordinary powers, in addition to those
+already bestowed.<a name="FNanchor295" id="FNanchor295"></a><a href="#Footnote-295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a></p>
+
+<p>A letter which the governor wrote at this period
+to the president of Congress, respecting military
+aid from Virginia to States further south, may give
+us some idea, not only of his own practical discernment
+in the matters involved, but of the confusion
+which, in those days, often attended military plans
+issuing from a many-headed executive:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, November 28, 1778.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;Your favor of the 16th instant is come to
+hand, together with the acts of Congress of the 26th of
+August for establishing provision for soldiers and sailors
+maimed or disabled in the public service,&mdash;of the 26th
+of September for organizing the treasury, a proclamation
+for a general thanksgiving, and three copies of the
+alliance between his most Christian Majesty and these
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>I lost no time in laying your letter before the privy
+council, and in deliberating with them on the subject of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>
+sending 1000 militia to Charlestown, South Carolina. I
+beg to assure Congress of the great zeal of every member
+of the executive here to give full efficacy to their
+designs on every occasion. But on the present, I am
+very sorry to observe, that obstacles great and I fear
+unsurmountable are opposed to the immediate march of
+the men. Upon requisition to the deputy quartermaster-general
+in this department for tents, kettles, blankets,
+and wagons, he informs they cannot be had. The season
+when the march must begin will be severe and inclement,
+and, without the forementioned necessaries,
+impracticable to men indifferently clad and equipped as
+they are in the present general scarcity of clothes.</p>
+
+<p>The council, as well as myself, are not a little perplexed
+on comparing this requisition to defend South
+Carolina and Georgia from the assaults of the enemy,
+with that made a few days past for galleys to conquer
+East Florida. The galleys have orders to rendezvous at
+Charlestown, which I was taught to consider as a place
+of acknowledged safety; and I beg leave to observe,
+that there seems some degree of inconsistency in marching
+militia such a distance in the depth of winter, under
+the want of necessaries, to defend a place which the former
+measures seemed to declare safe.</p>
+
+<p>The act of Assembly whereby it is made lawful to
+order their march, confines the operations to measures
+merely defensive to a sister State, and of whose danger
+there is certain information received.</p>
+
+<p>However, as Congress have not been pleased to explain
+the matters herein alluded to, and altho&#8217; a good
+deal of perplexity remains with me on the subject, I
+have by advice of the privy council given orders for
+1000 men to be instantly got into readiness to march to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+Charlestown, and they will march as soon as they are
+furnished with tents, kettles, and wagons. In the mean
+time, if intelligence is received that their march is essential
+to the preservation of either of the States of
+South Carolina or Georgia the men will encounter every
+difficulty, and have orders to proceed in the best way
+they can without waiting to be supplied with those
+necessaries commonly afforded to troops even on a summer&#8217;s
+march.</p>
+
+<p>I have to beg that Congress will please to remember
+the state of embarrassment in which I must necessarily
+remain with respect to the ordering galleys to Charlestown,
+in their way to invade Florida, while the militia
+are getting ready to defend the States bordering on it,
+and that they will please to favor me with the earliest
+intelligence of every circumstance that is to influence the
+measures either offensive or defensive.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and
+very humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor296" id="FNanchor296"></a><a href="#Footnote-296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>By the early spring of 1779, it became still more
+apparent that the purpose of the enemy was to
+shift the scene of their activity from the middle
+States to the South, and that Virginia, whose soil
+had never thus far been bruised by the tread of
+a hostile army, must soon experience that dire
+calamity. Perhaps no one saw this more clearly
+than did Governor Henry. At the same time, he
+also saw that Virginia must in part defend herself
+by helping to defend her sister States at the South,
+across whose territories the advance of the enemy
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
+into Virginia was likely to be attempted. His
+clear grasp of the military situation, in all the
+broad relations of his own State to it, is thus revealed
+in a letter to Washington, dated at Williamsburg,
+13th of March, 1779:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;My last accounts from the South are unfavorable.
+Georgia is said to be in full possession of the enemy,
+and South Carolina in great danger. The number of
+disaffected there is said to be formidable, and the Creek
+Indians inclining against us. One thousand militia are
+ordered thither from our southern counties; but a doubt
+is started whether they are by law obliged to march. I
+have also proposed a scheme to embody volunteers for
+this service; but I fear the length of the march, and a
+general scarcity of bread, which prevails in some parts
+of North Carolina and this State, may impede this service.
+About five hundred militia are ordered down the
+Tennessee River, to chastise some new settlements of
+renegade Cherokees that infest our southwestern frontier,
+and prevent our navigation on that river, from
+which we began to hope for great advantages. Our
+militia have full possession of the Illinois and the posts
+on the Wabash; and I am not without hopes that the
+same party may overawe the Indians as far as Detroit.
+They are independent of General McIntosh, whose numbers,
+although upwards of two thousand, I think could
+not make any great progress, on account, it is said, of
+the route they took, and the lateness of the season.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The conquest of Illinois and Wabash was effected
+with less than two hundred men, who will soon be re&euml;nforced;
+and, by holding posts on the back of the Indians,
+it is hoped may intimidate them. Forts Natchez
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>
+and Morishac are again in the enemy&#8217;s hands; and
+from thence they infest and ruin our trade on the Mississippi,
+on which river the Spaniards wish to open a
+very interesting commerce with us. I have requested
+Congress to authorize the conquest of those two posts,
+as the possession of them will give a colorable pretence
+to retain all West Florida, when a treaty may be
+opened.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor297" id="FNanchor297"></a><a href="#Footnote-297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Within two months after that letter was written,
+the dreaded warships of the enemy were ploughing
+the waters of Virginia: it was the sorrow-bringing
+expedition of Matthews and Sir George Collier.
+The news of their arrival was thus conveyed by
+Governor Henry to the president of Congress:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, 11 May, 1779.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;On Saturday last, in the evening, a British
+fleet amounting to about thirty sail &hellip; came into the
+Bay of Chesapeake, and the next day proceeded to
+Hampton Road, where they anchored and remained
+quiet until yesterday about noon, when several of the
+ships got under way, and proceeded towards Portsmouth,
+which place I have no doubt they intend to attack
+by water or by land or by both, as they have many
+flat-bottomed boats with them for the purpose of landing
+their troops. As I too well know the weakness of that
+garrison, I am in great pain for the consequences, there
+being great quantities of merchandise, the property of
+French merchants and others in this State, at that place,
+as well as considerable quantities of military stores,
+which, tho&#8217; measures some time since were taken to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+remove, may nevertheless fall into the enemy&#8217;s hands.
+Whether they may hereafter intend to fortify and
+maintain this post is at present unknown to me, but
+the consequences which will result to this State and
+to the United States finally if such a measure should
+be adopted must be obvious. Whether it may be in the
+power of Congress to adopt any measures which can in
+any manner counteract the design of the enemy is submitted
+to their wisdom. At present, I cannot avoid
+intimating that I have the greatest reason to think that
+many vessels from France with public and private merchandise
+may unfortunately arrive while the enemy remain
+in perfect possession of the Bay of Chesapeake,
+and fall victims unexpectedly.</p>
+
+<p>Every precaution will be taken to order lookout boats
+on the seacoasts to furnish proper intelligence; but the
+success attending this necessary measure will be precarious
+in the present situation of things.<a name="FNanchor298" id="FNanchor298"></a><a href="#Footnote-298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On the next day the governor had still heavier
+tidings for the same correspondent:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, May 12, 1779.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;I addressed you yesterday upon a subject of
+the greatest consequence. The last night brought me
+the fatal account of Portsmouth being in possession of
+the enemy. Their force was too great to be resisted,
+and therefore the fort was evacuated after destroying
+one capital ship belonging to the State and one or two
+private ones loaded with tobacco. Goods and merchandise,
+however, of very great value fall into the enemy&#8217;s
+hands. If Congress could by solicitations procure a
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
+fleet superior to the enemy&#8217;s force to enter Chesapeake
+at this critical period, the prospect of gain and advantage
+would be great indeed. I have the honor to be,
+with the greatest regard, Sir,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="right3">Your most humble and obedient servant,</span> <br />
+
+<span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor299" id="FNanchor299"></a><a href="#Footnote-299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To meet this dreadful invasion, the governor attempted
+to arouse and direct vigorous measures, in
+part by a proclamation, on the 14th of May, announcing
+to the people of Virginia the facts of the
+case, &#8220;and requiring the county lieutenants and
+other military officers in the Commonwealth, and
+especially those on the navigable waters, to hold
+their respective militias in readiness to oppose the
+attempts of the enemy wherever they might be
+made.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor300" id="FNanchor300"></a><a href="#Footnote-300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the 21st of the month, in a letter to the
+president of Congress, he reported the havoc then
+wrought by the enemy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Williamsburg</span>, May 21, 1779.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;Being in the greatest haste to dispatch your
+express, I have not time to give you any very particular
+information concerning the present invasion. Let it
+suffice therefore to inform Congress that the number of
+the enemy&#8217;s ships are nearly the same as was mentioned
+in my former letter; with regard to the number of
+the troops which landed and took Portsmouth, and afterwards
+proceeded and burnt, plundered, and destroyed
+Suffolk, committing various barbarities, etc., we are
+still ignorant, as the accounts from the deserters differ
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>
+widely; perhaps, however, it may not exceed 2000 or
+2500 men.</p>
+
+<p>I trust that a sufficient number of troops are embodied
+and stationed in certain proportions at this place,
+York, Hampton, and on the south side of James River.&hellip; When
+any further particulars come to my knowledge
+they shall be communicated to Congress without
+delay.</p>
+
+<p>I have the honor to be, Sir, your humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1 smcap">P. Henry.</p>
+
+<p>P. S. I am pretty certain that the land forces are
+commanded by Gen&#8217;l Matthews and the fleet by Sir
+George Collier.<a name="FNanchor301" id="FNanchor301"></a><a href="#Footnote-301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the very midst of this ugly storm, it was required
+that the ship of state should undergo a
+change of commanders. The third year for which
+Governor Henry had been elected was nearly at
+an end. There were some members of the Assembly
+who thought him eligible as governor for still
+another year, on the ground that his first election
+was by the convention, and that the year of office
+which that body gave to him &#8220;was merely provisory,&#8221;
+and formed no proper part of his constitutional
+term.<a name="FNanchor302" id="FNanchor302"></a><a href="#Footnote-302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a> Governor Henry himself, however,
+could not fail to perceive the unfitness of any struggle
+upon such a question at such a time, as well as
+the futility which would attach to that high office,
+if held, amid such perils, under a clouded title.
+Accordingly, on the 28th of May, he cut short all
+discussion by sending to the speaker of the House
+of Delegates the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
+<p class="right1">May 28, 1779.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;The term for which I had the honor to be
+elected governor by the late Assembly being just about
+to expire, and the Constitution, as I think, making me
+ineligible to that office, I take the liberty to communicate
+to the Assembly through you, Sir, my intention to
+retire in four or five days.</p>
+
+<p>I have thought it necessary to give this notification of
+my design, in order that the Assembly may have the
+earliest opportunity of deliberating upon the choice of a
+successor to me in office.</p>
+
+<p>With great regard, I have the honor to be, Sir, your
+most obedient servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor303" id="FNanchor303"></a><a href="#Footnote-303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the first of June, Thomas Jefferson was
+elected to succeed him in office, but by a majority
+of only six votes out of one hundred and twenty-eight.<a name="FNanchor304" id="FNanchor304"></a><a href="#Footnote-304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a>
+On the following day Patrick Henry, having
+received certain resolutions from the General
+Assembly<a name="FNanchor305" id="FNanchor305"></a><a href="#Footnote-305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> commending him for his conduct while
+governor, graciously closed this chapter of his official
+life by the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,&mdash;The House of Delegates have done
+me very great honor in the vote expressive of their approbation
+of my public conduct. I beg the favor of
+you, gentlemen, to convey to that honorable house my
+most cordial acknowledgments, and to assure them that
+I shall ever retain a grateful remembrance of the high
+honor they have now conferred on me.<a name="FNanchor306" id="FNanchor306"></a><a href="#Footnote-306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>
+In the midst of these frank voices of public appreciation
+over the fidelity and efficiency of his
+service as governor, there were doubtless the usual
+murmurs of partisan criticism or of personal ill-will.
+For example, a few days after Jefferson had
+taken his seat in the stately chair which Patrick
+Henry had just vacated, St. George Tucker, in a
+letter to Theophilus Bland, gave expression to this
+sneer: &#8220;<i>Sub rosa</i>, I wish his excellency&#8217;s activity
+may be equal to the abilities he possesses in so
+eminent a degree.&hellip; But if he should tread in
+the steps of his predecessor, there is not much to
+be expected from the brightest talents.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor307" id="FNanchor307"></a><a href="#Footnote-307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> Over
+against a taunt like this, one can scarcely help
+placing the fact that the general of the armies
+who, for three stern years, had been accustomed to
+lean heavily for help on this governor of Virginia,
+and who never paid idle compliments, nevertheless
+paid many a tribute to the intelligence, zeal, and
+vigorous activity of Governor Henry&#8217;s administration.
+Thus, on the 27th of December, 1777, Washington
+writes to him: &#8220;In several of my late letters
+I addressed you on the distress of the troops
+for want of clothing. Your ready exertions to relieve
+them have given me the highest satisfaction.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor308" id="FNanchor308"></a><a href="#Footnote-308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a>
+On the 19th of February, 1778, Washington
+again writes to him: &#8220;I address myself to
+you, convinced that our alarming distresses will
+engage your most serious consideration, and that
+the full force of that zeal and vigor you have manifested
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
+upon every other occasion, will now operate
+for our relief, in a matter that so nearly affects
+the very existence of our contest.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor309" id="FNanchor309"></a><a href="#Footnote-309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> On the 19th
+of April, 1778, Washington once more writes to
+him: &#8220;I hold myself infinitely obliged to the legislature
+for the ready attention which they have paid
+to my representation of the wants of the army, and
+to you for the strenuous manner in which you have
+recommended to the people an observance of my
+request.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor310" id="FNanchor310"></a><a href="#Footnote-310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a> Finally, if any men had even better
+opportunities than Washington for estimating correctly
+Governor Henry&#8217;s efficiency in his great
+office, surely those men were his intimate associates,
+the members of the Virginia legislature. It
+is quite possible that their first election of him as
+governor may have been in ignorance of his real
+qualities as an executive officer; but this cannot
+be said of their second and of their third elections
+of him, each one of which was made, as we have
+seen, without one audible lisp of opposition. Is it
+to be believed that, if he had really shown that lack
+of executive efficiency which St. George Tucker&#8217;s
+sneer implies, such a body of men, in such a crisis
+of public danger, would have twice and thrice
+elected him to the highest executive office in the
+State, and that, too, without one dissenting vote?
+To say so, indeed, is to fix a far more damning
+censure upon them than upon him.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-293" id="Footnote-293"></a><a href="#FNanchor293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> Clark&#8217;s <i>Campaign in the Illinois</i>, 95-97, where Governor
+Henry&#8217;s public and private instructions are given in full.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-294" id="Footnote-294"></a><a href="#FNanchor294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-295" id="Footnote-295"></a><a href="#FNanchor295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 30, 36, 66; also Hening, ix. 474-476;
+477-478; 530-532; 584-585.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-296" id="Footnote-296"></a><a href="#FNanchor296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-297" id="Footnote-297"></a><a href="#FNanchor297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> Sparks, <i>Corr. Rev</i>. ii. 261-262.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-298" id="Footnote-298"></a><a href="#FNanchor298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-299" id="Footnote-299"></a><a href="#FNanchor299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-300" id="Footnote-300"></a><a href="#FNanchor300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. 338.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-301" id="Footnote-301"></a><a href="#FNanchor301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-302" id="Footnote-302"></a><a href="#FNanchor302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. 350.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-303" id="Footnote-303"></a><a href="#FNanchor303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> Wirt, 225.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-304" id="Footnote-304"></a><a href="#FNanchor304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-305" id="Footnote-305"></a><a href="#FNanchor305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> 350.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-306" id="Footnote-306"></a><a href="#FNanchor306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 32.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-307" id="Footnote-307"></a><a href="#FNanchor307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> <i>Bland Papers</i>, ii. 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-308" id="Footnote-308"></a><a href="#FNanchor308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-309" id="Footnote-309"></a><a href="#FNanchor309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-310" id="Footnote-310"></a><a href="#FNanchor310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI <br />
+<span class="hsub">AT HOME AND IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The high official rank which Governor Henry
+had borne during the first three years of American
+independence was so impressive to the imaginations
+of the French allies who were then in the country,
+that some of them addressed their letters to him
+as &#8220;Son Altesse Royale, Monsieur Patrick Henri,
+Gouverneur de l&#8217;Etat de Virginie.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor311" id="FNanchor311"></a><a href="#Footnote-311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> From this
+titular royalty he descended, as we have seen,
+about the 1st of June, 1779; and for the subsequent
+five and a half years, until his recall to the
+governorship, he is to be viewed by us as a very
+retired country gentleman in delicate health, with
+episodes of labor and of leadership in the Virginia
+House of Delegates.</p>
+
+<p>A little more than a fortnight after his descent
+from the governor&#8217;s chair, he was elected by the
+General Assembly as a delegate in Congress.<a name="FNanchor312" id="FNanchor312"></a><a href="#Footnote-312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> It
+is not known whether he at any time thought it
+possible for him to accept this appointment; but,
+on the 28th of the following October, the body
+that had elected him received from him a letter
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
+declining the service.<a name="FNanchor313" id="FNanchor313"></a><a href="#Footnote-313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a> Moreover, in spite of all
+invitations and entreaties, Patrick Henry never
+afterwards served in any public capacity outside
+the State of Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>During his three years in the governorship, he
+had lived in the palace at Williamsburg. In the
+course of that time, also, he had sold his estate of
+Scotchtown, in Hanover County, and had purchased
+a large tract of land in the new county
+of Henry,&mdash;a county situated about two hundred
+miles southwest from Richmond, along the North
+Carolina boundary, and named, of course, in honor
+of himself. To his new estate there, called Leatherwood,
+consisting of about ten thousand acres,
+he removed early in the summer of 1779. This
+continued to be his home until he resumed the
+office of governor in November, 1784.<a name="FNanchor314" id="FNanchor314"></a><a href="#Footnote-314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a></p>
+
+<p>After the storm and stress of so many years of
+public life, and of public life in an epoch of revolution,
+the invalid body, the care-burdened spirit,
+of Patrick Henry must have found great refreshment
+in this removal to a distant, wild, and mountainous
+solitude. In undisturbed seclusion, he
+there remained during the summer and autumn
+of 1779, and even the succeeding winter and
+spring,&mdash;scarcely able to hear the far-off noises of
+the great struggle in which he had hitherto borne
+so rugged a part, and of which the victorious issue
+was then to be seen by him, though dimly, through
+many a murky rack of selfishness, cowardice, and
+crime.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His successor in the office of governor was
+Thomas Jefferson, the jovial friend of his own
+jovial youth, bound to him still by that hearty
+friendship which was founded on congeniality of
+political sentiment, but was afterward to die away,
+at least on Jefferson&#8217;s side, into alienation and
+hate. To this dear friend Patrick Henry wrote
+late in that winter, from his hermitage among the
+eastward fastnesses of the Blue Ridge, a remarkable
+letter, which has never before been in print,
+and which is full of interest for us on account of
+its impulsive and self-revealing words. Its tone of
+despondency, almost of misanthropy,&mdash;so unnatural
+to Patrick Henry,&mdash;is perhaps a token of
+that sickness of body which had made the soul sick
+too, and had then driven the writer into the wilderness,
+and still kept him there:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center">TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">Leatherwood</span>, 15th Feby., 1780.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I return you many thanks for your
+favor by Mr. Sanders. The kind notice you were
+pleased to take of me was particularly obliging, as I
+have scarcely heard a word of public matters since
+I moved up in the retirement where I live.</p>
+
+<p>I have had many anxieties for our commonwealth,
+principally occasioned by the depreciation of our money.
+To judge by this, which somebody has called the pulse
+of the state, I have feared that our body politic was
+dangerously sick. God grant it may not be unto death.
+But I cannot forbear thinking, the present increase of
+prices is in great part owing to a kind of habit, which
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
+is now of four or five years&#8217; growth, which is fostered
+by a mistaken avarice, and like other habits hard to
+part with. For there is really very little money hereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>What you say of the practice of our distinguished
+Tories perfectly agrees with my own observation, and
+the attempts to raise prejudices against the French, I
+know, were begun when I lived below. What gave me
+the utmost pain was to see some men, indeed very many,
+who were thought good Whigs, keep company with the
+miscreants,&mdash;wretches who, I am satisfied, were laboring
+our destruction. This countenance shown them is
+of fatal tendency. They should be shunned and execrated,
+and this is the only way to supply the place of
+legal conviction and punishment. But this is an effort
+of virtue, small as it seems, of which our countrymen
+are not capable.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, I will own to you, my dear Sir, that observing
+this impunity and even respect, which some wicked
+individuals have met with while their guilt was clear
+as the sun, has sickened me, and made me sometimes
+wish to be in retirement for the rest of my life. I will,
+however, be down, on the next Assembly, if I am
+chosen. My health, I am satisfied, will never again
+permit a close application to sedentary business, and
+I even doubt whether I can remain below long enough
+to serve in the Assembly. I will, however, make the
+trial.</p>
+
+<p>But tell me, do you remember any instance where
+tyranny was destroyed and freedom established on its
+ruins, among a people possessing so small a share of
+virtue and public spirit? I recollect none, and this,
+more than the British arms, makes me fearful of final
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>
+success without a reform. But when or how this is to
+be effected, I have not the means of judging. I most
+sincerely wish you health and prosperity. If you can
+spare time to drop me a line now and then, it will be
+highly obliging to, dear Sir, your affectionate friend
+and obedient servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor315" id="FNanchor315"></a><a href="#Footnote-315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>The next General Assembly, which he thus
+promised to attend in case he should be chosen,
+met at Richmond on the 1st of May, 1780. It
+hardly needs to be mentioned that the people of
+Henry County were proud to choose him as one of
+their members in that body; but he seems not to
+have taken his seat there until about the 19th of
+May.<a name="FNanchor316" id="FNanchor316"></a><a href="#Footnote-316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a> From the moment of his arrival in the
+House of Delegates, every kind of responsibility
+and honor was laid upon him. This was his first
+appearance in such an assembly since the proclamation
+of independence; and the prestige attaching
+to his name, as well as his own undimmed
+genius for leadership, made him not only the most
+conspicuous person in the house, but the nearly
+absolute director of its business in every detail
+of opinion and of procedure on which he should
+choose to express himself,&mdash;his only rival, in any
+particular, being Richard Henry Lee. It helps
+one now to understand the real reputation he had
+among his contemporaries for practical ability, and
+for a habit of shrinking from none of the commonplace
+drudgeries of legislative work, that during
+the first few days after his accession to the House
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
+he was placed on the committee of ways and
+means; on a committee &#8220;to inquire into the present
+state of the account of the commonwealth
+against the United States, and the most speedy
+and effectual method of finally settling the same;&#8221;
+on a committee to prepare a bill for the repeal of
+a part of the act &#8220;for sequestering British property,
+enabling those indebted to British subjects
+to pay off such debts, and directing the proceedings
+in suits where such subjects are parties;&#8221; on three
+several committees respecting the powers and duties
+of high sheriffs and of grand juries; and,
+finally, on a committee to notify Jefferson of his
+re&euml;lection as governor, and to report his answer to
+the House. On the 7th of June, however, after a
+service of little more than two weeks, his own sad
+apprehensions respecting his health seem to have
+been realized, and he was obliged to ask leave to
+withdraw from the House for the remainder of the
+session.<a name="FNanchor317" id="FNanchor317"></a><a href="#Footnote-317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a></p>
+
+<p>At the autumn session of the legislature he was
+once more in his place. On the 6th of November,
+the day on which the House was organized, he was
+made chairman of the committee on privileges and
+elections, and also of a committee &#8220;for the better
+defence of the southern frontier,&#8221; and was likewise
+placed on the committee on propositions and grievances,
+as well as on the committee on courts of
+justice. On the following day he was made a
+member of a committee for the defence of the eastern
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
+frontier. On the 10th of November he was
+placed on a committee to bring in a bill relating
+to the enlistment of Virginia troops, and to the redemption
+of the state bills of credit then in circulation,
+and the emission of new bills. On the 22d
+of November he was made a member of a committee
+to which was again referred the account between
+the State and the United States. On the
+9th of December he was made a member of a committee
+to draw up bills for the organization and
+maintenance of a navy for the State, and the protection
+of navigation and commerce upon its waters.
+On the 14th of December he was made
+chairman of a committee to draw up a bill for the
+better regulation and discipline of the militia, and
+of still another committee to prepare a bill &#8220;for
+supplying the army with clothes and provisions.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor318" id="FNanchor318"></a><a href="#Footnote-318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a>
+On the 28th of December, the House having knowledge
+of the arrival in town of poor General Gates,
+then drooping under the burden of those Southern
+willows which he had so plentifully gathered at
+Camden, Patrick Henry introduced the following
+magnanimous resolution:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;That a committee of four be appointed to wait on
+Major General Gates, and to assure him of the high regard
+and esteem of this House; that the remembrance
+of his former glorious services cannot be obliterated by
+any reverse of fortune; but that this House, ever mindful
+of his great merit, will omit no opportunity of testifying
+to the world the gratitude which, as a member of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>
+the American Union, this country owes to him in his
+military character.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor319" id="FNanchor319"></a><a href="#Footnote-319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On the 2d of January, 1781, the last day of the
+session, the House adopted, on Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+motion, a resolution authorizing the governor to
+convene the next meeting of the legislature at
+some other place than Richmond, in case its assembling
+in that city should &#8220;be rendered inconvenient
+by the operations of an invading enemy,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor320" id="FNanchor320"></a><a href="#Footnote-320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a>
+a resolution reflecting their sense of the peril then
+hanging over the State.</p>
+
+<p>Before the legislature could again meet, events
+proved that it was no imaginary danger against
+which Patrick Henry&#8217;s resolution had been intended
+to provide. On the 2d of January, 1781,
+the very day on which the legislature had adjourned,
+a hostile fleet conveyed into the James
+River a force of about eight hundred men under
+command of Benedict Arnold, whose eagerness to
+ravage Virginia was still further facilitated by the
+arrival, on the 26th of March, of two thousand
+men under General Phillips. Moreover, Lord
+Cornwallis, having beaten General Greene at
+Guilford, in North Carolina, on the 15th of
+March, seemed to be gathering force for a speedy
+advance into Virginia. That the roar of his guns
+would soon be heard in the outskirts of their capital,
+was what all Virginians then felt to be inevitable.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Under such circumstances, it is not strange that
+a session of the legislature, which is said to have
+been held on the 1st of March,<a name="FNanchor321" id="FNanchor321"></a><a href="#Footnote-321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> should have been
+a very brief one, or that when the 7th of May
+arrived&mdash;the day for its reassembling at Richmond&mdash;no
+quorum should have been present; or
+that, on the 10th of May, the few members who
+had arrived in Richmond should have voted, in
+deference to &#8220;the approach of an hostile army,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor322" id="FNanchor322"></a><a href="#Footnote-322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a>
+to adjourn to Charlottesville,&mdash;a place of far
+greater security, ninety-seven miles to the northwest,
+among the mountains of Albemarle. By
+the 20th of May, Cornwallis reached Petersburg,
+twenty-three miles south of Richmond; and shortly
+afterward, pushing across the James and the Chickahominy,
+he encamped on the North Anna, in the
+county of Hanover. Thus, at last, the single
+county of Louisa then separated him from that
+county in which was the home of the governor of
+the State, and where was then convened its legislature,&mdash;Patrick
+Henry himself being present and
+in obvious direction of all its business. The opportunity
+to bag such game, Lord Cornwallis was
+not the man to let slip. Accordingly, on Sunday,
+the 3d of June, he dispatched a swift expedition
+under Tarleton, to surprise and capture the members
+of the legislature, &#8220;to seize on the person of
+the governor,&#8221; and &#8220;to spread on his route devastation
+and terror.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor323" id="FNanchor323"></a><a href="#Footnote-323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> In this entire scheme, doubtless,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>
+Tarleton would have succeeded, had it not
+been that as he and his troopers, on that fair Sabbath
+day, were hurrying past the Cuckoo tavern in
+Louisa, one Captain John Jouette, watching from
+behind the windows, espied them, divined their
+object, and mounting a fleet horse, and taking a
+shorter route, got into Charlottesville a few hours
+in advance of them, just in time to give the alarm,
+and to set the imperiled legislators a-flying to the
+mountains for safety.</p>
+
+<p>Then, by all accounts, was witnessed a display
+of the locomotive energies of grave and potent
+senators, such as this world has not often exhibited.
+Of this tragically comical incident, of course,
+the journal of the House of Delegates makes only
+the most placid and forbearing mention. For
+Monday, June 4, its chief entry is as follows:
+&#8220;There being reason to apprehend an immediate
+incursion of the enemy&#8217;s cavalry to this place,
+which renders it indispensable that the General
+Assembly should forthwith adjourn to a place of
+greater security; resolved, that this House be adjourned
+until Thursday next, then to meet at the
+town of Staunton, in the county of Augusta,&#8221;&mdash;a
+town thirty-nine miles farther west, beyond a
+chain of mountains, and only to be reached by
+them or their pursuers through difficult passes in
+the Blue Ridge. The next entry in the journal is
+dated at Staunton, on the 7th of June, and, very
+properly, is merely a prosaic and business-like
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>
+record of the reassembling of the House according
+to the adjournment aforesaid.<a name="FNanchor324" id="FNanchor324"></a><a href="#Footnote-324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a></p>
+
+<p>But as to some of the things that happened in
+that interval of panic and of scrambling flight,
+popular tradition has not been equally forbearing;
+and while the anecdotes upon that subject, which
+have descended to our time, are very likely decorated
+by many tassels of exaggeration and of
+myth, they yet have, doubtless, some slight framework
+of truth, and do really portray for us the
+actual beliefs of many people in Virginia respecting
+a number of their celebrated men, and especially
+respecting some of the less celebrated traits
+of those men. For example, it is related that on
+the sudden adjournment of the House, caused by
+this dusty and breathless apparition of the speedful
+Jouette, and his laconic intimation that Tarleton
+was coming, the members, though somewhat
+accustomed to ceremony, stood not upon the order
+of their going, but went at once,&mdash;taking first to
+their horses, and then to the woods; and that,
+breaking up into small parties of fugitives, they
+thus made their several ways, as best they could,
+through the passes of the mountains leading to the
+much-desired seclusion of Staunton. One of these
+parties consisted of Benjamin Harrison, Colonel
+William Christian, John Tyler, and Patrick Henry.
+Late in the day, tired and hungry, they stopped
+their horses at the door of a small hut, in a gorge
+of the hills, and asked for food. An old woman,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>
+who came to the door, and who was alone in the
+house, demanded of them who they were, and
+where they were from. Patrick Henry, who acted
+as spokesman of the party, answered: &#8220;We are
+members of the legislature, and have just been
+compelled to leave Charlottesville on account of
+the approach of the enemy.&#8221; &#8220;Ride on, then, ye
+cowardly knaves,&#8221; replied she, in great wrath;
+&#8220;here have my husband and sons just gone to
+Charlottesville to fight for ye, and you running
+away with all your might. Clear out&mdash;ye shall
+have nothing here.&#8221; &#8220;But,&#8221; rejoined Mr. Henry,
+in an expostulating tone, &#8220;we were obliged to fly.
+It would not do for the legislature to be broken
+up by the enemy. Here is Mr. Speaker Harrison;
+you don&#8217;t think he would have fled had it not been
+necessary?&#8221; &#8220;I always thought a great deal of
+Mr. Harrison till now,&#8221; answered the old woman;
+&#8220;but he&#8217;d no business to run from the enemy,&#8221;
+and she was about to shut the door in their faces.
+&#8220;Wait a moment, my good woman,&#8221; urged Mr.
+Henry; &#8220;you would hardly believe that Mr. Tyler
+or Colonel Christian would take to flight if there
+were not good cause for so doing?&#8221; &#8220;No, indeed,
+that I wouldn&#8217;t,&#8221; she replied. &#8220;But,&#8221; exclaimed
+he, &#8220;Mr. Tyler and Colonel Christian are here.&#8221;
+&#8220;They here? Well, I never would have thought
+it;&#8221; and she stood for a moment in doubt, but at
+once added, &#8220;No matter. We love these gentlemen,
+and I didn&#8217;t suppose they would ever run away
+from the British; but since they have, they shall
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>
+have nothing to eat in my house. You may ride
+along.&#8221; In this desperate situation Mr. Tyler then
+stepped forward and said, &#8220;What would you say,
+my good woman, if I were to tell you that Patrick
+Henry fled with the rest of us?&#8221; &#8220;Patrick Henry!
+I should tell you there wasn&#8217;t a word of truth in
+it,&#8221; she answered angrily; &#8220;Patrick Henry would
+never do such a cowardly thing.&#8221; &#8220;But this is
+Patrick Henry,&#8221; said Mr. Tyler, pointing to him.
+The old woman was amazed; but after some reflection,
+and with a convulsive twitch or two at her
+apron string, she said, &#8220;Well, then, if that&#8217;s Patrick
+Henry, it must be all right. Come in, and
+ye shall have the best I have in the house.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor325" id="FNanchor325"></a><a href="#Footnote-325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a></p>
+
+<p>The pitiless tongue of tradition does not stop
+here, but proceeds to narrate other alleged experiences
+of this our noble, though somewhat disconcerted,
+Patrick. Arrived at last in Staunton, and
+walking through its reassuring streets, he is said
+to have met one Colonel William Lewis, to whom
+the face of the orator was then unknown; and to
+have told to this stranger the story of the flight
+of the legislature from Albemarle. &#8220;If Patrick
+Henry had been in Albemarle,&#8221; was the stranger&#8217;s
+comment, &#8220;the British dragoons never would have
+passed over the Rivanna River.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor326" id="FNanchor326"></a><a href="#Footnote-326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a></p>
+
+<p>The tongue of tradition, at last grown quite reckless,
+perhaps, of its own credit, still further relates
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+that even at Staunton these illustrious fugitives
+did not feel entirely sure that they were beyond
+the reach of Tarleton&#8217;s men. A few nights after
+their arrival there, as the story runs, upon some
+sudden alarm, several of them sprang from their
+beds, and, imperfectly clapping on their clothes,
+fled out of the town, and took refuge at the plantation
+of one Colonel George Moffett, near which,
+they had been told, was a cave in which they might
+the more effectually conceal themselves. Mrs.
+Moffett, though not knowing the names of these
+flitting Solons, yet received them with true Virginian
+hospitality: but the next morning, at breakfast,
+she made the unlucky remark that there was
+one member of the legislature who certainly would
+not have run from the enemy. &#8220;Who is he?&#8221;
+was then asked. Her reply was, &#8220;Patrick Henry.&#8221;
+At that moment a gentleman of the party, himself
+possessed of but one boot, was observed to blush
+considerably. Furthermore, as soon as possible
+after breakfast, these imperiled legislators departed
+in search of the cave; shortly after which a negro
+from Staunton rode up, carrying in his hand a
+solitary boot, and inquiring earnestly for Patrick
+Henry. In that way, as the modern reporter of
+this very debatable tradition unkindly adds, the
+admiring Mrs. Moffett ascertained who it was that
+the boot fitted; and he further suggests that, whatever
+Mrs. Moffett&#8217;s emotions were at that time,
+those of Patrick must have been, &#8220;Give me liberty,
+but not death.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor327" id="FNanchor327"></a><a href="#Footnote-327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>
+Passing by these whimsical tales, we have now
+to add that the legislature, having on the 7th of
+June entered upon its work at Staunton, steadily
+continued it there until the 23d of the month, when
+it adjourned in orderly fashion, to meet again in
+the following October. Governor Jefferson, whose
+second year of office had expired two days before
+the flight of himself and the legislature from Charlottesville,
+did not accompany that body to Staunton,
+but pursued his own way to Poplar Forest
+and to Bedford, where, &#8220;remote from the legislature,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor328" id="FNanchor328"></a><a href="#Footnote-328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a>
+he remained during the remainder of its
+session. On the 12th of June, Thomas Nelson was
+elected as his successor in office.<a name="FNanchor329" id="FNanchor329"></a><a href="#Footnote-329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a></p>
+
+
+<p>It was during this period of confusion and terror
+that, as Jefferson alleges, the legislature once
+more had before it the project of a dictator, in the
+criminal sense of that word; and, upon Jefferson&#8217;s
+private authority, both Wirt and Girardin long
+afterward named Patrick Henry as the man who
+was intended for this profligate honor.<a name="FNanchor330" id="FNanchor330"></a><a href="#Footnote-330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a> We need
+not here repeat what was said, in our narrative of
+the closing weeks of 1776, concerning this terrible
+posthumous imputation upon the public and private
+character of Patrick Henry. Nearly everything
+which then appeared to the discredit of this charge
+in connection with the earlier date, is equally applicable
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>
+to it in connection with the later date also.
+Moreover, as regards this later date, there has recently
+been discovered a piece of contemporaneous
+testimony which shows that, whatever may have
+been the scheme for a dictatorship in Virginia in
+1781, it was a great military chieftain who was
+wanted for the position; and, apparently, that Patrick
+Henry was not then even mentioned in the
+affair. On the 9th of June, 1781, Captain H.
+Young, though not a member of the House of
+Delegates, writes from Staunton to Colonel William
+Davies as follows: &#8220;Two days ago, Mr. Nicholas
+gave notice that he should this day move to
+have a dictator appointed. General Washington
+and General Greene are talked of. I dare say
+your knowledge of these worthy gentlemen will be
+sufficient to convince you that neither of them will,
+or ought to, accept of such an appointment.&hellip;
+We have but a thin House of Delegates; but they
+are zealous, I think, in the cause of virtue.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor331" id="FNanchor331"></a><a href="#Footnote-331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> Furthermore,
+the journal of that House contains no
+record of any such motion having been made; and
+it is probable that it never was made, and that the
+subject never came before the legislature in any
+such form as to call for its notice.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, with respect to both the dates mentioned
+by Jefferson for the appearance of the scheme,
+Edmund Randolph has left explicit testimony to
+the effect that such a scheme never had any substantial
+existence at all: &#8220;Mr. Jefferson, in his
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>
+Notes on Virginia, speaks with great bitterness
+against those members of the Assembly in the years
+1776 and 1781, who espoused the erection of a
+dictator. Coming from such authority, the invective
+infects the character of the legislature, notwithstanding
+he has restricted the charge to less
+than a majority, and acknowledged the spotlessness
+of most of them.&hellip; The subject was never before
+them, except as an article of newspaper intelligence,
+and even then not in a form which called
+for their attention. Against this unfettered monster,
+which deserved all the impassioned reprobation
+of Mr. Jefferson, their tones, it may be
+affirmed, would have been loud and tremendous.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor332" id="FNanchor332"></a><a href="#Footnote-332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a></p>
+
+<p>For its autumn session, in 1781, the legislature
+did not reach an organization until the 19th of
+November,&mdash;just one month after the surrender
+of Cornwallis. Eight days after the organization
+of the House, Patrick Henry took his seat;<a name="FNanchor333" id="FNanchor333"></a><a href="#Footnote-333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a> and
+after a service of less than four weeks, he obtained
+leave of absence for the remainder of the session.<a name="FNanchor334" id="FNanchor334"></a><a href="#Footnote-334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a>
+During 1782 his attendance upon the House seems
+to have been limited to the spring session. At
+the organization of the House, on the 12th of May,
+1783, he was in his place again, and during that
+session, as well as the autumnal one, his attendance
+was close and laborious. At both sessions of the
+House in 1784 he was present and in full force;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
+but in the very midst of these employments he was
+interrupted by his election as governor, on the
+17th of November,&mdash;shortly after which, he withdrew
+to his country-seat in order to remove his
+family thence to the capital.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of all these labors in the legislature,
+and amid a multitude of topics merely local and
+temporary, Patrick Henry had occasion to deal
+publicly, and under the peculiar responsibilities of
+leadership, with nearly all the most important and
+difficult questions that came before the American
+people during the later years of the war and the
+earlier years of the peace. The journal of the
+House for that period omits all mention of words
+spoken in debate; and although it does occasionally
+enable us to ascertain on which side of certain
+questions Patrick Henry stood, it leaves us in total
+ignorance of his reasons for any position which
+he chose to take. In trying, therefore, to estimate
+the quality of his statesmanship when dealing with
+these questions, we lack a part of the evidence
+which is essential to any just conclusion; and we
+are left peculiarly at the mercy of those sweeping
+censures which have been occasionally applied to
+his political conduct during that period.<a name="FNanchor335" id="FNanchor335"></a><a href="#Footnote-335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the assurance of peace, in the spring of 1783,
+perhaps the earliest and the knottiest problem
+which had to be taken up was the one relating to
+that vast body of Americans who then bore the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
+contumelious name of Tories,&mdash;those Americans
+who, against all loss and ignominy, had steadily
+remained loyal to the unity of the British empire,
+unflinching in their rejection of the constitutional
+heresy of American secession. How should these
+execrable beings&mdash;the defeated party in a long
+and most rancorous civil war&mdash;be treated by the
+party which was at last victorious? Many of them
+were already in exile: should they be kept there?
+Many were still in this country: should they be
+banished from it? As a matter of fact, the exasperation
+of public feeling against the Tories was,
+at that time, so universal and so fierce that no
+statesman could then lift up his voice in their
+favor without dashing himself against the angriest
+currents of popular opinion and passion, and risking
+the loss of the public favor toward himself.
+Nevertheless, precisely this is what Patrick Henry
+had the courage to do. While the war lasted, no
+man spoke against the Tories more sternly than
+did he. The war being ended, and its great purpose
+secured, no man, excepting perhaps Alexander
+Hamilton, was so prompt and so energetic in
+urging that all animosities of the war should be
+laid aside, and that a policy of magnanimous
+forbearance should be pursued respecting these
+baffled opponents of American independence. It
+was in this spirit that, as soon as possible after the
+cessation of hostilities, he introduced a bill for the
+repeal of an act &#8220;to prohibit intercourse with, and
+the admission of British subjects into&#8221; Virginia,<a name="FNanchor336" id="FNanchor336"></a><a href="#Footnote-336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a>&mdash;language
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
+well understood to refer to the Tories.
+This measure, we are told, not only excited surprise,
+but &#8220;was, at first, received with a repugnance
+apparently insuperable.&#8221; Even his intimate
+friend John Tyler, the speaker of the House,
+hotly resisted it in the committee of the whole,
+and in the course of his argument, turning to Patrick
+Henry, asked &#8220;how he, above all other men,
+could think of inviting into his family an enemy
+from whose insults and injuries he had suffered so
+severely?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In reply to this appeal, Patrick Henry declared
+that the question before them was not one of personal
+feeling; that it was a national question; and
+that in discussing it they should be willing to sacrifice
+all personal resentments, all private wrongs.
+He then proceeded to unfold the proposition that
+America had everything out of which to make a
+great nation&mdash;except people.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Your great want, sir, is the want of men; and these
+you must have, and will have speedily, if you are wise.
+Do you ask how you are to get them? Open your
+doors, sir, and they will come in. The population of
+the Old World is full to overflowing; that population
+is ground, too, by the oppressions of the governments
+under which they live. Sir, they are already standing
+on tiptoe upon their native shores, and looking to your
+coasts with a wishful and longing eye.&hellip; But gentlemen
+object to any accession from Great Britain, and
+particularly to the return of the British refugees. Sir,
+I feel no objection to the return of those deluded
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>
+people. They have, to be sure, mistaken their own
+interests most wofully, and most wofully have they
+suffered the punishment due to their offences. But the
+relations which we bear to them and to their native
+country are now changed. Their king hath acknowledged
+our independence. The quarrel is over. Peace
+hath returned, and found us a free people. Let us have
+the magnanimity, sir, to lay aside our antipathies and
+prejudices, and consider the subject in a political light.
+Those are an enterprising, moneyed people. They will
+be serviceable in taking off the surplus produce of our
+lands, and supplying us with necessaries during the
+infant state of our manufactures. Even if they be
+inimical to us in point of feeling and principle, I can
+see no objection, in a political view, in making them
+tributary to our advantage. And, as I have no prejudices
+to prevent my making this use of them, so, sir,
+I have no fear of any mischief that they can do us.
+Afraid of them? What, sir [said he, rising to one of
+his loftiest attitudes, and assuming a look of the most
+indignant and sovereign contempt], shall we, who have
+laid the proud British lion at our feet, now be afraid of
+his whelps?&#8221;<a name="FNanchor337" id="FNanchor337"></a><a href="#Footnote-337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>In the same spirit he dealt with the restraints
+on British commerce imposed during the war,&mdash;a
+question similar to the one just mentioned, at least
+in this particular, that it was enveloped in the
+angry prejudices born of the conflict just ended.
+The journal for the 13th of May, 1783, has this
+entry: &#8220;Mr. Henry presented, according to order,
+a bill &#8216;to repeal the several Acts of Assembly for
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>
+seizure and condemnation of British goods found
+on land;&#8217; and the same was received and read the
+first time, and ordered to be read a second time.&#8221;
+In advocating this measure, he seems to have lifted
+the discussion clear above all petty considerations
+to the plane of high and permanent principle, and,
+according to one of his chief antagonists in that
+debate, to have met all objections by arguments
+that were &#8220;beyond all expression eloquent and
+sublime.&#8221; After describing the embarrassments
+and distresses of the situation and their causes, he
+took the ground that perfect freedom was as necessary
+to the health and vigor of commerce as it was
+to the health and vigor of citizenship. &#8220;Why
+should we fetter commerce? If a man is in chains,
+he droops and bows to the earth, for his spirits are
+broken; but let him twist the fetters from his legs,
+and he will stand erect. Fetter not commerce, sir.
+Let her be as free as air; she will range the whole
+creation, and return on the wings of the four winds
+of heaven, to bless the land with plenty.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor338" id="FNanchor338"></a><a href="#Footnote-338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a></p>
+
+<p>Besides these and other problems in the foreign
+relations of the country, there remained, of course,
+at the end of the war, several vast domestic
+problems for American statesmanship to grapple
+with,&mdash;one of these being the relations of the
+white race to their perpetual neighbors, the Indians.
+In the autumn session of 1784, in a series
+of efforts said to have been marked by &#8220;irresistible
+earnestness and eloquence,&#8221; he secured the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+favorable attention of the House to this ancient
+problem, and even to his own daring and statesmanlike
+solution of it. The whole subject, as
+he thought, had been commonly treated by the
+superior race in a spirit not only mean and hard,
+but superficial also; the result being nearly two
+centuries of mutual suspicion, hatred, and slaughter.
+At last the time had come for the superior race
+to put an end to this traditional disaster and disgrace.
+Instead of tampering with the difficulty
+by remedies applied merely to the surface, he was
+for striking at the root of it, namely, at the deep
+divergence in sympathy and in interest between
+the two races. There was but one way in which
+to do this: it was for the white race to treat the
+Indians, consistently, as human beings, and as fast
+as possible to identify their interests with our own
+along the entire range of personal concerns,&mdash;in
+property, government, society, and, especially, in
+domestic life. In short, he proposed to encourage,
+by a system of pecuniary bounties, the practice of
+marriage between members of the two races, believing
+that such ties, once formed, would be an
+inviolable pledge of mutual friendship, fidelity,
+and forbearance, and would gradually lead to the
+transformation of the Indians into a civilized and
+Christian people. His bill for this purpose, elaborately
+drawn up, was carried through its second
+reading and &#8220;engrossed for its final passage,&#8221;
+when, by his sudden removal from the floor of the
+House to the governor&#8217;s chair, the measure was
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>
+deprived of its all-conquering champion, and, on
+the third reading, it fell a sacrifice to the Caucasian
+rage and scorn of the members.</p>
+
+<p>It is proper to note, also, that during this period
+of service in the legislature Patrick Henry marched
+straight against public opinion, and jeoparded his
+popularity, on two or three other subjects. For
+example, the mass of the people of Virginia were
+then so angrily opposed to the old connection between
+church and state that they occasionally saw
+danger even in projects which in no way involved
+such a connection. This was the case with Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s necessary and most innocent measure &#8220;for
+the incorporation of all societies of the Christian
+religion which may apply for the same;&#8221; likewise,
+his bill for the incorporation of the clergy of the
+Episcopal Church; and, finally, his more questionable
+and more offensive resolution for requiring all
+citizens of the State to contribute to the expense of
+supporting some form of religious worship according
+to their own preference.</p>
+
+<p>Whether, in these several measures, Patrick
+Henry was right or wrong, one thing, at least, is
+obvious: no politician who could thus beard in his
+very den the lion of public opinion can be accurately
+described as a demagogue.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to those amazing gifts of speech
+by which, in the House of Delegates, he thus repeatedly
+swept all opposition out of his way, and
+made people think as he wished them to do, often
+in the very teeth of their own immediate interests
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
+or prepossessions, an amusing instance was mentioned,
+many years afterward, by President James
+Madison. During the war Virginia had paid her
+soldiers in certificates for the amounts due them,
+to be redeemed in cash at some future time. In
+many cases, the poverty of the soldiers had induced
+them to sell these certificates, for trifling sums in
+ready money, to certain speculators, who were thus
+making a traffic out of the public distress. For
+the purpose of checking this cruel and harmful
+business, Madison brought forward a suitable bill,
+which, as he told the story, Patrick Henry supported
+with an eloquence so irresistible that it
+was carried through the House without an opposing
+vote; while a notorious speculator in these very
+certificates, having listened from the gallery to
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s speech, at its conclusion so far
+forgot his own interest in the question as to exclaim,
+&#8220;That bill ought to pass.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor339" id="FNanchor339"></a><a href="#Footnote-339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a></p>
+
+<p>Concerning his appearance and his manner of
+speech in those days, a bit of testimony comes
+down to us from Spencer Roane, who, as he tells
+us, first &#8220;met with Patrick Henry in the Assembly
+of 1783.&#8221; He adds:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I also then met with R. H. Lee.&hellip; I lodged with
+Lee one or two sessions, and was perfectly acquainted
+with him, while I was yet a stranger to Mr. H. These
+two gentlemen were the great leaders in the House of
+Delegates, and were almost constantly opposed. Notwithstanding
+my habits of intimacy with Mr. Lee, I
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
+found myself obliged to vote with P. H. against him in
+&#8217;83, and against Madison in &#8217;84, &hellip; but with several
+important exceptions. I voted against him (P. H.), I
+recollect, on the subject of the refugees,&mdash;he was for
+permitting their return; on the subject of a general
+assessment; and the act incorporating the Episcopal
+Church. I voted with him, in general, because he was,
+I thought, a more practical statesman than Madison
+(time has made Madison more practical), and a less
+selfish one than Lee. As an orator, Mr. Henry demolished
+Madison with as much ease as Samson did the
+cords that bound him before he was shorn. Mr. Lee
+held a greater competition.&hellip; Mr. Lee was a polished
+gentleman. His person was not very good; and he had
+lost the use of one of his hands; but his manner was
+perfectly graceful. His language was always chaste,
+and, although somewhat too monotonous, his speeches
+were always pleasing; yet he did not ravish your senses,
+nor carry away your judgment by storm.&hellip; Henry
+was almost always victorious. He was as much superior
+to Lee in temper as in eloquence.&hellip; Mr. Henry was
+inferior to Lee in the gracefulness of his action, and
+perhaps also in the chasteness of his language; yet his
+language was seldom incorrect, and his address always
+striking. He had a fine blue eye; and an earnest manner
+which made it impossible not to attend to him. His
+speaking was unequal, and always rose with the subject
+and the exigency. In this respect, he entirely differed
+from Mr. Lee, who always was equal. At some times,
+Mr. Henry would seem to hobble, especially in the beginning
+of his speeches; and, at others, his tones would
+be almost disagreeable; yet it was by means of his
+tones, and the happy modulation of his voice, that his
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>
+speaking perhaps had its greatest effect. He had a
+happy articulation, and a clear, distinct, strong voice;
+and every syllable was distinctly uttered. He was very
+unassuming as to himself, amounting almost to humility,
+and very respectful towards his competitor; the consequence
+was that no feeling of disgust or animosity was
+arrayed against him. His exordiums in particular were
+often hobbling and always unassuming. He knew mankind
+too well to promise much.&hellip; He was great at a
+reply, and greater in proportion to the pressure which
+was bearing upon him. The resources of his mind and
+of his eloquence were equal to any drafts which could
+be made upon them. He took but short notes of what
+fell from his adversaries, and disliked the drudgery of
+composition; yet it is a mistake to say that he could
+not write well.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor340" id="FNanchor340"></a><a href="#Footnote-340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a></p></div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-311" id="Footnote-311"></a><a href="#FNanchor311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, i. 189, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-312" id="Footnote-312"></a><a href="#FNanchor312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 54.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-313" id="Footnote-313"></a><a href="#FNanchor313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-314" id="Footnote-314"></a><a href="#FNanchor314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-315" id="Footnote-315"></a><a href="#FNanchor315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-316" id="Footnote-316"></a><a href="#FNanchor316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-317" id="Footnote-317"></a><a href="#FNanchor317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 14, 15, 18, 25, 28, 31, 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-318" id="Footnote-318"></a><a href="#FNanchor318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 7, 8, 10, 14, 24, 45, 50, 51.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-319" id="Footnote-319"></a><a href="#FNanchor319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 71.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-320" id="Footnote-320"></a><a href="#FNanchor320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 79.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-321" id="Footnote-321"></a><a href="#FNanchor321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. 491.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-322" id="Footnote-322"></a><a href="#FNanchor322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 1.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-323" id="Footnote-323"></a><a href="#FNanchor323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> Burk, <i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. 496-497.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-324" id="Footnote-324"></a><a href="#FNanchor324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 10.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-325" id="Footnote-325"></a><a href="#FNanchor325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> L. G. Tyler, <i>Letters and Times of the Tylers</i>, i. 81-83, where it
+is said to be taken from Abel&#8217;s <i>Life of John Tyler</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-326" id="Footnote-326"></a><a href="#FNanchor326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> Peyton, <i>Hist. Augusta Co.</i> 211.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-327" id="Footnote-327"></a><a href="#FNanchor327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> Peyton, <i>Hist. Augusta Co.</i> 211.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-328" id="Footnote-328"></a><a href="#FNanchor328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 352.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-329" id="Footnote-329"></a><a href="#FNanchor329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 15.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-330" id="Footnote-330"></a><a href="#FNanchor330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> <i>Jefferson&#8217;s Writings</i>, viii. 368; Wirt, 231; Girardin, in Burk.
+<i>Hist. Va.</i> iv. App. pp. xi.-xii.; Randall, <i>Life of Jefferson</i>, i. 348-352.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-331" id="Footnote-331"></a><a href="#FNanchor331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> <i>Calendar Va. State Papers</i>, ii. 152.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-332" id="Footnote-332"></a><a href="#FNanchor332"><span class="label">[332]</span></a> MS. <i>Hist. Va.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-333" id="Footnote-333"></a><a href="#FNanchor333"><span class="label">[333]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> for Nov. 27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-334" id="Footnote-334"></a><a href="#FNanchor334"><span class="label">[334]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> for Dec. 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-335" id="Footnote-335"></a><a href="#FNanchor335"><span class="label">[335]</span></a> For example, <i>Bland Papers</i>, ii. 51; Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>,
+i. 536; ii. 240, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-336" id="Footnote-336"></a><a href="#FNanchor336"><span class="label">[336]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 42.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-337" id="Footnote-337"></a><a href="#FNanchor337"><span class="label">[337]</span></a> John Tyler, in Wirt, 233, 236.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-338" id="Footnote-338"></a><a href="#FNanchor338"><span class="label">[338]</span></a> John Tyler, in Wirt, 237-238.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-339" id="Footnote-339"></a><a href="#FNanchor339"><span class="label">[339]</span></a> Howe, <i>Hist. Coll. Va.</i> 222.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-340" id="Footnote-340"></a><a href="#FNanchor340"><span class="label">[340]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII <br />
+<span class="hsub">SHALL THE CONFEDERATION BE MADE STRONGER?</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>We have now arrived at the second period of
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s service as governor of Virginia,
+beginning with the 30th of November, 1784. For
+the four or five years immediately following that
+date, the salient facts in his career seem to group
+themselves around the story of his relation to that
+vast national movement which ended in an entire
+reorganization of the American Republic under a
+new Constitution. Whoever will take the trouble
+to examine the evidence now at hand bearing upon
+the case, can hardly fail to convince himself that
+the true story of Patrick Henry&#8217;s opposition to
+that great movement has never yet been told. Men
+have usually misconceived, when they have not altogether
+overlooked, the motives for his opposition,
+the spirit in which he conducted it, and the beneficent
+effects which were accomplished by it; while
+his ultimate and firm approval of the new Constitution,
+after it had received the chief amendments
+called for by his criticisms, has been passionately
+described as an example of gross political fickleness
+and inconsistency, instead of being, as it really
+was, a most logical proceeding on his part, and in
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
+perfect harmony with the principles underlying his
+whole public career.</p>
+
+<p>Before entering on a story so fascinating for the
+light it throws on the man and on the epoch, it is
+well that we should stay long enough to glance at
+what we may call the incidental facts in his life,
+for these four or five years now to be looked into.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the time of his thus entering once
+more upon the office of governor, occurred the
+death of his aged mother, at the home of his
+brother-in-law, Colonel Samuel Meredith of Winton,
+who, in a letter to the governor, dated November
+22, 1784, speaks tenderly of the long illness
+which had preceded the death of the venerable
+lady, and especially of the strength and beauty of
+her character:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;She has been in my family upwards of eleven years;
+and from the beginning of that time to the end, her life
+appeared to me most evidently to be a continued manifestation
+of piety and devotion, guided by such a great
+share of good sense as rendered her amiable and agreeable
+to all who were so happy as to be acquainted with
+her. Never have I known a Christian character equal
+to hers.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor341" id="FNanchor341"></a><a href="#Footnote-341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On bringing his family to the capital, in November,
+1784, from the far-away solitude of Leatherwood,
+the governor established them, not within
+the city itself, but across the James River, at a
+place called Salisbury. What with children and
+with grandchildren, his family had now become
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>
+a patriarchal one; and some slight glimpse of
+himself and of his manner of life at that time is
+given us in the memorandum of Spencer Roane.
+In deference to &#8220;the ideas attached to the office of
+governor, as handed down from the royal government,&#8221;
+he is said to have paid careful attention to
+his costume and personal bearing before the public,
+never going abroad except in black coat, waistcoat,
+and knee-breeches, in scarlet cloak, and in dressed
+wig. Moreover, his family &#8220;were furnished with
+an excellent coach, at a time when these vehicles
+were not so common as at present. They lived as
+genteelly, and associated with as polished society,
+as that of any governor before or since has ever
+done. He entertained as much company as others,
+and in as genteel a style; and when, at the end of
+two years, he resigned the office, he had greatly
+exceeded the salary, and [was] in debt, which was
+one cause that induced him to resume the practice
+of the law.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor342" id="FNanchor342"></a><a href="#Footnote-342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a></p>
+
+<p>During his two years in the governorship, his
+duties concerned matters of much local importance,
+indeed, but of no particular interest at present. To
+this remark one exception may be found in some
+passages of friendly correspondence between the
+governor and Washington,&mdash;the latter then enjoying
+the long-coveted repose of Mt. Vernon. In
+January, 1785, the Assembly of Virginia vested in
+Washington certain shares in two companies, just
+then formed, for opening and extending the navigation
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>
+of the James and Potomac rivers.<a name="FNanchor343" id="FNanchor343"></a><a href="#Footnote-343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> In response
+to Governor Henry&#8217;s letter communicating
+this act, Washington wrote on the 27th of February,
+stating his doubts about accepting such a gratuity,
+but at the same time asking the governor as
+a friend to assist him in the matter by his advice.
+Governor Henry&#8217;s reply is of interest to us, not
+only for its allusion to his own domestic anxieties
+at the time, but for its revelation of the frank and
+cordial relations between the two men:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Richmond</span>, March 12th, 1785.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;The honor you are pleased to do me,
+in your favor of the 27th ultimo, in which you desire my
+opinion in a friendly way concerning the act enclosed
+you lately, is very flattering to me. I did not receive
+the letter till Thursday, and since that my family has
+been very sickly. My oldest grandson, a fine boy indeed,
+about nine years old, lays at the point of death.
+Under this state of uneasiness and perturbation, I feel
+some unfitness to consider a subject of so delicate a nature
+as that you have desired my thoughts on. Besides,
+I have some expectation of a conveyance more proper,
+it may be, than the present, when I would wish to send
+you some packets received from Ireland, which I fear
+the post cannot carry at once. If he does not take them
+free, I shan&#8217;t send them, for they are heavy. Captain
+Boyle, who had them from Sir Edward Newenham,
+wishes for the honor of a line from you, which I have
+promised to forward to him.</p>
+
+<p>I will give you the trouble of hearing from me next
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>
+post, if no opportunity presents sooner, and, in the mean
+time, I beg you to be persuaded that, with the most
+sincere attachment, I am, dear sir, your most obedient
+servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor344" id="FNanchor344"></a><a href="#Footnote-344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">General Washington.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The promise contained in this letter was fulfilled
+on the 19th of the same month, when the governor
+wrote to Washington a long and careful statement
+of the whole case, urging him to accept the shares,
+and closing his letter with an assurance of his
+&#8220;unalterable affection&#8221; and &#8220;most sincere attachment,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor345" id="FNanchor345"></a><a href="#Footnote-345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a>&mdash;a
+subscription not common among public
+men at that time.</p>
+
+<p>On the 30th of November, 1786, having declined
+to be put in nomination for a third year, as permitted
+by the Constitution, he finally retired from
+the office of governor. The House of Delegates,
+about the same time, by unanimous vote, crowned
+him with the public thanks, &#8220;for his wise, prudent,
+and upright administration, during his last
+appointment of chief magistrate of this Commonwealth;
+assuring him that they retain a perfect
+sense of his abilities in the discharge of the duties
+of that high and important office, and wish him all
+domestic happiness on his return to private life.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor346" id="FNanchor346"></a><a href="#Footnote-346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a></p>
+
+<p>This return to private life meant, among other
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>
+things, his return, after an interruption of more
+than twelve years, to the practice of the law. For
+this purpose he deemed it best to give up his remote
+home at Leatherwood, and to establish himself
+in Prince Edward County,&mdash;a place about
+midway between his former residence and the capital,
+and much better suited to his convenience, as
+an active practitioner in the courts. Accordingly,
+in Prince Edward County he continued to reside
+from the latter part of 1786 until 1795. Furthermore,
+by that county he was soon elected as one of
+its delegates in the Assembly; and, resuming there
+his old position as leader, he continued to serve in
+every session until the end of 1790, at which time
+he finally withdrew from all official connection
+with public life. Thus it happened that, by his
+retirement from the governorship in 1786, and by
+his almost immediate restoration to the House of
+Delegates, he was put into a situation to act most
+aggressively and most powerfully on public opinion
+in Virginia during the whole period of the struggle
+over the new Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>As regards his attitude toward that great business,
+we need, first of all, to clear away some obscurity
+which has gathered about the question of
+his habitual views respecting the relations of the
+several States to the general government. It has
+been common to suppose that, even prior to the
+movement for the new Constitution, Patrick Henry
+had always been an extreme advocate of the rights
+of the States as opposed to the central authority
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>
+of the Union; and that the tremendous resistance
+which he made to the new Constitution in all stages
+of the affair prior to the adoption of the first
+group of amendments is to be accounted for as the
+effect of an original and habitual tendency of his
+mind.<a name="FNanchor347" id="FNanchor347"></a><a href="#Footnote-347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a> Such, however, seems not to have been the
+case.</p>
+
+<p>In general it may be said that, at the very outset
+of the Revolution, Patrick Henry was one of the
+first of our statesmen to recognize the existence
+and the imperial character of a certain cohesive
+central authority, arising from the very nature of
+the revolutionary act which the several colonies
+were then taking. As early as 1774, in the first
+Continental Congress, it was he who exclaimed:
+&#8220;All distinctions are thrown down. All America
+is thrown into one mass.&#8221; &#8220;The distinctions between
+Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers,
+and New Englanders are no more. I am not a
+Virginian, but an American.&#8221; In the spring of
+1776, at the approach of the question of independence,
+it was he who even incurred reproach by his
+anxiety to defer independence until after the basis
+for a general government should have been established,
+lest the several States, in separating from
+England, should lapse into a separation from one
+another also. As governor of Virginia from 1776
+to 1779, his official correspondence with the president
+of Congress, with the board of war, and with
+the general of the army is pervaded by proofs of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>
+his respect for the supreme authority of the general
+government within its proper sphere. Finally,
+as a leader in the Virginia House of Delegates
+from 1780 to 1784, he was in the main a supporter
+of the policy of giving more strength and dignity
+to the general government. During all that period,
+according to the admission of his most unfriendly
+modern critic, Patrick Henry showed himself &#8220;much
+more disposed to sustain and strengthen the federal
+authority&#8221; than did, for example, his great rival in
+the House, Richard Henry Lee; and for the time
+those two great men became &#8220;the living and active
+exponents of two adverse political systems in both
+state and national questions.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor348" id="FNanchor348"></a><a href="#Footnote-348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a> In 1784, by which
+time the weakness of the general government had
+become alarming, Patrick Henry was among the
+foremost in Virginia to express alarm, and to propose
+the only appropriate remedy. For example,
+on the assembling of the legislature, in May of
+that year, he took pains to seek an early interview
+with two of his prominent associates in the House
+of Delegates, Madison and Jones, for the express
+purpose of devising with them some method of giving
+greater strength to the Confederation. &#8220;I find
+him,&#8221; wrote Madison to Jefferson immediately
+after the interview, &#8220;strenuous for invigorating
+the federal government, though without any precise
+plan.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor349" id="FNanchor349"></a><a href="#Footnote-349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> A more detailed account of the same
+interview was sent to Jefferson by another correspondent.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>
+According to the latter, Patrick Henry
+then declared that &#8220;he saw ruin inevitable, unless
+something was done to give Congress a compulsory
+process on delinquent States;&#8221; that &#8220;a bold example
+set by Virginia&#8221; in that direction &#8220;would
+have influence on the other States;&#8221; and that
+&#8220;this conviction was his only inducement for coming
+into the present Assembly.&#8221; Whereupon, it
+was then agreed between them that &#8220;Jones and
+Madison should sketch some plan for giving greater
+power to the federal government; and Henry
+promised to sustain it on the floor.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor350" id="FNanchor350"></a><a href="#Footnote-350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a> Finally, such
+was the impression produced by Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+political conduct during all those years that, as late
+as in December, 1786, Madison could speak of him
+as having &#8220;been hitherto the champion of the federal
+cause.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor351" id="FNanchor351"></a><a href="#Footnote-351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a></p>
+
+<p>Not far, however, from the date last mentioned
+Patrick Henry ceased to be &#8220;the champion of the
+federal cause,&#8221; and became its chief antagonist,
+and so remained until some time during Washington&#8217;s
+first term in the presidency. What brought
+about this sudden and total revolution? It can be
+explained only by the discovery of some new influence
+which came into his life between 1784 and
+1786, and which was powerful enough to reverse
+entirely the habitual direction of his political
+thought and conduct. Just what that influence
+was can now be easily shown.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the 3d of August, 1786, John Jay, as secretary
+for foreign affairs, presented to Congress
+some results of his negotiations with the Spanish
+envoy, Gardoqui, respecting a treaty with Spain;
+and he then urged that Congress, in view of certain
+vast advantages to our foreign commerce,
+should consent to surrender the navigation of the
+Mississippi for twenty-five or thirty years,<a name="FNanchor352" id="FNanchor352"></a><a href="#Footnote-352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a>&mdash;a
+proposal which, very naturally, seemed to the six
+Southern States as nothing less than a cool invitation
+to them to sacrifice their own most important
+interests for the next quarter of a century, in order
+to build up during that period the interests of the
+seven States of the North. The revelation of this
+project, and of the ability of the Northern States
+to force it through, sent a shock of alarm and of
+distrust into every Southern community. Moreover,
+full details of these transactions in Congress
+were promptly conveyed to Governor Henry by
+James Monroe, who added this pungent item,&mdash;that
+a secret project was then under the serious
+consideration of &#8220;committees&#8221; of Northern men,
+for a dismemberment of the Union, and for setting
+the Southern States adrift, after having thus bartered
+away from them the use of the Mississippi.<a name="FNanchor353" id="FNanchor353"></a><a href="#Footnote-353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the same day that Monroe was writing
+from New York that letter to Governor Henry,
+Madison was writing from Philadelphia a letter to
+Jefferson. Having mentioned a plan for strengthening
+the Confederation, Madison says:&mdash;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Though my wishes are in favor of such an event,
+yet I despair so much of its accomplishment at the
+present crisis, that I do not extend my views beyond
+a commercial reform. To speak the truth, I almost
+despair even of this. You will find the cause in a measure
+now before Congress, &hellip; a proposed treaty with
+Spain, one article of which shuts the Mississippi for
+twenty or thirty years. Passing by the other Southern
+States, figure to yourself the effect of such a stipulation
+on the Assembly of Virginia, already jealous of Northern
+politics, and which will be composed of thirty members
+from the Western waters,&mdash;of a majority of others
+attached to the Western country from interests of their
+own, of their friends, or their constituents.&hellip; Figure
+to yourself its effect on the people at large on the Western
+waters, who are impatiently waiting for a favorable
+result to the negotiation with Gardoqui, and who will consider
+themselves sold by their Atlantic brethren. Will
+it be an unnatural consequence if they consider themselves
+absolved from every federal tie, and court some
+protection for their betrayed rights?&#8221;<a name="FNanchor354" id="FNanchor354"></a><a href="#Footnote-354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>How truly Madison predicted the fatal construction
+which in the South, and particularly in Virginia,
+would be put upon the proposed surrender
+of the Mississippi, may be seen by a glance at
+some of the resolutions which passed the Virginia
+House of Delegates on the 29th of the following
+November:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;That the common right of navigating the river
+Mississippi, and of communicating with other nations
+through that channel, ought to be considered as the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>
+bountiful gift of nature to the United States, as proprietors
+of the territories watered by the said river and its
+eastern branches, and as moreover secured to them by
+the late revolution.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That the Confederacy, having been formed on the
+broad basis of equal rights, in every part thereof, to the
+protection and guardianship of the whole, a sacrifice of
+the rights of any one part, to the supposed or real interest
+of another part, would be a flagrant violation of justice,
+a direct contravention of the end for which the
+federal government was instituted, and an alarming innovation
+in the system of the Union.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor355" id="FNanchor355"></a><a href="#Footnote-355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>One day after the passage of those resolutions,
+Patrick Henry ceased to be the governor of Virginia;
+and five days afterward he was chosen by
+Virginia as one of its seven delegates to a convention
+to be held at Philadelphia in the following
+May for the purpose of revising the federal Constitution.
+But amid the widespread excitement,
+amid the anger and the suspicion then prevailing
+as to the liability of the Southern States, even
+under a weak confederation, to be slaughtered, in
+all their most important concerns, by the superior
+weight and number of the Northern States, it is
+easy to see how little inclined many Southern
+statesmen would be to increase that liability by
+making this weak confederation a strong one. In
+the list of such Southern statesmen Patrick Henry
+must henceforth be reckoned; and, as it was never
+his nature to do anything tepidly or by halves, his
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>
+hostility to the project for strengthening the Confederation
+soon became as hot as it was comprehensive.
+On the 7th of December, only three
+days after he was chosen as a delegate to the
+Philadelphia convention, Madison, then at Richmond,
+wrote concerning him thus anxiously to
+Washington:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I am entirely convinced from what I observe here,
+that unless the project of Congress can be reversed, the
+hopes of carrying this State into a proper federal system
+will be demolished. Many of our most federal leading
+men are extremely soured with what has already passed.
+Mr. Henry, who has been hitherto the champion of the
+federal cause, has become a cold advocate, and, in the
+event of an actual sacrifice of the Mississippi by Congress,
+will unquestionably go over to the opposite side.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor356" id="FNanchor356"></a><a href="#Footnote-356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>But in spite of this change in his attitude toward
+the federal cause, perhaps he would still go
+to the great convention. On that subject he appears
+to have kept his own counsel for several
+weeks; but by the 1st of March, 1787, Edmund
+Randolph, at Richmond, was able to send this
+word to Madison, who was back in his place in
+Congress: &#8220;Mr. Henry peremptorily refuses to
+go;&#8221; and Randolph mentions as Henry&#8217;s reasons
+for this refusal, not only his urgent professional
+duties, but his repugnance to the proceedings of
+Congress in the matter of the Mississippi.<a name="FNanchor357" id="FNanchor357"></a><a href="#Footnote-357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a> Five
+days later, from the same city, John Marshall
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>
+wrote to Arthur Lee: &#8220;Mr. Henry, whose opinions
+have their usual influence, has been heard to
+say that he would rather part with the Confederation
+than relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor358" id="FNanchor358"></a><a href="#Footnote-358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a>
+On the 18th of the same month, in a
+letter to Washington, Madison poured out his solicitude
+respecting the course which Henry was
+going to take: &#8220;I hear from Richmond, with
+much concern, that Mr. Henry has positively declined
+his mission to Philadelphia. Besides the
+loss of his services on that theatre, there is danger,
+I fear, that this step has proceeded from a wish
+to leave his conduct unfettered on another theatre,
+where the result of the convention will receive its
+destiny from his omnipotence.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor359" id="FNanchor359"></a><a href="#Footnote-359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a> On the next day,
+Madison sent off to Jefferson, who was then in
+Paris, an account of the situation: &#8220;But although
+it appears that the intended sacrifice of the Mississippi
+will not be made, the consequences of the
+intention and the attempt are likely to be very
+serious. I have already made known to you the
+light in which the subject was taken up by Virginia.
+Mr. Henry&#8217;s disgust exceeds all measure,
+and I am not singular in ascribing his refusal to
+attend the convention, to the policy of keeping
+himself free to combat or espouse the result of it
+according to the result of the Mississippi business,
+among other circumstances.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor360" id="FNanchor360"></a><a href="#Footnote-360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>
+Finally, on the 25th of March Madison wrote to
+Randolph, evidently in reply to the information
+given by the latter on the 1st of the month: &#8220;The
+refusal of Mr. Henry to join in the task of revising
+the Confederation is ominous; and the more
+so, I fear, if he means to be governed by the event
+which you conjecture.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor361" id="FNanchor361"></a><a href="#Footnote-361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a></p>
+
+<p>That Patrick Henry did not attend the great
+convention, everybody knows; but the whole meaning
+of his refusal to do so, everybody may now
+understand somewhat more clearly, perhaps, than
+before.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-341" id="Footnote-341"></a><a href="#FNanchor341"><span class="label">[341]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-342" id="Footnote-342"></a><a href="#FNanchor342"><span class="label">[342]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-343" id="Footnote-343"></a><a href="#FNanchor343"><span class="label">[343]</span></a> Hening, xi. 525-526.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-344" id="Footnote-344"></a><a href="#FNanchor344"><span class="label">[344]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-345" id="Footnote-345"></a><a href="#FNanchor345"><span class="label">[345]</span></a> Sparks, <i>Corr. Rev.</i> iv. 93-96. See, also, Washington&#8217;s letter
+to Henry, for Nov. 30, 1785, in <i>Writings of W.</i> xii. 277-278.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-346" id="Footnote-346"></a><a href="#FNanchor346"><span class="label">[346]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> for Nov. 25, 1786.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-347" id="Footnote-347"></a><a href="#FNanchor347"><span class="label">[347]</span></a> For example, Curtis, <i>Hist. Const.</i> ii. 553-554.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-348" id="Footnote-348"></a><a href="#FNanchor348"><span class="label">[348]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, i. 536-537.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-349" id="Footnote-349"></a><a href="#FNanchor349"><span class="label">[349]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc. i. 80.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-350" id="Footnote-350"></a><a href="#FNanchor350"><span class="label">[350]</span></a> Bancroft, <i>Hist. Const.</i> i. 162.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-351" id="Footnote-351"></a><a href="#FNanchor351"><span class="label">[351]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc. i. 264.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-352" id="Footnote-352"></a><a href="#FNanchor352"><span class="label">[352]</span></a> <i>Secret Jour. Cong.</i> iv. 44-63.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-353" id="Footnote-353"></a><a href="#FNanchor353"><span class="label">[353]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, ii. 122.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-354" id="Footnote-354"></a><a href="#FNanchor354"><span class="label">[354]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, ii. 119-120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-355" id="Footnote-355"></a><a href="#FNanchor355"><span class="label">[355]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 66-67.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-356" id="Footnote-356"></a><a href="#FNanchor356"><span class="label">[356]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc. i. 264.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-357" id="Footnote-357"></a><a href="#FNanchor357"><span class="label">[357]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, ii. 238-239.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-358" id="Footnote-358"></a><a href="#FNanchor358"><span class="label">[358]</span></a> R. H. Lee, <i>Life of A. Lee</i>, ii. 321.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-359" id="Footnote-359"></a><a href="#FNanchor359"><span class="label">[359]</span></a> Sparks, <i>Corr. Rev.</i> iv. 168.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-360" id="Footnote-360"></a><a href="#FNanchor360"><span class="label">[360]</span></a> <i>Madison Papers</i>, ii. 623.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-361" id="Footnote-361"></a><a href="#FNanchor361"><span class="label">[361]</span></a> <i>Madison Papers</i>, 627.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII <br />
+<span class="hsub">THE BATTLE IN VIRGINIA OVER THE NEW CONSTITUTION</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The great convention at Philadelphia, after a
+session of four months, came to the end of its
+noble labors on the 17th of September, 1787.
+Washington, who had been not merely its presiding
+officer but its presiding genius, then hastened
+back to Mt. Vernon, and, in his great anxiety to
+win over to the new Constitution the support of
+his old friend Patrick Henry, he immediately dispatched
+to him a copy of that instrument, accompanied
+by a very impressive and conciliatory letter,<a name="FNanchor362" id="FNanchor362"></a><a href="#Footnote-362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a>
+to which, about three weeks afterwards, was
+returned the following reply:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Richmond</span>, October 19, 1787.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I was honored by the receipt of your
+favor, together with a copy of the proposed federal Constitution,
+a few days ago, for which I beg you to accept
+my thanks. They are also due to you from me as a
+citizen, on account of the great fatigue necessarily attending
+the arduous business of the late convention.</p>
+
+<p>I have to lament that I cannot bring my mind to
+accord with the proposed Constitution. The concern I
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>
+feel on this account is really greater than I am able to
+express. Perhaps mature reflections may furnish me
+with reasons to change my present sentiments into a
+conformity with the opinions of those personages for
+whom I have the highest reverence. Be that as it may,
+I beg you will be persuaded of the unalterable regard
+and attachment with which I shall be,</p>
+
+<p>Dear Sir, your obliged and very humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor363" id="FNanchor363"></a><a href="#Footnote-363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Four days before the date of this letter the
+legislature of Virginia had convened at Richmond
+for its autumn session, and Patrick Henry had
+there taken his usual place on the most important
+committees, and as the virtual director of the
+thought and work of the House. Much solicitude
+was felt concerning the course which he might advise
+the legislature to adopt on the supreme question
+then before the country,&mdash;some persons even
+fearing that he might try to defeat the new Constitution
+in Virginia by simply preventing the call
+of a state convention. Great was Washington&#8217;s
+satisfaction on receiving from one of his correspondents
+in the Assembly, shortly after the session
+began, this cheerful report:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I have not met with one in all my inquiries (and I
+have made them with great diligence) opposed to it,
+except Mr. Henry, who I have heard is so, but could
+only conjecture it from a conversation with him on the
+subject.&hellip; The transmissory note of Congress was
+before us to-day, when Mr. Henry declared that it
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>
+transcended our powers to decide on the Constitution,
+and that it must go before a convention. As it was insinuated
+he would aim at preventing this, much pleasure
+was discovered at the declaration.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor364" id="FNanchor364"></a><a href="#Footnote-364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On the 24th of October, from his place in Congress,
+Madison sent over to Jefferson, in Paris, a
+full account of the results of the Philadelphia convention,
+and of the public feeling with reference
+to its work: &#8220;My information from Virginia is
+as yet extremely imperfect.&hellip; The part which
+Mr. Henry will take is unknown here. Much will
+depend on it. I had taken it for granted, from a
+variety of circumstances, that he would be in the
+opposition, and still think that will be the case.
+There are reports, however, which favor a contrary
+supposition.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor365" id="FNanchor365"></a><a href="#Footnote-365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a> But, by the 9th of December,
+Madison was able to send to Jefferson a further
+report, which indicated that all doubt respecting
+the hostile attitude of Patrick Henry was then
+removed. After mentioning that a majority of
+the people of Virginia seemed to be in favor of the
+Constitution, he added: &#8220;What change may be
+produced by the united influence and exertions of
+Mr. Henry, Mr. Mason, and the governor, with
+some pretty able auxiliaries, is uncertain.&hellip;
+Mr. Henry is the great adversary who will render
+the event precarious. He is, I find, with his usual
+address, working up every possible interest into a
+spirit of opposition.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor366" id="FNanchor366"></a><a href="#Footnote-366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a></p>
+
+
+<p>Long before the date last mentioned, the legislature<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>
+had regularly declared for a state convention,
+to be held at Richmond on the first Monday in
+June, 1788, then and there to determine whether
+or not Virginia would accept the new Constitution.
+In view of that event, delegates were in the mean
+time to be chosen by the people; and thus, for the
+intervening months, the fight was to be transferred
+to the arena of popular debate. In such a contest
+Patrick Henry, being once aroused, was not likely
+to take a languid or a hesitating part; and of the
+importance then attached to the part which he did
+take, we catch frequent glimpses in the correspondence
+of the period. Thus, on the 19th of February,
+1788, Madison, still at New York, sent this
+word to Jefferson: &#8220;The temper of Virginia, as
+far as I can learn, has undergone but little change
+of late. At first, there was an enthusiasm for the
+Constitution. The tide next took a sudden and
+strong turn in the opposite direction. The influence
+and exertions of Mr. Henry, Colonel Mason,
+and some others, will account for this.&hellip; I am
+told that a very bold language is held by Mr.
+Henry and some of his partisans.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor367" id="FNanchor367"></a><a href="#Footnote-367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a> On the 10th
+of April, Madison, then returned to his home in
+Virginia, wrote to Edmund Randolph: &#8220;The declaration
+of Henry, mentioned in your letter, is a
+proof to me that desperate measures will be his
+game.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor368" id="FNanchor368"></a><a href="#Footnote-368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a> On the 22d of the same month Madison
+wrote to Jefferson: &#8220;The adversaries take very<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>
+different grounds of opposition. Some are opposed
+to the substance of the plan; others, to particular
+modifications only. Mr. Henry is supposed to aim
+at disunion.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor369" id="FNanchor369"></a><a href="#Footnote-369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a> On the 24th of April, Edward
+Carrington, writing from New York, told Jefferson:
+&#8220;Mr. H. does not openly declare for a dismemberment
+of the Union, but his arguments in
+support of his opposition to the Constitution go
+directly to that issue. He says that three confederacies
+would be practicable, and better suited to
+the good of commerce than one.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor370" id="FNanchor370"></a><a href="#Footnote-370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a> On the 28th
+of April, Washington wrote to Lafayette on account
+of the struggle then going forward; and
+after naming some of the leading champions of the
+Constitution, he adds sorrowfully: &#8220;Henry and
+Mason are its great adversaries.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor371" id="FNanchor371"></a><a href="#Footnote-371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a> Finally, as
+late as on the 12th of June, the Rev. John Blair
+Smith, at that time president of Hampden-Sidney
+College, conveyed to Madison, an old college friend,
+his own deep disapproval of the course which had
+been pursued by Patrick Henry in the management
+of the canvass against the Constitution:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Before the Constitution appeared, the minds of the
+people were artfully prepared against it; so that all
+opposition [to Mr. Henry] at the election of delegates to
+consider it, was in vain. That gentleman has descended
+to lower artifices and management on the occasion than
+I thought him capable of.&hellip; If Mr. Innes has shown
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>
+you a speech of Mr. Henry to his constituents, which I
+sent him, you will see something of the method he has
+taken to diffuse his poison.&hellip; It grieves me to see
+such great natural talents abused to such purposes.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor372" id="FNanchor372"></a><a href="#Footnote-372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On Monday, the 2d of June, 1788, the long-expected
+convention assembled at Richmond. So
+great was the public interest in the event that a
+full delegation was present, even on the first day;
+and in order to make room for the throngs of citizens
+from all parts of Virginia and from other
+States, who had flocked thither to witness the impending
+battle, it was decided that the convention
+should hold its meetings in the New Academy, on
+Shockoe Hill, the largest assembly-room in the
+city.</p>
+
+<p>Eight States had already adopted the Constitution.
+The five States which had yet to act upon
+the question were New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
+New York, North Carolina, and Virginia. For
+every reason, the course then to be taken by Virginia
+would have great consequences. Moreover,
+since the days of the struggle over independence,
+no question had so profoundly moved the people of
+Virginia; none had aroused such hopes and such
+fears; none had so absorbed the thoughts, or so
+embittered the relations of men. It is not strange,
+therefore, that this convention, consisting of one
+hundred and seventy members, should have been
+thought to represent, to an unusual degree, the intelligence,
+the character, the experience, the reputation
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>
+of the State. Perhaps it would be true to
+say that, excepting Washington, Jefferson, and
+Richard Henry Lee, no Virginian of eminence was
+absent from it.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, the line of division, which from
+the outset parted into two hostile sections these
+one hundred and seventy Virginians, was something
+quite unparalleled. In other States it had been
+noted that the conservative classes, the men of education
+and of property, of high office, of high social
+and professional standing, were nearly all on the
+side of the new Constitution. Such was not the
+case in Virginia. Of the conservative classes
+throughout that State, quite as many were against
+the new Constitution as were in favor of it. Of
+the four distinguished citizens who had been its
+governors, since Virginia had assumed the right to
+elect governors,&mdash;Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Nelson,
+and Harrison,&mdash;each in turn had denounced
+the measure as unsatisfactory and dangerous;
+while Edmund Randolph, the governor then in
+office, having attended the great convention at
+Philadelphia, and having there refused to sign the
+Constitution, had published an impressive statement
+of his objections to it, and, for several months
+thereafter, had been counted among its most formidable
+opponents. Concerning the attitude of the
+legal profession,&mdash;a profession always inclined to
+conservatism,&mdash;Madison had written to Jefferson:
+&#8220;The general and admiralty courts, with most of
+the bar, oppose the Constitution.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor373" id="FNanchor373"></a><a href="#Footnote-373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a> Finally, among
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>
+Virginians who were at that time particularly honored
+and trusted for patriotic services during the
+Revolution, such men as these, Theodoric Bland,
+William Grayson, John Tyler, Meriwether Smith,
+James Monroe, George Mason, and Richard Henry
+Lee, had declared their disapproval of the document.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, within the convention itself, at the
+opening of the session, it was claimed by the friends
+of the new government that they then outnumbered
+their opponents by at least fifty votes.<a name="FNanchor374" id="FNanchor374"></a><a href="#Footnote-374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a> Their
+great champion in debate was James Madison, who
+was powerfully assisted, first or last, by Edmund
+Pendleton, John Marshall, George Nicholas, Francis
+Corbin, George Wythe, James Innes, General
+Henry Lee, and especially by that same Governor
+Randolph who, after denouncing the Constitution
+for &#8220;features so odious&#8221; that he could not &#8220;agree
+to it,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor375" id="FNanchor375"></a><a href="#Footnote-375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a> had finally swung completely around to its
+support.</p>
+
+<p>Against all this array of genius, learning, character,
+logical acumen, and eloquence, Patrick Henry
+held the field as protagonist for twenty-three days,&mdash;his
+chief lieutenants in the fight being Mason,
+Grayson, and John Dawson, with occasional help
+from Harrison, Monroe, and Tyler. Upon him
+alone fell the brunt of the battle. Out of the
+twenty-three days of that splendid tourney, there
+were but five days in which he did not take the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>
+floor. On each of several days he made three
+speeches; on one day he made five speeches; on
+another day eight. In one speech alone, he was on
+his legs for seven hours. The words of all who
+had any share in that debate were taken down,
+according to the imperfect art of the time, by
+the stenographer, David Robertson, whose reports,
+however, are said to be little more than a pretty
+full outline of the speeches actually made: but in
+the volume which contains these abstracts, one of
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s speeches fills eight pages, another
+ten pages, another sixteen, another twenty-one,
+another forty; while, in the aggregate, his speeches
+constitute nearly one quarter of the entire book,&mdash;a
+book of six hundred and sixty-three pages.<a name="FNanchor376" id="FNanchor376"></a><a href="#Footnote-376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a></p>
+
+<p>Any one who has fallen under the impression, so
+industriously propagated by the ingenious enmity
+of Jefferson&#8217;s old age, that Patrick Henry was a
+man of but meagre information and of extremely
+slender intellectual resources, ignorant especially
+of law, of political science, and of history, totally
+lacking in logical power and in precision of statement,
+with nothing to offset these deficiencies excepting
+a strange gift of overpowering, dithyrambic
+eloquence, will find it hard, as he turns over the
+leaves on which are recorded the debates of the
+Virginia convention, to understand just how such
+a person could have made the speeches which are
+there attributed to Patrick Henry, or how a mere
+rhapsodist could have thus held his ground, in close
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>
+hand-to-hand combat, for twenty-three days, against
+such antagonists, on all the difficult subjects of
+law, political science, and history involved in the
+Constitution of the United States,&mdash;while showing
+at the same time every quality of good generalship
+as a tactician and as a party leader. &#8220;There has
+been, I am aware,&#8221; says an eminent historian of
+the Constitution, &#8220;a modern scepticism concerning
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s abilities; but I cannot share it.&hellip;
+The manner in which he carried on the opposition
+to the Constitution in the convention of Virginia,
+for nearly a whole month, shows that he possessed
+other powers besides those of great natural
+eloquence.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor377" id="FNanchor377"></a><a href="#Footnote-377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a></p>
+
+<p>But, now, what were Patrick Henry&#8217;s objections
+to the new Constitution?</p>
+
+<p>First of all, let it be noted that his objections
+did not spring from any hostility to the union of
+the thirteen States, or from any preference for a
+separate union of the Southern States. Undoubtedly
+there had been a time, especially under the
+provocations connected with the Mississippi business,
+when he and many other Southern statesmen
+sincerely thought that there might be no security
+for their interests even under the Confederation,
+and that this lack of security would be even more
+glaring and disastrous under the new Constitution.
+Such, for example, seems to have been the opinion
+of Governor Benjamin Harrison, as late as October
+the 4th, 1787, on which date he thus wrote to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>
+Washington: &#8220;I cannot divest myself of an opinion
+that &hellip; if the Constitution is carried into
+effect, the States south of the Potomac will be
+little more than appendages to those to the northward
+of it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor378" id="FNanchor378"></a><a href="#Footnote-378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a> It is very probable that this sentence
+accurately reflects, likewise, Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+mood of thought at that time. Nevertheless, whatever
+may have been his thought under the sectional
+suspicions and alarms of the preceding months, it
+is certain that, at the date of the Virginia convention,
+he had come to see that the thirteen States
+must, by all means, try to keep together. &#8220;I am
+persuaded,&#8221; said he, in reply to Randolph, &#8220;of
+what the honorable gentleman says, &#8216;that separate
+confederacies will ruin us.&#8217;&#8221; &#8220;Sir,&#8221; he exclaimed
+on another occasion, &#8220;the dissolution of the Union
+is most abhorrent to my mind. The first thing I
+have at heart is American liberty; the second
+thing is American union.&#8221; Again he protested:
+&#8220;I mean not to breathe the spirit, nor utter the
+language, of secession.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor379" id="FNanchor379"></a><a href="#Footnote-379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the second place, he admitted that there were
+great defects in the old Confederation, and that
+those defects ought to be cured by proper amendments,
+particularly in the direction of greater
+strength to the federal government. But did the
+proposed Constitution embody such amendments?
+On the contrary, that Constitution, instead of properly
+amending the old Confederation, simply annihilated
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>
+it, and replaced it by something radically
+different and radically dangerous.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The federal convention ought to have amended the
+old system; for this purpose they were solely delegated;
+the object of their mission extended to no other consideration.&#8221;
+&#8220;The distinction between a national government
+and a confederacy is not sufficiently discerned.
+Had the delegates who were sent to Philadelphia a
+power to propose a consolidated government, instead of
+a confederacy?&#8221; &#8220;Here is a resolution as radical as
+that which separated us from Great Britain. It is radical
+in this transition; our rights and privileges are
+endangered, and the sovereignty of the States will be
+relinquished: and cannot we plainly see that this is
+actually the case? The rights of conscience, trial by
+jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities and franchises,
+all pretensions to human rights and privileges,
+are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change, so
+loudly talked of by some, so inconsiderately by others.&#8221;
+&#8220;A number of characters, of the greatest eminence in
+this country, object to this government for its consolidating
+tendency. This is not imaginary. It is a formidable
+reality. If consolidation proves to be as mischievous
+to this country as it has been to other countries,
+what will the poor inhabitants of this country do? This
+government will operate like an ambuscade. It will
+destroy the state governments, and swallow the liberties
+of the people, without giving previous notice. If gentlemen
+are willing to run the hazard, let them run it; but
+I shall exculpate myself by my opposition and monitory
+warnings within these walls.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor380" id="FNanchor380"></a><a href="#Footnote-380" class="fnanchor">[380]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>
+But, in the third place, besides transforming the
+old confederacy into a centralized and densely consolidated
+government, and clothing that government
+with enormous powers over States and over
+individuals, what had this new Constitution provided
+for the protection of States and of individuals?
+Almost nothing. It had created a new and
+a tremendous power over us; it had failed to cover
+us with any shield, or to interpose any barrier, by
+which, in case of need, we might save ourselves
+from the wanton and fatal exercise of that power.
+In short, the new Constitution had no bill of
+rights. But &#8220;a bill of rights,&#8221; he declared, is
+&#8220;indispensably necessary.&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;A general positive provision should be inserted in
+the new system, securing to the States and the people
+every right which was not conceded to the general government.&#8221;
+&#8220;I trust that gentlemen, on this occasion,
+will see the great objects of religion, liberty of the press,
+trial by jury, interdiction of cruel punishments, and
+every other sacred right, secured, before they agree to
+that paper.&#8221; &#8220;Mr. Chairman, the necessity of a bill of
+rights appears to me to be greater in this government
+than ever it was in any government before. I have observed
+already that the sense of European nations, and
+particularly Great Britain, is against the construction
+of rights being retained which are not expressly relinquished.
+I repeat, that all nations have adopted the
+construction, that all rights not expressly and unequivocally
+reserved to the people are impliedly and incidentally
+relinquished to rulers, as necessarily inseparable
+from delegated powers.&hellip; Let us consider the sentiments
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>
+which have been entertained by the people of
+America on this subject. At the Revolution, it must be
+admitted that it was their sense to set down those great
+rights which ought, in all countries, to be held inviolable
+and sacred. Virginia did so, we all remember. She
+made a compact to reserve, expressly, certain rights.&hellip;
+She most cautiously and guardedly reserved and secured
+those invaluable, inestimable rights and privileges which
+no people, inspired with the least glow of patriotic liberty,
+ever did, or ever can, abandon. She is called
+upon now to abandon them, and dissolve that compact
+which secured them to her.&hellip; Will she do it? This
+is the question. If you intend to reserve your unalienable
+rights, you must have the most express stipulation;
+for, if implication be allowed, you are ousted of those
+rights. If the people do not think it necessary to reserve
+them, they will be supposed to be given up.&hellip;
+If you give up these powers, without a bill of rights, you
+will exhibit the most absurd thing to mankind that ever
+the world saw,&mdash;a government that has abandoned all
+its powers,&mdash;the powers of direct taxation, the sword,
+and the purse. You have disposed of them to Congress,
+without a bill of rights, without check, limitation, or
+control. And still you have checks and guards; still
+you keep barriers&mdash;pointed where? Pointed against
+your weakened, prostrated, enervated, state government!
+You have a bill of rights to defend you against
+the state government&mdash;which is bereaved of all power,
+and yet you have none against Congress&mdash;though in
+full and exclusive possession of all power. You arm
+yourselves against the weak and defenceless, and expose
+yourselves naked to the armed and powerful. Is not
+this a conduct of unexampled absurdity?&#8221;<a name="FNanchor381" id="FNanchor381"></a><a href="#Footnote-381" class="fnanchor">[381]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>
+Again and again, in response to his demand for
+an express assertion, in the instrument itself, of
+the rights of individuals and of States, he was told
+that every one of those rights was secured, since
+it was naturally and fairly implied. &#8220;Even say,&#8221;
+he rejoined, &#8220;it is a natural implication,&mdash;why
+not give us a right &hellip; in express terms, in language
+that could not admit of evasions or subterfuges?
+If they can use implication for us, they
+can also use implication against us. We are giving
+power; they are getting power; judge, then, on
+which side the implication will be used.&#8221; &#8220;Implication
+is dangerous, because it is unbounded;
+if it be admitted at all, and no limits prescribed,
+it admits of the utmost extension.&#8221; &#8220;The existence
+of powers is sufficiently established. If we
+trust our dearest rights to implication, we shall be
+in a very unhappy situation.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor382" id="FNanchor382"></a><a href="#Footnote-382" class="fnanchor">[382]</a></p>
+
+<p>Then, in addition to his objections to the general
+character of the Constitution, namely, as a consolidated
+government, unrestrained by an express guarantee
+of rights, he applied his criticisms in great
+detail, and with merciless rigor, to each department
+of the proposed government,&mdash;the legislative, the
+executive, and the judicial; and with respect to
+each one of these he insisted that its intended
+functions were such as to inspire distrust and alarm.
+Of course, we cannot here follow this fierce critic
+of the Constitution into all the detail of his criticisms;
+but, as a single example, we may cite a
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>
+portion of his assault upon the executive department,&mdash;an
+assault, as will be seen, far better suited
+to the political apprehensions of his own time than
+of ours:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The Constitution is said to have beautiful features;
+but when I come to examine these features, sir, they
+appear to me horribly frightful. Among other deformities,
+it has an awful squinting; it squints towards monarchy.
+And does not this raise indignation in the breast
+of every true American? Your president may easily
+become king.&hellip; Where are your checks in this government?
+Your strongholds will be in the hands of
+your enemies. It is on a supposition that your American
+governors shall be honest, that all the good qualities of
+this government are founded; but its defective and imperfect
+construction puts it in their power to perpetrate
+the worst of mischiefs, should they be bad men. And,
+sir, would not all the world, from the eastern to the
+western hemispheres, blame our distracted folly in resting
+our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being good
+or bad? Show me that age and country where the
+rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole
+chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent
+loss of liberty.&hellip; If your American chief be
+a man of ambition and abilities, how easy is it for him
+to render himself absolute! The army is in his hands;
+and if he be a man of address, it will be attached to
+him, and it will be the subject of long meditation with
+him to seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish
+his design. And, sir, will the American spirit solely
+relieve you when this happens? I would rather infinitely&mdash;and
+I am sure most of this convention are of the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>
+same opinion&mdash;have a king, lords, and commons, than
+a government so replete with such insupportable evils.
+If we make a king, we may prescribe the rules by which
+he shall rule his people, and interpose such checks as
+shall prevent him from infringing them; but the president,
+in the field, at the head of his army, can prescribe
+the terms on which he shall reign master, so far that
+it will puzzle any American ever to get his neck from
+under the galling yoke.&hellip; Will not the recollection
+of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for the
+American throne? Will not the immense difference
+between being master of everything, and being ignominiously
+tried and punished, powerfully excite him to
+make this bold push? But, sir, where is the existing
+force to punish him? Can he not, at the head of his
+army, beat down every opposition? Away with your
+president! we shall have a king. The army will salute
+him monarch. Your militia will leave you, and assist
+in making him king, and fight against you. And what
+have you to oppose this force? What will then become
+of you and your rights? Will not absolute despotism
+ensue?&#8221;<a name="FNanchor383" id="FNanchor383"></a><a href="#Footnote-383" class="fnanchor">[383]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Without reproducing here, in further detail,
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s objections to the new Constitution,
+it may now be stated that they all sprang from
+a single idea, and all revolved about that idea,
+namely, that the new plan of government, as it
+then stood, seriously endangered the rights and
+liberties of the people of the several States. And
+in holding this opinion he was not at all peculiar.
+Very many of the ablest and noblest statesmen of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
+the time shared it with him. Not to name again
+his chief associates in Virginia, nor to cite the language
+of such men as Burke and Rawlins Lowndes,
+of South Carolina; as Timothy Bloodworth, of
+North Carolina; as Samuel Chase and Luther
+Martin, of Maryland; as George Clinton, of New
+York; as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Elbridge
+Gerry, of Massachusetts; as Joshua Atherton,
+of New Hampshire, it may sufficiently put us
+into the tone of contemporary opinion upon the
+subject, to recall certain grave words of Jefferson,
+who, watching the whole scene from the calm distance
+of Paris, thus wrote on the 2d of February,
+1788, to an American friend:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I own it astonishes me to find such a change wrought
+in the opinions of our countrymen since I left them, as
+that three fourths of them should be contented to live
+under a system which leaves to their governors the power
+of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases,
+freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of
+commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them
+with a standing army. That is a degeneracy in the
+principles of liberty, to which I had given four centuries,
+instead of four years.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor384" id="FNanchor384"></a><a href="#Footnote-384" class="fnanchor">[384]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Holding such objections to the proposed Constitution,
+what were Patrick Henry and his associates
+in the Virginia convention to do? Were they to
+reject the measure outright? Admitting that it
+had some good features, they yet thought that the
+best course to be taken by Virginia would be to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>
+remit the whole subject to a new convention of
+the States,&mdash;a convention which, being summoned
+after a year or more of intense and universal discussion,
+would thus represent the later, the more
+definite, and the more enlightened desires of the
+American people. But despairing of this, Patrick
+Henry and his friends concentrated all their forces
+upon this single and clear line of policy: so to
+press their objections to the Constitution as to induce
+the convention, not to reject it, but to postpone
+its adoption until they could refer to the other
+States in the American confederacy the following
+momentous proposition, namely, &#8220;a declaration of
+rights, asserting, and securing from encroachment,
+the great principles of civil and religious liberty,
+and the undeniable rights of the people, together
+with amendments to the most exceptionable parts
+of the said constitution of government.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor385" id="FNanchor385"></a><a href="#Footnote-385" class="fnanchor">[385]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such, then, was the real question over which in
+that assemblage, from the first day to the last, the
+battle raged. The result of the battle was reached
+on Wednesday, the 25th of June; and that result
+was a victory for immediate adoption, but by a
+majority of only ten votes, instead of the fifty votes
+that were claimed for it at the beginning of the
+session. Moreover, even that small majority for
+immediate adoption was obtained only by the help,
+first, of a preamble solemnly affirming it to be the
+understanding of Virginia in this act that it retained
+every power not expressly granted to the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>
+general government; and, secondly, of a subsidiary
+resolution promising to recommend to Congress
+&#8220;whatsoever amendments may be deemed
+necessary.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Just before the decisive question was put, Patrick
+Henry, knowing that the result would be
+against him, and knowing, also, from the angry
+things uttered within that House and outside of it,
+that much solicitude was abroad respecting the
+course likely to be taken by the defeated party,
+then and there spoke these noble words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I beg pardon of this House for having taken up more
+time than came to my share, and I thank them for the
+patience and polite attention with which I have been
+heard. If I shall be in the minority, I shall have those
+painful sensations which arise from a conviction of
+being overpowered in a good cause. Yet I will be a
+peaceable citizen. My head, my hand, and my heart
+shall be at liberty to retrieve the loss of liberty, and remove
+the defects of that system in a constitutional way.
+I wish not to go to violence, but will wait, with hopes
+that the spirit which predominated in the Revolution is
+not yet gone, nor the cause of those who are attached to
+the Revolution yet lost. I shall therefore patiently wait
+in expectation of seeing that government changed, so as
+to be compatible with the safety, liberty, and happiness
+of the people.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor386" id="FNanchor386"></a><a href="#Footnote-386" class="fnanchor">[386]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Those words of the great Virginian leader proved
+to be a message of reassurance to many an anxious
+citizen, in many a State,&mdash;not least so to that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>
+great citizen who, from the slopes of Mount Vernon,
+was then watching, night and day, for signs
+of some abatement in the storm of civil discord.
+Those words, too, have, in our time, won for the
+orator who spoke them the deliberate, and the
+almost lyrical, applause of the greatest historian
+who has yet laid hand on the story of the Constitution:
+&#8220;Henry showed his genial nature, free from
+all malignity. He was like a billow of the ocean
+on the first bright day after the storm, dashing
+itself against the rocky cliff, and then, sparkling
+with light, retreating to its home.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor387" id="FNanchor387"></a><a href="#Footnote-387" class="fnanchor">[387]</a></p>
+
+<p>Long after the practical effects of the Virginia
+convention of 1788 had been merged in the general
+political life of the country, that convention
+was still proudly remembered for the magnificent
+exertions of intellectual power, and particularly of
+eloquence, which it had called forth. So lately as
+the year 1857, there was still living a man who, in
+his youth, had often looked in upon that famous
+convention, and whose enthusiasm, in recalling its
+great scenes, was not to be chilled even by the
+frosts of his ninety winters:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The impressions made by the powerful arguments
+of Madison and the overwhelming eloquence of Henry
+can never fade from my mind. I thought them almost
+supernatural. They seemed raised up by Providence,
+each in his way, to produce great results: the one by
+his grave, dignified, and irresistible arguments to convince
+and enlighten mankind; the other, by his brilliant
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>
+and enrapturing eloquence to lead whithersoever he
+would.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor388" id="FNanchor388"></a><a href="#Footnote-388" class="fnanchor">[388]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Those who had heard Patrick Henry on the other
+great occasions of his career were ready to say
+that his eloquence in the convention of 1788 was,
+upon the whole, fully equal to anything ever exhibited
+by him in any other place. The official reports
+of his speeches in that assemblage were always declared
+to be inferior in &#8220;strength and beauty&#8221; to
+those actually made by him there.<a name="FNanchor389" id="FNanchor389"></a><a href="#Footnote-389" class="fnanchor">[389]</a>
+&#8220;In forming
+an estimate of his eloquence,&#8221; says one gentleman
+who there heard him, &#8220;no reliance can be placed
+on the printed speeches. No reporter whatever
+could take down what he actually said; and if he
+could, it would fall far short of the original.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor390" id="FNanchor390"></a><a href="#Footnote-390" class="fnanchor">[390]</a></p>
+
+<p>In his arguments against the Constitution Patrick
+Henry confined himself to no systematic order.
+The convention had indeed resolved that the document
+should be discussed, clause by clause, in a
+regular manner; but in spite of the complaints
+and reproaches of his antagonists, he continually
+broke over all barriers, and delivered his &#8220;multiform
+and protean attacks&#8221; in such order as suited
+the workings of his own mind.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of that long and eager controversy,
+he had several passages of sharp personal collision
+with his opponents, particularly with Governor
+Randolph, whose vacillating course respecting the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>
+Constitution had left him exposed to the most
+galling comments, and who on one occasion, in his
+anguish, turned upon Patrick Henry with the exclamation:
+&#8220;I find myself attacked in the most
+illiberal manner by the honorable gentleman. I
+disdain his aspersions and his insinuations. His
+asperity is warranted by no principle of parliamentary
+decency, nor compatible with the least
+shadow of friendship; and if our friendship must
+fall, let it fall, like Lucifer, never to rise again.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor391" id="FNanchor391"></a><a href="#Footnote-391" class="fnanchor">[391]</a>
+Like all very eloquent men, he was taunted, of
+course, for having more eloquence than logic; for
+&#8220;his declamatory talents;&#8221; for his &#8220;vague discourses
+and mere sports of fancy;&#8221; for discarding
+&#8220;solid argument;&#8221; and for &#8220;throwing those bolts&#8221;
+which he had &#8220;so peculiar a dexterity at discharging.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor392" id="FNanchor392"></a><a href="#Footnote-392" class="fnanchor">[392]</a>
+On one occasion, old General Adam Stephen
+tried to burlesque the orator&#8217;s manner of
+speech;<a name="FNanchor393" id="FNanchor393"></a><a href="#Footnote-393" class="fnanchor">[393]</a> on another occasion, that same petulant
+warrior bluntly told Patrick that if he did &#8220;not
+like this government,&#8221; he might &#8220;go and live
+among the Indians,&#8221; and even offered to facilitate
+the orator&#8217;s self-expatriation among the savages:
+&#8220;I know of several nations that live very happily;
+and I can furnish him with a vocabulary of their
+language.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor394" id="FNanchor394"></a><a href="#Footnote-394" class="fnanchor">[394]</a></p>
+
+<p>Knowing, as he did, every passion and prejudice
+of his audience, he adopted, it appears, almost
+every conceivable method of appeal. &#8220;The variety
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>
+of arguments,&#8221; writes one witness, &#8220;which
+Mr. Henry generally presented in his speeches,
+addressed to the capacities, prejudices, and individual
+interests of his hearers, made his speeches
+very unequal. He rarely made in that convention
+a speech which Quintilian would have approved.
+If he soared at times, like the eagle, and seemed
+like the bird of Jove to be armed with thunder, he
+did not disdain to stoop like the hawk to seize his
+prey,&mdash;but the instant that he had done it, rose
+in pursuit of another quarry.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor395" id="FNanchor395"></a><a href="#Footnote-395" class="fnanchor">[395]</a></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most wonderful example of his eloquence,
+if we may judge by contemporary descriptions,
+was that connected with the famous scene of
+the thunder-storm, on Tuesday, the 24th of June,
+only one day before the decisive vote was taken.
+The orator, it seems, had gathered up all his forces
+for what might prove to be his last appeal against
+immediate adoption, and was portraying the disasters
+which the new system of government, unless
+amended, was to bring upon his countrymen, and
+upon all mankind: &#8220;I see the awful immensity of
+the dangers with which it is pregnant. I see it.
+I feel it. I see beings of a higher order anxious
+concerning our decision. When I see beyond the
+horizon that bounds human eyes, and look at the
+final consummation of all human things, and see
+those intelligent beings which inhabit the ethereal
+mansions reviewing the political decisions and
+revolutions which, in the progress of time, will
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>
+happen in America, and the consequent happiness
+or misery of mankind, I am led to believe that
+much of the account, on one side or the other, will
+depend on what we now decide. Our own happiness
+alone is not affected by the event. All
+nations are interested in the determination. We
+have it in our power to secure the happiness of one
+half of the human race. Its adoption may involve
+the misery of the other hemisphere.&#8221; Thus far
+the stenographer had proceeded, when he suddenly
+stopped, and placed within brackets the following
+note: &#8220;[Here a violent storm arose, which put
+the House in such disorder, that Mr. Henry was
+obliged to conclude.]&#8221;<a name="FNanchor396" id="FNanchor396"></a><a href="#Footnote-396" class="fnanchor">[396]</a>
+But the scene which is
+thus quietly despatched by the official reporter of
+the convention was again and again described, by
+many who were witnesses of it, as something most
+sublime and even appalling. After having delineated
+with overpowering vividness the calamities
+which were likely to befall mankind from their
+adoption of the proposed frame of government,
+the orator, it is said, as if wielding an enchanter&#8217;s
+wand, suddenly enlarged the arena of the debate
+and the number of his auditors; for, peering
+beyond the veil which shuts in mortal sight, and
+pointing &#8220;to those celestial beings who were hovering
+over the scene,&#8221; he addressed to them &#8220;an
+invocation that made every nerve shudder with
+supernatural horror, when, lo! a storm at that
+instant rose, which shook the whole building, and
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>
+the spirits whom he had called seemed to have
+come at his bidding. Nor did his eloquence, or
+the storm, immediately cease; but availing himself
+of the incident, with a master&#8217;s art, he seemed to
+mix in the fight of his ethereal auxiliaries, and,
+&#8216;rising on the wings of the tempest, to seize upon
+the artillery of heaven, and direct its fiercest thunders
+against the heads of his adversaries.&#8217; The
+scene became insupportable; and the House rose
+without the formality of adjournment, the members
+rushing from their seats with precipitation
+and confusion.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor397" id="FNanchor397"></a><a href="#Footnote-397" class="fnanchor">[397]</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-362" id="Footnote-362"></a><a href="#FNanchor362"><span class="label">[362]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, ix. 265-266.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-363" id="Footnote-363"></a><a href="#FNanchor363"><span class="label">[363]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-364" id="Footnote-364"></a><a href="#FNanchor364"><span class="label">[364]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, ix. 273.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-365" id="Footnote-365"></a><a href="#FNanchor365"><span class="label">[365]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc. i. 356.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-366" id="Footnote-366"></a><a href="#FNanchor366"><span class="label">[366]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 364-365.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-367" id="Footnote-367"></a><a href="#FNanchor367"><span class="label">[367]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc. i. 378.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-368" id="Footnote-368"></a><a href="#FNanchor368"><span class="label">[368]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> i. 387.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-369" id="Footnote-369"></a><a href="#FNanchor369"><span class="label">[369]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, i. 388.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-370" id="Footnote-370"></a><a href="#FNanchor370"><span class="label">[370]</span></a> Bancroft, <i>Hist. Const.</i>, ii. 465.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-371" id="Footnote-371"></a><a href="#FNanchor371"><span class="label">[371]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, ix. 356.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-372" id="Footnote-372"></a><a href="#FNanchor372"><span class="label">[372]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, ii. 544, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-373" id="Footnote-373"></a><a href="#FNanchor373"><span class="label">[373]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, ii. 541.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-374" id="Footnote-374"></a><a href="#FNanchor374"><span class="label">[374]</span></a> <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1873, 274.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-375" id="Footnote-375"></a><a href="#FNanchor375"><span class="label">[375]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, i. 491; v. 502, 534-535.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-376" id="Footnote-376"></a><a href="#FNanchor376"><span class="label">[376]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-377" id="Footnote-377"></a><a href="#FNanchor377"><span class="label">[377]</span></a> Curtis, <i>Hist. Const.</i> ii. 561, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-378" id="Footnote-378"></a><a href="#FNanchor378"><span class="label">[378]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, ix. 266, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-379" id="Footnote-379"></a><a href="#FNanchor379"><span class="label">[379]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 161, 57, 63.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-380" id="Footnote-380"></a><a href="#FNanchor380"><span class="label">[380]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 23, 52, 44, 156.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-381" id="Footnote-381"></a><a href="#FNanchor381"><span class="label">[381]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 150, 462, 445-446.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-382" id="Footnote-382"></a><a href="#FNanchor382"><span class="label">[382]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 149-150.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-383" id="Footnote-383"></a><a href="#FNanchor383"><span class="label">[383]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 58-60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-384" id="Footnote-384"></a><a href="#FNanchor384"><span class="label">[384]</span></a> Bancroft, <i>Hist. Const.</i> ii. 459-460.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-385" id="Footnote-385"></a><a href="#FNanchor385"><span class="label">[385]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 653.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-386" id="Footnote-386"></a><a href="#FNanchor386"><span class="label">[386]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 652.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-387" id="Footnote-387"></a><a href="#FNanchor387"><span class="label">[387]</span></a> Bancroft, <i>Hist. Const.</i> ii. 316-317.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-388" id="Footnote-388"></a><a href="#FNanchor388"><span class="label">[388]</span></a> Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, ii. 610.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-389" id="Footnote-389"></a><a href="#FNanchor389"><span class="label">[389]</span></a> Kennedy, <i>Life of Wirt</i>, i. 345.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-390" id="Footnote-390"></a><a href="#FNanchor390"><span class="label">[390]</span></a> Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-391" id="Footnote-391"></a><a href="#FNanchor391"><span class="label">[391]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 187.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-392" id="Footnote-392"></a><a href="#FNanchor392"><span class="label">[392]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iii. 406, 104, 248, 177.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-393" id="Footnote-393"></a><a href="#FNanchor393"><span class="label">[393]</span></a> St. George Tucker, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-394" id="Footnote-394"></a><a href="#FNanchor394"><span class="label">[394]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 580.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-395" id="Footnote-395"></a><a href="#FNanchor395"><span class="label">[395]</span></a> St. George Tucker, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-396" id="Footnote-396"></a><a href="#FNanchor396"><span class="label">[396]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 625.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-397" id="Footnote-397"></a><a href="#FNanchor397"><span class="label">[397]</span></a> Wirt, 296-297. Also Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX <br />
+<span class="hsub">THE AFTER-FIGHT FOR AMENDMENTS</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>Thus, on the question of adopting the new Constitution,
+the fight was over; but on the question
+of amending that Constitution, now that it had
+been adopted, the fight, of course, was only just
+begun.</p>
+
+<p>For how could this new Constitution be amended?
+A way was provided,&mdash;but an extremely strait
+and narrow way. No amendment whatsoever could
+become valid until it had been accepted by three
+fourths of the States; and no amendment could be
+submitted to the States for their consideration
+until it had first been approved, either by two
+thirds of both houses of Congress, or else by a
+majority of a convention specially called by Congress
+at the request of two thirds of the States.</p>
+
+<p>Clearly, the framers of the Constitution intended
+that the supreme law of the land, when once agreed
+to, should have within it a principle of fixedness
+almost invincible. At any rate, the process by
+which alone alterations can be made, involves so
+wide an area of territory, so many distinct groups
+of population, and is withal, in itself, so manifold
+and complex, so slow, and so liable to entire stoppage,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>
+that any proposition looking toward change
+must inevitably perish long before reaching the
+far-away goal of final endorsement, unless that proposition
+be really impelled by a public demand not
+only very energetic and persistent, but well-nigh
+universal. Indeed, the constitutional provision for
+amendments seemed, at that time, to many, to be
+almost a constitutional prohibition of amendments.</p>
+
+<p>It was, in part, for this very reason that Patrick
+Henry had urged that those amendments of the
+Constitution which, in his opinion, were absolutely
+necessary, should be secured before its adoption,
+and not be left to the doubtful chance of their being
+obtained afterward, as the result of a process
+ingeniously contrived, as it were, to prevent their
+being obtained at all. But at the close of that
+June day on which he and his seventy-eight associates
+walked away from the convention wherein,
+on this very proposition, they had just been voted
+down, how did the case stand? The Constitution,
+now become the supreme law of the land, was a
+Constitution which, unless amended, would, as they
+sincerely believed, effect the political ruin of the
+American people. As good citizens, as good men,
+what was left for them to do? They had fought
+hard to get the Constitution amended before adoption.
+They had failed. They must now fight hard
+to get it amended after adoption. Disastrous
+would it be, to assume that the needed amendments
+would now be carried at any rate. True,
+the Virginia convention, like the conventions of
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>
+several other States, had voted to recommend
+amendments. But the hostility to amendments,
+as Patrick Henry believed, was too deeply rooted
+to yield to mere recommendations. The necessary
+amendments would not find their way through all
+the hoppers and tubes and valves of the enormous
+mill erected within the Constitution, unless forced
+onward by popular agitation,&mdash;and by popular
+agitation widespread, determined, vehement, even
+alarming. The powerful enemies of amendments
+must be convinced that, until amendments were
+carried through that mill, there would be no true
+peace or content among the surrounding inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>This gives us the clew to the policy steadily and
+firmly pursued by Patrick Henry as a party leader,
+from June, 1788, until after the ratification of the
+first ten amendments, on the 15th of December,
+1791. It was simply a strategic policy dictated
+by his honest view of the situation; a bold, manly,
+patriotic policy; a policy, however, which was
+greatly misunderstood, and grossly misrepresented,
+at the time; a policy, too, which grieved the heart
+of Washington, and for several years raised between
+him and his ancient friend the one cloud of
+distrust that ever cast a shadow upon their intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, at the very opening of the Virginia
+convention, and in view of the possible defeat of
+his demand for amendments, Patrick Henry had
+formed a clear outline of this policy, even to the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>
+extent of organizing throughout the State local
+societies for stirring up, and for keeping up, the
+needed agitation. All this is made evident by an
+important letter written by him to General John
+Lamb of New York, and dated at Richmond,
+June 9, 1788,&mdash;when the convention had been in
+session just one week. In this letter, after some
+preliminary words, he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It is matter of great consolation to find that the sentiments
+of a vast majority of Virginians are in unison
+with those of our Northern friends. I am satisfied four
+fifths of our inhabitants are opposed to the new scheme
+of government. Indeed, in the part of this country
+lying south of James River, I am confident, nine tenths
+are opposed to it. And yet, strange as it may seem, the
+numbers in convention appear equal on both sides: so
+that the majority, which way soever it goes, will be small.
+The friends and seekers of power have, with their usual
+subtilty, wriggled themselves into the choice of the
+people, by assuming shapes as various as the faces of
+the men they address on such occasions.</p>
+
+<p>If they shall carry their point, and preclude previous
+amendments, which we have ready to offer, it will become
+highly necessary to form the society you mention.
+Indeed, it appears the only chance for securing a remnant
+of those invaluable rights which are yielded by the
+new plan. Colonel George Mason has agreed to act
+as chairman of our republican society. His character I
+need not describe. He is every way fit; and we have
+concluded to send you by Colonel Oswald a copy of the
+Bill of Rights, and of the particular amendments we
+intend to propose in our convention. The fate of them
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>
+is altogether uncertain; but of that you will be informed.
+To assimilate our views on this great subject
+is of the last moment; and our opponents expect much
+from our dissension. As we see the danger, I think it
+is easily avoided.</p>
+
+<p>I can assure you that North Carolina is more decidedly
+opposed to the new government than Virginia.
+The people there seem rife for hazarding all, before
+they submit. Perhaps the organization of our system
+may be so contrived as to include lesser associations
+dispersed throughout the State. This will remedy in
+some degree the inconvenience arising from our dispersed
+situation. Colonel Oswald&#8217;s short stay here prevents
+my saying as much on the subject as I could
+otherwise have done. And after assuring you of my
+ardent wishes for the happiness of our common country,
+and the best interests of humanity, I beg leave to subscribe
+myself, with great respect and regard,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+Sir, your obedient, humble servant,<br />
+<span class="smcap">P. Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor398" id="FNanchor398"></a><a href="#Footnote-398" class="fnanchor">[398]</a>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>On the 27th of June, within a few hours, very
+likely, after the final adjournment of the convention,
+Madison hastened to report to Washington
+the great and exhilarating result, but with this
+anxious and really unjust surmise respecting the
+course then to be pursued by Patrick Henry:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Mr. H&mdash;&mdash;y declared, previous to the final question,
+that although he should submit as a quiet citizen,
+he should seize the first moment that offered for shaking
+off the yoke in a constitutional way. I suspect the
+plan will be to encourage two thirds of the legislatures
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>
+in the task of undoing the work; or to get a Congress
+appointed in the first instance that will commit suicide
+on their own authority.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor399" id="FNanchor399"></a><a href="#Footnote-399" class="fnanchor">[399]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>At the same sitting, probably, Madison sent off
+to Hamilton, at New York, another report, in
+which his conjecture as to Patrick Henry&#8217;s intended
+policy is thus stated:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I am so uncharitable as to suspect that the ill-will
+to the Constitution will produce every peaceable effort
+to disgrace and destroy it. Mr. Henry declared &hellip;
+that he should wait with impatience for the favorable
+moment of regaining, in a constitutional way, the lost
+liberties of his country.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor400" id="FNanchor400"></a><a href="#Footnote-400" class="fnanchor">[400]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Two days afterward, by which time, doubtless,
+Madison&#8217;s letter had reached Mount Vernon,
+Washington wrote to Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts,
+respecting the result of the convention:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Our accounts from Richmond are that &hellip; the
+final decision exhibited a solemn scene, and that there
+is every reason to expect a perfect acquiescence therein
+by the minority. Mr. Henry, the great leader of it, has
+signified that, though he can never be reconciled to the
+Constitution in its present form, and shall give it every
+constitutional opposition in his power, yet he will submit
+to it peaceably.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor401" id="FNanchor401"></a><a href="#Footnote-401" class="fnanchor">[401]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Thus, about the end of June, 1788, there came
+down upon the fierce political strife in Virginia a
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>
+lull, which lasted until the 20th of October, at
+which time the legislature assembled for its autumnal
+session. Meantime, however, the convention of
+New York had adopted the Constitution, but after
+a most bitter fight, and by a majority of only three
+votes, and only in consequence of the pledge that
+every possible effort should be made to obtain
+speedily those great amendments that were at last
+called for by a determined public demand. One
+of the efforts contemplated by the New York convention
+took the form of a circular letter to the
+governors of the several States, urging almost pathetically
+that &#8220;effectual measures be immediately
+taken for calling a convention&#8221; to propose those
+amendments which are necessary for allaying &#8220;the
+apprehensions and discontents&#8221; then so prevalent.<a name="FNanchor402" id="FNanchor402"></a><a href="#Footnote-402" class="fnanchor">[402]</a></p>
+
+<p>This circular letter &#8220;rekindled,&#8221; as Madison
+then wrote to Jefferson, &#8220;an ardor among the opponents
+of the federal Constitution for an immediate
+revision of it by another general convention,
+&hellip; Mr. Henry and his friends in Virginia enter
+with great zeal into the scheme.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor403" id="FNanchor403"></a><a href="#Footnote-403" class="fnanchor">[403]</a> In a letter
+written by Washington, nearly a month before the
+meeting of the legislature, it is plainly indicated
+that his mind was then grievously burdened by the
+anxieties of the situation, and that he was disposed
+to put the very worst construction upon the expected
+conduct of Patrick Henry and his party in
+the approaching session:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>
+
+<p>&#8220;Their expedient will now probably be an attempt to
+procure the election of so many of their own junto under
+the new government, as, by the introduction of local and
+embarrassing disputes, to impede or frustrate its operation.&hellip;
+I assure you I am under painful apprehensions
+from the single circumstance of Mr. H. having the
+whole game to play in the Assembly of this State; and
+the effect it may have in others should be counteracted
+if possible.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor404" id="FNanchor404"></a><a href="#Footnote-404" class="fnanchor">[404]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>No sooner had the Assembly met, than Patrick
+Henry&#8217;s ascendency became apparent. His sway
+over that body was such that it was described as
+&#8220;omnipotent.&#8221; And by the time the session had
+been in progress not quite a month, Washington
+informed Madison that &#8220;the accounts from Richmond&#8221;
+were &#8220;very unpropitious to federal measures.&#8221;
+&#8220;In one word,&#8221; he added, &#8220;it is said that
+the edicts of Mr. H. are enregistered with less opposition
+in the Virginia Assembly than those of the
+grand monarch by his parliaments. He has only
+to say, Let this be law, and it is law.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor405" id="FNanchor405"></a><a href="#Footnote-405" class="fnanchor">[405]</a> Within
+ten days from the opening of the session, the House
+showed its sensitive response to Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+leadership by adopting a series of resolutions, the
+chief purpose of which was to ask Congress to call
+immediately a national convention for proposing
+to the States the required amendments. In the
+debate on the subject, he is said to have declared
+&#8220;that he should oppose every measure tending to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>
+the organization of the government, unless accompanied
+with measures for the amendment of the
+Constitution.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor406" id="FNanchor406"></a><a href="#Footnote-406" class="fnanchor">[406]</a></p>
+
+<p>Some phrases in one of his resolutions were most
+offensive to those members of the House who had
+&#8220;befriended the new Constitution,&#8221; and who, by
+implication at least, were held forth as &#8220;betrayers
+of the dearest rights of the people.&#8221; &#8220;If Mr.
+Henry pleases,&#8221; so wrote a correspondent of Washington,
+&#8220;he will carry the resolution in its present
+terms, than which none, in my opinion, can be more
+exceptionable or inflammatory; though, as he is
+sometimes kind and condescending, he may perhaps
+be induced to alter it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor407" id="FNanchor407"></a><a href="#Footnote-407" class="fnanchor">[407]</a></p>
+
+<p>In accordance with these resolutions, a formal
+application to Congress for a national convention
+was prepared by Patrick Henry, and adopted by
+the House on the 14th of November. Every word
+of that document deserves now to be read, as his
+own account of the spirit and purpose of a measure
+then and since then so profoundly and so
+cruelly misinterpreted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The good people of this commonwealth, in convention
+assembled, having ratified the Constitution submitted
+to their consideration, this legislature has, in
+conformity to that act, and the resolutions of the United
+States in Congress assembled to them transmitted,
+thought proper to make the arrangements that were
+<i>necessary</i> for carrying it into effect. Having thus shown
+themselves obedient to the voice of their constituents, all
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>
+America will find that, so far as it depends on them,
+that plan of government will be carried into immediate
+operation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But the sense of the people of Virginia would be
+but in part complied with, and but little regarded, if
+we went no further. In the very moment of adoption,
+and coeval with the ratification of the new plan of
+government, the general voice of the convention of
+this State pointed to objects no less interesting to the
+people we represent, and equally entitled to your attention.
+At the same time that, from motives of affection
+for our sister States, the convention yielded their assent
+to the ratification, they gave the most unequivocal
+proofs that they dreaded its operation under the present
+form.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In acceding to a government under this impression,
+painful must have been the prospect, had they not derived
+consolation from a full expectation of its imperfections
+being speedily amended. In this resource, therefore,
+they placed their confidence,&mdash;a confidence that
+will continue to support them whilst they have reason to
+believe they have not calculated upon it in vain.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In making known to you the objections of the people
+of this Commonwealth to the new plan of government,
+we deem it unnecessary to enter into a particular
+detail of its defects, which they consider as involving all
+the great and unalienable rights of freemen: for their
+sense on this subject, we refer you to the proceedings
+of their late convention, and the sense of this General
+Assembly, as expressed in their resolutions of the&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;day
+of&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We think proper, however, to declare that in our
+opinion, as those objections were not founded in speculative
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>
+theory, but deduced from principles which have been
+established by the melancholy example of other nations,
+in different ages, so they will never be removed until the
+cause itself shall cease to exist. The sooner, therefore,
+the public apprehensions are quieted, and the government
+is possessed of the confidence of the people, the
+more salutary will be its operations, and the longer its
+duration.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The cause of amendments we consider as a common
+cause; and since concessions have been made from political
+motives, which we conceive may endanger the
+republic, we trust that a commendable zeal will be shown
+for obtaining those provisions which, experience has
+taught us, are necessary to secure from danger the unalienable
+rights of human nature.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The anxiety with which our countrymen press for
+the accomplishment of this important end, will ill admit
+of delay. The slow forms of congressional discussion
+and recommendation, if indeed they should ever agree
+to any change, would, we fear, be less certain of success.
+Happily for their wishes, the Constitution hath presented
+an alternative, by admitting the submission to a convention
+of the States. To this, therefore, we resort, as the
+source from whence they are to derive relief from their
+present apprehensions. We do, therefore, in behalf of
+our constituents, in the most earnest and solemn manner,
+make this application to Congress, that a convention be
+immediately called, of deputies from the several States,
+with full power to take into their consideration the
+defects of this Constitution, that have been suggested
+by the state conventions, and report such amendments
+thereto, as they shall find best suited to promote our
+common interests, and secure to ourselves and our latest
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>
+posterity the great and unalienable rights of mankind.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor408" id="FNanchor408"></a><a href="#Footnote-408" class="fnanchor">[408]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Such was the purpose, such was the temper,
+of Virginia&#8217;s appeal, addressed to Congress, and
+written by Patrick Henry, on behalf of immediate
+measures for curing the supposed defects of the
+Constitution. Was it not likely that this appeal
+would be granted? One grave doubt haunted the
+mind of Patrick Henry. If, in the elections for
+senators and representatives then about to occur
+in the several States, very great care was not taken,
+it might easily happen that a majority of the members
+of Congress would be composed of men who
+would obstruct, and perhaps entirely defeat, the
+desired amendments. With the view of doing his
+part towards the prevention of such a result, he
+determined that both the senators from Virginia,
+and as many as possible of its representatives,
+should be persons who could be trusted to help,
+and not to hinder, the great project.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, when the day came for the election
+of senators by the Assembly of Virginia, he just
+stood up in his place and named &#8220;Richard Henry
+Lee and William Grayson, Esquires,&#8221; as the two
+men who ought to be elected as senators; and,
+furthermore, he named James Madison as the
+one man who ought not to be elected as senator.
+Whereupon the vote was taken; &#8220;and after some
+time,&#8221; as the journal expresses it, the committee
+to examine the ballot-boxes &#8220;returned into the
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>
+House, and reported that they had &hellip; found a
+majority of votes in favor of Richard Henry Lee
+and William Grayson, Esquires.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor409" id="FNanchor409"></a><a href="#Footnote-409" class="fnanchor">[409]</a> On the 8th of
+December, 1788, just one month afterward, Madison
+himself, in a letter to Jefferson, thus alluded
+to the incident: &#8220;They made me a candidate for
+the Senate, for which I had not allotted my pretensions.
+The attempt was defeated by Mr. Henry,
+who is omnipotent in the present legislature, and
+who added to the expedients common on such
+occasions a public philippic against my federal
+principles.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor410" id="FNanchor410"></a><a href="#Footnote-410" class="fnanchor">[410]</a></p>
+
+<p>Virginia&#8217;s delegation in the Senate was thus
+made secure. How about her delegation in the
+lower house? That, also, was an affair to be
+sharply looked to. Above all things, James Madison,
+as the supposed foe of amendments, was to be
+prevented, if possible, from winning an election.
+Therefore the committee of the House of Delegates,
+which was appointed for the very purpose, among
+other things, of dividing the State into its ten congressional
+districts, so carved out those districts as
+to promote the election of the friends of the good
+cause, and especially to secure, as was hoped, the
+defeat of its great enemy. Of this committee Patrick
+Henry was not a member; but as a majority
+of its members were known to be his devoted followers,
+very naturally upon him, at the time, was
+laid the burden of the blame for practising this
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>
+ignoble device in politics,&mdash;a device which, when
+introduced into Massachusetts several years afterward,
+also by a Revolutionary father, came to be
+christened with the satiric name of &#8220;gerrymandering.&#8221;
+Surely it was a rare bit of luck, in the case
+of Patrick Henry, that the wits of Virginia did not
+anticipate the wits of Massachusetts by describing
+this trick as &#8220;henrymandering;&#8221; and that he thus
+narrowly escaped the ugly immortality of having
+his name handed down from age to age in the
+coinage of a base word which should designate a
+base thing,&mdash;one of the favorite, shabby man&#339;uvres
+of less scrupulous American politicians.<a name="FNanchor411" id="FNanchor411"></a><a href="#Footnote-411" class="fnanchor">[411]</a></p>
+
+<p>Thus, however, within four weeks from the opening
+of the session, he had succeeded in pressing
+through the legislature, in the exact form he
+wished, all these measures for giving effect to
+Virginia&#8217;s demand upon Congress for amendments.
+This being accomplished, he withdrew from the
+service of the House for the remainder of the session,
+probably on account of the great urgency of
+his professional engagements at that time. The
+journal of the House affords us no trace of his
+presence there after the 18th of November; and
+although the legislature continued in session until
+the 13th of December, its business did not digress
+beyond local topics. To all these facts, rather
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>
+bitter allusion is made in a letter to the governor
+of New Hampshire, written from Mount Vernon,
+on the 31st of January, 1789, by the private secretary
+of Washington, Tobias Lear, who thus reflected,
+no doubt, the mood of his chief:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Mr. Henry, the leader of the opposition in this State,
+finding himself beaten off the ground by fair argument
+in the state convention, and outnumbered upon the
+important question, collected his whole strength, and
+pointed his whole force against the government, in the
+Assembly. He here met with but a feeble opposition.&hellip;
+He led on his almost unresisted phalanx, and
+planted the standard of hostility upon the very battlements
+of federalism. In plain English, he ruled a majority
+of the Assembly; and his edicts were registered
+by that body with less opposition than those of the
+Grand Monarque have met with from his parliaments.
+He chose the two senators.&hellip; He divided the State
+into districts, &hellip; taking care to arrange matters so as
+to have the county, of which Mr. Madison is an inhabitant,
+thrown into a district of which a majority were
+supposed to be unfriendly to the government, and by
+that means exclude him from the representative body in
+Congress. He wrote the answer to Governor Clinton&#8217;s
+letter, and likewise the circular letter to the executives
+of the several States.&hellip; And after he had settled
+everything relative to the government wholly, I suppose,
+to his satisfaction, he mounted his horse and rode home,
+leaving the little business of the State to be done by
+anybody who chose to give themselves the trouble of
+attending to it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor412" id="FNanchor412"></a><a href="#Footnote-412" class="fnanchor">[412]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>
+How great was the effect of these strategic measures,
+forced by Patrick Henry through the legislature
+of Virginia in the autumn of 1788, was not
+apparent, of course, until after the organization of
+the first Congress of the United States, in the
+spring of 1789. Not until the 5th of May could
+time be found by that body for paying the least
+attention to the subject of amendments. On that
+day Theodoric Bland, from Virginia, presented to
+the House of Representatives the solemn application
+of his State for a new convention; and, after
+some discussion, this document was entered on the
+journals of the House.<a name="FNanchor413" id="FNanchor413"></a><a href="#Footnote-413" class="fnanchor">[413]</a> The subject was then
+dropped until the 8th of June, when Madison, who
+had been elected to Congress in spite of Patrick
+Henry, and who had good reason to know how
+dangerous it would be for Congress to trifle with
+the popular demand for amendments, succeeded,
+against much opposition, in getting the House to
+devote that day to a preliminary discussion of the
+business. It was again laid aside for nearly six
+weeks, and again got a slight hearing on the 21st
+of July. On the 13th of August it was once more
+brought to the reluctant attention of the House,
+and then proved the occasion of a debate which
+lasted until the 24th of that month, when the
+House finished its work on the subject, and sent
+up to the Senate seventeen articles of amendment.
+Only twelve of these articles succeeded in passing
+the Senate; and of these twelve, only ten received
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>
+from the States that approval which was necessary
+to their ratification. This was obtained on the 15th
+of December, 1791.</p>
+
+<p>The course thus taken by Congress, in itself proposing
+amendments, was not at the time pleasing to
+the chiefs of that party which, in the several States,
+had been clamorous for amendments.<a name="FNanchor414" id="FNanchor414"></a><a href="#Footnote-414" class="fnanchor">[414]</a> These men,
+desiring more radical changes in the Constitution
+than could be expected from Congress, had set
+their hearts on a new convention,&mdash;which, undoubtedly,
+had it been called, would have reconstructed,
+from top to bottom, the work done by the
+convention of 1787. Yet it should be noticed that
+the ten amendments, thus obtained under the initiative
+of Congress, embodied &#8220;nearly every material
+change suggested by Virginia;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor415" id="FNanchor415"></a><a href="#Footnote-415" class="fnanchor">[415]</a> and that it
+was distinctly due, in no small degree, to the bitter
+and implacable urgency of the popular feeling in
+Virginia, under the stimulus of Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+leadership, that Congress was induced by Madison
+to pay any attention to the subject. In the matter
+of amendments, therefore, Patrick Henry and his
+party did not get all that they demanded, nor in
+the way that they demanded; but even so much as
+they did get, they would not then have got at all,
+had they not demanded more, and demanded more,
+also, through the channel of a new convention, the
+dread of which, it is evident, drove Madison and
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>
+his brethren in Congress into the prompt concession
+of amendments which they themselves did not
+care for. Those amendments were really a tub to
+the whale; but then that tub would not have been
+thrown overboard at all, had not the whale been
+there, and very angry, and altogether too troublesome
+with his foam-compelling tail, and with that
+huge head of his which could batter as well as
+spout.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-398" id="Footnote-398"></a><a href="#FNanchor398"><span class="label">[398]</span></a> Leake, <i>Life of Gen. John Lamb</i>, 307-308.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-399" id="Footnote-399"></a><a href="#FNanchor399"><span class="label">[399]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc. i. 402.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-400" id="Footnote-400"></a><a href="#FNanchor400"><span class="label">[400]</span></a> <i>Works of Hamilton</i>, i. 463.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-401" id="Footnote-401"></a><a href="#FNanchor401"><span class="label">[401]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, ix. 392.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-402" id="Footnote-402"></a><a href="#FNanchor402"><span class="label">[402]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, ii. 414.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-403" id="Footnote-403"></a><a href="#FNanchor403"><span class="label">[403]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc. i. 418.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-404" id="Footnote-404"></a><a href="#FNanchor404"><span class="label">[404]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, ix. 433.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-405" id="Footnote-405"></a><a href="#FNanchor405"><span class="label">[405]</span></a> Bancroft, <i>Hist. Const.</i> ii. 483.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-406" id="Footnote-406"></a><a href="#FNanchor406"><span class="label">[406]</span></a> <i>Corr. Rev.</i> iv. 240-241.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-407" id="Footnote-407"></a><a href="#FNanchor407"><span class="label">[407]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> iv. 241.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-408" id="Footnote-408"></a><a href="#FNanchor408"><span class="label">[408]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 42-43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-409" id="Footnote-409"></a><a href="#FNanchor409"><span class="label">[409]</span></a> <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> 32.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-410" id="Footnote-410"></a><a href="#FNanchor410"><span class="label">[410]</span></a> Madison, <i>Letters</i>, etc., i. 443-444.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-411" id="Footnote-411"></a><a href="#FNanchor411"><span class="label">[411]</span></a> For contemporary allusions to this first example of gerrymandering,
+see <i>Writings of Washington</i>, ix. 446-447; <i>Writings of
+Jefferson</i>, ii. 574; Rives, <i>Life of Madison</i>, ii. 653-655; Bancroft,
+<i>Hist. Const.</i> ii. 485.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-412" id="Footnote-412"></a><a href="#FNanchor412"><span class="label">[412]</span></a> Bancroft, <i>Hist. Const.</i> ii. 488-489.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-413" id="Footnote-413"></a><a href="#FNanchor413"><span class="label">[413]</span></a> Gales, <i>Debates</i>, i. 258-261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-414" id="Footnote-414"></a><a href="#FNanchor414"><span class="label">[414]</span></a> Marshall, <i>Life of Washington</i>, v. 209-210; Story, <i>Const.</i> i.
+211.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-415" id="Footnote-415"></a><a href="#FNanchor415"><span class="label">[415]</span></a> Howison, <i>Hist. Va.</i> ii. 333.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XX <br />
+<span class="hsub">LAST LABORS AT THE BAR</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The incidents embraced within the last three
+chapters cover the period from 1786 to 1791, and
+have been thus narrated by themselves for the purpose
+of exhibiting as distinctly as possible, and in
+unbroken sequence, Patrick Henry&#8217;s relations to
+each succeeding phase of that immense national
+movement which produced the American Constitution,
+with its first ten amendments.</p>
+
+<p>During those same fervid years, however, in
+which he was devoting, as it might seem, every
+power of body and mind to his great labors as a
+party leader, and as a critic and moulder of the
+new Constitution, he had resumed, and he was
+sturdily carrying forward, most exacting labors in
+the practice of the law.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the year 1786, as will be remembered,
+being then poor and in debt, he declined another
+election to the governorship, and set himself to the
+task of repairing his private fortunes, so sadly
+fallen to decay under the noble neglect imposed by
+his long service of the public. One of his kinsmen
+has left on record a pleasant anecdote to the
+effect that the orator happened to mention at that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>
+time to a friend how anxious he was under the
+great burden of his debts. &#8220;Go back to the bar,&#8221;
+said his friend; &#8220;your tongue will soon pay your
+debts. If you will promise to go, I will give you a
+retaining fee on the spot.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor416" id="FNanchor416"></a><a href="#Footnote-416" class="fnanchor">[416]</a> This course, in fact,
+he had already determined to take; and thus at the
+age of fifty, at no time robust in health, and at that
+time grown prematurely old under the storm and
+stress of all those unquiet years, he again buckled
+on his professional armor, rusty from long disuse,
+and pluckily began his life over again, in the hope
+of making some provision for his own declining
+days, as well as for the honor and welfare of his
+great brood of children and grandchildren. To
+this task, accordingly, he then bent himself, with
+a grim wilfulness that would not yield either to
+bodily weakness, or to the attractions or the distractions
+of politics. It is delightful to be permitted
+to add, that his energy was abundantly
+rewarded; and that in exactly eight years thereafter,
+namely in 1794, he was able to retire, in comfort
+and wealth, from all public and professional
+employments of every sort.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the mere announcement, in 1786, that
+Patrick Henry was then ready once more to receive
+clients, was enough to excite the attention of
+all persons in Virginia who might have important
+interests in litigation. His great renown throughout
+the country, his high personal character, his
+overwhelming gifts in argument, his incomparable
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>
+gifts in persuasion, were such as to ensure an
+almost dominant advantage to any cause which he
+should espouse before any tribunal. Confining
+himself, therefore, to his function as an advocate,
+and taking only such cases as were worth his attention,
+he was immediately called to appear in the
+courts in all parts of the State.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary for us to try to follow this
+veteran and brilliant advocate in his triumphal
+progress from one court-house to another, or to
+give the detail of the innumerable causes in which
+he was engaged during these last eight years of
+his practice at the bar. Of all the causes, however,
+in which he ever took part as a lawyer, in
+any period of his career, probably the most difficult
+and important, in a legal aspect, was the one
+commonly referred to as that of the British debts,
+argued by him in the Circuit Court of the United
+States at Richmond, first in 1791, and again, in
+the same place, in 1793.<a name="FNanchor417" id="FNanchor417"></a><a href="#Footnote-417" class="fnanchor">[417]</a></p>
+
+<p>A glance at the origin of this famous cause will
+help us the better to understand the significance
+of his relation to it. By the treaty with Great
+Britain in 1783, British subjects were empowered
+&#8220;to recover debts previously contracted to them
+by our citizens, notwithstanding a payment of the
+debt into a state treasury had been made during
+the war, under the authority of a state law of
+sequestration.&#8221; According to this provision a
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>
+British subject, one William Jones, brought an
+action of debt in the federal court at Richmond,
+against a citizen of Virginia, Thomas Walker, on
+a bond dated May, 1772. The real question was
+&#8220;whether payment of a debt due before the war
+of the Revolution, from a citizen of Virginia to
+British subjects, into the loan office of Virginia,
+pursuant to a law of that State, discharged the
+debtor.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The case, as will readily be seen, involved many
+subtle and difficult points of law, municipal, national,
+and international; and the defence was
+contained in the following five pleas: (1.) That
+of payment, generally; (2.) That of the Virginia
+act of sequestration, October 20, 1777; (3.) That
+of the Virginia act of forfeiture, May 3, 1779;
+(4.) That of British violations of the treaty of
+1783; (5.) That of the necessary annulment of
+the debt, in consequence of the dissolution of the
+co-allegiance of the two parties, on the declaration
+of independence.<a name="FNanchor418" id="FNanchor418"></a><a href="#Footnote-418" class="fnanchor">[418]</a></p>
+
+<p>Some idea of the importance attached to the
+case may be inferred from the assertion of Wirt,
+that &#8220;the whole power of the bar of Virginia was
+embarked&#8221; in it; and that the &#8220;learning, argument,
+and eloquence&#8221; exhibited in the discussion
+were such &#8220;as to have placed that bar, in the estimation
+of the federal judges, &hellip; above all others
+in the United States.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor419" id="FNanchor419"></a><a href="#Footnote-419" class="fnanchor">[419]</a> Associated with Patrick
+Henry, for the defendant, were John Marshall,
+Alexander Campbell, and James Innes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span>
+For several weeks before the trial of this cause
+in 1791, Patrick Henry secluded himself from all
+other engagements, and settled down to intense
+study in the retirement of his home in the country.
+A grandson of the orator, Patrick Henry
+Fontaine, who was there as a student of the law,
+relates that he himself was sent off on a journey
+of sixty miles to procure a copy of Vattel&#8217;s Law
+of Nations. From this and other works of international
+law, the old lawyer &#8220;made many quotations;
+and with the whole syllabus of notes and
+heads of arguments, he filled a manuscript volume
+more than an inch thick, and closely written; a
+book &hellip; bound with leather, and convenient for
+carrying in his pocket. He had in his yard &hellip;
+an office, built at some distance from his dwelling,
+and an avenue of fine black locusts shaded a walk
+in front of it.&hellip; He usually walked and meditated,
+when the weather permitted, in this shaded
+avenue.&hellip; For several days in succession, before
+his departure to Richmond to attend the
+court,&#8221; the orator was seen &#8220;walking frequently
+in this avenue, with his note-book in his hand,
+which he often opened and read; and from his
+gestures, while promenading alone in the shade of
+the locusts,&#8221; it was supposed that he was committing
+his speech to memory.<a name="FNanchor420" id="FNanchor420"></a><a href="#Footnote-420" class="fnanchor">[420]</a> According to another
+account, so eager was his application to this labor
+that, in one stage of it, &#8220;he shut himself up in
+his office for three days, during which he did not
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>
+see his family; his food was handed by a servant
+through the office door.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor421" id="FNanchor421"></a><a href="#Footnote-421" class="fnanchor">[421]</a> Of all this preparation,
+not unworthy to be called Demosthenic, the result
+was, if we may accept the opinion of one eminent
+lawyer, that Patrick Henry &#8220;came forth, on this
+occasion, a perfect master of every law, national
+and municipal, which touched the subject of investigation
+in the most distant point.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor422" id="FNanchor422"></a><a href="#Footnote-422" class="fnanchor">[422]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was on the 14th of November, 1791, that the
+cause came on to be argued in the court-house at
+Richmond, before Judges Johnson and Blair of
+the Supreme Court, and Judge Griffin of that district.
+The case of the plaintiff was opened by Mr.
+Counsellor Baker, whose argument lasted till the
+evening of that day. Patrick Henry was to begin
+his argument in reply the next morning.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The legislature was then in session; but when
+eleven o&#8217;clock, the hour for the meeting of the court,
+arrived, the speaker found himself without a house to
+do business. All his authority and that of his sergeant
+at arms were unavailing to keep the members in their
+seats: every consideration of public duty yielded to the
+anxiety which they felt, in common with the rest of
+their fellow citizens, to hear this great man on this truly
+great and extensively interesting question. Accordingly,
+when the court was ready to proceed to business, the
+court-room of the capitol, large as it is, was insufficient
+to contain the vast concourse that was pressing to enter
+it. The portico, and the area in which the statue of
+Washington stands, were filled with a disappointed
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>
+crowd, who nevertheless maintained their stand without.
+In the court-room itself, the judges, through condescension
+to the public anxiety, relaxed the rigor of respect
+which they were in the habit of exacting, and permitted
+the vacant seats of the bench, and even the windows
+behind it, to be occupied by the impatient multitude.
+The noise and tumult occasioned by seeking a more favorable
+station was at length hushed, and the profound
+silence which reigned within the room gave notice to
+those without that the orator had risen, or was on the
+point of rising. Every eye in front of the bar was
+riveted upon him with the most eager attention; and
+so still and deep was the silence that every one might
+hear the throbbing of his own heart. Mr. Henry, however,
+appeared wholly unconscious that all this preparation
+was on his account, and rose with as much simplicity
+and composure as if the occasion had been one
+of ordinary occurrence.&hellip; It may give the reader
+some idea of the amplitude of the argument, when he
+is told that Mr. Henry was engaged three days successively
+in its delivery; and some faint conception of the
+enchantment which he threw over it, when he learns
+that although it turned entirely on questions of law, yet
+the audience, mixed as it was, seemed so far from being
+wearied, that they followed him throughout with increased
+enjoyment. The room continued full to the
+last; and such was &#8216;the listening silence&#8217; with which he
+was heard, that not a syllable that he uttered is believed
+to have been lost. When he finally sat down, the concourse
+rose, with a general murmur of admiration; the
+scene resembled the breaking up and dispersion of a
+great theatrical assembly, which had been enjoying, for
+the first time, the exhibition of some new and splendid
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>
+drama; the speaker of the House of Delegates was at
+length able to command a quorum for business; and
+every quarter of the city, and at length every part of
+the State, was filled with the echoes of Mr. Henry&#8217;s
+eloquent speech.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor423" id="FNanchor423"></a><a href="#Footnote-423" class="fnanchor">[423]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1793 this cause was argued a
+second time, before the same district judge, and, in
+addition, before Mr. Chief Justice Jay, and Mr.
+Justice Iredell of the Supreme Court. On this
+occasion, apparently, there was the same eagerness
+to hear Patrick Henry as before,&mdash;an eagerness
+which was shared in by the two visiting judges, as
+is indicated in part by a letter from Judge Iredell,
+who, on the 27th of May, thus wrote to his wife:
+&#8220;We began on the great British causes the second
+day of the court, and are now in the midst of them.
+The great Patrick Henry is to speak to-day.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor424" id="FNanchor424"></a><a href="#Footnote-424" class="fnanchor">[424]</a>
+Among the throng of people who then poured into
+the court-room was John Randolph of Roanoke,
+then a stripling of twenty years, who, having got a
+position very close to the judges, was made aware
+of their conversation with one another as the case
+proceeded. He describes the orator as not expecting
+to speak at that time; &#8220;as old, very much
+wrapped up, and resting his head on the bar.&#8221;
+Meanwhile the chief justice, who, in earlier days,
+had often heard Henry in the Continental Congress,
+told Iredell that that feeble old gentleman
+in mufflers, with his head bowed wearily down
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>
+upon the bar, was &#8220;the greatest of orators.&#8221; &#8220;Iredell
+doubted it; and, becoming impatient to hear
+him, they requested him to proceed with his argument,
+before he had intended to speak.&hellip; As he
+arose, he began to complain that it was a hardship,
+too great, to put the laboring oar into the hands
+of a decrepit old man, trembling, with one foot in
+the grave, weak in his best days, and far inferior
+to the able associate by him.&#8221; Randolph then
+gives an outline of his progress through the earlier
+and somewhat tentative stages of his speech, comparing
+his movement to the exercise &#8220;of a first-rate,
+four-mile race-horse, sometimes displaying his
+whole power and speed for a few leaps, and then
+taking up again.&#8221; &#8220;At last,&#8221; according to Randolph,
+the orator &#8220;got up to full speed; and took
+a rapid view of what England had done, when she
+had been successful in arms; and what would
+have been our fate, had we been unsuccessful. The
+color began to come and go in the face of the chief
+justice; while Iredell sat with his mouth and eyes
+stretched open, in perfect wonder. Finally, Henry
+arrived at his utmost height and grandeur. He
+raised his hands in one of his grand and solemn
+pauses.&hellip; There was a tumultuous burst of applause;
+and Judge Iredell exclaimed, &#8216;Gracious
+God! he is an orator indeed!&#8217;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor425" id="FNanchor425"></a><a href="#Footnote-425" class="fnanchor">[425]</a> It is said, also,
+by another witness, that Henry happened that day
+to wear on his finger a diamond ring; and that
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>
+in the midst of the supreme splendor of his eloquence,
+a distinguished English visitor who had
+been given a seat on the bench, said with significant
+emphasis to one of the judges, &#8220;The diamond
+is blazing!&#8221;<a name="FNanchor426" id="FNanchor426"></a><a href="#Footnote-426" class="fnanchor">[426]</a></p>
+
+<p>As examples of forensic eloquence, on a great
+subject, before a great and a fit assemblage, his
+several speeches in the case of the British debts
+were, according to all the testimony, of the highest
+order of merit. What they were as examples of
+legal learning and of legal argumentation, may be
+left for every lawyer to judge for himself, by reading,
+if he so pleases, the copious extracts which
+have been preserved from the stenographic reports
+of these speeches, as taken by Robertson. Even
+from that point of view, they appear not to have
+suffered by comparison with the efforts made, in
+that cause, on the same side, by John Marshall
+himself. No inconsiderable portion of his auditors
+were members of the bar; and those keen and
+competent critics are said to have acknowledged
+themselves as impressed &#8220;not less by the matter
+than the manner&#8221; of his speeches.<a name="FNanchor427" id="FNanchor427"></a><a href="#Footnote-427" class="fnanchor">[427]</a> Moreover,
+though not expressly mentioned, Patrick Henry&#8217;s
+argument is pointedly referred to in the high compliment
+pronounced by Judge Iredell, when giving
+his opinion in this case:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The cause has been spoken to, at the bar, with a
+degree of ability equal to any occasion.&hellip; I shall, as
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>
+long as I live, remember with pleasure and respect the
+arguments which I have heard in this case. They have
+discovered an ingenuity, a depth of investigation, and a
+power of reasoning fully equal to anything I have ever
+witnessed; and some of them have been adorned with a
+splendor of eloquence surpassing what I have ever felt
+before. Fatigue has given way under its influence, and
+the heart has been warmed, while the understanding has
+been instructed.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor428" id="FNanchor428"></a><a href="#Footnote-428" class="fnanchor">[428]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>It will be readily understood, however, that
+while Patrick Henry&#8217;s practice included important
+causes turning, like the one just described, on propositions
+of law, and argued by him before the
+highest tribunals, the larger part of the practice
+to be had in Virginia at that time must have been
+in actions tried before juries, in which his success
+was chiefly due to his amazing endowments of
+sympathy, imagination, tact, and eloquence. The
+testimony of contemporary witnesses respecting
+his power in this direction is most abundant, and
+also most interesting; and, for obvious reasons,
+such portions of it as are now to be reproduced
+should be given in the very language of the persons
+who thus heard him, criticised him, and made
+deliberate report concerning him.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, in the way of preliminary analysis
+of Henry&#8217;s genius and methods as an advocate before
+juries, may be cited a few sentences of Wirt,
+who, indeed, never heard him, but who, being himself
+a very gifted and a very ambitious advocate,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>
+eagerly collected and keenly scanned the accounts
+of many who had heard him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;He adapted himself, without effort, to the character
+of the cause; seized with the quickness of intuition its
+defensible point, and never permitted the jury to lose
+sight of it. Sir Joshua Reynolds has said of Titian,
+that, by a few strokes of his pencil, he knew how to
+mark the image and character of whatever object he
+attempted; and produced by this means a truer representation
+than any of his predecessors, who finished
+every hair. In like manner Mr. Henry, by a few
+master-strokes upon the evidence, could in general
+stamp upon the cause whatever image or character he
+pleased; and convert it into tragedy or comedy, at his
+sovereign will, and with a power which no efforts of his
+adversary could counteract. He never wearied the jury
+by a dry and minute analysis of the evidence; he did
+not expend his strength in finishing the hairs; he produced
+all his high effect by those rare master-touches,
+and by the resistless skill with which, in a very few
+words, he could mould and color the prominent facts of
+a cause to his purpose. He had wonderful address, too,
+in leading off the minds of his hearers from the contemplation
+of unfavorable points, if at any time they were
+too stubborn to yield to his power of transformation.&hellip;
+It required a mind of uncommon vigilance, and
+most intractable temper, to resist this charm with which
+he decoyed away his hearers; it demanded a rapidity
+of penetration, which is rarely, if ever, to be found in
+the jury-box, to detect the intellectual juggle by which
+he spread his nets around them; it called for a stubbornness
+and obduracy of soul which does not exist, to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span>
+sit unmoved under the pictures of horror or of pity
+which started from his canvas. They might resolve, if
+they pleased, to decide the cause against him, and to
+disregard everything which he could urge in the defence
+of his client. But it was all in vain. Some feint
+in an unexpected direction threw them off their guard,
+and they were gone; some happy phrase, burning from
+the soul; some image fresh from nature&#8217;s mint, and
+bearing her own beautiful and genuine impress, struck
+them with delightful surprise, and melted them into
+conciliation; and conciliation towards Mr. Henry was
+victory inevitable. In short, he understood the human
+character so perfectly; knew so well all its strength and
+all its weaknesses, together with every path and by-way
+which winds around the citadel of the best fortified
+heart and mind, that he never failed to take them,
+either by stratagem or storm.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor429" id="FNanchor429"></a><a href="#Footnote-429" class="fnanchor">[429]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Still further, in the way of critical analysis,
+should be cited the opinion of a distinguished
+student and master of eloquence, the Rev. Archibald
+Alexander of Princeton, who, having more
+than once heard Patrick Henry, wrote out, with a
+scholar&#8217;s precision, the results of his own keen
+study into the great advocate&#8217;s success in subduing
+men, and especially jurymen:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The power of Henry&#8217;s eloquence was due, first, to
+the greatness of his emotion and passion, accompanied
+with a versatility which enabled him to assume at once
+any emotion or passion which was suited to his ends.
+Not less indispensable, secondly, was a matchless perfection
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>
+of the organs of expression, including the entire
+apparatus of voice, intonation, pause, gesture, attitude,
+and indescribable play of countenance. In no instance
+did he ever indulge in an expression that was not instantly
+recognized as nature itself; yet some of his penetrating
+and subduing tones were absolutely peculiar, and
+as inimitable as they were indescribable. These were
+felt by every hearer, in all their force. His mightiest
+feelings were sometimes indicated and communicated
+by a long pause, aided by an eloquent aspect, and some
+significant use of his finger. The sympathy between
+mind and mind is inexplicable. Where the channels of
+communication are open, the faculty of revealing inward
+passion great, and the expression of it sudden and visible,
+the effects are extraordinary. Let these shocks of
+influence be repeated again and again, and all other
+opinions and ideas are for the moment absorbed or excluded;
+the whole mind is brought into unison with that
+of the speaker; and the spell-bound listener, till the
+cause ceases, is under an entire fascination. Then perhaps
+the charm ceases, upon reflection, and the infatuated
+hearer resumes his ordinary state.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Patrick Henry, of course, owed much to his singular
+insight into the feelings of the common mind. In
+great cases he scanned his jury, and formed his mental
+estimate; on this basis he founded his appeals to their
+predilections and character. It is what other advocates
+do, in a lesser degree. When he knew that there were
+conscientious or religious men among the jury, he would
+most solemnly address himself to their sense of right,
+and would adroitly bring in scriptural citations. If this
+handle was not offered, he would lay bare the sensibility
+of patriotism. Thus it was, when he succeeded in rescuing
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>
+the man who had deliberately shot down a neighbor;
+who moreover lay under the odious suspicion of being a
+Tory, and who was proved to have refused supplies to a
+brigade of the American army.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor430" id="FNanchor430"></a><a href="#Footnote-430" class="fnanchor">[430]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Passing now from these general descriptions to
+particular instances, we may properly request Dr.
+Alexander to remain somewhat longer in the witness-stand,
+and to give us, in detail, some of his
+own recollections of Patrick Henry. His testimony,
+accordingly, is in these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;From my earliest childhood I had been accustomed
+to hear of the eloquence of Patrick Henry. On this
+subject there existed but one opinion in the country.
+The power of his eloquence was felt equally by the
+learned and the unlearned. No man who ever heard
+him speak, on any important occasion, could fail to admit
+his uncommon power over the minds of his hearers.&hellip;
+Being then a young man, just entering on a profession
+in which good speaking was very important, it
+was natural for me to observe the oratory of celebrated
+men. I was anxious to ascertain the true secret of their
+power; or what it was which enabled them to sway the
+minds of hearers, almost at their will.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In executing a mission from the synod of Virginia,
+in the year 1794, I had to pass through the county
+of Prince Edward, where Mr. Henry then resided.
+Understanding that he was to appear before the circuit
+court, which met in that county, in defence of three
+men charged with murder, I determined to seize the
+opportunity of observing for myself the eloquence of
+this extraordinary orator. It was with some difficulty
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>
+I obtained a seat in front of the bar, where I could
+have a full view of the speaker, as well as hear him
+distinctly. But I had to submit to a severe penance in
+gratifying my curiosity; for the whole day was occupied
+with the examination of witnesses, in which Mr.
+Henry was aided by two other lawyers. In person,
+Mr. Henry was lean rather than fleshy. He was rather
+above than below the common height, but had a stoop
+in the shoulders which prevented him from appearing
+as tall as he really was. In his moments of animation,
+he had the habit of straightening his frame, and adding
+to his apparent stature. He wore a brown wig, which
+exhibited no indication of any great care in the dressing.
+Over his shoulders he wore a brown camlet cloak.
+Under this his clothing was black, something the worse
+for wear. The expression of his countenance was that
+of solemnity and deep earnestness. His mind appeared
+to be always absorbed in what, for the time, occupied
+his attention. His forehead was high and spacious, and
+the skin of his face more than usually wrinkled for a
+man of fifty. His eyes were small and deeply set in
+his head, but were of a bright blue color, and twinkled
+much in their sockets. In short, Mr. Henry&#8217;s appearance
+had nothing very remarkable, as he sat at rest.
+You might readily have taken him for a common
+planter, who cared very little about his personal appearance.
+In his manners he was uniformly respectful and
+courteous. Candles were brought into the court-house,
+when the examination of the witnesses closed; and the
+judges put it to the option of the bar whether they
+would go on with the argument that night or adjourn
+until the next day. Paul Carrington, Junior, the attorney
+for the State, a man of large size, and uncommon
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span>
+dignity of person and manner, and also an accomplished
+lawyer, professed his willingness to proceed immediately,
+while the testimony was fresh in the minds of all.
+Now for the first time I heard Mr. Henry make anything
+of a speech; and though it was short, it satisfied
+me of one thing, which I had particularly desired to
+have decided: namely, whether like a player he merely
+assumed the appearance of feeling. His manner of addressing
+the court was profoundly respectful. He would
+be willing to proceed with the trial, &#8216;but,&#8217; said he, &#8216;my
+heart is so oppressed with the weight of responsibility
+which rests upon me, having the lives of three fellow
+citizens depending, probably, on the exertions which I
+may be able to make in their behalf (here he turned
+to the prisoners behind him), that I do not feel able
+to proceed to-night. I hope the court will indulge me,
+and postpone the trial till the morning.&#8217; The impression
+made by these few words was such as I assure
+myself no one can ever conceive by seeing them in
+print. In the countenance, action, and intonation of the
+speaker, there was expressed such an intensity of feeling,
+that all my doubts were dispelled; never again
+did I question whether Henry felt, or only acted a
+feeling. Indeed, I experienced an instantaneous sympathy
+with him in the emotions which he expressed;
+and I have no doubt the same sympathy was felt by
+every hearer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As a matter of course, the proceedings were deferred
+till the next morning. I was early at my post;
+the judges were soon on the bench, and the prisoners at
+the bar. Mr. Carrington &hellip; opened with a clear and
+dignified speech, and presented the evidence to the jury.
+Everything seemed perfectly plain. Two brothers and
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>
+a brother-in-law met two other persons in pursuit of a
+slave, supposed to be harbored by the brothers. After
+some altercation and mutual abuse, one of the brothers,
+whose name was John Ford, raised a loaded gun which
+he was carrying, and presenting it at the breast of one
+of the other pair, shot him dead, in open day. There
+was no doubt about the fact. Indeed, it was not denied.
+There had been no other provocation than opprobrious
+words. It is presumed that the opinion of every juror
+was made up from merely hearing the testimony; as
+Tom Harvey, the principal witness, who was acting as
+constable on the occasion, appeared to be a respectable
+man. For the clearer understanding of what follows, it
+must be observed that said constable, in order to distinguish
+him from another of the name, was commonly
+called Butterwood Harvey, as he lived on Butterwood
+Creek. Mr. Henry, it is believed, understanding that
+the people were on their guard against his faculty of
+moving the passions and through them influencing the
+judgment, did not resort to the pathetic as much as was
+his usual practice in criminal cases. His main object
+appeared to be, throughout, to cast discredit on the testimony
+of Tom Harvey. This he attempted by causing
+the law respecting riots to be read by one of his assistants.
+It appeared in evidence that Tom Harvey had
+taken upon him to act as constable, without being in
+commission; and that with a posse of men he had entered
+the house of one of the Fords in search of the
+negro, and had put Mrs. Ford, in her husband&#8217;s absence,
+into a great terror, while she was in a very delicate
+condition, near the time of her confinement. As
+he descanted on the evidence, he would often turn to
+Tom Harvey&mdash;a large, bold-looking man&mdash;and with
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>
+the most sarcastic look would call him by some name
+of contempt; &#8216;this Butterwood Tom Harvey,&#8217; &#8216;this
+would-be constable,&#8217; etc. By such expressions, his contempt
+for the man was communicated to the hearers.
+I own I felt it gaining on me, in spite of my better
+judgment; so that before he was done, the impression
+was strong on my mind that Butterwood Harvey was
+undeserving of the smallest credit. This impression,
+however, I found I could counteract the moment I had
+time for reflection. The only part of the speech in
+which he manifested his power of touching the feelings
+strongly, was where he dwelt on the irruption of the
+company into Ford&#8217;s house, in circumstances so perilous
+to the solitary wife. This appeal to the sensibility of
+husbands&mdash;and he knew that all the jury stood in this
+relation&mdash;was overwhelming. If the verdict could
+have been rendered immediately after this burst of the
+pathetic, every man, at least every husband, in the
+house, would have been for rejecting Harvey&#8217;s testimony,
+if not for hanging him forthwith.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor431" id="FNanchor431"></a><a href="#Footnote-431" class="fnanchor">[431]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>A very critical and cool-headed witness respecting
+Patrick Henry&#8217;s powers as an advocate was Judge
+Spencer Roane, who presided in one of the courts
+in which the orator was much engaged after his
+return to the bar in 1786:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;When I saw him there,&#8221; writes Judge Roane, &#8220;he
+must necessarily have been very rusty; yet I considered
+him as a good lawyer.&hellip; It was as a criminal lawyer
+that his eloquence had the finest scope.&hellip; He was a
+perfect master of the passions of his auditory, whether
+in the tragic or the comic line. The tones of his voice,
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>
+to say nothing of his matter and gesture, were insinuated
+into the feelings of his hearers, in a manner that
+baffled all description. It seemed to operate by mere
+sympathy, and by his tones alone it seemed to me that
+he could make you cry or laugh at pleasure. Yet his
+gesture came powerfully in aid, and, if necessary, would
+approach almost to the ridiculous.&hellip; I will try to
+give some account of his tragic and comic effect in two
+instances that came before me. About the year 1792,
+one Holland killed a young man in Botetourt.&hellip;
+Holland had gone up from Louisa as a schoolmaster,
+but had turned out badly, and was very unpopular. The
+killing was in the night, and was generally believed to
+be murder.&hellip; At the instance of the father and for a
+reasonable fee, Mr. H. undertook to go to Greenbrier
+court to defend Holland. Mr. Winston and myself were
+the judges. Such were the prejudices there, as I was
+afterwards informed by Thomas Madison, that the people
+there declared that even Patrick Henry need not
+come to defend Holland, unless he brought a jury with
+him. On the day of the trial the court-house was
+crowded, and I did not move from my seat for fourteen
+hours, and had no wish to do so. The examination took
+up a great part of the time, and the lawyers were probably
+exhausted. Breckenridge was eloquent, but Henry
+left no dry eye in the court-house. The case, I believe,
+was murder, though, possibly, manslaughter only; and
+Henry laid hold of this possibility with such effect as to
+make all forget that Holland had killed the storekeeper,
+and presented the deplorable case of the jury&#8217;s killing
+Holland, an innocent man. He also presented, as it
+were, at the clerk&#8217;s table, old Holland and his wife, who
+were then in Louisa, and asked what must be the feeling
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>
+of this venerable pair at this awful moment, and
+what the consequences to them of a mistaken verdict
+affecting the life of their son. He caused the jury to
+lose sight of the murder they were then trying, and weep
+with old Holland and his wife, whom he painted, and
+perhaps proved to be, very respectable. All this was
+done in a manner so solemn and touching, and a tone so
+irresistible, that it was impossible for the stoutest heart
+not to take sides with the criminal.&hellip; The result of
+the trial was, that, after a retirement of an half or
+quarter of an hour, the jury brought in a verdict of not
+guilty! But on being reminded by the court that they
+might find an inferior degree of homicide, they brought
+in a verdict of manslaughter.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Henry was equally successful in the comic line.&hellip;
+The case was that a wagoner and the plaintiff were
+travelling to Richmond, and the wagoner knocked down
+a turkey and put it into his wagon. Complaint was
+made to the defendant, a justice; both the parties were
+taken up; and the wagoner agreed to take a whipping
+rather than be sent to jail. But the plaintiff refused.
+The justice, however, gave him, also, a small whipping;
+and for this the suit was brought. The plaintiff&#8217;s plea
+was that he was wholly innocent of the act committed.
+Mr. H., on the contrary, contended that he was a party
+aiding and assisting. In the course of his remarks he
+thus expressed himself: &#8216;But, gentlemen of the jury,
+this plaintiff tells you that he had nothing to do with the
+turkey. I dare say, gentlemen,&mdash;not until it was
+roasted!&#8217; and he pronounced the word&mdash;&#8216;roasted&#8217;&mdash;with
+such rotundity of voice, and comicalness of manner
+and gesture, that it threw every one into a fit of laughter
+at the plaintiff, who stood up in the place usually
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>
+allotted to the criminals; and the defendant was let off
+with little or no damages.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor432" id="FNanchor432"></a><a href="#Footnote-432" class="fnanchor">[432]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Finally, we must recall, in illustration of our
+present subject, an anecdote left on record in 1813,
+by the Rev. Conrad Speece, highly distinguished
+during his lifetime, in the Presbyterian communion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Many years ago,&#8221; he then wrote, &#8220;I was at the
+trial, in one of our district courts, of a man charged with
+murder. The case was briefly this: the prisoner had
+gone, in execution of his office as a constable, to arrest
+a slave who had been guilty of some misconduct, and
+bring him to justice. Expecting opposition in the business,
+the constable took several men with him, some of
+them armed. They found the slave on the plantation of
+his master, within view of the house, and proceeded to
+seize and bind him. His mistress, seeing the arrest,
+came down and remonstrated vehemently against it.
+Finding her efforts unavailing, she went off to a barn
+where her husband was, who was presently perceived
+running briskly to the house. It was known he always
+kept a loaded rifle over his door. The constable now
+desired his company to remain where they were, taking
+care to keep the slave in custody, while he himself would
+go to the house to prevent mischief. He accordingly
+ran towards the house. When he arrived within a short
+distance of it, the master appeared coming out of the
+door with his rifle in his hand. Some witnesses said
+that as he came to the door he drew the cock of the
+piece, and was seen in the act of raising it to the position
+of firing. But upon these points there was not an
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>
+entire agreement in the evidence. The constable, standing
+near a small building in the yard, at this instant
+fired, and the fire had a fatal effect. No previous malice
+was proved against him; and his plea upon the trial
+was, that he had taken the life of his assailant in necessary
+self-defence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A great mass of testimony was delivered. This was
+commented upon with considerable ability by the lawyer
+for the commonwealth, and by another lawyer engaged
+by the friends of the deceased for the prosecution. The
+prisoner was also defended, in elaborate speeches, by
+two respectable advocates. These proceedings brought
+the day to a close. The general whisper through a
+crowded house was, that the man was guilty and could
+not be saved.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;About dusk, candles were brought, and Henry arose.
+His manner was &hellip; plain, simple, and entirely unassuming.
+&#8216;Gentlemen of the jury,&#8217; said he, &#8216;I dare say
+we are all very much fatigued with this tedious trial.
+The prisoner at the bar has been well defended already;
+but it is my duty to offer you some further observations
+in behalf of this unfortunate man. I shall aim at brevity.
+But should I take up more of your time than you
+expect, I hope you will hear me with patience, when
+you consider that blood is concerned.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I cannot admit the possibility that any one, who
+never heard Henry speak, should be made fully to conceive
+the force of impression which he gave to these few
+words, &#8216;blood is concerned.&#8217; I had been on my feet
+through the day, pushed about in the crowd, and was
+excessively weary. I was strongly of opinion, too, notwithstanding
+all the previous defensive pleadings, that
+the prisoner was guilty of murder; and I felt anxious
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>
+to know how the matter would terminate. Yet when
+Henry had uttered these words, my feelings underwent
+an instantaneous change. I found everything within me
+answering,&mdash;&#8216;Yes, since blood is concerned, in the name
+of all that is righteous, go on; we will hear you with
+patience until the rising of to-morrow&#8217;s sun!&#8217; This
+bowing of the soul must have been universal; for the
+profoundest silence reigned, as if our very breath had
+been suspended. The spell of the magician was upon
+us, and we stood like statues around him. Under the
+touch of his genius, every particular of the story assumed
+a new aspect, and his cause became continually more
+bright and promising. At length he arrived at the fatal
+act itself: &#8216;You have been told, gentlemen, that the
+prisoner was bound by every obligation to avoid the
+supposed necessity of firing, by leaping behind a house
+near which he stood at that moment. Had he been
+attacked with a club, or with stones, the argument would
+have been unanswerable, and I should feel myself compelled
+to give up the defence in despair. But surely
+I need not tell you, gentlemen, how wide is the difference
+between sticks or stones, and double-triggered, loaded
+rifles cocked at your breast!&#8217; The effect of this terrific
+image, exhibited in this great orator&#8217;s peerless manner,
+cannot be described. I dare not attempt to delineate
+the paroxysm of emotion which it excited in every heart.
+The result of the whole was, that the prisoner was acquitted;
+with the perfect approbation, I believe, of the
+numerous assembly who attended the trial. What was
+it that gave such transcendent force to the eloquence of
+Henry? His reasoning powers were good; but they
+have been equalled, and more than equalled, by those
+of many other men. His imagination was exceedingly
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>
+quick, and commanded all the stores of nature, as
+materials for illustrating his subject. His voice and
+delivery were inexpressibly happy. But his most irresistible
+charm was the vivid feeling of his cause, with
+which he spoke. Such feeling infallibly communicates
+itself to the breast of the hearer.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor433" id="FNanchor433"></a><a href="#Footnote-433" class="fnanchor">[433]</a></p></div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-416" id="Footnote-416"></a><a href="#FNanchor416"><span class="label">[416]</span></a> Winston, in Wirt, 260.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-417" id="Footnote-417"></a><a href="#FNanchor417"><span class="label">[417]</span></a> Ware, Administrator of Jones, Plaintiff in Error, <i>v.</i> Hylton <i>et
+al.</i>, Curtis, <i>Decisions</i>, i. 164-229.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-418" id="Footnote-418"></a><a href="#FNanchor418"><span class="label">[418]</span></a> Wirt, 316-318.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-419" id="Footnote-419"></a><a href="#FNanchor419"><span class="label">[419]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 312.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-420" id="Footnote-420"></a><a href="#FNanchor420"><span class="label">[420]</span></a> Edward Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-421" id="Footnote-421"></a><a href="#FNanchor421"><span class="label">[421]</span></a> Howe, <i>Hist. Coll. Va.</i> 221.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-422" id="Footnote-422"></a><a href="#FNanchor422"><span class="label">[422]</span></a> Wirt, 312.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-423" id="Footnote-423"></a><a href="#FNanchor423"><span class="label">[423]</span></a> Wirt, 320-321; 368-369.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-424" id="Footnote-424"></a><a href="#FNanchor424"><span class="label">[424]</span></a> McRee, <i>Life of Iredell</i>, ii. 394.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-425" id="Footnote-425"></a><a href="#FNanchor425"><span class="label">[425]</span></a> Memorandum of J. W. Bouldin, in <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1873, 274-275.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-426" id="Footnote-426"></a><a href="#FNanchor426"><span class="label">[426]</span></a> Howe, <i>Hist. Coll. Va.</i> 222.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-427" id="Footnote-427"></a><a href="#FNanchor427"><span class="label">[427]</span></a> Judge Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-428" id="Footnote-428"></a><a href="#FNanchor428"><span class="label">[428]</span></a> McRee, <i>Life of Iredell</i>, ii. 395.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-429" id="Footnote-429"></a><a href="#FNanchor429"><span class="label">[429]</span></a> Wirt, 75-76.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-430" id="Footnote-430"></a><a href="#FNanchor430"><span class="label">[430]</span></a> J. W. Alexander, <i>Life of A. Alexander</i>, 191-192.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-431" id="Footnote-431"></a><a href="#FNanchor431"><span class="label">[431]</span></a> J. W. Alexander, <i>Life of Archibald Alexander</i>, 183-187.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-432" id="Footnote-432"></a><a href="#FNanchor432"><span class="label">[432]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-433" id="Footnote-433"></a><a href="#FNanchor433"><span class="label">[433]</span></a> Howe. <i>Hist. Coll. Va.</i> 222-223.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI <br />
+<span class="hsub">IN RETIREMENT</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>In the year 1794, being then fifty-eight years
+old, and possessed at last of a competent fortune,
+Patrick Henry withdrew from his profession, and
+resolved to spend in retirement the years that
+should remain to him on earth. Removing from
+Prince Edward County, he lived for a short time
+at Long Island, in Campbell County; but in 1795
+he finally established himself in the county of
+Charlotte, on an estate called Red Hill,&mdash;an estate
+which continued to be his home during the rest of
+his life, which gave to him his burial place, and
+which still remains in the possession of his descendants.</p>
+
+<p>The rapidity with which he had thus risen out of
+pecuniary embarrassments was not due alone to the
+earnings of his profession during those few years;
+for while his eminence as an advocate commanded
+the highest fees, probably, that were then paid in
+Virginia, it is apparent from his account-books that
+those fees were not at all exorbitant, and for a
+lawyer of his standing would not now be regarded
+as even considerable. The truth is that, subsequently
+to his youthful and futile attempts at business,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>
+he had so profited by the experiences of his
+life as to have become a sagacious and an expert
+man of business. &#8220;He could buy or sell a horse,
+or a negro, as well as anybody, and was peculiarly
+a judge of the value and quality of lands.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor434" id="FNanchor434"></a><a href="#Footnote-434" class="fnanchor">[434]</a> It
+seems to have been chiefly from his investments in
+lands, made by him with foresight and judgment,
+and from which, for a long time, he had reaped
+only burdens and anxieties, that he derived the
+wealth that secured for him the repose of his last
+years. The charge long afterward made by Jefferson,
+that Patrick Henry&#8217;s fortune came either from
+a mean use of his right to pay his land debts in a
+depreciated currency &#8220;not worth oak-leaves,&#8221; or
+from any connection on his part with the profligate
+and infamous Yazoo speculation, has been shown,
+by ample evidence, to be untrue.<a name="FNanchor435" id="FNanchor435"></a><a href="#Footnote-435" class="fnanchor">[435]</a></p>
+
+<p>The descriptions which have come down to us of
+the life led by the old statesman in those last five
+years of retirement make a picture pleasant to look
+upon. The house at Red Hill, which then became
+his home, &#8220;is beautifully situated on an elevated
+ridge, the dividing line of Campbell and Charlotte,
+within a quarter of a mile of the junction of Falling
+River with the Staunton. From it the valley of the
+Staunton stretches southward about three miles,
+varying from a quarter to nearly a mile in width,
+and of an oval-like form. Through most fertile
+meadows waving in their golden luxuriance, slowly
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>
+winds the river, overhung by mossy foliage, while
+on all sides gently sloping hills, rich in verdure,
+enclose the whole, and impart to it an air of seclusion
+and repose. From the brow of the hill, west
+of the house, is a scene of an entirely different
+character: the Blue Ridge, with the lofty peaks of
+Otter, appears in the horizon at a distance of nearly
+sixty miles.&#8221; Under the trees which shaded his
+lawn, and &#8220;in full view of the beautiful valley
+beneath, the orator was accustomed, in pleasant
+weather, to sit mornings and evenings, with his
+chair leaning against one of their trunks, and
+a can of cool spring-water by his side, from
+which he took frequent draughts. Occasionally,
+he walked to and fro in the yard from one clump
+of trees to the other, buried in revery, at which
+times he was never interrupted.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor436" id="FNanchor436"></a><a href="#Footnote-436" class="fnanchor">[436]</a>
+&#8220;His great delight,&#8221;
+says one of his sons-in-law, &#8220;was in conversation,
+in the society of his friends and family,
+and in the resources of his own mind.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor437" id="FNanchor437"></a><a href="#Footnote-437" class="fnanchor">[437]</a> Thus
+beneath his own roof, or under the shadow of his
+own trees, he loved to sit, like a patriarch, with
+his family and his guests gathered affectionately
+around him, and there, free from ceremony as from
+care, to give himself up to the interchange of congenial
+thought whether grave or playful, and even
+to the sports of the children. &#8220;His visitors,&#8221; writes
+one of them, &#8220;have not unfrequently caught him
+lying on the floor, with a group of these little ones
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>
+climbing over him in every direction, or dancing
+around him with obstreperous mirth, to the tune
+of his violin, while the only contest seemed to be
+who should make the most noise.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor438" id="FNanchor438"></a><a href="#Footnote-438" class="fnanchor">[438]</a></p>
+
+<p>The evidence of contemporaries respecting the
+sweetness of his spirit and his great lovableness in
+private life is most abundant. One who knew him
+well in his family, and who was also quite willing
+to be critical upon occasion, has said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;With respect to the domestic character of Mr.
+Henry, nothing could be more amiable. In every relation,
+as a husband, father, master, and neighbor, he
+was entirely exemplary. As to the disposition of Mr.
+Henry, it was the best imaginable. I am positive that
+I never saw him in a passion, nor apparently even out
+of temper. Circumstances which would have highly
+irritated other men had no such visible effect on him.
+He was always calm and collected; and the rude attacks
+of his adversaries in debate only whetted the poignancy
+of his satire.&hellip; Shortly after the Constitution was
+adopted, a series of the most abusive and scurrilous
+pieces came out against him, under the signature of
+Decius. They were supposed to be written by John
+Nicholas, &hellip; with the assistance of other more important
+men. They assailed Mr. Henry&#8217;s conduct in
+the Convention, and slandered his character by various
+stories hatched up against him. These pieces were extremely
+hateful to all Mr. Henry&#8217;s friends, and, indeed,
+to a great portion of the community. I was at his
+house in Prince Edward during the thickest of them.&hellip;
+He evinced no feeling on the occasion, and far less
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>
+condescended to parry the effects on the public mind.
+It was too puny a contest for him, and he reposed upon
+the consciousness of his own integrity.&hellip; With many
+sublime virtues, he had no vice that I knew or ever
+heard of, and scarcely a foible. I have thought, indeed,
+that he was too much attached to property,&mdash;a defect,
+however, which might be excused when we reflect on
+the largeness of a beloved family, and the straitened
+circumstances in which he had been confined during a
+great part of his life.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor439" id="FNanchor439"></a><a href="#Footnote-439" class="fnanchor">[439]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Concerning his personal habits, we have, through
+his grandson, Patrick Henry Fontaine, some testimony
+which has the merit of placing the great
+man somewhat more familiarly before us. &#8220;He
+was,&#8221; we are told, &#8220;very abstemious in his diet,
+and used no wine or alcoholic stimulants. Distressed
+and alarmed at the increase of drunkenness
+after the Revolutionary war, he did everything
+in his power to arrest the vice. He thought
+that the introduction of a harmless beverage, as a
+substitute for distilled spirits, would be beneficial.
+To effect this object, he ordered from his merchant
+in Scotland a consignment of barley, and a Scotch
+brewer and his wife to cultivate the grain, and
+make small beer. To render the beverage fashionable
+and popular, he always had it upon his table
+while he was governor during his last term of
+office; and he continued its use, but drank nothing
+stronger, while he lived.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor440" id="FNanchor440"></a><a href="#Footnote-440" class="fnanchor">[440]</a></p>
+
+<p>Though he was always a most loyal Virginian,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>
+he became, particularly in his later years, very unfriendly
+to that renowned and consolatory herb so
+long associated with the fame and fortune of his
+native State.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;In his old age, the condition of his nervous system
+made the scent of a tobacco-pipe very disagreeable to
+him. The old colored house-servants were compelled
+to hide their pipes, and rid themselves of the scent of
+tobacco, before they ventured to approach him.&hellip;
+They protested that they had not smoked, or seen a
+pipe; and he invariably proved the culprit guilty by following
+the scent, and leading them to the corn-cob pipes
+hid in some crack or cranny, which he made them take
+and throw instantly into the kitchen fire, without reforming
+their habits, or correcting the evil, which is likely to
+continue as long as tobacco will grow.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor441" id="FNanchor441"></a><a href="#Footnote-441" class="fnanchor">[441]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Concerning another of his personal habits, during
+the years thus passed in retirement at Red
+Hill, there is a charming description, also derived
+from the grandson to whom we are indebted for the
+facts just mentioned:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;His residence overlooked a large field in the bottom
+of Staunton River, the most of which could be seen from
+his yard. He rose early; and in the mornings of the
+spring, summer, and fall, before sunrise, while the air
+was cool and calm, reflecting clearly and distinctly the
+sounds of the lowing herds and singing birds, he stood
+upon an eminence, and gave orders and directions to his
+servants at work a half mile distant from him. The
+strong, musical voices of the negroes responded to him.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>
+During this elocutionary morning exercise, his enunciation
+was clear and distinct enough to be heard over an
+area which ten thousand people could not have filled;
+and the tones of his voice were as melodious as the notes
+of an Alpine horn.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor442" id="FNanchor442"></a><a href="#Footnote-442" class="fnanchor">[442]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Of course the house-servants and the field-servants
+just mentioned were slaves; and, from the beginning
+to the end of his life, Patrick Henry was
+a slaveholder. He bought slaves, he sold slaves,
+and, along with the other property&mdash;the lands, the
+houses, the cattle&mdash;bequeathed by him to his heirs,
+were numerous human beings of the African race.
+What, then, was the opinion respecting slavery
+held by this great champion of the rights of man?
+&#8220;Is it not amazing&#8221;&mdash;thus he wrote in 1773&mdash;&#8220;that,
+at a time when the rights of humanity are
+defined and understood with precision, in a country
+above all others fond of liberty, in such an age, we
+find men, professing a religion the most humane,
+mild, meek, gentle, and generous, adopting a principle
+as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent
+with the Bible and destructive to liberty?&hellip;
+Would any one believe that I am master of slaves
+of my own purchase? I am drawn along by the
+general inconvenience of living without them. I
+will not, I cannot, justify it; however culpable my
+conduct, I will so far pay my &#8216;devoir&#8217; to virtue as
+to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts,
+and to lament my want of conformity to them. I
+believe a time will come when an opportunity will
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>
+be offered to abolish this lamentable evil: everything
+we can do is to improve it, if it happens in
+our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants,
+together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy
+lot, and an abhorrence of slavery. We owe to the
+purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance
+with that law which warrants slavery.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor443" id="FNanchor443"></a><a href="#Footnote-443" class="fnanchor">[443]</a> After the
+Revolution, and before the adoption of the Constitution,
+he earnestly advocated, in the Virginia House
+of Delegates, some method of emancipation; and
+even in the Convention of 1788, where he argued
+against the Constitution on the ground that it
+obviously conferred upon the general government,
+in an emergency, that power of emancipation which,
+in his opinion, should be retained by the States,
+he still avowed his hostility to slavery, and at the
+same time his inability to see any practicable means
+of ending it: &#8220;Slavery is detested: we feel its
+fatal effects,&mdash;we deplore it with all the pity of
+humanity.&hellip; As we ought with gratitude to admire
+that decree of Heaven which has numbered
+us among the free, we ought to lament and deplore
+the necessity of holding our fellow-men in bondage.
+But is it practicable, by any human means, to liberate
+them without producing the most dreadful
+and ruinous consequences?&#8221;<a name="FNanchor444" id="FNanchor444"></a><a href="#Footnote-444" class="fnanchor">[444]</a></p>
+
+<p>During all the years of his retirement, his great
+fame drew to him many strangers, who came to
+pay their homage to him, to look upon his face, to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>
+listen to his words. Such guests were always received
+by him with a cordiality that was unmistakable,
+and so modest and simple as to put them at
+once at their ease. Of course they desired most of
+all to hear him talk of his own past life, and of the
+great events in which he had borne so brilliant a
+part; but whenever he was persuaded to do so, it
+was always with the most quiet references to himself.
+&#8220;No man,&#8221; says one who knew him well,
+&#8220;ever vaunted less of his achievements than Mr.
+H. I hardly ever heard him speak of those great
+achievements which form the prominent part of his
+biography. As for boasting, he was entirely a
+stranger to it, unless it be that, in his latter days,
+he seemed proud of the goodness of his lands, and,
+I believe, wished to be thought wealthy. It is my
+opinion that he was better pleased to be flattered
+as to his wealth than as to his great talents. This
+I have accounted for by recollecting that he had
+long been under narrow and difficult circumstances
+as to property, from which he was at length happily
+relieved; whereas there never was a time when his
+talents had not always been conspicuous, though he
+always seemed unconscious of them.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor445" id="FNanchor445"></a><a href="#Footnote-445" class="fnanchor">[445]</a></p>
+
+<p>It should not be supposed that, in his final withdrawal
+from public and professional labors, he
+surrendered himself to the enjoyment of domestic
+happiness, without any positive occupation of the
+mind. From one of his grandsons, who was much
+with him in those days, the tradition is derived
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>
+that, besides &#8220;setting a good example of honesty,
+benevolence, hospitality, and every social virtue,&#8221;
+he assisted &#8220;in the education of his younger children,&#8221;
+and especially devoted much time &#8220;to earnest
+efforts to establish true Christianity in our
+country.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor446" id="FNanchor446"></a><a href="#Footnote-446" class="fnanchor">[446]</a> He gave himself more than ever to the
+study of the Bible, as well as of two or three of
+the great English divines, particularly Tillotson,
+Butler, and Sherlock. The sermons of the latter,
+he declared, had removed &#8220;all his doubts of the
+truth of Christianity;&#8221; and from a volume which
+contained them, and which was full of his pencilled
+notes, he was accustomed to read &#8220;every Sunday
+evening to his family; after which they all joined
+in sacred music, while he accompanied them on the
+violin.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor447" id="FNanchor447"></a><a href="#Footnote-447" class="fnanchor">[447]</a></p>
+
+<p>There seems to have been no time in his life,
+after his arrival at manhood, when Patrick Henry
+was not regarded by his private acquaintances as
+a positively religious person. Moreover, while he
+was most tolerant of all forms of religion, and was
+on peculiarly friendly terms with their ministers, to
+whose preaching he often listened, it is inaccurate
+to say, as Wirt has done, that, though he was a
+Christian, he was so &#8220;after a form of his own;&#8221;
+that &#8220;he was never attached to any particular religious
+society, and never &hellip; communed with any
+church.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor448" id="FNanchor448"></a><a href="#Footnote-448" class="fnanchor">[448]</a> On the contrary, from a grandson who
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>
+spent many years in his household comes the tradition
+that &#8220;his parents were members of the Protestant
+Episcopal Church, of which his uncle, Patrick
+Henry, was a minister;&#8221; that &#8220;he was baptized
+and made a member of it in early life;&#8221; and that
+&#8220;he lived and died an exemplary member of it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor449" id="FNanchor449"></a><a href="#Footnote-449" class="fnanchor">[449]</a>
+Furthermore, in 1830, the Rev. Charles Dresser,
+rector of Antrim Parish, Halifax County, Virginia,
+wrote that the widow of Patrick Henry told
+him that her husband used to receive &#8220;the communion
+as often as an opportunity was offered, and
+on such occasions always fasted until after he had
+communicated, and spent the day in the greatest
+retirement. This he did both while governor and
+afterward.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor450" id="FNanchor450"></a><a href="#Footnote-450" class="fnanchor">[450]</a> In a letter to one of his daughters,
+written in 1796, he makes this touching confession:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Amongst other strange things said of me, I hear it
+is said by the deists that I am one of the number; and,
+indeed, that some good people think I am no Christian.
+This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation
+of Tory; because I think religion of infinitely
+higher importance than politics; and I find much cause
+to reproach myself that I have lived so long, and
+have given no decided and public proofs of my being a
+Christian. But, indeed, my dear child, this is a character
+which I prize far above all this world has, or can
+boast.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor451" id="FNanchor451"></a><a href="#Footnote-451" class="fnanchor">[451]</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span>
+While he thus spoke, humbly and sorrowfully,
+of his religious position as a thing so little known
+to the public that it could be entirely misunderstood
+by a portion of them, it is plain that no
+one who had seen him in the privacy of his life at
+home could have had any misunderstanding upon
+that subject. For years before his retirement from
+the law, it had been his custom, we are told, to
+spend &#8220;one hour every day &hellip; in private devotion.
+His hour of prayer was the close of the
+day, including sunset; &hellip; and during that sacred
+hour, none of his family intruded upon his privacy.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor452" id="FNanchor452"></a><a href="#Footnote-452" class="fnanchor">[452]</a></p>
+
+<p>As regards his religious faith, Patrick Henry,
+while never ostentatious of it, was always ready
+to avow it, and to defend it. The French alliance
+during our Revolution, and our close intercourse
+with France immediately afterward, hastened
+among us the introduction of certain French
+writers who were assailants of Christianity, and
+who soon set up among the younger and perhaps
+brighter men of the country the fashion of casting
+off, as parts of an outworn and pitiful superstition,
+the religious ideas of their childhood, and even the
+morality which had found its strongest sanctions
+in those ideas. Upon all this, Patrick Henry
+looked with grief and alarm. In his opinion, a far
+deeper, a far wiser and nobler handling of all the
+immense questions involved in the problem of the
+truth of Christianity was furnished by such English
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>
+writers as Sherlock and Bishop Butler, and, for
+popular use, even Soame Jenyns. Therefore, as
+French scepticism then had among the Virginia
+lawyers and politicians its diligent missionaries, so,
+with the energy and directness that always characterized
+him, he determined to confront it, if possible,
+with an equal diligence; and he then deliberately
+made himself, while still a Virginia lawyer
+and politician, a missionary also,&mdash;a missionary
+on behalf of rational and enlightened Christian
+faith. Thus during his second term as governor
+he caused to be printed, on his own account, an
+edition of Soame Jenyns&#8217;s &#8220;View of the Internal
+Evidence of Christianity;&#8221; likewise, an edition of
+Butler&#8217;s &#8220;Analogy;&#8221; and thenceforward, particularly
+among the young men of Virginia, assailed as
+they were by the fashionable scepticism, this illustrious
+colporteur was active in the defence of
+Christianity, not only by his own sublime and persuasive
+arguments, but by the distribution, as the
+fit occasion offered, of one or the other of these
+two books.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly when, during the first two years of
+his retirement, Thomas Paine&#8217;s &#8220;Age of Reason&#8221;
+made its appearance, the old statesman was moved
+to write out a somewhat elaborate treatise in defence
+of the truth of Christianity. This treatise it
+was his purpose to have published. &#8220;He read the
+manuscript to his family as he progressed with it,
+and completed it a short time before his death.&#8221;
+When it was finished, however, being &#8220;diffident
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span>
+about his own work,&#8221; and impressed, also, by the
+great ability of the replies to Paine which were
+then appearing in England, &#8220;he directed his wife
+to destroy&#8221; what he had written. She &#8220;complied
+literally with his directions,&#8221; and thus put beyond
+the chance of publication a work which seemed, to
+some who heard it, to be &#8220;the most eloquent and
+unanswerable argument in the defence of the Bible
+which was ever written.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor453" id="FNanchor453"></a><a href="#Footnote-453" class="fnanchor">[453]</a></p>
+
+<p>Finally, in his last will and testament, bearing
+the date of November 20, 1798, and written
+throughout, as he says, &#8220;with my own hand,&#8221; he
+chose to insert a touching affirmation of his own
+deep faith in Christianity. After distributing his
+estate among his descendants, he thus concludes:
+&#8220;This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear
+family. The religion of Christ can give them one
+which will make them rich indeed.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor454" id="FNanchor454"></a><a href="#Footnote-454" class="fnanchor">[454]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is not to be imagined that this deep seclusion
+and these eager religious studies implied in Patrick
+Henry any forgetfulness of the political concerns
+of his own country, or any indifference to those
+mighty events which, during those years, were
+taking place in Europe, and were reacting with
+tremendous effect upon the thought, the emotion,
+and even the material interests of America. Neither
+did he succeed in thus preserving the retirement
+which he had resolved upon, without having
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>
+to resist the attempts of both political parties to
+draw him forth again into official life. All these
+matters, indeed, are involved in the story of his
+political attitude from the close of his struggle for
+amending the Constitution down to the very close
+of his life,&mdash;a story which used to be told with
+angry vituperation on one side, perhaps with some
+meek apologies on the other. Certainly, the day
+for such comment is long past. In the disinterestedness
+which the lapse of time has now made
+an easy virtue for us, we may see, plainly enough,
+that such ungentle words as &#8220;apostate&#8221; and &#8220;turncoat,&#8221;
+with which his name used to be plentifully
+assaulted, were but the missiles of partisan excitement;
+and that by his act of intellectual readjustment
+with respect to the new conditions forced
+upon human society, on both sides of the Atlantic,
+by the French Revolution, he developed no occasion
+for apologies, since he therein did nothing
+that was unusual at that time among honest and
+thoughtful men everywhere, and nothing that was
+inconsistent with the professions or the tendencies
+of his own previous life. It becomes our duty,
+however, to trace this story over again, as concisely
+as possible, but in the light of much historical
+evidence that has never hitherto been presented
+in connection with it.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the adoption, in 1791, of the first ten
+amendments to the Constitution, every essential
+objection which he had formerly urged against that
+instrument was satisfied; and there then remained
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>
+no good reason why he should any longer hold
+himself aloof from the cordial support of the new
+government, especially as directed, first by Washington,
+and afterward by John Adams,&mdash;two men
+with whom, both personally and politically, he had
+always been in great harmony, excepting only
+upon this single matter of the Constitution in its
+original form. Undoubtedly, the contest which he
+had waged on that question had been so hot and
+so bitter that, even after it was ended, some time
+would be required for his recovery from the soreness
+of spirit, from the tone of suspicion and even
+of enmity, which it had occasioned. Accordingly,
+in the correspondence and other records of the
+time, we catch some glimpses of him, which show
+that even after Congress had passed the great
+amendments, and after their approval by the
+States had become a thing assured, he still looked
+askance at the administration, and particularly at
+some of the financial measures proposed by Hamilton.<a name="FNanchor455" id="FNanchor455"></a><a href="#Footnote-455" class="fnanchor">[455]</a>
+Nevertheless, as year by year went on, and
+as Washington and his associates continued to
+deal fairly, wisely, and, on the whole, successfully,
+with the enormous problems which they encountered;
+moreover, as Jefferson and Madison gradually
+drew off from Washington, and formed a
+party in opposition, which seemed to connive at
+the proceedings of Genet, and to encourage the
+formation among us of political clubs in apparent
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>
+sympathy with the wildest and most anarchic doctrines
+which were then flung into words and into
+deeds in the streets of Paris, it happened that
+Patrick Henry found himself, like Richard Henry
+Lee, and many another of his companions in the
+old struggle against the Constitution, drawn more
+and more into support of the new government.</p>
+
+<p>In this frame of mind, probably, was he in the
+spring of 1793, when, during the session of the
+federal court at Richmond, he had frequent conversations
+with Chief Justice Jay and with Judge
+Iredell. The latter, having never before met
+Henry, had felt great dislike of him on account
+of the alleged violence of his opinions against the
+Constitution; but after making his acquaintance,
+Iredell thus wrote concerning him: &#8220;I never was
+more agreeably disappointed than in my acquaintance
+with him. I have been much in his company;
+and his manners are very pleasing, and his
+mind, I am persuaded, highly liberal. It is a
+strong additional reason I have, added to many
+others, to hold in high detestation violent party
+prejudice.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor456" id="FNanchor456"></a><a href="#Footnote-456" class="fnanchor">[456]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the following year, General Henry Lee, then
+governor of Virginia, appointed Patrick Henry as
+a senator of the United States, to fill out an unexpired
+term. This honor he felt compelled to decline.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the same year, General Lee,
+finding that Patrick Henry, though in virtual sympathy
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>
+with the administration, was yet under the
+impression that Washington had cast off their old
+friendship, determined to act the part of a peacemaker
+between them, and, if possible, bring together
+once more two old friends who had been
+parted by political differences that no longer existed.
+On the 17th of August, 1794, Lee, at
+Richmond, thus wrote to the President:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;When I saw you in Philadelphia, I had many conversations
+with you respecting Mr. Henry, and since my
+return I have talked very freely and confidentially with
+that gentleman. I plainly perceive that he has credited
+some information, which he has received (from whom I
+know not), which induces him to believe that you consider
+him a factious, seditious character.&hellip; Assured
+in my own mind that his opinions are groundless, I have
+uniformly combated them, and lament that my endeavors
+have been unavailing. He seems to be deeply and
+sorely affected. It is very much to be regretted; for
+he is a man of positive virtue as well as of transcendent
+talents; and were it not for his feelings above expressed,
+I verily believe, he would be found among the most
+active supporters of your administration. Excuse me
+for mentioning this matter to you. I have long wished
+to do it, in the hope that it would lead to a refutation of
+the sentiments entertained by Mr. Henry.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor457" id="FNanchor457"></a><a href="#Footnote-457" class="fnanchor">[457]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>To this letter Washington sent a reply which
+expressed unabated regard for his old friend; and
+this reply, having been shown by Lee to Henry,
+drew from him this noble-minded answer:&mdash;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">TO GENERAL HENRY LEE.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">Red Hill</span>, 27 June, 1795.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Your very friendly communication
+of so much of the President&#8217;s letter as relates to me, demands
+my sincere thanks. Retired as I am from the
+busy world, it is still grateful to me to know that some
+portion of regard remains for me amongst my countrymen;
+especially those of them whose opinions I most
+value. But the esteem of that personage, who is contemplated
+in this correspondence, is highly flattering indeed.</p>
+
+<p>The American Revolution was the grand operation,
+which seemed to be assigned by the Deity to the men of
+this age in our country, over and above the common
+duties of life. I ever prized at a high rate the superior
+privilege of being one in that chosen age, to which
+Providence intrusted its favorite work. With this impression,
+it was impossible for me to resist the impulse
+I felt to contribute my mite towards accomplishing that
+event, which in future will give a superior aspect to the
+men of these times. To the man, especially, who led
+our armies, will that aspect belong; and it is not in
+nature for one with my feelings to revere the Revolution,
+without including him who stood foremost in its establishment.</p>
+
+<p>Every insinuation that taught me to believe I had
+forfeited the good-will of that personage, to whom the
+world had agreed to ascribe the appellation of good and
+great, must needs give me pain; particularly as he had
+opportunities of knowing my character both in public
+and in private life. The intimation now given me, that
+there was no ground to believe I had incurred his censure,
+gives very great pleasure.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Since the adoption of the present Constitution, I have
+generally moved in a narrow circle. But in that I have
+never omitted to inculcate a strict adherence to the principles
+of it. And I have the satisfaction to think, that
+in no part of the Union have the laws been more pointedly
+obeyed, than in that where I have resided and spent
+my time. Projects, indeed, of a contrary tendency have
+been hinted to me; but the treatment of the projectors
+has been such as to prevent all intercourse with them for
+a long time. Although a democrat myself, I like not
+the late democratic societies. As little do I like their
+suppression by law. Silly things may amuse for awhile,
+but in a little time men will perceive their delusions.
+The way to preserve in men&#8217;s minds a value for them,
+is to enact laws against them.</p>
+
+<p>My present views are to spend my days in privacy.
+If, however, it shall please God, during my life, so to
+order the course of events as to render my feeble efforts
+necessary for the safety of the country, in any, even the
+smallest degree, that little which I can do shall be done.
+Whenever you may have an opportunity, I shall be much
+obliged by your presenting my best respects and duty
+to the President, assuring him of my gratitude for his
+favorable sentiments towards me.</p>
+
+<p>Be assured, my dear sir, of the esteem and regard
+with which I am yours, etc.,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">Patrick Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor458" id="FNanchor458"></a><a href="#Footnote-458" class="fnanchor">[458]</a>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>After seeing this letter, Washington took an
+opportunity to convey to Patrick Henry a strong
+practical proof of his confidence in him, and of his
+cordial friendship. The office of secretary of state
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>
+having become vacant, Washington thus tendered
+the place to Patrick Henry:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right1"><span class="smcap">Mount Vernon,</span> 9 October, 1795.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Whatever may be the reception of this
+letter, truth and candor shall mark its steps. You
+doubtless know that the office of state is vacant; and no
+one can be more sensible than yourself of the importance
+of filling it with a person of abilities, and one in
+whom the public would have confidence.</p>
+
+<p>It would be uncandid not to inform you that this office
+has been offered to others; but it is as true, that it
+was from a conviction in my own mind that you would
+not accept it (until Tuesday last, in a conversation with
+General Lee, he dropped sentiments which made it less
+doubtful), that it was not offered first to you.</p>
+
+<p>I need scarcely add, that if this appointment could be
+made to comport with your own inclination, it would
+be as pleasing to me, as I believe it would be acceptable
+to the public. With this assurance, and with this belief,
+I make you the offer of it. My first wish is that you
+would accept it; the next is that you would be so good
+as to give me an answer as soon as you conveniently
+can, as the public business in that department is now
+suffering for want of a secretary.<a name="FNanchor459" id="FNanchor459"></a><a href="#Footnote-459" class="fnanchor">[459]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>Though Patrick Henry declined this proposal,
+he declined it for reasons that did not shut the
+door against further overtures of a similar kind;
+for, within the next three months, a vacancy having
+occurred in another great office,&mdash;that of
+chief justice of the United States,&mdash;Washington
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>
+again employed the friendly services of General
+Lee, whom he authorized to offer the place to
+Patrick Henry. This was done by Lee in a letter
+dated December 26, 1795:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;The Senate have disagreed to the President&#8217;s nomination
+of Mr. Rutledge, and a vacancy in that important
+office has taken place. For your country&#8217;s sake, for
+your friends&#8217; sake, for your family&#8217;s sake, tell me you
+will obey a call to it. You know my friendship for you;
+you know my circumspection; and, I trust, you know,
+too, I would not address you on such a subject without
+good grounds. Surely no situation better suits you.
+You continue at home, only [except] when on duty.
+Change of air and exercise will add to your days. The
+salary excellent, and the honor very great. Be explicit
+in your reply.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor460" id="FNanchor460"></a><a href="#Footnote-460" class="fnanchor">[460]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>On the same day on which Lee thus wrote to
+Henry he likewise wrote to Washington, informing
+him that he had done so; but, for some cause
+now unknown, Washington received no further
+word from Lee for more than two weeks. Accordingly,
+on the 11th of January, 1796, in his anxiety
+to know what might be Patrick Henry&#8217;s decision
+concerning the office of chief justice, Washington
+wrote to Lee as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Your letter of the 26th ult. has
+been received, but nothing from you since,&mdash;which is
+embarrassing in the extreme; for not only the nomination
+of chief justice, but an associate judge, and secretary
+of war, is suspended on the answer you were to
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>
+receive from Mr. Henry; and what renders the want of
+it more to be regretted is, that the first Monday of next
+month (which happens on the first day of it) is the term
+appointed by law for the meeting of the Superior Court
+of the United States, in this city; at which, for particular
+reasons, the bench ought to be full. I will add no
+more at present than that I am your affectionate,</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">Geo. Washington.</span><a name="FNanchor461" id="FNanchor461"></a><a href="#Footnote-461" class="fnanchor">[461]</a>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Although Patrick Henry declined this great
+compliment also, his friendliness to the administration
+had become so well understood that, among
+the Federal leaders, who in the spring of 1796
+were planning for the succession to Washington
+and Adams, there was a strong inclination to nominate
+Patrick Henry for the vice-presidency,&mdash;their
+chief doubt being with reference to his willingness
+to take the nomination.<a name="FNanchor462" id="FNanchor462"></a><a href="#Footnote-462" class="fnanchor">[462]</a></p>
+
+<p>All these overtures to Patrick Henry were somewhat
+jealously watched by Jefferson, who, indeed,
+in a letter to Monroe, on the 10th of July, 1796,
+interpreted them with that easy recklessness of
+statement which so frequently embellished his private
+correspondence and his private talk. &#8220;Most
+assiduous court,&#8221; he says of the Federalists, &#8220;is
+paid to Patrick Henry. He has been offered
+everything which they knew he would not accept.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor463" id="FNanchor463"></a><a href="#Footnote-463" class="fnanchor">[463]</a></p>
+
+<p>A few weeks after Jefferson penned those sneering
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>
+words, the person thus alluded to wrote to his
+daughter, Mrs. Aylett, concerning certain troublesome
+reports which had reached her:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;As to the reports you have heard, of my changing
+sides in politics, I can only say they are not true. I
+am too old to exchange my former opinions, which have
+grown up into fixed habits of thinking. True it is, I
+have condemned the conduct of our members in Congress,
+because, in refusing to raise money for the purposes
+of the British treaty, they, in effect, would have
+surrendered our country bound, hand and foot, to the
+power of the British nation.&hellip; The treaty is, in my
+opinion, a very bad one indeed. But what must I think
+of those men, whom I myself warned of the danger of
+giving the power of making laws by means of treaty to
+the President and Senate, when I see these same men
+denying the existence of that power, which, they insisted
+in our convention, ought properly to be exercised by the
+President and Senate, and by none other? The policy
+of these men, both then and now, appears to me quite
+void of wisdom and foresight. These sentiments I did
+mention in conversation in Richmond, and perhaps
+others which I don&#8217;t remember.&hellip; It seems that
+every word was watched which I casually dropped, and
+wrested to answer party views. Who can have been so
+meanly employed, I know not, neither do I care; for I
+no longer consider myself as an actor on the stage of
+public life. It is time for me to retire; and I shall
+never more appear in a public character, unless some
+unlooked-for circumstance shall demand from me a
+transient effort, not inconsistent with private life&mdash;in
+which I have determined to continue.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor464" id="FNanchor464"></a><a href="#Footnote-464" class="fnanchor">[464]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span>
+In the autumn of 1796 the Assembly of Virginia,
+then under the political control of Jefferson,
+and apparently eager to compete with the Federalists
+for the possession of a great name, elected
+Patrick Henry to the governorship of the State.
+But the man whose purpose to refuse office had
+been proof against the attractions of the United
+States Senate, and of the highest place in Washington&#8217;s
+cabinet, and of the highest judicial position
+in the country, was not likely to succumb to
+the opportunity of being governor of Virginia for
+the sixth time.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-434" id="Footnote-434"></a><a href="#FNanchor434"><span class="label">[434]</span></a> Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-435" id="Footnote-435"></a><a href="#FNanchor435"><span class="label">[435]</span></a> <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1867, 93; 369-370.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-436" id="Footnote-436"></a><a href="#FNanchor436"><span class="label">[436]</span></a> Howe, <i>Hist. Coll. Va.</i> 221.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-437" id="Footnote-437"></a><a href="#FNanchor437"><span class="label">[437]</span></a> Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-438" id="Footnote-438"></a><a href="#FNanchor438"><span class="label">[438]</span></a> Cited in Wirt, 380-381.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-439" id="Footnote-439"></a><a href="#FNanchor439"><span class="label">[439]</span></a> Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-440" id="Footnote-440"></a><a href="#FNanchor440"><span class="label">[440]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-441" id="Footnote-441"></a><a href="#FNanchor441"><span class="label">[441]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-442" id="Footnote-442"></a><a href="#FNanchor442"><span class="label">[442]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-443" id="Footnote-443"></a><a href="#FNanchor443"><span class="label">[443]</span></a> Bancroft, ed. 1869, vi. 416-417.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-444" id="Footnote-444"></a><a href="#FNanchor444"><span class="label">[444]</span></a> Elliot, <i>Debates</i>, iii. 455-456; 590-591.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-445" id="Footnote-445"></a><a href="#FNanchor445"><span class="label">[445]</span></a> Spencer Roane, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-446" id="Footnote-446"></a><a href="#FNanchor446"><span class="label">[446]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-447" id="Footnote-447"></a><a href="#FNanchor447"><span class="label">[447]</span></a> J. W. Alexander, <i>Life of A. Alexander</i>, 193; Howe, <i>Hist.
+Coll. Va.</i> 221.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-448" id="Footnote-448"></a><a href="#FNanchor448"><span class="label">[448]</span></a> Wirt, 402.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-449" id="Footnote-449"></a><a href="#FNanchor449"><span class="label">[449]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-450" id="Footnote-450"></a><a href="#FNanchor450"><span class="label">[450]</span></a> Meade, <i>Old Churches</i>, etc. ii. 12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-451" id="Footnote-451"></a><a href="#FNanchor451"><span class="label">[451]</span></a> Wirt, 387.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-452" id="Footnote-452"></a><a href="#FNanchor452"><span class="label">[452]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-453" id="Footnote-453"></a><a href="#FNanchor453"><span class="label">[453]</span></a> Fontaine, MS. Also Meade, <i>Old Churches</i>, etc. ii. 12; and
+Wm. Wirt Henry, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-454" id="Footnote-454"></a><a href="#FNanchor454"><span class="label">[454]</span></a> MS. Certified copy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-455" id="Footnote-455"></a><a href="#FNanchor455"><span class="label">[455]</span></a> For example, D. Stuart&#8217;s letter, in <i>Writings of Washington</i>,
+x. 94-96; also, <i>Jour. Va. House Del.</i> for Nov. 3, 1790.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-456" id="Footnote-456"></a><a href="#FNanchor456"><span class="label">[456]</span></a> McRee, <i>Life of Iredell</i>, ii. 394-395.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-457" id="Footnote-457"></a><a href="#FNanchor457"><span class="label">[457]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, x. 560-561.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-458" id="Footnote-458"></a><a href="#FNanchor458"><span class="label">[458]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, x. 562-563.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-459" id="Footnote-459"></a><a href="#FNanchor459"><span class="label">[459]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, xi. 81-82.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-460" id="Footnote-460"></a><a href="#FNanchor460"><span class="label">[460]</span></a> MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-461" id="Footnote-461"></a><a href="#FNanchor461"><span class="label">[461]</span></a> Lee, <i>Observations</i>, etc. 116.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-462" id="Footnote-462"></a><a href="#FNanchor462"><span class="label">[462]</span></a> Gibbs, <i>Administration of Washington</i>, etc. i. 337; see, also,
+Hamilton, <i>Works</i>, vi. 114.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-463" id="Footnote-463"></a><a href="#FNanchor463"><span class="label">[463]</span></a> Jefferson, <i>Writings</i>, iv. 148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-464" id="Footnote-464"></a><a href="#FNanchor464"><span class="label">[464]</span></a> Entire letter in Wirt, 385-387.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII <br />
+<span class="hsub">LAST DAYS</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>The intimation given by Patrick Henry to his
+daughter, in the summer of 1796, that, though he
+could never again engage in a public career, he
+yet might be compelled by &#8220;some unlooked-for
+circumstance&#8221; to make &#8220;a transient effort&#8221; for
+the public safety, was not put to the test until
+nearly three years afterward, when it was verified
+in the midst of those days in which he was
+suddenly to find surcease of all earthly care and
+pain.</p>
+
+<p>Our story, therefore, now passes hurriedly by
+the year 1797,&mdash;which saw the entrance of John
+Adams into the presidency, the return of Monroe
+from France in great anger at the men who had
+recalled him, the publication of Jefferson&#8217;s letter
+to Mazzei, everywhere an increasing bitterness and
+even violence in partisan feeling. In the same
+manner, also, must we pass by the year 1798,&mdash;which
+saw the popular uprising against France,
+the mounting of the black cockade against her, the
+suspension of commercial intercourse with her, the
+summons to Washington to come forth once more
+and lead the armies of America against the enemy;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>
+then the moonstruck madness of the Federalists,
+forcing upon the country the naturalization act,
+the alien acts, the sedition act; then the Kentucky
+resolutions, as written by Jefferson, declaring
+the acts just named to be &#8220;not law, but utterly
+void and of no force,&#8221; and liable, &#8220;unless arrested
+on the threshold,&#8221; &#8220;to drive these States
+into revolution and blood;&#8221; then the Virginia
+resolutions, as written by Madison, denouncing the
+same acts as &#8220;palpable and alarming infractions
+of the Constitution;&#8221; finally, the preparations
+secretly making by the government of Virginia<a name="FNanchor465" id="FNanchor465"></a><a href="#Footnote-465" class="fnanchor">[465]</a>
+for armed resistance to the government of the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>Just seven days after the passage of the Virginia
+resolutions, an eminent citizen of that State
+appealed by letter to Patrick Henry for some written
+expression of his views upon the troubled situation,
+with the immediate object of aiding in the
+election of John Marshall, who, having just before
+returned from his baffled embassy to Paris, was
+then in nomination for Congress, and was encountering
+assaults directed by every energy and art of
+the opposition. In response to this appeal, Patrick
+Henry wrote, in the early part of the year 1799,
+the following remarkable letter, which is of deep
+interest still, not only as showing his discernment
+of the true nature of that crisis, but as furnishing
+a complete answer to the taunt that his mental
+faculties were then fallen into decay:&mdash;<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center">TO ARCHIBALD BLAIR.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="smcap">Red Hill, Charlotte</span>, 8 January, 1799.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Your favor of the 28th of last month I
+have received. Its contents are a fresh proof that there
+is cause for much lamentation over the present state of
+things in Virginia. It is possible that most of the individuals
+who compose the contending factions are sincere,
+and act from honest motives. But it is more than
+probable, that certain leaders meditate a change in government.
+To effect this, I see no way so practicable
+as dissolving the confederacy. And I am free to own,
+that, in my judgment, most of the measures lately pursued
+by the opposition party, directly and certainly lead
+to that end. If this is not the system of the party, they
+have none, and act &#8216;ex tempore.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>I do acknowledge that I am not capable to form a
+correct judgment on the present politics of the world.
+The wide extent to which the present contentions have
+gone will scarcely permit any observer to see enough in
+detail to enable him to form anything like a tolerable
+judgment on the final result, as it may respect the nations
+in general. But, as to France, I have no doubt
+in saying that to her it will be calamitous. Her conduct
+has made it the interest of the great family of
+mankind to wish the downfall of her present government;
+because its existence is incompatible with that of
+all others within its reach. And, whilst I see the dangers
+that threaten ours from her intrigues and her arms,
+I am not so much alarmed as at the apprehension of her
+destroying the great pillars of all government and of
+social life,&mdash;I mean virtue, morality, and religion.
+This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>
+us invincible. These are the tactics we should
+study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed.
+In vain may France show and vaunt her diplomatic
+skill, and brave troops: so long as our manners
+and principles remain sound, there is no danger. But
+believing, as I do, that these are in danger, that infidelity
+in its broadest sense, under the name of philosophy,
+is fast spreading, and that, under the patronage of
+French manners and principles, everything that ought
+to be dear to man is covertly but successfully assailed,
+I feel the value of those men amongst us, who hold out
+to the world the idea, that our continent is to exhibit an
+originality of character; and that, instead of that imitation
+and inferiority which the countries of the old
+world have been in the habit of exacting from the new,
+we shall maintain that high ground upon which nature
+has placed us, and that Europe will alike cease to rule
+us and give us modes of thinking.</p>
+
+<p>But I must stop short, or else this letter will be all
+preface. These prefatory remarks, however, I thought
+proper to make, as they point out the kind of character
+amongst our countrymen most estimable in my
+eyes. General Marshall and his colleagues exhibited
+the American character as respectable. France, in the
+period of her most triumphant fortune, beheld them as
+unappalled. Her threats left them, as she found them,
+mild, temperate, firm. Can it be thought that, with
+these sentiments, I should utter anything tending to prejudice
+General Marshall&#8217;s election? Very far from it
+indeed. Independently of the high gratification I felt
+from his public ministry, he ever stood high in my esteem
+as a private citizen. His temper and disposition
+were always pleasant, his talents and integrity unquestioned.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span>
+These things are sufficient to place that gentleman
+far above any competitor in the district for Congress.
+But, when you add the particular information
+and insight which he has gained, and is able to communicate
+to our public councils, it is really astonishing that
+even blindness itself should hesitate in the choice.&hellip;
+Tell Marshall I love him, because he felt and acted as
+a republican, as an American.&hellip; I am too old and
+infirm ever again to undertake public concerns. I live
+much retired, amidst a multiplicity of blessings from
+that Gracious Ruler of all things, to whom I owe unceasing
+acknowledgments for his unmerited goodness to
+me; and if I was permitted to add to the catalogue one
+other blessing, it should be, that my countrymen should
+learn wisdom and virtue, and in this their day to know
+the things that pertain to their peace. Farewell.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">
+<span class="right3">I am, dear Sir, yours,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Patrick Henry.</span><a name="FNanchor466" id="FNanchor466"></a><a href="#Footnote-466" class="fnanchor">[466]</a>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>The appeal from Archibald Blair, which evoked
+this impressive letter, had suggested to the old
+statesman no effort which could not be made in
+his retirement. Before, however, he was to pass
+beyond the reach of all human appeals, two others
+were to be addressed to him, the one by John
+Adams, the other by Washington, both asking him
+to come forth into the world again; the former
+calling for his help in averting war with France,
+the latter for his help in averting the triumph of
+violent and dangerous counsels at home.</p>
+
+<p>On the 25th of February, 1799, John Adams,
+shaking himself free of his partisan counsellors,&mdash;all
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>
+hot for war with France,&mdash;suddenly changed
+the course of history by sending to the Senate the
+names of these three citizens, Oliver Ellsworth,
+Patrick Henry, and William Vans Murray, &#8220;to be
+envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary
+to the French republic, with full powers to discuss
+and settle, by a treaty, all controversies between
+the United States and France.&#8221; In his letter of
+the 16th of April declining the appointment, Patrick
+Henry spoke of himself as having been &#8220;confined
+for several weeks by a severe indisposition,&#8221;
+and as being &#8220;still so sick as to be scarcely able to
+write this.&#8221; &#8220;My advanced age,&#8221; he added, &#8220;and
+increasing debility compel me to abandon every
+idea of serving my country, where the scene of
+operation is far distant, and her interests call for
+incessant and long continued exertion.&hellip; I cannot,
+however, forbear expressing, on this occasion,
+the high sense I entertain of the honor done me
+by the President and Senate in the appointment.
+And I beg you, sir, to present me to them in
+terms of the most dutiful regard, assuring them
+that this mark of their confidence in me, at a crisis
+so eventful, is an agreeable and flattering proof of
+their consideration towards me, and that nothing
+short of an absolute necessity could induce me to
+withhold my little aid from an administration whose
+ability, patriotism, and virtue deserve the gratitude
+and reverence of all their fellow citizens.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor467" id="FNanchor467"></a><a href="#Footnote-467" class="fnanchor">[467]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such was John Adams&#8217;s appeal to Patrick
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>
+Henry and its result. The appeal to him from
+Washington&mdash;an appeal which he could not resist,
+and which induced him, even in his extreme feebleness
+of body, to make one last and noble exertion
+of his genius&mdash;happened in this wise. On the
+15th of January, 1799, from Mount Vernon, Washington
+wrote to his friend a long letter, marked
+&#8220;confidential,&#8221; in which he stated with great frankness
+his own anxieties respecting the dangers then
+threatening the country:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;It would be a waste of time to attempt to bring to
+the view of a person of your observation and discernment,
+the endeavors of a certain party among us to
+disquiet the public mind with unfounded alarms; to arraign
+every act of the administration; to set the people
+at variance with their government; and to embarrass all
+its measures. Equally useless would it be to predict
+what must be the inevitable consequences of such a
+policy, if it cannot be arrested.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Unfortunately,&mdash;and extremely do I regret it,&mdash;the
+State of Virginia has taken the lead in this opposition.&hellip;
+It has been said that the great mass of the
+citizens of this State are well-affected, notwithstanding,
+to the general government and the Union; and I am
+willing to believe it, nay, do believe it. But how is this
+to be reconciled with their suffrages at the elections
+of representatives, &hellip; who are men opposed to the
+former, and by the tendency of their measures would
+destroy the latter?&hellip; One of the reasons assigned is,
+that the most respectable and best qualified characters
+among us will not come forward.&hellip; But, at such a
+crisis as this, when everything dear and valuable to us
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span>
+is assailed; when this party hangs upon the wheels of
+government as a dead weight, opposing every measure
+that is calculated for defence and self-preservation, abetting
+the nefarious views of another nation upon our
+rights; &hellip; when measures are systematically and pertinaciously
+pursued, which must eventually dissolve the
+Union, or produce coercion; I say, when these things
+have become so obvious, ought characters who are best
+able to rescue their country from the pending evil, to
+remain at home? Rather ought they not to come forward,
+and by their talents and influence stand in the
+breach which such conduct has made on the peace and
+happiness of this country, and oppose the widening of
+it?&hellip;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I come, now, my good Sir, to the object of my
+letter, which is to express a hope and an earnest wish,
+that you will come forward at the ensuing elections
+(if not for Congress, which you may think would take
+you too long from home), as a candidate for representative
+in the General Assembly of this Commonwealth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are, I have no doubt, very many sensible
+men who oppose themselves to the torrent that carries
+away others who had rather swim with, than stem it
+without an able pilot to conduct them; but these are
+neither old in legislation, nor well known in the community.
+Your weight of character and influence in the
+House of Representatives would be a bulwark against
+such dangerous sentiments as are delivered there at present.
+It would be a rallying point for the timid, and
+an attraction of the wavering. In a word, I conceive it
+to be of immense importance at this crisis, that you
+should be there; and I would fain hope that all minor
+considerations will be made to yield to the measure.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor468" id="FNanchor468"></a><a href="#Footnote-468" class="fnanchor">[468]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>
+There can be little doubt that it was this solemn
+invocation on the part of Washington which induced
+the old statesman, on whom Death had already
+begun to lay his icy hands, to come forth
+from the solitude in which he had been so long
+buried, and offer himself for the suffrages of his
+neighbors, as their representative in the next House
+of Delegates, there to give check, if possible, to
+the men who seemed to be hurrying Virginia upon
+violent courses, and the republic into civil war.
+Accordingly, before the day for the usual March<a name="FNanchor469" id="FNanchor469"></a><a href="#Footnote-469" class="fnanchor">[469]</a>
+court in Charlotte, the word went out through all
+that country that old Patrick Henry, whose wondrous
+voice in public no man had heard for those
+many years, who had indeed been almost numbered
+among the dead ones of their heroic days foregone,
+was to appear before all the people once more, and
+speak to them as in the former time, and give to
+them his counsel amid those thickening dangers
+which alone could have drawn him forth from the
+very borders of the grave.</p>
+
+<p>When the morning of that day came, from all
+the region thereabout the people began to stream
+toward the place where the orator was to speak.
+So widespread was the desire to hear him that
+even the college in the next county&mdash;the college
+of Hampden-Sidney&mdash;suspended its work for that
+day, and thus enabled all its members, the president
+himself, the professors, and the students, to
+hurry over to Charlotte court-house. One of those
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span>
+students, John Miller, of South Carolina, according
+to an account said to have been given by him
+in conversation forty years afterward, having with
+his companions reached the town,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;and having learned that the great orator would speak
+in the porch of a tavern fronting the large court-green,
+&hellip; pushed his way through the gathering crowd, and
+secured the pedestal of a pillar, where he stood within
+eight feet of him. He was very infirm, and seated in
+a chair conversing with some old friends, waiting for the
+assembling of the immense multitudes who were pouring
+in from all the surrounding country to hear him. At
+length he arose with difficulty, and stood somewhat
+bowed with age and weakness. His face was almost
+colorless. His countenance was careworn; and when
+he commenced his exordium, his voice was slightly
+cracked and tremulous. But in a few moments a wonderful
+transformation of the whole man occurred, as
+he warmed with his theme. He stood erect; his eye
+beamed with a light that was almost supernatural; his
+features glowed with the hue and fire of youth; and
+his voice rang clear and melodious with the intonations
+of some grand musical instrument whose notes filled the
+area, and fell distinctly and delightfully upon the ears
+of the most distant of the thousands gathered before
+him.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor470" id="FNanchor470"></a><a href="#Footnote-470" class="fnanchor">[470]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>As regards the substance of the speech then
+made, it will not be safe for us to confide very
+much in the supposed recollections of old men who
+heard it when they were young. Upon the whole,<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>
+probably, the most trustworthy outline of it now
+to be had is that of a gentleman who declares that
+he wrote down his recollections of the speech not
+long after its delivery. According to this account,
+Patrick Henry&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;told them that the late proceedings of the Virginian
+Assembly had filled him with apprehensions and
+alarm; that they had planted thorns upon his pillow;
+that they had drawn him from that happy retirement
+which it had pleased a bountiful Providence to bestow,
+and in which he had hoped to pass, in quiet, the remainder
+of his days; that the State had quitted the sphere
+in which she had been placed by the Constitution, and,
+in daring to pronounce upon the validity of federal
+laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a manner not
+warranted by any authority, and in the highest degree
+alarming to every considerate man; that such opposition,
+on the part of Virginia, to the acts of the general
+government, must beget their enforcement by military
+power; that this would probably produce civil war,
+civil war foreign alliances, and that foreign alliances
+must necessarily end in subjugation to the powers called
+in. He conjured the people to pause and consider well,
+before they rushed into such a desperate condition, from
+which there could be no retreat. He painted to their
+imaginations Washington, at the head of a numerous
+and well-appointed army, inflicting upon them military
+execution. &#8216;And where,&#8217; he asked, &#8216;are our resources
+to meet such a conflict? Where is the citizen
+of America who will dare to lift his hand against the
+father of his country?&#8217; A drunken man in the crowd
+threw up his arm, and exclaimed that he dared to do
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>
+it. &#8216;No,&#8217; answered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his
+majesty, &#8216;you dare not do it: in such a parricidal attempt,
+the steel would drop from your nerveless arm!&#8217; &hellip;
+Mr. Henry, proceeding in his address to the people,
+asked whether the county of Charlotte would have
+any authority to dispute an obedience to the laws of
+Virginia; and he pronounced Virginia to be to the
+Union what the county of Charlotte was to her. Having
+denied the right of a State to decide upon the constitutionality
+of federal laws, he added, that perhaps it
+might be necessary to say something of the merits of
+the laws in question.<a name="FNanchor471" id="FNanchor471"></a><a href="#Footnote-471" class="fnanchor">[471]</a> His private opinion was that
+they were good and proper. But whatever might be
+their merits, it belonged to the people, who held the
+reins over the head of Congress, and to them alone, to
+say whether they were acceptable or otherwise to Virginians;
+and that this must be done by way of petition;
+that Congress were as much our representatives as the
+Assembly, and had as good a right to our confidence.
+He had seen with regret the unlimited power over the
+purse and sword consigned to the general government;
+but &hellip; he had been overruled, and it was now necessary
+to submit to the constitutional exercise of that
+power. &#8216;If,&#8217; said he, &#8216;I am asked what is to be done,
+when a people feel themselves intolerably oppressed, my
+answer is ready,&mdash;Overturn the government. But do
+not, I beseech you, carry matters to this length without
+provocation. Wait at least until some infringement is
+made upon your rights, and which cannot otherwise be
+redressed; for if ever you recur to another change, you
+may bid adieu forever to representative government.
+You can never exchange the present government but
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>
+for a monarchy.&hellip; Let us preserve our strength for
+the French, the English, the Germans, or whoever else
+shall dare to invade our territory, and not exhaust it in
+civil commotions and intestine wars.&#8217; He concluded by
+declaring his design to exert himself in the endeavor to
+allay the heart-burnings and jealousies which had been
+fomented in the state legislature; and he fervently
+prayed, if he was deemed unworthy to effect it, that it
+might be reserved to some other and abler hand to extend
+this blessing over the community.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor472" id="FNanchor472"></a><a href="#Footnote-472" class="fnanchor">[472]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>The outline thus given may be inaccurate in
+several particulars: it is known to be so in one.
+Respecting the alien and sedition acts, the orator
+expressed no opinion at all;<a name="FNanchor473" id="FNanchor473"></a><a href="#Footnote-473" class="fnanchor">[473]</a> but accepting them
+as the law of the land, he counselled moderation,
+forbearance, and the use of constitutional means
+of redress. Than that whole effort, as has been
+said by a recent and a sagacious historian, &#8220;nothing
+in his life was nobler.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor474" id="FNanchor474"></a><a href="#Footnote-474" class="fnanchor">[474]</a></p>
+
+<p>Upon the conclusion of the old man&#8217;s speech the
+stand was taken by a very young man, John Randolph
+of Roanoke, who undertook to address the
+crowd, offering himself to them as a candidate for
+Congress, but on behalf of the party then opposed
+to Patrick Henry. By reason of weariness, no
+doubt, the latter did not remain upon the platform;
+but having &#8220;requested a friend to report to him
+anything which might require an answer,&#8221; he
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span>
+stepped back into the tavern. &#8220;Randolph began
+by saying that he had admired that man more than
+any on whom the sun had shone, but that now he
+was constrained to differ from him &#8216;<i>toto c&#339;lo</i>.&#8217;&#8221;
+Whatever else Randolph may have said in his
+speech, whether important or otherwise, was
+spoken under the disadvantage of a cold and a
+hoarseness so severe as to render him scarcely able
+to &#8220;utter an audible sentence.&#8221; Furthermore,
+Patrick Henry &#8220;made no reply, nor did he again
+present himself to the people.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor475" id="FNanchor475"></a><a href="#Footnote-475" class="fnanchor">[475]</a> There is, however,
+a tradition, not improbable, that when Randolph
+had finished his speech, and had come back
+into the room where the aged statesman was resting,
+the latter, taking him gently by the hand,
+said to him, with great kindness: &#8220;Young man,
+you call me father. Then, my son, I have something
+to say unto thee: keep justice, keep truth,&mdash;and
+you will live to think differently.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the poll, Patrick Henry was, by a
+great majority, elected to the House of Delegates.
+But his political enemies, who, for sufficient reasons,
+greatly dreaded his appearance upon that
+scene of his ancient domination, were never any
+more to be embarrassed by his presence there.<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>
+For, truly, they who, on that March day, at Charlotte
+court-house, had heard Patrick Henry, &#8220;had
+heard an immortal orator who would never speak
+again.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor476" id="FNanchor476"></a><a href="#Footnote-476" class="fnanchor">[476]</a> He seems to have gone thence to his
+home, and never to have left it. About the middle
+of the next month, being too sick to write many
+words, he lifted himself up in bed long enough to
+tell the secretary of state that he could not go on
+the mission to France, and to send his dying blessing
+to his old friend, the President. Early in
+June, his eldest daughter, Martha Fontaine, living
+at a distance of two days&#8217; travel from Red Hill,
+received from him a letter beginning with these
+words: &#8220;Dear Patsy, I am very unwell, and have
+Dr. Cabell with me.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor477" id="FNanchor477"></a><a href="#Footnote-477" class="fnanchor">[477]</a> Upon this alarming news,
+she and others of his kindred in that neighborhood
+made all haste to go to him. On arriving at Red
+Hill &#8220;they found him sitting in a large, old-fashioned
+armchair, in which he was easier than upon a
+bed.&#8221; The disease of which he was dying was intussusception.
+On the 6th of June, all other remedies
+having failed, Dr. Cabell proceeded to administer to
+him a dose of liquid mercury. Taking the vial in
+his hand, and looking at it for a moment, the dying
+man said: &#8220;I suppose, doctor, this is your last resort?&#8221;
+The doctor replied: &#8220;I am sorry to say,
+governor, that it is. Acute inflammation of the
+intestine has already taken place; and unless it is
+removed, mortification will ensue, if it has not already
+commenced, which I fear.&#8221; &#8220;What will be
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span>
+the effect of this medicine?&#8221; said the old man.
+&#8220;It will give you immediate relief, or&#8221;&mdash;the kind-hearted
+doctor could not finish the sentence. His
+patient took up the word: &#8220;You mean, doctor,
+that it will give relief, or will prove fatal immediately?&#8221;
+The doctor answered: &#8220;You can only
+live a very short time without it, and it may possibly
+relieve you.&#8221; Then Patrick Henry said, &#8220;Excuse
+me, doctor, for a few minutes;&#8221; and drawing
+down over his eyes a silken cap which he usually
+wore, and still holding the vial in his hand, he
+prayed, in clear words, a simple childlike prayer,
+for his family, for his country, and for his own
+soul then in the presence of death. Afterward,
+in perfect calmness, he swallowed the medicine.
+Meanwhile, Dr. Cabell, who greatly loved him,
+went out upon the lawn, and in his grief threw
+himself down upon the earth under one of the
+trees, weeping bitterly. Soon, when he had sufficiently
+mastered himself, the doctor came back to
+his patient, whom he found calmly watching the
+congealing of the blood under his finger-nails, and
+speaking words of love and peace to his family,
+who were weeping around his chair. Among other
+things, he told them that he was thankful for
+that goodness of God, which, having blessed him
+through all his life, was then permitting him to
+die without any pain. Finally, fixing his eyes with
+much tenderness on his dear friend, Dr. Cabell,
+with whom he had formerly held many arguments
+respecting the Christian religion, he asked the doctor
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>
+to observe how great a reality and benefit that
+religion was to a man about to die. And after
+Patrick Henry had spoken to his beloved physician
+these few words in praise of something which, having
+never failed him in all his life before, did not
+then fail him in his very last need of it, he continued
+to breathe very softly for some moments;
+after which they who were looking upon him saw
+that his life had departed.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3 class="center">FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-465" id="Footnote-465"></a><a href="#FNanchor465"><span class="label">[465]</span></a> Henry Adams, <i>Life of J. Randolph,</i> 27-28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-466" id="Footnote-466"></a><a href="#FNanchor466"><span class="label">[466]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, xi. 557-559.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-467" id="Footnote-467"></a><a href="#FNanchor467"><span class="label">[467]</span></a> <i>Works of John Adams</i>, ix. 162; viii. 641-642.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-468" id="Footnote-468"></a><a href="#FNanchor468"><span class="label">[468]</span></a> <i>Writings of Washington</i>, xi. 387-391.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-469" id="Footnote-469"></a><a href="#FNanchor469"><span class="label">[469]</span></a> Garland, <i>Life of John Randolph</i>, 130.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-470" id="Footnote-470"></a><a href="#FNanchor470"><span class="label">[470]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-471" id="Footnote-471"></a><a href="#FNanchor471"><span class="label">[471]</span></a> The alien and sedition acts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-472" id="Footnote-472"></a><a href="#FNanchor472"><span class="label">[472]</span></a> Wirt, 393-395.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-473" id="Footnote-473"></a><a href="#FNanchor473"><span class="label">[473]</span></a> <i>Hist. Mag.</i> for 1873, 353.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-474" id="Footnote-474"></a><a href="#FNanchor474"><span class="label">[474]</span></a> Henry Adams, <i>John Randolph</i>, 29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-475" id="Footnote-475"></a><a href="#FNanchor475"><span class="label">[475]</span></a> J. W. Alexander, <i>Life of A. Alexander</i>, 188-189. About this
+whole scene have gathered many myths, of which several first appeared
+in a Life of Henry, in the <i>New Edinb. Encycl.</i> 1817; were
+thence copied into Howe, <i>Hist. Coll. Va.</i> 224-225; and have
+thence been engulfed in that rich mass of unwhipped hyperboles
+and of unexploded fables still patriotically swallowed by the
+American public as American history.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-476" id="Footnote-476"></a><a href="#FNanchor476"><span class="label">[476]</span></a> Henry Adams.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote-477" id="Footnote-477"></a><a href="#FNanchor477"><span class="label">[477]</span></a> Fontaine, MS.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS <br />
+<span class="hsub">CITED IN THIS BOOK, WITH TITLES, PLACES,
+AND DATES OF THE EDITIONS USED.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Adams, Charles Francis.</span> (See<a href="#Adams_John"> John Adams</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Adams_Henry" id="Adams_Henry">Adams, Henry</a></span>, The Life of Albert Gallatin. Philadelphia:
+1880.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Adams, Henry</span>, <a name="John_Randolph_Am_Statesmen_Series" id="John_Randolph_Am_Statesmen_Series">John Randolph. Am. Statesmen Series.</a> Boston:
+1882.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Adams, John.</span> (See <a href="#Novanglus">Novanglus</a>, etc.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Adams_John" id="Adams_John"></a>Adams, John</span>, Letters of, Addressed to his Wife. Ed. by Charles
+Francis Adams. 2 vols. Boston: 1841.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Adams, John</span>, The Works of. Ed. by Charles Francis Adams.
+10 vols. Boston: 1856.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Adams, Samuel</span>, Life of. (See <a href="#Wells_William_V">Wm. V. Wells</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Alexander, James W.</span>, The Life of Archibald Alexander. New
+York: 1854.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">American Archives. (Peter Force.) 9 vols. Washington:
+1837-1853.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">The American Quarterly Review. Vol. i. Philadelphia: 1827.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Bancroft, George</span>, History of the United States. 10 vols.
+Boston: 1870-1874.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Bancroft, George</span>, History of the United States. The Author&#8217;s
+Last Revision. 6 vols. New York: 1883-1885.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Bancroft, George</span>, History of the Formation of the Constitution
+of the United States of America. 2 vols. New York:
+1882.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Bland, Richard</span>, A Letter to the Clergy of Virginia, n. p.
+1760.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Brougham, Henry, Lord</span>, The Life and Times of, Written by
+himself. 3 vols. New York: 1871.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Burk_John" id="Burk_John">Burk, John</a> (Daly)</span>, The History of Virginia. 4 vols. Petersburg:
+1804-1816. Last volume by Skelton Jones and Louis
+Hue Girardin.</p>
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Byrd, William</span>, Byrd Manuscripts. 2 vols. Richmond: 1866.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">Calendar of Virginia State Papers. Vol. ii. Richmond: 1881.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Campbell, Charles</span>, The Bland Papers: Being a Selection from
+the Manuscripts of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Jr. 2 vols.
+Petersburg: 1840.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Campbell, Charles</span>, History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion
+of Virginia. Philadelphia: 1860.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. Vol. ii. Hartford:
+1870.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">Colonel George Rogers Clark&#8217;s Sketch of his Campaign in the
+Illinois in 1778-79. Cincinnati: 1869.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Cooke, John Esten</span>, Virginia: A History of the People. (Commonwealth
+Series.) Boston: 1884.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Cooley, Thomas M.</span> (See <a href="#Story_Joseph">Joseph Story</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><a name="Correspondence" id="Correspondence">Correspondence</a> of the American Revolution. Edited by Jared
+Sparks. 4 vols. Boston: 1853.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Curtis, B. R.</span>, Reports of Decisions in the Supreme Court of the
+United States. Boston: 1855.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Curtis, George Ticknor</span>, History of the Origin, Formation, and
+Adoption of the Constitution of the United States. 2 vols.
+London and New York: 1854, 1858.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Curtis_George_Ticknor" id="Curtis_George_Ticknor">Curtis, George Ticknor</a></span>, Life of Daniel Webster. New York:
+1872.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">De Costa, B. F.</span> (See <a href="#White_William">William White</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Dickinson, John</span>, The Political Writings of. 2 vols. Wilmington:
+1801.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Elliot, Jonathan</span>, The Debates in the Several State Conventions,
+on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, etc. 5 vols.
+Philadelphia: 1876.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Everett_Alexander_H" id="Everett_Alexander_H">Everett, Alexander H.</a></span>, Life of Patrick Henry. In Sparks&#8217;s
+Library of Am. Biography. 2d series, vol. i. Boston: 1844.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Frothingham, Richard</span>, The Rise of the Republic of the
+United States. Boston: 1872.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Gales, Joseph</span>, The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of
+the United States. 2 vols. Washington: 1834.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Gallatin, Albert.</span> (See <a href="#Adams_Henry">Henry Adams</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Garland_Hugh_A" id="Garland_Hugh_A">Garland, Hugh A.</a></span>, The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke.
+2 vols. New York: 1860.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Gibbs, George</span>, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington
+and John Adams, edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott.
+New York: 1846.</p>
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Girardin, Louis Hue.</span> (See <a href="#Burk_John">John Burk</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Gordon, William</span>, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment
+of the Independence of the United States of America; including
+an account of the Late War, and of the Thirteen Colonies
+from their origin to that period. 3 vols. New York:
+1789.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Grigsby, Hugh Blair</span>, The Virginia Convention of 1776. Richmond:
+1855.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Hamilton, Alexander</span>, Works of. Edited by John C. Hamilton.
+7 vols. New York: 1850-1851.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Hansard, T. C.</span>, The Parliamentary History of England. Vol.
+xviii. London: 1813.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Hawks, Francis L.</span>, Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History
+of the United States of America. Vol. i. New York: 1836.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Hening, William Waller</span>, The Statutes at Large: Being a
+Collection of all the Laws of Virginia. 13 vols. Richmond,
+New York, and Philadelphia: 1819-1823.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Henry, Patrick</span>, Life of. (See <a href="#Wirt_William">Wirt, William</a>, and <a href="#Everett_Alexander_H">Everett,
+Alexander H.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Henry, William Wirt</span>, Character and Public Career of Patrick
+Henry. Pamphlet. Charlotte Court-house, Va.: 1867.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Henry, William Wirt</span>, Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence,
+and Speeches. 3 vols. New York: 1891.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Herring, James.</span> (See <a href="#National_Portrait_Gallery">National Portrait Gallery</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Hildreth, Richard</span>, The History of the United States of America.
+6 vols. New York: 1871-1874.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the
+Antiquities, History, and Biography of America. (Henry B.
+Dawson.) Vol. ii. 2d series, and vol. ii. 3d series. Morrisania:
+1867 and 1873.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Howe, Henry</span>, Historical Collections of Virginia. Charleston:
+1845.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Howison, Robert R.</span>, A History of Virginia. Vol. i. Philadelphia:
+1846. Vol. ii. Richmond, New York, and London:
+1848.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Iredell, James</span>, Life of. (See <a href="#McRee_Griffith_J">McRee, G. J.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Jay, William</span>, The Life of John Jay. 2 vols. New York:
+1833.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Jefferson, Thomas</span>, Notes on the State of Virginia. Philadelphia:
+1825.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Jefferson_Thomas" id="Jefferson_Thomas">Jefferson, Thomas</a></span>, The Writings of. Ed. by H. A. Washington.
+9 vols. New York: 1853-1854.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Jefferson, Thomas</span>, Life of. (See <a href="#Randall_Henry_Stephens">H. S. Randall</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Jones, Skelton.</span> (See <a href="#Burk_John">John Burk</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
+(From 1777 to 1790.) 3 vols. Richmond: 1827-1828.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Kennedy_John_P" id="Kennedy_John_P">Kennedy, John P.</a></span>, Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt. 2
+vols. Philadelphia: 1850.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Lamb, General John</span>, Memoir of. (See <a href="#Leake_Isaac_Q">Leake, Isaac Q.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Lamb, Martha J.</span> (See <a href="#Magazine_of_American_History">Magazine of American History</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Leake_Isaac_Q" id="Leake_Isaac_Q">Leake, Isaac Q.</a></span>, Memoir of the Life and Times of General
+John Lamb. Albany: 1850.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Lee, Charles Carter.</span> (See <a href="#Lee_Henry">Lee, Henry, Observations, etc.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Lee_Henry" id="Lee_Henry">Lee, Henry</a></span>, Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson,
+with Particular Reference to the Attack they contain on the
+Memory of the late Gen. Henry Lee. In a series of Letters.
+Second ed., with an Introduction and Notes by Charles Carter
+Lee. Philadelphia: 1839.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Lee, Richard Henry.</span> (See <a href="#Lee_Richard_Henry">Richard Henry Lee</a>, 2d.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Lee_Richard_Henry" id="Lee_Richard_Henry">Lee, Richard Henry</a></span>, 2d, Memoir of the Life of Richard
+Henry Lee. 2 vols. Philadelphia: 1825.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Lee, Richard Henry</span>, 2d, Life of Arthur Lee, LL. D. 2 vols.
+Boston: 1829.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Leonard, Daniel.</span> (See <a href="#Novanglus">Novanglus</a>, etc.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Longacre, James B.</span> (See <a href="#National_Portrait_Gallery">National Portrait Gallery</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Mackay, Charles</span>, The Founders of the American Republic.
+Edinburgh and London: 1885.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">MacMaster, John Bach</span>, History of the People of the United
+States. 2 vols. New York: 1883-1885.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="McRee_Griffith_J" id="McRee_Griffith_J">McRee, Griffith J.</a></span>, Life and Correspondence of James Iredell.
+2 vols. New York: 1857-1858.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Madison, James</span>, The Papers of. 3 vols. Washington: 1840.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Madison, James</span>, Letters and Other Writings of. 4 vols. Philadelphia:
+1867.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Madison, James</span>, Life and Times of. (See <a href="#Rives_William_C">William C. Rives</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">The <a name="Magazine_of_American_History" id="Magazine_of_American_History">Magazine of American History</a>, with Notes and Queries.
+Ed. by Martha J. Lamb. Vol. xi. New York: 1884.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Magruder_Allan_B" id="Magruder_Allan_B">Magruder, Allan B.</a></span>, John Marshall. (Am. Statesmen Series.)
+Boston: 1885.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Marshall_John" id="Marshall_John">Marshall, John</a></span>, The Life of George Washington. 5 vols.
+Philadelphia: 1804-1807.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Marshall, John.</span> (See <a href="#Magruder_Allan_B">Magruder, Allan B.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Maury, Ann</span>, Memoirs of a Huguenot Family. New York: 1872.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Meade, William</span>, Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia.
+2 vols. Philadelphia: 1872.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">The <a name="National_Portrait_Gallery" id="National_Portrait_Gallery">National Portrait Gallery</a> of Distinguished Americans, Conducted
+by James B. Longacre and James Herring. 2d vol.
+Philadelphia, New York, and London: 1835.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><a name="Novanglus" id="Novanglus">Novanglus</a> and Massachusettensis; or, Political Essays Published
+in the years 1774 and 1775. Boston: 1819.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Perry, William Stevens</span>, Historical Collections relating to the
+American Colonial Church. Vol. i. Virginia. Hartford: 1870.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Peyton, J. Lewis</span>, History of Augusta County, Virginia. Staunton: 1882.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">Prior Documents. A Collection of Interesting, Authentic Papers
+relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and America,
+Shewing the Causes and Progress of that Misunderstanding
+from 1764 to 1775. (Almon.) London: 1777.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates for the Counties
+and Corporations in the Colony of Virginia, Held at Richmond
+Town, in the County of Henrico, on the 20th of March, 1775.
+Richmond: 1816.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Randall_Henry_Stephens" id="Randall_Henry_Stephens">Randall, Henry Stephens</a></span>, The Life of Thomas Jefferson. 3
+vols. New York: 1858.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Randolph, John.</span> (See <a href="#John_Randolph_Am_Statesmen_Series">Adams, Henry</a>, and <a href="#Garland_Hugh_A">Garland, Hugh A.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Reed, William B.</span>, Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed.
+2 vols. Philadelphia: 1847.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Rives_William_C" id="Rives_William_C">Rives, William C.</a></span>, History of the Life and Times of James
+Madison. Boston: Vol. i. 2d ed. 1873. Vol. ii. 1870. Vol. iii. 1868.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Rowland, Kate Mason</span>, The Life of George Mason, Including
+his Speeches, Public Papers, and Correspondence, with an Introduction
+by General Fitzhugh Lee. 2 vols. New York: 1892.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Slaughter, Rev. Philip</span>, A History of St. Mark&#8217;s Parish, Culpeper
+County, Virginia, n. p. 1877.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Sparks, Jared.</span> (See <a href="#Correspondence">Corr. Am. Revolution</a>, and <a href="#Washington_George">Washington,
+Writings of.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Story_Joseph" id="Story_Joseph">Story, Joseph</a></span>, Commentaries of the Constitution of the United
+States. Ed. by Thomas M. Cooley. 2 vols. Boston: 1873.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Tyler, Lyon G.</span>, The Letters and Times of the Tylers. 2 vols.
+Richmond: 1884-1885.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">The Virginia Historical Register and Literary Note-Book. Vol.
+iii. Richmond: 1850.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">Virginia State Papers, Calendar of. Vol. ii. Richmond: 1881.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Washington_George" id="Washington_George">Washington, George</a></span>, The Writings of; Being his Correspondence,
+Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private;
+Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts,
+with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations. Edited
+by Jared Sparks. 12 vols. Boston and New York: 1834-1847.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Washington, George</span>, Life of. (See <a href="#Marshall_John">John Marshall.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Washington, H. A.</span> (See <a href="#Jefferson_Thomas">Jefferson, Thomas, Writings of.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Webster, Daniel</span>, Life of. (See <a href="#Curtis_George_Ticknor">Geo. Ticknor Curtis.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Wells_William_V" id="Wells_William_V">Wells, William V.</a></span>, The Life and Public Services of Samuel
+Adams. 3 vols. Boston: 1865.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="White_William" id="White_William">White, William</a></span>, Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church
+in the United States of America. Ed. by B. F. De Costa. New
+York: 1880.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap"><a name="Wirt_William" id="Wirt_William">Wirt, William</a></span>, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick
+Henry. Third ed., corrected by the Author. Philadelphia: 1818.</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Wirt, William</span>, Life of. (See <a href="#Kennedy_John_P">Kennedy, John P.</a>)</p>
+
+<p class="indx2"><span class="smcap">Wise, Henry A.</span>, Seven Decades of the Union. Philadelphia: 1872.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span><br />
+<span class="rettoc"><a href="#Page_xi" title="return to Table of Contents">ToC</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Adams, John, on Henry&#8217;s confession of illiteracy, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+early recognizes Henry&#8217;s importance, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;<br />
+describes enthusiasm of Virginians over oratory of Henry and Lee, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br />
+describes social festivities at Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_104">104-106</a>;<br />
+in Congress asks Duane to explain motion to prepare regulations, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s first speech, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;<br />
+debates method of voting in Congress, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;<br />
+gives summary of Henry&#8217;s speech against Galloway&#8217;s plan, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;<br />
+on committee to prepare address to the king, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+forms a high opinion of Henry&#8217;s abilities, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;<br />
+discusses with Henry the probability of war, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br />
+on Henry&#8217;s apparent profanity, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;<br />
+has brief military aspirations, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br />
+envious of military glory, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br />
+on committees in second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;<br />
+as likely as Henry to have been a good fighter, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br />
+but unlike him in not offering, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br />
+urged by Henry to advocate French alliance, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;<br />
+on importance of Virginia&#8217;s action in adopting a constitution, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;<br />
+advocates a democratic constitution in &#8220;Thoughts on Government,&#8221; <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;<br />
+praised for it by Henry, <a href="#Page_204">204-206</a>;<br />
+his complimentary reply, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;<br />
+comments on Virginia aristocrats, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;<br />
+his friendship with Henry, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+becomes president, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;<br />
+sends French mission, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;<br />
+appoints Henry envoy to France, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;<br />
+thanked by Henry, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Adams, Samuel, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+of the second, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br />
+friendship of Henry for, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;<br />
+unfavorable to federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Alexander, Rev. Archibald, of Princeton, analyzes Henry&#8217;s success as a jury lawyer, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>;<br />
+gives anecdotes of his success, <a href="#Page_371">371-375</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Alsop, John, member of second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Arnold, Benedict, commands marauding expedition in Virginia, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Articles of Confederation, their weakness deplored by Henry, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;<br />
+plans of Henry and others to strengthen, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Assembly, General, of Virginia. See <a href="#Legislature">Legislature</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Atherton, Joshua, opposes federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Atkinson, Roger, describes Virginia delegates in Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Aylett, Mrs. Betsy, letter of Henry to, describing his political opinions, in 1796, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Baker, Counsellor, opposes Henry in British debts case, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Baptists, petition convention for religious liberty, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br />
+congratulate Henry on his election as governor, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;<br />
+his reply, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Bar of Virginia, examination for, <a href="#Page_22">22-25</a>;<br />
+its ability, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br />
+leaders of, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+opposes, as a rule, the federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+its eminence and participation in British debts case, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Barrell, William, entertains delegates to first Continental Congress, at his store, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Bayard, &mdash;&mdash;, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Bernard, Sir Francis, describes exciting effect of Virginia Resolves in Boston, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span>
+Bill of Rights, the demand for in the new federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;<br />
+secured in first ten amendments, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Blair, Archibald, draws forth Henry&#8217;s opinions on American foreign policy, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Blair, John, prominent in Virginia bar, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;<br />
+tries British debts case, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Bland, Richard, on committee to protest against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+believes submission inevitable, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+loses leadership to Henry, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+leader of conservatives, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+appointed delegate to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+described by Atkinson, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br />
+by John Adams, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+in debate on manner of voting, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s motion to arm militia, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br />
+on committees, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+on committee to draft bill of rights and constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Bland, Theodoric, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+presents to Congress Virginia&#8217;s appeal for a new federal convention, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Bland, Theophilus, letter of Tucker to, sneering at Henry, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Bloodworth, Timothy, of North Carolina, opposes federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Boston Port Bill, its day of going into operation made a public fast day by Virginia Assembly, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Boyce, Captain, asks Washington, through Henry, for a letter, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Braxton, Carter, wishes an aristocratic state constitution in Virginia, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;<br />
+recommends a pamphlet in favor of such a government, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;<br />
+condemned by Henry, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Breckenridge, &mdash;&mdash;, against Henry in murder trial, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+British debts case, cause for the action, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;<br />
+question at issue, did treaty of 1783 override a Virginia sequestration act, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;<br />
+the counsel, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;<br />
+Henry&#8217;s preparation for, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;<br />
+first trial and Henry&#8217;s speech, <a href="#Page_362">362-364</a>;<br />
+intense popular interest, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;<br />
+second trial before Chief Justice Jay and Justice Iredell, <a href="#Page_364">364-367</a>;<br />
+comparison of Henry&#8217;s and Marshall&#8217;s pleas, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;<br />
+Iredell&#8217;s opinion, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Brougham, Lord, third cousin of Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br />
+resemblance between the two orators, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Burgesses, House of. See <a href="#Legislature">Legislature of Virginia</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Burgoyne, John, his campaign and capture, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Burke, Aedanus, opposed to federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Butler, Bishop Joseph, his &#8220;Analogy&#8221; Henry&#8217;s favorite book, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;<br />
+an edition printed and distributed by Henry to counteract skepticism, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Byrd, William, of Westover, describes Sarah Syme, Henry&#8217;s mother, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Cabell, Dr. George, Henry&#8217;s physician in his last illness, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Cadwallader, John, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Campbell, Alexander, with Henry in British debts case, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Carrington, Clement, son of Paul, explains Henry&#8217;s military defect to be lack of discipline, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Carrington, Edward, on Henry&#8217;s desire for disunion in 1788, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Carrington, Paul, friendly with Henry at time of Virginia Resolutions, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;<br />
+on committee of convention to frame Constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Carrington, Paul, Jr., opposes Henry in a murder case, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Carter, Charles, of Stafford, on committee of Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Carter, Landon, on committee to prepare remonstrances against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+deplores to Washington the number of inexperienced men in Virginia convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;<br />
+writes to Washington sneering at Henry&#8217;s military preparations, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Cary, Archibald, on committee of Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span>
+on committee to draft constitution and bill of rights, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+reports plan to the convention, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;<br />
+his reported threat to kill Henry if he should be made dictator, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;<br />
+another version, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Chase, Samuel, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+overwhelmed at first by Lee&#8217;s and Henry&#8217;s oratory, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;<br />
+later discovers them to be mere men, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;<br />
+opposed to federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Chatham, Lord, praises state papers of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+his death, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Christian, William, on committee for arming Virginia militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+with Henry in flight from Tarleton, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Clapham, Josias, on committee of Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Clark, George Rogers, sent by Henry to punish Northwestern Indians, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;<br />
+success of his expedition described by Henry, <a href="#Page_258">258-260</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Clergy of Virginia, paid in tobacco by colony, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br />
+their sufferings from fluctuations in its value, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br />
+their salaries cut down by Option Laws, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br />
+apply in vain to governor, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;<br />
+appeal to England, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br />
+bring suits to secure damages, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br />
+See <a href="#Parsons">Parsons&#8217; Cause</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Clinton, George, opposes federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;<br />
+his letter answered by Henry, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Collier, Sir George, commands British fleet which ravages Virginia, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Collins, &mdash;&mdash;, calls on John Adams, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Committee of Correspondence, established, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Committee of Safety, of Virginia, given control of Virginia militia, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;<br />
+ignores Henry&#8217;s nominal command, and keeps him from serving in field, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;<br />
+causes for its action, <a href="#Page_184">184-187</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Congress, Continental, called for by Virginia Burgesses, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;<br />
+delegates elected to in Virginia, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+members of described, <a href="#Page_101">101-108</a>;<br />
+convivialities attending session, <a href="#Page_104">104-106</a>;<br />
+holds first meeting and plans organization, <a href="#Page_107">107-111</a>;<br />
+debates method of voting, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111-113</a>;<br />
+elects a president and secretary, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+resolves to vote by colonies, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;<br />
+appoints committee to state grievances, and others, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br />
+absence of reports of its action, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br />
+debates and rejects Galloway&#8217;s plan of union, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;<br />
+discusses non-importation, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+appoints committees to draft state papers, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+rejects Lee&#8217;s draft of address to king, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+mythical account of proceedings in by Wirt, <a href="#Page_119">119-122</a>;<br />
+fails, according to Adams, to appreciate dangers of situation, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;<br />
+warns people to be prepared for war, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br />
+selects Washington for commander-in-chief, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;<br />
+second Congress convenes in 1775, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;<br />
+its proceedings secret and reports meagre, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171-172</a>;<br />
+question as to Henry&#8217;s behavior in, <a href="#Page_168">168-170</a>;<br />
+the important questions decided by it, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;<br />
+committees in, <a href="#Page_172">172-175</a>;<br />
+adjourns, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+decides to adopt Virginia troops, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;<br />
+sends Henry a colonel&#8217;s commission, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;<br />
+urged by Virginia to declare independence, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+flies from Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;<br />
+cabal in against Washington, <a href="#Page_242">242-250</a>;<br />
+reports of Henry to, concerning sending militia south, <a href="#Page_260">260-262</a>;<br />
+and concerning Matthews&#8217; invasion, <a href="#Page_264">264-266</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Congress of the United States, reluctantly led by Madison to propose first ten amendments, <a href="#Page_354">354-355</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Connecticut, prepares for war, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Constitution of the United States, convention for forming it called, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;<br />
+opposition to in South for fear of unfriendly action of Northern States, <a href="#Page_309">309-311</a>;<br />
+refusal of Henry to attend convention, <a href="#Page_310">310-312</a>;<br />
+formed by the convention, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;<br />
+its adoption urged upon Henry by Washington, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;<br />
+struggle over its ratification in Virginia, <a href="#Page_314">314-338</a>;<br />
+at outset favored by majority in Virginia, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;<br />
+campaign of Henry, Mason, and others against, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span>
+opposed by Virginia bar and bench, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+struggles in the convention, <a href="#Page_320">320-338</a>;<br />
+Henry&#8217;s objections to, <a href="#Page_322">322-330</a>;<br />
+policy of opposition to work for amendments, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;<br />
+ratified by convention with reservation of sovereignty, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;<br />
+obedience to it promised by Henry for his party, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;<br />
+struggle for amendments, <a href="#Page_339">339-356</a>;<br />
+difficulties in amending, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>;<br />
+doubts expressed by Henry of its possibility, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;<br />
+organization of a party to agitate for amendments, <a href="#Page_341">341-345</a>;<br />
+Virginia demands a new convention, <a href="#Page_347">347-350</a>;<br />
+twelve amendments proposed by Congress, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;<br />
+this action probably due to Virginia&#8217;s demands, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Constitution of Virginia, its adoption, <a href="#Page_200">200-211</a>;<br />
+its democratic character, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Convention of Virginia. See <a href="#Legislature">Legislature</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Conway, General Thomas, praised in anonymous letter to Henry, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;<br />
+his cabal against Washington, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Conway cabal, its origin, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;<br />
+attempts to prejudice Henry against Washington, <a href="#Page_243">243-246</a>;<br />
+explained by Washington to Henry, <a href="#Page_248">248-250</a>;<br />
+supposed connection of R. H. Lee with, discredits him in Virginia, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Cootes, &mdash;&mdash;, of James River, laments Henry&#8217;s treasonable speech in Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Corbin, Francis, favors ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Corbin, Richard, on Dunmore&#8217;s order pays for gunpowder, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Cornwallis, Lord, defeats Greene at Guilford, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;<br />
+invades Virginia, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;<br />
+sends Tarleton to capture the legislature, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Cushing, Thomas, member of second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Custis, John, informs Henry of Conway cabal, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Dandridge, Bartholomew, on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dandridge, Dorothea, second wife of Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br />
+on his religious habits, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dandridge, Colonel Nathan, Jefferson meets Henry at house of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dandridge, Nathaniel West, contests seat of Littlepage, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;<br />
+employs Henry as counsel, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Davies, William, letter to concerning dictatorship in 1781, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dawson, John, assists Henry in debate on ratifying federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Deane, Silas, describes Southern delegates to first Continental Congress, especially Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br />
+on committees of second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Democratic party, disliked by Henry for its French sympathies, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+its attempt in Congress to block Jay treaty condemned by Henry, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;<br />
+its subserviency to France and defiance of government denounced by Henry, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dickinson, John, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+on committee to prepare address to the king, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+prepares final draft of address, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+thinks war inevitable, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dictatorship, supposed projects for in Virginia during Revolution in 1776, <a href="#Page_223">223-235</a>;<br />
+in 1781, <a href="#Page_285">285-287</a>;<br />
+real meaning of term in those years, <a href="#Page_227">227-229</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Digges, Dudley, in Virginia convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+on committee to draft bill of rights and constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dresser, Rev. Charles, on Henry&#8217;s religious habits, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Duane, James, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+moves a committee to prepare regulations for voting, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+favors Galloway&#8217;s plan of home rule, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br />
+on committee of second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Dunmore, Lord, dissolves House of Burgesses for protesting against Boston Port Bill, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span>
+makes a campaign against Indians, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;<br />
+reports to home government the military preparations of Virginia, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;<br />
+sends force to seize gunpowder, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;<br />
+alarmed at advance of Henry&#8217;s force, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br />
+offers to pay for gunpowder, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br />
+issues a proclamation against Henry, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;<br />
+suspected of intention to arrest him, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;<br />
+describes to General Howe his operations against rebels, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;<br />
+his palace occupied by Henry, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Education in Virginia, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Ellsworth, Oliver, appointed envoy to France, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Episcopal Church, established in Virginia, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br />
+its increasing unpopularity, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;<br />
+virtually disestablished by declaration of rights, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br />
+its incorporation proposed by Henry, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;<br />
+Henry a member of, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Fauquier, Governor Francis, condemns Henry&#8217;s speech against the Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Federalist party, at first viewed with suspicion by Henry, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+later sympathized with by him, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br />
+sincerity of its leaders in offering Henry office questioned by Jefferson, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;<br />
+its folly in passing alien and sedition acts, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Fleming, John, Henry&#8217;s assistant in introducing the Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Fontaine, Edward, gives Roane&#8217;s description of Henry&#8217;s speech for organizing militia, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Fontaine, Mrs. Martha, with Henry in last illness, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Fontaine, Colonel Patrick Henry, statement as to Henry&#8217;s classical training, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br />
+finds his examinations rigorous, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;<br />
+tells story of his grandfather&#8217;s conversation in Latin with a French visitor, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;<br />
+describes his grandfather&#8217;s preparation in British debts case, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;<br />
+describes his abstemiousness, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Ford, John, defended by Henry in a murder case, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+France, alliance with desired by Henry as preliminary to declaring independence, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;<br />
+discussed by Charles Lee, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;<br />
+adherence to, advocated strongly by Henry, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;<br />
+infidelity of, combated by Henry, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;<br />
+its quarrel with United States during Adams&#8217;s administration, <a href="#Page_407">407-412</a>;<br />
+its conduct toward Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry condemned by Henry, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;<br />
+commission to, nominated by Adams, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Franklin, Benjamin, on committee with Henry in second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Frazer, &mdash;&mdash;, recommended to Washington by Henry, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Free trade, advocated by Henry, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+French Revolution, effect of its excesses on Henry and others, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;<br />
+its infidelity condemned by Henry, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Gadsden, Christopher, at Continental Congress, meets John Adams, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br />
+a member of Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+in debate on manner of voting, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+on gunpowder committee of second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Gage, General Thomas, describes the exciting effect of the Virginia Resolves over the continent, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Gallatin, Albert, his alleged Latin conversation with Henry, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Galloway, Joseph, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br />
+a member of it, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+offers plan of reconciliation with England, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br />
+its close approach to success, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Gardoqui, &mdash;&mdash;, Spanish envoy, negotiates with Jay respecting navigation of the Mississippi, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Gates, General Horatio, cabal to place him in supreme command, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;<br />
+praised in anonymous letter to Henry, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;<br />
+consoled after battle of Camden by Virginia Assembly <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Genet, Edmond Charles, upheld by Jefferson and Madison, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Gerry, Elbridge, opposes adoption of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span>
+Gerrymandering, employed in 1788 against Madison in Virginia, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Girardin, Louis Hue, in his continuation of Burk&#8217;s &#8220;History of Virginia,&#8221; written under Jefferson&#8217;s supervision, accuses Henry of plan to establish a dictatorship in 1776, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;<br />
+says the same for the year 1781, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Gordon, Rev. William, describes circulation of the Virginia resolutions in the Northern colonies, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Grayson, William, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+assists Henry in debate, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+elected senator at Henry&#8217;s dictation, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Greene, General Nathanael, beaten at Guilford, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;<br />
+considered as possible dictator in 1781, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Griffin, Judge Cyrus, tries British debts case, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Grigsby, Hugh Blair, considers Wirt&#8217;s version of Henry&#8217;s speech for arming militia apocryphal, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;<br />
+but admits that outline is authentic, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;<br />
+reports statement of Clement Carrington regarding Henry&#8217;s military failings, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;<br />
+on the injustice of Henry&#8217;s treatment, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Hamilton, Alexander, urges magnanimous treatment of Tories, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;<br />
+letter of Madison to, warning of Henry&#8217;s intention to defeat operation of Constitution, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;<br />
+his financial schemes disapproved by Henry, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Hamilton, Colonel Henry, governor of Detroit, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Hampden-Sidney College, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;<br />
+suspends work to hear Henry&#8217;s last speech, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Hancock, John, his military aspirations, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br />
+doubtful about federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Hardwicke, Lord, declares Virginia option law invalid, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Harrison, Benjamin, on committee to remonstrate against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+appointed delegate to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+described by John Adams, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br />
+on committee to arm militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+on other committees, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+returns to Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+his flight from Tarleton, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;<br />
+denounces Constitution as dangerous, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;<br />
+assists Henry in debate, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Harvey, &#8220;Butterwood Tom,&#8221; his evidence assailed by Henry in a murder trial, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Hawley, Joseph, his letter prophesying war read by John Adams to Henry, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Henry, David, manager of &#8220;Gentleman&#8217;s Magazine,&#8221; kinsman of Henry, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Henry, John, marries Sarah Syme, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br />
+father of Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br />
+his education and character, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br />
+distinguished Scotch relatives, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br />
+educates his son, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+sets him up in trade, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br />
+after his failure and marriage establishes him on a farm, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br />
+hears his son&#8217;s speech in Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx42">
+Henry, Patrick, his birth, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br />
+ancestry and relatives, <a href="#Page_2">2-5</a>;<br />
+education, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br />
+apprenticed at fifteen to a tradesman, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br />
+fails in business with his brother, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br />
+marries Sarah Skelton, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br />
+established as planter by relative and fails, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br />
+again tries store-keeping and fails, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br />
+not cast down by embarrassments, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br />
+decides to study law, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br />
+discussion of his alleged illiteracy, <a href="#Page_10">10-19</a>;<br />
+his pronunciation, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br />
+habits of self-depreciation, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+his teachers, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br />
+knowledge of Latin and Greek, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br />
+mastery of language, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+signs of culture in his letters, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<br />
+anecdotes illustrating his knowledge of Latin, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;<br />
+his taste for reading, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;<br />
+fondness for history, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br />
+liking for Butler&#8217;s &#8220;Analogy&#8221; and the Bible, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br />
+his natural qualifications for the law, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br />
+studies law, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;<br />
+goes to Williamsburg to be examined, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;<br />
+Jefferson&#8217;s stories of his difficulties in passing examination, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+his own statement, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>
+returns to Hanover to practice law, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br />
+lives in his father-in-law&#8217;s tavern, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;<br />
+not a &#8220;barkeeper,&#8221; <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;<br />
+not dependent on his father-in-law, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;<br />
+stories of his lack of practice, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;<br />
+their falsity shown by record of his numerous cases, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;<br />
+statements by Wirt and Jefferson as to his ignorance, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;<br />
+their impossibility, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br />
+proof of technical character of his practice, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;<br />
+his legal genius, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br />
+becomes celebrated through &#8220;Parsons&#8217; Cause,&#8221; <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;<br />
+undertakes to defend vestrymen in suit for damages, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br />
+insists on acceptance of a jury of common people, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;<br />
+description of his speech by Wirt, <a href="#Page_49">49-52</a>;<br />
+its overwhelming effect, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;<br />
+description by Maury, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br />
+denies royal authority to annul colonial laws, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;<br />
+apologizes to Maury, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;<br />
+not really an enemy of the clergy, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;<br />
+his geniality, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;<br />
+popularity with the masses in Virginia, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br />
+gains great reputation and increased practice, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br />
+goes to Williamsburg as counsel in contested election case, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br />
+despised by committee on account of appearance, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;<br />
+his speech, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx4"><i>Member of Virginia Legislature.</i><br />
+Elected representative from Louisa County, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br />
+attacks in his first speech a project for a corrupt loan office, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;<br />
+introduces resolutions against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;<br />
+his fiery speeches in their behalf, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;<br />
+after their passage leaves for home, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;<br />
+neglects to preserve records of his career, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;<br />
+the exception his care to record authorship of Virginia resolutions, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;<br />
+leaves a sealed account together with his will, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;<br />
+doubts as to his authorship, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Footnote-83">note</a>;<br />
+condemned in Virginia by the officials, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;<br />
+denounced by Governor Fauquier, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;<br />
+and by Commissary Robinson, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;<br />
+begins to be known in other colonies, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;<br />
+gains immediate popularity in Virginia, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+becomes political leader, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br />
+his large law practice, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br />
+buys an estate, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br />
+his great success in admiralty case, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+succeeds to practice of R. C. Nicholas, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br />
+evidence of high legal attainments, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br />
+leads radical party in politics, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+his great activity, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;<br />
+member of Committee of Correspondence, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;<br />
+leads deliberations of Burgesses over Boston Port Bill, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;<br />
+appointed delegate to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+member of convention of county delegates, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx4"><i>Member of Continental Congress.</i><br />
+His journey to Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br />
+his oratory heralded by associates, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br />
+described by Atkinson, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br />
+speaks in favor of committee to settle method of voting, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;<br />
+protests against small colonies having equal vote with large, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;<br />
+urges that old constitutions are abolished, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+wishes proportional representation, excluding slaves, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+his speech not that of a mere rhetorician, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br />
+on committee on colonial trade and manufactures, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br />
+opposes Galloway&#8217;s plan, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;<br />
+expects war, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;<br />
+wishes non-intercourse postponed, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+on committee to prepare address to the king, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+his share in its composition, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+on committee to declare rights of colonies, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+his practical ability not so extraordinary as his oratory, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;<br />
+misrepresented as a mere declaimer, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;<br />
+mythical account by Wirt of an impressive speech, <a href="#Page_120">120-121</a>;<br />
+asserted also to be author of rejected draft of address to the king, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br />
+and to be cast in the shade by more practical men, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br />
+this passage a slander due to Jefferson, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;<br />
+not considered a mere talker by associates, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;<br />
+high tribute to his practical ability by John Adams, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br />
+agrees with Adams that war must come, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br />
+allusion of his mother to him in 1774, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;<br />
+fame of his speech for arming Virginia militia, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;<br />
+danger of an overestimate, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br />
+in Virginia convention offers resolutions to prepare for war, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<br />
+opposed by his political rivals, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>
+and by all who dreaded an open rupture, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;<br />
+his speech, <a href="#Page_140">140-145</a>;<br />
+description of Henry&#8217;s manner by St. George Tucker, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;<br />
+by Randall, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;<br />
+by John Roane, <a href="#Page_146">146-149</a>;<br />
+question as to its authenticity, <a href="#Page_149">149-151</a>;<br />
+chairman of committee for arming militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+also on committees on public lands and on encouragement of manufactures, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+his possible expectations of a military career, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;<br />
+summary of his military beginnings, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;<br />
+disgusted at failure of militia to resist Governor Dunmore&#8217;s seizure of gunpowder, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;<br />
+wishes to emphasize situation by defying governor, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;<br />
+rallies county militia and marches against him, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;<br />
+receives protests from conservatives, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br />
+reinforced by thousands, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br />
+secures money compensation for gunpowder, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;<br />
+gives receipt for it, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;<br />
+offers to protect colonial treasurer, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;<br />
+rebuffed by him, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;<br />
+denounced in proclamation by Dunmore, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;<br />
+condemned by conservatives, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;<br />
+thanked and applauded by county conventions, <a href="#Page_164">164-166</a>;<br />
+returns to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;<br />
+escorted by volunteer guard, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;<br />
+said by Jefferson to have been insignificant in Congress, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;<br />
+falsity of his assertions, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;<br />
+their lack of probability, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;<br />
+his activity proved by records of Congress, <a href="#Page_172">172-175</a>;<br />
+interested in Indian relations, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;<br />
+on committees requiring business intelligence, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br />
+commissioner to treat with Indians, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;<br />
+on committee to secure lead and salt, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;<br />
+asks Washington to let a Virginian serve in army for sake of acquiring military training, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;<br />
+returns to Virginia, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx4"><i>Political Leader in Virginia.</i><br />
+Resumes services in Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+purchases powder for colony, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+thanked by convention, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+appointed commander-in-chief of Virginia forces, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;<br />
+his authority limited by convention and Committee of Safety, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;<br />
+organizes troops, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;<br />
+not permitted to lead attack on Dunmore, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+ignored by nominal subordinates, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+practically superseded by Colonel Howe of North Carolina, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+appointed colonel of a Virginia regiment, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;<br />
+resigns, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;<br />
+indignation of his officers and soldiers, <a href="#Page_181">181-182</a>;<br />
+persuades soldiers not to mutiny, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;<br />
+again receives an address from officers of his own and other regiments, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;<br />
+his military ability doubted by Committee of Safety, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;<br />
+by Washington and others, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;<br />
+lack of definiteness in criticisms, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;<br />
+real defect seems to have been lack of discipline, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;<br />
+never given a real chance to show his abilities, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br />
+saddened by wife&#8217;s death, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;<br />
+re&euml;lected to Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+his followers oppose Pendleton for president, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;<br />
+serves on all important committees, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+presents numerous reports, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+eager for independence, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+but wishes first a colonial union and a foreign alliance, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;<br />
+letter of Charles Lee to, on the subject, <a href="#Page_194">194-196</a>;<br />
+influences convention to instruct delegates to advocate all three things, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+advocates colonial union and French alliance in letters to Lee and Adams, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;<br />
+willing to offer free trade, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;<br />
+on committee to draft declaration of rights and plan of government, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+leads party advocating a democratic constitution, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;<br />
+complains of lack of assistance, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;<br />
+fears aristocratic tendencies of committee, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204-206</a>;<br />
+thanks John Adams for his pamphlet, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;<br />
+hearty letter of Adams in reply, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;<br />
+writes fifteenth and sixteenth articles of Virginia bill of rights, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br />
+elected governor of State, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;<br />
+his letter of acceptance, <a href="#Page_212">212-213</a>;<br />
+takes oath of office and occupies Dunmore&#8217;s palace, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<br />
+congratulated by his old troops, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;<br />
+by Charles Lee, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;<br />
+by the Baptists of Virginia, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;<br />
+his reply to the latter, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span>
+suffers from illness, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;<br />
+moves family from Hanover to Williamsburg, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;<br />
+seeks to maintain dignity of office, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;<br />
+continues in ill-health but resumes duties of office, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;<br />
+receives letter from Washington advising preparations for defense, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;<br />
+his activity in military preparations, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;<br />
+sneered at by his enemies, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;<br />
+alleged by Jefferson to have planned a &#8220;dictatorship,&#8221; <a href="#Page_223">223-225</a>;<br />
+doubted by Wirt, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;<br />
+real meaning of the term at that time only extraordinary power, <a href="#Page_227">227-229</a>;<br />
+authorized by legislature in 1776 to exercise military powers in emergency, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;<br />
+utter baselessness of Jefferson&#8217;s charges against, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;<br />
+has continued confidence of Assembly, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;<br />
+re&euml;lected governor, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;<br />
+issues proclamation urging Virginians to volunteer, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;<br />
+labors to keep Virginia troops in field, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;<br />
+sends a secret messenger to Washington for exact information, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;<br />
+explains to Washington the difficulties of raising troops in Virginia, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br />
+second letter accepting governorship, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<br />
+marries Dorothea Dandridge, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br />
+his labors in trying to furnish supplies, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br />
+great official correspondence, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;<br />
+his aid desired by Conway cabal, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;<br />
+receives an anonymous letter against Washington, <a href="#Page_243">243-245</a>;<br />
+sends it to Washington with a warning, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>;<br />
+sends second letter assuring him of his confidence, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>;<br />
+replies of Washington to, <a href="#Page_248">248-250</a>;<br />
+his strong friendship with Washington, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;<br />
+its significance in his later career, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;<br />
+warns R. H. Lee of prejudices against him in Virginia, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;<br />
+despairs of public spirit in Virginia, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;<br />
+urges adherence to French alliance and rejection of North&#8217;s peace offers, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;<br />
+twice receives extraordinary powers in 1777, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;<br />
+re&euml;lected to a third term, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>; his reply, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;<br />
+reports the success of George R. Clark&#8217;s expedition, <a href="#Page_258">258-260</a>;<br />
+again receives extraordinary powers, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;<br />
+writes to president of Congress concerning military situation, <a href="#Page_260">260-262</a>;<br />
+foresees shifting of British attack to Virginia, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;<br />
+reports situation to Washington, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;<br />
+reports Matthews&#8217;s raid to Congress, <a href="#Page_264">264-267</a>;<br />
+issues a proclamation to warn State, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;<br />
+declines re&euml;lection on ground of unconstitutionality, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;<br />
+complimented by General Assembly, his reply, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;<br />
+his administration sneered at by Tucker, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;<br />
+complimented by Washington, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>;<br />
+declines election to Congress, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>;<br />
+retires to his estate, Leatherwood, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;<br />
+remains in retirement a year, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>;<br />
+writes despondent letter to Jefferson, <a href="#Page_273">273-275</a>;<br />
+chosen to General Assembly, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;<br />
+at once assumes leadership, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;<br />
+overwhelmed by committee work, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;<br />
+again in later session, <a href="#Page_276">276-278</a>;<br />
+introduces resolutions to console Gates after Camden, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;<br />
+introduces resolution authorizing governor to convene legislature elsewhere in case of invasion, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;<br />
+his flight with legislature from Tarleton&#8217;s raid, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;<br />
+ludicrous anecdotes of popular surprise at his flight, <a href="#Page_282">282-284</a>;<br />
+said by Jefferson to have been again considered for a dictatorship, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+contrary evidence, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;<br />
+his further labors in sessions of 1782, 1783, 1784, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;<br />
+again elected governor, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;<br />
+difficulty of estimating his labors in legislature, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;<br />
+favors rescinding of measures against Tories after war, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;<br />
+his speech in their behalf, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;<br />
+urges economic benefits of their return, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;<br />
+presents bill repealing acts against British goods, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;<br />
+advocates free trade, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;<br />
+wishes to solve Indian problem by encouraging intermarriage, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;<br />
+almost succeeds in carrying bill to that effect, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;<br />
+antagonizes popular opinion in the foregoing projects, and also in religious liberality, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;<br />
+his amazing mastery over the House, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span>
+his appearance in legislature described by Roane, <a href="#Page_295">295-297</a>;<br />
+more practical than Madison, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+superior to Madison and Lee in debate, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+death of his mother, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;<br />
+brings his family from Leatherwood to Salisbury, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;<br />
+his showy style of living, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;<br />
+letter to Washington, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>;<br />
+urges him to accept shares in James and Potomac navigation companies, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;<br />
+declines a third term and retires, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;<br />
+publicly thanked by delegates, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;<br />
+resumes practice of law in Prince Edward County, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;<br />
+returns to Assembly until 1790, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;<br />
+continues popular leader, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx4"><i>Opponent of the Federal Constitution.</i><br />
+His relation to the Constitution not understood, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;<br />
+not an extreme advocate of state rights, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>;<br />
+an early advocate of a central authority, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>;<br />
+supports in the main the policy of strengthening the federal government, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;<br />
+proposes to Madison to &#8220;invigorate&#8221; the government, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;<br />
+considered by Madison a &#8220;champion of the federal cause&#8221; until 1787, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;<br />
+learns of Jay&#8217;s offer to surrender navigation of Mississippi, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;<br />
+elected a delegate to the federal convention, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;<br />
+refuses, because of the Mississippi scheme, to attend, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;<br />
+anxiety over his refusal, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>;<br />
+receives appeal from Washington in behalf of Constitution, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;<br />
+replies stating his disapproval, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;<br />
+fears expressed that he would prevent calling of a state convention, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>;<br />
+but considers one necessary, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;<br />
+labors to turn public opinion against the Constitution, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;<br />
+said to favor disunion, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+his political methods censured by President Smith, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+leads opposition to Constitution in the convention, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+his great activity in debate, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;<br />
+great ability of his arguments, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;<br />
+not, in the convention at least, a disunionist, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>;<br />
+willing to admit defects in Confederation, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>;<br />
+objects that a new Constitution was beyond powers of federal convention, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;<br />
+further holds that state sovereignty is threatened, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;<br />
+objects that the individual is protected by no bill of rights, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;<br />
+dreads implied powers, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;<br />
+criticises the proposed government, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;<br />
+considers the executive dangerous, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;<br />
+fears danger to popular liberties, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;<br />
+wishes to submit matter to a new convention, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;<br />
+failing that, wishes it postponed until a bill of rights be added, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>;<br />
+foreseeing defeat, he promises submission to majority, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>;<br />
+effectiveness of his eloquence, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;<br />
+his unwillingness to debate regularly, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;<br />
+provokes Randolph into accusing him of unparliamentary behavior, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;<br />
+taunted by Stephen and others as a mere declaimer, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;<br />
+the variety and effectiveness of his arguments, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>;<br />
+episode of his speech in the thunder-storm, <a href="#Page_336">336-338</a>;<br />
+fears amendments cannot be adopted, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;<br />
+begins a campaign for them, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>;<br />
+urges formation of societies to agitate for a bill of rights, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;<br />
+suspected by Madison of purpose to revoke ratification or block action of Congress, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;<br />
+satisfaction produced by his announcement of submission, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;<br />
+enters with zeal into plan for a second convention, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;<br />
+gains complete control of Virginia Assembly, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;<br />
+causes passage of resolutions asking Congress to call a national convention, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;<br />
+threatens to fight government unless amendments are adopted, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;<br />
+condemned bitterly by Federalists, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;<br />
+wishes to control Virginia delegation to Congress, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;<br />
+prevents choice of Madison and dictates election of R. H. Lee and Grayson as senators, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;<br />
+his followers gerrymander the congressional districts, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;<br />
+retires from the legislature, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>;<br />
+bitter comments on his action, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>;<br />
+fails to prevent election of Madison, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;<br />
+probable effect of his action in leading Congress itself to propose amendments, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span>
+virtual success of his policy, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx4"><i>In Retirement.</i><br />
+Resumes practice of law, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>;<br />
+driven to it by debt, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>;<br />
+prematurely old at fifty, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>;<br />
+in eight years succeeds in gaining wealth enough to retire, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>;<br />
+great demand for his services, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>;<br />
+his part in the British debts case, <a href="#Page_359">359-367</a>;<br />
+associated with Marshall, Campbell, and Innes, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;<br />
+his laborious preparations for the trial, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;<br />
+masters subject completely, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;<br />
+description of his plea before the district court, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>;<br />
+description of his second plea in same case, 1793, <a href="#Page_364">364-366</a>;<br />
+complimented by Justice Iredell for ability of argument, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;<br />
+his even greater effectiveness in criminal cases, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;<br />
+analysis by Wirt of his methods, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>;<br />
+another description of his eloquence by A. Alexander, <a href="#Page_369">369-371</a>;<br />
+description by Alexander of his part in a murder case, <a href="#Page_371">371-375</a>;<br />
+another murder case described by Roane, <a href="#Page_375">375-378</a>;<br />
+also his ability in the comic line, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;<br />
+description of his powers in another murder trial by Conrad Speece, <a href="#Page_378">378-381</a>;<br />
+retires permanently in 1794, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;<br />
+lives at Long Island, and eventually settles at Red Hill, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;<br />
+his successful investments, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;<br />
+not rich through dishonorable means as suggested by Jefferson, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;<br />
+his life at Red Hill, <a href="#Page_384">384-395</a>;<br />
+happy relations with his family, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;<br />
+calmness of temper, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>;<br />
+unruffled by scurrilous attacks, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;<br />
+his advocacy of temperance, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;<br />
+tries to introduce a substitute for wine, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;<br />
+his dislike of tobacco, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;<br />
+his elocutionary manner of directing negroes in the morning, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;<br />
+his ownership of slaves and dislike of slavery, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;<br />
+advocates emancipation, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;<br />
+his hospitality, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;<br />
+his modesty, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;<br />
+tendency to plume himself on wealth, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>;<br />
+assists in education of children, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;<br />
+his enjoyment of religious writings and sacred music, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;<br />
+his religious character and habits, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;<br />
+a member of the Episcopal Church, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;<br />
+his anger at being called an infidel, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;<br />
+alarmed at French skepticism, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;<br />
+causes Butler&#8217;s &#8220;Analogy&#8221; and other books to be distributed, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>;<br />
+writes a reply to Paine&#8217;s &#8220;Age of Reason,&#8221; but causes it to be destroyed, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;<br />
+inserts an affirmation of his faith in his will, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;<br />
+continues to take interest in current events, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;<br />
+satisfied with the Constitution after the ten amendments, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;<br />
+but finds it hard to approve at once the Federalist government, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+dislikes Hamilton&#8217;s financial measures, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+gradually drawn toward Federalists and away from Jeffersonians, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;<br />
+testimony of Iredell to his liberality, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;<br />
+declines appointment as United States senator, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;<br />
+believes that Washington considers him an enemy, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br />
+reconciled to Washington by Henry Lee, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br />
+his letter to Lee, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;<br />
+dislikes democratic societies, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;<br />
+offered position as secretary of state, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;<br />
+declines it, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;<br />
+receives from Washington through Lee an offer of chief justiceship, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;<br />
+Washington&#8217;s anxiety for his acceptance, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;<br />
+declines it, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>; considered by Federalists for vice-presidency, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;<br />
+sneered at by Jefferson, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;<br />
+denies that he has changed opinions, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;<br />
+dislikes Jay treaty, but condemns attempt of House to participate in treaty power, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;<br />
+elected governor of Virginia, declines, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;<br />
+asked to express his opinion on political situation in 1799, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;<br />
+believes that Jefferson&#8217;s party plans disunion, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;<br />
+alarmed at French Revolution, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;<br />
+especially at infidelity, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;<br />
+compliments Marshall&#8217;s bearing in France, and wishes his election to Congress, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>;<br />
+urges American national feeling, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>;<br />
+declines Adams&#8217;s nomination as minister to France, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;<br />
+but expresses his sympathy with him, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>;<br />
+appealed to by Washington to come forward against the Democrats, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;<br />
+comes out from retirement as candidate for legislature, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;<br />
+great public interest, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span>
+description of his last speech, <a href="#Page_416">416-419</a>;<br />
+dissuades from resistance to the government, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>;<br />
+denies the power of a State to decide on federal laws, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;<br />
+urges harmony and use of constitutional means of redress, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;<br />
+his meeting with John Randolph, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;<br />
+elected by a great majority, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;<br />
+returns home, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;<br />
+his last illness and death, <a href="#Page_421">421-423</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx4"><i>Characteristics.</i><br />
+Absence of self-consciousness, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;<br />
+abstemiousness, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>;<br />
+audacity, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;<br />
+business inefficiency, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>;<br />
+early fondness for the woods, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;<br />
+education, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13-17</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br />
+eloquence, <a href="#Page_48">48-52</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140-151</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333-338</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368-381</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;<br />
+friendships, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br />
+geniality and kindliness, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399-401</a>;<br />
+high spirits, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br />
+honor, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;<br />
+indolence in youth, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;<br />
+influence with the people, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164-167</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181-184</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282-284</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;<br />
+keenness and quickness, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br />
+legal ability, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359-381</a>;<br />
+military ability, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185-188</a>;<br />
+modesty, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<br />
+not a mere declaimer, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119-125</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;<br />
+personal appearance, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;<br />
+political sense, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289-291</a>;<br />
+practical ability, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172-175</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192-193</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260-270</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;<br />
+reading habits, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;<br />
+religious views, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389-395</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>;<br />
+rusticity in early life, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;<br />
+self-depreciation, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+simplicity of manners, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;<br />
+unfriendly views of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.<br />
+See <a href="#Jefferson">Jefferson, Thomas</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx4"><i>Political Opinions.</i><br />
+Amendments to the Constitution, <a href="#Page_340">340-349</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;<br />
+bill of rights, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;<br />
+church establishment, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208-210</a>;<br />
+colonial union, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193-199</a>;<br />
+Democratic party, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;<br />
+democracy, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;<br />
+disunion, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;<br />
+executive power, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>;<br />
+federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323-331</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;<br />
+French alliance, <a href="#Page_193">193-199</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;<br />
+French Revolution, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;<br />
+free trade, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;<br />
+gerrymandering, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;<br />
+independence of colonies, <a href="#Page_193">193 ff.</a>;<br />
+Indians, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;<br />
+Jay treaty, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;<br />
+Mississippi navigation, <a href="#Page_309">309-311</a>;<br />
+necessity for central authority, <a href="#Page_304">304-306</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;<br />
+not connected with plan for a dictatorship, <a href="#Page_224">224-229</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;<br />
+nullification, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;<br />
+power of crown to annul a colonial law, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;<br />
+power of Parliament over colonies, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+resistance to England, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140-145</a>;<br />
+slavery, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>;<br />
+state rights, <a href="#Page_323">323 ff.</a>;<br />
+theory that colonies are dissolved by revolution, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+Tories, <a href="#Page_289">289-291</a>;<br />
+treaty power, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>;<br />
+Virginia state Constitution, <a href="#Page_201">201-206</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Henry, Rev. Patrick, uncle of Patrick Henry, helps in his education, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br />
+a good classical scholar, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br />
+persuaded by Henry not to be present at Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Henry, William, elder brother of Patrick Henry, becomes his partner in trade, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Henry, William Wirt, on difficulty of reconciling Jefferson&#8217;s statements regarding Henry&#8217;s ignorance of law with his large practice, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;<br />
+on baselessness of Jefferson&#8217;s dictatorship story, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Herkimer, his defeat by St. Leger, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Holland, &mdash;&mdash;, defended by Henry on charge of murder, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Holt, James, on committee of Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Hopkins, Stephen, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br />
+a member, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+in second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Howe, General Robert, commands North Carolina and Virginia troops and ignores Henry, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Howe, General Sir William, letter of Dunmore to, describing military operations in Virginia, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;<br />
+his sluggishness in 1777, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;<br />
+his movements in that year, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span>
+his capture of Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Independence, brought unavoidably before country in 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+sentiment in Virginia convention in favor of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+its postponement wished by Henry until a colonial union and foreign alliances be formed, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;<br />
+letter of Charles Lee urging its immediate declaration, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Indians, troubles with in Virginia in 1774, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;<br />
+negotiations with in Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;<br />
+in Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;<br />
+expedition of G. R. Clark against, <a href="#Page_258">258-260</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;<br />
+dealings with Southwestern Indians, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;<br />
+proposals of Henry to encourage intermarriage with, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Innes, James, receives a speech of Henry to his constituents from Rev. J. B. Smith, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+favors ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+with Henry in British debts case, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Iredell, Judge James, tries British debts case, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;<br />
+describes eagerness to hear Henry, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;<br />
+effect of Henry&#8217;s oratory upon, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;<br />
+compliments him in opinion, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;<br />
+won over from dislike of Henry by his moderation and liberality, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Jay, John, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s proposal to frame a new Constitution, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+favors Galloway&#8217;s plan of reconciliation, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br />
+as likely as Henry to be a good fighter, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br />
+but inferior to him in not offering, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br />
+proposes to Congress to surrender navigation of Mississippi, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;<br />
+as chief justice, tries British debts case, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;<br />
+points out Henry to Iredell as the &#8220;greatest of orators,&#8221; <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;<br />
+affected by Henry&#8217;s oratory, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;<br />
+converses with him on politics, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Jay treaty, condemned by Henry, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+<a name="Jefferson" id="Jefferson"></a>Jefferson, Thomas, meets Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;<br />
+describes his hilarity, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br />
+his vulgar pronunciation, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;<br />
+calls him illiterate, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;<br />
+yet admits his mastery over language, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+at Williamsburg when Henry comes for his bar examination, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;<br />
+his stories of Henry&#8217;s examination, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+says Henry was a barkeeper, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;<br />
+describes him as ignorant of the law and inefficient, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;<br />
+comparison of his legal business with Henry&#8217;s, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br />
+baselessness of his imputations, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s maiden speech in legislature against &#8220;loan office,&#8221; <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;<br />
+present at debate over Virginia resolutions, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;<br />
+his conflicting statements for and against Henry&#8217;s authorship of the resolves, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Footnote-83">note</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s attainment to leadership, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;<br />
+prominent member of bar, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+declines offer of practice of R. C. Nicholas, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br />
+asserts that Henry was totally ignorant of law, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br />
+with radical group in politics, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+furnishes Wirt with statements of Henry&#8217;s insignificance in Congress, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;<br />
+induces Wirt not to mention his name, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;<br />
+admits Henry&#8217;s leadership in Virginia, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;<br />
+on committee for arming militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+on other committees, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+says that Henry committed the first overt act of war in Virginia, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;<br />
+says Henry was a silent member of second Continental Congress and glad to leave, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;<br />
+errors of fact in his statement, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;<br />
+appears as delegate to second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br />
+returns to Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+favors a democratic Constitution, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;<br />
+describes plan to establish a dictatorship in Virginia, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;<br />
+intimates that Henry was the proposed tyrant, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;<br />
+induces Girardin to state fact in &#8220;History of Virginia,&#8221; <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;<br />
+furnishes the story to Wirt, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;<br />
+unhistorical character of his narrative, <a href="#Page_227">227-229</a>;<br />
+himself the recipient as governor of extraordinary powers from legislature, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;<br />
+probably invents the whole story, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;<br />
+makes no opposition to subsequent re&euml;lections of Henry, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;<br />
+his later dislike of Henry, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span>
+on committee to notify Henry of his second re&euml;lection as governor, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;<br />
+elected governor, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;<br />
+fears of Tucker as to his energy, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;<br />
+continues on friendly terms with Henry while governor, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;<br />
+despondent letter of Henry to, on political decay, <a href="#Page_273">273-275</a>;<br />
+re&euml;lected, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;<br />
+his flight from Tarleton, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+his story of second plan to make Henry dictator, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+unhistorical character of the story, <a href="#Page_285">285-287</a>;<br />
+his statement flatly contradicted by Edmund Randolph, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;<br />
+told by Madison of Henry&#8217;s desire to strengthen central government, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;<br />
+and of Virginian opposition to abandoning Mississippi navigation, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;<br />
+informed by Madison of opposition to Constitution in Virginia, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;<br />
+not in Virginia ratifying Convention, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+opposes new constitution, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+thinks it dangerous to liberty, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>;<br />
+letter from Madison to, explaining his defeat for senator, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;<br />
+charges Henry with paying debts in worthless paper, and with connection with the Yazoo scheme, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;<br />
+forms opposition party to Washington, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+sneers at Federalist advances to Henry, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;<br />
+secures his election as governor of Virginia, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;<br />
+his letter to Mazzei published, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;<br />
+writes Kentucky resolutions, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Jenyns, Soame, his &#8220;View of the Internal Evidence of Christianity,&#8221; printed by Henry for private distribution, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Johnson, Thomas, on committee of Continental Congress to prepare address to the king, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+opposes Pendleton for president of Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Johnston, George, aids Henry in introducing Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;<br />
+said by Jefferson to have written them, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Footnote-83">note</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Johnstone, Governor George, his membership of North&#8217;s peace commission a surprise to Henry, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Jones, Allen, confers with Henry over weakness of Confederation, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Jones, William, plaintiff in British debts case, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Jouette, Captain John, warns Virginia legislature of Tarleton&#8217;s approach, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Kentucky resolutions written by Jefferson, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+King, address to the, in Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+its authorship wrongly accredited to Henry, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Kirkland, Rev. Samuel, urged by Continental Congress to secure neutrality of the Six Nations, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Lamb, General John, letter from Henry to, on Virginia opposition to Constitution, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Langdon, John, on gunpowder and salt committee of the second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lear, Tobias, describes Henry&#8217;s control of Virginia politics in 1788, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lee, Arthur, letter of Marshall to, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lee, General Charles, describes military preparations of colonies in 1774, and predicts war, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;<br />
+envied by Adams on his departure to command colonial army, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br />
+appointed by Congress major-general, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;<br />
+special difficulties of his situation, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br />
+tells Washington that Virginia is ready for independence, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+eager for independence, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;<br />
+urges its immediate declaration upon Henry, <a href="#Page_194">194-196</a>;<br />
+congratulates Henry on his election as governor, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;<br />
+ridicules popular fondness for titles, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;<br />
+praised in anonymous letter to Henry, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lee, Henry, in Virginia convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+on committee to draft bill of rights and state Constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+on committee to notify Henry of election as governor, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;<br />
+favors ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+appoints Henry United States senator in 1794, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;<br />
+determines to reconcile Washington and Henry, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s friendly attitude to Washington, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br />
+acts as successful intermediary, <a href="#Page_399">399-403</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span>
+offers to Henry, in behalf of Washington, the office of chief justice, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lee, Richard Henry, on committee to protest against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+leader of radicals in politics, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+appointed delegate to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+praised by Virginia delegates as the Cicero of the age, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br />
+meets John Adams and is praised by him, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+in debate over manner of voting, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+on committee to prepare address to king, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+author of draft rejected by Congress, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+on committee of Virginia convention for organizing militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+on other committees, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+in second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br />
+letter of Pendleton to, describing military situation in Virginia, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+urged by Henry to promote French alliance, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;<br />
+favors a democratic constitution, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;<br />
+appealed to for aid by Henry, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;<br />
+supposed to have been won by Conway cabal, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;<br />
+loses popularity in Virginia, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;<br />
+barely succeeds in re&euml;lection to Congress, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;<br />
+consoled by Henry, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;<br />
+warned of decay of public spirit in Virginia, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;<br />
+Henry&#8217;s only rival in leadership of General Assembly, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;<br />
+compared with Henry by S. Roane, <a href="#Page_295">295-296</a>;<br />
+opposes a strong central government, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;<br />
+not a member of Virginia ratifying convention, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+opposes ratification of Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+his election as senator dictated by Henry, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>;<br />
+turns from Jefferson to support of Washington, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lee, Thomas Ludwell, suggested as messenger by Henry, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+<a name="Legislature" id="Legislature"></a>Legislature of Virginia, first appearance of Henry before Burgesses in election case, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;<br />
+corruption of speaker in, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;<br />
+motion for a &#8220;loan office&#8221; in, defeated by Henry, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;<br />
+protests against proposed Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;<br />
+doubts among members as to course after its passage, <a href="#Page_66">66-68</a>;<br />
+deliberates on Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;<br />
+introduction of Henry&#8217;s resolutions, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;<br />
+opposition of old leaders, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+debate in, <a href="#Page_71">71-74</a>;<br />
+passes, then amends resolutions, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br />
+deplores Boston Port Bill, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;<br />
+dissolved by Governor Dunmore, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;<br />
+its members call for a Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;<br />
+recommend a colonial convention, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+which meets, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+appoints delegates to first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;<br />
+adjourns, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;<br />
+second convention meets, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<br />
+its determination to prepare for war, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;<br />
+causes for objections to Henry&#8217;s resolutions to arm militia, <a href="#Page_136">136-139</a>;<br />
+adopts his resolutions to arm militia, and prepares for war, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+return of Virginia congressional delegates to, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+thanks them, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+appoints Henry commander-in-chief with limited powers, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;<br />
+meets at Williamsburg, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+its able membership, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+struggle for presidency between Pendleton&#8217;s and Henry&#8217;s factions, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;<br />
+committees and business transacted by, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+sentiment in, said to favor independence, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;<br />
+instructs delegates to Congress to propose independence, foreign alliance, and a confederation, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+appoints committee to draw up state Constitution and bill of rights, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+aristocratic and democratic parties in, <a href="#Page_201">201-207</a>;<br />
+adopts declaration of rights, <a href="#Page_207">207-210</a>;<br />
+establishes religious liberty, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br />
+adopts state Constitution, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;<br />
+its democratic form, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;<br />
+elects Henry governor, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;<br />
+General Assembly holds first session, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;<br />
+said to have planned to make Henry dictator, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;<br />
+confers extraordinary powers on Governors Henry and Jefferson, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;<br />
+adjourns, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;<br />
+no trace of a plot in, as described by Jefferson, <a href="#Page_233">233-235</a>;<br />
+re&euml;lects Henry governor, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<br />
+its sessions during 1777 and 1778, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br />
+elects delegates to Congress, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;<br />
+again confers extraordinary powers on Henry, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;<br />
+and re&euml;lects him governor, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;<br />
+again confers on Henry extraordinary powers, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span>
+desires to re&euml;lect Henry for fourth term, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;<br />
+on his refusal, elects Jefferson, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;<br />
+passes resolutions complimenting Henry, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;<br />
+elects Henry delegate to Congress, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>;<br />
+led by Henry in 1780 and afterwards, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;<br />
+work done by it, <a href="#Page_275">275-278</a>;<br />
+re&euml;lects Jefferson, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;<br />
+fears approach of Cornwallis, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;<br />
+its flight from Tarleton, <a href="#Page_280">280-284</a>;<br />
+reassembles at Staunton, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+elects Thomas Nelson governor, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+again said to have planned to make Henry dictator, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+contrary evidence, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;<br />
+subsequent sessions of, <a href="#Page_287">287-288</a>;<br />
+its scanty reports, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;<br />
+mastery of Henry over, <a href="#Page_294">294-297</a>;<br />
+passes bill to prevent speculation in soldiers&#8217; certificates, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;<br />
+again elects Henry governor, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;<br />
+offers Washington shares in canal companies, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;<br />
+publicly thanks Henry on his retirement from governorship, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;<br />
+passes resolutions condemning proposed surrender of Mississippi navigation, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>;<br />
+chooses Henry delegate to constitutional convention, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;<br />
+feared that it will refuse to submit Constitution to a ratifying convention, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>;<br />
+summons a state convention, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;<br />
+dominated by Henry, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;<br />
+asks Congress to call a second convention, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347-350</a>;<br />
+elects R. H. Lee and Grayson senators at Henry&#8217;s dictation, and rejects Madison, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;<br />
+gerrymanders the State in hopes of defeating Federalists, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;<br />
+unable to assemble a quorum during Henry&#8217;s speech in British debts case, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;<br />
+controlled by Jefferson, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;<br />
+elects Henry governor for sixth time in 1796, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>;<br />
+passes resolutions condemning alien and sedition laws, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;<br />
+Henry asked by Washington to become a candidate for, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;<br />
+he presents himself, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;<br />
+action of Assembly deplored by him, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>;<br />
+its action called unconstitutional, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Leonard, Daniel, describes the effect of the Virginia Resolves in New England, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lewis, Andrew, on committee for arming Virginia militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lewis, William, his remark to Henry on the flight of the legislature from Tarleton, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lincoln, Benjamin, informed by Washington of Henry&#8217;s submission to the Constitution, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Littlepage, James, his seat in Virginia legislature contested by Dandridge, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Livingston, Philip, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+of the second, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br />
+as likely as Henry to have proved a good fighter, but, unlike him, never offered, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Livingston, William, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lowndes, Rawlins, opposes federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lynch, Thomas, meets John Adams at Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br />
+praised by him, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br />
+nominates Peyton Randolph for president, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br />
+also Charles Thomson as secretary, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br />
+debates question of manner of voting, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+member of second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Lyons, &mdash;&mdash;, in Parsons&#8217; Cause with Henry, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;<br />
+cries &#8220;treason&#8221; against his speech, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Madison, James, doubts Henry&#8217;s authorship of Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Footnote-83">note</a>;<br />
+member of Virginia convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+his slight influence, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;<br />
+introduces bill to check speculation in soldiers&#8217; certificates, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s eloquent support of the measure, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;<br />
+less practical than Henry, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+inferior to him in debate, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+confers with Henry and finds him zealous for strengthening federal government, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;<br />
+predicts intense opposition in South to treaty abandoning Mississippi navigation, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>;<br />
+warns Washington of Henry&#8217;s change of mind on matter of strengthening the Confederation, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span>
+informed by Randolph of Henry&#8217;s refusal to attend convention, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;<br />
+comments on his reasons, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>;<br />
+informs Jefferson and Randolph of Henry&#8217;s opposition to the Constitution, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;<br />
+accuses Henry of wishing disunion, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+letter of J. B. Smith to, condemning Henry&#8217;s methods, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+describes elements of opposition to Constitution, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+the principal champion of ratification, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+his power in debate, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>;<br />
+suspects Henry of intention to destroy effect of Constitution, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>;<br />
+Washington&#8217;s letters to on same subject, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;<br />
+defeated for senator through Henry&#8217;s influence, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;<br />
+his defeat for representative attempted by gerrymandering, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>;<br />
+elected nevertheless, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;<br />
+leads House to consider constitutional amendments, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;<br />
+probably led by fear of Henry&#8217;s opposition, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>;<br />
+forms opposition party to Washington, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+writes Virginia resolutions, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Madison, Thomas, on Henry&#8217;s defense of Holland for murder, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Marshall, John, on Henry&#8217;s determination to have Mississippi navigation for the South, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;<br />
+favors ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+with Henry in British debts case, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;<br />
+his argument not legally superior to Henry&#8217;s, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;<br />
+commended for his conduct in France as a candidate for Congress by Henry, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Martin, Luther, opposes federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Maryland, its convention recommends organization of militia, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;<br />
+its resolutions justifying this action imitated elsewhere, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Mason, George, leader of radicals in Virginia, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+his high opinion of Henry&#8217;s abilities, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;<br />
+favors a democratic government, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;<br />
+author of first fourteen articles of bill of rights, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br />
+a devout Episcopalian, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;<br />
+on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;<br />
+opposes ratification of Constitution, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+chief assistant of Henry in debate, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+agrees to act as chairman of Virginia republican society, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Mason, Thompson, prominent member of Virginia bar, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+surpassed by Henry in admiralty case, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Massachusetts, calls for Stamp Act Congress, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br />
+enthusiasm in for Virginia resolutions, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br />
+prepares for war, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Matthews, General Edward, commands British raid into Virginia, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Maury, Rev. James, wins his case for damages after annulling of option law, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s speech in Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_52">52-55</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Mazzei, Philip, publication of Jefferson&#8217;s letter to, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+McIntosh, General Lachan, commander in the Northwest in 1779, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+McKean, Thomas, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Meade, Rt. Rev. William, explains Henry&#8217;s apology to Maury, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Mercer, James, prominent member of Virginia bar, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+on committee of Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Meredith, Samuel, Henry&#8217;s brother-in-law, describes character of Henry&#8217;s mother, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Middleton, Henry, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+a member of it, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Mifflin, Thomas, entertains delegates to first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br />
+a member of it, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+accompanies Washington to Boston as aide-de-camp, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br />
+his connection with the Conway cabal, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Miller, John, describes Henry&#8217;s last speech, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Mississippi, navigation of, its abandonment proposed by Jay in Congress, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;<br />
+violent opposition aroused in South to its surrender, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;<br />
+Henry&#8217;s desire to retain it makes him fear a closer union with Northern States, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span>
+Moffett, Colonel George, flight of legislature from Tarleton to his farm, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Monroe, James, tells Henry of Jay&#8217;s proposal to abandon Mississippi navigation, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;<br />
+says Northern States plan to dismember the union, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>;<br />
+opposes ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+helps Henry in debate, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+letter of Jefferson to on Henry, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>;<br />
+recalled from France, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Murray, William Vans, appointed envoy to France, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Nelson, Hugh, remark of Henry to, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Nelson, Thomas, offers resolution in Virginia convention, instructing delegates to propose independence, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+conveys resolutions to Congress, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;<br />
+defeated for governor by Henry in 1776, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;<br />
+succeeds Jefferson as governor, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+opposes ratification of Constitution, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+New England, effect of Virginia resolutions in, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Newenham, Sir Edward, sends presents to Washington, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+New Jersey, Assembly of, disapproves of Stamp Act Congress, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Newton, Thomas, on committee of Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+New York, Virginia Resolves brought to, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br />
+ratifies the Constitution conditionally, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;<br />
+sends circular letter proposing call for a second convention, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>;<br />
+its effect in Virginia, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Nicholas, George, favors ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Nicholas, John, supposed author of scurrilous attacks on Henry, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Nicholas, Robert Carter, one of Henry&#8217;s legal examiners, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+loses leadership to Henry, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+prominent in Virginia bar, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+on retiring leaves his practice to Henry, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br />
+leader of conservatives, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br />
+on committee to arm militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+on other committees, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+declines as treasurer Henry&#8217;s offer of protection, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+favors aristocratic government, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;<br />
+alleged to have made motion to appoint a dictator, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+North, Lord, sends peace commissioners after Burgoyne&#8217;s surrender, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;<br />
+protested against by Henry, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;<br />
+their failure and departure, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Oswald, Eleazer, carries proposed constitutional amendments from Henry to New York, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Page, John, describes Henry&#8217;s vulgar pronunciation, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br />
+a radical in politics, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+receives a vote for governor in 1776, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Page, Mann, a radical leader in Virginia, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+on committee to frame bill of rights and a constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Paine, Thomas, his &#8220;Age of Reason&#8221; moves Henry to write a reply, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+<a name="Parsons" id="Parsons"></a>Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_36">36-55</a>;<br />
+establishment of church in Virginia, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br />
+payment of clergy, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br />
+legislation to enforce payment by vestry, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br />
+option laws to prevent clergy profiting by high price, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br />
+royal veto, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br />
+suits brought by clergy for damages, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;<br />
+suit of Maury against Fredericksville parish, <a href="#Page_45">45-55</a>;<br />
+selection of an unfair jury, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;<br />
+illegal verdict, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;<br />
+Henry&#8217;s speech and its effect, <a href="#Page_48">48-52</a>;<br />
+comments of Maury, <a href="#Page_53">53-55</a>;<br />
+excitement produced by, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br />
+reported to England, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Pendleton, Edmund, his pronunciation an example of dialect, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br />
+said by Jefferson to have been one of Henry&#8217;s bar examiners, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+on committee to protest against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+believes submission necessary, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+loses leadership to Henry, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+prominent at Virginia bar, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+surpassed by Henry in admiralty case, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>
+leader of conservative party, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+appointed delegate to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+his journey with Henry and Washington, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br />
+described by Atkinson, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br />
+in debate on manner of voting, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br />
+on committee for arming militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+on other committees, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+returns from Congress to Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+thanked by Virginia, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+at head of Virginia Committee of Safety, describes situation to R. H. Lee, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;<br />
+explains his objections to Henry&#8217;s serving in field, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+opposed for president by Henry&#8217;s friends, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;<br />
+drafts resolution instructing delegates in Congress to propose independence, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+favors aristocratic government, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;<br />
+favors ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Pennsylvania, prepares to resist England by force, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Phillips, General William, commands British force invading Virginia, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Powell, &mdash;&mdash;, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Providence, R. I., people of, approve Virginia Resolutions, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Raleigh Tavern, meeting-place of Burgesses after dissolution of Assembly, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Randall, Henry Stephens, describes at third hand Henry&#8217;s speech for organizing militia, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Randolph, Edmund, gives a version of Henry&#8217;s warning to George III., <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Footnote-69">note</a>;<br />
+says the Virginia Resolves were written by William Fleming, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Footnote-83">note</a>;<br />
+in Virginia convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+testimony as to authorship of Virginia resolution favoring independence, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+on committee to frame Constitution, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+says Henry drafted two articles of bill of rights, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br />
+calls Washington a dictator in 1781, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;<br />
+denies Jefferson&#8217;s story of a Virginia dictatorship in 1781, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;<br />
+informs Madison of Henry&#8217;s refusal to go to constitutional convention, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;<br />
+receives Madison&#8217;s reply, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>;<br />
+correspondence with Madison relative to Virginia opposition to ratification of Constitution, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;<br />
+refuses to sign Constitution and publishes objections, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+supports it in the convention, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+twitted by Henry, turns on him fiercely, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Randolph, John, his part in Henry&#8217;s bar examination, <a href="#Page_23">23-26</a>;<br />
+leader of bar in Virginia, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Randolph, John, of Roanoke, describes Henry&#8217;s appearance in British debts case, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>;<br />
+answers Henry&#8217;s last speech, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;<br />
+Henry&#8217;s parting advice to, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Randolph, Peyton, attorney-general, his part in Henry&#8217;s bar examination, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+on committee to protest against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+counsels submission, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+his anger at their passage, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;<br />
+loses leadership to Henry, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+leader of conservatives, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+appointed delegate to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+described by Atkinson, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br />
+meets John Adams at Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+chosen to preside, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br />
+assures Virginia troops that gunpowder affair will be satisfactorily settled, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Read, George, member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Reed, Joseph, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+doubts Henry&#8217;s ability to command in the field, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Religious liberty in Virginia, asserted in sixteenth article of declaration of rights written by Henry, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br />
+hitherto limited, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br />
+petition of Baptists for, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<br />
+proposals of Henry involving, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Revolution, war of, predicted by Henry, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br />
+by Hawley and John Adams, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br />
+by Dickinson, Charles Lee, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;<br />
+prepared for by Connecticut, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;<br />
+by Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;<br />
+by Maryland, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;<br />
+and other colonies, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<br />
+by Virginia, <a href="#Page_133">133-152</a>;<br />
+considered inevitable by Henry, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span>
+events of in 1776, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;<br />
+in 1777, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;<br />
+in 1777 and 1778, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Rhoades, Samuel, at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Riddick, Lemuel, on committee of Virginia convention for arming militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Roane, John, describes in detail Henry&#8217;s delivery of the speech for arming militia, <a href="#Page_146">146-149</a>;<br />
+said to have verified Wirt&#8217;s version, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Roane, Spencer, on Henry&#8217;s pronunciation, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br />
+meets Henry and R. H. Lee in Virginia Assembly, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;<br />
+considers Henry more practical than Madison, less selfish than Lee, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+describes his superiority to Madison in debate, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+contrasts him with Lee, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;<br />
+describes his manner, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s manner of living as governor, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;<br />
+gives anecdotes illustrating Henry&#8217;s power as a criminal lawyer, <a href="#Page_375">375-378</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Robertson, David, reports Henry&#8217;s speeches in Virginia ratifying convention, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Robertson, William, of Edinburgh University, kinsman of Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Robertson, Rev. William, uncle of Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Robinson, John, speaker of House of Burgesses and treasurer of Virginia, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;<br />
+attempt to conceal his defalcation by a &#8220;loan office,&#8221; <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;<br />
+prevented by Henry, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Robinson, Rev. William, condemns Henry&#8217;s behavior in Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;<br />
+and describes his speech against the Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Rodney, C&aelig;sar, a member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+of second, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Rush, Dr. Benjamin, said by Washington to be author of anonymous letter to Henry, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Rutledge, Edward, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+a member of it, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+praises Galloway&#8217;s plan of reconciliation, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Rutledge, John, meets John Adams at Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+a member of it, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+debates question of manner of voting, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+on committee to prepare address to the king, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;<br />
+at second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;<br />
+as governor of South Carolina receives extraordinary powers, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;<br />
+nomination for chief justice rejected by Senate, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Schuyler, General Philip, his departure from Philadelphia as general envied by John Adams, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br />
+on committee of second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Shelton, Sarah, marries Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br />
+her death, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Sherlock, Bishop Thomas, his sermons favorite reading of Henry, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Sherman, Roger, a member of first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Shippen, William, entertains delegates to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Slavery, opinions of Henry concerning, <a href="#Page_388">388-389</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Simcoe, John Graves, a dashing partisan fighter, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Smith, Rev. John Blair, condemns Henry&#8217;s agitation against ratifying the Constitution, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Smith, Meriwether, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Smith, Rev. William, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Spain, alliance with, desired by Henry in 1776, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;<br />
+offers commercial privileges in return for abandonment of Mississippi navigation, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Speece, Rev. Conrad, describes Henry&#8217;s eloquence in a murder trial, <a href="#Page_378">378-381</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Spotswood, Alexander, grandfather of Henry&#8217;s second wife, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Sprout, Rev. &mdash;&mdash;, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Stamp Act, protested against by Virginia Assembly, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;<br />
+discussion whether to resist or submit after its passage, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span>
+resolutions against, introduced by Henry, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+debate over, <a href="#Page_71">71-74</a>;<br />
+passage, reconsideration, and amendment, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br />
+influence in rousing other colonies against, <a href="#Page_77">77-88</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Stamp Act Congress, proposed by Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;<br />
+its success caused by Virginia resolutions, <a href="#Page_81">81 ff.</a>
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Stark, John, his victory in 1777 at Bennington, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+State sovereignty, declared to be abolished by Henry before 1774, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+its preservation demanded by Virginia in any confederation, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;<br />
+not advocated in its extreme form by Henry during Revolution and Confederation, <a href="#Page_303">303-306</a>;<br />
+considered by Henry to be threatened by federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_324">324-330</a>;<br />
+expressly reserved by convention in ratifying, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Stephen, Adam, on committee for arming Virginia militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+taunts Henry in ratifying convention of 1788, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Steptoe, Dr. &mdash;&mdash;, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Sullivan, John, at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;<br />
+answers Henry&#8217;s speech in first day&#8217;s debate, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Syme, Mrs. Sarah, described by Colonel William Byrd, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br />
+marries John Henry, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br />
+mother of Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;<br />
+her family, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br />
+letter mentioning his absence in Congress, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;<br />
+her death and character, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Syme, Colonel &mdash;&mdash;, step-brother of Henry, reported to have denied his complicity in dictatorship project, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Tarleton, Sir Banastre, a dashing partisan fighter, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;<br />
+sent by Cornwallis to capture Virginia legislature, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;<br />
+nearly succeeds, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Taylor, John, of Caroline, his pronunciation, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Thacher, Oxenbridge, expresses his admiration for the Virginia Resolves, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Thomson, Charles, the &#8220;Sam Adams&#8221; of Philadelphia, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;<br />
+meets John Adams at Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br />
+nominated for secretary, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br />
+accepts position, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s first speech, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Tillotson, Archbishop John, his sermons enjoyed by Henry, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Tobacco, its use as currency and to pay salaries, <a href="#Page_37">37 ff.</a>
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Tories, loathed by Henry, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;<br />
+popular execration of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;<br />
+repeal of their exile favored by Henry, <a href="#Page_290">290-291</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Tucker, St. George, describes debate on military resolutions in Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br />
+describes motives of Henry&#8217;s opponents, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br />
+describes his speech, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;<br />
+agreement of his version with Wirt&#8217;s, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;<br />
+fears that Jefferson will be no more active than Henry, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Tyler, Judge John, reports Henry&#8217;s narrative of his bar examination, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br />
+gives anecdote of Henry&#8217;s speech against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Footnote-69">note</a>;<br />
+said to have been author of Wirt&#8217;s version of Henry&#8217;s militia speech, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;<br />
+with Henry in flight from Tarleton, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s bill to relieve Tories, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;<br />
+opposes ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+helps Henry in debate, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Union of the colonies, advocated by Henry as necessary prelude to independence, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Virginia, education in, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br />
+dialects in, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;<br />
+society in, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br />
+church government in, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br />
+pays ministers in tobacco, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br />
+makes vestry liable for salary, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br />
+passes option laws to prevent clergy from profiting from high price of tobacco, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br />
+injustice of action, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;<br />
+popularity of laws in, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;<br />
+popular reluctance to grant clergy legal redress, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;<br />
+the Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_46">46-55</a>;<br />
+enthusiasm in, for eloquence, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br />
+popular affection for Henry begun by Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br />
+repudiation of Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66-76</a>;<br />
+old leaders of, displaced by Henry, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span>
+officials of, angered by Henry&#8217;s resolutions, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;<br />
+popular enthusiasm for Henry, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+courts in, closed by Revolution, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br />
+conservative and radical parties in, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+practical unanimity of opinion, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;<br />
+its influence in Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;<br />
+officers of its militia prepared for war, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;<br />
+raises militia in various counties, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;<br />
+first overt act of war in, committed by Henry, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;<br />
+popular indignation at Dunmore&#8217;s seizure of gunpowder, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br />
+its volunteer companies persuaded not to attack him, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br />
+expedition led by Henry forces Dunmore to make restitution, <a href="#Page_158">158-160</a>;<br />
+outbreak of popular approval of Henry&#8217;s action, <a href="#Page_164">164-167</a>;<br />
+defense of, intrusted to Henry under Committee of Safety, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;<br />
+operations of Dunmore in, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;<br />
+its troops defeat him, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+indignation among them at Henry&#8217;s treatment by Committee of Safety, <a href="#Page_181">181-184</a>;<br />
+celebrates with enthusiasm the resolution in favor of independence, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;<br />
+effect of its example, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;<br />
+aristocratic and democratic parties in, <a href="#Page_200">200-202</a>;<br />
+Virginia troops congratulate Henry on election as governor, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;<br />
+high ideal held by Virginians of dignity of governor, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;<br />
+danger of attacks upon State urged by Washington, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;<br />
+prepares for defense, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;<br />
+efforts of Henry to recruit in, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br />
+receives great demands for supplies, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br />
+popular opinion condemns R. H. Lee for hostility to Washington, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;<br />
+decay of military spirit in, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;<br />
+ravaged by Matthews and Collier, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264-267</a>;<br />
+sends Clark&#8217;s successful expedition into Northwest, <a href="#Page_258">258-260</a>;<br />
+decline of patriotism in, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;<br />
+ravaged by Arnold and Phillips, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;<br />
+great antipathy in, to project of abandoning Mississippi navigation, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>;<br />
+majority of people at outset favor Constitution, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>;<br />
+effect of Henry&#8217;s exertions in turning tide, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+supposed disunion feeling, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;<br />
+importance Of Virginia&#8217;s action, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;<br />
+party divisions in State, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+party divisions and leaders in convention, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;<br />
+influence of Virginia&#8217;s demands in forcing Congress to propose ten amendments, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>;<br />
+prepares to resist government at time of alien and sedition laws, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;<br />
+its leaders condemned by Henry, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>;<br />
+its policy deplored by Washington, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Virginia resolutions of 1765, <a href="#Page_69">69-75</a>;<br />
+their effect, <a href="#Page_77">77-89</a>.<br />
+See Legislature of Virginia, and Stamp Act, authorship of, <a href="#Page_83">83-85</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Virginia resolutions of 1798, written by Madison, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>;<br />
+condemned by Henry as unconstitutional, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Walker, Benjamin, sent by Henry to Washington as secret messenger, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;<br />
+taken by Washington as an aide-de-camp, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Walker, Jeremiah, moderator of Baptist convention, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Walker, Thomas, defendant in British debts case, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Ward, Samuel, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;<br />
+debates question of manner of voting, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br />
+chairman of committee of the whole in second Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Warrington, Rev. Thomas, brings suit for damages after annulling of option law, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Washington, George, appointed delegate to Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br />
+describes journey, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br />
+described by Atkinson, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br />
+on committee for arming Virginia militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br />
+on other committees, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br />
+his military command envied by Hancock and Adams, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br />
+notified by Virginia troops of readiness to attack Dunmore, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br />
+letter of Henry to, recommending Frazer, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;<br />
+thanked by Virginia convention, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;<br />
+doubts Henry&#8217;s fitness to command in the field, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;<br />
+his defeats in 1776, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;<br />
+congratulates Henry on his election as governor, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;<br />
+warns him against British raids, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span>
+letter of Carter to, sneering at Henry, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;<br />
+receives extraordinary powers from Congress, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;<br />
+called a dictator in 1781, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;<br />
+surprises Hessians at Trenton, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;<br />
+his situation in 1777, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;<br />
+embarrassed by Henry&#8217;s sending Walker to observe the army, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;<br />
+letter of Henry to, on military situation in Virginia, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br />
+his movements in 1777-1778, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;<br />
+Conway cabal formed against, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;<br />
+attacked in anonymous letter to Henry, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;<br />
+receives two letters of warning from Henry on the subject, <a href="#Page_245">245-248</a>;<br />
+his grateful replies to Henry&#8217;s letters, <a href="#Page_248">248-250</a>;<br />
+describes Dr. Rush as author of the anonymous letter, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;<br />
+describes other members of cabal, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;<br />
+his deep friendship for Henry, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;<br />
+letter of Henry to, describing Indian troubles, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;<br />
+repeatedly praises Henry&#8217;s activity and assistance, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>;<br />
+considered as possible dictator in 1781, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;<br />
+asks Henry&#8217;s advice concerning shares in canal companies, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>;<br />
+receives Henry&#8217;s replies, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;<br />
+told by Madison of Henry&#8217;s change of opinion relative to strengthening the Confederation, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;<br />
+sends copy of new Constitution to Henry, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;<br />
+his reply, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>;<br />
+assured that Henry will not prevent a convention in Virginia, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>;<br />
+not in Virginia ratifying convention, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;<br />
+grieved by Henry&#8217;s persistent opposition, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>;<br />
+letters of Madison to, on Henry&#8217;s opposition to Constitution, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;<br />
+rejoices that Henry will submit, yet fears his opposition, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;<br />
+his administration at first criticised then approved by Henry, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>;<br />
+reconciled to Henry by Lee, <a href="#Page_399">399-401</a>;<br />
+expresses unabated regard for him, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>;<br />
+receives Henry&#8217;s warm reply, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>;<br />
+offers Henry secretaryship of state, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>;<br />
+offers him the chief-justiceship, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>;<br />
+appointed to command provisional army, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>;<br />
+appeals to Henry to leave retirement to combat Virginia Democratic party, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Webster, Daniel, his interview with Jefferson concerning Henry, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+White, Rev. Alexander, brings suit for damages after annulling of option law, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+William and Mary College, studies of Jefferson at, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Williams, John, clerk of Baptist convention in Virginia, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Wilson, James, member of second Continental Congress, on committees, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Winston, William, uncle of Patrick Henry, his eloquence, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Winston, &mdash;&mdash;, judges murder case, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Winstons of Virginia, kinsmen of Patrick Henry, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br />
+their characteristics, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Wirt, William, biographer of Henry, accepts Jefferson&#8217;s statements of his illiteracy, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br />
+also his statements of his failure to gain a living as a lawyer, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;<br />
+and his ignorance of law, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s speech in the Parsons&#8217; Cause, <a href="#Page_48">48-52</a>;<br />
+describes him as, in consequence of Stamp Act debate, the idol of Virginia, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+accepts Jefferson&#8217;s statement of Henry&#8217;s ignorance of law, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br />
+says Henry was author of draft of address rejected by Congress, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br />
+error of his statement, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br />
+his whole treatment of Henry&#8217;s part in Congress untrustworthy, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;<br />
+describes him as a mere declaimer, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;<br />
+his mythical description of Henry&#8217;s opening speech, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br />
+describes his insignificance after the opening day, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br />
+his error due to taking Jefferson&#8217;s account, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;<br />
+his version of Henry&#8217;s militia speech considered by some apocryphal, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;<br />
+question of its genuineness, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;<br />
+accepts Jefferson&#8217;s story of a projected dictatorship, but doubts Henry&#8217;s connection, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;<br />
+accepts a similar story for 1781, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;<br />
+considers Virginia bar the finest in United States, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>;<br />
+describes Henry&#8217;s method of argument, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>;<br />
+<span class="pgnm"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span>
+gives false account of Henry&#8217;s religious views, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Witherspoon, John, at first Continental Congress, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br />
+instructor of Madison, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Woodford, General William, commands Virginia troops in the field to exclusion of Henry, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;<br />
+ignores him in his reports, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+defeats Dunmore at Great Bridge, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+permits Rowe of North Carolina to supersede himself, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;<br />
+his officers, however, prefer Henry, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;<br />
+letter of Pendleton to, on Henry&#8217;s unfitness to command, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.
+</p>
+<p class="indx2">
+Wythe, George, one of Henry&#8217;s legal examiners, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;<br />
+on committee to protest to England against Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;<br />
+believes submission necessary, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br />
+opposes Henry&#8217;s resolves, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br />
+loses leadership to Henry, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;<br />
+prominent at Virginia bar, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br />
+leader of conservatives, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br />
+in convention of 1776, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;<br />
+favors ratification of federal Constitution, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Young, Captain H., testimony concerning a proposed dictatorship in 1781, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="indx2">
+Zane, Isaac, on committee for arming Virginia militia, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<p><br /><br /></p><hr class="thirty" /><p><br /><br /></p>
+<p class="adverts center hspr fh1">AMERICAN MEN OF<br />
+LETTERS</p>
+
+
+<p class="adverts center">Biographies of our most eminent American Authors, written by
+men who are themselves prominent in the field of letters.</p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1"><i>The writers of these biographies are themselves Americans, generally familiar
+with the surroundings in which their subjects lived and the conditions under which
+their work was done. Hence the volumes are peculiar for the rare combination of
+critical judgment with sympathetic understanding. Collectively, the series offers
+a biographical history of American Literature.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. By <span class="smcap">John Bigelow.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">J. FENIMORE COOPER. By <span class="smcap">T. R. Lounsbury.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. By <span class="smcap">Edward Cary.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">RALPH WALDO EMERSON. By <span class="smcap">Oliver Wendell Holmes.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By <span class="smcap">John Bach McMaster.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. <span class="smcap">By George E. Woodberry.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">WASHINGTON IRVING. By <span class="smcap">Charles Dudley Warner.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">SIDNEY LANIER. By <span class="smcap">Edwin Mims.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. By <span class="smcap">Ferris Greenslet.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. By <span class="smcap">T. W. Higginson.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. By <span class="smcap">Ferris Greenslet.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">FRANCIS PARKMAN. By <span class="smcap">H. D. Sedgwick.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">EDGAR ALLAN POE. By <span class="smcap">George E. Woodberry.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. By <span class="smcap">Rollo Ogden.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS. By <span class="smcap">William P. Trent.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">NOAH WEBSTER. By <span class="smcap">Horace E. Scudder.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">WALT WHITMAN. By <span class="smcap">Bliss Perry.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. By <span class="smcap">Geo. R. Carpenter.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. By <span class="smcap">Henry A. Beers.</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="adverts center"><br /><i>Other titles to be added.</i><br /></p>
+
+
+<p class="adverts center fh2"><br />HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /></p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p><hr class="thirty" /><p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="adtitle">
+<p class="hspr novert fh1">AMERICAN</p>
+<p class="hspr fh1 novert right">COMMONWEALTHS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="adverts center">Volumes devoted to such States of the Union as have a striking
+political, social, or economic history.</p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1"><i>The books which form this series are scholarly and readable individually;
+collectively, the series, when completed, will present a history of the nation, setting
+forth in lucid and vigorous style the varieties of government and of social life to
+be found in the various commonwealths included in the federal union.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+CALIFORNIA. By <span class="smcap"> Josiah Royce.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+CONNECTICUT. By <span class="smcap"> Alexander Johnston.</span> (Revised Ed.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+INDIANA. By <span class="smcap">J. P. Dunn, Jr</span> (Revised Edition.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+KANSAS. By <span class="smcap">Leverett W. Spring.</span> (Revised Edition.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+KENTUCKY. By <span class="smcap"> Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+LOUISIANA. By <span class="smcap"> Albert Phelps.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+MARYLAND. By <span class="smcap">William Hand Browne.</span> (Revised Ed.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+MICHIGAN. By <span class="smcap">Thomas M. Cooley.</span> (Revised Edition.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+MINNESOTA. By <span class="smcap">Wm. W. Folwell.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+MISSOURI. By <span class="smcap">Lucien Carr.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+NEW HAMPSHIRE. By <span class="smcap">Frank B. Sanborn.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+NEW YORK. By <span class="smcap">Ellis H. Roberts.</span> 2 vols. (Revised Ed.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+OHIO. By <span class="smcap">Rufus King.</span> (Revised Edition.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+RHODE ISLAND. By <span class="smcap">Irving B. Richman.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+TEXAS. By <span class="smcap">George P. Garrison.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+VERMONT. By <span class="smcap">Rowland E. Robinson.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+VIRGINIA. By <span class="smcap">John Esten Cooke.</span> (Revised Edition.)</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+WISCONSIN. By <span class="smcap">Reuben Gold Thwaites.</span></p>
+
+<p class="adverts center"><br /><i>In preparation</i><br /></p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+GEORGIA. By <span class="smcap">Ulrich B. Phillips.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+ILLINOIS. By <span class="smcap">John H. Finley.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+IOWA. By <span class="smcap">Albert Shaw.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+MASSACHUSETTS. By <span class="smcap">Edward Channing.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+NEW JERSEY. By <span class="smcap">Austin Scott.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+OREGON. By <span class="smcap">F. H. Hodder.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+PENNSYLVANIA. By <span class="smcap">Talcott Williams.</span></p>
+
+<p class="adverts center fh2"><br />HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /></p>
+
+
+<p><br /><br /></p><hr class="thirty" /><p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="adverts center hspr fh1">AMERICAN STATESMEN</p>
+
+<p class="adverts center">Biographies of Men famous in the Political History of the United
+States. Edited by John T. Morse, Jr.</p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1"><i>Separately they are interesting and entertaining biographies of our most eminent
+public men; as a series they are especially remarkable as constituting a
+history of American politics and policies more complete and more useful for instruction
+and reference than any that I am aware of.</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hon. John W. Griggs</span>,
+Ex-United States Attorney-General.</p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By <span class="smcap">John T. Morse, Jr.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+SAMUEL ADAMS. By <span class="smcap">James K. Hosmer.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+PATRICK HENRY. By <span class="smcap">Moses Coit Tyler.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+GEORGE WASHINGTON. By <span class="smcap">Henry Cabot Lodge.</span> 2 volumes.</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JOHN ADAMS. By <span class="smcap">John T. Morse, Jr.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+ALEXANDER HAMILTON. By <span class="smcap">Henry Cabot Lodge.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. By <span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JOHN JAY. By <span class="smcap">George Pellew.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JOHN MARSHALL. By <span class="smcap">Allan B. Magruder.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+THOMAS JEFFERSON. By <span class="smcap">John T. Morse, Jr.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JAMES MADISON. By <span class="smcap">Sydney Howard Gay.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+ALBERT GALLATIN. By <span class="smcap">John Austin Stevens.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JAMES MONROE. By <span class="smcap">D. C. Gilman.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. By <span class="smcap">John T. Morse, Jr.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JOHN RANDOLPH. By <span class="smcap">Henry Adams.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+ANDREW JACKSON. By <span class="smcap">W. G. Sumner.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+MARTIN VAN BUREN. By <span class="smcap">Edward W. Shepard.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+HENRY CLAY. By <span class="smcap">Carl Schurz.</span> 2 volumes.</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+DANIEL WEBSTER. By <span class="smcap">Henry Cabot Lodge.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JOHN C. CALHOUN. By <span class="smcap">Dr. H. Von Holst.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+THOMAS H. BENTON. By <span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+LEWIS CASS. By <span class="smcap">Andrew C. McLaughlin.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By <span class="smcap">John T. Morse, Jr.</span> 2 volumes.</p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+WILLIAM H. SEWARD. By <span class="smcap">Thornton K. Lothrop.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+SALMON P. CHASE. By <span class="smcap">Albert Bushnell Hart.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. By <span class="smcap">C. F. Adams, Jr.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+CHARLES SUMNER. By <span class="smcap">Moorfield Storey.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+THADDEUS STEVENS. By <span class="smcap">Samuel W. McCall.</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="adverts center"><br /><i>SECOND SERIES</i><br /></p>
+
+<p class="adverts center">Biographies of men particularly influential in the recent Political History of the
+Nation.</p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1"><i>This second series is intended to supplement the original list of American
+Statesmen by the addition of the names of men who have helped to make the history
+of the United States since the Civil War.</i></p>
+
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JAMES G. BLAINE. By <span class="smcap">Edward Stanwood.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+JOHN SHERMAN. By <span class="smcap">Theodore E. Burton.</span></p>
+<p class="adverts indx1 novert">
+ULYSSES S. GRANT. By <span class="smcap">Samuel W. McCall.</span> In preparation.</p>
+
+
+<p class="adverts center"><br /><i>Other interesting additions to the list to be made in the future.</i><br /></p>
+
+<p class="adverts center fh2"><br />HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<h2>Transcriber&#8217;s Note:</h2>
+
+<p>Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling have been retained as they
+appear in the original book. Only the following possible misprints
+have been changed for this etext:</p>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page iv</span>PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.<br />U.S.A changed to U.S.A.</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page xi</span>LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS CITED IN THIS BOOK 424<br />added to Table of Contents</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 28</span>being a needy dependent<br />dependant changed to dependent</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 40</span>Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 508, 509.<br />comma added between 508 and 509</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 145</span>What would they have?<br />what changed to What</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 268</span>opportunity of deliberating upon<br />opportuity changed to opportunity</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 278</span>General Greene at Guilford, in North Carolina<br />Guildford changed to Guilford</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 284</span>Furthermore, as soon as possible after breakfast<br />Futhermore changed to Furthermore</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 351</span>expedients common on such occasions<br />occassions changed to occasions</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 383</span>embarrassments was not due alone<br />embarassments changed to embarrassments</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 420</span>mass of unwhipped hyperboles<br />hyberbole changed to hyperbole</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 432</span>Breckenridge, ----,<br />Breckinridge changed to Breckenridge</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 442</span>Absence of self-consciousness<br />conciousness changed to consciousness</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 442</span>Holt, James, on committee of Virginia convention<br />Virgia changed to Virginia</p></div>
+
+<div class="action"><p><span class="pageno">Page 449</span>Randolph, John, of Roanoke<br />Roanoake change to Roanoke</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PATRICK HENRY***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Patrick Henry, by Moses Coit Tyler
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Patrick Henry
+
+
+Author: Moses Coit Tyler
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2009  [eBook #29368]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PATRICK HENRY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+American Statesmen
+
+PATRICK HENRY
+
+by
+
+MOSES COIT TYLER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston and New York
+Houghton Mifflin Company
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+Copyright, 1887, by Moses Coit Tyler
+Copyright, 1898, by Moses Coit Tyler And Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
+Copyright, 1915, by Jeannette G. Tyler
+
+The Riverside Press
+Cambridge . Massachusetts
+Printed in the U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In this book I have tried to embody the chief results derived from a
+study of all the materials known to me, in print and in manuscript,
+relating to Patrick Henry,--many of these materials being now used for
+the first time in any formal presentation of his life.
+
+Notwithstanding the great popular interest attaching to the name of
+Patrick Henry, he has hitherto been the subject of but one memoir
+founded on original investigation, and that, of course, is the Life
+by William Wirt. When it is considered, however, that Wirt's book was
+finished as long ago as the year 1817,--before the time had fairly
+come for the publication of the correspondence, diaries, personal
+memoranda, and official records of every sort, illustrating the great
+period covered by Patrick Henry's career,--it will be easy to infer
+something as to the quantity and the value of those printed materials
+bearing upon the subject, which are now to be had by us, but which
+were not within the reach of Wirt. Accordingly, in his lack of much
+of the detailed testimony that then lay buried in inaccessible
+documents, Wirt had to trust largely to the somewhat imaginative
+traditions concerning Patrick Henry which he found floating in the
+air of Virginia; and especially to the supposed recollections of old
+people,--recollections which, in this case, were nearly always vague,
+not always disinterested, often inaccurate, and generally made up of
+emotional impressions rather than of facts. Any one who will take the
+trouble to ascertain the enormous disadvantages under which Wirt
+wrote, and which, as we now know, gave him great discouragement, will
+be inclined to applaud him for making so good a book, rather than to
+blame him for not making a better one.
+
+It is proper for me to state that, besides the copious printed
+materials now within reach, I have been able to make use of a large
+number of manuscripts relating to my subject. Of these may be
+specified a document, belonging to Cornell University, written by a
+great-grandson of Patrick Henry, the late Rev. Edward Fontaine, and
+giving, among other things, several new anecdotes of the great orator,
+as told to the writer by his own father, Colonel Patrick Henry
+Fontaine, who was much with Patrick Henry during the later years of
+his life. I may add that, through the kindness of the Hon. William
+Wirt Henry of Richmond, I have had access to the manuscripts which
+were collected by Wirt for the purposes of his book, but were only in
+part used by him. With unstinted generosity, Mr. Henry likewise placed
+in my hands all the papers relating to his illustrious grandfather,
+which, during the past thirty years or more, he has succeeded in
+bringing together, either from different branches of the family, or
+from other sources. A portion of the manuscripts thus accumulated by
+him consists of copies of the letters, now preserved in the Department
+of State, written by Patrick Henry, chiefly while governor of
+Virginia, to General Washington, to the president of Congress, to
+Virginia's delegation in Congress, and to the Board of War.
+
+In the very front of this book, therefore, I record my grateful
+acknowledgments to Mr. William Wirt Henry; acknowledgments not alone
+for the sort of generosity of which I have just spoken, but for
+another sort, also, which is still more rare, and which I cannot so
+easily describe,--his perfect delicacy, while promoting my more
+difficult researches by his invaluable help, in never once encumbering
+that help with the least effort to hamper my judgment, or to sway it
+from the natural conclusions to which my studies might lead.
+
+Finally, it gives me pleasure to mention that, in the preparation of
+this book, I have received courteous assistance from Mr. Theodore F.
+Dwight and Mr. S. M. Hamilton of the library of the Department of
+State; from the Rev. Professor W. M. Hughes, of Hobart College; and
+from the Rev. Stephen H. Synnott, rector of St. John's, Ithaca.
+
+                                                     M. C. T.
+
+CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 3 June, 1887.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO REVISED EDITION
+
+
+I have gladly used the opportunity afforded by a new edition of this
+book to give the text a minute revision from beginning to end, and to
+make numerous changes both in its substance and in its form.
+
+During the eleven years that have passed since it first came from the
+press, considerable additions have been made to our documentary
+materials for the period covered by it, the most important for our
+purpose being the publication, for the first time, of the
+correspondence and the speeches of Patrick Henry and of George Mason,
+the former with a life, in three volumes, by William Wirt Henry, the
+latter also with a life, in two volumes, by Kate Mason Rowland.
+Besides procuring for my own pages whatever benefit I could draw from
+these texts, I have tried, while turning over very frequently the
+writings of Patrick Henry's contemporaries, to be always on the watch
+for the means of correcting any mistakes I may have made concerning
+him, whether as to fact or as to opinion.
+
+In this work of rectification I have likewise been aided by
+suggestions from many persons, of whom I would particularly mention
+the Right Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., D. D., Bishop of North
+Carolina, and Mr. William Wirt Henry.
+
+                                                     M. C. T.
+
+CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 31 March, 1898
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAP.                                                PAGE
+      I. EARLY YEARS                                        1
+     II. WAS HE ILLITERATE?                                10
+    III. BECOMES A LAWYER                                  22
+     IV. A CELEBRATED CASE                                 36
+      V. FIRST TRIUMPHS AT THE CAPITAL                     56
+     VI. CONSEQUENCES                                      77
+    VII. STEADY WORK                                       90
+   VIII. IN THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS                101
+     IX. "AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT"                       128
+      X. THE RAPE OF THE GUNPOWDER                        153
+     XI. IN CONGRESS AND IN CAMP                          168
+    XII. INDEPENDENCE                                     189
+   XIII. FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA          214
+    XIV. GOVERNOR A SECOND TIME                           240
+     XV. THIRD YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP                   257
+    XVI. AT HOME AND IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES            271
+   XVII. SHALL THE CONFEDERATION BE MADE STRONGER?        298
+  XVIII. THE BATTLE IN VIRGINIA OVER THE NEW CONSTITUTION 313
+    XIX. THE AFTER-FIGHT FOR AMENDMENTS                   339
+     XX. LAST LABORS AT THE BAR                           357
+    XXI. IN RETIREMENT                                    382
+   XXII. LAST DAYS                                        407
+         LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS CITED IN THIS BOOK     424
+         INDEX                                            431
+
+
+
+
+PATRICK HENRY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EARLY YEARS
+
+
+On the evening of October 7, 1732, that merry Old Virginian, Colonel
+William Byrd of Westover, having just finished a journey through King
+William County for the inspection of his estates, was conducted, for
+his night's lodging, to the house of a blooming widow, Mistress Sarah
+Syme, in the county of Hanover. This lady, at first supposing her guest
+to be some new suitor for her lately disengaged affections, "put on a
+Gravity that becomes a Weed;" but so soon as she learned her mistake
+and the name of her distinguished visitor, she "brighten'd up into an
+unusual cheerfulness and Serenity. She was a portly, handsome Dame, of
+the Family of Esau, and seem'd not to pine too much for the Death of
+her Husband, who was of the Family of the Saracens.... This widow is a
+person of a lively & cheerful Conversation, with much less Reserve than
+most of her Countrywomen. It becomes her very well, and sets off her
+other agreeable Qualities to Advantage. We tost off a Bottle of honest
+Port, which we relisht with a broil'd Chicken. At Nine I retir'd to my
+Devotions, And then Slept so Sound that Fancy itself was Stupify'd,
+else I shou'd have dreamt of my most obliging Landlady." The next day
+being Sunday, "the courteous Widow invited me to rest myself there that
+good day, and go to Church with Her, but I excus'd myself by telling
+her she wou'd certainly spoil my Devotion. Then she civilly entreated
+me to make her House my Home whenever I visited my Plantations, which
+made me bow low, and thank her very kindly."[1]
+
+Not very long after that notable visit, the sprightly widow gave her
+hand in marriage to a young Scotchman of good family, John Henry, of
+Aberdeen, a protege and probably a kinsman of her former husband; and
+continuing to reside on her estate of Studley, in the county of
+Hanover, she became, on May 29, 1736, the mother of Patrick Henry.
+
+Through the lineage of both his parents, this child had some claim to
+an inheritance of brains. The father, a man of firm and sound
+intellect, had been liberally educated in Scotland; among the country
+gentlemen of his neighborhood in Virginia, he was held in high esteem
+for superior intelligence and character, as is shown by the positions
+he long held of county surveyor, colonel of his regiment, and
+presiding judge of the county court; while he could number among his
+near kinsmen at home several persons of eminence as divines, orators,
+or men of letters,--such as his uncle, William Robertson, minister of
+Borthwick in Mid Lothian and afterward of the Old Greyfriars' Church
+in Edinburgh; his cousin, David Henry, the successor of Edward Cave in
+the management of the "Gentleman's Magazine;" and especially his
+cousin, William Robertson, principal of the University of Edinburgh,
+and author of the "History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V."
+Moreover, among the later paternal relatives of Patrick Henry may be
+mentioned one person of oratorical and forensic genius very brilliant
+and in quality not unlike his own. Patrick Henry's father was second
+cousin to that beautiful Eleanor Syme of Edinburgh, who, in 1777,
+became the wife of Henry Brougham of Brougham Hall, Westmoreland.
+Their eldest son was Lord Brougham, who was thus the third cousin of
+Patrick Henry. To some it will perhaps seem not a mere caprice of
+ingenuity to discover in the fiery, eccentric, and truculent eloquence
+of the great English advocate and parliamentary orator a family
+likeness to that of his renowned American kinsman; or to find in the
+fierceness of the champion of Queen Caroline against George IV., and
+of English anti-slavery reform and of English parliamentary reform
+against aristocratic and commercial selfishness, the same bitter and
+eager radicalism that burned in the blood of him who, on this side of
+the Atlantic, was, in popular oratory, the great champion of the
+colonies against George III., and afterward of the political autonomy
+of the State of Virginia against the all-dominating centralization
+which he saw coiled up in the projected Constitution of the United
+States.[2]
+
+Those, however, who knew the mother of Patrick Henry, and her family,
+the Winstons, were accustomed to think that it was from her side of
+the house that he derived the most characteristic traits not only of
+his genius, but of his disposition. The Winstons of Virginia were of
+Welsh stock; a family marked by vivacity of spirit, conversational
+talent, a lyric and dramatic turn, a gift for music and for eloquent
+speech, at the same time by a fondness for country life, for
+inartificial pleasures, for fishing and hunting, for the solitude and
+the unkempt charms of nature. It was said, too, of the Winstons that
+their talents were in excess of their ambition or of their energy, and
+were not brought into use except in a fitful way, and under the
+stimulus of some outward and passing occasion. They seem to have
+belonged to that very considerable class of persons in this world of
+whom more might have been made. Especially much talk used to be heard,
+among old men in Virginia, of Patrick Henry's uncle, his mother's own
+brother, William Winston, as having a gift of eloquence dazzling and
+wondrous like Patrick's, nay, as himself unsurpassed in oratory among
+all the great speakers of Virginia except by Patrick himself.[3]
+
+The system of education prevailing in Virginia during Patrick Henry's
+early years was extremely simple. It consisted of an almost entire
+lack of public schools, mitigated by the sporadic and irregular
+exercise of domestic tuition. Those who could afford to import
+instruction into their homes got it, if they desired; those who could
+not, generally went without. As to the youthful Patrick, he and
+education never took kindly to each other. From nearly all quarters
+the testimony is to this effect,--that he was an indolent, dreamy,
+frolicsome creature, with a mortal enmity to books, supplemented by a
+passionate regard for fishing-rods and shot-guns; disorderly in dress,
+slouching, vagrant, unambitious; a roamer in woods, a loiterer on
+river-banks; having more tastes and aspirations in common with
+trappers and frontiersmen than with the toilers of civilized life;
+giving no hint nor token, by word or act, of the possession of any
+intellectual gift that could raise him above mediocrity, or even up to
+it.
+
+During the first ten years of his life, he seems to have made, at a
+small school in the neighborhood, some small and reluctant progress
+into the mysteries of reading, writing, and arithmetic; whereupon his
+father took personal charge of the matter, and conducted his further
+education at home, along with that of other children, being aided in
+the task by the very competent help of a brother, the Rev. Patrick
+Henry, rector of St. Paul's parish, in Hanover, and apparently a good
+Scotch classicist. In this way our Patrick acquired some knowledge of
+Latin and Greek, and rather more knowledge of mathematics,--the latter
+being the only branch of book-learning for which, in those days, he
+showed the least liking. However, under such circumstances, with
+little real discipline, doubtless, and amid plentiful interruptions,
+the process of ostensible education went forward with the young man;
+and even this came to an end by the time that he was fifteen years
+old.
+
+At that age, he was duly graduated from the domestic schoolroom into
+the shop of a country tradesman hard by. After an apprenticeship there
+of a single year, his father set him up in trade, joining with him in
+the conduct of a country store his elder brother, William, a youth
+more indolent, if possible, as well as more disorderly and
+uncommercial, than Patrick himself. One year of this odd partnership
+brought the petty concern to its inevitable fate. Just one year after
+that, having attained the ripe age of eighteen, and being then
+entirely out of employment, and equally out of money, Patrick rounded
+out his embarrassments, and gave symmetry to them, as it were, by
+getting married,--and that to a young woman quite as impecunious as
+himself. The name of this damsel was Sarah Shelton; her father being a
+small farmer, and afterward a small tavern-keeper in the neighborhood.
+In the very rashness and absurdity of this proceeding on the part of
+these two interesting young paupers, irresistibly smitten with each
+other's charms, and mutually resolved to defy their own helplessness
+by doubling it, there seems to have been a sort of semi-ludicrous
+pathos which constituted an irresistible call for help.
+
+The parents on both sides heard the call, and by their joint efforts
+soon established the young couple on a little farm near at hand, from
+which, by their own toil, reenforced by that of half a dozen slaves,
+they were expected to extort a living. This experiment, the success of
+which depended on exactly those qualities which Patrick did not then
+possess,--industry, order, sharp calculation, persistence,--turned out
+as might have been predicted. At the end of two years he made a forced
+sale of some of his slaves, and invested the proceeds in the stock of
+a country store once more. But as he had now proved himself to be a
+bad farmer, and a still worse merchant, it is not easy to divine by
+what subtle process of reasoning he had been able to conclude that
+there would be any improvement in his circumstances by getting out of
+agriculture and back into merchandise.
+
+When he undertook this last venture he was still but a youth of
+twenty. By the time that he was twenty-three, that is, by the autumn
+of 1759, he had become convinced that his little store was to prove
+for him merely a consumer of capital and a producer of bad debts; and
+in view of the necessity of soon closing it, he had ample excuse for
+taking into consideration what he should do next. Already was he the
+happy father of sundry small children, with the most trustworthy
+prospect of a steady enlargement and multiplication of his paternal
+honors. Surely, to a man of twenty-three, a husband and a father, who,
+from the age of fifteen, had been engaged in a series of enterprises
+to gain his livelihood, and had perfectly failed in every one of them,
+the question of his future means of subsistence must have presented
+itself as a subject of no little pertinence, not to say urgency.
+However, at that time Patrick seems to have been a young fellow of
+superabounding health and of inextinguishable spirits, and even in
+that crisis of his life he was able to deal gayly with its problems.
+In that very year, 1759, Thomas Jefferson, then a lad of sixteen, and
+on his way to the College of William and Mary, happened to spend the
+Christmas holidays at the house of Colonel Nathan Dandridge, in
+Hanover, and there first met Patrick Henry. Long afterward, recalling
+these days, Jefferson furnished this picture of him:--
+
+     "Mr. Henry had, a little before, broken up his store, or
+     rather it had broken him up; but his misfortunes were not to
+     be traced either in his countenance or conduct." "During the
+     festivity of the season I met him in society every day, and
+     we became well acquainted, although I was much his
+     junior.... His manners had something of coarseness in them.
+     His passion was music, dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled
+     in the last, and it attached every one to him."[4]
+
+Shortly after Jefferson left those hilarious scenes for the somewhat
+more restrained festivities of the little college at Williamsburg,
+Patrick succeeded in settling in his own mind what he was going to do
+next. He could not dig, so it seemed, neither could he traffic, but
+perhaps he could talk. Why not get a living by his tongue? Why not be
+a lawyer?
+
+But before we follow him through the gates of that superb
+profession,--gates which, after some preliminary creaking of the
+hinges, threw open to him the broad pathway to wealth, renown,
+unbounded influence,--let us stop a moment longer on the outside, and
+get a more distinct idea, if we can, of his real intellectual outfit
+for the career on which he was about to enter.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Byrd Manuscripts_, ii. 79, 80.
+
+[2] I have from private sources information that Brougham was aware of
+his relationship to Patrick Henry, and that in recognition of it he
+showed marked attentions to a grand-nephew of Patrick Henry, the late
+W. C. Preston, of South Carolina, when the latter was in England.
+Moreover, in his _Life and Times_, i. 17, 18, Brougham declares that
+he derived from his maternal ancestors the qualities which lifted him
+above the mediocrity that had always attached to his ancestors on the
+paternal side.
+
+[3] Wirt, 3.
+
+[4] In a letter to Wirt, in 1815, _Life of Henry_, 14, 15; also
+_Writings of Jefferson_, vi. 487, 488, where the letter is given,
+apparently, from the first draft.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+WAS HE ILLITERATE?
+
+
+Concerning the quality and extent of Patrick Henry's early education,
+it is perhaps impossible now to speak with entire confidence. On the
+one hand there seems to have been a tendency, in his own time and
+since, to overstate his lack of education, and this partly, it may be,
+from a certain instinctive fascination which one finds in pointing to
+so dramatic a contrast as that between the sway which the great orator
+wielded over the minds of other men and the untrained vigor and
+illiterate spontaneity of his own mind. Then, too, it must be admitted
+that, whatever early education Patrick Henry may have received, he
+did, in certain companies and at certain periods of his life, rather
+too perfectly conceal it under an uncouth garb and manner, and under a
+pronunciation which, to say the least, was archaic and provincial.
+Jefferson told Daniel Webster that Patrick Henry's "pronunciation was
+vulgar and vicious," although, as Jefferson adds, this "was forgotten
+while he was speaking."[5] Governor John Page "used to relate, on the
+testimony of his own ears," that Patrick Henry would speak of "the
+yearth," and of "men's naiteral parts being improved by larnin';"[6]
+while Spencer Roane mentions his pronunciation of China as
+"Cheena."[7] All this, however, it should be noted, does not prove
+illiteracy. If, indeed, such was his ordinary speech, and not, as some
+have suggested, a manner adopted on particular occasions for the
+purpose of identifying himself with the mass of his hearers, the fact
+is evidence merely that he retained through his mature life, on the
+one hand, some relics of an old-fashioned good usage, and, on the
+other, some traces of the brogue of the district in which he was born,
+just as Edmund Pendleton used to say "scaicely" for scarcely, and as
+John Taylor, of Caroline, would say "bare" for bar; just as Thomas
+Chalmers always retained the brogue of Fifeshire, and Thomas Carlyle
+that of Ecclefechan. Certainly a brogue can never be elegant, but as
+it has many times coexisted with very high intellectual cultivation,
+its existence in Patrick Henry does not prove him to have been
+uncultivated.
+
+Then, too, it must be remembered that he himself had a habit of
+depreciating his own acquaintance with books, and his own dependence
+on them. He did this, it would seem, partly from a consciousness that
+it would only increase his hold on the sympathy and support of the
+mass of the people of Virginia if they should regard him as absolutely
+one of themselves, and in no sense raised above them by artificial
+advantages. Moreover, this habit of self-depreciation would be brought
+into play when he was in conversation with such professed devourers of
+books as John Adams and Jefferson, compared with whom he might very
+properly feel an unfeigned conviction that he was no reader at all,--a
+conviction in which they would be quite likely to agree with him, and
+which they would be very likely to express. Thus, John Adams mentions
+that, in the first intimacy of their friendship begun at the Congress
+of 1774, the Virginian orator, at his lodgings, confessed one night
+that, for himself, he had "had no public education;" that at fifteen
+he had "read Virgil and Livy," but that he had "not looked into a
+Latin book since."[8] Upon Jefferson, who of course knew Henry far
+longer and far more closely, the impression of his disconnection from
+books seems to have been even more decided, especially if we may
+accept the testimony of Jefferson's old age, when his memory had taken
+to much stumbling, and his imagination even more to extravagance than
+in his earlier life. Said Jefferson, in 1824, of his ancient friend:
+"He was a man of very little knowledge of any sort. He read nothing,
+and had no books."[9]
+
+On the other hand, there are certain facts concerning Henry's early
+education and intellectual habits which may be regarded as pretty
+well established. Before the age of ten, at a petty neighborhood
+school, he had got started upon the three primary steps of knowledge.
+Then, from ten to fifteen, whatever may have been his own irregularity
+and disinclination, he was member of a home school, under the
+immediate training of his father and his uncle, both of them good
+Scotch classical scholars, and one of them at least a proficient in
+mathematics. No doubt the human mind, especially in its best estate of
+juvenile vigor and frivolity, has remarkable aptitude for the
+repulsion of unwelcome knowledge; but it can hardly be said that even
+Patrick Henry's gift in that direction could have prevented his
+becoming, under two such masters, tolerably well grounded in Latin, if
+not in Greek, or that the person who at fifteen is able to read Virgil
+and Livy, no matter what may be his subsequent neglect of Latin
+authors, is not already imbued with the essential and indestructible
+rudiments of the best intellectual culture.
+
+It is this early initiation, on the basis of a drill in Latin, into
+the art and mystery of expression, which Patrick Henry received from
+masters so competent and so deeply interested in him, which helps us
+to understand a certain trait of his, which puzzled Jefferson, and
+which, without this clue, would certainly be inexplicable. From his
+first appearance as a speaker to the end of his days, he showed
+himself to be something more than a declaimer,--indeed, an adept in
+language. "I have been often astonished," said Jefferson, "at his
+command of proper language; how he obtained the knowledge of it I
+never could find out, as he read little, and conversed little with
+educated men."[10] It is true, probably, that we have no perfect
+report of any speech he ever made; but even through the obvious
+imperfections of his reporters there always gleams a certain
+superiority in diction,--a mastery of the logic and potency of fitting
+words; such a mastery as genius alone, without special training,
+cannot account for. Furthermore, we have in the letters of his which
+survive, and which of course were generally spontaneous and quite
+unstudied effusions, absolutely authentic and literal examples of his
+ordinary use of words. Some of these letters will be found in the
+following pages. Even as manuscripts, I should insist that the letters
+of Patrick Henry are witnesses to the fact and quality of real
+intellectual cultivation: these are not the manuscripts of an
+uneducated person. In penmanship, punctuation, spelling, syntax, they
+are, upon the whole, rather better than the letters of most of the
+great actors in our Revolution. But, aside from the mere mechanics of
+written speech, there is in the diction of Patrick Henry's letters the
+nameless felicity which, even with great natural endowments, is only
+communicable by genuine literary culture in some form. Where did
+Patrick Henry get such literary culture? The question can be answered
+only by pointing to that painful drill in Latin which the book-hating
+boy suffered under his uncle and his father, when, to his anguish,
+Virgil and Livy detained him anon from the true joys of existence.
+
+Wirt seems to have satisfied himself, on evidence carefully gathered
+from persons who were contemporaries of Patrick Henry, that the latter
+had received in his youth no mean classical education; but, in the
+final revision of his book for publication, Wirt abated his statements
+on that subject, in deference to the somewhat vehement assertions of
+Jefferson. It may be that, in its present lessened form, Wirt's
+account of the matter is the more correct one; but this is the proper
+place in which to mention one bit of direct testimony upon the
+subject, which, probably, was not known to Wirt. Patrick Henry is said
+to have told his eldest grandson, Colonel Patrick Henry Fontaine, that
+he was instructed by his uncle "not only in the catechism, but in the
+Greek and Latin classics."[11] It may help us to realize something of
+the moral stamina entering into the training which the unfledged
+orator thus got that, as he related, his uncle taught him these maxims
+of conduct: "To be true and just in all my dealings. To bear no malice
+nor hatred in my heart. To keep my hands from picking and stealing.
+Not to covet other men's goods; but to learn and labor truly to get my
+own living, and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it
+shall please God to call me."[12]
+
+Under such a teacher Patrick Henry was so thoroughly grounded, at
+least in Latin and Greek grammar, that when, long afterward, his
+eldest grandson was a student in Hampden-Sidney College, the latter
+found "his grandfather's examinations of his progress in Greek and
+Latin" so rigorous that he dreaded them "much more than he did his
+recitations to his professors."[13] Colonel Fontaine also states that
+he was present when a certain French visitor, who did not speak
+English, was introduced to Governor Henry, who did not speak French.
+During the war of the Revolution and just afterwards a similar
+embarrassment was not infrequent here in the case of our public men,
+among whom the study of French had been very uncommon; and for many of
+them the old colonial habit of fitting boys for college by training
+them to the colloquial use of Latin proved to be a great convenience.
+Colonel Fontaine's anecdote implies, what is altogether probable, that
+Patrick Henry's early drill in Latin had included the ordinary
+colloquial use of it; for he says that in the case of the visitor in
+question his grandfather was able, by means of his early stock of
+Latin words, to carry on the conversation in that language.[14]
+
+This anecdote, implying Patrick Henry's ability to express himself
+in Latin, I give for what it may be worth. Some will think it
+incredible, and that impression will be further increased by the
+fact that Colonel Fontaine names Albert Gallatin as the visitor
+with whom, on account of his ignorance of English, the conversation
+was thus carried on in Latin. This, of course, must be a mistake;
+for, at the time of his first visit to Virginia, Gallatin could
+speak English very well, so well, in fact, that he went to Virginia
+expressly as English interpreter to a French gentleman who could not
+speak our language.[15] However, as, during all that period,
+Governor Henry had many foreign visitors, Colonel Fontaine, in his
+subsequent account of that particular visitor, might easily have
+misplaced the name without thereby discrediting the substance of his
+narrative. Indeed, the substance of his narrative, namely, that he,
+Colonel Fontaine, did actually witness, in the case of some foreign
+visitor, such an exhibition of his grandfather's good early training
+in Latin, cannot be rejected without an impeachment of the veracity
+of the narrator, or at least of that of his son, who has recorded
+the alleged incident. Of course, if that narrative be accepted as
+substantially true, it will be necessary to conclude that the
+Jeffersonian tradition of Patrick Henry's illiteracy is, at any
+rate, far too highly tinted.
+
+Thus far we have been dealing with the question of Patrick Henry's
+education down to the time of his leaving school, at the age of
+fifteen. It was not until nine years afterward that he began the study
+of the law. What is the intellectual record of these nine years? It is
+obvious that they were years unfavorable to systematic training of
+any sort, or to any regulated acquisition of knowledge. During all
+that time in his life, as we now look back upon it, he has for us the
+aspect of some lawless, unkempt genius, in untoward circumstances,
+groping in the dark, not without wild joy, towards his inconceivable,
+true vocation; set to tasks for which he was grotesquely unfit;
+blundering on from misfortune to misfortune, with an overflow of
+unemployed energy and vivacity that swept him often into rough fun,
+into great gusts of innocent riot and horseplay; withal borne along,
+for many days together, by the mysterious undercurrents of his nature,
+into that realm of reverie where the soul feeds on immortal fruit and
+communes with unseen associates, the body meanwhile being left to the
+semblance of idleness; of all which the man himself might have given
+this valid justification:--
+
+      "I loafe and invite my soul,
+  I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass."
+
+Nevertheless, these nine years of groping, blundering, and seeming
+idleness were not without their influence on his intellectual
+improvement even through direct contact with books. While still a boy
+in his teens, and put prematurely to uncongenial attempts at
+shopkeeping and farmkeeping, he at any rate made the great discovery
+that in books and in the gathering of knowledge from books could be
+found solace and entertainment; in short, he then acquired a taste for
+reading. No one pretends that Patrick Henry ever became a bookish
+person. From the first and always the habit of his mind was that of
+direct action upon every subject that he had to deal with, through his
+own reflection, and along the broad primary lines of common sense.
+There is never in his thought anything subtle or recondite,--no mental
+movement through the media of books; but there is good evidence for
+saying that this bewildered and undeveloped youth, drifting about in
+chaos, did in those days actually get a taste for reading, and that he
+never lost it. The books which he first read are vaguely described as
+"a few light and elegant authors,"[16] probably in English essays and
+fiction. As the years passed and the boy's mind matured, he rose to
+more serious books. He became fond of geography and of history, and he
+pushed his readings, especially, into the history of Greece and of
+Rome. He was particularly fascinated by Livy, which he read in the
+English translation; and then it was, as he himself related it to
+Judge Hugh Nelson, that he made the rule to read Livy through "once at
+least in every year during the early part of his life."[17] He read
+also, it is apparent, the history of England and of the English
+colonies in America, and especially of his own colony; for the latter
+finding, no doubt, in Beverley and in the grave and noble pages of
+Stith, and especially in the colonial charters given by Stith, much
+material for those incisive opinions which he so early formed as to
+the rights of the colonies, and as to the barriers to be thrown up
+against the encroaching authority of the mother country.
+
+There is much contemporaneous evidence to show that Patrick Henry was
+throughout life a deeply religious person. It certainly speaks well
+for his intellectual fibre, as well as for his spiritual tendencies,
+that his favorite book, during the larger part of his life, was
+"Butler's Analogy," which was first published in the very year in
+which he was born. It is possible that even during these years of his
+early manhood he had begun his enduring intimacy with that robust
+book. Moreover, we can hardly err in saying that he had then also
+become a steady reader of the English Bible, the diction of which is
+stamped upon his style as unmistakably as it is upon that of the elder
+Pitt.
+
+Such, I think it may fairly be said, was Patrick Henry when, at the
+age of twenty-four, having failed in every other pursuit, he turned
+for bread to the profession of the law. There is no evidence that
+either he or any other mortal man was aware of the extraordinary gifts
+that lay within him for success in that career. Not a scholar surely,
+not even a considerable miscellaneous reader, he yet had the basis of
+a good education; he had the habit of reading over and over again a
+few of the best books; he had a good memory; he had an intellect
+strong to grasp the great commanding features of any subject; he had a
+fondness for the study of human nature, and singular proficiency in
+that branch of science; he had quick and warm sympathies, particularly
+with persons in trouble,--an invincible propensity to take sides with
+the under-dog in any fight. Through a long experience in offhand talk
+with the men whom he had thus far chiefly known in his little
+provincial world,--with an occasional clergyman, pedagogue, or
+legislator, small planters and small traders, sportsmen, loafers,
+slaves and the drivers of slaves, and, more than all, those bucolic
+Solons of old Virginia, the good-humored, illiterate, thriftless
+Caucasian consumers of tobacco and whiskey, who, cordially consenting
+that all the hard work of the world should be done by the children of
+Ham, were thus left free to commune together in endless debate on the
+tavern porch or on the shady side of the country store,--young Patrick
+had learned somewhat of the lawyer's art of putting things; he could
+make men laugh, could make them serious, could set fire to their
+enthusiasms. What more he might do with such gifts nobody seems to
+have guessed; very likely few gave it any thought at all. In that
+rugged but munificent profession at whose outward gates he then
+proceeded to knock, it was altogether improbable that he would burden
+himself with much more of its erudition than was really necessary for
+a successful general practice in Virginia in his time, or that he
+would permanently content himself with less.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[6] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 20.
+
+[7] MS.
+
+[8] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 396.
+
+[9] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[10] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[11] MS.
+
+[12] MS.
+
+[13] MS.
+
+[14] MS.
+
+[15] Henry Adams, _Life of Gallatin_, 59, 60.
+
+[16] Wirt, 9.
+
+[17] Wirt, 13. This is the passage on which Jefferson, in his extreme
+old age, made the characteristically inaccurate comment: "His
+biographer says, 'He read Plutarch every year.' I doubt if he ever
+read a volume of it in his life." Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+BECOMES A LAWYER
+
+
+Some time in the early spring of 1760, Thomas Jefferson, then a lad in
+the College of William and Mary, was surprised by the arrival in
+Williamsburg of his jovial acquaintance, Patrick Henry, and still more
+by the announcement of the latter that, in the brief interval since
+their merrymakings together at Hanover, he had found time to study
+law, and had actually come up to the capital to seek an admission to
+the bar.
+
+In the accounts that we have from Henry's contemporaries respecting
+the length of time during which he was engaged in preparing for his
+legal examination, there are certain discrepancies,--some of these
+accounts saying that it was nine months, others six or eight months,
+others six weeks. Henry himself told a friend that his original study
+of the law lasted only one month, and consisted in the reading of Coke
+upon Littleton and of the Virginia laws.[18]
+
+Concerning the encounter of this obscure and raw country youth with
+the accomplished men who examined him as to his fitness to receive a
+license to practice law, there are three primary narratives,--two by
+Jefferson, and a third by Judge John Tyler. In his famous talk with
+Daniel Webster and the Ticknors at Monticello, in 1824, Jefferson
+said: "There were four examiners,--Wythe, Pendleton, Peyton Randolph,
+and John Randolph. Wythe and Pendleton at once rejected his
+application; the two Randolphs were, by his importunity, prevailed
+upon to sign the license; and, having obtained their signatures, he
+again applied to Pendleton, and after much entreaty, and many promises
+of future study, succeeded also in obtaining his. He then turned out
+for a practicing lawyer."[19]
+
+In a memorandum[20] prepared nearly ten years before the conversation
+just mentioned, Jefferson described somewhat differently the incidents
+of Henry's examination:--
+
+     "Two of the examiners, however, Peyton and John Randolph,
+     men of great facility of temper, signed his license with as
+     much reluctance as their dispositions would permit them to
+     show. Mr. Wythe absolutely refused. Rob. C. Nicholas refused
+     also at first; but on repeated importunities, and promises
+     of future reading, he signed. These facts I had afterwards
+     from the gentlemen themselves; the two Randolphs
+     acknowledging he was very ignorant of law, but that they
+     perceived him to be a young man of genius, and did not doubt
+     he would soon qualify himself."[21]
+
+Long afterward, and when all this anxious affair had become for
+Patrick Henry an amusing thing of the past, he himself, in the
+confidence of an affectionate friendship, seems to have related one
+remarkable phase of his experience to Judge John Tyler, by whom it was
+given to Wirt. One of the examiners was "Mr. John Randolph, who was
+afterwards the king's attorney-general for the colony,--a gentleman of
+the most courtly elegance of person and manners, a polished wit, and a
+profound lawyer. At first, he was so much shocked by Mr. Henry's very
+ungainly figure and address, that he refused to examine him.
+Understanding, however, that he had already obtained two signatures,
+he entered with manifest reluctance on the business. A very short time
+was sufficient to satisfy him of the erroneous conclusion which he had
+drawn from the exterior of the candidate. With evident marks of
+increasing surprise (produced, no doubt, by the peculiar texture and
+strength of Mr. Henry's style, and the boldness and originality of his
+combinations), he continued the examination for several hours;
+interrogating the candidate, not on the principles of municipal law,
+in which he no doubt soon discovered his deficiency, but on the laws
+of nature and of nations, on the policy of the feudal system, and on
+general history, which last he found to be his stronghold. During the
+very short portion of the examination which was devoted to the common
+law, Mr. Randolph dissented, or affected to dissent, from one of Mr.
+Henry's answers, and called upon him to assign the reasons of his
+opinion. This produced an argument, and Mr. Randolph now played off on
+him the same arts which he himself had so often practiced on his
+country customers; drawing him out by questions, endeavoring to puzzle
+him by subtleties, assailing him with declamation, and watching
+continually the defensive operations of his mind. After a considerable
+discussion, he said, 'You defend your opinions well, sir; but now to
+the law and to the testimony.' Hereupon he carried him to his office,
+and, opening the authorities, said to him: 'Behold the force of
+natural reason! You have never seen these books, nor this principle of
+the law; yet you are right and I am wrong. And from the lesson which
+you have given me (you must excuse me for saying it) I will never
+trust to appearances again. Mr. Henry, if your industry be only half
+equal to your genius, I augur that you will do well, and become an
+ornament and an honor to your profession.'"[22]
+
+After such an ordeal at Williamsburg, the young man must have ridden
+back to Hanover with some natural elation over his success, but that
+elation not a little tempered by serious reflection upon his own
+deficiencies as a lawyer, and by an honest purpose to correct them.
+Certainly nearly everything that was dear to him in life must then
+have risen before his eyes, and have incited him to industry in the
+further study of his profession.
+
+At that time, his father-in-law had become the keeper of a tavern in
+Hanover; and for the next two or three years, while he was rapidly
+making his way as a general practitioner of the law in that
+neighborhood, Patrick seems occasionally to have been a visitor at
+this tavern. It was in this way, undoubtedly, that he sometimes acted
+as host, especially in the absence of his father-in-law,--receiving
+all comers, and providing for their entertainment; and it was from
+this circumstance that the tradition arose, as Jefferson bluntly
+expressed it, that Patrick Henry "was originally a barkeeper,"[23] or,
+as it is more vivaciously expressed by a recent writer, that "for
+three years" after getting his license to practice law, he "tended
+travelers and drew corks."[24]
+
+These statements, however, are but an exaggeration of the fact that,
+whenever visiting at the tavern of his father-in-law, he had the good
+sense and the good feeling to lend a hand, in case of need, in the
+business of the house; and that no more than this is true may be
+proved, not only from the written testimony of survivors,[25] who knew
+him in those days, but from the contemporary records, carefully kept
+by himself, of his own earliest business as a lawyer. These records
+show that, almost at once after receiving his license to practice
+law, he must have been fully occupied with the appropriate business of
+his profession.
+
+It is quite apparent, also, from the evidence just referred to, that
+the common history of his life has, in another particular, done great
+injustice to this period of it. According to the recollection of one
+old man who outlived him, "he was not distinguished at the bar for
+near four years."[26] Wirt himself, relying upon the statements of
+several survivors of Patrick Henry, speaks of his lingering "in the
+background for three years," and of "the profits of his practice" as
+being so inadequate for the supply of even "the necessaries of life,"
+that "for the first two or three years" he was living with his family
+in dependence upon his father-in-law.[27] Fortunately, however, we are
+not left in this case to grope our way toward the truth amid the ruins
+of the confused and decaying memories of old men. Since Wirt's time,
+there have come to light the fee-books of Patrick Henry, carefully and
+neatly kept by him from the beginning of his practice, and covering
+nearly his entire professional life down to old age.[28] The first
+entry in these books is for September, 1760; and from that date onward
+to the end of the year 1763,--by which time he had suddenly sprung
+into great professional prominence by his speech in "the Parsons'
+Cause,"--he is found to have charged fees in 1185 suits, besides many
+other fees for the preparation of legal papers out of court. From
+about the time of his speech in "the Parsons' Cause," as his fee-books
+show, his practice became enormous, and so continued to the end of his
+days, excepting when public duties or broken health compelled him to
+turn away clients. Thus it is apparent that, while the young lawyer
+did not attain anything more than local professional reputation until
+his speech against the parsons, he did acquire a very considerable
+practice almost immediately after his admission to the bar. Moreover,
+so far from his being a needy dependent on his father-in-law for the
+first two or three years, the same quiet records show that his
+practice enabled him, even during that early period, to assist his
+father-in-law by an important advance of money.
+
+The fiction that Patrick Henry, during the first three or four years
+of his nominal career as a lawyer, was a briefless barrister,--earning
+his living at the bar of a tavern rather than at the bar of
+justice,--is the very least of those disparaging myths, which, through
+the frailty of human memory and the bitterness of partisan ill-will,
+have been permitted to settle upon his reputation. Certainly, no one
+would think it discreditable, or even surprising, if Patrick Henry,
+while still a very young lawyer, should have had little or no
+practice, provided only that, when the practice did come, the young
+lawyer had shown himself to have been a good one. It is precisely
+this honor which, during the past seventy years, has been denied him.
+Upon the evidence thus far most prominently before the public, one is
+compelled to conceive of him as having been destitute of nearly all
+the qualifications of a good lawyer, excepting those which give
+success with juries, particularly in criminal practice: he is
+represented as ignorant of the law, indolent, and grossly negligent of
+business,--with nothing, in fact, to give him the least success in the
+profession but an abnormal and quite unaccountable gift of persuasion
+through speech.
+
+Referring to this period of his life, Wirt says:--
+
+     "Of the science of law he knew almost nothing; of the
+     practical part he was so wholly ignorant that he was not
+     only unable to draw a declaration or a plea, but incapable,
+     it is said, of the most common or simple business of his
+     profession, even of the mode of ordering a suit, giving a
+     notice, or making a motion in court."[29]
+
+This conception of Henry's professional character, to which Wirt seems
+to have come reluctantly, was founded, as is now evident, on the
+long-suppressed memorandum of Jefferson, who therein states that,
+after failing in merchandise, Patrick "turned his views to the law,
+for the acquisition or practice of which however, he was too lazy.
+Whenever the courts were closed for the winter session, he would make
+up a party of poor hunters of his neighborhood, would go off with
+them to the piny woods of Fluvanna, and pass weeks in hunting deer, of
+which he was passionately fond, sleeping under a tent before a fire,
+wearing the same shirt the whole time, and covering all the dirt of
+his dress with a hunting-shirt. He never undertook to draw pleadings,
+if he could avoid it, or to manage that part of a cause, and very
+unwillingly engaged but as an assistant to speak in the cause. And the
+fee was an indispensable preliminary, observing to the applicant that
+he kept no accounts, never putting pen to paper, which was true."[30]
+
+The last sentence of this passage, in which Jefferson declares that it
+was true that Henry "kept no accounts, never putting pen to paper,"
+is, of course, now utterly set aside by the discovery of the precious
+fee-books; and these orderly and circumstantial records almost as
+completely annihilate the trustworthiness of all the rest of the
+passage. Let us consider, for example, Jefferson's statement that for
+the acquisition of the law, or for the practice of it, Henry was too
+lazy, and that much of the time between the sessions of the courts was
+passed by him in deer-hunting in the woods. Confining ourselves to the
+first three and a half years of his actual practice, in which, by the
+record, his practice was the smallest that he ever had, it is not easy
+for one to understand how a mere novice in the profession, and one so
+perfectly ignorant of its most rudimental forms, could have earned,
+during that brief period, the fees which he charged in 1185 suits, and
+in the preparation of many legal papers out of court, and still have
+been seriously addicted to laziness. Indeed, if so much legal business
+could have been transacted within three years and a half, by a lawyer
+who, besides being young and incompetent, was also extremely lazy, and
+greatly preferred to go off to the woods and hunt for deer while his
+clients were left to hunt in vain for him, it becomes an interesting
+question just how much legal business we ought to expect to be done by
+a young lawyer who was not incompetent, was not lazy, and had no
+inordinate fondness for deer-hunting. It happens that young Thomas
+Jefferson himself was just such a lawyer. He began practice exactly
+seven years after Patrick Henry, and at precisely the same time of
+life, though under external circumstances far more favorable. As a
+proof of his uncommon zeal and success in the profession, his
+biographer, Randall, cites from Jefferson's fee-books the number of
+cases in which he was employed until he was finally drawn off from the
+law into political life. Oddly enough, for the first four years of his
+practice, the cases registered by Jefferson[31] number, in all, but
+504. It should be mentioned that this number, as it includes only
+Jefferson's cases in the General Court, does not indicate all the
+business done by him during those first four years; and yet, even with
+this allowance, we are left standing rather helpless before the
+problem presented by the fact that this competent and diligent young
+lawyer--whom, forsooth, the rustling leaves of the forest could never
+for once entice from the rustle of the leaves of his law-books--did
+nevertheless transact, during his own first four years of practice,
+probably less than one half as much business as seems to have been
+done during a somewhat shorter space of time by our poor, ignorant,
+indolent, slovenly, client-shunning and forest-haunting Patrick.
+
+But, if Jefferson's charge of professional indolence and neglect on
+the part of his early friend fares rather ill when tested by those
+minute and plodding records of his professional employments which were
+kept by Patrick Henry, a fate not much more prosperous overtakes
+Jefferson's other charge,--that of professional incompetence. It is
+more than intimated by Jefferson that, even had Patrick been disposed
+to engage in a general law practice, he did not know enough to do so
+successfully by reason of his ignorance of the most ordinary legal
+principles and legal forms. But the intellectual embarrassment which
+one experiences in trying to accept this view of Patrick Henry arises
+from the simple fact that these incorrigible fee-books show that it
+was precisely this general law practice that he did engage in, both in
+court and out of court; a practice only a small portion of which was
+criminal, the larger part of it consisting of the ordinary suits in
+country litigation; a practice which certainly involved the drawing
+of pleadings, and the preparation of many sorts of legal papers; a
+practice, moreover, which he seems to have acquired with extraordinary
+rapidity, and to have maintained with increasing success as long as he
+cared for it. These are items of history which are likely to burden
+the ordinary reader with no little perplexity,--a perplexity the
+elements of which are thus modestly stated by a living grandson of
+Patrick Henry: "How he acquired or retained a practice so large and
+continually increasing, so perfectly unfit for it as Mr. Jefferson
+represents him, I am at a loss to understand."[32]
+
+As we go further in the study of this man's life, we shall have before
+us ample materials for dealing still further and still more definitely
+with the subject of his professional character, as that character
+itself became developed and matured. Meantime, however, the evidence
+already in view seems quite enough to enable us to form a tolerably
+clear notion of the sort of lawyer he was down to the end of 1763,
+which may be regarded as the period of his novitiate at the bar. It is
+perfectly evident that, at the time of his admission to the bar, he
+knew very little of the law, either in its principles or in its forms:
+he knew no more than could have been learned by a young man of genius
+in the course of four weeks in the study of Coke upon Littleton, and
+of the laws of Virginia. If, now, we are at liberty to suppose that
+his study of the law then ceased, we may accept the view of his
+professional incompetence held up by Jefferson; but precisely that is
+what we are not at liberty to suppose. All the evidence, fairly
+sifted, warrants the belief that, on his return to Hanover with his
+license to practice law, he used the next few months in the further
+study of it; and that thenceforward, just so fast as professional
+business came to his hands, he tried to qualify himself to do that
+business, and to do it so well that his clients should be inclined to
+come to him again in case of need. Patrick Henry's is not the first
+case, neither is it the last one, of a man coming to the bar miserably
+unqualified for its duties, but afterward becoming well qualified. We
+need not imagine, we do not imagine, that he ever became a man of
+great learning in the law; but we do find it impossible to believe
+that he continued to be a man of great ignorance in it. The law,
+indeed, is the one profession on earth in which such success as he is
+proved to have had, is impossible to such incompetence as he is said
+to have had. Moreover, in trying to form a just idea of Patrick Henry,
+it is never safe to forget that we have to do with a man of genius,
+and that the ways by which a man of genius reaches his results are
+necessarily his own,--are often invisible, are always somewhat
+mysterious, to the rest of us. The genius of Patrick Henry was
+powerful, intuitive, swift; by a glance of the eye he could take in
+what an ordinary man might spend hours in toiling for; his memory
+held whatever was once committed to it; all his resources were at
+instant command; his faculty for debate, his imagination, humor, tact,
+diction, elocution, were rich and exquisite; he was also a man of
+human and friendly ways, whom all men loved, and whom all men wanted
+to help; and it would not have been strange if he actually fitted
+himself for the successful practice of such law business as was then
+to be had in Virginia, and actually entered upon its successful
+practice with a quickness the exact processes of which were
+unperceived even by his nearest neighbors.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[18] Wirt, 16.
+
+[19] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 584.
+
+[20] First printed in the Philadelphia _Age_, in 1867; and again
+printed, from the original manuscript, in _The Historical Magazine_,
+August, 1867, 90-93. I quote from the latter.
+
+[21] Jefferson's memorandum, _Hist. Mag._ for August, 1867, 90.
+
+[22] Wirt, 16, 17.
+
+[23] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 584.
+
+[24] McMaster, _Hist. of U. S._ i. 489.
+
+[25] I have carefully examined this testimony, which is still in
+manuscript.
+
+[26] Judge Winston, MS.
+
+[27] Wirt, 18, 19.
+
+[28] These fee-books are now in the possession of Mr. William Wirt
+Henry, of Richmond.
+
+[29] Wirt, 18.
+
+[30] _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 93.
+
+[31] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 47, 48.
+
+[32] William Wirt Henry, _Character and Public Career of Patrick
+Henry_, 3.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A CELEBRATED CASE
+
+
+Thus Patrick Henry had been for nearly four years in the practice of
+the law, with a vigor and a success quite extraordinary, when, late in
+the year 1763, he became concerned in a case so charged with popular
+interest, and so well suited to the display of his own marvellous
+genius as an advocate, as to make both him and his case immediately
+celebrated.
+
+The side upon which he was retained happened to be the wrong
+side,--wrong both in law and in equity; having only this element of
+strength in it, namely, that by a combination of circumstances there
+were enlisted in its favor precisely those passions of the multitude
+which are the most selfish, the most blinding, and at the same time
+the most energetic. It only needed an advocate skilful enough to play
+effectively upon these passions, and a storm would be raised before
+which mere considerations of law and of equity would be swept out of
+sight.
+
+In order to understand the real issue presented by "the Parsons'
+Cause," and consequently the essential weakness of the side to the
+service of which our young lawyer was now summoned, we shall need to
+turn about and take a brief tour into the earlier history of Virginia.
+In that colony, from the beginning, the Church of England was
+established by law, and was supported, like any other institution of
+the government, by revenues derived from taxation,--taxation levied in
+this case upon nearly all persons in the colony above the age of
+sixteen years. Moreover, those local subdivisions which, in the
+Northern colonies, were called towns, in Virginia were called
+parishes; and accordingly, in the latter, the usual local officers who
+manage the public business for each civil neighborhood were called,
+not selectmen or supervisors, as at the North, but vestrymen. Among
+the functions conferred by the law upon these local officers in
+Virginia was that of hiring the rector or minister, and of paying him
+his salary; and the same authority which gave to the vestry this power
+fixed likewise the precise amount of salary which they were to pay.
+Ever since the early days of the colony, this amount had been stated,
+not in money, which hardly existed there, but in tobacco, which was
+the staple of the colony. Sometimes the market value of tobacco would
+be very low,--so low that the portion paid to the minister would yield
+a sum quite insufficient for his support; and on such occasions, prior
+to 1692, the parishes had often kindly made up for such depreciation
+by voluntarily paying an extra quantity of tobacco.[33] After 1692,
+however, for reasons which need not now be detailed, this generous
+custom seems to have disappeared. For example, from 1709 to 1714, the
+price of tobacco was so low as to make its shipment to England, in
+many instances, a positive loss to its owner; while the sale of it on
+the spot was so disadvantageous as to reduce the minister's salary to
+about L25 a year, as reckoned in the depreciated paper currency of the
+colony. Of course, during those years, the distress of the clergy was
+very great; but, whatever it may have been, they were permitted to
+bear it, without any suggestion, either from the legislature or from
+the vestries, looking toward the least addition to the quantity of
+tobacco then to be paid them. On the other hand, from 1714 to 1720,
+the price of tobacco rose considerably above the average, and did
+something towards making up to the clergy the losses which they had
+recently incurred. Then, again, from 1720 to 1724, tobacco fell to the
+low price of the former period, and of course with the same results of
+unrelieved loss to the clergy.[34] Thus, however, in the process of
+time, there had become established, in the fiscal relations of each
+vestry to its minister, a rough but obvious system of fair play. When
+the price of tobacco was down, the parson was expected to suffer the
+loss; when the price of tobacco was up, he was allowed to enjoy the
+gain. Probably it did not then occur to any one that a majority of
+the good people of Virginia could ever be brought to demand such a
+mutilation of justice as would be involved in depriving the parson of
+the occasional advantage of a very good market, and of making up for
+this by always leaving to him the undisturbed enjoyment of every
+occasional bad one. Yet it was just this mutilation of justice which,
+only a few years later, a majority of the good people of Virginia were
+actually brought to demand, and which, by the youthful genius of
+Patrick Henry, they were too well aided in effecting.
+
+Returning now from our brief tour into a period of Virginian history
+just prior to that upon which we are at present engaged, we find
+ourselves arrived at the year 1748, in which year the legislature of
+Virginia, revising all previous regulations respecting the hiring
+and paying of the clergy, passed an act, directing that every parish
+minister should "receive an annual salary of 16,000 pounds of
+tobacco, ... to be levied, assessed, collected, and paid" by the
+vestry. "And if the vestry of any parish" should "neglect or refuse
+to levy the tobacco due to the minister," they should "be liable to
+the action of the party grieved ... for all damages which he ...
+shall sustain by such refusal or neglect."[35] This act of the
+colonial legislature, having been duly approved by the king, became
+a law, and consequently was not liable to repeal or even to
+suspension except by the king's approval. Thus, at the period now
+reached, there was between every vestry and its minister a valid
+contract for the annual payment, by the former to the latter, of
+that particular quantity of tobacco,--the clergy to take their
+chances as to the market value of the product from year to year.
+
+Thus matters ran on until 1755, when, by reason of a diminished crop
+of tobacco, the legislature passed an option law,[36] virtually
+suspending for the next ten months the Act of 1748, and requiring the
+clergy, at the option of the vestries, to receive their salaries for
+that year, not in tobacco, but in the depreciated paper currency of
+the colony, at the rate of two pence for each pound of tobacco due,--a
+price somewhat below the market value of the article for that year.
+Most clearly this act, which struck an arbitrary blow at the validity
+of all contracts in Virginia, was one which exceeded the
+constitutional authority of the legislature; since it suspended,
+without the royal approval, a law which had been regularly ratified by
+the king. However, the operation of this act was shrewdly limited to
+ten months,--a period just long enough to accomplish its object, but
+too short for the royal intervention against it to be of any direct
+avail. Under these circumstances, the clergy bore their losses for
+that year with some murmuring indeed, but without any formal
+protest.[37]
+
+Just three years afterward, in 1758, the legislature, with even less
+excuse than before, passed an act[38] similar to that of 1755,--its
+force, however, being limited to twelve months. The operation of this
+act, as affecting each parish minister, may be conveyed in very few
+words. In lieu of what was due him under the law for his year's
+services, namely, 16,000 pounds of tobacco, the market value of which
+for the year in question proved to be about L400 sterling, it
+compelled him to take, in the paper money of the colony, the sum of
+about L133. To make matters still worse, while the tobacco which was
+due him was an instant and an advantageous medium of exchange
+everywhere, and especially in England whence nearly all his merchant
+supplies were obtained, this paper money that was forced upon him was
+a depreciated currency even within the colony, and absolutely
+worthless outside of it; so that the poor parson, who could never
+demand his salary for any year until six full months after its close,
+would have proffered to him, at the end, perhaps, of another six
+months, just one third of the nominal sum due him, and that in a
+species of money of no value at all except in Virginia, and even in
+Virginia of a purchasing value not exceeding that of L20 sterling in
+England.[39]
+
+Nor, in justification of such a measure, could it be truthfully said
+that there was at that time in the colony any general "dearth and
+scarcity,"[40] or any such public distress of any sort as might
+overrule the ordinary maxims of justice, and excuse, in the name of
+humanity, a merely technical violation of law. As a matter of fact,
+the only "dearth and scarcity" in Virginia that year was "confined to
+one or two counties on James River, and that entirely owing to their
+own fault;"[41] wherever there was any failure of the tobacco crop, it
+was due to the killing of the plants so early in the spring, that such
+land did not need to lie uncultivated, and in most cases was planted
+"in corn and pease, which always turned to good account;"[42] and
+although, for the whole colony, the crop of tobacco "was short in
+quantity," yet "in cash value it proved to be the best crop that
+Virginia had ever had" since the settlement of the colony.[43]
+Finally, it was by no means the welfare of the poor that "was the
+object, or the effect, of the law;" but it was "the rich planters"
+who, first selling their tobacco at about fifty shillings the hundred,
+and then paying to the clergy and others their tobacco debts at the
+rate of sixteen shillings the hundred, were "the chief gainers" by the
+act.[44]
+
+Such, then, in all its fresh and unadorned rascality, was the famous
+"option law," or "two-penny act," of 1758: an act firmly opposed, on
+its first appearance in the legislature, by a noble minority of
+honorable men; an act clearly indicating among a portion of the people
+of Virginia a survival of the old robber instincts of our Norse
+ancestors; an act having there the sort of frantic popularity that all
+laws are likely to have which give a dishonest advantage to the debtor
+class,--and in Virginia, unfortunately, on the subject of salaries due
+to the clergy, nearly all persons above sixteen years of age belonged
+to that class.[45]
+
+At the time when this act was before the legislature for
+consideration, the clergy applied for a hearing, but were refused.
+Upon its passage by the two houses, the clergy applied to the acting
+governor, hoping to obtain his disapproval of the act; but his reply
+was an unblushing avowal of his determination to pursue any course,
+right or wrong, which would bring him popular favor. They then sent
+one of their own number to England, for the purpose of soliciting the
+royal disallowance of the act. After a full hearing of both sides, the
+privy council gave it as their opinion that the clergy of Virginia had
+their "certain remedy at law;" Lord Hardwicke, in particular,
+declaring that "there was no occasion to dispute about the authority
+by which the act was passed; for that no court in the judicature
+whatever could look upon it to be law, by reason of its manifest
+injustice alone."[46] Accordingly, the royal disallowance was granted.
+Upon the arrival in Virginia of these tidings, several of the clergy
+began suits against their respective vestries, for the purpose of
+compelling them to pay the amounts then legally due upon their
+salaries for the year 1758.
+
+Of these suits, the first to come to trial was that of the Rev. Thomas
+Warrington, in the County Court of Elizabeth City. In that case, "a
+jury of his own parishioners found for him considerable damages,
+allowing on their oaths that there was above twice as much justly due
+to him as the act had granted;"[47] but "the court hindered him from
+immediately coming at the damages, by judging the act to be law, in
+which it is thought they were influenced more by the fear of giving
+offense to their superiors, than by their own opinion of the
+reasonableness of the act,--they privately professing that they
+thought the parson ought to have his right."[48]
+
+Soon afterward came to trial, in the court of King William County, the
+suit of the Rev. Alexander White, rector of St. David's parish. In
+this case, the court, instead of either sustaining or rejecting the
+disallowed act, simply shirked their responsibility, "refused to
+meddle in the matter, and insisted on leaving the whole affair to the
+jury;" who being thus freed from all judicial control, straightway
+rendered a verdict of neat and comprehensive lawlessness: "We bring in
+for the defendant."[49]
+
+It was at this stage of affairs that the court of Hanover County
+reached the case of the Rev. James Maury, rector of Fredericksville
+parish, Louisa; and the court, having before it the evidence of the
+royal disallowance of the Act of 1758, squarely "adjudged the act to
+be no law." Of course, under this decision, but one result seemed
+possible. As the court had thus rejected the validity of the act
+whereby the vestry had withheld from their parson two thirds of his
+salary for the year 1758, it only remained to summon a special jury on
+a writ of inquiry to determine the damages thus sustained by the
+parson; and as this was a very simple question of arithmetic, the
+counsel for the defendants expressed his desire to withdraw from the
+case.
+
+Such was the situation, when these defendants, having been assured by
+their counsel that all further struggle would be hopeless, turned for
+help to the enterprising young lawyer who, in that very place, had
+been for the previous three and a half years pushing his way to notice
+in his profession. To him, accordingly, they brought their cause,--a
+desperate cause, truly,--a cause already lost and abandoned by veteran
+and eminent counsel. Undoubtedly, by the ethics of his profession,
+Patrick Henry was bound to accept the retainer that was thus tendered
+him; and, undoubtedly, by the organization of his own mind, having
+once accepted that retainer, he was likely to devote to the cause no
+tepid or half-hearted service.
+
+The decision of the court, which has been referred to, was rendered at
+its November session. On the first day of the session in December, the
+order was executed for summoning a select jury "to examine whether the
+plaintiff had sustained any damages, and what."[50] Obviously, in the
+determination of these two questions, much would depend on the
+personal composition of the jury; and it is apparent that this matter
+was diligently attended to by the sheriff. His plan seems to have been
+to secure a good, honest jury of twelve adult male persons, but
+without having among them a single one of those over-scrupulous and
+intractable people who, in Virginia, at that time, were still
+technically described as gentlemen. With what delicacy and efficiency
+he managed this part of the business was thus described shortly
+afterward by the plaintiff, of course a deeply interested
+eye-witness:--
+
+     "The sheriff went into a public room full of gentlemen, and
+     told his errand. One excused himself ... as having already
+     given his opinion in a similar case. On this, ... he
+     immediately left the room, without summoning any one person
+     there. He afterwards met another gentleman ... on the green,
+     and, on saying he was not fit to serve, being a church
+     warden, he took upon himself to excuse him, too, and, as far
+     as I can learn made no further attempts to summon
+     gentlemen.... Hence he went among the vulgar herd. After he
+     had selected and set down upon his list about eight or ten
+     of these, I met him with it in his hand, and on looking over
+     it, observed to him that they were not such jurors as the
+     court had directed him to get,--being people of whom I had
+     never heard before, except one whom, I told him, he knew to
+     be a party in the cause.... Yet this man's name was not
+     erased. He was even called in court, and had he not excused
+     himself, would probably have been admitted. For I cannot
+     recollect that the court expressed either surprise or
+     dislike that a more proper jury had not been summoned. Nay,
+     though I objected against them, yet, as Patrick Henry, one
+     of the defendants' lawyers, insisted they were honest men,
+     and, therefore, unexceptionable, they were immediately
+     called to the book and sworn."[51]
+
+Having thus secured a jury that must have been reasonably
+satisfactory to the defendants, the hearing began. Two gentlemen,
+being the largest purchasers of tobacco in the county, were then sworn
+as witnesses to prove the market price of the article in 1759. By
+their testimony it was established that the price was then more than
+three times as much as had been estimated in the payment of paper
+money actually made to the plaintiff in that year. Upon this state of
+facts, "the lawyers on both sides" proceeded to display "the force and
+weight of the evidence;" after which the case was given to the jury.
+"In less than five minutes," they "brought in a verdict for the
+plaintiff,--one penny damages."[52]
+
+Just how the jury were induced, in the face of the previous judgment
+of that very court, to render this astounding verdict, has been
+described in two narratives: one by William Wirt, written about fifty
+years after the event; the other by the injured plaintiff himself, the
+Rev. James Maury, written exactly twelve days after the event. Few
+things touching the life of Patrick Henry can be more notable or more
+instructive than the contrast presented by these two narratives.
+
+On reaching the scene of action, on the 1st of December, Patrick Henry
+"found," says Wirt,--
+
+     "on the courtyard such a concourse as would have appalled
+     any other man in his situation. They were not people of the
+     county merely who were there, but visitors from all the
+     counties to a considerable distance around. The decision
+     upon the demurrer had produced a violent ferment among the
+     people, and equal exultation on the part of the clergy, who
+     attended the court in a large body, either to look down
+     opposition, or to enjoy the final triumph of this hard
+     fought contest, which they now considered as perfectly
+     secure.... Soon after the opening of the court the cause was
+     called.... The array before Mr. Henry's eyes was now most
+     fearful. On the bench sat more than twenty clergymen, the
+     most learned men in the colony.... The courthouse was
+     crowded with an overwhelming multitude, and surrounded with
+     an immense and anxious throng, who, not finding room to
+     enter, were endeavoring to listen without in the deepest
+     attention. But there was something still more awfully
+     disconcerting than all this; for in the chair of the
+     presiding magistrate sat no other person than his own
+     father. Mr. Lyons opened the cause very briefly.... And now
+     came on the first trial of Patrick Henry's strength. No one
+     had ever heard him speak,[53] and curiosity was on tiptoe.
+     He rose very awkwardly, and faltered much in his exordium.
+     The people hung their heads at so unpromising a
+     commencement; the clergy were observed to exchange sly looks
+     with each other; and his father is described as having
+     almost sunk with confusion, from his seat. But these
+     feelings were of short duration, and soon gave place to
+     others of a very different character. For now were those
+     wonderful faculties which he possessed, for the first time
+     developed; and now was first witnessed that mysterious and
+     almost supernatural transformation of appearance, which the
+     fire of his own eloquence never failed to work in him. For
+     as his mind rolled along, and began to glow from its own
+     action, all the exuviae of the clown seemed to shed
+     themselves spontaneously. His attitude, by degrees, became
+     erect and lofty. The spirit of his genius awakened all his
+     features. His countenance shone with a nobleness and
+     grandeur which it had never before exhibited. There was a
+     lightning in his eyes which seemed to rive the spectator.
+     His action became graceful, bold, and commanding; and in the
+     tones of his voice, but more especially in his emphasis,
+     there was a peculiar charm, a magic, of which any one who
+     ever heard him will speak as soon as he is named, but of
+     which no one can give any adequate description. They can
+     only say that it struck upon the ear and upon the heart, in
+     a manner which language cannot tell. Add to all these, his
+     wonder-working fancy, and the peculiar phraseology in which
+     he clothed its images: for he painted to the heart with a
+     force that almost petrified it. In the language of those who
+     heard him on this occasion, 'he made their blood run cold,
+     and their hair to rise on end.'
+
+     "It will not be difficult for any one who ever heard this
+     most extraordinary man, to believe the whole account of this
+     transaction which is given by his surviving hearers; and
+     from their account, the court house of Hanover County must
+     have exhibited, on this occasion, a scene as picturesque as
+     has been ever witnessed in real life. They say that the
+     people, whose countenance had fallen as he arose, had heard
+     but a very few sentences before they began to look up; then
+     to look at each other with surprise, as if doubting the
+     evidence of their own senses; then, attracted by some strong
+     gesture, struck by some majestic attitude, fascinated by the
+     spell of his eye, the charm of his emphasis, and the varied
+     and commanding expression of his countenance, they could
+     look away no more. In less than twenty minutes, they might
+     be seen in every part of the house, on every bench, in every
+     window, stooping forward from their stands, in death-like
+     silence; their features fixed in amazement and awe; all
+     their senses listening and riveted upon the speaker, as if
+     to catch the least strain of some heavenly visitant. The
+     mockery of the clergy was soon turned into alarm; their
+     triumph into confusion and despair; and at one burst of his
+     rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from the house
+     in precipitation and terror. As for the father, such was his
+     surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that,
+     forgetting where he was, and the character which he was
+     filling, tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks, without
+     the power or inclination to repress them.
+
+     "The jury seem to have been so completely bewildered, that
+     they lost sight not only of the Act of 1748, but that of
+     1758 also; for, thoughtless even of the admitted right of
+     the plaintiff, they had scarcely left the bar, when they
+     returned with a verdict of one penny damages. A motion was
+     made for a new trial; but the court, too, had now lost the
+     equipoise of their judgment, and overruled the motion by an
+     unanimous vote. The verdict and judgment overruling the
+     motion were followed by redoubled acclamations, from within
+     and without the house. The people, who had with difficulty
+     kept their hands off their champion from the moment of
+     closing his harangue, no sooner saw the fate of the cause
+     finally sealed, than they seized him at the bar; and in
+     spite of his own exertions, and the continued cry of order
+     from the sheriffs and the court, they bore him out of the
+     courthouse, and raising him on their shoulders, carried him
+     about the yard, in a kind of electioneering triumph."[54]
+
+At the time when Wirt wrote this rhapsody, he was unable, as he tells
+us, to procure from any quarter a rational account of the line of
+argument taken by Patrick Henry, or even of any other than a single
+topic alluded to by him in the course of his speech,--they who heard
+the speech saying "that when it was over, they felt as if they had
+just awaked from some ecstatic dream, of which they were unable to
+recall or connect the particulars."[55]
+
+There was present in that assemblage, however, at least one person who
+listened to the young orator without falling into an ecstatic dream,
+and whose senses were so well preserved to him through it all that he
+was able, a few days afterward, while the whole occasion was fresh in
+his memory, to place upon record a clear and connected version of the
+wonder-working speech. This version is to be found in a letter written
+by the plaintiff on the 12th of December, 1763, and has been brought
+to light only within recent years.
+
+After giving, for the benefit of the learned counsel by whom the cause
+was to be managed, on appeal, in the general court, a lucid and rather
+critical account of the whole proceeding, Maury adds:--
+
+     "One occurrence more, though not essential to the cause, I
+     can't help mentioning.... Mr. Henry, mentioned above (who
+     had been called in by the defendants, as we suspected, to do
+     what I some time ago told you of), after Mr. Lyons had
+     opened the cause, rose and harangued the jury for near an
+     hour. This harangue turned upon points as much out of his
+     own depth, and that of the jury, as they were foreign from
+     the purpose,--which it would be impertinent to mention here.
+     However, after he had discussed those points, he labored to
+     prove 'that the Act of 1758 had every characteristic of a
+     good law; that it was a law of general utility, and could
+     not, consistently with what he called the original compact
+     between the king and people ... be annulled.' Hence he
+     inferred, 'that a king, by disallowing acts of this salutary
+     nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated
+     into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects'
+     obedience.' He further urged 'that the only use of an
+     established church and clergy in society, is to enforce
+     obedience to civil sanctions, and the observance of those
+     which are called duties of imperfect obligation; that when a
+     clergy ceases to answer these ends, the community have no
+     further need of their ministry, and may justly strip them of
+     their appointments; that the clergy of Virginia, in this
+     particular instance of their refusing to acquiesce in the
+     law in question, had been so far from answering, that they
+     had most notoriously counteracted, those great ends of their
+     institution; that, therefore, instead of useful members of
+     the state, they ought to be considered as enemies of the
+     community; and that, in the case now before them, Mr. Maury,
+     instead of countenance, and protection, and damages, very
+     justly deserved to be punished with signal severity.' And
+     then he perorates to the following purpose, 'that excepting
+     they (the jury) were disposed to rivet the chains of bondage
+     on their own necks, he hoped they would not let slip the
+     opportunity which now offered, of making such an example of
+     him as might, hereafter, be a warning to himself and his
+     brethren, not to have the temerity, for the future, to
+     dispute the validity of such laws, authenticated by the only
+     authority which, in his conception, could give force to laws
+     for the government of this colony,--the authority of a legal
+     representative of a council, and of a kind and benevolent
+     and patriot governor.' You'll observe I do not pretend to
+     remember his words, but take this to have been the sum and
+     substance of this part of his labored oration. When he came
+     to that part of it where he undertook to assert 'that a
+     king, by annulling or disallowing acts of so salutary a
+     nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated
+     into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects'
+     obedience,' the more sober part of the audience were struck
+     with horror. Mr. Lyons called out aloud, and with an honest
+     warmth, to the Bench, 'that the gentleman had spoken
+     treason,' and expressed his astonishment, 'that their
+     worships could hear it without emotion, or any mark of
+     dissatisfaction.' At the same instant, too, amongst some
+     gentlemen in the crowd behind me, was a confused murmur of
+     'treason, treason!' Yet Mr. Henry went on in the same
+     treasonable and licentious strain, without interruption from
+     the Bench, nay, even without receiving the least exterior
+     notice of their disapprobation. One of the jury, too, was so
+     highly pleased with these doctrines, that, as I was
+     afterwards told, he every now and then gave the traitorous
+     declaimer a nod of approbation. After the court was
+     adjourned, he apologized to me for what he had said,
+     alleging that his sole view in engaging in the cause, and in
+     saying what he had, was to render himself popular. You see,
+     then, it is so clear a point in this person's opinion that
+     the ready road to popularity here is to trample under foot
+     the interests of religion, the rights of the church, and the
+     prerogatives of the crown."[56]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[33] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 12.
+
+[34] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ 316, 317.
+
+[35] Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vi. 88, 89.
+
+[36] _Ibid._ vi. 568, 569.
+
+[37] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 508, 509.
+
+[38] Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vii. 240, 241.
+
+[39] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 467, 468.
+
+[40] As was alleged in Richard Bland's _Letter to the Clergy_, 17.
+
+[41] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 467.
+
+[42] _Ibid._ i. 466.
+
+[43] _Ibid._ i. 465, 466.
+
+[44] Meade, _Old Families of Virginia_, i. 223.
+
+[45] In the account here given of these Virginia "option laws," I have
+been obliged, by lack of space, to give somewhat curtly the bald
+results of rather careful studies which I have made upon the question
+in all accessible documents of the period; and I have not been at
+liberty to state many things, on both sides of the question, which
+would be necessary to a complete discussion of the subject. For
+instance, among the motives to be mentioned for the popularity of laws
+whose chief effects were to diminish the pay of the established
+clergy, should be considered those connected with a growing dissent
+from the established church in Virginia, and particularly with the
+very human dislike which even churchmen might have to paying in the
+form of a compulsory tax what they would have cheerfully paid in the
+form of a voluntary contribution. Perhaps the best modern defense of
+these laws is by A. H. Everett, in his _Life of Henry_, 230-233; but
+his statements seem to be founded on imperfect information. Wirt,
+publishing his opinion under the responsibility of his great
+professional and official position, affirms that on the whole
+question, "the clergy had much the best of the argument." _Life of
+Henry,_ 22.
+
+[46] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 510.
+
+[47] _Ibid._ i. 513, 514.
+
+[48] _Ibid._ i. 496, 497.
+
+[49] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 497.
+
+[50] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Family_, 419.
+
+[51] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Family_, 419, 420.
+
+[52] _Ibid._ 420.
+
+[53] This cannot be true except in the sense that he had never before
+spoken to such an assemblage or in any great cause.
+
+[54] Wirt, 23-27.
+
+[55] _Ibid._ 29.
+
+[56] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Family_, 418-424, where the entire
+letter is given in print for the first time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+FIRST TRIUMPHS AT THE CAPITAL
+
+
+It is not in the least strange that the noble-minded clergyman, who
+was the plaintiff in the famous cause of the Virginia parsons, should
+have been deeply offended by the fierce and victorious eloquence of
+the young advocate on the opposite side, and should have let fall,
+with reference to him, some bitter words. Yet it could only be in a
+moment of anger that any one who knew him could ever have said of
+Patrick Henry that he was disposed "to trample under foot the
+interests of religion," or that he had any ill-will toward the church
+or its ministers. It is very likely that, in the many irritations
+growing out of a civil establishment of the church in his native
+colony, he may have shared in feelings that were not uncommon even
+among devout churchmen there; but in spite of this, then and always,
+to the very end of his life, his most sacred convictions and his
+tenderest affections seem to have been on the side of the institutions
+and ministers of Christianity, and even of Christianity in its
+historic form. Accordingly, both before and after his great speech, he
+tried to indicate to the good men whose legal claims it had become
+his professional duty to resist, that such resistance must not be
+taken by them as implying on his part any personal unkindness. To his
+uncle and namesake, the Reverend Patrick Henry, who was even then a
+plaintiff in a similar suit, and whom he had affectionately persuaded
+not to remain at the courthouse to hear the coming speech against the
+pecuniary demands of himself and his order, he said "that the clergy
+had not thought him worthy of being retained on their side," and that
+"he knew of no moral principle by which he was bound to refuse a fee
+from their adversaries."[57] So, too, the conciliatory words, which,
+after the trial, he tried to speak to the indignant plaintiff, and
+which the latter has reported in the blunt form corresponding to his
+own angry interpretation of them, after all may have borne the better
+meaning given to them by Bishop Meade, who says that Patrick Henry, in
+his apology to Maury, "pleaded as an excuse for his course, that he
+was a young lawyer, a candidate for practice and reputation, and
+therefore must make the best of his cause."[58]
+
+These genial efforts at pacification are of rather more than casual
+significance: they are indications of character. They mark a distinct
+quality of the man's nature, of which he continued to give evidence
+during the rest of his life,--a certain sweetness of spirit, which
+never deserted him through all the stern conflicts of his career. He
+was always a good fighter: never a good hater. He had the brain and
+the temperament of an advocate; his imagination and his heart always
+kindled hotly to the side that he had espoused, and with his
+imagination and his heart always went all the rest of the man; in his
+advocacy of any cause that he had thus made his own, he hesitated at
+no weapon either of offence or of defence; he struck hard blows--he
+spoke hard words--and he usually triumphed; and yet, even in the
+paroxysms of the combat, and still more so when the combat was over,
+he showed how possible it is to be a redoubtable antagonist without
+having a particle of malice.
+
+Then, too, from this first great scene in his public life, there comes
+down to us another incident that has its own story to tell. In all the
+roar of talk within and about the courthouse, after the trial was
+over, one "Mr. Cootes, merchant of James River," was heard to say that
+"he would have given a considerable sum out of his own pocket rather
+than his friend Patrick should have been guilty of a crime but little,
+if any thing, inferior to that which brought Simon Lord Lovat to the
+block,"--adding that Patrick's speech had "exceeded the most seditious
+and inflammatory harangues of the Tribunes of Old Rome."[59] Here,
+then, thus early in his career, even in this sorrowful and alarmed
+criticism on the supposed error of his speech, we find a token of that
+loving interest in him and in his personal fate, which even in those
+days began to possess the heartstrings of many a Virginian all about
+the land, and which thenceforward steadily broadened and deepened into
+a sort of popular idolization of him. The mysterious hold which
+Patrick Henry came to have upon the people of Virginia is an historic
+fact, to be recognized, even if not accounted for. He was to make
+enemies in abundance, as will appear; he was to stir up against
+himself the alarm of many thoughtful and conservative minds, the
+deadly hatred of many an old leader in colonial politics, the deadly
+envy of many a younger aspirant to public influence; he was to go on
+ruffling the plumage and upsetting the combinations of all sorts of
+good citizens, who, from time to time, in making their reckonings
+without him, kept finding that they had reckoned without their host.
+But for all that, the willingness of this worthy Mr. Cootes of James
+River to part with his money, if need be, rather than his friend
+Patrick should go far wrong, seems to be one token of the beginning of
+that deep and swelling passion of love for him that never abated among
+the mass of the people of Virginia so long as Patrick lived, and
+perhaps has never abated since.
+
+It is not hard to imagine the impulse which so astonishing a forensic
+success must have given to the professional and political career of
+the young advocate. Not only was he immediately retained by the
+defendants in all the other suits of the same kind then instituted in
+the courts of the colony, but, as his fee-books show, from that hour
+his legal practice of every sort received an enormous increase.
+Moreover, the people of Virginia, always a warm-hearted people, were
+then, to a degree almost inconceivable at the North, sensitive to
+oratory, and admirers of eloquent men. The first test by which they
+commonly ascertained the fitness of a man for public office, concerned
+his ability to make a speech; and it cannot be doubted that from the
+moment of Patrick Henry's amazing harangue in the "Parsons' Cause,"--a
+piece of oratory altogether surpassing anything ever before heard in
+Virginia,--the eyes of men began to fasten upon him as destined to
+some splendid and great part in political life.
+
+During the earlier years of his career, Williamsburg was the capital
+of the colony,--the official residence of its governor, the place of
+assemblage for its legislature and its highest courts, and, at certain
+seasons of the year, the scene of no little vice-regal and provincial
+magnificence.
+
+Thither our Patrick had gone in 1760 to get permission to be a lawyer.
+Thither he now goes once more, in 1764, to give some proof of his
+quality in the profession to which he had been reluctantly admitted,
+and to win for himself the first of a long series of triumphs at the
+colonial capital,--triumphs which gave food for wondering talk to all
+his contemporaries, and long lingered in the memories of old men. Soon
+after the assembling of the legislature, in the fall of 1764, the
+committee on privileges and elections had before them the case of
+James Littlepage, who had taken his seat as member for the county of
+Hanover, but whose right to the seat was contested, on a charge of
+bribery and corruption, by Nathaniel West Dandridge. For a day or two
+before the hearing of the case, the members of the house had "observed
+an ill-dressed young man sauntering in the lobby," apparently a
+stranger to everybody, moving "awkwardly about ... with a countenance
+of abstraction and total unconcern as to what was passing around him;"
+but who, when the committee convened to consider the case of Dandridge
+against Littlepage, at once took his place as counsel for the former.
+The members of the committee, either not catching his name or not
+recalling the association attaching to it from the scene at Hanover
+Court House nearly a twelvemonth before, were so affected by his
+rustic and ungainly appearance that they treated him with neglect and
+even with discourtesy; until, when his turn came to argue the cause of
+his client, he poured forth such a torrent of eloquence, and exhibited
+with so much force and splendor the sacredness of the suffrage and the
+importance of protecting it, that the incivility and contempt of the
+committee were turned into admiration.[60] Nevertheless, it appears
+from the journals of the House that, whatever may have been the
+admiration of the committee for the eloquence of Mr. Dandridge's
+advocate, they did not award the seat to Mr. Dandridge.
+
+Such was Patrick Henry's first contact with the legislature of
+Virginia,--a body of which he was soon to become a member, and over
+which, in spite of the social prestige, the talents, and the envious
+opposition of its old leaders, he was promptly to gain an ascendancy
+that constituted him, almost literally, the dictator of its
+proceedings, so long as he chose to hold a place in it. On the present
+occasion, having finished the somewhat obscure business that had
+brought him before the committee, it is probable that he instantly
+disappeared from the scene, not to return to it until the following
+spring, when he came back to transact business with the House itself.
+For, early in May, 1765, a vacancy having occurred in the
+representation for the county of Louisa, Patrick Henry, though not
+then a resident in that county, was elected as its member. The first
+entry to be met with in the journals, indicating his presence in the
+House, is that of his appointment, on the 20th of May, as an
+additional member of the committee for courts of justice. Between that
+date and the 1st of June, when the House was angrily dissolved by the
+governor, this young and very rural member contrived to do two or
+three quite notable things--things, in fact, so notable that they
+conveyed to the people of Virginia the tidings of the advent among
+them of a great political leader, gave an historic impulse to the
+series of measures which ended in the disruption of the British
+Empire, and set his own name a ringing through the world,--not without
+lively imputations of treason, and comforting assurances that he was
+destined to be hanged.
+
+The first of these notable things is one which incidentally throws a
+rather painful glare on the corruptions of political life in our old
+and belauded colonial days. The speaker of the House of Burgesses at
+that time was John Robinson, a man of great estate, foremost among all
+the landed aristocracy of Virginia. He had then been speaker for about
+twenty-five years; for a long time, also, he had been treasurer of the
+colony; and in the latter capacity he had been accustomed for many
+years to lend the public money, on his own private account, to his
+personal and political friends, and particularly to those of them who
+were members of the House. This profligate business had continued so
+long that Robinson had finally become a defaulter to an enormous
+amount; and in order to avert the shame and ruin of an exposure, he
+and his particular friends, just before the arrival of Patrick Henry,
+had invented a very pretty device, to be called a "public loan
+office,"--"from which monies might be lent on public account, and on
+good landed security, to individuals," and by which, as was expected,
+the debts due to Robinson on the loans which he had been granting
+might be "transferred to the public, and his deficit thus completely
+covered."[61] Accordingly, the scheme was brought forward under nearly
+every possible advantage of influential support. It was presented to
+the House and to the public as a measure eminently wise and
+beneficial. It was supported in the House by many powerful and
+honorable members who had not the remotest suspicion of the corrupt
+purpose lying at the bottom of it. Apparently it was on the point of
+adoption when, from among the members belonging to the upper counties,
+there arose this raw youth, who had only just taken his seat, and who,
+without any information respecting the secret intent of the measure,
+and equally without any disposition to let the older and statelier
+members do his thinking for him, simply attacked it, as a scheme to be
+condemned on general principles. From the door of the lobby that day
+there stood peering into the Assembly Thomas Jefferson, then a law
+student at Williamsburg, who thus had the good luck to witness the
+debut of his old comrade. "He laid open with so much energy the spirit
+of favoritism on which the proposition was founded, and the abuses to
+which it would lead, that it was crushed in its birth."[62] He
+"attacked the scheme ... in that style of bold, grand, and
+overwhelming eloquence for which he became so justly celebrated
+afterwards. He carried with him all the members of the upper
+counties, and left a minority composed merely of the aristocracy of
+the country. From this time his popularity swelled apace; and Robinson
+dying four years after, his deficit was brought to light, and
+discovered the true object of the proposition."[63]
+
+But a subject far greater than John Robinson's project for a loan
+office was then beginning to weigh on men's minds. Already were
+visible far off on the edge of the sky, the first filmy threads of a
+storm-cloud that was to grow big and angry as the years went by, and
+was to accompany a political tempest under which the British Empire
+would be torn asunder, and the whole structure of American colonial
+society wrenched from its foundations. Just one year before the time
+now reached, news had been received in Virginia that the British
+ministry had announced in parliament their purpose to introduce, at
+the next session, an act for laying certain stamp duties on the
+American colonies. Accordingly, in response to these tidings, the
+House of Burgesses, in the autumn of 1764, had taken the earliest
+opportunity to send a respectful message to the government of England,
+declaring that the proposed act would be deemed by the loyal and
+affectionate people of Virginia as an alarming violation of their
+ancient constitutional rights. This message had been elaborately drawn
+up, in the form of an address to the king, a memorial to the House of
+Lords, and a remonstrance to the Commons;[64] the writers being a
+committee composed of gentlemen prominent in the legislature, and of
+high social standing in the colony, including Landon Carter, Richard
+Henry Lee, George Wythe, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, Richard
+Bland, and even Peyton Randolph, the king's attorney-general.
+
+Meantime, to this appeal no direct answer had been returned; instead
+of which, however, was received by the House of Burgesses, in May,
+1765, about the time of Patrick Henry's accession to that body, a copy
+of the Stamp Act itself. What was to be done about it? What was to be
+done by Virginia? What was to be done by her sister colonies? Of
+course, by the passage of the Stamp Act, the whole question of
+colonial procedure on the subject had been changed. While the act was,
+even in England, merely a theme for consideration, and while the
+colonies were virtually under invitation to send thither their views
+upon the subject, it was perfectly proper for colonial pamphleteers
+and for colonial legislatures to express, in every civilized form,
+their objections to it. But all this was now over. The Stamp Act had
+been discussed; the discussion was ended; the act had been decided on;
+it had become a law. Criticism upon it now, especially by a
+legislative body, was a very different matter from what criticism upon
+it had been, even by the same body, a few months before. Then, the
+loyal legislature of Virginia had fittingly spoken out, concerning the
+contemplated act, its manly words of disapproval and of protest; but
+now that the contemplated act had become an adopted act--had become
+the law of the land--could that same legislature again speak even
+those same words, without thereby becoming disloyal,--without
+venturing a little too near the verge of sedition,--without putting
+itself into an attitude, at least, of incipient nullification
+respecting a law of the general government?
+
+It is perfectly evident that by all the old leaders of the House at
+that moment,--by Peyton Randolph, and Pendleton, and Wythe, and Bland,
+and the rest of them,--this question was answered in the negative.
+Indeed, it could be answered in no other way. Such being the case, it
+followed that, for Virginia and for all her sister colonies, an
+entirely new state of things had arisen. A most serious problem
+confronted them,--a problem involving, in fact, incalculable
+interests. On the subject of immediate concern, they had endeavored,
+freely and rightfully, to influence legislation, while that
+legislation was in process; but now that this legislation was
+accomplished, what were they to do? Were they to submit to it quietly,
+trusting to further negotiations for ultimate relief, or were they to
+reject it outright, and try to obstruct its execution? Clearly, here
+was a very great problem, a problem for statesmanship,--the best
+statesmanship anywhere to be had. Clearly this was a time, at any
+rate, for wise and experienced men to come to the front; a time, not
+for rash counsels, nor for spasmodic and isolated action on the part
+of any one colony, but for deliberate and united action on the part of
+all the colonies; a time in which all must move forward, or none. But,
+thus far, no colony had been heard from: there had not been time. Let
+Virginia wait a little. Let her make no mistake; let her not push
+forward into any ill-considered and dangerous measure; let her wait,
+at least, for some signal of thought or of purpose from her sister
+colonies. In the meanwhile, let her old and tried leaders continue to
+lead.
+
+Such, apparently, was the state of opinion in the House of Burgesses
+when, on the 29th of May, a motion was made and carried, "that the
+House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, immediately
+to consider the steps necessary to be taken in consequence of the
+resolutions of the House of Commons of Great Britain, relative to the
+charging certain stamp duties in the colonies and plantations in
+America."[65] On thus going into committee of the whole, to deliberate
+on the most difficult and appalling question that, up to that time,
+had ever come before an American legislature, the members may very
+naturally have turned in expectation to those veteran politicians and
+to those able constitutional lawyers who, for many years, had been
+accustomed to guide their deliberations, and who, especially in the
+last session, had taken charge of this very question of the Stamp
+Act. It will not be hard for us to imagine the disgust, the anger,
+possibly even the alarm, with which many may have beheld the floor now
+taken, not by Peyton Randolph, nor Richard Bland, nor George Wythe,
+nor Edmund Pendleton, but by this new and very unabashed member for
+the county of Louisa,--this rustic and clownish youth of the terrible
+tongue,--this eloquent but presumptuous stripling, who was absolutely
+without training or experience in statesmanship, and was the merest
+novice even in the forms of the House.
+
+For what precise purpose the new member had thus ventured to take the
+floor, was known at the moment of his rising by only two other
+members,--George Johnston, the member for Fairfax, and John Fleming,
+the member for Cumberland. But the measureless audacity of his
+purpose, as being nothing less than that of assuming the leadership of
+the House, and of dictating the policy of Virginia in this stupendous
+crisis of its fate, was instantly revealed to all, as he moved a
+series of resolutions, which he proceeded to read from the blank leaf
+of an old law book, and which, probably, were as follows:--
+
+     "_Whereas_, the honorable House of Commons in England have
+     of late drawn into question how far the General Assembly of
+     this colony hath power to enact laws for laying of taxes and
+     imposing duties, payable by the people of this, his
+     majesty's most ancient colony: for settling and ascertaining
+     the same to all future times, the House of Burgesses of this
+     present General Assembly have come to the following
+     resolves:--
+
+     "1. _Resolved_, That the first adventurers and settlers of
+     this, his majesty's colony and dominion, brought with them
+     and transmitted to their posterity, and all other his
+     majesty's subjects, since inhabiting in this, his majesty's
+     said colony, all the privileges, franchises, and immunities
+     that have at any time been held, enjoyed, and possessed, by
+     the people of Great Britain.
+
+     "2. _Resolved_, That by two royal charters, granted by king
+     James the First, the colonists aforesaid are declared
+     entitled to all the privileges, liberties, and immunities of
+     denizens and natural born subjects, to all intents and
+     purposes, as if they had been abiding and born within the
+     realm of England.
+
+     "3. _Resolved_, That the taxation of the people by
+     themselves or by persons chosen by themselves to represent
+     them, who can only know what taxes the people are able to
+     bear, and the easiest mode of raising them, and are equally
+     affected by such taxes themselves, is the distinguishing
+     characteristic of British freedom, and without which the
+     ancient constitution cannot subsist.
+
+     "4. _Resolved_, That his majesty's liege people of this most
+     ancient colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of
+     being thus governed by their own Assembly in the article of
+     their taxes and internal police, and that the same hath
+     never been forfeited, or any other way given up, but hath
+     been constantly recognized by the kings and people of Great
+     Britain.
+
+     "5. _Resolved_, therefore, That the General Assembly of this
+     colony have the only and sole exclusive right and power to
+     lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this
+     colony; and that every attempt to vest such power in any
+     person or persons whatsoever, other than the General
+     Assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy
+     British as well as American freedom.
+
+     "6. _Resolved_, That his majesty's liege people, the
+     inhabitants of this colony, are not bound to yield obedience
+     to any law or ordinance whatever, designed to impose any
+     taxation whatsoever upon them, other than the laws or
+     ordinances of the General Assembly aforesaid.
+
+     "7. _Resolved_, That any person who shall, by speaking or
+     writing, assert or maintain that any person or persons,
+     other than the General Assembly of this colony, have any
+     right or power to impose or lay any taxation on the people
+     here, shall be deemed an enemy to his majesty's colony."[66]
+
+No reader will find it hard to accept Jefferson's statement that the
+debate on these resolutions was "most bloody." "They were opposed by
+Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Nicholas, Wythe, and all the old members,
+whose influence in the House had till then been unbroken."[67] There
+was every reason, whether of public policy or of private feeling, why
+the old party leaders in the House should now bestir themselves, and
+combine, and put forth all their powers in debate, to check, and if
+possible to rout and extinguish, this self-conceited but most
+dangerous young man. "Many threats were uttered, and much abuse cast
+on me," said Patrick himself, long afterward. Logic, learning,
+eloquence, denunciation, derision, intimidation, were poured from all
+sides of the House upon the head of the presumptuous intruder; but
+alone, or almost alone, he confronted and defeated all his assailants.
+"Torrents of sublime eloquence from Mr. Henry, backed by the solid
+reasoning of Johnston, prevailed."[68]
+
+It was sometime in the course of this tremendous fight, extending
+through the 29th and 30th of May, that the incident occurred which has
+long been familiar among the anecdotes of the Revolution, and which
+may be here recalled as a reminiscence not only of his own consummate
+mastery of the situation, but of a most dramatic scene in an
+epoch-making debate. Reaching the climax of a passage of fearful
+invective, on the injustice and the impolicy of the Stamp Act, he said
+in tones of thrilling solemnity, "Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the
+First, his Cromwell; and George the Third ['Treason,' shouted the
+speaker. 'Treason,' 'treason,' rose from all sides of the room. The
+orator paused in stately defiance till these rude exclamations were
+ended, and then, rearing himself with a look and bearing of still
+prouder and fiercer determination, he so closed the sentence as to
+baffle his accusers, without in the least flinching from his own
+position,]--and George the Third may profit by their example. If this
+be treason, make the most of it."[69]
+
+Of this memorable struggle nearly all other details have perished with
+the men who took part in it. After the House, in committee of the
+whole, had, on the 29th of May, spent sufficient time in the
+discussion, "Mr. Speaker resumed the chair," says the Journal, "and
+Mr. Attorney reported that the said committee had had the said matter
+under consideration, and had come to several resolutions thereon,
+which he was ready to deliver in at the table. Ordered that the said
+report be received to-morrow." It is probable that on the morrow the
+battle was renewed with even greater fierceness than before. The
+Journal proceeds: "May 30. Mr. Attorney, from the committee of the
+whole House, reported according to order, that the committee had
+considered the steps necessary to be taken in consequence of the
+resolutions of the House of Commons of Great Britain, relative to the
+charging certain stamp duties in the colonies and plantations in
+America, and that they had come to several resolutions thereon, which
+he read in his place and then delivered at the table; when they were
+again twice read, and agreed to by the House, with some amendments."
+Then were passed by the House, probably, the first five resolutions as
+offered by Henry in the committee, but "passed," as he himself
+afterward wrote, "by a very small majority, perhaps of one or two
+only."
+
+Upon this final discomfiture of the old leaders, one of their number,
+Peyton Randolph, swept angrily out of the house, and brushing past
+young Thomas Jefferson, who was standing in the door of the lobby, he
+swore, with a great oath, that he "would have given five hundred
+guineas for a single vote."[70] On the afternoon of that day, Patrick
+Henry, knowing that the session was practically ended, and that his
+own work in it was done, started for his home. He was seen "passing
+along Duke of Gloucester Street, ... wearing buckskin breeches, his
+saddle bags on his arm, leading a lean horse, and chatting with Paul
+Carrington, who walked by his side."[71]
+
+That was on the 30th of May. The next morning, the terrible Patrick
+being at last quite out of the way, those veteran lawyers and
+politicians of the House, who had found this young protagonist alone
+too much for them all put together, made bold to undo the worst part
+of the work he had done the day before; they expunged the fifth
+resolution. In that mutilated form, without the preamble, and with the
+last three of the original resolutions omitted, the first four then
+remained on the journal of the House as the final expression of its
+official opinion. Meantime, on the wings of the wind, and on the eager
+tongues of men, had been borne, past recall, far northward and far
+southward, the fiery unchastised words of nearly the entire series, to
+kindle in all the colonies a great flame of dauntless purpose;[72]
+while Patrick himself, perhaps then only half conscious of the fateful
+work he had just been doing, travelled homeward along the dusty
+highway, at once the jolliest, the most popular, and the least
+pretentious man in all Virginia, certainly its greatest orator,
+possibly even its greatest statesman.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[57] Wirt, 24.
+
+[58] Meade, _Old Families and Churches of Va._ i. 220.
+
+[59] Maury, _Mem. of a Huguenot Fam._ 423.
+
+[60] Wirt, 39-41.
+
+[61] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[62] Jefferson's _Works_, vi. 365.
+
+[63] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[64] These documents are given in full in the Appendix to Wirt's _Life
+of Henry_, as Note A.
+
+[65] _Jour. Va. House of Burgesses._
+
+[66] Of this famous series of resolutions, the first five are here
+given precisely as they are given in Patrick Henry's own certified
+copy still existing in manuscript, and in the possession of Mr. W. W.
+Henry; but as that copy evidently contains only that portion of the
+series which was reported from the committee of the whole, and was
+adopted by the House, I have here printed also what I believe to have
+been the preamble, and the last two resolutions in the series as first
+drawn and introduced by Patrick Henry. For this portion of the series,
+I depend on the copy printed in the _Boston Gazette_, for July 1,
+1765, and reprinted in R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 180
+note. In Wirt's _Life of Henry_, 56-59, is a transcript of the first
+five resolutions as given in Henry's handwriting: but it is inaccurate
+in two places.
+
+[67] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[68] Mem. by Jefferson, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91. Henry was aided
+in this debate by Robert Munford, also, and by John Fleming: W. W.
+Henry, _Life, Corr. and Speeches of P. Henry_, i. 82_n._
+
+[69] For this splendid anecdote we are indebted to Judge John Tyler,
+who, then a youth of eighteen, listened to the speech as he stood in
+the lobby by the side of Jefferson. Edmund Randolph, in his _History
+of Virginia_, still in manuscript, has a somewhat different version of
+the language of the orator, as follows: "'Caesar had his Brutus,
+Charles the First, his Cromwell, and George the Third'--'Treason,
+Sir,' exclaimed the Speaker; to which Mr. Henry instantly replied,
+'and George the Third, may he never have either.'" The version
+furnished by John Tyler is, of course, the more effective and
+characteristic; and as Tyler actually heard the speech, and as,
+moreover, his account is confirmed by Jefferson who also heard it, his
+account can hardly be set aside by that of Randolph who did not hear
+it, and was indeed but a boy of twelve at the time it was made. L. G.
+Tyler, _Letters and Times of the Tylers_, i. 56; Wirt, 65.
+
+[70] Mem. by Jefferson, _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 91.
+
+[71] Campbell, _Hist. Va._ 542.
+
+[72] The subject of the Virginia resolutions presents several
+difficulties which I have not thought it best to discuss in the text,
+where I have given merely the results of my own rather careful and
+repeated study of the question. In brief, my conclusion is this: That
+the series as given above, consisting of a preamble and seven
+resolutions, is the series as originally prepared by Patrick Henry,
+and introduced by him on Wednesday, May 29, in the committee of the
+whole, and probably passed by the committee on that day; that at once,
+without waiting for the action of the House upon the subject, copies
+of the series got abroad, and were soon published in the newspapers of
+the several colonies, as though actually adopted by the House; that on
+Thursday, May 30, the series was cut down in the House by rejection of
+the preamble and the resolutions 6 and 7, and by the adoption of only
+the first five as given above; that on the day after that, when
+Patrick Henry had gone home, the House still further cut down the
+series by expunging the resolution which is above numbered as 5: and
+that, many years afterwards, when Patrick Henry came to prepare a copy
+for transmission to posterity, he gave the resolutions just as they
+stood when adopted by the House on May 30, and not as they stood when
+originally introduced by him in committee of the whole on the day
+before, nor as they stood when mutilated by the cowardly act of the
+House on the day after. It will be noticed, therefore, that the
+so-called resolutions of Virginia, which were actually published and
+known to the colonies in 1765, and which did so much to fire their
+hearts, were not the resolutions as adopted by the House, but were the
+resolutions as first introduced, and probably passed, in committee of
+the whole; and that even this copy of them was inaccurately given,
+since it lacked the resolution numbered above as 3, probably owing to
+an error in the first hurried transcription of them. Those who care to
+study the subject further will find the materials in _Prior
+Documents_, 6, 7; Marshall, _Life of Washington_, i. note iv.;
+Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 180 note; Gordon, _Hist. Am.
+Rev._, i. 129-139; _Works of Jefferson_, vi. 366, 367; Wirt, _Life of
+Henry_, 56-63; Everett, _Life of Henry_, 265-273, with important note
+by Jared Sparks in Appendix, 391-398. It may be mentioned that the
+narrative given in Burk, _Hist. Va._, iii. 305-310, is untrustworthy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CONSEQUENCES
+
+
+Seldom has a celebrated man shown more indifference to the
+preservation of the records and credentials of his career than did
+Patrick Henry. While some of his famous associates in the Revolution
+diligently kept both the letters they received, and copies of the
+letters they wrote, and made, for the benefit of posterity, careful
+memoranda concerning the events of their lives, Patrick Henry did none
+of these things. Whatever letters he wrote, he wrote at a dash, and
+then parted with them utterly; whatever letters were written to him,
+were invariably handed over by him to the comfortable custody of luck;
+and as to the correct historic perpetuation of his doings, he seems
+almost to have exhausted his interest in each one of them so soon as
+he had accomplished it, and to have been quite content to leave to
+other people all responsibility for its being remembered correctly, or
+even remembered at all.
+
+To this statement, however, a single exception has to be made. It
+relates to the great affair described in the latter part of the
+previous chapter.
+
+Of course, it was perceived at the time that the passing of the
+Virginia resolutions against the Stamp Act was a great affair; but
+just how great an affair it was, neither Patrick Henry nor any other
+mortal man could tell until years had gone by, and had unfolded the
+vast sequence of world-resounding events, in which that affair was
+proved to be a necessary factor. It deserves to be particularly
+mentioned that, of all the achievements of his life, the only one
+which he has taken the pains to give any account of is his authorship
+of the Virginia resolutions, and his successful championship of them.
+With reference to this achievement, the account he gave of it was
+rendered with so much solemnity and impressiveness as to indicate
+that, in the final survey of his career, he regarded this as the one
+most important thing he ever did. But before we cite the words in
+which he thus indicated this judgment, it will be well for us to
+glance briefly at the train of historic incidents which now set forth
+the striking connection between that act of Patrick Henry and the
+early development of that intrepid policy which culminated in American
+independence.
+
+It was on the 29th of May, 1765, as will be remembered, that Patrick
+Henry moved in the committee of the whole the adoption of his series
+of resolutions against the Stamp Act; and before the sun went down
+that day, the entire series, as is probable, was adopted by the
+committee. On the following day, the essential portion of the series
+was adopted, likewise, by the House. But what was the contemporary
+significance of these resolutions? As the news of them swept from
+colony to colony, why did they so stir men's hearts to excitement, and
+even to alarm? It was not that the language of those resolutions was
+more radical or more trenchant than had been the language already used
+on the same subject, over and over again, in the discussions of the
+preceding twelve months. It was that, in the recent change of the
+political situation, the significance of that language had changed.
+Prior to the time referred to, whatever had been said on the subject,
+in any of the colonies, had been said for the purpose of dissuading
+the government from passing the Stamp Act. But the government had now
+passed the Stamp Act; and, accordingly, these resolutions must have
+been meant for a very different purpose. They were a virtual
+declaration of resistance to the Stamp Act; a declaration of
+resistance made, not by an individual writer, nor by a newspaper, but
+by the legislature of a great colony; and, moreover, they were the
+very first declaration of resistance which was so made.[73]
+
+This it is which gives us the contemporary key to their significance,
+and to the vast excitement produced by them, and to the enormous
+influence they had upon the trembling purposes of the colonists at
+that precise moment. Hence it was, as a sagacious writer of that
+period has told us, that merely upon the adoption of these resolves by
+the committee of the whole, men recognized their momentous bearing,
+and could not be restrained from giving publicity to them, without
+waiting for their final adoption by the House. "A manuscript of the
+unrevised resolves," says William Gordon, "soon reached Philadelphia,
+having been sent off immediately upon their passing, that the earliest
+information of what had been done might be obtained by the Sons of
+Liberty.... At New York the resolves were handed about with great
+privacy: they were accounted so treasonable, that the possessors of
+them declined printing them in that city." But a copy of them having
+been procured with much difficulty by an Irish gentleman resident in
+Connecticut, "he carried them to New England, where they were
+published and circulated far and wide in the newspapers, without any
+reserve, and proved eventually the occasion of those disorders which
+afterward broke out in the colonies.... The Virginia resolutions gave
+a spring to all the disgusted; and they began to adopt different
+measures."[74]
+
+But while the tidings of these resolutions were thus moving toward New
+England, and before they had arrived there, the assembly of the great
+colony of Massachusetts had begun to take action. Indeed, it had first
+met on the very day on which Patrick Henry had introduced his
+resolutions into the committee of the whole at Williamsburg. On the
+8th of June, it had resolved upon a circular letter concerning the
+Stamp Act, addressed to all the sister colonies, and proposing that
+all should send delegates to a congress to be held at New York, on the
+first Tuesday of the following October, to deal with the perils and
+duties of the situation. This circular letter at once started upon its
+tour.
+
+The first reception of it, however, was discouraging. From the speaker
+of the New Jersey assembly came the reply that the members of that
+body were "unanimously against uniting on the present occasion;" and
+for several weeks thereafter, "no movement appeared in favor of the
+great and wise measure of convening a congress." At last, however, the
+project of Massachusetts began to feel the accelerating force of a
+mighty impetus. The Virginia resolutions, being at last divulged
+throughout the land, "had a marked effect on public opinion." They
+were "heralded as the voice of a colony.... The fame of the resolves
+spread as they were circulated in the journals.... The Virginia
+action, like an alarum, roused the patriots to pass similar
+resolves.[75] "On the 8th of July, "The Boston Gazette" uttered this
+most significant sentence: "The people of Virginia have spoken very
+sensibly, and the frozen politicians of a more northern government say
+they have spoken treason."[76] On the same day, in that same town of
+Boston, an aged lawyer and patriot[77] lay upon his death bed; and in
+his admiration for the Virginians on account of these resolves, he
+exclaimed, "They are men; they are noble spirits."[78] On the 13th of
+August, the people of Providence instructed their representatives in
+the legislature to vote in favor of the congress, and to procure the
+passage of a series of resolutions in which were incorporated those of
+Virginia.[79] On the 15th of August, from Boston, Governor Bernard
+wrote home to the ministry: "Two or three months ago, I thought that
+this people would submit to the Stamp Act. Murmurs were indeed
+continually heard; but they seemed to be such as would die away. But
+the publishing of the Virginia resolves proved an alarm bell to the
+disaffected."[80] On the 23d of September, General Gage, the commander
+of the British forces in America, wrote from New York to Secretary
+Conway that the Virginia resolves had given "the signal for a general
+outcry over the continent."[81] And finally, in the autumn of 1774, an
+able loyalist writer, looking back over the political history of the
+colonies from the year of the Stamp Act, singled out the Virginia
+resolves as the baleful cause of all the troubles that had then come
+upon the land. "After it was known," said he, "that the Stamp Act was
+passed, some resolves of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, denying
+the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, made their appearance. We
+read them with wonder; they savored of independence; they flattered
+the human passions; the reasoning was specious; we wished it
+conclusive. The transition to believing it so was easy; and we, and
+almost all America, followed their example, in resolving that
+Parliament had no such right."[82]
+
+All these facts, and many more that might be produced, seem to point
+to the Virginia resolutions of 1765 as having come at a great primary
+crisis of the Revolution,--a crisis of mental confusion and
+hesitation,--and as having then uttered, with trumpet voice, the very
+word that was fitted to the hour, and that gave to men's minds
+clearness of vision, and to their hearts a settled purpose. It must
+have been in the light of such facts as these that Patrick Henry, in
+his old age, reviewing his own wonderful career, determined to make a
+sort of testamentary statement concerning his relation to that single
+transaction,--so vitally connected with the greatest epoch in American
+history.
+
+Among the papers left by him at his death was one significantly placed
+by the side of his will, carefully sealed, and bearing this
+superscription: "Inclosed are the resolutions of the Virginia Assembly
+in 1765, concerning the Stamp Act. Let my executors open this paper."
+On opening the document, his executors found on one side of the sheet
+the first five resolutions in the famous series introduced by him; and
+on the other side, these weighty words:--
+
+     The within resolutions passed the House of Burgesses in May,
+     1765. They formed the first opposition to the Stamp Act, and
+     the scheme of taxing America by the British parliament. All
+     the colonies, either through fear, or want of opportunity to
+     form an opposition, or from influence of some kind or other,
+     had remained silent. I had been for the first time elected a
+     Burgess a few days before; was young, inexperienced,
+     unacquainted with the forms of the House, and the members
+     that composed it. Finding the men of weight averse to
+     opposition, and the commencement of the tax at hand, and
+     that no person was likely to step forth, I determined to
+     venture; and alone, unadvised, and unassisted, on a blank
+     leaf of an old law book, wrote the within.[83] Upon
+     offering them to the House, violent debates ensued. Many
+     threats were uttered, and much abuse cast on me by the party
+     for submission. After a long and warm contest, the
+     resolutions passed by a very small majority, perhaps of one
+     or two only. The alarm spread throughout America with
+     astonishing quickness, and the ministerial party were
+     overwhelmed. The great point of resistance to British
+     taxation was universally established in the colonies. This
+     brought on the war, which finally separated the two
+     countries, and gave independence to ours.
+
+     Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse, will depend
+     upon the use our people make of the blessings which a
+     gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they
+     will be great and happy. If they are of a contrary
+     character, they will be miserable. Righteousness alone can
+     exalt them as a nation.
+
+     Reader! whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere
+     practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.
+
+                                                  P. HENRY.[84]
+
+But while this renowned act in Patrick Henry's life had consequences
+so notable in their bearing on great national and international
+movements, it is interesting to observe, also, its immediate effects
+on his own personal position in the world, and on the development of
+his career. We can hardly be surprised to find, on the one hand, that
+his act gave deep offence to one very considerable class of persons in
+Virginia,--the official representatives of the English government, and
+their natural allies, those thoughtful and conscientious colonists
+who, by temperament and conviction, were inclined to lay a heavy
+accent on the principle of civil authority and order. Of course, as
+the official head of this not ignoble class, stood Francis Fauquier,
+the lieutenant-governor of the colony; and his letter to the lords of
+trade, written from Williamsburg a few days after the close of the
+session, contains a striking narrative of this stormy proceeding, and
+an almost amusing touch of official undervaluation of Patrick Henry:
+"In the course of the debate, I have heard that very indecent language
+was used by a Mr. Henry, a young lawyer, who had not been above a
+month a member of the House, and who carried all the young members
+with him."[85] But a far more specific and intense expression of
+antipathy came, a few weeks later, from the Reverend William Robinson,
+the colonial commissary of the Bishop of London. Writing, on the 12th
+of August, to his metropolitan, he gave an account of Patrick Henry's
+very offensive management of the cause against the parsons, before
+becoming a member of the House of Burgesses; and then added:--
+
+     "He has since been chosen a representative for one of the
+     counties, in which character he has lately distinguished
+     himself in the House of Burgesses on occasion of the arrival
+     of an act of Parliament for stamp duties, while the Assembly
+     was sitting. He blazed out in a violent speech against the
+     authority of Parliament and the king, comparing his majesty
+     to a Tarquin, a Caesar, and a Charles the First, and not
+     sparing insinuations that he wished another Cromwell would
+     arise. He made a motion for several outrageous resolves,
+     some of which passed and were again erased as soon as his
+     back was turned.... Mr. Henry, the hero of whom I have been
+     writing, is gone quietly into the upper parts of the country
+     to recommend himself to his constituents by spreading
+     treason and enforcing firm resolutions against the authority
+     of the British Parliament."[86]
+
+Such was Patrick Henry's introduction to the upper spheres of English
+society,--spheres in which his name was to become still better known
+as time rolled on, and for conduct not likely to efface the impression
+of this bitter beginning.
+
+As to his reputation in the colonies outside of Virginia, doubtless
+the progress of it, during this period, was slow and dim; for the
+celebrity acquired by the resolutions of 1765 attached to the colony
+rather than to the person. Moreover, the boundaries of each colony, in
+those days, were in most cases the boundaries likewise of the personal
+reputations it cherished. It was not until Patrick Henry came
+forward, in the Congress of 1774, upon an arena that may be called
+national, that his name gathered about it the splendor of a national
+fame. Yet, even before 1774, in the rather dull and ungossiping
+newspapers of that time, and in the letters and diaries of its public
+men, may be discovered an occasional allusion showing that already his
+name had broken over the borders of Virginia, had traveled even so far
+as to New England, and that in Boston itself he was a person whom
+people were beginning to talk about. For example, in his Diary for the
+22d of July, 1770, John Adams speaks of meeting some gentlemen from
+Virginia, and of going out to Cambridge with them. One of them is
+mentioned by name as having this distinction,--that he "is an intimate
+friend of Mr. Patrick Henry, the first mover of the Virginia resolves
+in 1765."[87] Thus, even so early, the incipient revolutionist in New
+England had got his thoughts on his brilliant political kinsman in
+Virginia.
+
+But it was chiefly within the limits of his own splendid and gallant
+colony, and among an eager and impressionable people whose habitual
+hatred of all restraints turned into undying love for this dashing
+champion of natural liberty, that Patrick Henry was now instantly
+crowned with his crown of sovereignty. By his resolutions against the
+Stamp Act, as Jefferson testifies, "Mr. Henry took the lead out of the
+hands of those who had heretofore guided the proceedings of the
+House, that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Randolph, and
+Nicholas."[88] Wirt does not put the case too strongly when he
+declares, that "after this debate there was no longer a question among
+the body of the people, as to Mr. Henry's being the first statesman
+and orator in Virginia. Those, indeed, whose ranks he had scattered,
+and whom he had thrown into the shade, still tried to brand him with
+the names of declaimer and demagogue. But this was obviously the
+effect of envy and mortified pride.... From the period of which we
+have been speaking, Mr. Henry became the idol of the people of
+Virginia."[89]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[73] See this view supported by Wirt, in his life by Kennedy, ii. 73.
+
+[74] Gordon, _Hist. of Am. Rev._ i. 131.
+
+[75] Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 178-181.
+
+[76] Cited in Frothingham, 181.
+
+[77] Oxenbridge Thacher.
+
+[78] _Works of John Adams_, x. 287.
+
+[79] Frothingham, 181.
+
+[80] Cited by Sparks, in Everett, _Life of Henry_, 396.
+
+[81] Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 181.
+
+[82] Daniel Leonard, in _Novanglus and Massachusettensis_, 147, 148.
+
+[83] As the historic importance of the Virginia resolutions became
+more and more apparent, a disposition was manifested to deny to
+Patrick Henry the honor of having written them. As early as 1790,
+Madison, between whom and Henry there was nearly always a sharp
+hostility, significantly asked Edmund Pendleton to tell him "where the
+resolutions proposed by Mr. Henry really originated." _Letters and
+Other Writings of Madison_, i. 515. Edmund Randolph is said to have
+asserted that they were written by William Fleming; a statement of
+which Jefferson remarked, "It is to me incomprehensible." _Works_, vi.
+484. But to Jefferson's own testimony on the same subject, I would
+apply the same remark. In his Memorandum, he says without hesitation
+that the resolutions "were drawn up by George Johnston, a lawyer of
+the Northern Neck, a very able, logical, and correct speaker." _Hist.
+Mag._ for 1867, 91. But in another paper, written at about the same
+time, Jefferson said: "I can readily enough believe these resolutions
+were written by Mr. Henry himself. They bear the stamp of his mind,
+strong, without precision. That they were written by Johnston, who
+seconded them, was only the rumor of the day, and very possibly
+unfounded." _Works_, vi. 484. In the face of all this tissue of rumor,
+guesswork, and self-contradiction, the deliberate statement of Patrick
+Henry himself that he wrote the five resolutions referred to by him,
+and that he wrote them "alone, unadvised, and unassisted," must close
+the discussion.
+
+[84] Verified from the original manuscript, now in possession of Mr.
+W. W. Henry.
+
+[85] Cited by Sparks, in Everett, _Life of Henry_, 392.
+
+[86] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 514, 515.
+
+[87] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 249.
+
+[88] _Works of Jefferson_, vi. 368.
+
+[89] _Life of Henry_, 66.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+STEADY WORK
+
+
+From the close of Patrick Henry's first term in the Virginia House of
+Burgesses, in the spring of 1765, to the opening of his first term in
+the Continental Congress, in the fall of 1774, there stretches a
+period of about nine years, which, for the purposes of our present
+study, may be rapidly glanced at and passed by.
+
+In general, it may be described as a period during which he had
+settled down to steady work, both as a lawyer and as a politician. The
+first five years of his professional life had witnessed his advance,
+as we have seen, by strides which only genius can make, from great
+obscurity to great distinction; his advance from a condition of
+universal failure to one of success so universal that his career may
+be said to have become within that brief period solidly established.
+At the bar, upon the hustings, in the legislature, as a master of
+policies, as a leader of men, he had already proved himself to be, of
+his kind, without a peer in all the colony of Virginia,--a colony
+which was then the prolific mother of great men. With him, therefore,
+the period of training and of tentative struggle had passed: the
+period now entered upon was one of recognized mastership and of
+assured performance, along lines certified by victories that came
+gayly, and apparently at his slightest call.
+
+We note, at the beginning of this period, an event indicating
+substantial prosperity in his life: he acquires the visible dignity of
+a country-seat. Down to the end of 1763, and probably even to the
+summer of 1765, he had continued to live in the neighborhood of
+Hanover Court House. After coming back from his first term of service
+in the House of Burgesses, where he had sat as member for the county
+of Louisa, he removed his residence into that county, and established
+himself there upon an estate called Roundabout, purchased by him of
+his father. In 1768 he returned to Hanover, and in 1771 he bought a
+place in that county called Scotch Town, which continued to be his
+seat until shortly after the Declaration of Independence, when, having
+become governor of the new State of Virginia, he took up his residence
+at Williamsburg, in the palace long occupied by the official
+representatives of royalty.
+
+For the practice of his profession, the earlier portion of this period
+was perhaps not altogether unfavorable. The political questions then
+in debate were, indeed, exciting, but they had not quite reached the
+ultimate issue, and did not yet demand from him the complete surrender
+of his life. Those years seem to have been marked by great
+professional activity on his part, and by considerable growth in his
+reputation, even for the higher and more difficult work of the law. Of
+course, as the vast controversy between the colonists and Great
+Britain grew in violence, all controversies between one colonist and
+another began to seem petty, and to be postponed; even the courts
+ceased to meet with much regularity, and finally ceased to meet at
+all; while Patrick Henry himself, forsaking his private concerns,
+became entirely absorbed in the concerns of the public.
+
+The fluctuations in his engagements as a lawyer, during all these
+years, may be traced with some certainty by the entries in his
+fee-books. For the year 1765, he charges fees in 547 cases; for 1766,
+in 114 cases; for 1767, in 554 cases; for 1768, in 354 cases. With the
+next year there begins a great falling off in the number of his cases;
+and the decline continues till 1774, when, in the convulsions of the
+time, his practice stops altogether. Thus, for 1769, there are
+registered 132 cases; for 1770, 94 cases; for 1771, 102 cases; for
+1772, 43 cases; for 1773, 7 cases; and for 1774, none.[90]
+
+The character of the professional work done by him during this period
+deserves a moment's consideration. Prior to 1769, he had limited
+himself to practice in the courts of the several counties. In that
+year he began to practice in the general court,--the highest court in
+the colony,--where of course were tried the most important and
+difficult causes, and where thenceforward he had constantly to
+encounter the most learned and acute lawyers at the bar, including
+such men as Pendleton, Wythe, Blair, Mercer, John Randolph, Thompson
+Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert C. Nicholas.[91]
+
+There could never have been any doubt of his supreme competency to
+deal with such criminal causes as he had to manage in that court or in
+any other; and with respect to the conduct of other than criminal
+causes, all purely contemporaneous evidence, now to be had, implies
+that he had not ventured to present himself before the higher
+tribunals of the land until he had qualified himself to bear his part
+there with success and honor. Thus, the instance may be mentioned of
+his appearing in the Court of Admiralty, "in behalf of a Spanish
+captain, whose vessel and cargo had been libeled. A gentleman who was
+present, and who was very well qualified to judge, was heard to
+declare, after the trial was over, that he never heard a more eloquent
+or argumentative speech in his life; that Mr. Henry was on that
+occasion greatly superior to Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Mason, or any other
+counsel who spoke to the subject; and that he was astonished how Mr.
+Henry could have acquired such a knowledge of the maritime law, to
+which it was believed he had never before turned his attention."[92]
+Moreover, in 1771, just two years from the time when Patrick Henry
+began practice in the General Court, Robert C. Nicholas, then a
+veteran member of the profession, "who had enjoyed the first practice
+at the bar," had occasion to retire, and began looking about among the
+younger men for some competent lawyer to whom he might safely intrust
+the unfinished business of his clients. He first offered his practice
+to Thomas Jefferson, who, however, was compelled to decline it.
+Afterward, he offered it to Patrick Henry, who accepted it; and
+accordingly, by public advertisement, Nicholas informed his clients
+that he had committed to Patrick Henry the further protection of their
+interests,[93]--a perfectly conclusive proof, it should seem, of the
+real respect in which Patrick Henry's qualifications as a lawyer were
+then held, not only by the public but by the profession. Certainly
+such evidence as this can hardly be set aside by the supposed
+recollections of one old gentleman, of broken memory and unbroken
+resentment, who long afterward tried to convince Wirt that, even at
+the period now in question, Patrick Henry was "wofully deficient as a
+lawyer," was unable to contend with his associates "on a mere question
+of law," and was "so little acquainted with the fundamental principles
+of his profession ... as not to be able to see the remote bearings of
+the reported cases."[94] The expressions here quoted are, apparently,
+Wirt's own paraphrase of the statements which were made to him by
+Jefferson, and which, in many of their details, can now be proved, on
+documentary evidence, to be the work of a hand that had forgot, not
+indeed its cunning, but at any rate its accuracy.
+
+As to the political history of Patrick Henry during this period, it
+may be easily described. The doctrine on which he had planted himself
+by his resolutions in 1765, namely, that the parliamentary taxation of
+unrepresented colonies is unconstitutional, became the avowed doctrine
+of Virginia, and of all her sister colonies; and nearly all the men
+who, in the House of Burgesses, had, for reasons of propriety, or of
+expediency, or of personal feeling, opposed the passage of his
+resolutions, soon took pains to make it known to their constituents
+that their opposition had not been to the principle which those
+resolutions expressed. Thenceforward, among the leaders in Virginian
+politics, there was no real disagreement on the fundamental question;
+only such disagreement touching methods as must always occur between
+spirits who are cautious and spirits who are bold. Chief among the
+former were Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Peyton Randolph, and Nicholas. In
+the van of the latter always stood Patrick Henry, and with him
+Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, the Pages, and George Mason. But between
+the two groups, after all, was surprising harmony, which is thus
+explained by one who in all that business had a great part and who
+never was a laggard:--
+
+     "Sensible, however, of the importance of unanimity among
+     our constituents, although we often wished to have gone
+     faster, we slackened our pace, that our less ardent
+     colleagues might keep up with us; and they, on their part,
+     differing nothing from us in principle, quickened their gait
+     somewhat beyond that which their prudence might of itself
+     have advised, and thus consolidated the phalanx which
+     breasted the power of Britain. By this harmony of the bold
+     with the cautious, we advanced with our constituents in
+     undivided mass, and with fewer examples of separation than,
+     perhaps, existed in any other part of the union."[95]
+
+All deprecated a quarrel with Great Britain; all deprecated as a
+boundless calamity the possible issue of independence; all desired to
+remain in loyal, free, and honorable connection with the British
+empire; and against the impending danger of an assault upon the
+freedom, and consequently the honor, of this connection, all stood on
+guard.
+
+One result, however, of this practical unanimity among the leaders in
+Virginia was the absence, during all this period, of those impassioned
+and dramatic conflicts in debate, which would have called forth
+historic exhibitions of Patrick Henry's eloquence and of his gifts for
+conduct and command. He had a leading part in all the counsels of the
+time; he was sent to every session of the House of Burgesses; he was
+at the front in all local committees and conventions; he was made a
+member of the first Committee of Correspondence; and all these
+incidents in this portion of his life culminated in his mission as one
+of the deputies from Virginia to the first Continental Congress.
+
+Without here going into the familiar story of the occasion and
+purposes of the Congress of 1774, we may briefly indicate Patrick
+Henry's relation to the events in Virginia which immediately preceded
+his appointment to that renowned assemblage. On the 24th of May, 1774,
+the House of Burgesses, having received the alarming news of the
+passage of the Boston Port Bill, designated the day on which that bill
+was to take effect--the first day of June--"as a day of fasting,
+humiliation, and prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition
+for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our
+civil rights, and the evils of civil war; to give us one heart and one
+mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to
+American rights; and that the minds of his majesty and his parliament
+may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to
+remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger, from a
+continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin."[96] Two days
+afterward, the governor, Lord Dunmore, having summoned the House to
+the council chamber, made to them this little speech:--
+
+     "Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have
+     in my hand a paper published by order of your House,
+     conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon his majesty
+     and the Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it
+     necessary for me to dissolve you, and you are dissolved
+     accordingly."[97]
+
+At ten o'clock on the following day, May 27, the members of the late
+House met by agreement at the Raleigh Tavern, and there promptly
+passed a nobly-worded resolution, deploring the policy pursued by
+Parliament and suggesting the establishment of an annual congress of
+all the colonies, "to deliberate on those general measures which the
+united interests of America may from time to time require."[98]
+
+During the anxious days and nights immediately preceding the
+dissolution of the House, its prominent members held many private
+conferences with respect to the course to be pursued by Virginia. In
+all these conferences, as we are told, "Patrick Henry was the
+leader;"[99] and a very able man, George Mason, who was just then a
+visitor at Williamsburg, and was admitted to the consultations of the
+chiefs, wrote at the time concerning him: "He is by far the most
+powerful speaker I ever heard.... But his eloquence is the smallest
+part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the first man upon this
+continent, as well in abilities as public virtues."[100]
+
+In response to a recommendation made by leading members of the recent
+House of Burgesses, a convention of delegates from the several
+counties of Virginia assembled at Williamsburg, on August 1, 1774, to
+deal with the needs of the hour, and especially to appoint deputies to
+the proposed congress at Philadelphia. The spirit in which this
+convention transacted its business is sufficiently shown in the
+opening paragraphs of the letter of instructions which it gave to the
+deputies whom it sent to the congress:--
+
+     "The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her American
+     colonies, which began about the third year of the reign of
+     his present majesty, and since, continually increasing, have
+     proceeded to lengths so dangerous and alarming as to excite
+     just apprehensions in the minds of his majesty's faithful
+     subjects of this colony that they are in danger of being
+     deprived of their natural, ancient, constitutional, and
+     chartered rights, have compelled them to take the same into
+     their most serious consideration; and being deprived of
+     their usual and accustomed mode of making known their
+     grievances, have appointed us their representatives, to
+     consider what is proper to be done in this dangerous crisis
+     of American affairs.
+
+     "It being our opinion that the united wisdom of North
+     America should be collected in a general congress of all the
+     colonies, we have appointed the honorable Peyton Randolph,
+     Esquire, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick
+     Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund
+     Pendleton, Esquires, deputies to represent this colony in
+     the said congress, to be held at Philadelphia on the first
+     Monday in September next. And that they may be the better
+     informed of our sentiments touching the conduct we wish them
+     to observe on this important occasion, we desire that they
+     will express, in the first place, our faith and true
+     allegiance to his majesty King George the Third, our lawful
+     and rightful sovereign; and that we are determined, with our
+     lives and fortunes, to support him in the legal exercise of
+     all his just rights and prerogatives; and however
+     misrepresented, we sincerely approve of a constitutional
+     connection with Great Britain, and wish most ardently a
+     return of that intercourse of affection and commercial
+     connection that formerly united both countries; which can
+     only be effected by a removal of those causes of discontent
+     which have of late unhappily divided us.... The power
+     assumed by the British Parliament to bind America by their
+     statutes, in all cases whatsoever, is unconstitutional, and
+     the source of these unhappy differences."[101]
+
+The convention at Williamsburg, of which, of course, Patrick Henry was
+a member, seems to have adjourned on Saturday, the 6th of August.
+Between that date and the time for his departure to attend the
+congress at Philadelphia, we may imagine him as busily engaged in
+arranging his affairs for a long absence from home, and even then as
+not getting ready to begin the long journey until many of his
+associates had nearly reached the end of it.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[90] MS.
+
+[91] Wirt, 70, 71.
+
+[92] Wirt, 71, 72.
+
+[93] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 49; Wirt, 77.
+
+[94] Wirt, 71.
+
+[95] Jefferson's _Works_, vi. 368.
+
+[96] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 350.
+
+[97] Campbell, _Hist. Va._ 573.
+
+[98] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 350, 351. The narrative of these events as given
+by Wirt and by Campbell has several errors. They seem to have been
+misled by Jefferson, who, in his account of the business (_Works_, i.
+122, 123), is, if possible, rather more inaccurate than usual.
+
+[99] Campbell, _Hist. Va._ 573.
+
+[100] Mason to Martin Cockburn, _Va. Hist. Reg._ iii. 27-29.
+
+[101] The full text of this letter of instructions is given in 4 _Am.
+Arch._ i. 689, 690. With this should be compared note C. in
+Jefferson's _Works_, i. 122-142.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+IN THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
+
+
+On the morning of Tuesday, the 30th of August, Patrick Henry arrived
+on horseback at Mt. Vernon, the home of his friend and colleague,
+George Washington; and having remained there that day and night, he
+set out for Philadelphia on the following morning, in the company of
+Washington and of Edmund Pendleton. From the jottings in Washington's
+diary,[102] we can so far trace the progress of this trio of
+illustrious horsemen, as to ascertain that on Sunday, the 4th of
+September, they "breakfasted at Christiana Ferry; dined at Chester;"
+and reached Philadelphia for supper--thus arriving in town barely in
+time to be present at the first meeting of the Congress on the morning
+of the 5th.
+
+John Adams had taken pains to get upon the ground nearly a week
+earlier; and carefully gathering all possible information concerning
+his future associates, few of whom he had then ever seen, he wrote in
+his diary that the Virginians were said to "speak in raptures about
+Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry, one the Cicero, and the other the
+Demosthenes, of the age."[103]
+
+Not far from the same time, also, a keen-witted Virginian, Roger
+Atkinson, at his home near Petersburg, was writing to a friend about
+the men who had gone to represent Virginia in the great Congress; and
+this letter of his, though not meant for posterity, has some neat,
+off-hand portraits which posterity may, nevertheless, be glad to look
+at. Peyton Randolph is "a venerable man ... an honest man; has
+knowledge, temper, experience, judgment,--above all, integrity; a true
+Roman spirit." Richard Bland is "a wary, old, experienced veteran at
+the bar and in the senate; has something of the look of old musty
+parchments, which he handleth and studieth much. He formerly wrote a
+treatise against the Quakers on water-baptism." Washington "is a
+soldier,--a warrior; he is a modest man; sensible; speaks little; in
+action cool, like a bishop at his prayers." Pendleton "is an humble
+and religious man, and must be exalted. He is a smooth-tongued
+speaker, and, though not so old, may be compared to old Nestor,--
+
+  'Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skilled,
+  Words sweet as honey from his lips distilled.'"
+
+But Patrick Henry "is a real half-Quaker,--your brother's
+man,--moderate and mild, and in religious matters a saint; but the
+very devil in politics; a son of thunder. He will shake the Senate.
+Some years ago he had liked to have talked treason into the
+House."[104]
+
+Few of the members of this Congress had ever met before; and if all
+had arrived upon the scene as late as did these three members from
+Virginia, there might have been some difficulty, through a lack of
+previous consultation and acquaintance, in organizing the Congress on
+the day appointed, and in entering at once upon its business. In fact,
+however, more than a week before the time for the first meeting, the
+delegates had begun to make their appearance in Philadelphia;
+thenceforward with each day the arrivals continued; by Thursday, the
+1st of September, twenty-five delegates, nearly one half of the entire
+body elected, were in town;[105] and probably, during all that week,
+no day and no night had passed without many an informal conference
+respecting the business before them, and the best way of doing it.
+
+Concerning these memorable men of the first Continental Congress, it
+must be confessed that as the mists of a hundred years of glorifying
+oratory and of semi-poetic history have settled down upon them, they
+are now enveloped in a light which seems to distend their forms to
+proportions almost superhuman, and to cast upon their faces a gravity
+that hardly belongs to this world; and it may, perhaps, help us to
+bring them and their work somewhat nearer to the plane of natural
+human life and motive, and into a light that is as the light of
+reality, if, turning to the daily memoranda made at the time by one of
+their number, we can see how merrily, after all, nay, with what
+flowing feasts, with what convivial communings, passed those days and
+nights of preparation for the difficult business they were about to
+take in hand.
+
+For example, on Monday, the 29th of August, when the four members of
+the Massachusetts delegation had arrived within five miles of the
+city, they were met by an escort of gentlemen, partly residents of
+Philadelphia, and partly delegates from other colonies, who had come
+out in carriages to greet them.
+
+     "We were introduced," writes John Adams, "to all these
+     gentlemen, and most cordially welcomed to Philadelphia. We
+     then rode into town, and dirty, dusty, and fatigued as we
+     were, we could not resist the importunity to go to the
+     tavern, the most genteel one in America. There we were
+     introduced to a number of other gentlemen of the city, ...
+     and to Mr. Lynch and Mr. Gadsden, of South Carolina. Here we
+     had a fresh welcome to the city of Philadelphia; and after
+     some time spent in conversation, a curtain was drawn, and in
+     the other half of the chamber a supper appeared as elegant
+     as ever was laid upon a table. About eleven o'clock we
+     retired.
+
+     "30, Tuesday. Walked a little about town; visited the
+     market, the State House, the Carpenters' Hall, where the
+     Congress is to sit, etc.; then called at Mr. Mifflin's, a
+     grand, spacious, and elegant house. Here we had much
+     conversation with Mr. Charles Thomson, who is ... the Sam
+     Adams of Philadelphia, the life of the cause of liberty,
+     they say. A Friend, Collins, came to see us, and invited us
+     to dine on Thursday. We returned to our lodgings, and Mr.
+     Lynch, Mr. Gadsden, Mr. Middleton, and young Mr. Rutledge
+     came to visit us.
+
+     "31, Wednesday. Breakfasted at Mr. Bayard's, of
+     Philadelphia, with Mr. Sprout, a Presbyterian minister. Made
+     a visit to Governor Ward of Rhode Island, at his lodgings.
+     There we were introduced to several gentlemen. Mr.
+     Dickinson, the Farmer of Pennsylvania, came in his coach
+     with four beautiful horses to Mr. Ward's lodgings, to see
+     us.... We dined with Mr. Lynch, his lady and daughter, at
+     their lodgings, ... and a very agreeable dinner and
+     afternoon we had, notwithstanding the violent heat. We were
+     all vastly pleased with Mr. Lynch. He is a solid, firm,
+     judicious man.
+
+     "September 1, Thursday. This day we breakfasted at Mr.
+     Mifflin's. Mr. C. Thomson came in, and soon after Dr. Smith,
+     the famous Dr. Smith, the provost of the college.... We then
+     went to return visits to the gentlemen who had visited us.
+     We visited a Mr. Cadwallader, a gentleman of large fortune,
+     a grand and elegant house and furniture. We then visited Mr.
+     Powell, another splendid seat. We then visited the gentlemen
+     from South Carolina, and, about twelve, were introduced to
+     Mr. Galloway, the speaker of the House in Pennsylvania. We
+     dined at Friend Collins' ... with Governor Hopkins, Governor
+     Ward, Mr. Galloway, Mr. Rhoades, etc. In the evening all the
+     gentlemen of the Congress who were arrived in town, met at
+     Smith's, the new city tavern, and spent the evening
+     together. Twenty-five members were come. Virginia, North
+     Carolina, Maryland, and the city of New York were not
+     arrived.
+
+     "2, Friday. Dined at Mr. Thomas Mifflin's with Mr. Lynch,
+     Mr. Middleton, and the two Rutledges with their ladies....
+     We were very sociable and happy. After coffee we went to the
+     tavern, where we were introduced to Peyton Randolph,
+     Esquire, speaker of Virginia, Colonel Harrison, Richard
+     Henry Lee, Esquire, and Colonel Bland.... These gentlemen
+     from Virginia appear to be the most spirited and consistent
+     of any. Harrison said he would have come on foot rather than
+     not come. Bland said he would have gone, upon this occasion,
+     if it had been to Jericho.
+
+     "3, Saturday. Breakfasted at Dr. Shippen's; Dr. Witherspoon
+     was there. Col. R. H. Lee lodges there; he is a masterly
+     man.... We went with Mr. William Barrell to his store, and
+     drank punch, and ate dried smoked sprats with him; read the
+     papers and our letters from Boston; dined with Mr. Joseph
+     Reed, the lawyer; ... spent the evening at Mr. Mifflin's,
+     with Lee and Harrison from Virginia, the two Rutledges, Dr.
+     Witherspoon, Dr. Shippen, Dr. Steptoe, and another
+     gentleman; an elegant supper, and we drank sentiments till
+     eleven o'clock. Lee and Harrison were very high. Lee had
+     dined with Mr. Dickinson, and drank Burgundy the whole
+     afternoon."[106]
+
+Accordingly, at 10 o'clock on Monday morning, the 5th of September,
+when the delegates assembled at their rendezvous, the city tavern, and
+marched together through the streets to Carpenters' Hall, for most of
+them the stiffness of a first introduction was already broken, and
+they could greet one another that morning with something of the
+freedom and good fellowship of boon companions. Moreover, they were
+then ready to proceed to business under the advantage of having
+arranged beforehand an outline of what was first to be done. It had
+been discovered, apparently, that the first serious question which
+would meet them after their formal organization, was one relating to
+the method of voting in the Congress, namely, whether each deputy
+should have a vote, or only each colony; and if the latter, whether
+the vote of each colony should be proportioned to its population and
+property.
+
+Having arrived at the hall, and inspected it, and agreed that it would
+serve the purpose, the delegates helped themselves to seats. Then Mr.
+Lynch of South Carolina arose, and nominated Mr. Peyton Randolph of
+Virginia for president. This nomination having been unanimously
+adopted, Mr. Lynch likewise proposed Mr. Charles Thomson for
+secretary, which was carried without opposition; but as Mr. Thomson
+was not a delegate, and of course was not then present, the doorkeeper
+was instructed to go out and find him, and say to him that his
+immediate attendance was desired by the Congress.
+
+Next came the production and inspection of credentials. The roll
+indicated that of the fifty-two delegates appointed, forty-four were
+already upon the ground,--constituting an assemblage of representative
+Americans, which, for dignity of character and for intellectual
+eminence, was undoubtedly the most imposing that the colonies had ever
+seen. In that room that day were such men as John Sullivan, John and
+Samuel Adams, Stephen Hopkins, Roger Sherman, James Duane, John Jay,
+Philip and William Livingston, Joseph Galloway, Thomas Mifflin, Caesar
+Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read, Samuel Chase, John and Edward
+Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Henry Middleton, Edmund Pendleton,
+George Washington, and Patrick Henry.
+
+Having thus got through with the mere routine of organization, which
+must have taken a considerable time, James Duane, of New York, moved
+the appointment of a committee "to prepare regulations for this
+Congress." To this several gentlemen objected; whereupon John Adams,
+thinking that Duane's purpose might have been misunderstood, "asked
+leave of the president to request of the gentleman from New York an
+explanation, and that he would point out some particular regulations
+which he had in his mind." In reply to this request, Duane "mentioned
+particularly the method of voting, whether it should be by colonies,
+or by the poll, or by interests."[107] Thus Duane laid his finger on
+perhaps the most sensitive nerve in that assemblage; but as he sat
+down, the discussion of the subject which he had mentioned was
+interrupted by a rather curious incident. This was the return of the
+doorkeeper, having under his escort Mr. Charles Thomson. The latter
+walked up the aisle, and standing opposite to the president, said,
+with a bow, that he awaited his pleasure. The president replied:
+"Congress desire the favor of you, sir, to take their minutes."
+Without a word, only bowing his acquiescence, the secretary took his
+seat at his desk, and began those modest but invaluable services from
+which he did not cease until the Congress of the Confederation was
+merged into that of the Union.
+
+The discussion, into which this incident had fallen as a momentary
+episode, was then resumed. "After a short silence," says the man who
+was thus inducted into office, "Patrick Henry arose to speak. I did
+not then know him. He was dressed in a suit of parson's gray, and from
+his appearance I took him for a Presbyterian clergyman, used to
+haranguing the people. He observed that we were here met in a time and
+on an occasion of great difficulty and distress; that our public
+circumstances were like those of a man in deep embarrassment and
+trouble, who had called his friends together to devise what was best
+to be done for his relief;--one would propose one thing, and another a
+different one, whilst perhaps a third would think of something better
+suited to his unhappy circumstances, which he would embrace, and think
+no more of the rejected schemes with which he would have nothing to
+do."[108]
+
+Such is the rather meagre account, as given by one ear-witness, of
+Patrick Henry's first speech in the Congress of 1774. From another
+ear-witness we have another account, likewise very meagre, but giving,
+probably, a somewhat more adequate idea of the drift and point of what
+he said:--
+
+     "Mr. Henry then arose, and said this was the first general
+     congress which had ever happened; that no former congress
+     could be a precedent; that we should have occasion for more
+     general congresses, and therefore that a precedent ought to
+     be established now; that it would be a great injustice if a
+     little colony should have the same weight in the councils of
+     America as a great one; and therefore he was for a
+     committee."[109]
+
+The notable thing about both these accounts is that they agree in
+showing Patrick Henry's first speech in Congress to have been not, as
+has been represented, an impassioned portrayal of "general
+grievances," but a plain and quiet handling of a mere "detail of
+business." In the discussion he was followed by John Sullivan, who
+merely observed that "a little colony had its all at stake as well as
+a great one." The floor was then taken by John Adams, who seems to
+have made a searching and vigorous argument,--exhibiting the great
+difficulties attending any possible conclusion to which they might
+come respecting the method of voting. At the end of his speech,
+apparently, the House adjourned, to resume the consideration of the
+subject on the following day.[110]
+
+Accordingly, on Tuesday morning the discussion was continued, and at
+far greater length than on the previous day; the first speaker being
+Patrick Henry himself, who seems now to have gone into the subject far
+more broadly, and with much greater intensity of thought, than in his
+first speech.
+
+     "'Government,' said he, 'is dissolved. Fleets and armies and
+     the present state of things show that government is
+     dissolved. Where are your landmarks, your boundaries of
+     colonies? We are in a state of nature, sir. I did propose
+     that a scale should be laid down; that part of North America
+     which was once Massachusetts Bay, and that part which was
+     once Virginia, ought to be considered as having a weight.
+     Will not people complain,--"Ten thousand Virginians have not
+     outweighed one thousand others?"
+
+     "'I will submit, however; I am determined to submit, if I am
+     overruled.
+
+     "'A worthy gentleman near me [John Adams] seemed to admit
+     the necessity of obtaining a more adequate representation.
+
+     "'I hope future ages will quote our proceedings with
+     applause. It is one of the great duties of the democratical
+     part of the constitution to keep itself pure. It is known in
+     my province that some other colonies are not so numerous or
+     rich as they are. I am for giving all the satisfaction in my
+     power.
+
+     "'The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New
+     Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a
+     Virginian, but an American.
+
+     "'Slaves are to be thrown out of the question; and if the
+     freemen can be represented according to their numbers, I am
+     satisfied.'
+
+     "The subject was then debated at length by Lynch, Rutledge,
+     Ward, Richard Henry Lee, Gadsden, Bland, and Pendleton, when
+     Patrick Henry again rose:--
+
+     "'I agree that authentic accounts cannot be had, if by
+     authenticity is meant attestations of officers of the crown.
+     I go upon the supposition that government is at an end. All
+     distinctions are thrown down. All America is thrown into one
+     mass. We must aim at the minutiae of rectitude.'"
+
+Patrick Henry was then followed by John Jay, who seems to have closed
+the debate, and whose allusion to what his immediate predecessor had
+said gives us some hint of the variations in Revolutionary opinion
+then prevailing among the members, as well as of the advanced position
+always taken by Patrick Henry:--
+
+     "'Could I suppose that we came to frame an American
+     constitution, instead of endeavoring to correct the faults
+     in an old one, I can't yet think that all government is at
+     an end. The measure of arbitrary power is not full; and I
+     think it must run over, before we undertake to frame a new
+     constitution. To the virtue, spirit, and abilities of
+     Virginia we owe much. I should always, therefore, from
+     inclination as well as justice, be for giving Virginia its
+     full weight. I am not clear that we ought not to be bound by
+     a majority, though ever so small; but I only mentioned it as
+     a matter of danger worthy of consideration.'"[111]
+
+Of this entire debate, the most significant issue is indicated by the
+following passage from the journal for Tuesday, the 6th of
+September:--
+
+     "_Resolved_, that in determining questions in this Congress,
+     each colony or province shall have one vote; the Congress
+     not being possessed of, or at present able to procure,
+     proper materials for ascertaining the importance of each
+     colony."[112]
+
+So far as it is now possible to ascertain it, such was Patrick Henry's
+part in the first discussion held by the first Continental
+Congress,--a discussion occupying parts of two days, and relating
+purely to methods of procedure by that body, and not to the matters of
+grievance between the colonies and Great Britain. We have a right to
+infer something as to the quality of the first impression made upon
+his associates by Patrick Henry in consequence of his three speeches
+in this discussion, from the fact that when, at the close of it, an
+order was taken for the appointment of two grand committees, one "to
+state the rights of the colonies," the other "to examine and report
+the several statutes which affect the trade and manufactures of the
+colonies," Patrick Henry was chosen to represent Virginia on the
+latter committee,[113]--a position not likely to have been selected
+for a man who, however eloquent he may have seemed, had not also shown
+business-like and lawyer-like qualities.
+
+The Congress kept steadily at work from Monday, the 5th of September,
+to Wednesday, the 26th of October,--just seven weeks and two days.
+Though not a legislative body, it resembled all legislative bodies
+then in existence, in the fact that it sat with closed doors, and that
+it gave to the public only such results as it chose to give. Upon the
+difficult and exciting subjects which came before it, there were, very
+likely, many splendid passages of debate; and we cannot doubt that in
+all these discussions Patrick Henry took his usually conspicuous and
+powerful share. Yet no official record was kept of what was said by
+any member; and it is only from the hurried private memoranda of two
+of his colleagues that we are able to learn anything more respecting
+Patrick Henry's participation in the debates of those seven weeks.
+
+For example, just two weeks after the opening of this Congress, one of
+its most critical members, Silas Deane of Connecticut, in a letter to
+his wife, gave some capital sketches of his more prominent associates
+there, especially those from the South,--as Randolph, Harrison,
+Washington, Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry. The
+latter he describes as "a lawyer, and the completest speaker I ever
+heard. If his future speeches are equal to the small samples he has
+hitherto given us, they will be worth preserving; but in a letter I
+can give you no idea of the music of his voice, or the high-wrought
+yet natural elegance of his style and manner."[114]
+
+It was on the 28th of September that Joseph Galloway brought forward
+his celebrated plan for a permanent reconciliation between Great
+Britain and her colonies. This was simply a scheme for what we should
+now call home rule, on a basis of colonial confederation, with an
+American parliament to be elected every three years by the
+legislatures of the several colonies, and with a governor-general to
+be appointed by the crown. The plan came very near to adoption.[115]
+The member who introduced it was a man of great ability and great
+influence; it was supported by James Duane and John Jay; it was
+pronounced by Edward Rutledge to be "almost a perfect plan;" and in
+the final trial it was lost only by a vote of six colonies to five.
+Could it have been adopted, the disruption of the British empire would
+certainly have been averted for that epoch, and, as an act of
+violence and of unkindness, would perhaps have been averted forever;
+while the thirteen English colonies would have remained English
+colonies, without ceasing to be free.
+
+The plan, however, was distrusted and resisted, with stern and
+implacable hostility, by the more radical members of the Congress,
+particularly by those from Massachusetts and Virginia; and an outline
+of what Patrick Henry said in his assault upon it, delivered on the
+very day on which it was introduced, is thus given by John Adams:--
+
+     "The original constitution of the colonies was founded on
+     the broadest and most generous base. The regulation of our
+     trade was compensation enough for all the protection we ever
+     experienced from her.
+
+     "We shall liberate our constituents from a corrupt House of
+     Commons, but throw them into the arms of an American
+     legislature, that may be bribed by that nation which avows,
+     in the face of the world, that bribery is a part of her
+     system of government.
+
+     "Before we are obliged to pay taxes as they do, let us be as
+     free as they; let us have our trade open with all the world.
+
+     "We are not to consent by the representatives of
+     representatives.
+
+     "I am inclined to think the present measures lead to
+     war."[116]
+
+The only other trace to be discovered of Patrick Henry's activity in
+the debates of this Congress belongs to the day just before the one
+on which Galloway's plan was introduced. The subject then under
+discussion was the measure for non-importation and non-exportation. On
+considerations of forbearance, Henry tried to have the date for the
+application of this measure postponed from November to December,
+saying, characteristically, "We don't mean to hurt even our rascals,
+if we have any."[117]
+
+Probably the most notable work done by this Congress was its
+preparation of those masterly state papers in which it interpreted and
+affirmed the constitutional attitude of the colonies, and which, when
+laid upon the table of the House of Lords, drew forth the splendid
+encomium of Chatham.[118] In many respects the most important, and
+certainly the most difficult, of these state papers, was the address
+to the king. The motion for such an address was made on the 1st of
+October. On the same day the preparation of it was entrusted to a very
+able committee, consisting of Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Thomas
+Johnson, Patrick Henry, and John Rutledge; and on the 21st of October
+the committee was strengthened by the accession of John Dickinson, who
+had entered the Congress but four days before.[119] Precisely what
+part Patrick Henry took in the preparation of this address is not now
+known; but there is no evidence whatever for the assertion[120] that
+the first draft, which, when submitted to Congress, proved to be
+unsatisfactory, was the work of Patrick Henry. That draft, as is now
+abundantly proved, was prepared by the chairman of the committee,
+Richard Henry Lee, but after full instructions from Congress and from
+the committee itself.[121] In its final form, the address was largely
+moulded by the expert and gentle hand of John Dickinson.[122] No one
+can doubt, however, that even though Patrick Henry may have
+contributed nothing to the literary execution of this fine address, he
+was not inactive in its construction,[123] and that he was not likely
+to have suggested any abatement from its free and manly spirit.
+
+The only other committee on which he is known to have served during
+this Congress was one to which his name was added on the 19th of
+September,--"the committee appointed to state the rights of the
+colonies,"[124] an object, certainly, far better suited to the
+peculiarities of his talents and of his temper than that of the
+committee for the conciliation of a king.
+
+Of course, the one gift in which Patrick Henry excelled all other men
+of his time and neighborhood was the gift of eloquence; and it is not
+to be doubted that in many other forms of effort, involving, for
+example, plain sense, practical experience, and knowledge of details,
+he was often equaled, and perhaps even surpassed, by men who had not a
+particle of his genius for oratory. This fact, the analogue of which
+is common in the history of all men of genius, seems to be the basis
+of an anecdote which, possibly, is authentic, and which, at any rate,
+has been handed down by one who was always a devoted friend[125] of
+the great orator. It is said that, after Henry and Lee had made their
+first speeches, Samuel Chase of Maryland was so impressed by their
+superiority that he walked over to the seat of one of his colleagues
+and said: "We might as well go home; we are not able to legislate with
+these men." But some days afterward, perhaps in the midst of the work
+of the committee on the statutes affecting trade and commerce, the
+same member was able to relieve himself by the remark: "Well, after
+all, I find these are but men, and, in mere matters of business, but
+very common men."[126]
+
+It seems hardly right to pass from these studies upon the first
+Continental Congress, and upon Patrick Henry's part in it, without
+some reference to Wirt's treatment of the subject in a book which has
+now been, for nearly three quarters of a century, the chief source of
+public information concerning Patrick Henry. There is perhaps no other
+portion of this book which is less worthy of respect.[127] It is not
+only unhistoric in nearly all the very few alleged facts of the
+narrative, but it does great injustice to Patrick Henry by
+representing him virtually as a mere declaimer, as an ill-instructed
+though most impressive rhapsodist in debate, and as without any claim
+to the character of a serious statesman, or even of a man of affairs;
+while, by the somewhat grandiose and melodramatic tone of some portion
+of the narrative, it is singularly out of harmony with the real tone
+of that famous assemblage,--an assemblage of Anglo-Saxon lawyers,
+politicians, and men of business, who were probably about as practical
+and sober-minded a company as had been got together for any manly
+undertaking since that of Runnymede.
+
+Wirt begins by convening his Congress one day too soon, namely, on the
+4th of September, which was Sunday; and he represents the members as
+"personally strangers" to one another, and as sitting, after their
+preliminary organization, in a "long and deep silence," the members
+meanwhile looking around upon each other with a sort of helpless
+anxiety, "every individual" being reluctant "to open a business so
+fearfully momentous." But
+
+     "in the midst of this deep and death-like silence, and just
+     when it was beginning to become painfully embarrassing, Mr.
+     Henry arose slowly, as if borne down by the weight of the
+     subject. After faltering, according to his habit, through a
+     most impressive exordium, in which he merely echoed back the
+     consciousness of every other heart in deploring his
+     inability to do justice to the occasion, he launched
+     gradually into a recital of the colonial wrongs. Rising, as
+     he advanced, with the grandeur of his subject, and glowing
+     at length with all the majesty and expectation of the
+     occasion, his speech seemed more than that of mortal man.
+     Even those who had heard him in all his glory in the House
+     of Burgesses of Virginia were astonished at the manner in
+     which his talents seemed to swell and expand themselves to
+     fill the vaster theatre in which he was now placed. There
+     was no rant, no rhapsody, no labor of the understanding, no
+     straining of the voice, no confusion of the utterance. His
+     countenance was erect, his eye steady, his action noble, his
+     enunciation clear and firm, his mind poised on its centre,
+     his views of his subject comprehensive and great, and his
+     imagination coruscating with a magnificence and a variety
+     which struck even that assembly with amazement and awe. He
+     sat down amidst murmurs of astonishment and applause; and,
+     as he had been before proclaimed the greatest orator of
+     Virginia, he was now on every hand admitted to be the first
+     orator of America."[128]
+
+This great speech from Patrick Henry, which certainly was not made on
+that occasion, and probably was never made at all, Wirt causes to be
+followed by a great speech from Richard Henry Lee, although the
+journal could have informed him that Lee was not even in the House on
+that day. Moreover, he makes Patrick Henry to be the author of the
+unfortunate first draft of the address to the king,--a document which
+was written by another man; and on this fiction he founds two or three
+pages of lamentation and of homily with reference to Patrick Henry's
+inability to express himself in writing, in consequence of "his early
+neglect of literature." Finally, he thinks it due "to historic truth
+to record that the superior powers" of Patrick Henry "were manifested
+only in debate;" and that, although he and Richard Henry Lee "took the
+undisputed lead in the Assembly," "during the first days of the
+session, while general grievances were the topic," yet they were both
+"completely thrown into the shade" "when called down from the heights
+of declamation to that severer test of intellectual excellence, the
+details of business,"--the writer here seeming to forget that "general
+grievances" were not the topic "during the first days of the session,"
+and that the very speeches by which these two men are said to have
+made their mark there, were speeches on mere rules of the House
+relating to methods of procedure.[129]
+
+Since the death of Wirt, and the publication of the biography of him
+by Kennedy, it has been possible for us to ascertain just how the
+genial author of "The Life and Character of Patrick Henry" came to be
+so gravely misled in this part of his book. "The whole passage
+relative to the first Congress" appears to have been composed from
+data furnished by Jefferson, who, however, was not a member of that
+Congress; and in the original manuscript the very words of Jefferson
+were surrounded with quotation marks, and were attributed to him by
+name. When, however, that great man, who loved not to send out
+calumnies into the world with his own name attached to them, came to
+inspect this portion of Wirt's manuscript, he was moved by his usual
+prudence to write such a letter as drew from Wirt the following
+consolatory assurance:--
+
+     "Your repose shall never be endangered by any act of mine,
+     if I can help it. Immediately on the receipt of your last
+     letter, and before the manuscript had met any other eye, I
+     wrote over again the whole passage relative to the first
+     Congress, omitting the marks of quotation, and removing your
+     name altogether from the communication."[130]
+
+The final adjournment of the first Continental Congress, it will be
+remembered, did not occur until its members had spent together more
+than seven weeks of the closest intellectual intimacy. Surely, no mere
+declaimer however enchanting, no sublime babbler on the rights of man,
+no political charlatan strutting about for the display of his
+preternatural gift of articulate wind, could have grappled in keen
+debate, for all those weeks, on the greatest of earthly subjects, with
+fifty of the ablest men in America, without exposing to their view all
+his own intellectual poverty, and without losing the very last shred
+of their intellectual respect for him. Whatever may have been the
+impression formed of Patrick Henry as a mere orator by his associates
+in that Congress, nothing can be plainer than that those men carried
+with them to their homes that report of him as a man of extraordinary
+intelligence, integrity, and power, which was the basis of his
+subsequent fame for many years among the American people. Long
+afterward, John Adams, who formed his estimate of Patrick Henry
+chiefly from what he saw of him in that Congress, and who was never
+much addicted to bestowing eulogiums on any man but John Adams, wrote
+to Jefferson that "in the Congress of 1774 there was not one member,
+except Patrick Henry, who appeared ... sensible of the precipice, or
+rather the pinnacle, on which we stood, and had candor and courage
+enough to acknowledge it."[131] To Wirt likewise, a few years later,
+the same hard critic of men testified that Patrick Henry always
+impressed him as a person "of deep reflection, keen sagacity, clear
+foresight, daring enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted
+integrity, with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the honor, and
+felicity of his country and his species."[132]
+
+Of the parting interview between these two men, at the close of that
+first period of thorough personal acquaintance, there remains from the
+hand of one of them a graphic account that reveals to us something of
+the conscious kinship which seems ever afterward to have bound
+together their robust and impetuous natures.
+
+     "When Congress," says John Adams, "had finished their
+     business, as they thought, in the autumn of 1774, I had with
+     Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar
+     conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction that
+     our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of wrongs,
+     petitions, remonstrances, and addresses, associations, and
+     non-importation agreements, however they might be expected
+     by the people in America, and however necessary to cement
+     the union of the colonies, would be but waste paper in
+     England. Mr. Henry said they might make some impression
+     among the people of England, but agreed with me that they
+     would be totally lost upon the government. I had but just
+     received a short and hasty letter, written to me by Major
+     Hawley, of Northampton, containing 'a few broken hints,' as
+     he called them, of what he thought was proper to be done,
+     and concluding[133] with these words: 'After all, we must
+     fight.' This letter I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with
+     great attention; and as soon as I had pronounced the words,
+     'After all, we must fight,' he raised his head, and with an
+     energy and vehemence that I can never forget, broke out
+     with: 'By God, I am of that man's mind!'"[134]
+
+This anecdote, it may be mentioned, contains the only instance on
+record, for any period of Patrick Henry's life, implying his use of
+what at first may seem a profane oath. John Adams, upon whose very
+fallible memory in old age the story rests, declares that he did not
+at the time regard Patrick Henry's words as an oath, but rather as a
+solemn asseveration, affirmed religiously, upon a very great occasion.
+At any rate, that asseveration proved to be a prophecy; for from it
+there then leaped a flame that lighted up for an instant the next
+inevitable stage in the evolution of events,--the tragic and bloody
+outcome of all these wary lucubrations and devices of the assembled
+political wizards of America.
+
+It is interesting to note that, at the very time when the Congress at
+Philadelphia was busy with its stern work, the people of Virginia were
+grappling with the peril of an Indian war assailing them from beyond
+their western mountains. There has recently been brought to light a
+letter written at Hanover, on the 15th of October, 1774, by the aged
+mother of Patrick Henry, to a friend living far out towards the
+exposed district; and this letter is a touching memorial both of the
+general anxiety over the two concurrent events, and of the motherly
+pride and piety of the writer:--
+
+     "My son Patrick has been gone to Philadelphia near seven
+     weeks. The affairs of Congress are kept with great secrecy,
+     nobody being allowed to be present. I assure you we have our
+     lowland troubles and fears with respect to Great Britain.
+     Perhaps our good God may bring good to us out of these many
+     evils which threaten us, not only from the mountains but
+     from the seas."[135]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[102] _Washington's Writings_, ii. 503.
+
+[103] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 357.
+
+[104] Meade, _Old Churches and Families of Va._ i. 220, 221.
+
+[105] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 361.
+
+[106] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 357-364.
+
+[107] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 365.
+
+[108] _Am. Quarterly Review_, i. 30, whence it is quoted in _Works of
+John Adams_, iii. 29, 30, note. As regards the value of this testimony
+of Charles Thomson, we should note that it is something alleged to
+have been said by him at the age of ninety, in a conversation with a
+friend, and by the latter reported to the author of the article above
+cited in the _Am. Quart. Rev._
+
+[109] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 365.
+
+[110] It seems to me that the second paragraph on page 366 of volume
+ii. of the _Works of John Adams_ must be taken as his memorandum of
+his own speech; and that what follows on that page, as well as on page
+367, and the first half of page 368, is erroneously understood by the
+editor as belonging to the first day's debate. It must have been an
+outline of the second day's debate. This is proved partly by the fact
+that it mentions Lee as taking part in the debate; but according to
+the journal, Lee did not appear in Congress until the second day. 4
+_Am. Arch._ i. 898.
+
+[111] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 366-368.
+
+[112] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 898, 899.
+
+[113] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 899.
+
+[114] _Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll._ ii. 181.
+
+[115] The text of Galloway's plan is given in 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 905,
+906.
+
+[116] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 390.
+
+[117] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 385.
+
+[118] Hansard, _Parl. Hist._ xviii. 155, 156 note, 157.
+
+[119] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 906, 907, 927.
+
+[120] Wirt, 109.
+
+[121] _Works of John Adams_, x. 79; ii. 396, note; Lee's _Life of R.
+H. Lee_, i. 116-118, 270-272.
+
+[122] _Political Writings_, ii. 19-29.
+
+[123] Thus John Adams, on 11th October, writes: "Spent the evening
+with Mr. Henry at his lodgings consulting about a petition to the
+king." _Works_, ii. 396.
+
+[124] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 904.
+
+[125] Judge John Tyler, in Wirt, 109, note.
+
+[126] For another form of this tradition, see Curtis's _Life of
+Webster_, i. 588.
+
+[127] Pages 105-113.
+
+[128] Wirt, 105, 106.
+
+[129] The exact rules under debate during those first two days are
+given in 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 898, 899.
+
+[130] Kennedy, _Mem. of Wirt_, i. 364.
+
+[131] _Works of John Adams_, x. 78.
+
+[132] _Ibid._ x. 277.
+
+[133] As a matter of fact, the letter from Hawley began with these
+words, instead of "concluding" with them.
+
+[134] _Works of John Adams_, x. 277, 278.
+
+[135] Peyton, _History of Augusta County_, 345, where will be found
+the entire letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+"AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT"
+
+
+We now approach that brilliant passage in the life of Patrick Henry
+when, in the presence of the second revolutionary convention of
+Virginia, he proclaimed the futility of all further efforts for peace,
+and the instant necessity of preparing for war.
+
+The speech which he is said to have made on that occasion has been
+committed to memory and declaimed by several generations of American
+schoolboys, and is now perhaps familiarly known to a larger number of
+the American people than any other considerable bit of secular prose
+in our language. The old church at Richmond, in which he made this
+marvelous speech, is in our time visited every year, as a patriotic
+shrine, by thousands of pilgrims, who seek curiously the very spot
+upon the floor where the orator is believed to have stood when he
+uttered those words of flame. It is chiefly the tradition of that one
+speech which to-day keeps alive, in millions of American homes, the
+name of Patrick Henry, and which lifts him, in the popular faith,
+almost to the rank of some mythical hero of romance.
+
+In reality, that speech, and the resolutions in support of which that
+speech was made, constituted Patrick Henry's individual declaration of
+war against Great Britain. But the question is: To what extent, if
+any, was he therein original, or even in advance of his
+fellow-countrymen, and particularly of his associates in the Virginia
+convention?
+
+It is essential to a just understanding of the history of that crisis
+in revolutionary thought, and it is of very high importance, likewise,
+to the historic position of Patrick Henry, that no mistake be
+committed here; especially that he be not made the victim of a
+disastrous reaction from any overstatement[136] respecting the precise
+nature and extent of the service then rendered by him to the cause of
+the Revolution.
+
+We need, therefore, to glance for a moment at the period between
+October, 1774, and March, 1775, with the purpose of tracing therein
+the more important tokens of the growth of the popular conviction that
+a war with Great Britain had become inevitable, and was to be
+immediately prepared for by the several colonies,--two propositions
+which form the substance of all that Patrick Henry said on the great
+occasion now before us.
+
+As early as the 21st of October, 1774, the first Continental
+Congress, after having suggested all possible methods for averting
+war, made this solemn declaration to the people of the colonies: "We
+think ourselves bound in duty to observe to you that the schemes
+agitated against these colonies have been so conducted as to render it
+prudent that you should extend your views to mournful events, and be
+in all respects prepared for every emergency."[137] Just six days
+later, John Dickinson, a most conservative and peace-loving member of
+that Congress, wrote to an American friend in England: "I wish for
+peace ardently; but must say, delightful as it is, it will come more
+grateful by being unexpected. The first act of violence on the part of
+administration in America, or the attempt to reinforce General Gage
+this winter or next year, will put the whole continent in arms, from
+Nova Scotia to Georgia."[138] On the following day, the same prudent
+statesman wrote to another American friend, also in England: "The most
+peaceful provinces are now animated; and a civil war is unavoidable,
+unless there be a quick change of British measures."[139] On the 29th
+of October, the eccentric Charles Lee, who was keenly watching the
+symptoms of colonial discontent and resistance, wrote from
+Philadelphia to an English nobleman: "Virginia, Rhode Island, and
+Carolina are forming corps. Massachusetts Bay has long had a
+sufficient number instructed to become instructive of the rest. Even
+this Quakering province is following the example.... In short, unless
+the banditti at Westminster speedily undo everything they have done,
+their royal paymaster will hear of reviews and manoeuvres not quite so
+entertaining as those he is presented with in Hyde Park and Wimbledon
+Common."[140] On the 1st of November, a gentleman in Maryland wrote to
+a kinsman in Glasgow: "The province of Virginia is raising one company
+in every county.... This province has taken the hint, and has begun to
+raise men in every county also; and to the northward they have large
+bodies, capable of acquitting themselves with honor in the
+field."[141] At about the same time, the General Assembly of
+Connecticut ordered that every town should at once supply itself with
+"double the quantity of powder, balls, and flints" that had been
+hitherto required by law.[142] On the 5th of November, the officers of
+the Virginia troops accompanying Lord Dunmore on his campaign against
+the Indians held a meeting at Fort Gower, on the Ohio River, and
+passed this resolution: "That we will exert every power within us for
+the defence of American liberty, and for the support of her just
+rights and privileges, not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous
+manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our
+countrymen."[143] Not far from the same time, the people of Rhode
+Island carried off to Providence from the batteries at Newport
+forty-four pieces of cannon; and the governor frankly told the
+commander of a British naval force near at hand that they had done
+this in order to prevent these cannon from falling into his hands, and
+with the purpose of using them against "any power that might offer to
+molest the colony."[144] Early in December, the Provincial Convention
+of Maryland recommended that all persons between sixteen and fifty
+years of age should form themselves into military companies, and "be
+in readiness to act on any emergency,"--with a sort of grim humor
+prefacing their recommendation by this exquisite morsel of
+argumentative irony:--
+
+     "_Resolved_ unanimously, that a well-regulated militia,
+     composed of the gentlemen freeholders and other freemen, is
+     the natural strength and only stable security of a free
+     government; and that such militia will relieve our mother
+     country from any expense in our protection and defence, will
+     obviate the pretence of a necessity for taxing us on that
+     account, and render it unnecessary to keep any standing
+     army--ever dangerous to liberty--in this province."[145]
+
+The shrewdness of this courteous political thrust on the part of the
+convention of Maryland seems to have been so heartily relished by
+others that it was thenceforward used again and again by similar
+conventions elsewhere; and in fact, for the next few months, these
+sentences became almost the stereotyped formula by which revolutionary
+assemblages justified the arming and drilling of the militia,--as,
+for example, that of Newcastle County, Delaware,[146] on the 21st of
+December; that of Fairfax County, Virginia,[147] on the 17th of
+January, 1775; and that of Augusta County, Virginia,[148] on the 22d
+of February.
+
+In the mean time Lord Dunmore was not blind to all these military
+preparations in Virginia; and so early as the 24th of December, 1774,
+he had written to the Earl of Dartmouth: "Every county, besides, is
+now arming a company of men, whom they call an independent company,
+for the avowed purpose of protecting their committees, and to be
+employed against government, if occasion require."[149] Moreover, this
+alarming fact of military preparation, which Lord Dunmore had thus
+reported concerning Virginia, could have been reported with equal
+truth concerning nearly every other colony. In the early part of
+January, 1775, the Assembly of Connecticut gave order that the entire
+militia of that colony should be mustered every week.[150] In the
+latter part of January, the provincial convention of Pennsylvania,
+though representing a colony of Quakers, boldly proclaimed that, if
+the administration "should determine by force to effect a submission
+to the late arbitrary acts of the British Parliament," it would
+"resist such force, and at every hazard ... defend the rights and
+liberties of America."[151] On the 15th of February, the Provincial
+Congress of Massachusetts urged the people to "spare neither time,
+pains, nor expense, at so critical a juncture, in perfecting
+themselves forthwith in military discipline."[152]
+
+When, therefore, so late as Monday, the 20th of March, 1775, the
+second revolutionary convention of Virginia assembled at Richmond, its
+members were well aware that one of the chief measures to come before
+them for consideration must be that of recognizing the local military
+preparations among their own constituents, and of placing them all
+under some common organization and control. Accordingly, on Thursday,
+the 23d of March, after three days had been given to necessary
+preliminary subjects, the inevitable subject of military preparations
+was reached. Then it was that Patrick Henry took the floor and moved
+the adoption of the following resolutions, supporting his motion,
+undoubtedly, with a speech:--
+
+     "_Resolved_, That a well-regulated militia, composed of
+     gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength and only
+     security of a free government; that such a militia in this
+     colony would forever render it unnecessary for the mother
+     country to keep among us for the purpose of our defence any
+     standing army of mercenary forces, always subversive of the
+     quiet and dangerous to the liberties of the people, and
+     would obviate the pretext of taxing us for their support.
+
+     "_Resolved_, That the establishment of such a militia is at
+     this time peculiarly necessary, by the state of our laws for
+     the protection and defence of the country, some of which
+     have already expired, and others will shortly do so; and
+     that the known remissness of government in calling us
+     together in a legislative capacity, renders it too insecure,
+     in this time of danger and distress, to rely that
+     opportunity will be given of renewing them in general
+     assembly, or making any provision to secure our inestimable
+     rights and liberties from those further violations with
+     which they are threatened.
+
+     "_Resolved, therefore_, That this colony be immediately put
+     into a posture of defence; and that ... be a committee to
+     prepare a plan for the embodying, arming, and disciplining
+     such a number of men as may be sufficient for that
+     purpose."[153]
+
+No one who reads these resolutions in the light of the facts just
+given, can find in them anything by which to account for the
+opposition which they are known to have met with in that assemblage.
+For that assemblage, it must be remembered, was not the Virginia
+legislature: it was a mere convention, and a revolutionary convention
+at that, gathered in spite of the objections of Lord Dunmore,
+representing simply the deliberate purpose of those Virginians who
+meant not finally to submit to unjust laws; some of its members,
+likewise, being under express instructions from their constituents to
+take measures for the immediate and adequate military organization of
+the colony. Not a man, probably, was sent to that convention, not a
+man surely would have gone to it, who was not in substantial sympathy
+with the prevailing revolutionary spirit.
+
+Of course, even they who were in sympathy with that spirit might have
+objected to Patrick Henry's resolutions, had those resolutions been
+marked by any startling novelty in doctrine, or by anything extreme or
+violent in expression. But, plainly, they were neither extreme nor
+violent; they were not even novel. They contained nothing essential
+which had not been approved, in almost the same words, more than three
+months before, by similar conventions in Maryland and in Delaware;
+which had not been approved, in almost the same words, many weeks
+before, by county conventions in Virginia,--in one instance, by a
+county convention presided over by Washington himself; which had not
+been approved, in other language, either weeks or months before, by
+Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and other
+colonies; which was not sanctioned by the plainest prudence on the
+part of all persons who intended to make any further stand whatsoever
+against the encroachments of Parliament. It is safe to say that no man
+who had within him enough of the revolutionary spirit to have prompted
+his attendance at a revolutionary convention could have objected to
+any essential item in Patrick Henry's resolutions.
+
+Why, then, were they objected to? Why was their immediate passage
+resisted? The official journal of the convention throws no light upon
+the question: it records merely the adoption of the resolutions, and
+is entirely silent respecting any discussion that they may have
+provoked. Thirty years afterward, however, St. George Tucker, who,
+though not a member of this convention, had yet as a visitor watched
+its proceedings that day, gave from memory some account of them; and
+to him we are indebted for the names of the principal men who stood
+out against Patrick Henry's motion. "This produced," he says, "an
+animated debate, in which Colonel Richard Bland, Mr. Nicholas, the
+treasurer, and I think Colonel Harrison, of Berkeley, and Mr.
+Pendleton, were opposed to the resolution, as conceiving it to be
+premature;"[154] all these men being prudent politicians, indeed, but
+all fully committed to the cause of the Revolution.
+
+At first, this testimony may seem to leave us as much in the dark as
+before; and yet all who are familiar with the politics of Virginia at
+that period will see in this cluster of names some clew to the secret
+of their opposition. It was an opposition to Patrick Henry himself,
+and as far as possible to any measure of which he should be the
+leading champion. Yet even this is not enough. Whatever may have been
+their private motives in resisting a measure advocated by Patrick
+Henry, they must still have had some reason which they would be
+willing to assign. St. George Tucker tells us that they conceived his
+resolutions to be "premature." But in themselves his resolutions, so
+far from being premature, were rather tardy; they lagged weeks and
+even months behind many of the best counties in Virginia itself, as
+well as behind those other colonies to which in political feeling
+Virginia was always most nearly akin.
+
+The only possible explanation of the case seems to be found, not in
+the resolutions themselves, but in the special interpretation put upon
+them by Patrick Henry in the speech which, according to parliamentary
+usage, he seems to have made in moving their adoption. What was that
+interpretation? In the true answer to that question, no doubt, lies
+the secret of the resistance which his motion encountered. For, down
+to that day, no public body in America, and no public man, had openly
+spoken of a war with Great Britain in any more decisive way than as a
+thing highly probable, indeed, but still not inevitable. At last
+Patrick Henry spoke of it, and he wanted to induce the convention of
+Virginia to speak of it, as a thing inevitable. Others had said, "The
+war must come, and will come,--unless certain things are done."
+Patrick Henry, brushing away every prefix or suffix of uncertainty,
+every half-despairing "if," every fragile and pathetic "unless,"
+exclaimed, in the hearing of all men: "Why talk of things being now
+done which can avert the war? Such things will not be done. The war is
+coming: it has come already." Accordingly, other conventions in the
+colonies, in adopting similar resolutions, had merely announced the
+probability of war. Patrick Henry would have this convention, by
+adopting his resolutions, virtually declare war itself.
+
+In this alone, it is apparent, consisted the real priority and
+offensiveness of Patrick Henry's position as a revolutionary statesman
+on the 23d of March, 1775. In this alone were his resolutions
+"premature." The very men who opposed them because they were to be
+understood as closing the door against the possibility of peace, would
+have favored them had they only left that door open, or even ajar. But
+Patrick Henry demanded of the people of Virginia that they should
+treat all further talk of peace as mere prattle; that they should
+seize the actual situation by a bold grasp of it in front; that,
+looking upon the war as a fact, they should instantly proceed to get
+ready for it. And therein, once more, in revolutionary ideas, was
+Patrick Henry one full step in advance of his contemporaries. Therein,
+once more, did he justify the reluctant praise of Jefferson, who was a
+member of that convention, and who, nearly fifty years afterward, said
+concerning Patrick Henry to a great statesman from Massachusetts:
+"After all, it must be allowed that he was our leader in the measures
+of the Revolution in Virginia, and in that respect more is due to him
+than to any other person.... He left all of us far behind."[155]
+
+Such, at any rate, we have a right to suppose, was the substantial
+issue presented by the resolutions of Patrick Henry, and by his
+introductory speech in support of them; and upon this issue the little
+group of politicians--able and patriotic men, who always opposed his
+leadership--then arrayed themselves against him, making the most,
+doubtless, of everything favoring the possibility and the
+desirableness of a peaceful adjustment of the great dispute. But their
+opposition to him only produced the usual result,--of arousing him to
+an effort which simply overpowered and scattered all further
+resistance. It was in review of their whole quivering platoon of hopes
+and fears, of doubts, cautions, and delays, that he then made the
+speech which seems to have wrought astonishing effects upon those who
+heard it, and which, though preserved in a most inadequate report, now
+fills so great a space in the traditions of revolutionary eloquence:--
+
+     "'No man, Mr. President, thinks more highly than I do of the
+     patriotism, as well as the abilities, of the very honorable
+     gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different
+     men often see the same subject in different lights; and,
+     therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to
+     those gentlemen if, entertaining, as I do, opinions of a
+     character very opposite to theirs, I should speak forth my
+     sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for
+     ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful
+     moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as
+     nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery. And in
+     proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the
+     freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can
+     hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility
+     which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my
+     opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I
+     should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my
+     country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty of
+     Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
+
+     "'Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the
+     illusions of Hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a
+     painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she
+     transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men,
+     engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we
+     disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see
+     not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly
+     concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever
+     anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the
+     whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
+
+     "'I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that
+     is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of
+     the future but by the past. And, judging by the past, I wish
+     to know what there has been in the conduct of the British
+     ministry, for the last ten years, to justify those hopes
+     with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves
+     and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our
+     petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it
+     will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be
+     betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious
+     reception of our petition comports with those warlike
+     preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are
+     fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and
+     reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be
+     reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our
+     love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the
+     implements of war and subjugation,--the last arguments to
+     which kings resort.
+
+     "'I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if
+     its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen
+     assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain
+     any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this
+     accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none.
+     They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They
+     are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which
+     the British ministry have been so long forging.
+
+     "'And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument?
+     Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have
+     we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have
+     held the subject up in every light of which it is capable;
+     but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty,
+     and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have
+     not been already exhausted?
+
+     "'Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.
+     Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the
+     storm which is now coming on. 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. Our petitions have been slighted; our
+     remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult;
+     our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been
+     spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne.
+
+     "'In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope
+     of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for
+     hope. 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! I repeat it, sir,--we must fight! An appeal to
+     arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us.'"
+
+Up to this point in his address, the orator seems to have spoken with
+great deliberation and self-restraint. St. George Tucker, who was
+present, and who has left a written statement of his recollections
+both of the speech and of the scene, says:--
+
+     "It was on that occasion that I first felt a full impression
+     of Mr. Henry's powers. In vain should I attempt to give any
+     idea of his speech. He was calm and collected; touched upon
+     the origin and progress of the dispute between Great Britain
+     and the colonies, the various conciliatory measures adopted
+     by the latter, and the uniformly increasing tone of violence
+     and arrogance on the part of the former."
+
+Then follows, in Tucker's narrative, the passage included in the last
+two paragraphs of the speech as given above, after which he adds:--
+
+     "Imagine to yourself this speech delivered with all the calm
+     dignity of Cato of Utica; imagine to yourself the Roman
+     senate assembled in the capitol when it was entered by the
+     profane Gauls, who at first were awed by their presence as
+     if they had entered an assembly of the gods; imagine that
+     you heard that Cato addressing such a senate; imagine that
+     you saw the handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar's palace;
+     imagine you heard a voice as from heaven uttering the words,
+     'We must fight!' as the doom of fate,--and you may have some
+     idea of the speaker, the assembly to whom he addressed
+     himself, and the auditory of which I was one."[156]
+
+But, by a comparison of this testimony of St. George Tucker with that
+of others who heard the speech, it is made evident that, as the orator
+then advanced toward the conclusion and real climax of his argument,
+he no longer maintained "the calm dignity of Cato of Utica," but that
+his manner gradually deepened into an intensity of passion and a
+dramatic power which were overwhelming. He thus continued:--
+
+     "'They tell us, sir, that we are weak,--unable to cope with
+     so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger?
+     Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when
+     we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be
+     stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by
+     irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of
+     effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and
+     hugging the delusive phantom of Hope, until our enemies
+     shall have bound us hand and foot?
+
+     "'Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those
+     means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
+     Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of
+     liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are
+     invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
+
+     "'Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There
+     is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations,
+     and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
+     The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone: it is to the
+     vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no
+     election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too
+     late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in
+     submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their
+     clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is
+     inevitable. And let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
+
+     "'It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may
+     cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. The war is actually
+     begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring
+     to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are
+     already in the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it
+     that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear,
+     or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains
+     and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
+     others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me
+     death!'"
+
+Of this tremendous speech there are in existence two traditional
+descriptions, neither of which is inconsistent with the testimony
+given by St. George Tucker. He, as a lawyer and a judge, seems to have
+retained the impression of that portion of the speech which was the
+more argumentative and unimpassioned: the two other reporters seem to
+have remembered especially its later and more emotional passages. Our
+first traditional description was obtained by Henry Stephens Randall
+from a clergyman, who had it from an aged friend, also a clergyman,
+who heard the speech itself:--
+
+     "Henry rose with an unearthly fire burning in his eye. He
+     commenced somewhat calmly, but the smothered excitement
+     began more and more to play upon his features and thrill in
+     the tones of his voice. The tendons of his neck stood out
+     white and rigid like whip-cords. His voice rose louder and
+     louder, until the walls of the building, and all within
+     them, seemed to shake and rock in its tremendous vibrations.
+     Finally, his pale face and glaring eye became terrible to
+     look upon. Men leaned forward in their seats, with their
+     heads strained forward, their faces pale, and their eyes
+     glaring like the speaker's. His last exclamation, 'Give me
+     liberty, or give me death!' was like the shout of the leader
+     which turns back the rout of battle. The old man from whom
+     this tradition was derived added that, 'when the orator sat
+     down, he himself felt sick with excitement. Every eye yet
+     gazed entranced on Henry. It seemed as if a word from him
+     would have led to any wild explosion of violence. Men looked
+     beside themselves.'"[157]
+
+The second traditional description of the speech is here given from a
+manuscript[158] of Edward Fontaine, who obtained it in 1834 from John
+Roane, who himself heard the speech. Roane told Fontaine that the
+orator's "voice, countenance, and gestures gave an irresistible force
+to his words, which no description could make intelligible to one who
+had never seen him, nor heard him speak;" but, in order to convey some
+notion of the orator's manner, Roane described the delivery of the
+closing sentences of the speech:--
+
+     "You remember, sir, the conclusion of the speech, so often
+     declaimed in various ways by school-boys,--'Is life so dear,
+     or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains
+     and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
+     others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me
+     death!' He gave each of these words a meaning which is not
+     conveyed by the reading or delivery of them in the ordinary
+     way. When he said, 'Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as
+     to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?' he
+     stood in the attitude of a condemned galley slave, loaded
+     with fetters, awaiting his doom. His form was bowed; his
+     wrists were crossed; his manacles were almost visible as he
+     stood like an embodiment of helplessness and agony. After a
+     solemn pause, he raised his eyes and chained hands towards
+     heaven, and prayed, in words and tones which thrilled every
+     heart, 'Forbid it, Almighty God!' He then turned towards the
+     timid loyalists of the House, who were quaking with terror
+     at the idea of the consequences of participating in
+     proceedings which would be visited with the penalties of
+     treason by the British crown; and he slowly bent his form
+     yet nearer to the earth, and said, 'I know not what course
+     others may take,' and he accompanied the words with his
+     hands still crossed, while he seemed to be weighed down with
+     additional chains. The man appeared transformed into an
+     oppressed, heart-broken, and hopeless felon. After
+     remaining in this posture of humiliation long enough to
+     impress the imagination with the condition of the colony
+     under the iron heel of military despotism, he arose proudly,
+     and exclaimed, 'but as for me,'--and the words hissed
+     through his clenched teeth, while his body was thrown back,
+     and every muscle and tendon was strained against the fetters
+     which bound him, and, with his countenance distorted by
+     agony and rage, he looked for a moment like Laocoon in a
+     death struggle with coiling serpents; then the loud, clear,
+     triumphant notes, 'Give me liberty,' electrified the
+     assembly. It was not a prayer, but a stern demand, which
+     would submit to no refusal or delay. The sound of his voice,
+     as he spoke these memorable words, was like that of a
+     Spartan paean on the field of Plataea; and, as each syllable
+     of the word 'liberty' echoed through the building, his
+     fetters were shivered; his arms were hurled apart; and the
+     links of his chains were scattered to the winds. When he
+     spoke the word 'liberty' with an emphasis never given it
+     before, his hands were open, and his arms elevated and
+     extended; his countenance was radiant; he stood erect and
+     defiant; while the sound of his voice and the sublimity of
+     his attitude made him appear a magnificent incarnation of
+     Freedom, and expressed all that can be acquired or enjoyed
+     by nations and individuals invincible and free. After a
+     momentary pause, only long enough to permit the echo of the
+     word 'liberty' to cease, he let his left hand fall powerless
+     to his side, and clenched his right hand firmly, as if
+     holding a dagger with the point aimed at his breast. He
+     stood like a Roman senator defying Caesar, while the
+     unconquerable spirit of Cato of Utica flashed from every
+     feature; and he closed the grand appeal with the solemn
+     words, 'or give me death!' which sounded with the awful
+     cadence of a hero's dirge, fearless of death, and victorious
+     in death; and he suited the action to the word by a blow
+     upon the left breast with the right hand, which seemed to
+     drive the dagger to the patriot's heart."[159]
+
+Before passing from this celebrated speech, it is proper to say
+something respecting the authenticity of the version of it which has
+come down to us, and which is now so universally known in America. The
+speech is given in these pages substantially as it was given by Wirt
+in his "Life of Henry." Wirt himself does not mention whence he
+obtained his version; and all efforts to discover that version as a
+whole, in any writing prior to Wirt's book, have thus far been
+unsuccessful. These facts have led even so genial a critic as Grigsby
+to incline to the opinion that "much of the speech published by Wirt
+is apocryphal."[160] It would, indeed, be an odd thing, and a source
+of no little disturbance to many minds, if such should turn out to be
+the case, and if we should have to conclude that an apocryphal speech
+written by Wirt, and attributed by him to Patrick Henry fifteen years
+after the great orator's death, had done more to perpetuate the renown
+of Patrick Henry's oratory than had been done by any and all the words
+actually spoken by the orator himself during his lifetime. On the
+other hand, it should be said that Grigsby himself admits that "the
+outline of the argument" and "some of its expressions" are undoubtedly
+"authentic." That this is so is apparent, likewise, from the written
+recollections of St. George Tucker, wherein the substance of the
+speech is given, besides one entire passage in almost the exact
+language of the version by Wirt. Finally, John Roane, in 1834, in his
+conversation with Edward Fontaine, is said to have "verified the
+correctness of the speech as it was written by Judge Tyler for Mr.
+Wirt."[161] This, unfortunately, is the only intimation that has
+anywhere been found attributing Wirt's version to the excellent
+authority of Judge John Tyler. If the statement could be confirmed, it
+would dispel every difficulty at once. But, even though the statement
+should be set aside, enough would still remain to justify us in
+thinking that Wirt's version of the famous speech by no means deserves
+to be called "apocryphal," in any such sense as that word has when
+applied, for example, to the speeches in Livy and in Thucydides, or in
+Botta. In the first place, Wirt's version certainly gives the
+substance of the speech as actually made by Patrick Henry on the
+occasion named; and, for the form of it, Wirt seems to have gathered
+testimony from all available living witnesses, and then, from such
+sentences or snatches of sentences as these witnesses could remember,
+as well as from his own conception of the orator's method of
+expression, to have constructed the version which he has handed down
+to us. Even in that case, it is probably far more accurate and
+authentic than are most of the famous speeches attributed to public
+characters before reporters' galleries were opened, and before the art
+of reporting was brought to its present perfection.
+
+Returning, now, from this long account of Patrick Henry's most
+celebrated speech, to the assemblage in which it was made, it remains
+to be mentioned that the resolutions, as offered by Patrick Henry,
+were carried; and that the committee, called for by those resolutions,
+to prepare a plan for "embodying, arming, and disciplining" the
+militia,[162] was at once appointed. Of this committee Patrick Henry
+was chairman; and with him were associated Richard Henry Lee,
+Nicholas, Harrison, Riddick, Washington, Stephen, Lewis, Christian,
+Pendleton, Jefferson, and Zane. On the following day, Friday, the 24th
+of March, the committee brought in its report, which was laid over for
+one day, and then, after some amendment, was unanimously adopted.
+
+The convention did not close its labors until Monday, the 27th of
+March. The contemporaneous estimate of Patrick Henry, not merely as a
+leader in debate, but as a constitutional lawyer, and as a man of
+affairs, may be partly gathered from the fact of his connection with
+each of the two other important committees of this convention,--the
+committee "to inquire whether his majesty may of right advance the
+terms of granting lands in this colony,"[163] on which his associates
+were the great lawyers, Bland, Jefferson, Nicholas, and Pendleton; and
+the committee "to prepare a plan for the encouragement of arts and
+manufactures in this colony,"[164] on which his associates were
+Nicholas, Bland, Mercer, Pendleton, Cary, Carter of Stafford,
+Harrison, Richard Henry Lee, Clapham, Washington, Holt, and Newton.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[136] For an example of such overstatement, see Wirt, 114-123. See,
+also, the damaging comments thereon by Rives, _Life of Madison_, i.
+63, 64.
+
+[137] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 928.
+
+[138] 4 _Ibid._ i. 947.
+
+[139] _Ibid._
+
+[140] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 949, 950.
+
+[141] _Ibid._ i. 953.
+
+[142] _Ibid._ 858.
+
+[143] _Ibid._ i. 963.
+
+[144] Hildreth, iii. 52.
+
+[145] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 1032.
+
+[146] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 1022.
+
+[147] _Ibid._ i. 1145.
+
+[148] _Ibid._ i. 1254.
+
+[149] _Ibid._ i. 1062.
+
+[150] _Ibid._ i. 1139.
+
+[151] _Ibid._ i. 1171.
+
+[152] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 1340.
+
+[153] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 167, 168.
+
+[154] MS.
+
+[155] Curtis, _Life of Webster_, i. 585.
+
+[156] MS.
+
+[157] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 101, 102.
+
+[158] Now in the library of Cornell University.
+
+[159] MS.
+
+[160] _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 150, note.
+
+[161] MS.
+
+[162] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 168.
+
+[163] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1742.
+
+[164] _Ibid._ 170.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE RAPE OF THE GUNPOWDER
+
+
+Several of the famous men of the Revolution, whose distinction is now
+exclusively that of civilians, are supposed to have cherished very
+decided military aspirations; to have been rather envious of the more
+vivid renown acquired by some of their political associates who left
+the senate for the field; and, indeed, to have made occasional efforts
+to secure for themselves the opportunity for glory in the same pungent
+and fascinating form. A notable example of this class of Revolutionary
+civilians with abortive military desires, is John Hancock. In June,
+1775, when Congress had before it the task of selecting one who should
+be the military leader of the uprisen colonists, John Hancock, seated
+in the president's chair, gave unmistakable signs of thinking that the
+choice ought to fall upon himself. While John Adams was speaking in
+general terms of the military situation, involving, of course, the
+need of a commander-in-chief, Hancock heard him "with visible
+pleasure;" but when the orator came to point out Washington as the man
+best fitted for the leadership, "a sudden and striking change" came
+over the countenance of the president. "Mortification and resentment
+were expressed as forcibly as his face could exhibit them;"[165] and
+it is probable that, to the end of his days, he was never able
+entirely to forgive Washington for having carried off the martial
+glory that he had really believed to be within his own reach. But even
+John Adams, who so pitilessly unveiled the baffled military desires of
+Hancock, was perhaps not altogether unacquainted with similar emotions
+in his own soul. Fully three weeks prior to that notable scene in
+Congress, in a letter to his wife in which he was speaking of the
+amazing military spirit then running through the continent, and of the
+military appointments then held by several of his Philadelphia
+friends, he exclaimed in his impulsive way, "Oh that I were a soldier!
+I will be."[166] And on the very day on which he joined in the escort
+of the new generals, Washington, Lee, and Schuyler, on their first
+departure from Philadelphia for the American camp, he sent off to his
+wife a characteristic letter revealing something of the anguish with
+which he, a civilian, viewed the possibility of his being at a
+disadvantage with these military men in the race for glory:--
+
+     "The three generals were all mounted on horseback,
+     accompanied by Major Mifflin, who is gone in the character
+     of aide-de-camp. All the delegates from the Massachusetts,
+     with their servants and carriages, attended. Many others of
+     the delegates from the Congress; a large troop of light
+     horse in their uniforms; many officers of militia, besides,
+     in theirs; music playing, etc., etc. Such is the pride and
+     pomp of war. I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for
+     my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health,
+     must leave to others to wear the laurels which I have sown;
+     others to eat the bread which I have earned."[167]
+
+Of Patrick Henry, however, it may be said that his permanent fame as
+an orator and a statesman has almost effaced the memory of the fact
+that, in the first year of the war, he had considerable prominence as
+a soldier; that it was then believed by many, and very likely by
+himself, that, having done as much as any man to bring on the war, he
+was next to do as much as any man in the actual conduct of it, and was
+thus destined to add to a civil renown of almost unapproached
+brilliance, a similar renown for splendid talents in the field. At any
+rate, the "first overt act of war" in Virginia, as Jefferson
+testifies,[168] was committed by Patrick Henry. The first physical
+resistance to a royal governor, which in Massachusetts was made by the
+embattled farmers at Lexington and Concord, was made in Virginia
+almost as early, under the direction and inspiration of Patrick
+Henry's leadership. In the first organization of the Revolutionary
+army in Virginia, the chief command was given to Patrick Henry.
+Finally, that he never had the opportunity of proving in battle
+whether or not he had military talents, and that, after some months of
+nominal command, he was driven by a series of official slights into an
+abandonment of his military career, may have been occasioned solely by
+a proper distrust of his military capacity on the part of the Virginia
+Committee of Safety, or it may have been due in some measure to the
+unslumbering jealousy of him which was at the time attributed to the
+leading members of that committee. The purpose of this chapter, and of
+the next, will be to present a rapid grouping of these incidents in
+his life,--incidents which now have the appearance of a mere episode,
+but which once seemed the possible beginnings of a deliberate and
+conspicuous military career.
+
+Within the city of Williamsburg, at the period now spoken of, had long
+been kept the public storehouse for gunpowder and arms. In the dead of
+the night[169] preceding the 21st of April, 1775,--a little less than
+a month, therefore, after the convention of Virginia had proclaimed
+the inevitable approach of a war with Great Britain,--a detachment of
+marines from the armed schooner Magdalen, then lying in the James
+River, stealthily visited this storehouse, and, taking thence fifteen
+half-barrels of gunpowder,[170] carried them off in Lord Dunmore's
+wagon to Burwell's Ferry, and put them on board their vessel. Of
+course, the news of this exploit flew fast through the colony, and
+everywhere awoke alarm and exasperation. Soon some thousands of armed
+men made ready to march to the capital to demand the restoration of
+the gunpowder. On Tuesday, the 25th of April, the independent company
+of Fredericksburg notified their colonel, George Washington, that,
+with his approbation, they would be prepared to start for Williamsburg
+on the following Saturday, "properly accoutred as light-horsemen," and
+in conjunction with "any other bodies of armed men who" might be
+"willing to appear in support of the honor of Virginia."[171]
+
+Similar messages were promptly sent to Washington from the independent
+companies of Prince William[172] and Albemarle counties.[173] On
+Wednesday, the 26th of April, the men in arms who had already arrived
+at Fredericksburg sent to the capital a swift messenger "to inquire
+whether the gunpowder had been replaced in the public magazine."[174]
+On Saturday, the 29th,--being the day already fixed for the march upon
+Williamsburg,--one hundred and two gentlemen, representing fourteen
+companies of light-horse, met in council at Fredericksburg, and, after
+considering a letter from the venerable Peyton Randolph which their
+messenger had brought back with him, particularly Randolph's assurance
+that the affair of the gunpowder was to be satisfactorily arranged,
+came to the resolution that they would proceed no further at that
+time; adding, however, this solemn declaration: "We do now pledge
+ourselves to each other to be in readiness, at a moment's warning, to
+reassemble, and by force of arms to defend the law, the liberty, and
+rights of this or any sister colony from unjust and wicked
+invasion."[175]
+
+It is at this point that Patrick Henry comes upon the scene. Thus far,
+during the trouble, he appears to have been watching events from his
+home in Hanover County. As soon, however, as word was brought to him
+of the tame conclusion thus reached by the assembled warriors at
+Fredericksburg, his soul took fire at the lamentable mistake which he
+thought they had made. To him it seemed on every account the part of
+wisdom that the blow, which would have to be "struck sooner or later,
+should be struck at once, before an overwhelming force should enter
+the colony;" that the spell by which the people were held in a sort of
+superstitious awe of the governor should be broken; "that the military
+resources of the country should be developed;" that the people should
+be made to "see and feel their strength by being brought out together;
+that the revolution should be set in actual motion in the colony; that
+the martial prowess of the country should be awakened, and the
+soldiery animated by that proud and resolute confidence which a
+successful enterprise in the commencement of a contest never fails to
+inspire."[176]
+
+Accordingly, he resolved that, as the troops lately rendezvoused at
+Fredericksburg had forborne to strike this needful blow, he would
+endeavor to repair the mistake by striking it himself. At once,
+therefore, he despatched expresses to the officers and men of the
+independent company of his own county, "requesting them to meet him in
+arms at New Castle on the second of May, on business of the highest
+importance to American liberty."[177] He also summoned the county
+committee to meet him at the same time and place.
+
+At the place and time appointed his neighbors were duly assembled; and
+when he had laid before them, in a speech of wonderful eloquence, his
+view of the situation, they instantly resolved to put themselves under
+his command, and to march at once to the capital, either to recover
+the gunpowder itself, or to make reprisals on the king's property
+sufficient to replace it. Without delay the march began, Captain
+Patrick Henry leading. By sunset of the following day, they had got as
+far as to Doncastle's Ordinary, about sixteen miles from Williamsburg,
+and there rested for the night. Meantime, the news that Patrick Henry
+was marching with armed men straight against Lord Dunmore, to demand
+the restoration of the gunpowder or payment for it, carried
+exhilaration or terror in all directions. On the one hand, many
+prudent and conservative gentlemen were horrified at his rashness,
+and sent messenger after messenger to beg him to stay his fearful
+proceeding, to turn about, and to go home.[178] On the other hand, as
+the word flew from county to county that Patrick Henry had taken up
+the people's cause in this vigorous fashion, five thousand men sprang
+to arms, and started across the country to join the ranks of his
+followers, and to lend a hand in case of need. At Williamsburg, the
+rumor of his approach brought on a scene of consternation. The wife
+and family of Lord Dunmore were hurried away to a place of safety.
+Further down the river, the commander of his majesty's ship Fowey was
+notified that "his excellency the Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia,"
+was "threatened with an attack at daybreak, ... at his palace at
+Williamsburg;" and for his defence was speedily sent off a detachment
+of marines.[179] Before daybreak, however, the governor seems to have
+come to the prudent decision to avert, by a timely settlement with
+Patrick Henry, the impending attack; and accordingly, soon after
+daybreak, a messenger arrived at Doncastle's Ordinary, there to tender
+immediate satisfaction in money for the gunpowder that had been
+ravished away.[180] The troops, having already resumed their march,
+were halted; and soon a settlement of the trouble was effected,
+according to the terms of the following singular document:--
+
+                    DONCASTLE'S ORDINARY, NEW KENT, May 4, 1775.
+
+     Received from the Honorable Richard Corbin, Esq., his
+     majesty's receiver-general, L330, as a compensation for the
+     gunpowder lately taken out of the public magazine by the
+     governor's order; which money I promise to convey to the
+     Virginia delegates at the General Congress, to be under
+     their direction laid out in gunpowder for the colony's use,
+     and to be stored as they shall direct, until the next colony
+     convention or General Assembly; unless it shall be
+     necessary, in the mean time, to use the same in defence of
+     this colony. It is agreed, that in case the next convention
+     shall determine that any part of the said money ought to be
+     returned to his majesty's receiver-general, that the same
+     shall be done accordingly.
+
+                                     PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR.[181]
+
+The chief object for which Patrick Henry and his soldiers had taken
+the trouble to come to that place having been thus suddenly
+accomplished, there was but one thing left for them to do before they
+should return to their homes. Robert Carter Nicholas, the treasurer of
+the colony, was at Williamsburg; and to him Patrick Henry at once
+despatched a letter informing him of the arrangement that had been
+made, and offering to him any protection that he might in consequence
+require:--
+
+                                                   May 4, 1775.
+
+     SIR,--The affair of the powder is now settled, so as to
+     produce satisfaction in me, and I earnestly wish to the
+     colony in general. The people here have it in charge from
+     the Hanover committee, to tender their services to you as a
+     public officer, for the purpose of escorting the public
+     treasury to any place in this colony where the money would
+     be judged more safe than in the city of Williamsburg. The
+     reprisal now made by the Hanover volunteers, though
+     accomplished in a manner least liable to the imputation of
+     violent extremity, may possibly be the cause of future
+     injury to the treasury. If, therefore, you apprehend the
+     least danger, a sufficient guard is at your service. I beg
+     the return of the bearer may be instant, because the men
+     wish to know their destination.
+
+                                With great regard, I am, sir,
+                                     Your most humble servant,
+                                          PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR.
+
+     TO ROBERT CARTER NICHOLAS, Esq., Treasurer.[182]
+
+Patrick Henry's desire for an immediate answer from the respectable
+Mr. Nicholas was gratified, although it came in the form of a
+dignified rebuff: Mr. Nicholas "had no apprehension of the necessity
+or propriety of the proffered service."[183]
+
+No direct communication seems to have been had at that time with Lord
+Dunmore; but two days afterward his lordship, having given to Patrick
+Henry ample time to withdraw to a more agreeable distance, sent
+thundering after him this portentous proclamation:--
+
+     Whereas I have been informed from undoubted authority that a
+     certain Patrick Henry, of the county of Hanover, and a
+     number of deluded followers, have taken up arms, chosen
+     their officers, and styling themselves an independent
+     company, have marched out of their county, encamped, and put
+     themselves in a posture of war, and have written and
+     dispatched letters to divers parts of the country, exciting
+     the people to join in these outrageous and rebellious
+     practices, to the great terror of all his majesty's faithful
+     subjects, and in open defiance of law and government; and
+     have committed other acts of violence, particularly in
+     extorting from his majesty's receiver-general the sum of
+     three hundred and thirty pounds, under pretence of replacing
+     the powder I thought proper to order from the magazine;
+     whence it undeniably appears that there is no longer the
+     least security for the life or property of any man:
+     wherefore, I have thought proper, with the advice of his
+     majesty's council, and in his majesty's name, to issue this
+     my proclamation, strictly charging all persons, upon their
+     allegiance, not to aid, abet, or give countenance to the
+     said Patrick Henry, or any other persons concerned in such
+     unwarrantable combinations, but on the contrary to oppose
+     them and their designs by every means; which designs must,
+     otherwise, inevitably involve the whole country in the most
+     direful calamity, as they will call for the vengeance of
+     offended majesty and the insulted laws to be exerted here,
+     to vindicate the constitutional authority of government.
+
+     Given under my hand and the seal of the colony, at
+     Williamsburg, this 6th day of May, 1775, and in the
+     fifteenth year of his majesty's reign.
+
+                                                     DUNMORE.
+
+     God save the king.[184]
+
+Beyond question, there were in Virginia at that time many excellent
+gentlemen who still trusted that the dispute with Great Britain might
+be composed without bloodshed, and to whom Patrick Henry's conduct in
+this affair must have appeared foolhardy, presumptuous, and even
+criminal. The mass of the people of Virginia, however, did not incline
+to take that view of the subject. They had no faith any longer in
+timid counsels, in hesitating measures. They believed that their most
+important earthly rights were in danger. They longed for a leader with
+vigor, promptitude, courage, caring less for technical propriety than
+for justice, and not afraid to say so, by word or deed, to Lord
+Dunmore and to Lord Dunmore's master. Such a leader they thought they
+saw in Patrick Henry. Accordingly, even on his march homeward from
+Doncastle's Ordinary, the heart of Virginia began to go forth to him
+in expressions of love, of gratitude, and of homage, such as no
+American colonist perhaps had ever before received. Upon his return
+home, his own county greeted him with its official approval.[185] On
+the 8th of May, the county of Louisa sent him her thanks;[186] and on
+the following day, messages to the same effect were sent from the
+counties of Orange and Spottsylvania.[187] On the 19th of May, an
+address "to the inhabitants of Virginia," under the signature of
+"Brutus," saluted Patrick Henry as "his country's and America's
+unalterable and unappalled great advocate and friend."[188] On the 22d
+of May, Prince William County declared its thanks to be "justly due to
+Captain Patrick Henry, and the gentlemen volunteers who attended him,
+for their proper and spirited conduct."[189] On the 26th of May,
+Loudoun County declared its cordial approval.[190] On the 9th of June,
+the volunteer company of Lancaster County resolved "that every member
+of this company do return thanks to the worthy Captain Patrick Henry
+and the volunteer company of Hanover, for their spirited conduct on a
+late expedition, and they are determined to protect him from any
+insult that may be offered him, on that account, at the risk of life
+and fortune."[191] On the 19th of June, resolutions of gratitude and
+confidence were voted by the counties of Prince Edward and of
+Frederick, the latter saying:--
+
+     "We should blush to be thus late in our commendations of,
+     and thanks to, Patrick Henry, Esquire, for his patriotic and
+     spirited behavior in making reprisals for the powder so
+     unconstitutionally ... taken from the public magazine, could
+     we have entertained a thought that any part of the colony
+     would have condemned a measure calculated for the benefit of
+     the whole; but as we are informed this is the case, we beg
+     leave ... to assure that gentleman that we did from the
+     first, and still do, most cordially approve and commend his
+     conduct in that affair. The good people of this county will
+     never fail to approve and support him to the utmost of their
+     powers in every action derived from so rich a source as the
+     love of his country. We heartily thank him for stepping
+     forth to convince the tools of despotism that freeborn men
+     are not to be intimidated, by any form of danger, to submit
+     to the arbitrary acts of their rulers."[192]
+
+On the 10th of July, the county of Fincastle prolonged the strain of
+public affection and applause by assuring Patrick Henry that it would
+support and justify him at the risk of life and fortune.[193]
+
+In the mean time, the second Continental Congress had already convened
+at Philadelphia, beginning its work on the 10th of May. The journal
+mentions the presence, on that day, of all the delegates from
+Virginia, excepting Patrick Henry, who, of course, had been delayed in
+his preparations for the journey by the events which we have just
+described. Not until the 11th of May was he able to set out from his
+home; and he was then accompanied upon his journey, to a point beyond
+the borders of the colony, by a spontaneous escort of armed men,--a
+token, not only of the popular love for him, but of the popular
+anxiety lest Dunmore should take the occasion of an unprotected
+journey to put him under arrest. "Yesterday," says a document dated
+at Hanover, May the 12th, 1775, "Patrick Henry, one of the delegates
+for this colony, escorted by a number of respectable young gentlemen,
+volunteers from this and King William and Caroline counties, set out
+to attend the General Congress. They proceeded with him as far as Mrs.
+Hooe's ferry, on the Potomac, by whom they were most kindly and
+hospitably entertained, and also provided with boats and hands to
+cross the river; and after partaking of this lady's beneficence, the
+bulk of the company took their leave of Mr. Henry, saluting him with
+two platoons and repeated huzzas. A guard accompanied that worthy
+gentleman to the Maryland side, who saw him safely landed; and
+committing him to the gracious and wise Disposer of all human events,
+to guide and protect him whilst contending for a restitution of our
+dearest rights and liberties, they wished him a safe journey, and
+happy return to his family and friends."[194]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[165] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 415-417.
+
+[166] _Letters of John Adams to his Wife_, i. 40.
+
+[167] _Letters of John Adams to his Wife_, i. 47, 48.
+
+[168] _Works of Jefferson_, i. 116.
+
+[169] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1227.
+
+[170] _Ibid._ iii. 390.
+
+[171] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 387.
+
+[172] _Ibid._ ii. 395.
+
+[173] _Ibid._ ii. 442, 443.
+
+[174] _Ibid._ ii. 426.
+
+[175] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 443.
+
+[176] Patrick Henry's reasons were thus stated by him at the time to
+Colonel Richard Morris and Captain George Dabney, and by the latter
+were communicated to Wirt, 136, 137.
+
+[177] Wirt, 137, 138.
+
+[178] Wirt, 141.
+
+[179] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 504
+
+[180] Cooke, _Virginia_, 432.
+
+[181] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 540.
+
+[182] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 541.
+
+[183] _Ibid._
+
+[184] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 516.
+
+[185] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 540, 541.
+
+[186] _Ibid._ ii. 529.
+
+[187] _Ibid._ ii. 539, 540.
+
+[188] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 641.
+
+[189] _Ibid._ ii. 667.
+
+[190] _Ibid._ ii. 710, 711.
+
+[191] _Ibid._ ii. 938.
+
+[192] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1024.
+
+[193] _Ibid._ ii. 1620, 1621. For notable comments on Patrick Henry's
+"striking and lucky _coup de main_," see Rives, _Life of Madison_, i.
+93, 94; _Works of Jefferson_, i. 116, 117; Charles Mackay, _Founders
+of the American Republic_, 232-234; 327.
+
+[194] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 541.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+IN CONGRESS AND IN CAMP
+
+
+On Thursday, the 18th of May, Patrick Henry took his seat in the
+second Continental Congress; and he appears thenceforward to have
+continued in attendance until the very end of the session, which
+occurred on the 1st of August. From the official journal of this
+Congress, it is impossible to ascertain the full extent of any
+member's participation in its work. Its proceedings were transacted in
+secret; and only such results were announced to the public as, in the
+opinion of Congress, it was desirable that the public should know.
+Then, too, from the private correspondence and the diaries of its
+members but little help can be got. As affecting Patrick Henry, almost
+the only non-official testimony that has been found is that of
+Jefferson, who, however, did not enter this Congress until its session
+was half gone, and who, forty years afterward, wrote what he probably
+supposed to be his recollections concerning his old friend's
+deportment and influence in that body:--
+
+     "I found Mr. Henry to be a silent and almost unmeddling
+     member in Congress. On the original opening of that body,
+     while general grievances were the topic, he was in his
+     element, and captivated all by his bold and splendid
+     eloquence. But as soon as they came to specific matters, to
+     sober reasoning and solid argumentation, he had the good
+     sense to perceive that his declamation, however excellent in
+     its proper place, had no weight at all in such an assembly
+     as that, of cool-headed, reflecting, judicious men. He
+     ceased, therefore, in a great measure, to take any part in
+     the business. He seemed, indeed, very tired of the place,
+     and wonderfully relieved when, by appointment of the
+     Virginia convention to be colonel of their first regiment,
+     he was permitted to leave Congress about the last of
+     July."[195]
+
+Perhaps the principal value of this testimony is to serve as an
+illustration of the extreme fragility of any man's memory respecting
+events long passed, even in his own experience. Thus, Jefferson here
+remembers how "wonderfully relieved" Patrick Henry was at being
+"permitted to leave Congress" on account of his appointment by the
+Virginia convention "to be colonel of their first regiment." But, from
+the official records of the time, it can now be shown that neither of
+the things which Jefferson thus remembers, ever had any existence in
+fact. In the first place, the journal of the Virginia convention[196]
+indicates that Patrick Henry's appointment as colonel could not have
+been the occasion of any such relief from congressional duties as
+Jefferson speaks of; for that appointment was not made until five
+days after Congress itself had adjourned, when, of course, Patrick
+Henry and his fellow delegates, including Jefferson, were already far
+advanced on their journey back to Virginia. In the second place, the
+journal of Congress[197] indicates that Patrick Henry had no such
+relief from congressional duties, on any account, but was bearing his
+full share in its business, even in the plainest and most practical
+details, down to the very end of the session.
+
+Any one who now recalls the tremendous events that were taking place
+in the land while the second Continental Congress was in session, and
+the immense questions of policy and of administration with which it
+had to deal, will find it hard to believe that its deliberations were
+out of the range of Patrick Henry's sympathies or capacities, or that
+he could have been the listless, speechless, and ineffective member
+depicted by the later pen of Jefferson. When that Congress first came
+together, the blood was as yet hardly dry on the grass in Lexington
+Common; on the very morning on which its session opened, the colonial
+troops burst into the stronghold at Ticonderoga; and when the session
+had lasted but six weeks, its members were conferring together over
+the ghastly news from Bunker Hill. The organization of some kind of
+national government for thirteen colonies precipitated into a state of
+war; the creation of a national army; the selection of a
+commander-in-chief, and of the officers to serve under him; the
+hurried fortification of coasts, harbors, cities; the supply of the
+troops with clothes, tents, weapons, ammunition, food, medicine;
+protection against the Indian tribes along the frontier of nearly
+every colony; the goodwill of the people of Canada, and of Jamaica; a
+solemn, final appeal to the king and to the people of England; an
+appeal to the people of Ireland; finally, a grave statement to all
+mankind of "the causes and necessity of their taking up arms,"--these
+were among the weighty and soul-stirring matters which the second
+Continental Congress had to consider and to decide upon. For any man
+to say, forty years afterward, even though he say it with all the
+authority of the renown of Thomas Jefferson, that, in the presence of
+such questions, the spirit of Patrick Henry was dull or unconcerned,
+and that, in a Congress which had to deal with such questions, he was
+"a silent and almost unmeddling member," is to put a strain upon human
+confidence which it is unable to bear.
+
+The formula by which the daily labors of this Congress are frequently
+described in its own journal is, that "Congress met according to
+adjournment, and, agreeable to the order of the day, again resolved
+itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration the
+state of America; and after some time spent therein, the president
+resumed the chair, and Mr. Ward, from the committee, reported that
+they had proceeded in the business, but, not having completed it,
+desired him to move for leave to sit again."[198] And although, from
+the beginning to the end of the session, no mention is made of any
+word spoken in debate by any member, we can yet glean, even from that
+meagre record, enough to prove that upon Patrick Henry was laid about
+as much labor in the form of committee-work as upon any other member
+of the House,--a fair test, it is believed, of any man's zeal,
+industry, and influence in any legislative body.
+
+Further, it will be noted that the committee-work to which he was thus
+assigned was often of the homeliest and most prosaic kind, calling not
+for declamatory gifts, but for common sense, discrimination,
+experience, and knowledge of men and things. He seems, also, to have
+had special interest and authority in the several anxious phases of
+the Indian question as presented by the exigencies of that awful
+crisis, and to have been placed on every committee that was appointed
+to deal with any branch of the subject. Thus, on the 16th of June, he
+was placed with General Schuyler, James Duane, James Wilson, and
+Philip Livingston, on a committee "to take into consideration the
+papers transmitted from the convention of New York, relative to Indian
+affairs, and report what steps, in their opinion, are necessary to be
+taken for securing and preserving the friendship of the Indian
+nations."[199] On the 19th of June, he served with John Adams and
+Thomas Lynch on a committee to inform Charles Lee of his appointment
+as second major-general; and when Lee's answer imported that his
+situation and circumstances as a British officer required some further
+and very careful negotiations with Congress, Patrick Henry was placed
+upon the special committee to which this delicate business was
+intrusted.[200] On the 21st of June, the very day on which, according
+to the journal, "Mr. Thomas Jefferson appeared as a delegate for the
+colony of Virginia, and produced his credentials," his colleague,
+Patrick Henry, rose in his place and stated that Washington "had put
+into his hand sundry queries, to which he desired the Congress would
+give an answer." These queries necessarily involved subjects of
+serious concern to the cause for which they were about to plunge into
+war, and would certainly require for their consideration "cool-headed,
+reflecting, and judicious men." The committee appointed for the
+purpose consisted of Silas Deane, Patrick Henry, John Rutledge, Samuel
+Adams, and Richard Henry Lee.[201] On the 10th of July, "Mr. Alsop
+informed the Congress that he had an invoice of Indian goods, which a
+gentleman in this town had delivered to him, and which the said
+gentleman was willing to dispose of to the Congress." The committee
+"to examine the said invoice and report to the Congress" was composed
+of Philip Livingston, Patrick Henry, and John Alsop.[202] On the 12th
+of July, it was resolved to organize three departments for the
+management of Indian affairs, the commissioners to "have power to
+treat with the Indians in their respective departments, in the name
+and on behalf of the United Colonies, in order to preserve peace and
+friendship with the said Indians, and to prevent their taking any part
+in the present commotions." On the following day the commissioners for
+the middle department were elected, namely, Franklin, Patrick Henry,
+and James Wilson.[203] On the 17th of July, a committee was appointed
+to negotiate with the Indian missionary, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland,
+respecting his past and future services among the Six Nations, "in
+order to secure their friendship, and to continue them in a state of
+neutrality with respect to the present controversy between Great
+Britain and these colonies." This committee consisted of Thomas
+Cushing, Patrick Henry, and Silas Deane.[204] Finally, on the 31st of
+July, next to the last day of the session, a committee consisting of
+one member for each colony was appointed to serve in the recess of
+Congress, for the very practical and urgent purpose of inquiring "in
+all the colonies after virgin lead and leaden ore, and the best
+methods of collecting, smelting, and refining it;" also, after "the
+cheapest and easiest methods of making salt in these colonies." This
+was not a committee on which any man could be useful who had only
+"declamation" to contribute to its work; and the several colonies
+were represented upon it by their most sagacious and their weightiest
+men,--as New Hampshire by Langdon, Massachusetts by John Adams, Rhode
+Island by Stephen Hopkins, Pennsylvania by Franklin, Delaware by
+Rodney, South Carolina by Gadsden, Virginia by Patrick Henry.[205]
+
+On the day on which this committee was appointed, Patrick Henry wrote
+to Washington, then at the headquarters of the army near Boston, a
+letter which denoted on the part of the writer a perception, unusual
+at that time, of the gravity and duration of the struggle on which the
+colonies were just entering:--
+
+                                 PHILADELPHIA, July 31st, 1775.
+
+     SIR,--Give me leave to recommend the bearer, Mr. Frazer,
+     to your notice and regard. He means to enter the American
+     camp, and there to gain that experience, of which the
+     general cause may be avail'd. It is my earnest wish that
+     many Virginians might see service. It is not unlikely that
+     in the fluctuation of things our country may have occasion
+     for great military exertions. For this reason I have taken
+     the liberty to trouble you with this and a few others of the
+     same tendency. The public good which you, sir, have so
+     eminently promoted, is my only motive. That you may enjoy
+     the protection of Heaven and live long and happy is the
+     ardent wish of,
+
+                               Sir,
+                                    Yr. mo. obt. hbl. serv.,
+                                                P. HENRY, JR.[206]
+
+     His Excellency, GENL. WASHINGTON.
+
+On the following day Congress adjourned. As soon as possible after its
+adjournment, the Virginia delegates seem to have departed for home, to
+take their places in the convention then in session at Richmond; for
+the journal of that convention mentions that on Wednesday, August the
+9th, "Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, and Thomas
+Jefferson, Esquires, appeared in convention, and took their
+seats."[207] On the next day an incident occurred in the convention
+implying that Patrick Henry, during his absence in Congress, had been
+able to serve his colony by other gifts as well as by those of "bold
+and splendid eloquence:" it was resolved that "the powder purchased by
+Patrick Henry, Esquire, for the use of this colony, be immediately
+sent for."[208] On the day following that, the convention resolved
+unanimously that "the thanks of this convention are justly due to his
+excellency, George Washington, Esquire, Patrick Henry, and Edmund
+Pendleton, Esquires, three of the worthy delegates who represented
+this colony in the late Continental Congress, for their faithful
+discharge of that important trust; and this body are only induced to
+dispense with their future services of the like kind, by the
+appointment of the two former to other offices in the public service,
+incompatible with their attendance on this, and the infirm state of
+health of the latter."[209]
+
+Of course, the two appointments here referred to are of Washington as
+commander-in-chief of the forces of the United Colonies, and of
+Patrick Henry as commander-in-chief of the forces of Virginia,--the
+latter appointment having been made by the Virginia convention on the
+5th of August. The commission, which passed the convention on the 28th
+of that month, constituted Patrick Henry "colonel of the first
+regiment of regulars, and commander-in-chief of all the forces to be
+raised for the protection and defence of this colony;" and while it
+required "all officers and soldiers, and every person whatsoever, in
+any way concerned, to be obedient" to him, "in all things touching the
+due execution of this commission," it also required him to be obedient
+to "all orders and instructions which, from time to time," he might
+"receive from the convention or Committee of Safety."[210]
+Accordingly, Patrick Henry's control of military proceedings in
+Virginia was, as it proved, nothing more than nominal: it was a
+supreme command on paper, tempered in actual experience by the
+incessant and distrustful interference of an ever-present body of
+civilians, who had all power over him.
+
+A newspaper of Williamsburg for the 23d of September announces the
+arrival there, two days before, of "Patrick Henry, Esquire,
+commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces. He was met and escorted to
+town by the whole body of volunteers, who paid him every mark of
+respect and distinction in their power."[211] Thereupon he inspected
+the grounds about the city; and as a place suitable for the
+encampment, he fixed upon a site in the rear of the College of William
+and Mary. Soon troops began to arrive in considerable numbers, and to
+prepare themselves for whatever service might be required of
+them.[212] There was, however, a sad lack of arms and ammunition. On
+the 15th of October, Pendleton, who was at the head of the Committee
+of Safety, gave this account of the situation in a letter to Richard
+Henry Lee, then in Congress at Philadelphia:--
+
+     "Had we arms and ammunition, it would give vigor to our
+     measures.... Nine companies of regulars are here, and seem
+     very clever men; others, we hear, are ready, and only wait
+     to collect arms. Lord Dunmore's forces are only one hundred
+     and sixty as yet, intrenched at Gosport, and supported by
+     the ships drawn up before that and Norfolk."[213]
+
+On the 30th of November, Lord Dunmore, who had been compelled by the
+smallness of his land force to take refuge upon his armed vessels off
+the coast, thus described the situation, in a letter to General Sir
+William Howe, then in command at Boston:--
+
+     "I must inform you that with our little corps, I think we
+     have done wonders. We have taken and destroyed above four
+     score pieces of ordnance, and, by landing in different parts
+     of the country, we keep them in continual hot water....
+     Having heard that a thousand chosen men belonging to the
+     rebels, great part of whom were riflemen, were on their
+     march to attack us here, or to cut off our provisions, I
+     determined to take possession of the pass at the Great
+     Bridge, which secures us the greatest part of two counties
+     to supply us with provisions. I accordingly ordered a
+     stockade fort to be erected there, which was done in a few
+     days; and I put an officer and twenty-five men to garrison
+     it, with some volunteers and negroes, who have defended it
+     against all the efforts of the rebels for these eight days.
+     We have killed several of their men; and I make no doubt we
+     shall now be able to maintain our ground there; but should
+     we be obliged to abandon it, we have thrown up an
+     intrenchment on the land side of Norfolk, which I hope they
+     will never be able to force. Here we are, with only the
+     small part of a regiment contending against the extensive
+     colony of Virginia."[214]
+
+But who were these "thousand chosen men belonging to the rebels," who,
+on their march to attack Lord Dunmore at Norfolk, had thus been held
+in check by his little fort at the Great Bridge? We are told by
+Dunmore himself that they were Virginia troops. But why was not
+Patrick Henry in immediate command of them? Why was Patrick Henry held
+back from this service,--the only active service then to be had in the
+field? And why was the direction of this important enterprise given to
+his subordinate, Colonel William Woodford, of the second regiment?
+There is abundant evidence that Patrick Henry had eagerly desired to
+conduct this expedition; that he had even solicited the Committee of
+Safety to permit him to do so; but that they, distrusting his military
+capacity, overruled his wishes, and gave this fine opportunity for
+military distinction to the officer next below him in command.
+Moreover, no sooner had Colonel Woodford departed upon the service,
+than he began to ignore altogether the commander-in-chief, and to make
+his communications directly to the Committee of Safety,--a course in
+which he was virtually sustained by that body, on appeal being made to
+them. Furthermore, on the 9th of December, Colonel Woodford won a
+brilliant victory over the enemy at the Great Bridge,[215] thus
+apparently justifying to the public the wisdom of the committee in
+assigning the work to him, and also throwing still more into the
+background the commander-in-chief, who was then chafing in camp over
+his enforced retirement from this duty. But this was not the only cup
+of humiliation which was pressed to his lips. Not long afterward,
+there arrived at the seat of war a few hundred North Carolina troops,
+under command of Colonel Robert Howe; and the latter, with the full
+consent of Woodford, at once took command of their united forces, and
+thenceforward addressed his official letters solely to the convention
+of Virginia, or to the Committee of Safety, paying not the slightest
+attention to the commander-in-chief.[216] Finally, on the 28th of
+December, Congress decided to raise in Virginia six battalions to be
+taken into continental pay;[217] and, by a subsequent vote, it
+likewise resolved to include within these six battalions the first and
+the second Virginia regiments already raised.[218] A commission was
+accordingly sent to Patrick Henry as colonel of the first Virginia
+battalion,[219]--an official intimation that the expected commission
+of a brigadier-general for Virginia was to be given to some one else.
+
+On receiving this last affront, Patrick Henry determined to lay down
+his military appointments, which he did on the 28th of February, 1776,
+and at once prepared to leave the camp. As soon as this news got
+abroad among the troops, they all, according to a contemporary
+account,[220] "went into mourning, and, under arms, waited on him at
+his lodgings," when his officers presented to him an affectionate
+address:--
+
+     TO PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR, ESQUIRE:
+
+     Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the obligations we
+     lie under to you for the polite, humane, and tender
+     treatment manifested to us throughout the whole of your
+     conduct, while we have had the honor of being under your
+     command, permit us to offer to you our sincere thanks, as
+     the only tribute we have in our power to pay to your real
+     merits. Notwithstanding your withdrawing yourself from
+     service fills us with the most poignant sorrow, as it at
+     once deprives us of our father and general, yet, as
+     gentlemen, we are compelled to applaud your spirited
+     resentment to the most glaring indignity. May your merit
+     shine as conspicuous to the world in general as it hath done
+     to us, and may Heaven shower its choicest blessings upon
+     you.
+
+     WILLIAMSBURG, February 29, 1776.
+
+His reply to this warm-hearted message was in the following words:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--I am extremely obliged to you for your
+     approbation of my conduct. Your address does me the highest
+     honor. This kind testimony of your regard to me would have
+     been an ample reward for services much greater than I have
+     had the power to perform. I return you, and each of you,
+     gentlemen, my best acknowledgments for the spirit, alacrity,
+     and zeal you have constantly shown in your several stations.
+     I am unhappy to part with you. I leave the service, but I
+     leave my heart with you. May God bless you, and give you
+     success and safety, and make you the glorious instruments of
+     saving our country.[221]
+
+The grief and indignation thus exhibited by the officers who had
+served under Patrick Henry soon showed itself in a somewhat violent
+manner among the men. The "Virginia Gazette" for that time states
+that, "after the officers had received Colonel Henry's kind answer to
+their address, they insisted upon his dining with them at the Raleigh
+Tavern, before his departure; and after the dinner, a number of them
+proposed escorting him out of town, but were prevented by some
+uneasiness getting among the soldiery, who assembled in a tumultuous
+manner and demanded their discharge, and declared their unwillingness
+to serve under any other commander. Upon which Colonel Henry found it
+necessary to stay a night longer in town, which he spent in visiting
+the several barracks; and used every argument in his power with the
+soldiery to lay aside their imprudent resolution, and to continue in
+the service, which he had quitted from motives in which his honor
+alone was concerned."[222] Moreover, several days after he had left
+the camp altogether and had returned to his home, he was followed by
+an address signed by ninety officers belonging not only to his own
+regiment, but to that of Colonel Woodford,--a document which has no
+little value as presenting strongly one side of contemporary military
+opinion respecting Patrick Henry's career as a soldier, and the
+treatment to which he had been subjected.
+
+     SIR,--Deeply concerned for the good of our country, we
+     sincerely lament the unhappy necessity of your resignation,
+     and with all the warmth of affection assure you that,
+     whatever may have given rise to the indignity lately offered
+     to you, we join with the general voice of the people, and
+     think it our duty to make this public declaration of our
+     high respect for your distinguished merit. To your vigilance
+     and judgment, as a senator, this United Continent bears
+     ample testimony, while she prosecutes her steady opposition
+     to those destructive ministerial measures which your
+     eloquence first pointed out and taught to resent, and your
+     resolution led forward to resist. To your extensive
+     popularity the service, also, is greatly indebted for the
+     expedition with which the troops were raised; and while they
+     were continued under your command, the firmness, candor, and
+     politeness, which formed the complexion of your conduct
+     towards them, obtained the signal approbation of the wise
+     and virtuous, and will leave upon our minds the most
+     grateful impression.
+
+     Although retired from the immediate concerns of war, we
+     solicit the continuance of your kindly attention. We know
+     your attachment to the best of causes; we have the fullest
+     confidence in your abilities, and in the rectitude of your
+     views; and, however willing the envious may be to undermine
+     an established reputation, we trust the day will come when
+     justice shall prevail, and thereby secure you an honorable
+     and happy return to the glorious employment of conducting
+     our councils and hazarding your life in the defence of your
+     country.[223]
+
+The public agitation over the alleged wrong which had thus been done
+to Patrick Henry during his brief military career, and which had
+brought that career to its abrupt and painful close, seems to have
+continued for a considerable time. Throughout the colony the blame was
+openly and bluntly laid upon the Committee of Safety, who, on account
+of envy, it was said, had tried "to bury in obscurity his martial
+talents."[224] On the other hand, the course pursued by that
+committee was ably defended by many, on the ground that Patrick Henry,
+with all his great gifts for civil life, really had no fitness for a
+leading military position. One writer asserted that even in the
+convention which had elected Patrick Henry as commander-in-chief, it
+was objected that "his studies had been directed to civil and not to
+military pursuits; that he was totally unacquainted with the art of
+war, and had no knowledge of military discipline; and that such a
+person was very unfit to be at the head of troops who were likely to
+be engaged with a well-disciplined army, commanded by experienced and
+able generals."[225] In the very middle of the period of his nominal
+military service, this opinion of his unfitness was still more
+strongly urged by the chairman of the Committee of Safety, who, on the
+24th of December, 1775, said in a letter to Colonel Woodford:--
+
+     "Believe me, sir, the unlucky step of calling that gentleman
+     from our councils, where he was useful, into the field, in
+     an important station, the duties of which he must, in the
+     nature of things, be an entire stranger to, has given me
+     many an anxious and uneasy moment. In consequence of this
+     mistaken step, which can't now be retracted or
+     remedied,--for he has done nothing worthy of degradation,
+     and must keep his rank,--we must be deprived of the service
+     of some able officers, whose honor and former ranks will not
+     suffer them to act under him in this juncture, when we so
+     much need their services."[226]
+
+This seems to have been, in substance, the impression concerning
+Patrick Henry held at that time by at least two friendly and most
+competent observers, who were then looking on from a distance, and
+who, of course, were beyond the range of any personal or partisan
+prejudice upon the subject. Writing from Cambridge, on the 7th of
+March, 1776, before he had received the news of Henry's resignation,
+Washington said to Joseph Reed, then at Philadelphia: "I think my
+countrymen made a capital mistake when they took Henry out of the
+senate to place him in the field; and pity it is that he does not see
+this, and remove every difficulty by a voluntary resignation."[227] On
+the 15th of that month, Reed, in reply, gave to Washington this bit of
+news: "We have some accounts from Virginia that Colonel Henry has
+resigned in disgust at not being made a general officer; but it rather
+gives satisfaction than otherwise, as his abilities seem better
+calculated for the senate than the field."[228]
+
+Nevertheless, in all these contemporary judgments upon the alleged
+military defects of Patrick Henry, no reader can now fail to note an
+embarrassing lack of definiteness, and a tendency to infer that,
+because that great man was so great in civil life, as a matter of
+course, he could not be great, also, in military life,--a proposition
+that could be overthrown by numberless historical examples to the
+contrary. It would greatly aid us if we could know precisely what, in
+actual experience, were the defects found in Patrick Henry as a
+military man, and precisely how these defects were exhibited by him in
+the camp at Williamsburg. In the writings of that period, no
+satisfaction upon this point seems thus far to have been obtained.
+There is, however, a piece of later testimony, derived by authentic
+tradition from a prominent member of the Virginia Committee of Safety,
+which really helps one to understand what may have been the exact
+difficulty with the military character of Patrick Henry, and just why,
+also, it could not be more plainly stated at the time. Clement
+Carrington, a son of Paul Carrington, told Hugh Blair Grigsby that the
+real ground of the action of the Committee of Safety "was the want of
+discipline in the regiment under the command of Colonel Henry. None
+doubted his courage, or his alacrity to hasten to the field; but it
+was plain that he did not seem to be conscious of the importance of
+strict discipline in the army, but regarded his soldiers as so many
+gentlemen who had met to defend their country, and exacted from them
+little more than the courtesy that was proper among equals. To have
+marched to the sea-board at that time with a regiment of such men,
+would have been to insure their destruction; and it was a thorough
+conviction of this truth that prompted the decision of the
+committee."[229]
+
+Yet, even with this explanation, the truth remains that Patrick
+Henry, as commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, never was
+permitted to take command, or to see any real service in the field, or
+to look upon the face of an armed enemy, or to show, in the only way
+in which it could be shown, whether or not he had the gifts of a
+military leader in action. As an accomplished and noble-minded
+Virginian of our own time has said:--
+
+     "It may be doubted whether he possessed those qualities
+     which make a wary partisan, and which are so often possessed
+     in an eminent degree by uneducated men. Regular fighting
+     there was none in the colony, until near the close of the
+     war.... The most skilful partisan in the Virginia of that
+     day, covered as it was with forests, cut up by streams, and
+     beset by predatory bands, would have been the Indian
+     warrior; and as a soldier approached that model, would he
+     have possessed the proper tactics for the time. That Henry
+     would not have made a better Indian fighter than Jay, or
+     Livingston, or the Adamses, that he might not have made as
+     dashing a partisan as Tarleton or Simcoe, his friends might
+     readily afford to concede; but that he evinced, what neither
+     Jay, nor Livingston, nor the Adamses did evince, a
+     determined resolution to stake his reputation and his life
+     on the issue of arms, and that he resigned his commission
+     when the post of imminent danger was refused him, exhibit a
+     lucid proof that, whatever may have been his ultimate
+     fortune, he was not deficient in two grand elements of
+     military success,--personal enterprise, and unquestioned
+     courage."[230]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[195] _Hist. Mag._ for Aug. 1867, 92.
+
+[196] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 375.
+
+[197] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1902.
+
+[198] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1834.
+
+[199] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1849.
+
+[200] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1850, 1851.
+
+[201] _Ibid._ ii. 1852.
+
+[202] _Ibid._ ii. 1878.
+
+[203] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1879, 1883.
+
+[204] _Ibid._ ii. 1884, 1885.
+
+[205] 4 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1902.
+
+[206] MS.
+
+[207] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 377.
+
+[208] _Ibid._ iii. 377, 378.
+
+[209] _Ibid._ iii. 378.
+
+[210] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 393. See, also, his oath of office, _ibid._
+iii. 411.
+
+[211] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 776.
+
+[212] Wirt, 159.
+
+[213] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1067.
+
+[214] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1713-1715.
+
+[215] Graphic contemporary accounts of this battle may be found in 4
+_Am. Arch._ iv. 224, 228, 229.
+
+[216] Wirt, 178.
+
+[217] 4 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1962.
+
+[218] _Ibid._ iv. 1669.
+
+[219] _Ibid._ iv. 1517.
+
+[220] _Ibid._ iv. 1515, 1516.
+
+[221] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1516; also, Wirt, 180, 181.
+
+[222] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1516.
+
+[223] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1516, 1517.
+
+[224] _Ibid._ iv. 1518.
+
+[225] 4 _Am. Arch._ iv. 1519.
+
+[226] Wirt, 175.
+
+[227] _Writings of Washington_, iii. 309.
+
+[228] W. B. Reed, _Life of Joseph Reed_, i. 173.
+
+[229] Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 52, 53, note.
+
+[230] Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 151, 152.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+INDEPENDENCE
+
+
+Upon this mortifying close of a military career which had opened with
+so much expectation and even _eclat_, Patrick Henry returned, early in
+March, 1776, to his home in the county of Hanover,--a home on which
+then rested the shadow of a great sorrow. In the midst of the public
+engagements and excitements which absorbed him during the previous
+year, his wife, Sarah, the wife of his youth, the mother of his six
+children, had passed away. His own subsequent release from public
+labor, however bitter in its occasion, must have brought to him a
+great solace in the few weeks of repose which he then had under his
+own roof, with the privilege of ministering to the happiness of his
+motherless children, and of enjoying once more their loving
+companionship and sympathy.
+
+But in such a crisis of his country's fate, such a man as Patrick
+Henry could not be permitted long to remain in seclusion; and the
+promptness and the heartiness with which he was now summoned back into
+the service of the public as a civilian, after the recent
+humiliations of his military career, were accented, perhaps, on the
+part of his neighbors, by something of the fervor of intended
+compensation, if not of intended revenge. For, in the mean time, the
+American colonies had been swiftly advancing, along a path strewn with
+corpses and wet with blood, towards the doctrine that a total
+separation from the mother-country,--a thing hitherto contemplated by
+them only as a disaster and a crime,--might after all be neither, but
+on the contrary, the only resource left to them in their desperate
+struggle for political existence. This supreme question, it was plain,
+was to confront the very next Virginia convention, which was under
+appointment to meet early in the coming May. Almost at once,
+therefore, after his return home, Patrick Henry was elected by his
+native county to represent it in that convention.
+
+On Monday morning, the 6th of May, the convention gathered at
+Williamsburg for its first meeting. On its roll of members we see many
+of those names which have become familiar to us in the progress of
+this history,--the names of those sturdy and well-trained leaders who
+guided Virginia during all that stormy period,--Pendleton, Cary,
+Mason, Nicholas, Bland, the Lees, Mann Page, Dudley Digges, Wythe,
+Edmund Randolph, and a few others. For the first time also, on such a
+roll, we meet the name of James Madison, an accomplished young
+political philosopher, then but four years from the inspiring
+instruction of President Witherspoon at Princeton. But while a few
+very able men had places in that convention, it was, at the time, by
+some observers thought to contain an unusually large number of
+incompetent persons. Three days after the opening of the session
+Landon Carter wrote to Washington:--
+
+     "I could have wished that ambition had not so visibly seized
+     so much ignorance all over the colony, as it seems to have
+     done; for this present convention abounds with too many of
+     the inexperienced creatures to navigate our bark on this
+     dangerous coast; so that I fear the few skilful pilots who
+     have hitherto done tolerably well to keep her clear from
+     destruction, will not be able to conduct her with common
+     safety any longer."[231]
+
+The earliest organization of the House was, on the part of the friends
+of Patrick Henry, made the occasion for a momentary flash of
+resentment against Edmund Pendleton, as the man who was believed by
+them to have been the guiding mind of the Committee of Safety in its
+long series of restraints upon the military activity of their chief.
+At the opening of the convention Pendleton was nominated for its
+president,--a most suitable nomination, and one which under ordinary
+circumstances would have been carried by acclamation. Thomas Johnson,
+however, a stanch follower of Patrick Henry, at once presented an
+opposing candidate; and although Pendleton was elected, he was not
+elected without a contest, or without this significant hint that the
+fires of indignation against him were still burning in the hearts of a
+strong party in that house and throughout the colony.
+
+The convention lasted just two months lacking a day; and in all the
+detail and drudgery of its business, as the journal indicates, Patrick
+Henry bore a very large part. In the course of the session, he seems
+to have served on perhaps a majority of all its committees. On the 6th
+of May, he was made a member of the committee of privileges and
+elections; on the 7th, of a committee "to bring in an ordinance to
+encourage the making of salt, saltpetre, and gunpowder;" on the 8th,
+of the committee on "propositions and grievances;" on the 21st, of a
+committee "to inquire for a proper hospital for the reception and
+accommodation of the sick and wounded soldiers;" on the 22d, of a
+committee to inquire into the truth of a complaint made by the Indians
+respecting encroachments on their lands; on the 23d, of a committee to
+bring in an ordinance for augmenting the ninth regiment, for enlisting
+four troops of horse, and for raising men for the defence of the
+frontier counties; on the 4th of June, of a committee to inquire into
+the causes for the depreciation of paper money in the colony, and into
+the rates at which goods are sold at the public store; on the 14th of
+June, of a committee to prepare an address to be sent by Virginia to
+the Shawanese Indians; on the 15th of June, of a committee to bring in
+amendments to the ordinance for prescribing a mode of punishment for
+the enemies of America in this colony; and on the 22d of June, of a
+committee to prepare an ordinance "for enabling the present
+magistrates to continue the administration of justice, and for
+settling the general mode of proceedings in criminal and other cases."
+The journal also mentions his frequent activity in the House in the
+presentation of reports from some of these committees: for example,
+from the committee on propositions and grievances, on the 16th of May,
+on the 22d of May, and on the 15th of June. On the latter occasion, he
+made to the House three detailed reports on as many different
+topics.[232]
+
+Of course, the question overshadowing all others in that convention
+was the question of independence. General Charles Lee, whose military
+duties just then detained him at Williamsburg, and who was intently
+watching the currents of political thought in all the colonies,
+assured Washington, in a letter written on the 10th of May, that "a
+noble spirit" possessed the convention; and that the members were
+"almost unanimous for independence," the only disagreement being "in
+their sentiments about the mode."[233] That Patrick Henry was in favor
+of independence hardly needs to be mentioned; yet it does need to be
+mentioned that he was among those who disagreed with some of his
+associates "about the mode." While he was as eager and as resolute
+for independence as any man, he doubted whether the time had then
+fully come for declaring independence. He thought that the declaration
+should be so timed as to secure, beyond all doubt, two great
+conditions of success,--first, the firm union of the colonies
+themselves, and secondly, the friendship of foreign powers,
+particularly of France and Spain. For these reasons, he would have had
+independence delayed until a confederation of the colonies could be
+established by written articles, which, he probably supposed, would
+take but a few weeks; and also until American agents could have time
+to negotiate with the French and Spanish courts.
+
+On the first day of the session, General Charles Lee, who was hot for
+an immediate declaration of independence, seems to have had a
+conversation upon the subject with Patrick Henry, during which the
+latter stated his reasons for some postponement of the measure. This
+led General Lee, on the following day, to write to Henry a letter
+which is really remarkable, some passages from which will help us the
+better to understand the public situation, as well as Patrick Henry's
+attitude towards it:--
+
+                                       WILLIAMSBURG, May 7, 1776.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--If I had not the highest opinion of your
+     character and liberal way of thinking, I should not venture
+     to address myself to you. And if I were not equally
+     persuaded of the great weight and influence which the
+     transcendent abilities you possess must naturally confer, I
+     should not give myself the trouble of writing, nor you the
+     trouble of reading this long letter. Since our conversation
+     yesterday, my thoughts have been solely employed on the
+     great question, whether independence ought or ought not to
+     be immediately declared. Having weighed the argument on both
+     sides, I am clearly of the opinion that we must, as we value
+     the liberties of America, or even her existence, without a
+     moment's delay declare for independence.... The objection
+     you made yesterday, if I understood you rightly, to an
+     immediate declaration, was by many degrees the most
+     specious, indeed, it is the only tolerable, one that I have
+     yet heard. You say, and with great justice, that we ought
+     previously to have felt the pulse of France and Spain. I
+     more than believe, I am almost confident, that it has been
+     done.... But admitting that we are utter strangers to their
+     sentiments on the subject, and that we run some risk of this
+     declaration being coldly received by these powers, such is
+     our situation that the risk must be ventured.
+
+     On one side there are the most probable chances of our
+     success, founded on the certain advantages which must
+     manifest themselves to French understandings by a treaty of
+     alliance with America.... The superior commerce and marine
+     force of England were evidently established on the monopoly
+     of her American trade. The inferiority of France, in these
+     two capital points, consequently had its source in the same
+     origin. Any deduction from this monopoly must bring down her
+     rival in proportion to this deduction. The French are and
+     always have been sensible of these great truths.... But
+     allowing that there can be no certainty, but mere chances,
+     in our favor, I do insist upon it that these chances render
+     it our duty to adopt the measure, as, by procrastination,
+     our ruin is inevitable. Should it now be determined to wait
+     the result of a previous formal negotiation with France, a
+     whole year must pass over our heads before we can be
+     acquainted with the result. In the mean time, we are to
+     struggle through a campaign, without arms, ammunition, or
+     any one necessary of war. Disgrace and defeat will
+     infallibly ensue; the soldiers and officers will become so
+     disappointed that they will abandon their colors, and
+     probably never be persuaded to make another effort.
+
+     But there is another consideration still more cogent. I can
+     assure you that the spirit of the people cries out for this
+     declaration; the military, in particular, men and officers,
+     are outrageous on the subject; and a man of your excellent
+     discernment need not be told how dangerous it would be, in
+     our present circumstances, to dally with the spirit, or
+     disappoint the expectations, of the bulk of the people. May
+     not despair, anarchy, and final submission be the bitter
+     fruits? I am firmly persuaded that they will; and, in this
+     persuasion, I most devoutly pray that you may not merely
+     recommend, but positively lay injunctions on, your servants
+     in Congress to embrace a measure so necessary to our
+     salvation.
+
+                                     Yours, most sincerely,
+                                               CHARLES LEE.[234]
+
+Just eight days after that letter was written, the Virginia convention
+took what may, at first glance, seem to be the precise action therein
+described as necessary; and moreover, they did so under the
+influence, in part, of Patrick Henry's powerful advocacy of it. On the
+15th of May, after considerable debate, one hundred and twelve members
+being present, the convention unanimously resolved,
+
+     "That the delegates appointed to represent this colony in
+     General Congress be instructed to propose to that
+     respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and
+     independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or
+     dependence upon, the crown or Parliament of Great Britain;
+     and that they give the assent of this colony to such
+     declaration, and to whatever measures may be thought proper
+     and necessary by the Congress for forming foreign alliances
+     and a confederation of the colonies, at such time, and in
+     the manner, as to them shall seem best: provided, that the
+     power of forming government for, and the regulations of the
+     internal concerns of, each colony, be left to the respective
+     colonial legislatures."[235]
+
+On the testimony of Edmund Randolph, who was a member of the
+convention, it is now known that this momentous resolution "was drawn
+by Pendleton, was offered in convention by Nelson, and was advocated
+on the floor by Henry."[236] Any one who will carefully study it,
+however, will discover that this resolution was the result of a
+compromise; and especially, that it is so framed as to meet Patrick
+Henry's views, at least to the extent of avoiding the demand for an
+immediate declaration, and of leaving it to Congress to determine the
+time and manner of making it. Accordingly, in letters of his, written
+five days afterward to his most intimate friends in Congress, we see
+that his mind was still full of anxiety about the two great
+prerequisites,--a certified union among the colonies, and a friendly
+arrangement with France. "Ere this reaches you," he wrote to Richard
+Henry Lee, "our resolution for separating from Britain will be handed
+you by Colonel Nelson. Your sentiments as to the necessary progress of
+this great affair correspond with mine. For may not France, ignorant
+of the great advantages to her commerce we intend to offer, and of the
+permanency of that separation which is to take place, be allured by
+the partition you mention? To anticipate, therefore, the efforts of
+the enemy by sending instantly American ambassadors to France, seems
+to me absolutely necessary. Delay may bring on us total ruin. But is
+not a confederacy of our States previously necessary?"[237]
+
+On the same day, he wrote, also, a letter to John Adams, in which he
+developed still more vigorously his views as to the true order in
+which the three great measures,--confederation, foreign alliances, and
+independence,--should be dealt with:--
+
+     "Before this reaches you, the resolution for finally
+     separating from Britain will be handed to Congress by
+     Colonel Nelson. I put up with it in the present form for the
+     sake of unanimity. 'T is not quite so pointed as I could
+     wish. Excuse me for telling you of what I think of immense
+     importance; 't is to anticipate the enemy at the French
+     court. The half of our continent offered to France, may
+     induce her to aid our destruction, which she certainly has
+     the power to accomplish. I know the free trade with all the
+     States would be more beneficial to her than any territorial
+     possessions she might acquire. But pressed, allured, as she
+     will be,--but, above all, ignorant of the great thing we
+     mean to offer,--may we not lose her? The consequence is
+     dreadful. Excuse me again. The confederacy:--that must
+     precede an open declaration of independency and foreign
+     alliances. Would it not be sufficient to confine it, for the
+     present, to the objects of offensive and defensive nature,
+     and a guaranty of the respective colonial rights? If a
+     minute arrangement of things is attempted, such as equal
+     representation, etc., etc., you may split and divide;
+     certainly will delay the French alliance, which with me is
+     everything."[238]
+
+In the mean time, however, many of the people of Virginia had received
+with enthusiastic approval the news of the great step taken by their
+convention on the 15th of May. Thus "on the day following," says the
+"Virginia Gazette," published at Williamsburg, "the troops in this
+city, with the train of artillery, were drawn up and went through
+their firings and various other military manoeuvres, with the greatest
+exactness; a continental union flag was displayed upon the capitol;
+and in the evening many of the inhabitants illuminated their
+houses."[239] Moreover, the great step taken by the Virginia
+convention, on the day just mentioned, committed that body to the duty
+of taking at once certain other steps of supreme importance. They were
+about to cast off the government of Great Britain: it was necessary
+for them, therefore, to provide some government to be put in the place
+of it. Accordingly, in the very same hour in which they instructed
+their delegates in Congress to propose a declaration of independence,
+they likewise resolved, "That a committee be appointed to prepare a
+declaration of rights, and such a plan of government as will be most
+likely to maintain peace and order in this colony, and secure
+substantial and equal liberty to the people."[240]
+
+Of this committee, Patrick Henry was a member; and with him were
+associated Archibald Cary, Henry Lee, Nicholas, Edmund Randolph,
+Bland, Dudley Digges, Paul Carrington, Mann Page, Madison, George
+Mason, and others. The two tasks before the committee--that of
+drafting a statement of rights, and that of drafting a constitution
+for the new State of Virginia--must have pressed heavily upon its
+leading members. In the work of creating a new state government,
+Virginia was somewhat in advance of the other colonies; and for this
+reason, as well as on account of its general preeminence among the
+colonies, the course which it should take in this crisis was watched
+with extraordinary attention. John Adams said, at the time, "We all
+look up to Virginia for examples."[241] Besides, in Virginia itself,
+as well as in the other colonies, there was an unsettled question as
+to the nature of the state governments which were then to be
+instituted. Should they be strongly aristocratic and conservative,
+with a possible place left for the monarchical feature; or should the
+popular elements in each colony be more largely recognized, and a
+decidedly democratic character given to these new constitutions? On
+this question, two strong parties existed in Virginia. In the first
+place, there were the old aristocratic families, and those who
+sympathized with them. These people, numerous, rich, cultivated,
+influential, in objecting to the unfair encroachments of British
+authority, had by no means intended to object to the nature of the
+British constitution, and would have been pleased to see that
+constitution, in all its essential features, retained in Virginia.
+This party was led by such men as Robert Carter Nicholas, Carter
+Braxton, and Edmund Pendleton. In the second place, there were the
+democrats, the reformers, the radicals,--who were inclined to take the
+opportunity furnished by Virginia's rejection of British authority as
+the occasion for rejecting, within the new State of Virginia, all the
+aristocratic and monarchical features of the British Constitution
+itself. This party was led by such men as Patrick Henry, Richard
+Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and George Mason. Which party was to
+succeed in stamping its impress the more strongly on the new plan for
+government in Virginia?
+
+Furthermore, it is important to observe that, on this very question
+then at issue in Virginia, two pamphlets, taking opposite sides, were,
+just at that moment, attracting the notice of Virginians,--both
+pamphlets being noble in tone, of considerable learning, very
+suggestive, and very well expressed. The first, entitled "Thoughts on
+Government," though issued anonymously, was soon known to be by John
+Adams. It advocated the formation of state constitutions on the
+democratic model; a lower house elected for a single year by the
+people; this house to elect an upper house of twenty or thirty
+members, who were to have a negative on the lower house, and to serve,
+likewise, for a single year; these two houses to elect a governor, who
+was to have a negative on them both, and whose term of office should
+also end with the year; while the judges, and all other officers,
+civil or military, were either to be appointed by the governor with
+the advice of the upper house, or to be chosen directly by the two
+houses themselves.[242] The second pamphlet, which was in part a reply
+to the first, was entitled "Address to the Convention of the Colony
+and Ancient Dominion of Virginia, on the subject of Government in
+general, and recommending a particular form to their consideration."
+It purported to be by "A native of the Colony." Although the pamphlet
+was sent into Virginia under strong recommendations from Carter
+Braxton, one of the Virginian delegates in Congress, the authorship
+was then unknown to the public. It advocated the formation of state
+constitutions on a model far less democratic: first, a lower house,
+the members of which were to be elected for three years by the people;
+secondly, an upper house of twenty-four members, to be elected for
+life by the lower house; thirdly, a governor, to be elected for life
+by the lower house; fourthly, all judges, all military officers, and
+all inferior civil ones, to be appointed by the governor.[243]
+
+Such was the question over which the members of the committee,
+appointed on the 15th of May, must soon have come into sharp conflict.
+At its earliest meetings, apparently, Henry found the aristocratic
+tendencies of some of his associates so strong as to give him
+considerable uneasiness; and by his letter to John Adams, written on
+the 20th of the month, we may see that he was then complaining of the
+lack of any associate of adequate ability on his own side of the
+question. When we remember, however, that both James Madison and
+George Mason were members of that committee, we can but read Patrick
+Henry's words with some astonishment.[244] The explanation is
+probably to be found in the fact that Madison was not placed on the
+committee until the 16th, and, being very young and very unobtrusive,
+did not at first make his true weight felt; while Mason was not placed
+on the committee until the working day just before Henry's letter was
+written, and very likely had not then met with it, and may not, at the
+moment, have been remembered by Henry as a member of it. At any rate,
+this is the way in which our eager Virginia democrat, in that moment
+of anxious conflict over the form of the future government of his
+State, poured out his anxieties to his two most congenial political
+friends in Congress. To Richard Henry Lee he wrote:--
+
+     "The grand work of forming a constitution for Virginia is
+     now before the convention, where your love of equal liberty
+     and your skill in public counsels might so eminently serve
+     the cause of your country. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I fear
+     too great a bias to aristocracy prevails among the opulent.
+     I own myself a democratic on the plan of our admired friend,
+     J. Adams, whose pamphlet I read with great pleasure. A
+     performance from Philadelphia is just come here, ushered in,
+     I'm told, by a colleague of yours, B----, and greatly
+     recommended by him. I don't like it. Is the author a Whig?
+     One or two expressions in the book make me ask. I wish to
+     divide you, and have you here to animate, by your manly
+     eloquence, the sometimes drooping spirits of our country,
+     and in Congress to be the ornament of your native country,
+     and the vigilant, determined foe of tyranny. To give you
+     colleagues of kindred sentiments, is my wish. I doubt you
+     have them not at present. A confidential account of the
+     matter to Colonel Tom,[245] desiring him to use it according
+     to his discretion, might greatly serve the public and
+     vindicate Virginia from suspicions. Vigor, animation, and
+     all the powers of mind and body must now be summoned and
+     collected together into one grand effort. Moderation,
+     falsely so called, hath nearly brought on us final ruin. And
+     to see those, who have so fatally advised us, still guiding,
+     or at least sharing, our public counsels, alarms me."[246]
+
+On the same day, he wrote as follows to John Adams:--
+
+                                     WILLIAMSBURG, May 20, 1776.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Your favor, with the pamphlet, came safe to
+     hand. I am exceedingly obliged to you for it; and I am not
+     without hopes it may produce good here, where there is among
+     most of our opulent families a strong bias to aristocracy. I
+     tell my friends you are the author. Upon that supposition, I
+     have two reasons for liking the book. The sentiments are
+     precisely the same I have long since taken up, and they come
+     recommended by you. Go on, my dear friend, to assail the
+     strongholds of tyranny; and in whatever form oppression may
+     be found, may those talents and that firmness, which have
+     achieved so much for America, be pointed against it....
+
+     Our convention is now employed in the great work of forming
+     a constitution. My most esteemed republican form has many
+     and powerful enemies. A silly thing, published in
+     Philadelphia, by a native of Virginia, has just made its
+     appearance here, strongly recommended, 't is said, by one of
+     our delegates now with you,--Braxton. His reasonings upon
+     and distinction between private and public virtue, are weak,
+     shallow, evasive, and the whole performance an affront and
+     disgrace to this country; and, by one expression, I suspect
+     his whiggism.
+
+     Our session will be very long, during which I cannot count
+     upon one coadjutor of talents equal to the task. Would to
+     God you and your Sam Adams were here! It shall be my
+     incessant study so to form our portrait of government that a
+     kindred with New England may be discerned in it; and if all
+     your excellences cannot be preserved, yet I hope to retain
+     so much of the likeness, that posterity shall pronounce us
+     descended from the same stock. I shall think perfection is
+     obtained, if we have your approbation.
+
+     I am forced to conclude; but first, let me beg to be
+     presented to my ever-esteemed S. Adams. Adieu, my dear sir;
+     may God preserve you, and give you every good thing.
+
+                                                  P. HENRY, JR.
+
+     P. S. Will you and S. A. now and then write?[247]
+
+To this hearty and even brotherly letter John Adams wrote from
+Philadelphia, on the 3d of June, a fitting reply, in the course of
+which he said, with respect to Henry's labors in making a constitution
+for Virginia: "The subject is of infinite moment, and perhaps more
+than adequate to the abilities of any man in America. I know of none
+so competent to the task as the author of the first Virginia
+resolutions against the Stamp Act, who will have the glory with
+posterity of beginning and concluding this great revolution. Happy
+Virginia, whose constitution is to be framed by so masterly a
+builder!" Then, with respect to the aristocratic features in the
+Constitution, as proposed by "A Native of the Colony," John Adams
+exclaims:--
+
+     "The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the
+     sachems, the nabobs, call them by what name you please,
+     sigh, and groan, and fret, and sometimes stamp, and foam,
+     and curse, but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it
+     cannot be recalled, that a more equal liberty than has
+     prevailed in other parts of the earth, must be established
+     in America. That exuberance of pride which has produced an
+     insolent domination in a few, a very few, opulent,
+     monopolizing families, will be brought down nearer to the
+     confines of reason and moderation than they have been used
+     to.... I shall ever be happy in receiving your advice by
+     letter, until I can be more completely so in seeing you here
+     in person, which I hope will be soon."[248]
+
+On the 12th of June, the convention adopted without a dissenting voice
+its celebrated "declaration of rights," a compact, luminous, and
+powerful statement, in sixteen articles, of those great fundamental
+rights that were henceforth to be "the basis and foundation of
+government" in Virginia, and were to stamp their character upon that
+constitution on which the committee were even then engaged. Perhaps
+no political document of that time is more worthy of study in
+connection with the genesis, not only of our state constitutions, but
+of that of the nation likewise. That the first fourteen articles of
+the declaration were written by George Mason has never been disputed:
+that he also wrote the fifteenth and the sixteenth articles is now
+claimed by his latest and ablest biographer,[249] but in opposition to
+the testimony of Edmund Randolph, who was a member both of the
+convention itself and of the particular committee in charge of the
+declaration, and who has left on record the statement that those
+articles were the work of Patrick Henry.[250] The fifteenth article
+was in these words: "That no free government, or the blessings of
+liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to
+justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by
+frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." The sixteenth article
+is an assertion of the doctrine of religious liberty,--the first time
+that it was ever asserted by authority in Virginia. The original
+draft, in which the writer followed very closely the language used on
+that subject by the Independents in the Assembly of Westminster, stood
+as follows:--
+
+     "That religion, or the duty we owe our Creator, and the
+     manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason
+     and conviction, and not by force or violence; and,
+     therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration
+     in the exercise of religion, according to the dictates of
+     conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate,
+     unless, under color of religion, any man disturb the peace,
+     the happiness, or the safety of society; and that it is the
+     mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love,
+     and charity towards each other."[251]
+
+The historic significance of this stately assertion of religious
+liberty in Virginia can be felt only by those who remember that, at
+that time, the Church of England was the established church of
+Virginia, and that the laws of Virginia then restrained the exercise
+there of every form of religious dissent, unless compliance had been
+made with the conditions of the toleration act of the first year of
+William and Mary. At the very moment, probably, when the committee
+were engaged in considering the tremendous innovation contained in
+this article, "sundry persons of the Baptist church in the county of
+Prince William" were putting their names to a petition earnestly
+imploring the convention, "That they be allowed to worship God in
+their own way, without interruption; that they be permitted to
+maintain their own ministers and none others; that they may be
+married, buried, and the like, without paying the clergy of other
+denominations;" and that, by the concession to them of such religious
+freedom, they be enabled to "unite with their brethren, and to the
+utmost of their ability promote the common cause" of political
+freedom.[252] Of course the adoption of the sixteenth article
+virtually carried with it every privilege which these people asked
+for. The author of that article, whether it was George Mason or
+Patrick Henry, was a devout communicant of the established church of
+Virginia; and thus, the first great legislative act for the reform of
+the civil constitution of that church, and for its deliverance from
+the traditional duty and curse of persecution, was an act which came
+from within the church itself.
+
+On Monday, the 24th of June, the committee, through Archibald Cary,
+submitted to the convention their plan of a constitution for the new
+State of Virginia; and on Saturday, the 29th of June, this plan passed
+its third reading, and was unanimously adopted. A glance at the
+document will show that in the sharp struggle between the aristocratic
+and the democratic forces in the convention, the latter had signally
+triumphed. It provided for a lower House of Assembly, whose members
+were to be elected annually by the people, in the proportion of two
+members from each county; for an upper House of Assembly to consist of
+twenty-four members, who were to be elected annually by the people, in
+the proportion of one member from each of the senatorial districts
+into which the several counties should be grouped; for a governor, to
+be elected annually by joint ballot of both houses, and not to
+"continue in that office longer than three years successively," nor
+then to be eligible again for the office until after the lapse of four
+years from the close of his previous term; for a privy council of
+eight members, for delegates in Congress, and for judges in the
+several courts, all to be elected by joint ballot of the two Houses;
+for justices of the peace to be appointed by the governor and the
+privy council; and, finally, for an immediate election, by the
+convention itself, of a governor, and a privy council, and such other
+officers as might be necessary for the introduction of the new
+government.[253]
+
+In accordance with the last provision of this Constitution, the
+convention at once proceeded to cast their ballots for governor, with
+the following result:--
+
+  For Patrick Henry     60
+  For Thomas Nelson     45
+  For John Page          1
+
+By resolution, Patrick Henry was then formally declared to be the
+governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, to continue in office until
+the close of that session of the Assembly which should be held after
+the end of the following March.
+
+On the same day on which this action was taken, he wrote, in reply to
+the official notice of his election, the following letter of
+acceptance,--a graceful, manly, and touching composition:--
+
+     TO THE HONORABLE THE PRESIDENT AND HOUSE OF CONVENTION.
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The vote of this day, appointing me governor of
+     this commonwealth, has been notified to me, in the most
+     polite and obliging manner, by George Mason, Henry Lee,
+     Dudley Digges, John Blair, and Bartholomew Dandridge,
+     Esquires.
+
+     A sense of the high and unmerited honor conferred upon me by
+     the convention fills my heart with gratitude, which I trust
+     my whole life will manifest. I take this earliest
+     opportunity to express my thanks, which I wish to convey to
+     you, gentlemen, in the strongest terms of acknowledgment.
+
+     When I reflect that the tyranny of the British king and
+     parliament hath kindled a formidable war, now raging
+     throughout the wide-extended continent, and in the
+     operations of which this commonwealth must bear so great a
+     part, and that from the events of this war the lasting
+     happiness or misery of a great proportion of the human
+     species will finally result; that, in order to preserve this
+     commonwealth from anarchy, and its attendant ruin, and to
+     give vigor to our councils and effect to all our measures,
+     government hath been necessarily assumed and new modelled;
+     that it is exposed to numberless hazards and perils in its
+     infantine state; that it can never attain to maturity or
+     ripen into firmness, unless it is guarded by affectionate
+     assiduity, and managed by great abilities,--I lament my want
+     of talents; I feel my mind filled with anxiety and
+     uneasiness to find myself so unequal to the duties of that
+     important station to which I am called by favor of my fellow
+     citizens at this truly critical conjuncture. The errors of
+     my conduct shall be atoned for, so far as I am able, by
+     unwearied endeavors to secure the freedom and happiness of
+     our common country.
+
+     I shall enter upon the duties of my office whenever you,
+     gentlemen, shall be pleased to direct, relying upon the
+     known wisdom and virtue of your honorable house to supply my
+     defects, and to give permanency and success to that system
+     of government which you have formed, and which is so wisely
+     calculated to secure equal liberty, and advance human
+     happiness.
+
+     I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and
+     very humble servant,
+
+                                                 P. HENRY, JR.
+
+     WILLIAMSBURG, June 29, 1776.[254]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[231] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 390.
+
+[232] The journal of this convention is in 4 _Am. Arch._ vi.
+1509-1616.
+
+[233] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 406.
+
+[234] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 95-97. Campbell, in his _History of Virginia_,
+645, 646, commits a rather absurd error in attributing this letter to
+Thomas Nelson, Jr.
+
+[235] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1524.
+
+[236] Randolph's address at the funeral of Pendleton, in _Va. Gazette_
+for 2 Nov. 1803, and cited by Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of 1776_, 203, 204.
+
+[237] _S. Lit. Messenger_ for 1842; thence given in Campbell, _Hist.
+Va._ 647, 648.
+
+[238] _Works of John Adams_, iv. 201.
+
+[239] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 462.
+
+[240] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1524.
+
+[241] _Works of John Adams_, ix. 387.
+
+[242] John Adams's pamphlet is given in his _Works_, iv. 189-200.
+
+[243] The pamphlet is given in 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 748-754.
+
+[244] See the unfavorable comment of Rives, _Life and Times of
+Madison_, i. 147, 148.
+
+[245] Probably Thomas Ludwell Lee.
+
+[246] _S. Lit. Messenger_ for 1842. Reprinted in Campbell, _Hist. Va._
+647.
+
+[247] _Works of John Adams_, iv. 201, 202.
+
+[248] _Works of John Adams_, ix. 386-388.
+
+[249] Kate Mason Rowland, _Life of Mason_, i. 228-241.
+
+[250] Edmund Randolph, MS. _Hist. Va._ See, also, W. W. Henry, _Life
+of P. Henry_, i. 422-436.
+
+[251] Edmund Randolph, MS. _Hist. Va._ See, also, W. W. Henry, _Life
+of P. Henry_, i. 422-436.
+
+[252] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1582.
+
+[253] _Am. Arch._ vi. 1598-1601, note.
+
+[254] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1129, 1130.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA
+
+
+On Friday, the 5th of July, 1776, Patrick Henry took the oath of
+office,[255] and entered upon his duties as governor of the
+commonwealth of Virginia. The salary attached to the position was
+fixed at one thousand pounds sterling for the year; and the governor
+was invited to take up his residence in the palace at Williamsburg. No
+one had resided in the palace since Lord Dunmore had fled from it; and
+the people of Virginia could hardly fail to note the poetic
+retribution whereby the very man whom, fourteen months before, Lord
+Dunmore had contemptuously denounced as "a certain Patrick Henry of
+Hanover County," should now become Lord Dunmore's immediate successor
+in that mansion of state, and should be able, if he chose, to write
+proclamations against Lord Dunmore upon the same desk on which Lord
+Dunmore had so recently written the proclamation against himself.
+
+Among the first to bring their congratulations to the new governor,
+were his devoted friends, the first and second regiments of Virginia,
+who told him that they viewed "with the sincerest sentiments of
+respect and joy" his accession to the highest office in the State, and
+who gave to him likewise this affectionate assurance: "our hearts are
+willing, and arms ready, to maintain your authority as chief
+magistrate."[256] On the 29th of July, the erratic General Charles
+Lee, who was then in Charleston, sent on his congratulations in a
+letter amusing for its tart cordiality and its peppery playfulness:--
+
+     "I most sincerely congratulate you on the noble conduct of
+     your countrymen; and I congratulate your country on having
+     citizens deserving of the high honor to which you are
+     exalted. For the being elected to the first magistracy of a
+     free people is certainly the pinnacle of human glory; and I
+     am persuaded that they could not have made a happier choice.
+     Will you excuse me,--but I am myself so extremely
+     democratical, that I think it a fault in your constitution
+     that the governor should be eligible for three years
+     successively. It appears to me that a government of three
+     years may furnish an opportunity of acquiring a very
+     dangerous influence. But this is not the worst.... A man who
+     is fond of office, and has his eye upon reelection, will be
+     courting favor and popularity at the expense of his duty....
+     There is a barbarism crept in among us that extremely shocks
+     me: I mean those tinsel epithets with which (I come in for
+     my share) we are so beplastered,--'his excellency,' and 'his
+     honor,' 'the honorable president of the honorable congress,'
+     or 'the honorable convention.' This fulsome, nauseating
+     cant may be well enough adapted to barbarous monarchies, or
+     to gratify the adulterated pride of the 'magnifici' in
+     pompous aristocracies; but in a great, free, manly, equal
+     commonwealth, it is quite abominable. For my own part, I
+     would as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as the
+     'excellency' with which I am daily crammed. How much more
+     true dignity was there in the simplicity of address amongst
+     the Romans,--'Marcus Tullius Cicero,' 'Decimo Bruto
+     Imperatori,' or 'Caio Marcello Consuli,'--than to 'his
+     excellency Major-General Noodle,' or to 'the honorable John
+     Doodle.' ... If, therefore, I should sometimes address a
+     letter to you without the 'excellency' tacked, you must not
+     esteem it a mark of personal or official disrespect, but the
+     reverse."[257]
+
+Of all the words of congratulation which poured in upon the new
+governor, probably none came so straight from the heart, and none
+could have been quite so sweet to him, as those which, on the 12th of
+August, were uttered by some of the persecuted dissenters in Virginia,
+who, in many an hour of need, had learned to look up to Patrick Henry
+as their strong and splendid champion, in the legislature and in the
+courts. On the date just mentioned, "the ministers and delegates of
+the Baptist churches" of the State, being met in convention at Louisa,
+sent to him this address:--
+
+     MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,--As your advancement to the
+     honorable and important station as governor of this
+     commonwealth affords us unspeakable pleasure, we beg leave
+     to present your excellency with our most cordial
+     congratulations.
+
+     Your public virtues are such that we are under no temptation
+     to flatter you. Virginia has done honor to her judgment in
+     appointing your excellency to hold the reins of government
+     at this truly critical conjuncture, as you have always
+     distinguished yourself by your zeal and activity for her
+     welfare, in whatever department has been assigned you.
+
+     As a religious community, we have nothing to request of you.
+     Your constant attachment to the glorious cause of liberty
+     and the rights of conscience, leaves us no room to doubt of
+     your excellency's favorable regards while we worthily demean
+     ourselves.
+
+     May God Almighty continue you long, very long, a public
+     blessing to this your native country, and, after a life of
+     usefulness here, crown you with immortal felicity in the
+     world to come.
+
+                    Signed by order: JEREMIAH WALKER, _Moderator_.
+                                     JOHN WILLIAMS, _Clerk_.
+
+To these loving and jubilant words, the governor replied in an
+off-hand letter, the deep feeling of which is not the less evident
+because it is restrained,--a letter which is as choice and noble in
+diction as it is in thought:--
+
+     TO THE MINISTERS AND DELEGATES OF THE BAPTIST CHURCHES, AND
+     THE MEMBERS OF THAT COMMUNION.
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--I am exceedingly obliged to you for your very
+     kind address, and the favorable sentiments you are pleased
+     to entertain respecting my conduct and the principles which
+     have directed it. My constant endeavor shall be to guard the
+     rights of all my fellow-citizens from every encroachment.
+
+     I am happy to find a catholic spirit prevailing in our
+     country, and that those religious distinctions, which
+     formerly produced some heats, are now forgotten. Happy must
+     every friend to virtue and America feel himself, to perceive
+     that the only contest among us, at this most critical and
+     important period, is, who shall be foremost to preserve our
+     religious and civil liberties.
+
+     My most earnest wish is, that Christian charity,
+     forbearance, and love, may unite all our different
+     persuasions, as brethren who must perish or triumph
+     together; and I trust that the time is not far distant when
+     we shall greet each other as the peaceable possessors of
+     that just and equal system of liberty adopted by the last
+     convention, and in support of which may God crown our arms
+     with success.
+
+     I am, gentlemen, your most obedient and very humble servant,
+
+                                              P. HENRY, JUN.[258]
+
+     August 13, 1776.
+
+On the day on which Governor Henry was sworn into office, the
+convention finally adjourned, having made provision for the meeting of
+the General Assembly on the first Monday of the following October. In
+the mean time, therefore, all the interests of the State were to be in
+the immediate keeping of the governor and privy council; and, for a
+part of that time, as it turned out, the governor himself was disabled
+for service. For we now encounter in the history of Patrick Henry, the
+first mention of that infirm health from which he seems to have
+suffered, in some degree, during the remaining twenty-three years of
+his life. Before taking full possession of the governor's palace,
+which had to be made ready for his use, he had likewise to prepare for
+this great change in his life by returning to his home in the county
+of Hanover. There he lay ill for some time;[259] and upon his recovery
+he removed with his family to Williamsburg, which continued to be
+their home for the next three years.
+
+The people of Virginia had been accustomed, for more than a century,
+to look upon their governors as personages of very great dignity.
+Several of those governors had been connected with the English
+peerage; all had served in Virginia in a vice-regal capacity; many had
+lived there in a sort of vice-regal pomp and magnificence. It is not
+to be supposed that Governor Henry would be able or willing to assume
+so much state and grandeur as his predecessors had done; and yet he
+felt, and the people of Virginia felt, that in the transition from
+royal to republican forms the dignity of that office should not be
+allowed to decline in any important particular. Moreover, as a
+contemporary observer mentions, Patrick Henry had been "accused by the
+big-wigs of former times as being a coarse and common man, and utterly
+destitute of dignity; and perhaps he wished to show them that they
+were mistaken."[260] At any rate, by the testimony of all, he seems to
+have displayed his usual judgment and skill in adapting himself to
+the requirements of his position; and, while never losing his
+gentleness and his simplicity of manner, to have borne himself as the
+impersonation, for the time being, of the executive authority of a
+great and proud commonwealth. He ceased to appear frequently upon the
+streets; and whenever he did appear, he was carefully arrayed in a
+dressed wig, in black small-clothes, and in a scarlet cloak; and his
+presence and demeanor were such as to sustain, in the popular mind,
+the traditional respect for his high office.
+
+He had so far recovered from the illness which had prostrated him
+during the summer, as to be at his post of duty when the General
+Assembly of the State began its first session, on Monday, the 7th of
+October, 1776. His health, however, was still extremely frail; for on
+the 30th of that month he was obliged to notify the House "that the
+low state of his health rendered him unable to attend to the duties of
+his office, and that his physicians had recommended to him to retire
+therefrom into the country, till he should recover his strength."[261]
+His absence seems not to have been very long. By the 16th of November,
+as one may infer from entries in the journal of the House,[262] he was
+able to resume his official duties.
+
+The summer and autumn of that year proved to be a dismal period for
+the American cause. Before our eyes, as we now look back over those
+days, there marches this grim procession of dates: August 27, the
+battle of Long Island; August 29, Washington's retreat across East
+River; September 15, the panic among the American troops at Kip's Bay,
+and the American retreat from New York; September 16, the battle of
+Harlem Plains; September 20, the burning of New York; October 28, the
+battle of White Plains; November 16, the surrender of Fort Washington;
+November 20, the abandonment of Fort Lee, followed by Washington's
+retreat across the Jerseys. In the midst of these disasters,
+Washington found time to write, from the Heights of Harlem, on the 5th
+of October, to his old friend, Patrick Henry, congratulating him on
+his election as governor of Virginia and on his recovery from
+sickness; explaining the military situation at headquarters; advising
+him about military appointments in Virginia; and especially giving to
+him important suggestions concerning the immediate military defence of
+Virginia "against the enemy's ships and tenders, which," as Washington
+says to the governor, "may go up your rivers in quest of provisions,
+or for the purpose of destroying your towns."[263] Indeed, Virginia
+was just then exposed to hostile attacks on all sides;[264] and it was
+so plain that any attack by water would have found an easy approach to
+Williamsburg, that, in the course of the next few months, the public
+records and the public stores were removed to Richmond, as being, on
+every account, a "more secure site."[265] Apparently, however, the
+prompt recognition of this danger by Governor Henry, early in the
+autumn of 1776, and his vigorous military preparations against it,
+were interpreted by some of his political enemies as a sign both of
+personal cowardice and of official self-glorification,--as is
+indicated by a letter written by the aged Landon Carter to General
+Washington, on the 31st of October, and filled with all manner of
+caustic garrulity and insinuation,--a letter from which it may be
+profitable for us to quote a few sentences, as qualifying somewhat
+that stream of honeyed testimony respecting Patrick Henry which
+commonly flows down upon us so copiously from all that period.
+
+     "If I don't err in conjecture," says Carter, "I can't help
+     thinking that the head of our Commonwealth has as great a
+     palace of fear and apprehension as can possess the heart of
+     any being; and if we compare rumor with actual movements, I
+     believe it will prove itself to every sensible man. As soon
+     as the Congress sent for our first, third, fourth, fifth,
+     and sixth regiments to assist you in contest against the
+     enemy where they really were ... there got a report among
+     the soldiery that Dignity had declared it would not reside
+     in Williamsburg without two thousand men under arms to guard
+     him. This had like to have occasioned a mutiny. A desertion
+     of many from the several companies did follow; boisterous
+     fellows resisting, and swearing they would not leave their
+     county.... What a finesse of popularity was this?... As soon
+     as the regiments were gone, this great man found an interest
+     with the council of state, perhaps timorous as himself, to
+     issue orders for the militia of twenty-six counties, and
+     five companies of a minute battalion, to march to
+     Williamsburg, to protect him only against his own fears; and
+     to make this the more popular, it was endeavored that the
+     House of Delegates should give it a countenance, but, as
+     good luck would have it, it was with difficulty
+     refused.[266] ... Immediately then, ... a bill is brought in
+     to remove the seat of government,--some say, up to Hanover,
+     to be called Henry-Town."[267]
+
+This gossip of a disappointed Virginian aristocrat, in vituperation of
+the public character of Governor Henry, naturally leads us forward in
+our story to that more stupendous eruption of gossip which relates, in
+the first instance, to the latter part of December, 1776, and which
+alleges that a conspiracy was then formed among certain members of the
+General Assembly to make Patrick Henry the dictator of Virginia. The
+first intimation ever given to the public concerning it, was given by
+Jefferson several years afterward, in his "Notes on Virginia," a
+fascinating brochure which was written by him in 1781 and 1782, was
+first printed privately in Paris in 1784, and was first published in
+England in 1787, in America in 1788.[268] The essential portions of
+his statement are as follows:--
+
+     "In December, 1776, our circumstances being much distressed,
+     it was proposed in the House of Delegates to create a
+     dictator, invested with every power legislative, executive,
+     and judiciary, civil and military, of life and death, over
+     our persons and over our properties.... One who entered into
+     this contest from a pure love of liberty, and a sense of
+     injured rights, who determined to make every sacrifice and
+     to meet every danger, for the reestablishment of those
+     rights on a firm basis, ... must stand confounded and
+     dismayed when he is told that a considerable portion of" the
+     House "had meditated the surrender of them into a single
+     hand, and in lieu of a limited monarchy, to deliver him over
+     to a despotic one.... The very thought alone was treason
+     against the people; was treason against man in general; as
+     riveting forever the chains which bow down their necks, by
+     giving to their oppressors a proof, which they would have
+     trumpeted through the universe, of the imbecility of
+     republican government, in times of pressing danger, to
+     shield them from harm.... Those who meant well, of the
+     advocates of this measure (and most of them meant well, for
+     I know them personally, had been their fellow-laborer in the
+     common cause, and had often proved the purity of their
+     principles), had been seduced in their judgment by the
+     example of an ancient republic, whose constitution and
+     circumstances were fundamentally different."[269]
+
+With that artistic tact and that excellent prudence which seem never
+to have failed Jefferson in any of his enterprises for the
+disparagement of his associates, he here avoids, as will be observed,
+all mention of the name of the person for whose fatal promotion this
+classic conspiracy was formed,--leaving that interesting item to come
+out, as it did many years afterward, when the most of those who could
+have borne testimony upon the subject were in their graves, and when
+the damning stigma could be comfortably fastened to the name of
+Patrick Henry without the direct intervention of Jefferson's own
+hands. Accordingly, in 1816, a French gentleman, Girardin, a near
+neighbor of Jefferson's, who enjoyed "the incalculable benefit of a
+free access to Mr. Jefferson's library,"[270] and who wrote the
+continuation of Burk's "History of Virginia" under Jefferson's very
+eye,[271] gave in that work a highly wrought account of the alleged
+conspiracy of December, 1776, as involving "nothing less than the
+substitution of a despotic in lieu of a limited monarch;" and then
+proceeded to bring the accusation down from those lurid generalities
+of condemnation in which Jefferson himself had cautiously left it, by
+adding this sentence: "That Mr. Henry was the person in view for the
+dictatorship, is well ascertained."[272]
+
+Finally, in 1817, William Wirt, whose "Life of Henry" was likewise
+composed under nearly the same inestimable advantages as regards
+instruction and oversight furnished by Jefferson, repeated the fearful
+tale, and added some particulars; but, in doing so, Wirt could not
+fail--good lawyer and just man, as he was--to direct attention to the
+absence of all evidence of any collusion on the part of Patrick Henry
+with the projected folly and crime.
+
+     "Even the heroism of the Virginia legislature," says Wirt,
+     "gave way; and, in a season of despair, the mad project of a
+     dictator was seriously meditated. That Mr. Henry was thought
+     of for this office, has been alleged, and is highly
+     probable; but that the project was suggested by him, or even
+     received his countenance, I have met with no one who will
+     venture to affirm. There is a tradition that Colonel
+     Archibald Cary, the speaker of the Senate, was principally
+     instrumental in crushing this project; that meeting Colonel
+     Syme, the step-brother of Colonel Henry, in the lobby of the
+     House, he accosted him very fiercely in terms like these: 'I
+     am told that your brother wishes to be dictator. Tell him
+     from me, that the day of his appointment shall be the day of
+     his death;--for he shall feel my dagger in his heart before
+     the sunset of that day.' And the tradition adds that Colonel
+     Syme, in great agitation, declared that 'if such a project
+     existed, his brother had no hand in it; for that nothing
+     could be more foreign to him, than to countenance any office
+     which could endanger, in the most distant manner, the
+     liberties of his country.' The intrepidity and violence of
+     Colonel Cary's character renders the tradition probable; but
+     it furnishes no proof of Mr. Henry's implication in the
+     scheme."[273]
+
+A disinterested study of this subject, in the light of all the
+evidence now attainable, will be likely to convince any one that this
+enormous scandal must have been very largely a result of the extreme
+looseness at that time prevailing in the use of the word "dictator,"
+and of its being employed, on the one side, in an innocent sense, and,
+on the other side, in a guilty one. In strict propriety, of course,
+the word designates a magistrate created in an emergency of public
+peril, and clothed for a time with unlimited power. It is an extreme
+remedy, and in itself a remedy extremely dangerous, and can never be
+innocently resorted to except when the necessity for it is
+indubitable; and it may well be questioned whether, among people and
+institutions like our own, a necessity can ever arise which would
+justify the temporary grant of unlimited power to any man. If this be
+true, it follows that no man among us can, without dire political
+guilt, ever consent to bestow such power; and that no man can, without
+the same guilt, ever consent to receive it.
+
+Yet it is plain that even among us, between the years 1776 and 1783,
+emergencies of terrific public peril did arise, sufficient to justify,
+nay, even to compel, the bestowment either upon the governor of some
+State, or upon the general of the armies, not of unlimited power,
+certainly, but of extraordinary power,--such extraordinary power, for
+example, as was actually conferred by the Continental Congress, more
+than once, on Washington; as was conferred by the legislature of South
+Carolina on Governor John Rutledge; as was repeatedly conferred by the
+legislature of Virginia upon Governor Patrick Henry; and afterward, in
+still higher degree, by the same legislature, on Governor Thomas
+Jefferson himself. Nevertheless, so loose was the meaning then
+attached to the word "dictator," that it was not uncommon for men to
+speak of these very cases as examples of the bestowment of a
+dictatorship, and of the exercise of dictatorial power; although, in
+every one of the cases mentioned, there was lacking the essential
+feature of a true dictatorship, namely, the grant of unlimited power
+to one man. It is perfectly obvious, likewise, that when, in those
+days, men spoke thus of a dictatorship, and of dictatorial power, they
+attached no suggestion of political guilt either to the persons who
+bestowed such power, or to the persons who severally accepted it,--the
+tacit understanding being that, in every instance, the public danger
+required and justified some grant of extraordinary power; that no more
+power was granted than was necessary; and that the man to whom, in any
+case, the grant was made, was a man to whom, there was good reason to
+believe, the grant could be made with safety. Obviously, it was upon
+this tacit understanding of its meaning that the word was used, for
+instance, by Edmund Randolph, in 1788, in the Virginia Constitutional
+Convention, when, alluding to the extraordinary power bestowed by
+Congress on Washington, he said: "We had an American dictator in
+1781." Surely, Randolph did not mean to impute political crime, either
+to the Congress which made Washington a dictator, or to Washington
+himself who consented to be made one. It was upon the same tacit
+understanding, also, that Patrick Henry, in reply to Randolph, took up
+the word, and extolled the grant of dictatorial power to Washington on
+the occasion referred to: "In making a dictator," said Henry, "we
+followed the example of the most glorious, magnanimous, and skilful
+nations. In great dangers, this power has been given. Rome has
+furnished us with an illustrious example. America found a person for
+that trust: she looked to Virginia for him. We gave a dictatorial
+power to hands that used it gloriously, and which were rendered more
+glorious by surrendering it up."[274]
+
+Thus it is apparent that the word "dictator" was frequently used in
+those times in a sense perfectly innocent. As all men know, however,
+the word is one capable of suggesting the possibilities of dreadful
+political crime; and it is not hard to see how, when employed by one
+person to describe the bestowment and acceptance of extraordinary
+power,--implying a perfectly innocent proposition, it could be easily
+taken by another person as describing the bestowment and acceptance of
+unlimited power,--implying a proposition which among us, probably,
+would always be a criminal one.
+
+With the help which this discussion may give us, let us now return to
+the General Assembly of Virginia, at Williamsburg, approaching the
+close of its first session, in the latter part of December, 1776. It
+was on the point of adjourning, not to meet again until the latter
+part of March, 1777. At that moment, by the arrival of most alarming
+news from the seat of war, it was forced to make special provision for
+the public safety during the interval which must elapse before its
+next session. Its journal indicates that, prior to the 20th of
+December, it had been proceeding with its business in a quiet way,
+under no apparent consciousness of imminent peril. On that day,
+however, there are traces of a panic; for, on that day, "The Virginia
+Gazette" announced to them the appalling news of "the crossing of the
+Delaware by the British forces, from twelve to fifteen thousand
+strong; the position of General Washington, at Bristol, on the south
+side of the river, with only six thousand men;" and the virtual flight
+of Congress from Philadelphia.[275] At this rate, how long would it be
+before the Continental army would be dispersed or captured, and the
+troops of the enemy sweeping in vengeance across the borders of
+Virginia? Accordingly, the House of Delegates immediately resolved
+itself into "a committee to take into their consideration the state of
+America;" but not being able to reach any decision that day, it voted
+to resume the subject on the day following, and for that purpose to
+meet an hour earlier than usual. So, on Saturday, the 21st of
+December, the House passed a series of resolutions intended to provide
+for the crisis into which the country was plunged, and, among the
+other resolutions, this:--
+
+     "And whereas the present imminent danger of America, and the
+     ruin and misery which threatens the good people of this
+     Commonwealth, and their posterity, calls for the utmost
+     exertion of our strength, and it is become necessary for the
+     preservation of the State that the usual forms of government
+     be suspended during a limited time, for the more speedy
+     execution of the most vigorous and effectual measures to
+     repel the invasion of the enemy;
+
+     "_Resolved, therefore_, That the governor be, and he is
+     hereby fully authorized and empowered, by and with the
+     advice and consent of the privy council, from henceforward,
+     until ten days next after the first meeting of the General
+     Assembly, to carry into execution such requisitions as may
+     be made to this Commonwealth by the American Congress for
+     the purpose of encountering or repelling the enemy; to order
+     the three battalions on the pay of this Commonwealth to
+     march, if necessary, to join the Continental army, or to the
+     assistance of any of our sister States; to call forth any
+     and such greater military force as they shall judge
+     requisite, either by embodying and arraying companies or
+     regiments of volunteers, or by raising additional
+     battalions, appointing and commissioning the proper
+     officers, and to direct their operations within this
+     Commonwealth, under the command of the Continental generals
+     or other officers according to their respective ranks, or
+     order them to march to join and act in concert with the
+     Continental army, or the troops of any of the American
+     States; and to provide for their pay, supply of provisions,
+     arms, and other necessaries, at the charge of this
+     Commonwealth, by drawing on the treasurer for the money
+     which may be necessary from time to time; and the said
+     treasurer is authorized to pay such warrants out of any
+     public money which may be in his hands, and the General
+     Assembly will, at their next session, make ample provision
+     for any deficiency which may happen. But that this departure
+     from the constitution of government, being in this instance
+     founded only on the most evident and urgent necessity, ought
+     not hereafter to be drawn into precedent."
+
+These resolutions, having been pressed rapidly through the forms of
+the House, were at once carried up to the Senate for its concurrence.
+The answer of the Senate was promptly returned, agreeing to all the
+resolutions of the lower House, but proposing an important amendment
+in the phraseology of the particular resolution which we have just
+quoted. Instead of this clause--"the usual forms of government should
+be suspended," it suggested the far more accurate and far more prudent
+expression which here follows,--"additional powers be given to the
+governor and council." This amendment was assented to by the House;
+and almost immediately thereafter it adjourned until the last Thursday
+in March, 1777, "then to meet in the city of Williamsburg, or at such
+other place as the governor and council, for good reasons, may
+appoint."[276]
+
+Such, undoubtedly, was the occasion on which, if at any time during
+that session, the project for a dictatorship in Virginia was under
+consideration by the House of Delegates. The only evidence for the
+reality of such a project is derived from the testimony of Jefferson;
+and Jefferson, though a member of the House, was not then in
+attendance, having procured, on the 29th of the previous month,
+permission to be absent during the remainder of the session.[277] Is
+it not probable that the whole terrible plot, as it afterward lay in
+the mind of Jefferson, may have originated in reports which reached
+him elsewhere, to the effect that, in the excitement of the House over
+the public danger and over the need of energetic measures against that
+danger, some members had demanded that the governor should be invested
+with what they perhaps called dictatorial power, meaning thereby no
+more than extraordinary power; and that all the criminal accretions to
+that meaning, which Jefferson attributed to the project, were simply
+the work of his own imagination, always sensitive and quick to take
+alarm on behalf of human liberty, and, on such a subject as this,
+easily set on fire by examples of awful political crime which would
+occur to him from Roman history? This suggestion, moreover, is not out
+of harmony with one which has been made by a thorough and most candid
+student of the subject, who says: "I am very much inclined to think
+that some sneering remark of Colonel Cary, on that occasion, has given
+rise to the whole story about a proposed dictator at that time."[278]
+
+At any rate, this must not be forgotten: if the project of a
+dictatorship, in the execrable sense affirmed by Jefferson, was,
+during that session, advocated by any man or by any cabal in the
+Assembly, history must absolve Patrick Henry of all knowledge of it,
+and of all responsibility for it. Not only has no tittle of evidence
+been produced, involving his connivance at such a scheme, but the
+Assembly itself, a few months later, unwittingly furnished to
+posterity the most conclusive proof that no man in that body could
+have believed him to be smirched with even the suggestion of so horrid
+a crime. Had Patrick Henry been suspected, during the autumn and early
+winter of 1776, of any participation in the foul plot to create a
+despotism in Virginia, is it to be conceived that, at its very next
+session, in the spring of 1777, that Assembly, composed of nearly the
+same members as before, would have reelected to the governorship so
+profligate and dangerous a man, and that too without any visible
+opposition in either House? Yet that is precisely what the Virginia
+Assembly did in May, 1777. Moreover, one year later, this same
+Assembly reelected this same profligate and dangerous politician for
+his third and last permissible year in the governorship, and it did so
+with the same unbroken unanimity. Moreover, during all that time,
+Thomas Jefferson was a member, and a most conspicuous and influential
+member, of the Virginia Assembly. If, indeed, he then believed that
+his old friend, Patrick Henry, had stood ready in 1776, to commit
+"treason against the people" of America, and "treason against mankind
+in general," why did he permit the traitor to be twice reelected to
+the chief magistracy, without the record of even one brave effort
+against him on either occasion?
+
+On the 26th of December, 1776, in accordance with the special
+authority thus conferred upon him by the General Assembly, Governor
+Henry issued a vigorous proclamation, declaring that the "critical
+situation of American affairs" called for "the utmost exertion of
+every sister State to put a speedy end to the cruel ravages of a
+haughty and inveterate enemy, and secure our invaluable rights," and
+"earnestly exhorting and requiring" all the good people of Virginia to
+assist in the formation of volunteer companies for such service as
+might be required.[279] The date of that proclamation was also the
+date of Washington's famous matutinal surprise of the Hessians at
+Trenton,--a bit of much-needed good luck, which was followed by his
+fortunate engagement with the enemy near Princeton, on the 3d of
+January, 1777. On these and a very few other extremely small crumbs of
+comfort, the struggling revolutionists had to nourish their burdened
+hearts for many a month thereafter; Washington himself, during all
+that time, with his little army of tattered and barefoot warriors,
+majestically predominating over the scene from the heights of
+Morristown; while the good-humored British commander, Sir William
+Howe, considerately abstained from any serious military disturbance
+until the middle of the following summer. Thus the chief duty of the
+governor of Virginia, during the winter and spring of 1777, as it had
+been in the previous autumn, was that of trying to keep in the field
+Virginia's quota of troops, and of trying to furnish Virginia's share
+of military supplies,--no easy task, it should seem, in those times of
+poverty, confusion, and patriotic languor. The official correspondence
+of the governor indicates the unslumbering anxiety, the energy, the
+fertility of device with which, in spite of defective health, he
+devoted himself to these hard tasks.[280]
+
+In his great desire for exact information as to the real situation at
+headquarters, Governor Henry had sent to Washington a secret messenger
+by the name of Walker, who was to make his observations at Morristown
+and to report the results to himself. Washington at once perceived the
+embarrassments to which such a plan might lead; and accordingly, on
+the 24th of February, 1777, he wrote to the governor, gently
+explaining why he could not receive Mr. Walker as a mere visiting
+observer:--
+
+     "To avoid the precedent, therefore, and from your character
+     of Mr. Walker, and the high opinion I myself entertain of
+     his abilities, honor, and prudence, I have taken him into my
+     family as an extra aide-de-camp, and shall be happy if, in
+     this character, he can answer your expectations. I sincerely
+     thank you, sir, for your kind congratulations on the late
+     success of the Continental arms (would to God it may
+     continue), and for your polite mention of me. Let me
+     earnestly entreat that the troops raised in Virginia for
+     this army be forwarded on by companies, or otherwise,
+     without delay, and as well equipped as possible for the
+     field, or we shall be in no condition to open the
+     campaign."[281]
+
+On the 29th of the following month, the governor wrote to Washington
+of the overwhelming difficulty attending all his efforts to comply
+with the request mentioned in the letter just cited:--
+
+     "I am very sorry to inform you that the recruiting business
+     of late goes on so badly, that there remains but little
+     prospect of filling the six new battalions from this State,
+     voted by the Assembly. The Board of Council see this with
+     great concern, and, after much reflection on the subject,
+     are of opinion that the deficiency in our regulars can no
+     way be supplied so properly as by enlisting volunteers.
+     There is reason to believe a considerable number of these
+     may be got to serve six or eight months.... I believe you
+     can receive no assistance by drafts from the militia. From
+     the battalions of the Commonwealth none can be drawn as yet,
+     because they are not half full.... Virginia will find some
+     apology with you for this deficiency in her quota of
+     regulars, when the difficulties lately thrown in our way are
+     considered. The Georgians and Carolinians have enlisted [in
+     Virginia] probably two battalions at least. A regiment of
+     artillery is in great forwardness. Besides these, Colonels
+     Baylor and Grayson are collecting regiments; and three
+     others are forming for this State. Add to all this our
+     Indian wars and marine service, almost total want of
+     necessaries, the false accounts of deserters,--many of whom
+     lurk here,--the terrors of the smallpox and the many deaths
+     occasioned by it, and the deficient enlistments are
+     accounted for in the best manner I can. As no time can be
+     spared, I wish to be honored with your answer as soon as
+     possible, in order to promote the volunteer scheme, if it
+     meets your approbation. I should be glad of any improvements
+     on it that may occur to you. I believe about four of the six
+     battalions may be enlisted, but have seen no regular
+     [return] of their state. Their scattered situation, and
+     being many of them in broken quotas, is a reason for their
+     slow movement. I have issued repeated orders for their march
+     long since."[282]
+
+The General Assembly of Virginia, at its session in the spring of
+1777, was required to elect a governor, to serve for one year from the
+day on which that session should end. As no candidate was named in
+opposition to Patrick Henry, the Senate proposed to the House of
+Delegates that he should be reappointed without ballot. This,
+accordingly, was done, by resolution of the latter body on the 29th of
+May, and by that of the Senate on the 1st of June. On the 5th of June,
+the committee appointed to inform the governor of this action laid
+before the House his answer:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The signal honor conferred on me by the General
+     Assembly, in their choice of me to be governor of this
+     Commonwealth, demands my best acknowledgments, which I beg
+     the favor of you to convey to them in the most acceptable
+     manner.
+
+     I shall execute the duties of that high station to which I
+     am again called by the favor of my fellow-citizens,
+     according to the best of my abilities, and I shall rely upon
+     the candor and wisdom of the Assembly to excuse and supply
+     my defects. The good of the Commonwealth shall be the only
+     object of my pursuit, and I shall measure my happiness
+     according to the success which shall attend my endeavors to
+     establish the public liberty. I beg to be presented to the
+     Assembly, and that they and you will be assured that I am,
+     with every sentiment of the highest regard, their and your
+     most obedient and very humble servant,
+
+                                                P. HENRY.[283]
+
+After a perusal of this nobly written letter, the gentle reader will
+have no difficulty in concluding that, if indeed the author of it was
+then lying in wait for an opportunity to set up a despotism in
+Virginia, he had already become an adept in the hypocrisy which
+enabled him, not only to conceal the fact, but to convey an impression
+quite the opposite.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[255] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 154.
+
+[256] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1602, 1603, note.
+
+[257] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 631.
+
+[258] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 905, 906.
+
+[259] George Rogers Clark's _Campaign in the Illinois_, 11.
+
+[260] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[261] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32.
+
+[262] _Ibid._ 57-59.
+
+[263] _Writings of Washington_, iv. 138.
+
+[264] See Letters from the president of Va. Privy Council and from
+General Lewis, in 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 736.
+
+[265] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 229.
+
+[266] Compare _Jour. Va. House Del._ 8.
+
+[267] 5 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1305-1306.
+
+[268] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 363, 413; and _Hist. Mag._ i.
+52.
+
+[269] _Writings of Jefferson_, viii. 368-371; also Phila. ed. of
+_Notes_, 1825, 172-176.
+
+[270] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. Pref. Rem. vi.
+
+[271] See Jefferson's explicit endorsement of Girardin's book in his
+own _Writings_, i. 50.
+
+[272] Burk, _Hist. Va._ 189, 190.
+
+[273] Wirt, _Life of Henry_, 204-205.
+
+[274] Elliot's _Debates_, iii. 160.
+
+[275] Cited by William Wirt Henry, _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 349.
+
+[276] _Jour. Va. House of Del._ 106-108.
+
+[277] _Jour. Va. H. Del._ 75; and Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i.
+205.
+
+[278] William Wirt Henry, _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 350.
+
+[279] 5 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1425-1426.
+
+[280] I refer, for example, to his letters of Oct. 11, 1776; of Nov.
+19, 1776; of Dec. 6, 1776; of Jan. 8, 1777; of March 20, 1777; of
+March 28, 1777; of June 20, 1777; besides the letters cited in the
+text.
+
+[281] _Writings of Washington_, iv. 330.
+
+[282] Sparks, _Corr. Rev._ i. 361, 362.
+
+[283] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 61.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+GOVERNOR A SECOND TIME
+
+
+Patrick Henry's second term as governor extended from the 28th of
+June, 1777, to the 28th of June, 1778: a twelvemonth of vast and even
+decisive events in the struggle for national independence,--its awful
+disasters being more than relieved by the successes, both diplomatic
+and military, which were compressed within that narrow strip of time.
+Let us try, by a glance at the chief items in the record of that year,
+to bring before our eyes the historic environment amid which the
+governor of Virginia then wrought at his heavy tasks: July 6, 1777,
+American evacuation of Ticonderoga at the approach of Burgoyne; August
+6, defeat of Herkimer by the British under St. Leger; August 16,
+Stark's victory over the British at Bennington; September 11, defeat
+of Washington at Brandywine; September 27, entrance of the British
+into Philadelphia; October 4, defeat of Washington at Germantown;
+October 16, surrender of Burgoyne and his entire army; December 11,
+Washington's retirement into winter quarters at Valley Forge; February
+6, 1778, American treaty of alliance with France; May 11, death of
+Lord Chatham; June 13, Lord North's peace commissioners propose to
+Congress a cessation of hostilities; June 18, the British evacuate
+Philadelphia; June 28, the battle of Monmouth.
+
+The story of the personal life of Patrick Henry during those stern and
+agitating months is lighted up by the mention of his marriage, on the
+9th of October, 1777, to Dorothea Dandridge, a granddaughter of the
+old royal governor, Alexander Spotswood,--a lady who was much younger
+than her husband, and whose companionship proved to be the solace of
+all the years that remained to him on earth.
+
+The pressure of official business upon him can hardly have been less
+than during the previous year. The General Assembly was in session
+from the 20th of October, 1777, until the 24th of January, 1778, and
+from the 4th of May to the 1st of June, 1778,--involving, of course, a
+long strain of attention by the governor to the work of the two
+houses. Moreover, the prominence of Virginia among the States, and, at
+the same time, her exemption from the most formidable assaults of the
+enemy, led to great demands being made upon her both for men and for
+supplies. To meet these demands, either by satisfying them or by
+explaining his failure to do so, involved a copious and laborious
+correspondence on the part of Governor Henry, not only with his own
+official subordinates in the State, but with the president of
+Congress, with the board of war, and with the general of the army.
+The official letters which he thus wrote are a monument of his ardor
+and energy as a war governor, his attention to details, his broad
+practical sense, his hopefulness and patience under galling
+disappointments and defeats.[284]
+
+Perhaps nothing in the life of Governor Henry during his second term
+of office has so touching an interest for us now, as has the course
+which he took respecting the famous intrigue, which was developed into
+alarming proportions during the winter of 1777 and 1778, for the
+displacement of Washington, and for the elevation of the shallow and
+ill-balanced Gates to the supreme command of the armies. It is
+probable that several men of prominence in the army, in Congress, and
+in the several state governments, were drawn into this cabal, although
+most of them had too much caution to commit themselves to it by any
+documentary evidence which could rise up and destroy them in case of
+its failure. The leaders in the plot very naturally felt the great
+importance of securing the secret support of men of high influence in
+Washington's own State; and by many it was then believed that they
+had actually won over no less a man than Richard Henry Lee. Of course,
+if also the sanction of Governor Patrick Henry could be secured, a
+prodigious advantage would be gained. Accordingly, from the town of
+York, in Pennsylvania, whither Congress had fled on the advance of the
+enemy towards Philadelphia, the following letter was sent to him,--a
+letter written in a disguised hand, without signature, but evidently
+by a personal friend, a man of position, and a master of the art of
+plausible statement:--
+
+                                      YORKTOWN, 12 January, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--The common danger of our country first brought
+     you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the influence
+     of your conversation and eloquence upon the opinions of this
+     country in the beginning of the present controversy. You
+     first taught us to shake off our idolatrous attachment to
+     royalty, and to oppose its encroachments upon our liberties
+     with our very lives. By these means you saved us from ruin.
+     The independence of America is the offspring of that liberal
+     spirit of thinking and acting, which followed the
+     destruction of the sceptres of kings, and the mighty power
+     of Great Britain.
+
+     But, Sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A dreary
+     wilderness is still before us; and unless a Moses or a
+     Joshua are raised up in our behalf, we must perish before we
+     reach the promised land. We have nothing to fear from our
+     enemies on the way. General Howe, it is true, has taken
+     Philadelphia, but he has only changed his prison. His
+     dominions are bounded on all sides by his out-sentries.
+     America can only be undone by herself. She looks up to her
+     councils and arms for protection; but, alas! what are they?
+     Her representation in Congress dwindled to only twenty-one
+     members; her Adams, her Wilson, her Henry are no more among
+     them. Her councils weak, and partial remedies applied
+     constantly for universal diseases. Her army, what is it? A
+     major-general belonging to it called it a few days ago, in
+     my hearing, a mob. Discipline unknown or wholly neglected.
+     The quartermaster's and commissary's departments filled with
+     idleness, ignorance, and peculation; our hospitals crowded
+     with six thousand sick, but half provided with necessaries
+     or accommodations, and more dying in them in one month than
+     perished in the field during the whole of the last campaign.
+     The money depreciating, without any effectual measures being
+     taken to raise it; the country distracted with the Don
+     Quixote attempts to regulate the price of provisions; an
+     artificial famine created by it, and a real one dreaded from
+     it; the spirit of the people failing through a more intimate
+     acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes; many
+     submitting daily to General Howe; and more wishing to do it,
+     only to avoid the calamities which threaten our country. But
+     is our case desperate? By no means. We have wisdom, virtue
+     and strength enough to save us, if they could be called into
+     action. The northern army has shown us what Americans are
+     capable of doing with a General at their head. The spirit of
+     the southern army is no way inferior to the spirit of the
+     northern. A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway, would in a few weeks
+     render them an irresistible body of men. The last of the
+     above officers has accepted of the new office of
+     inspector-general of our army, in order to reform abuses;
+     but the remedy is only a palliative one. In one of his
+     letters to a friend he says, 'A great and good God hath
+     decreed America to be free, or the [General] and weak
+     counsellors would have ruined her long ago.' You may rest
+     assured of each of the facts related in this letter. The
+     author of it is one of your Philadelphia friends. A hint of
+     his name, if found out by the handwriting, must not be
+     mentioned to your most intimate friend. Even the letter must
+     be thrown into the fire. But some of its contents ought to
+     be made public, in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our
+     country. I rely upon your prudence, and am, dear Sir, with
+     my usual attachment to you, and to our beloved independence,
+
+                                                 Yours sincerely.
+
+How was Patrick Henry to deal with such a letter as this? Even though
+he should reject its reasoning, and spurn the temptation with which it
+assailed him, should he merely burn it, and be silent? The incident
+furnished a fair test of his loyalty in friendship, his faith in
+principle, his soundness of judgment, his clear and cool grasp of the
+public situation,--in a word, of his manliness and his statesmanship.
+This is the way in which he stood the test:--
+
+     PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+                                 WILLIAMSBURG, 20 February, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--You will, no doubt, be surprised at seeing the
+     enclosed letter, in which the encomiums bestowed on me are
+     as undeserved, as the censures aimed at you are unjust. I am
+     sorry there should be one man who counts himself my friend,
+     who is not yours.
+
+     Perhaps I give you needless trouble in handing you this
+     paper. The writer of it may be too insignificant to deserve
+     any notice. If I knew this to be the case, I should not have
+     intruded on your time, which is so precious. But there may
+     possibly be some scheme or party forming to your prejudice.
+     The enclosed leads to such a suspicion. Believe, me, Sir, I
+     have too high a sense of the obligations America has to you,
+     to abet or countenance so unworthy a proceeding. The most
+     exalted merit has ever been found to attract envy. But I
+     please myself with the hope that the same fortitude and
+     greatness of mind, which have hitherto braved all the
+     difficulties and dangers inseparable from your station, will
+     rise superior to every attempt of the envious partisan. I
+     really cannot tell who is the writer of this letter, which
+     not a little perplexes me. The handwriting is altogether
+     strange to me.
+
+     To give you the trouble of this gives me pain. It would suit
+     my inclination better to give you some assistance in the
+     great business of the war. But I will not conceal anything
+     from you, by which you may be affected; for I really think
+     your personal welfare and the happiness of America are
+     intimately connected. I beg you will be assured of that high
+     regard and esteem with which I ever am, dear sir, your
+     affectionate friend and very humble servant.
+
+Fifteen days passed after the dispatch of that letter, when, having as
+yet no answer, but with a heart still full of anxiety respecting this
+mysterious and ill-boding cabal against his old friend, Governor
+Henry wrote again:--
+
+     PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.
+
+                                     WILLIAMSBURG, 5 March, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--By an express, which Colonel Finnie sent to camp,
+     I enclosed to you an anonymous letter which I hope got safe
+     to hand. I am anxious to hear something that will serve to
+     explain the strange affair, which I am now informed is taken
+     up respecting you. Mr. Custis has just paid us a visit, and
+     by him I learn sundry particulars concerning General
+     Mifflin, that much surprised me. It is very hard to trace
+     the schemes and windings of the enemies to America. I really
+     thought that man its friend; however, I am too far from him
+     to judge of his present temper.
+
+     While you face the armed enemies of our liberty in the
+     field, and by the favor of God have been kept unhurt, I
+     trust your country will never harbor in her bosom the
+     miscreant, who would ruin her best supporter. I wish not to
+     flatter; but when arts, unworthy honest men, are used to
+     defame and traduce you, I think it not amiss, but a duty, to
+     assure you of that estimation in which the public hold you.
+     Not that I think any testimony I can bear is necessary for
+     your support, or private satisfaction; for a bare
+     recollection of what is past must give you sufficient
+     pleasure in every circumstance of life. But I cannot help
+     assuring you, on this occasion, of the high sense of
+     gratitude which all ranks of men in this our native country
+     bear to you. It will give me sincere pleasure to manifest my
+     regards, and render my best services to you or yours. I do
+     not like to make a parade of these things, and I know you
+     are not fond of it; however, I hope the occasion will plead
+     my excuse. Wishing you all possible felicity, I am, my dear
+     Sir, your ever affectionate friend and very humble servant.
+
+Before Washington received this second letter, he had already begun to
+write the following reply to the first:--
+
+     GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY.
+
+                                   VALLEY FORGE, 27 March, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--About eight days ago I was honored with your
+     favor of the 20th ultimo. Your friendship, sir, in
+     transmitting to me the anonymous letter you had received,
+     lays me under the most grateful obligations, and if my
+     acknowledgments can be due for anything more, it is for the
+     polite and delicate terms in which you have been pleased to
+     communicate the matter.
+
+     I have ever been happy in supposing that I had a place in
+     your esteem, and the proof you have afforded on this
+     occasion makes me peculiarly so. The favorable light in
+     which you hold me is truly flattering; but I should feel
+     much regret, if I thought the happiness of America so
+     intimately connected with my personal welfare, as you so
+     obligingly seem to consider it. All I can say is, that she
+     has ever had, and I trust she ever will have, my honest
+     exertions to promote her interest. I cannot hope that my
+     services have been the best; but my heart tells me they have
+     been the best that I could render.
+
+     That I may have erred in using the means in my power for
+     accomplishing the objects of the arduous, exalted station
+     with which I am honored, I cannot doubt; nor do I wish my
+     conduct to be exempted from reprehension farther than it may
+     deserve. Error is the portion of humanity, and to censure
+     it, whether committed by this or that public character, is
+     the prerogative of freemen. However, being intimately
+     acquainted with the man I conceive to be the author of the
+     letter transmitted, and having always received from him the
+     strongest professions of attachment and regard, I am
+     constrained to consider him as not possessing, at least, a
+     great degree of candor and sincerity, though his views in
+     addressing you should have been the result of conviction,
+     and founded in motives of public good. This is not the only
+     secret, insidious attempt that has been made to wound my
+     reputation. There have been others equally base, cruel, and
+     ungenerous, because conducted with as little frankness, and
+     proceeding from views, perhaps, as personally interested. I
+     am, dear sir, with great esteem and regard, your much
+     obliged friend, etc.
+
+The writing of the foregoing letter was not finished, when Governor
+Henry's second letter reached him; and this additional proof of
+friendship so touched the heart of Washington that, on the next day,
+he wrote again, this time with far less self-restraint than before:--
+
+     GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY
+
+                                           CAMP, 28 March, 1778.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Just as I was about to close my letter of
+     yesterday, your favor of the 5th instant came to hand. I can
+     only thank you again, in the language of the most
+     undissembled gratitude, for your friendship; and assure you,
+     that the indulgent disposition, which Virginia in
+     particular, and the States in general, entertain towards me,
+     gives me the most sensible pleasure. The approbation of my
+     country is what I wish; and as far as my abilities and
+     opportunities will permit, I hope I shall endeavor to
+     deserve it. It is the highest reward to a feeling mind; and
+     happy are they, who so conduct themselves as to merit it.
+
+     The anonymous letter with which you were pleased to favor
+     me, was written by Dr. Rush, so far as I can judge from a
+     similitude of hands. This man has been elaborate and studied
+     in his professions of regard for me; and long since the
+     letter to you. My caution to avoid anything which could
+     injure the service, prevented me from communicating, but to
+     a very few of my friends, the intrigues of a faction which I
+     know was formed against me, since it might serve to publish
+     our internal dissensions; but their own restless zeal to
+     advance their views has too clearly betrayed them, and made
+     concealment on my part fruitless. I cannot precisely mark
+     the extent of their views, but it appeared, in general, that
+     General Gates was to be exalted on the ruin of my reputation
+     and influence. This I am authorized to say, from undeniable
+     facts in my own possession, from publications, the evident
+     scope of which could not be mistaken, and from private
+     detractions industriously circulated. General Mifflin, it is
+     commonly supposed, bore the second part in the cabal; and
+     General Conway, I know, was a very active and malignant
+     partisan; but I have good reason to believe that their
+     machinations have recoiled most sensibly upon themselves.
+     With sentiments of great esteem and regard, I am, dear sir,
+     your affectionate humble servant.[285]
+
+This incident in the lives of Washington and Patrick Henry is to be
+noted by us, not only for its own exquisite delicacy and nobility, but
+likewise as the culminating fact in the growth of a very deep and true
+friendship between the two men,--a friendship which seems to have
+begun many years before, probably in the House of Burgesses, and which
+lasted with increasing strength and tenderness, and with but a single
+episode of estrangement, during the rest of their lives. Moreover, he
+who tries to interpret the later career of Patrick Henry, especially
+after the establishment of the government under the Constitution, and
+who leaves out of the account Henry's profound friendship for
+Washington, and the basis of moral and intellectual congeniality on
+which that friendship rested, will lose an important clew to the
+perfect naturalness and consistency of Henry's political course during
+his last years. A fierce partisan outcry was then raised against him
+in Virginia, and he was bitterly denounced as a political apostate,
+simply because, in the parting of the ways of Washington and of
+Jefferson, Patrick Henry no longer walked with Jefferson. In truth,
+Patrick Henry was never Washington's follower nor Jefferson's: he was
+no man's follower. From the beginning, he had always done for himself
+his own thinking, whether right or wrong. At the same time, a careful
+student of the three men may see that, in his thinking, Patrick Henry
+had a closer and a truer moral kinship with Washington than with
+Jefferson. At present, however, we pause before the touching incident
+that has just been narrated in the relations between Washington and
+Henry, in order to mark its bearing on their subsequent intercourse.
+Washington, in whose nature confidence was a plant of slow growth, and
+who was quick neither to love nor to cease from loving, never forgot
+that proof of his friend's friendship. Thenceforward, until that one
+year in which they both died, the letters which passed between them,
+while never effusive, were evidently the letters of two strong men who
+loved and trusted each other without reserve.
+
+Not long before the close of the governor's second term in office, he
+had occasion to write to Richard Henry Lee two letters, which are of
+considerable interest, not only as indicating the cordial intimacy
+between these two great rivals in oratory, but also for the light they
+throw both on the under-currents of bitterness then ruffling the
+politics of Virginia, and on Patrick Henry's attitude towards the one
+great question at that time uppermost in the politics of the nation.
+During the previous autumn, it seems, also, Lee had fallen into great
+disfavor in Virginia, from which he had so far emerged by the 23d of
+January, 1778, as to be then reelected to Congress, to fill out an
+unexpired term.[286] Shortly afterward, however, harsh speech against
+him was to be heard in Virginia once more, of which his friend, the
+governor, thus informed him, in a letter dated April 4, 1778:--
+
+     "You are again traduced by a certain set who have drawn in
+     others, who say that you are engaged in a scheme to discard
+     General Washington. I know you too well to suppose that you
+     would engage in anything not evidently calculated to serve
+     the cause of whiggism.... But it is your fate to suffer the
+     constant attacks of disguised Tories who take this measure
+     to lessen you. Farewell, my dear friend. In praying for your
+     welfare, I pray for that of my country, to which your life
+     and service are of the last moment."[287]
+
+Furthermore, on the 30th of May, the General Assembly made choice of
+their delegates in Congress for the following year. Lee was again
+elected, but by so small a vote that his name stood next to the lowest
+on the list.[288] Concerning this stinging slight, he appears to have
+spoken in his next letters to the governor; for, on the 18th of June,
+the latter addressed to him, from Williamsburg, this reply:--
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Both your last letters came to hand to-day. I
+     felt for you, on seeing the order in which the balloting
+     placed the delegates in Congress. It is an effect of that
+     rancorous malice that has so long followed you, through that
+     arduous path of duty which you have invariably travelled,
+     since America resolved to resist her oppressors.
+
+     Is it any pleasure to you to remark, that at the same era in
+     which these men figure against you, public spirit seems to
+     have taken its flight from Virginia? It is too much the
+     case; for the quota of our troops is not half made up, and
+     no chance seems to remain for completing it. The Assembly
+     voted three hundred and fifty horse, and two thousand men,
+     to be forthwith raised, and to join the grand army. Great
+     bounties are offered; but, I fear, the only effect will be
+     to expose our state to contempt,--for I believe no soldiers
+     will enlist, especially in the infantry.
+
+     Can you credit it?--no effort was made for supporting or
+     restoring public credit. I pressed it warmly on some, but in
+     vain. This is the reason we get no soldiers.
+
+     We shall issue fifty or sixty thousand dollars in cash to
+     equip the cavalry, and their time is to expire at Christmas.
+     I believe they will not be in the field before that time.
+
+     Let not Congress rely on Virginia for soldiers. I tell you
+     my opinion: they will not be got here, until a different
+     spirit prevails.
+
+In the next paragraph of his letter, the governor passes from these
+local matters to what was then the one commanding topic in national
+affairs. Lord North's peace commissioners had already arrived, and
+were seeking to win back the Americans into free colonial relations
+with the mother country, and away from their new-formed friendship
+with perfidious France. With what energy Patrick Henry was prepared to
+reject all these British blandishments, may be read in the passionate
+sentences which conclude his letter:--
+
+     I look at the past condition of America, as at a dreadful
+     precipice, from which we have escaped by means of the
+     generous French, to whom I will be ever-lastingly bound by
+     the most heartfelt gratitude. But I must mistake matters, if
+     some of those men who traduce you, do not prefer the offers
+     of Britain. You will have a different game to play now with
+     the commissioners. How comes Governor Johnstone there? I do
+     not see how it comports with his past life.
+
+     Surely Congress will never recede from our French friends.
+     Salvation to America depends upon our holding fast our
+     attachment to them. I shall date our ruin from the moment
+     that it is exchanged for anything Great Britain can say, or
+     do. She can never be cordial with us. Baffled, defeated,
+     disgraced by her colonies, she will ever meditate revenge.
+     We can find no safety but in her ruin, or, at least, in her
+     extreme humiliation; which has not happened, and cannot
+     happen, until she is deluged with blood, or thoroughly
+     purged by a revolution, which shall wipe from existence the
+     present king with his connections, and the present system
+     with those who aid and abet it.
+
+     For God's sake, my dear sir, quit not the councils of your
+     country, until you see us forever disjoined from Great
+     Britain. The old leaven still works. The fleshpots of Egypt
+     are still savory to degenerate palates. Again we are undone,
+     if the French alliance is not religiously observed. Excuse
+     my freedom. I know your love to our country,--and this is my
+     motive. May Heaven give you health and prosperity.
+
+                                     I am yours affectionately,
+                                               PATRICK HENRY.[289]
+
+Before coming to the end of our story of Governor Henry's second
+term, it should be mentioned that twice during this period did the
+General Assembly confide to him those extraordinary powers which by
+many were spoken of as dictatorial; first, on the 22d of January,
+1778,[290] and again, on the 28th of May, of the same year.[291]
+Finally, so safe had been this great trust in his hands, and so
+efficiently had he borne himself, in all the labors and
+responsibilities of his high office, that, on the 29th of May, the
+House of Delegates, by resolution, unanimously elected him as governor
+for a third term,--an act in which, on the same day, the Senate voted
+its concurrence. On the 30th of May, Thomas Jefferson, from the
+committee appointed to notify the governor of his reelection, reported
+to the House the following answer:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The General Assembly, in again electing me
+     governor of this commonwealth, have done me very signal
+     honor. I trust that their confidence, thus continued in me,
+     will not be misplaced. I beg you will be pleased, gentlemen,
+     to present me to the General Assembly in terms of grateful
+     acknowledgment for this fresh instance of their favor
+     towards me; and to assure them, that my best endeavors shall
+     be used to promote the public good, in that station to which
+     they have once more been pleased to call me.[292]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[284] Of the official letters of Governor Henry, doubtless many have
+perished; a few have been printed in Sparks, Force, Wirt, and
+elsewhere; a considerable number, also, are preserved in manuscript in
+the archives of the Department of State at Washington. Copies of the
+latter are before me as I write. As justifying the statement made in
+the text, I would refer to his letters of August 30, 1777; of October
+29, 1777; of October 30, 1777; of December 6, 1777; of December 9,
+1777; of January 20, 1778; of January 28, 1778; and of June 18, 1778.
+
+[285] _Writings of Washington_, v. 495-497; 512-515.
+
+[286] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 131.
+
+[287] Given in Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of_ 1776, 142 note.
+
+[288] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 27, 33.
+
+[289] Lee, _Life of Richard Henry Lee_, i. 195 196.
+
+[290] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 72, 81, 85, 125, 126.
+
+[291] _Ibid._ 15, 16, 17.
+
+[292] _Ibid._ 26, 30.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THIRD YEAR IN THE GOVERNORSHIP
+
+
+Governor Henry's third official year was marked, in the great struggle
+then in progress, by the arrival of the French fleet, and by its
+futile attempts to be of any use to those hard-pressed rebels whom the
+king of France had undertaken to encourage in their insubordination;
+by awful scenes of carnage and desolation in the outlying settlements
+at Wyoming, Cherry Valley, and Schoharie; by British predatory
+expeditions along the Connecticut coast; by the final failure and
+departure of Lord North's peace commissioners; and by the transfer of
+the chief seat of war to the South, beginning with the capture of
+Savannah by the British on the 29th of December, 1778, followed by
+their initial movement on Charleston, in May, 1779. In the month just
+mentioned, likewise, the enemy, under command of General Matthews and
+of Sir George Collier, suddenly swooped down on Virginia, first
+seizing Portsmouth and Norfolk, and then, after a glorious military
+debauch of robbery, ruin, rape, and murder, and after spreading terror
+and anguish among the undefended populations of Suffolk, Kemp's
+Landing, Tanner's Creek, and Gosport, as suddenly gathered up their
+booty, and went back in great glee to New York.
+
+In the autumn of 1778, the governor had the happiness to hear of the
+really brilliant success of the expedition which, with statesmanlike
+sagacity, he had sent out under George Rogers Clark, into the Illinois
+country, in the early part of the year.[293] Some of the more
+important facts connected with this expedition, he thus announced to
+the Virginia delegates in Congress:--
+
+                              WILLIAMSBURG, November 14, 1778.
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The executive power of this State having been
+     impressed with a strong apprehension of incursions on the
+     frontier settlements from the savages situated about the
+     Illinois, and supposing the danger would be greatly obviated
+     by an enterprise against the English forts and possessions
+     in that country, which were well known to inspire the
+     savages with their bloody purposes against us, sent a
+     detachment of militia, consisting of one hundred and seventy
+     or eighty men commanded by Colonel George Rogers Clark, on
+     that service some time last spring. By despatches which I
+     have just received from Colonel Clark, it appears that his
+     success has equalled the most sanguine expectations. He has
+     not only reduced Fort Chartres and its dependencies, but has
+     struck such a terror into the Indian tribes between that
+     settlement and the lakes that no less than five of them,
+     viz., the Puans, Sacks, Renards, Powtowantanies, and Miamis,
+     who had received the hatchet from the English emissaries,
+     have submitted to our arms all their English presents, and
+     bound themselves by treaties and promises to be peaceful in
+     the future.
+
+     The great Blackbird, the Chappowow chief, has also sent a
+     belt of peace to Colonel Clark, influenced, he supposes, by
+     the dread of Detroit's being reduced by American arms. This
+     latter place, according to Colonel Clark's representation,
+     is at present defended by so inconsiderable a garrison and
+     so scantily furnished with provisions, for which they must
+     be still more distressed by the loss of supplies from the
+     Illinois, that it might be reduced by any number of men
+     above five hundred. The governor of that place, Mr.
+     Hamilton, was exerting himself to engage the savages to
+     assist him in retaking the places that had fallen into our
+     hands; but the favorable impression made on the Indians in
+     general in that quarter, the influence of the French on
+     them, and the reenforcement of their militia Colonel Clark
+     expected, flattered him that there was little danger to be
+     apprehended.... If the party under Colonel Clark can
+     cooperate in any respect with the measures Congress are
+     pursuing or have in view, I shall with pleasure give him the
+     necessary orders. In order to improve and secure the
+     advantages gained by Colonel Clark, I propose to support him
+     with a reenforcement of militia. But this will depend on the
+     pleasure of the Assembly, to whose consideration the measure
+     is submitted.
+
+     The French inhabitants have manifested great zeal and
+     attachment to our cause, and insist on garrisons remaining
+     with them under Colonel Clark. This I am induced to agree
+     to, because the safety of our own frontiers as well as that
+     of these people demands a compliance with this request. Were
+     it possible to secure the St. Lawrence and prevent the
+     English attempts up that river by seizing some post on it,
+     peace with the Indians would seem to me to be secured.
+
+                With great regard I have the honor to be, Gentn,
+                            Your most obedient servant,
+                                                    P. HENRY.[294]
+
+During the autumn session of the General Assembly, that body showed
+its continued confidence in the governor by passing several acts
+conferring on him extraordinary powers, in addition to those already
+bestowed.[295]
+
+A letter which the governor wrote at this period to the president of
+Congress, respecting military aid from Virginia to States further
+south, may give us some idea, not only of his own practical
+discernment in the matters involved, but of the confusion which, in
+those days, often attended military plans issuing from a many-headed
+executive:--
+
+                                 WILLIAMSBURG, November 28, 1778.
+
+     SIR,--Your favor of the 16th instant is come to hand,
+     together with the acts of Congress of the 26th of August for
+     establishing provision for soldiers and sailors maimed or
+     disabled in the public service,--of the 26th of September
+     for organizing the treasury, a proclamation for a general
+     thanksgiving, and three copies of the alliance between his
+     most Christian Majesty and these United States.
+
+     I lost no time in laying your letter before the privy
+     council, and in deliberating with them on the subject of
+     sending 1000 militia to Charlestown, South Carolina. I beg
+     to assure Congress of the great zeal of every member of the
+     executive here to give full efficacy to their designs on
+     every occasion. But on the present, I am very sorry to
+     observe, that obstacles great and I fear unsurmountable are
+     opposed to the immediate march of the men. Upon requisition
+     to the deputy quartermaster-general in this department for
+     tents, kettles, blankets, and wagons, he informs they cannot
+     be had. The season when the march must begin will be severe
+     and inclement, and, without the forementioned necessaries,
+     impracticable to men indifferently clad and equipped as they
+     are in the present general scarcity of clothes.
+
+     The council, as well as myself, are not a little perplexed
+     on comparing this requisition to defend South Carolina and
+     Georgia from the assaults of the enemy, with that made a few
+     days past for galleys to conquer East Florida. The galleys
+     have orders to rendezvous at Charlestown, which I was taught
+     to consider as a place of acknowledged safety; and I beg
+     leave to observe, that there seems some degree of
+     inconsistency in marching militia such a distance in the
+     depth of winter, under the want of necessaries, to defend a
+     place which the former measures seemed to declare safe.
+
+     The act of Assembly whereby it is made lawful to order their
+     march, confines the operations to measures merely defensive
+     to a sister State, and of whose danger there is certain
+     information received.
+
+     However, as Congress have not been pleased to explain the
+     matters herein alluded to, and altho' a good deal of
+     perplexity remains with me on the subject, I have by advice
+     of the privy council given orders for 1000 men to be
+     instantly got into readiness to march to Charlestown, and
+     they will march as soon as they are furnished with tents,
+     kettles, and wagons. In the mean time, if intelligence is
+     received that their march is essential to the preservation
+     of either of the States of South Carolina or Georgia the men
+     will encounter every difficulty, and have orders to proceed
+     in the best way they can without waiting to be supplied with
+     those necessaries commonly afforded to troops even on a
+     summer's march.
+
+     I have to beg that Congress will please to remember the
+     state of embarrassment in which I must necessarily remain
+     with respect to the ordering galleys to Charlestown, in
+     their way to invade Florida, while the militia are getting
+     ready to defend the States bordering on it, and that they
+     will please to favor me with the earliest intelligence of
+     every circumstance that is to influence the measures either
+     offensive or defensive.
+
+     I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and very
+     humble servant,
+
+                                                  P. HENRY.[296]
+
+By the early spring of 1779, it became still more apparent that the
+purpose of the enemy was to shift the scene of their activity from the
+middle States to the South, and that Virginia, whose soil had never
+thus far been bruised by the tread of a hostile army, must soon
+experience that dire calamity. Perhaps no one saw this more clearly
+than did Governor Henry. At the same time, he also saw that Virginia
+must in part defend herself by helping to defend her sister States at
+the South, across whose territories the advance of the enemy into
+Virginia was likely to be attempted. His clear grasp of the military
+situation, in all the broad relations of his own State to it, is thus
+revealed in a letter to Washington, dated at Williamsburg, 13th of
+March, 1779:--
+
+     "My last accounts from the South are unfavorable. Georgia is
+     said to be in full possession of the enemy, and South
+     Carolina in great danger. The number of disaffected there is
+     said to be formidable, and the Creek Indians inclining
+     against us. One thousand militia are ordered thither from
+     our southern counties; but a doubt is started whether they
+     are by law obliged to march. I have also proposed a scheme
+     to embody volunteers for this service; but I fear the length
+     of the march, and a general scarcity of bread, which
+     prevails in some parts of North Carolina and this State, may
+     impede this service. About five hundred militia are ordered
+     down the Tennessee River, to chastise some new settlements
+     of renegade Cherokees that infest our southwestern frontier,
+     and prevent our navigation on that river, from which we
+     began to hope for great advantages. Our militia have full
+     possession of the Illinois and the posts on the Wabash; and
+     I am not without hopes that the same party may overawe the
+     Indians as far as Detroit. They are independent of General
+     McIntosh, whose numbers, although upwards of two thousand, I
+     think could not make any great progress, on account, it is
+     said, of the route they took, and the lateness of the
+     season.
+
+     "The conquest of Illinois and Wabash was effected with less
+     than two hundred men, who will soon be reenforced; and, by
+     holding posts on the back of the Indians, it is hoped may
+     intimidate them. Forts Natchez and Morishac are again in the
+     enemy's hands; and from thence they infest and ruin our
+     trade on the Mississippi, on which river the Spaniards wish
+     to open a very interesting commerce with us. I have
+     requested Congress to authorize the conquest of those two
+     posts, as the possession of them will give a colorable
+     pretence to retain all West Florida, when a treaty may be
+     opened."[297]
+
+Within two months after that letter was written, the dreaded warships
+of the enemy were ploughing the waters of Virginia: it was the
+sorrow-bringing expedition of Matthews and Sir George Collier. The
+news of their arrival was thus conveyed by Governor Henry to the
+president of Congress:--
+
+                                   WILLIAMSBURG, 11 May, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--On Saturday last, in the evening, a British fleet
+     amounting to about thirty sail ... came into the Bay of
+     Chesapeake, and the next day proceeded to Hampton Road,
+     where they anchored and remained quiet until yesterday about
+     noon, when several of the ships got under way, and proceeded
+     towards Portsmouth, which place I have no doubt they intend
+     to attack by water or by land or by both, as they have many
+     flat-bottomed boats with them for the purpose of landing
+     their troops. As I too well know the weakness of that
+     garrison, I am in great pain for the consequences, there
+     being great quantities of merchandise, the property of
+     French merchants and others in this State, at that place, as
+     well as considerable quantities of military stores, which,
+     tho' measures some time since were taken to remove, may
+     nevertheless fall into the enemy's hands. Whether they may
+     hereafter intend to fortify and maintain this post is at
+     present unknown to me, but the consequences which will
+     result to this State and to the United States finally if
+     such a measure should be adopted must be obvious. Whether it
+     may be in the power of Congress to adopt any measures which
+     can in any manner counteract the design of the enemy is
+     submitted to their wisdom. At present, I cannot avoid
+     intimating that I have the greatest reason to think that
+     many vessels from France with public and private merchandise
+     may unfortunately arrive while the enemy remain in perfect
+     possession of the Bay of Chesapeake, and fall victims
+     unexpectedly.
+
+     Every precaution will be taken to order lookout boats on the
+     seacoasts to furnish proper intelligence; but the success
+     attending this necessary measure will be precarious in the
+     present situation of things.[298]
+
+On the next day the governor had still heavier tidings for the same
+correspondent:--
+
+                                      WILLIAMSBURG, May 12, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--I addressed you yesterday upon a subject of the
+     greatest consequence. The last night brought me the fatal
+     account of Portsmouth being in possession of the enemy.
+     Their force was too great to be resisted, and therefore the
+     fort was evacuated after destroying one capital ship
+     belonging to the State and one or two private ones loaded
+     with tobacco. Goods and merchandise, however, of very great
+     value fall into the enemy's hands. If Congress could by
+     solicitations procure a fleet superior to the enemy's force
+     to enter Chesapeake at this critical period, the prospect of
+     gain and advantage would be great indeed. I have the honor
+     to be, with the greatest regard, Sir,
+
+     Your most humble and obedient servant,
+
+                                                P. HENRY.[299]
+
+To meet this dreadful invasion, the governor attempted to arouse and
+direct vigorous measures, in part by a proclamation, on the 14th of
+May, announcing to the people of Virginia the facts of the case, "and
+requiring the county lieutenants and other military officers in the
+Commonwealth, and especially those on the navigable waters, to hold
+their respective militias in readiness to oppose the attempts of the
+enemy wherever they might be made."[300]
+
+On the 21st of the month, in a letter to the president of Congress, he
+reported the havoc then wrought by the enemy:--
+
+                                     WILLIAMSBURG, May 21, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--Being in the greatest haste to dispatch your express,
+     I have not time to give you any very particular information
+     concerning the present invasion. Let it suffice therefore to
+     inform Congress that the number of the enemy's ships are
+     nearly the same as was mentioned in my former letter; with
+     regard to the number of the troops which landed and took
+     Portsmouth, and afterwards proceeded and burnt, plundered,
+     and destroyed Suffolk, committing various barbarities, etc.,
+     we are still ignorant, as the accounts from the deserters
+     differ widely; perhaps, however, it may not exceed 2000 or
+     2500 men.
+
+     I trust that a sufficient number of troops are embodied and
+     stationed in certain proportions at this place, York,
+     Hampton, and on the south side of James River.... When any
+     further particulars come to my knowledge they shall be
+     communicated to Congress without delay.
+
+     I have the honor to be, Sir, your humble servant,
+
+                                                     P. HENRY.
+
+     P. S. I am pretty certain that the land forces are commanded
+     by Gen'l Matthews and the fleet by Sir George Collier.[301]
+
+In the very midst of this ugly storm, it was required that the ship of
+state should undergo a change of commanders. The third year for which
+Governor Henry had been elected was nearly at an end. There were some
+members of the Assembly who thought him eligible as governor for still
+another year, on the ground that his first election was by the
+convention, and that the year of office which that body gave to him
+"was merely provisory," and formed no proper part of his
+constitutional term.[302] Governor Henry himself, however, could not
+fail to perceive the unfitness of any struggle upon such a question at
+such a time, as well as the futility which would attach to that high
+office, if held, amid such perils, under a clouded title. Accordingly,
+on the 28th of May, he cut short all discussion by sending to the
+speaker of the House of Delegates the following letter:--
+
+                                                  May 28, 1779.
+
+     SIR,--The term for which I had the honor to be elected
+     governor by the late Assembly being just about to expire,
+     and the Constitution, as I think, making me ineligible to
+     that office, I take the liberty to communicate to the
+     Assembly through you, Sir, my intention to retire in four or
+     five days.
+
+     I have thought it necessary to give this notification of my
+     design, in order that the Assembly may have the earliest
+     opportunity of deliberating upon the choice of a successor
+     to me in office.
+
+     With great regard, I have the honor to be, Sir, your most
+     obedient servant,
+
+                                                P. HENRY.[303]
+
+On the first of June, Thomas Jefferson was elected to succeed him in
+office, but by a majority of only six votes out of one hundred and
+twenty-eight.[304] On the following day Patrick Henry, having received
+certain resolutions from the General Assembly[305] commending him for
+his conduct while governor, graciously closed this chapter of his
+official life by the following letter:--
+
+     GENTLEMEN,--The House of Delegates have done me very great
+     honor in the vote expressive of their approbation of my
+     public conduct. I beg the favor of you, gentlemen, to convey
+     to that honorable house my most cordial acknowledgments, and
+     to assure them that I shall ever retain a grateful
+     remembrance of the high honor they have now conferred on
+     me.[306]
+
+In the midst of these frank voices of public appreciation over the
+fidelity and efficiency of his service as governor, there were
+doubtless the usual murmurs of partisan criticism or of personal
+ill-will. For example, a few days after Jefferson had taken his seat
+in the stately chair which Patrick Henry had just vacated, St. George
+Tucker, in a letter to Theophilus Bland, gave expression to this
+sneer: "_Sub rosa_, I wish his excellency's activity may be equal to
+the abilities he possesses in so eminent a degree.... But if he should
+tread in the steps of his predecessor, there is not much to be
+expected from the brightest talents."[307] Over against a taunt like
+this, one can scarcely help placing the fact that the general of the
+armies who, for three stern years, had been accustomed to lean heavily
+for help on this governor of Virginia, and who never paid idle
+compliments, nevertheless paid many a tribute to the intelligence,
+zeal, and vigorous activity of Governor Henry's administration. Thus,
+on the 27th of December, 1777, Washington writes to him: "In several
+of my late letters I addressed you on the distress of the troops for
+want of clothing. Your ready exertions to relieve them have given me
+the highest satisfaction."[308] On the 19th of February, 1778,
+Washington again writes to him: "I address myself to you, convinced
+that our alarming distresses will engage your most serious
+consideration, and that the full force of that zeal and vigor you
+have manifested upon every other occasion, will now operate for our
+relief, in a matter that so nearly affects the very existence of our
+contest."[309] On the 19th of April, 1778, Washington once more writes
+to him: "I hold myself infinitely obliged to the legislature for the
+ready attention which they have paid to my representation of the wants
+of the army, and to you for the strenuous manner in which you have
+recommended to the people an observance of my request."[310] Finally,
+if any men had even better opportunities than Washington for
+estimating correctly Governor Henry's efficiency in his great office,
+surely those men were his intimate associates, the members of the
+Virginia legislature. It is quite possible that their first election
+of him as governor may have been in ignorance of his real qualities as
+an executive officer; but this cannot be said of their second and of
+their third elections of him, each one of which was made, as we have
+seen, without one audible lisp of opposition. Is it to be believed
+that, if he had really shown that lack of executive efficiency which
+St. George Tucker's sneer implies, such a body of men, in such a
+crisis of public danger, would have twice and thrice elected him to
+the highest executive office in the State, and that, too, without one
+dissenting vote? To say so, indeed, is to fix a far more damning
+censure upon them than upon him.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[293] Clark's _Campaign in the Illinois_, 95-97, where Governor
+Henry's public and private instructions are given in full.
+
+[294] MS.
+
+[295] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 30, 36, 66; also Hening, ix. 474-476;
+477-478; 530-532; 584-585.
+
+[296] MS.
+
+[297] Sparks, _Corr. Rev_. ii. 261-262.
+
+[298] MS.
+
+[299] MS.
+
+[300] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 338.
+
+[301] MS.
+
+[302] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 350.
+
+[303] Wirt, 225.
+
+[304] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 29.
+
+[305] Burk, _Hist. Va._ 350.
+
+[306] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32.
+
+[307] _Bland Papers_, ii. 11.
+
+[308] MS.
+
+[309] MS.
+
+[310] MS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AT HOME AND IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES
+
+
+The high official rank which Governor Henry had borne during the first
+three years of American independence was so impressive to the
+imaginations of the French allies who were then in the country, that
+some of them addressed their letters to him as "Son Altesse Royale,
+Monsieur Patrick Henri, Gouverneur de l'Etat de Virginie."[311] From
+this titular royalty he descended, as we have seen, about the 1st of
+June, 1779; and for the subsequent five and a half years, until his
+recall to the governorship, he is to be viewed by us as a very retired
+country gentleman in delicate health, with episodes of labor and of
+leadership in the Virginia House of Delegates.
+
+A little more than a fortnight after his descent from the governor's
+chair, he was elected by the General Assembly as a delegate in
+Congress.[312] It is not known whether he at any time thought it
+possible for him to accept this appointment; but, on the 28th of the
+following October, the body that had elected him received from him a
+letter declining the service.[313] Moreover, in spite of all
+invitations and entreaties, Patrick Henry never afterwards served in
+any public capacity outside the State of Virginia.
+
+During his three years in the governorship, he had lived in the palace
+at Williamsburg. In the course of that time, also, he had sold his
+estate of Scotchtown, in Hanover County, and had purchased a large
+tract of land in the new county of Henry,--a county situated about two
+hundred miles southwest from Richmond, along the North Carolina
+boundary, and named, of course, in honor of himself. To his new estate
+there, called Leatherwood, consisting of about ten thousand acres, he
+removed early in the summer of 1779. This continued to be his home
+until he resumed the office of governor in November, 1784.[314]
+
+After the storm and stress of so many years of public life, and of
+public life in an epoch of revolution, the invalid body, the
+care-burdened spirit, of Patrick Henry must have found great
+refreshment in this removal to a distant, wild, and mountainous
+solitude. In undisturbed seclusion, he there remained during the
+summer and autumn of 1779, and even the succeeding winter and
+spring,--scarcely able to hear the far-off noises of the great
+struggle in which he had hitherto borne so rugged a part, and of which
+the victorious issue was then to be seen by him, though dimly, through
+many a murky rack of selfishness, cowardice, and crime.
+
+His successor in the office of governor was Thomas Jefferson, the
+jovial friend of his own jovial youth, bound to him still by that
+hearty friendship which was founded on congeniality of political
+sentiment, but was afterward to die away, at least on Jefferson's
+side, into alienation and hate. To this dear friend Patrick Henry
+wrote late in that winter, from his hermitage among the eastward
+fastnesses of the Blue Ridge, a remarkable letter, which has never
+before been in print, and which is full of interest for us on account
+of its impulsive and self-revealing words. Its tone of despondency,
+almost of misanthropy,--so unnatural to Patrick Henry,--is perhaps a
+token of that sickness of body which had made the soul sick too, and
+had then driven the writer into the wilderness, and still kept him
+there:--
+
+     TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+
+                                   LEATHERWOOD, 15th Feby., 1780.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I return you many thanks for your favor by Mr.
+     Sanders. The kind notice you were pleased to take of me was
+     particularly obliging, as I have scarcely heard a word of
+     public matters since I moved up in the retirement where I
+     live.
+
+     I have had many anxieties for our commonwealth, principally
+     occasioned by the depreciation of our money. To judge by
+     this, which somebody has called the pulse of the state, I
+     have feared that our body politic was dangerously sick. God
+     grant it may not be unto death. But I cannot forbear
+     thinking, the present increase of prices is in great part
+     owing to a kind of habit, which is now of four or five
+     years' growth, which is fostered by a mistaken avarice, and
+     like other habits hard to part with. For there is really
+     very little money hereabouts.
+
+     What you say of the practice of our distinguished Tories
+     perfectly agrees with my own observation, and the attempts
+     to raise prejudices against the French, I know, were begun
+     when I lived below. What gave me the utmost pain was to see
+     some men, indeed very many, who were thought good Whigs,
+     keep company with the miscreants,--wretches who, I am
+     satisfied, were laboring our destruction. This countenance
+     shown them is of fatal tendency. They should be shunned and
+     execrated, and this is the only way to supply the place of
+     legal conviction and punishment. But this is an effort of
+     virtue, small as it seems, of which our countrymen are not
+     capable.
+
+     Indeed, I will own to you, my dear Sir, that observing this
+     impunity and even respect, which some wicked individuals
+     have met with while their guilt was clear as the sun, has
+     sickened me, and made me sometimes wish to be in retirement
+     for the rest of my life. I will, however, be down, on the
+     next Assembly, if I am chosen. My health, I am satisfied,
+     will never again permit a close application to sedentary
+     business, and I even doubt whether I can remain below long
+     enough to serve in the Assembly. I will, however, make the
+     trial.
+
+     But tell me, do you remember any instance where tyranny was
+     destroyed and freedom established on its ruins, among a
+     people possessing so small a share of virtue and public
+     spirit? I recollect none, and this, more than the British
+     arms, makes me fearful of final success without a reform.
+     But when or how this is to be effected, I have not the means
+     of judging. I most sincerely wish you health and prosperity.
+     If you can spare time to drop me a line now and then, it
+     will be highly obliging to, dear Sir, your affectionate
+     friend and obedient servant,
+
+                                              P. HENRY.[315]
+
+The next General Assembly, which he thus promised to attend in case he
+should be chosen, met at Richmond on the 1st of May, 1780. It hardly
+needs to be mentioned that the people of Henry County were proud to
+choose him as one of their members in that body; but he seems not to
+have taken his seat there until about the 19th of May.[316] From the
+moment of his arrival in the House of Delegates, every kind of
+responsibility and honor was laid upon him. This was his first
+appearance in such an assembly since the proclamation of independence;
+and the prestige attaching to his name, as well as his own undimmed
+genius for leadership, made him not only the most conspicuous person
+in the house, but the nearly absolute director of its business in
+every detail of opinion and of procedure on which he should choose to
+express himself,--his only rival, in any particular, being Richard
+Henry Lee. It helps one now to understand the real reputation he had
+among his contemporaries for practical ability, and for a habit of
+shrinking from none of the commonplace drudgeries of legislative work,
+that during the first few days after his accession to the House he
+was placed on the committee of ways and means; on a committee "to
+inquire into the present state of the account of the commonwealth
+against the United States, and the most speedy and effectual method of
+finally settling the same;" on a committee to prepare a bill for the
+repeal of a part of the act "for sequestering British property,
+enabling those indebted to British subjects to pay off such debts, and
+directing the proceedings in suits where such subjects are parties;"
+on three several committees respecting the powers and duties of high
+sheriffs and of grand juries; and, finally, on a committee to notify
+Jefferson of his reelection as governor, and to report his answer to
+the House. On the 7th of June, however, after a service of little more
+than two weeks, his own sad apprehensions respecting his health seem
+to have been realized, and he was obliged to ask leave to withdraw
+from the House for the remainder of the session.[317]
+
+At the autumn session of the legislature he was once more in his
+place. On the 6th of November, the day on which the House was
+organized, he was made chairman of the committee on privileges and
+elections, and also of a committee "for the better defence of the
+southern frontier," and was likewise placed on the committee on
+propositions and grievances, as well as on the committee on courts of
+justice. On the following day he was made a member of a committee for
+the defence of the eastern frontier. On the 10th of November he was
+placed on a committee to bring in a bill relating to the enlistment of
+Virginia troops, and to the redemption of the state bills of credit
+then in circulation, and the emission of new bills. On the 22d of
+November he was made a member of a committee to which was again
+referred the account between the State and the United States. On the
+9th of December he was made a member of a committee to draw up bills
+for the organization and maintenance of a navy for the State, and the
+protection of navigation and commerce upon its waters. On the 14th of
+December he was made chairman of a committee to draw up a bill for the
+better regulation and discipline of the militia, and of still another
+committee to prepare a bill "for supplying the army with clothes and
+provisions."[318] On the 28th of December, the House having knowledge
+of the arrival in town of poor General Gates, then drooping under the
+burden of those Southern willows which he had so plentifully gathered
+at Camden, Patrick Henry introduced the following magnanimous
+resolution:--
+
+     "That a committee of four be appointed to wait on Major
+     General Gates, and to assure him of the high regard and
+     esteem of this House; that the remembrance of his former
+     glorious services cannot be obliterated by any reverse of
+     fortune; but that this House, ever mindful of his great
+     merit, will omit no opportunity of testifying to the world
+     the gratitude which, as a member of the American Union, this
+     country owes to him in his military character."[319]
+
+On the 2d of January, 1781, the last day of the session, the House
+adopted, on Patrick Henry's motion, a resolution authorizing the
+governor to convene the next meeting of the legislature at some other
+place than Richmond, in case its assembling in that city should "be
+rendered inconvenient by the operations of an invading enemy,"[320] a
+resolution reflecting their sense of the peril then hanging over the
+State.
+
+Before the legislature could again meet, events proved that it was no
+imaginary danger against which Patrick Henry's resolution had been
+intended to provide. On the 2d of January, 1781, the very day on which
+the legislature had adjourned, a hostile fleet conveyed into the James
+River a force of about eight hundred men under command of Benedict
+Arnold, whose eagerness to ravage Virginia was still further
+facilitated by the arrival, on the 26th of March, of two thousand men
+under General Phillips. Moreover, Lord Cornwallis, having beaten
+General Greene at Guilford, in North Carolina, on the 15th of March,
+seemed to be gathering force for a speedy advance into Virginia. That
+the roar of his guns would soon be heard in the outskirts of their
+capital, was what all Virginians then felt to be inevitable.
+
+Under such circumstances, it is not strange that a session of the
+legislature, which is said to have been held on the 1st of March,[321]
+should have been a very brief one, or that when the 7th of May
+arrived--the day for its reassembling at Richmond--no quorum should
+have been present; or that, on the 10th of May, the few members who
+had arrived in Richmond should have voted, in deference to "the
+approach of an hostile army,"[322] to adjourn to Charlottesville,--a
+place of far greater security, ninety-seven miles to the northwest,
+among the mountains of Albemarle. By the 20th of May, Cornwallis
+reached Petersburg, twenty-three miles south of Richmond; and shortly
+afterward, pushing across the James and the Chickahominy, he encamped
+on the North Anna, in the county of Hanover. Thus, at last, the single
+county of Louisa then separated him from that county in which was the
+home of the governor of the State, and where was then convened its
+legislature,--Patrick Henry himself being present and in obvious
+direction of all its business. The opportunity to bag such game, Lord
+Cornwallis was not the man to let slip. Accordingly, on Sunday, the 3d
+of June, he dispatched a swift expedition under Tarleton, to surprise
+and capture the members of the legislature, "to seize on the person of
+the governor," and "to spread on his route devastation and
+terror."[323] In this entire scheme, doubtless, Tarleton would have
+succeeded, had it not been that as he and his troopers, on that fair
+Sabbath day, were hurrying past the Cuckoo tavern in Louisa, one
+Captain John Jouette, watching from behind the windows, espied them,
+divined their object, and mounting a fleet horse, and taking a shorter
+route, got into Charlottesville a few hours in advance of them, just
+in time to give the alarm, and to set the imperiled legislators
+a-flying to the mountains for safety.
+
+Then, by all accounts, was witnessed a display of the locomotive
+energies of grave and potent senators, such as this world has not
+often exhibited. Of this tragically comical incident, of course, the
+journal of the House of Delegates makes only the most placid and
+forbearing mention. For Monday, June 4, its chief entry is as follows:
+"There being reason to apprehend an immediate incursion of the enemy's
+cavalry to this place, which renders it indispensable that the General
+Assembly should forthwith adjourn to a place of greater security;
+resolved, that this House be adjourned until Thursday next, then to
+meet at the town of Staunton, in the county of Augusta,"--a town
+thirty-nine miles farther west, beyond a chain of mountains, and only
+to be reached by them or their pursuers through difficult passes in
+the Blue Ridge. The next entry in the journal is dated at Staunton, on
+the 7th of June, and, very properly, is merely a prosaic and
+business-like record of the reassembling of the House according to the
+adjournment aforesaid.[324]
+
+But as to some of the things that happened in that interval of panic
+and of scrambling flight, popular tradition has not been equally
+forbearing; and while the anecdotes upon that subject, which have
+descended to our time, are very likely decorated by many tassels of
+exaggeration and of myth, they yet have, doubtless, some slight
+framework of truth, and do really portray for us the actual beliefs of
+many people in Virginia respecting a number of their celebrated men,
+and especially respecting some of the less celebrated traits of those
+men. For example, it is related that on the sudden adjournment of the
+House, caused by this dusty and breathless apparition of the speedful
+Jouette, and his laconic intimation that Tarleton was coming, the
+members, though somewhat accustomed to ceremony, stood not upon the
+order of their going, but went at once,--taking first to their horses,
+and then to the woods; and that, breaking up into small parties of
+fugitives, they thus made their several ways, as best they could,
+through the passes of the mountains leading to the much-desired
+seclusion of Staunton. One of these parties consisted of Benjamin
+Harrison, Colonel William Christian, John Tyler, and Patrick Henry.
+Late in the day, tired and hungry, they stopped their horses at the
+door of a small hut, in a gorge of the hills, and asked for food. An
+old woman, who came to the door, and who was alone in the house,
+demanded of them who they were, and where they were from. Patrick
+Henry, who acted as spokesman of the party, answered: "We are members
+of the legislature, and have just been compelled to leave
+Charlottesville on account of the approach of the enemy." "Ride on,
+then, ye cowardly knaves," replied she, in great wrath; "here have my
+husband and sons just gone to Charlottesville to fight for ye, and you
+running away with all your might. Clear out--ye shall have nothing
+here." "But," rejoined Mr. Henry, in an expostulating tone, "we were
+obliged to fly. It would not do for the legislature to be broken up by
+the enemy. Here is Mr. Speaker Harrison; you don't think he would have
+fled had it not been necessary?" "I always thought a great deal of Mr.
+Harrison till now," answered the old woman; "but he'd no business to
+run from the enemy," and she was about to shut the door in their
+faces. "Wait a moment, my good woman," urged Mr. Henry; "you would
+hardly believe that Mr. Tyler or Colonel Christian would take to
+flight if there were not good cause for so doing?" "No, indeed, that I
+wouldn't," she replied. "But," exclaimed he, "Mr. Tyler and Colonel
+Christian are here." "They here? Well, I never would have thought it;"
+and she stood for a moment in doubt, but at once added, "No matter. We
+love these gentlemen, and I didn't suppose they would ever run away
+from the British; but since they have, they shall have nothing to eat
+in my house. You may ride along." In this desperate situation Mr.
+Tyler then stepped forward and said, "What would you say, my good
+woman, if I were to tell you that Patrick Henry fled with the rest of
+us?" "Patrick Henry! I should tell you there wasn't a word of truth in
+it," she answered angrily; "Patrick Henry would never do such a
+cowardly thing." "But this is Patrick Henry," said Mr. Tyler, pointing
+to him. The old woman was amazed; but after some reflection, and with
+a convulsive twitch or two at her apron string, she said, "Well, then,
+if that's Patrick Henry, it must be all right. Come in, and ye shall
+have the best I have in the house."[325]
+
+The pitiless tongue of tradition does not stop here, but proceeds to
+narrate other alleged experiences of this our noble, though somewhat
+disconcerted, Patrick. Arrived at last in Staunton, and walking
+through its reassuring streets, he is said to have met one Colonel
+William Lewis, to whom the face of the orator was then unknown; and to
+have told to this stranger the story of the flight of the legislature
+from Albemarle. "If Patrick Henry had been in Albemarle," was the
+stranger's comment, "the British dragoons never would have passed over
+the Rivanna River."[326]
+
+The tongue of tradition, at last grown quite reckless, perhaps, of
+its own credit, still further relates that even at Staunton these
+illustrious fugitives did not feel entirely sure that they were beyond
+the reach of Tarleton's men. A few nights after their arrival there,
+as the story runs, upon some sudden alarm, several of them sprang from
+their beds, and, imperfectly clapping on their clothes, fled out of
+the town, and took refuge at the plantation of one Colonel George
+Moffett, near which, they had been told, was a cave in which they
+might the more effectually conceal themselves. Mrs. Moffett, though
+not knowing the names of these flitting Solons, yet received them with
+true Virginian hospitality: but the next morning, at breakfast, she
+made the unlucky remark that there was one member of the legislature
+who certainly would not have run from the enemy. "Who is he?" was then
+asked. Her reply was, "Patrick Henry." At that moment a gentleman of
+the party, himself possessed of but one boot, was observed to blush
+considerably. Furthermore, as soon as possible after breakfast, these
+imperiled legislators departed in search of the cave; shortly after
+which a negro from Staunton rode up, carrying in his hand a solitary
+boot, and inquiring earnestly for Patrick Henry. In that way, as the
+modern reporter of this very debatable tradition unkindly adds, the
+admiring Mrs. Moffett ascertained who it was that the boot fitted; and
+he further suggests that, whatever Mrs. Moffett's emotions were at
+that time, those of Patrick must have been, "Give me liberty, but not
+death."[327]
+
+Passing by these whimsical tales, we have now to add that the
+legislature, having on the 7th of June entered upon its work at
+Staunton, steadily continued it there until the 23d of the month, when
+it adjourned in orderly fashion, to meet again in the following
+October. Governor Jefferson, whose second year of office had expired
+two days before the flight of himself and the legislature from
+Charlottesville, did not accompany that body to Staunton, but pursued
+his own way to Poplar Forest and to Bedford, where, "remote from the
+legislature,"[328] he remained during the remainder of its session. On
+the 12th of June, Thomas Nelson was elected as his successor in
+office.[329]
+
+It was during this period of confusion and terror that, as Jefferson
+alleges, the legislature once more had before it the project of a
+dictator, in the criminal sense of that word; and, upon Jefferson's
+private authority, both Wirt and Girardin long afterward named Patrick
+Henry as the man who was intended for this profligate honor.[330] We
+need not here repeat what was said, in our narrative of the closing
+weeks of 1776, concerning this terrible posthumous imputation upon the
+public and private character of Patrick Henry. Nearly everything which
+then appeared to the discredit of this charge in connection with the
+earlier date, is equally applicable to it in connection with the later
+date also. Moreover, as regards this later date, there has recently
+been discovered a piece of contemporaneous testimony which shows that,
+whatever may have been the scheme for a dictatorship in Virginia in
+1781, it was a great military chieftain who was wanted for the
+position; and, apparently, that Patrick Henry was not then even
+mentioned in the affair. On the 9th of June, 1781, Captain H. Young,
+though not a member of the House of Delegates, writes from Staunton to
+Colonel William Davies as follows: "Two days ago, Mr. Nicholas gave
+notice that he should this day move to have a dictator appointed.
+General Washington and General Greene are talked of. I dare say your
+knowledge of these worthy gentlemen will be sufficient to convince you
+that neither of them will, or ought to, accept of such an
+appointment.... We have but a thin House of Delegates; but they are
+zealous, I think, in the cause of virtue."[331] Furthermore, the
+journal of that House contains no record of any such motion having
+been made; and it is probable that it never was made, and that the
+subject never came before the legislature in any such form as to call
+for its notice.
+
+Finally, with respect to both the dates mentioned by Jefferson for the
+appearance of the scheme, Edmund Randolph has left explicit testimony
+to the effect that such a scheme never had any substantial existence
+at all: "Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, speaks with great
+bitterness against those members of the Assembly in the years 1776 and
+1781, who espoused the erection of a dictator. Coming from such
+authority, the invective infects the character of the legislature,
+notwithstanding he has restricted the charge to less than a majority,
+and acknowledged the spotlessness of most of them.... The subject was
+never before them, except as an article of newspaper intelligence, and
+even then not in a form which called for their attention. Against this
+unfettered monster, which deserved all the impassioned reprobation of
+Mr. Jefferson, their tones, it may be affirmed, would have been loud
+and tremendous."[332]
+
+For its autumn session, in 1781, the legislature did not reach an
+organization until the 19th of November,--just one month after the
+surrender of Cornwallis. Eight days after the organization of the
+House, Patrick Henry took his seat;[333] and after a service of less
+than four weeks, he obtained leave of absence for the remainder of the
+session.[334] During 1782 his attendance upon the House seems to have
+been limited to the spring session. At the organization of the House,
+on the 12th of May, 1783, he was in his place again, and during that
+session, as well as the autumnal one, his attendance was close and
+laborious. At both sessions of the House in 1784 he was present and
+in full force; but in the very midst of these employments he was
+interrupted by his election as governor, on the 17th of
+November,--shortly after which, he withdrew to his country-seat in
+order to remove his family thence to the capital.
+
+In the course of all these labors in the legislature, and amid a
+multitude of topics merely local and temporary, Patrick Henry had
+occasion to deal publicly, and under the peculiar responsibilities of
+leadership, with nearly all the most important and difficult questions
+that came before the American people during the later years of the war
+and the earlier years of the peace. The journal of the House for that
+period omits all mention of words spoken in debate; and although it
+does occasionally enable us to ascertain on which side of certain
+questions Patrick Henry stood, it leaves us in total ignorance of his
+reasons for any position which he chose to take. In trying, therefore,
+to estimate the quality of his statesmanship when dealing with these
+questions, we lack a part of the evidence which is essential to any
+just conclusion; and we are left peculiarly at the mercy of those
+sweeping censures which have been occasionally applied to his
+political conduct during that period.[335]
+
+On the assurance of peace, in the spring of 1783, perhaps the earliest
+and the knottiest problem which had to be taken up was the one
+relating to that vast body of Americans who then bore the
+contumelious name of Tories,--those Americans who, against all loss
+and ignominy, had steadily remained loyal to the unity of the British
+empire, unflinching in their rejection of the constitutional heresy of
+American secession. How should these execrable beings--the defeated
+party in a long and most rancorous civil war--be treated by the party
+which was at last victorious? Many of them were already in exile:
+should they be kept there? Many were still in this country: should
+they be banished from it? As a matter of fact, the exasperation of
+public feeling against the Tories was, at that time, so universal and
+so fierce that no statesman could then lift up his voice in their
+favor without dashing himself against the angriest currents of popular
+opinion and passion, and risking the loss of the public favor toward
+himself. Nevertheless, precisely this is what Patrick Henry had the
+courage to do. While the war lasted, no man spoke against the Tories
+more sternly than did he. The war being ended, and its great purpose
+secured, no man, excepting perhaps Alexander Hamilton, was so prompt
+and so energetic in urging that all animosities of the war should be
+laid aside, and that a policy of magnanimous forbearance should be
+pursued respecting these baffled opponents of American independence.
+It was in this spirit that, as soon as possible after the cessation of
+hostilities, he introduced a bill for the repeal of an act "to
+prohibit intercourse with, and the admission of British subjects
+into" Virginia,[336]--language well understood to refer to the Tories.
+This measure, we are told, not only excited surprise, but "was, at
+first, received with a repugnance apparently insuperable." Even his
+intimate friend John Tyler, the speaker of the House, hotly resisted
+it in the committee of the whole, and in the course of his argument,
+turning to Patrick Henry, asked "how he, above all other men, could
+think of inviting into his family an enemy from whose insults and
+injuries he had suffered so severely?"
+
+In reply to this appeal, Patrick Henry declared that the question
+before them was not one of personal feeling; that it was a national
+question; and that in discussing it they should be willing to
+sacrifice all personal resentments, all private wrongs. He then
+proceeded to unfold the proposition that America had everything out of
+which to make a great nation--except people.
+
+     "Your great want, sir, is the want of men; and these you
+     must have, and will have speedily, if you are wise. Do you
+     ask how you are to get them? Open your doors, sir, and they
+     will come in. The population of the Old World is full to
+     overflowing; that population is ground, too, by the
+     oppressions of the governments under which they live. Sir,
+     they are already standing on tiptoe upon their native
+     shores, and looking to your coasts with a wishful and
+     longing eye.... But gentlemen object to any accession from
+     Great Britain, and particularly to the return of the British
+     refugees. Sir, I feel no objection to the return of those
+     deluded people. They have, to be sure, mistaken their own
+     interests most wofully, and most wofully have they suffered
+     the punishment due to their offences. But the relations
+     which we bear to them and to their native country are now
+     changed. Their king hath acknowledged our independence. The
+     quarrel is over. Peace hath returned, and found us a free
+     people. Let us have the magnanimity, sir, to lay aside our
+     antipathies and prejudices, and consider the subject in a
+     political light. Those are an enterprising, moneyed people.
+     They will be serviceable in taking off the surplus produce
+     of our lands, and supplying us with necessaries during the
+     infant state of our manufactures. Even if they be inimical
+     to us in point of feeling and principle, I can see no
+     objection, in a political view, in making them tributary to
+     our advantage. And, as I have no prejudices to prevent my
+     making this use of them, so, sir, I have no fear of any
+     mischief that they can do us. Afraid of them? What, sir
+     [said he, rising to one of his loftiest attitudes, and
+     assuming a look of the most indignant and sovereign
+     contempt], shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at
+     our feet, now be afraid of his whelps?"[337]
+
+In the same spirit he dealt with the restraints on British commerce
+imposed during the war,--a question similar to the one just mentioned,
+at least in this particular, that it was enveloped in the angry
+prejudices born of the conflict just ended. The journal for the 13th
+of May, 1783, has this entry: "Mr. Henry presented, according to
+order, a bill 'to repeal the several Acts of Assembly for seizure and
+condemnation of British goods found on land;' and the same was
+received and read the first time, and ordered to be read a second
+time." In advocating this measure, he seems to have lifted the
+discussion clear above all petty considerations to the plane of high
+and permanent principle, and, according to one of his chief
+antagonists in that debate, to have met all objections by arguments
+that were "beyond all expression eloquent and sublime." After
+describing the embarrassments and distresses of the situation and
+their causes, he took the ground that perfect freedom was as necessary
+to the health and vigor of commerce as it was to the health and vigor
+of citizenship. "Why should we fetter commerce? If a man is in chains,
+he droops and bows to the earth, for his spirits are broken; but let
+him twist the fetters from his legs, and he will stand erect. Fetter
+not commerce, sir. Let her be as free as air; she will range the whole
+creation, and return on the wings of the four winds of heaven, to
+bless the land with plenty."[338]
+
+Besides these and other problems in the foreign relations of the
+country, there remained, of course, at the end of the war, several
+vast domestic problems for American statesmanship to grapple
+with,--one of these being the relations of the white race to their
+perpetual neighbors, the Indians. In the autumn session of 1784, in a
+series of efforts said to have been marked by "irresistible
+earnestness and eloquence," he secured the favorable attention of the
+House to this ancient problem, and even to his own daring and
+statesmanlike solution of it. The whole subject, as he thought, had
+been commonly treated by the superior race in a spirit not only mean
+and hard, but superficial also; the result being nearly two centuries
+of mutual suspicion, hatred, and slaughter. At last the time had come
+for the superior race to put an end to this traditional disaster and
+disgrace. Instead of tampering with the difficulty by remedies applied
+merely to the surface, he was for striking at the root of it, namely,
+at the deep divergence in sympathy and in interest between the two
+races. There was but one way in which to do this: it was for the white
+race to treat the Indians, consistently, as human beings, and as fast
+as possible to identify their interests with our own along the entire
+range of personal concerns,--in property, government, society, and,
+especially, in domestic life. In short, he proposed to encourage, by a
+system of pecuniary bounties, the practice of marriage between members
+of the two races, believing that such ties, once formed, would be an
+inviolable pledge of mutual friendship, fidelity, and forbearance, and
+would gradually lead to the transformation of the Indians into a
+civilized and Christian people. His bill for this purpose, elaborately
+drawn up, was carried through its second reading and "engrossed for
+its final passage," when, by his sudden removal from the floor of the
+House to the governor's chair, the measure was deprived of its
+all-conquering champion, and, on the third reading, it fell a
+sacrifice to the Caucasian rage and scorn of the members.
+
+It is proper to note, also, that during this period of service in the
+legislature Patrick Henry marched straight against public opinion, and
+jeoparded his popularity, on two or three other subjects. For example,
+the mass of the people of Virginia were then so angrily opposed to the
+old connection between church and state that they occasionally saw
+danger even in projects which in no way involved such a connection.
+This was the case with Patrick Henry's necessary and most innocent
+measure "for the incorporation of all societies of the Christian
+religion which may apply for the same;" likewise, his bill for the
+incorporation of the clergy of the Episcopal Church; and, finally, his
+more questionable and more offensive resolution for requiring all
+citizens of the State to contribute to the expense of supporting some
+form of religious worship according to their own preference.
+
+Whether, in these several measures, Patrick Henry was right or wrong,
+one thing, at least, is obvious: no politician who could thus beard in
+his very den the lion of public opinion can be accurately described as
+a demagogue.
+
+With respect to those amazing gifts of speech by which, in the House
+of Delegates, he thus repeatedly swept all opposition out of his way,
+and made people think as he wished them to do, often in the very
+teeth of their own immediate interests or prepossessions, an amusing
+instance was mentioned, many years afterward, by President James
+Madison. During the war Virginia had paid her soldiers in certificates
+for the amounts due them, to be redeemed in cash at some future time.
+In many cases, the poverty of the soldiers had induced them to sell
+these certificates, for trifling sums in ready money, to certain
+speculators, who were thus making a traffic out of the public
+distress. For the purpose of checking this cruel and harmful business,
+Madison brought forward a suitable bill, which, as he told the story,
+Patrick Henry supported with an eloquence so irresistible that it was
+carried through the House without an opposing vote; while a notorious
+speculator in these very certificates, having listened from the
+gallery to Patrick Henry's speech, at its conclusion so far forgot his
+own interest in the question as to exclaim, "That bill ought to
+pass."[339]
+
+Concerning his appearance and his manner of speech in those days, a
+bit of testimony comes down to us from Spencer Roane, who, as he tells
+us, first "met with Patrick Henry in the Assembly of 1783." He adds:--
+
+     "I also then met with R. H. Lee.... I lodged with Lee one or
+     two sessions, and was perfectly acquainted with him, while I
+     was yet a stranger to Mr. H. These two gentlemen were the
+     great leaders in the House of Delegates, and were almost
+     constantly opposed. Notwithstanding my habits of intimacy
+     with Mr. Lee, I found myself obliged to vote with P. H.
+     against him in '83, and against Madison in '84, ... but with
+     several important exceptions. I voted against him (P. H.), I
+     recollect, on the subject of the refugees,--he was for
+     permitting their return; on the subject of a general
+     assessment; and the act incorporating the Episcopal Church.
+     I voted with him, in general, because he was, I thought, a
+     more practical statesman than Madison (time has made Madison
+     more practical), and a less selfish one than Lee. As an
+     orator, Mr. Henry demolished Madison with as much ease as
+     Samson did the cords that bound him before he was shorn. Mr.
+     Lee held a greater competition.... Mr. Lee was a polished
+     gentleman. His person was not very good; and he had lost the
+     use of one of his hands; but his manner was perfectly
+     graceful. His language was always chaste, and, although
+     somewhat too monotonous, his speeches were always pleasing;
+     yet he did not ravish your senses, nor carry away your
+     judgment by storm.... Henry was almost always victorious. He
+     was as much superior to Lee in temper as in eloquence....
+     Mr. Henry was inferior to Lee in the gracefulness of his
+     action, and perhaps also in the chasteness of his language;
+     yet his language was seldom incorrect, and his address
+     always striking. He had a fine blue eye; and an earnest
+     manner which made it impossible not to attend to him. His
+     speaking was unequal, and always rose with the subject and
+     the exigency. In this respect, he entirely differed from Mr.
+     Lee, who always was equal. At some times, Mr. Henry would
+     seem to hobble, especially in the beginning of his speeches;
+     and, at others, his tones would be almost disagreeable; yet
+     it was by means of his tones, and the happy modulation of
+     his voice, that his speaking perhaps had its greatest
+     effect. He had a happy articulation, and a clear, distinct,
+     strong voice; and every syllable was distinctly uttered. He
+     was very unassuming as to himself, amounting almost to
+     humility, and very respectful towards his competitor; the
+     consequence was that no feeling of disgust or animosity was
+     arrayed against him. His exordiums in particular were often
+     hobbling and always unassuming. He knew mankind too well to
+     promise much.... He was great at a reply, and greater in
+     proportion to the pressure which was bearing upon him. The
+     resources of his mind and of his eloquence were equal to any
+     drafts which could be made upon them. He took but short
+     notes of what fell from his adversaries, and disliked the
+     drudgery of composition; yet it is a mistake to say that he
+     could not write well."[340]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[311] Rives, _Life of Madison_, i. 189, note.
+
+[312] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 54.
+
+[313] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 27.
+
+[314] MS.
+
+[315] MS.
+
+[316] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 14.
+
+[317] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 14, 15, 18, 25, 28, 31, 39.
+
+[318] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 7, 8, 10, 14, 24, 45, 50, 51.
+
+[319] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 71.
+
+[320] _Ibid._ 79.
+
+[321] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 491.
+
+[322] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 1.
+
+[323] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 496-497.
+
+[324] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 10.
+
+[325] L. G. Tyler, _Letters and Times of the Tylers_, i. 81-83, where
+it is said to be taken from Abel's _Life of John Tyler_.
+
+[326] Peyton, _Hist. Augusta Co._ 211.
+
+[327] Peyton, _Hist. Augusta Co._ 211.
+
+[328] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 352.
+
+[329] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 15.
+
+[330] _Jefferson's Writings_, viii. 368; Wirt, 231; Girardin, in Burk.
+_Hist. Va._ iv. App. pp. xi.-xii.; Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i.
+348-352.
+
+[331] _Calendar Va. State Papers_, ii. 152.
+
+[332] MS. _Hist. Va._
+
+[333] _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Nov. 27.
+
+[334] _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Dec. 21.
+
+[335] For example, _Bland Papers_, ii. 51; Rives, _Life of Madison_,
+i. 536; ii. 240, note.
+
+[336] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 42.
+
+[337] John Tyler, in Wirt, 233, 236.
+
+[338] John Tyler, in Wirt, 237-238.
+
+[339] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222.
+
+[340] MS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SHALL THE CONFEDERATION BE MADE STRONGER?
+
+
+We have now arrived at the second period of Patrick Henry's service as
+governor of Virginia, beginning with the 30th of November, 1784. For
+the four or five years immediately following that date, the salient
+facts in his career seem to group themselves around the story of his
+relation to that vast national movement which ended in an entire
+reorganization of the American Republic under a new Constitution.
+Whoever will take the trouble to examine the evidence now at hand
+bearing upon the case, can hardly fail to convince himself that the
+true story of Patrick Henry's opposition to that great movement has
+never yet been told. Men have usually misconceived, when they have not
+altogether overlooked, the motives for his opposition, the spirit in
+which he conducted it, and the beneficent effects which were
+accomplished by it; while his ultimate and firm approval of the new
+Constitution, after it had received the chief amendments called for by
+his criticisms, has been passionately described as an example of gross
+political fickleness and inconsistency, instead of being, as it really
+was, a most logical proceeding on his part, and in perfect harmony
+with the principles underlying his whole public career.
+
+Before entering on a story so fascinating for the light it throws on
+the man and on the epoch, it is well that we should stay long enough
+to glance at what we may call the incidental facts in his life, for
+these four or five years now to be looked into.
+
+Not far from the time of his thus entering once more upon the office
+of governor, occurred the death of his aged mother, at the home of his
+brother-in-law, Colonel Samuel Meredith of Winton, who, in a letter to
+the governor, dated November 22, 1784, speaks tenderly of the long
+illness which had preceded the death of the venerable lady, and
+especially of the strength and beauty of her character:--
+
+     "She has been in my family upwards of eleven years; and from
+     the beginning of that time to the end, her life appeared to
+     me most evidently to be a continued manifestation of piety
+     and devotion, guided by such a great share of good sense as
+     rendered her amiable and agreeable to all who were so happy
+     as to be acquainted with her. Never have I known a Christian
+     character equal to hers."[341]
+
+On bringing his family to the capital, in November, 1784, from the
+far-away solitude of Leatherwood, the governor established them, not
+within the city itself, but across the James River, at a place called
+Salisbury. What with children and with grandchildren, his family had
+now become a patriarchal one; and some slight glimpse of himself and
+of his manner of life at that time is given us in the memorandum of
+Spencer Roane. In deference to "the ideas attached to the office of
+governor, as handed down from the royal government," he is said to
+have paid careful attention to his costume and personal bearing before
+the public, never going abroad except in black coat, waistcoat, and
+knee-breeches, in scarlet cloak, and in dressed wig. Moreover, his
+family "were furnished with an excellent coach, at a time when these
+vehicles were not so common as at present. They lived as genteelly,
+and associated with as polished society, as that of any governor
+before or since has ever done. He entertained as much company as
+others, and in as genteel a style; and when, at the end of two years,
+he resigned the office, he had greatly exceeded the salary, and [was]
+in debt, which was one cause that induced him to resume the practice
+of the law."[342]
+
+During his two years in the governorship, his duties concerned matters
+of much local importance, indeed, but of no particular interest at
+present. To this remark one exception may be found in some passages of
+friendly correspondence between the governor and Washington,--the
+latter then enjoying the long-coveted repose of Mt. Vernon. In
+January, 1785, the Assembly of Virginia vested in Washington certain
+shares in two companies, just then formed, for opening and extending
+the navigation of the James and Potomac rivers.[343] In response to
+Governor Henry's letter communicating this act, Washington wrote on
+the 27th of February, stating his doubts about accepting such a
+gratuity, but at the same time asking the governor as a friend to
+assist him in the matter by his advice. Governor Henry's reply is of
+interest to us, not only for its allusion to his own domestic
+anxieties at the time, but for its revelation of the frank and cordial
+relations between the two men:--
+
+                                       RICHMOND, March 12th, 1785.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--The honor you are pleased to do me, in your favor
+     of the 27th ultimo, in which you desire my opinion in a
+     friendly way concerning the act enclosed you lately, is very
+     flattering to me. I did not receive the letter till
+     Thursday, and since that my family has been very sickly. My
+     oldest grandson, a fine boy indeed, about nine years old,
+     lays at the point of death. Under this state of uneasiness
+     and perturbation, I feel some unfitness to consider a
+     subject of so delicate a nature as that you have desired my
+     thoughts on. Besides, I have some expectation of a
+     conveyance more proper, it may be, than the present, when I
+     would wish to send you some packets received from Ireland,
+     which I fear the post cannot carry at once. If he does not
+     take them free, I shan't send them, for they are heavy.
+     Captain Boyle, who had them from Sir Edward Newenham, wishes
+     for the honor of a line from you, which I have promised to
+     forward to him.
+
+     I will give you the trouble of hearing from me next post,
+     if no opportunity presents sooner, and, in the mean time, I
+     beg you to be persuaded that, with the most sincere
+     attachment, I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant,
+
+                                                  P. HENRY.[344]
+
+     GENERAL WASHINGTON.
+
+The promise contained in this letter was fulfilled on the 19th of the
+same month, when the governor wrote to Washington a long and careful
+statement of the whole case, urging him to accept the shares, and
+closing his letter with an assurance of his "unalterable affection"
+and "most sincere attachment,"[345]--a subscription not common among
+public men at that time.
+
+On the 30th of November, 1786, having declined to be put in nomination
+for a third year, as permitted by the Constitution, he finally retired
+from the office of governor. The House of Delegates, about the same
+time, by unanimous vote, crowned him with the public thanks, "for his
+wise, prudent, and upright administration, during his last appointment
+of chief magistrate of this Commonwealth; assuring him that they
+retain a perfect sense of his abilities in the discharge of the duties
+of that high and important office, and wish him all domestic happiness
+on his return to private life."[346]
+
+This return to private life meant, among other things, his return,
+after an interruption of more than twelve years, to the practice of
+the law. For this purpose he deemed it best to give up his remote home
+at Leatherwood, and to establish himself in Prince Edward County,--a
+place about midway between his former residence and the capital, and
+much better suited to his convenience, as an active practitioner in
+the courts. Accordingly, in Prince Edward County he continued to
+reside from the latter part of 1786 until 1795. Furthermore, by that
+county he was soon elected as one of its delegates in the Assembly;
+and, resuming there his old position as leader, he continued to serve
+in every session until the end of 1790, at which time he finally
+withdrew from all official connection with public life. Thus it
+happened that, by his retirement from the governorship in 1786, and by
+his almost immediate restoration to the House of Delegates, he was put
+into a situation to act most aggressively and most powerfully on
+public opinion in Virginia during the whole period of the struggle
+over the new Constitution.
+
+As regards his attitude toward that great business, we need, first of
+all, to clear away some obscurity which has gathered about the
+question of his habitual views respecting the relations of the several
+States to the general government. It has been common to suppose that,
+even prior to the movement for the new Constitution, Patrick Henry had
+always been an extreme advocate of the rights of the States as
+opposed to the central authority of the Union; and that the tremendous
+resistance which he made to the new Constitution in all stages of the
+affair prior to the adoption of the first group of amendments is to be
+accounted for as the effect of an original and habitual tendency of
+his mind.[347] Such, however, seems not to have been the case.
+
+In general it may be said that, at the very outset of the Revolution,
+Patrick Henry was one of the first of our statesmen to recognize the
+existence and the imperial character of a certain cohesive central
+authority, arising from the very nature of the revolutionary act which
+the several colonies were then taking. As early as 1774, in the first
+Continental Congress, it was he who exclaimed: "All distinctions are
+thrown down. All America is thrown into one mass." "The distinctions
+between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders
+are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American." In the spring of
+1776, at the approach of the question of independence, it was he who
+even incurred reproach by his anxiety to defer independence until
+after the basis for a general government should have been established,
+lest the several States, in separating from England, should lapse into
+a separation from one another also. As governor of Virginia from 1776
+to 1779, his official correspondence with the president of Congress,
+with the board of war, and with the general of the army is pervaded
+by proofs of his respect for the supreme authority of the general
+government within its proper sphere. Finally, as a leader in the
+Virginia House of Delegates from 1780 to 1784, he was in the main a
+supporter of the policy of giving more strength and dignity to the
+general government. During all that period, according to the admission
+of his most unfriendly modern critic, Patrick Henry showed himself
+"much more disposed to sustain and strengthen the federal authority"
+than did, for example, his great rival in the House, Richard Henry
+Lee; and for the time those two great men became "the living and
+active exponents of two adverse political systems in both state and
+national questions."[348] In 1784, by which time the weakness of the
+general government had become alarming, Patrick Henry was among the
+foremost in Virginia to express alarm, and to propose the only
+appropriate remedy. For example, on the assembling of the legislature,
+in May of that year, he took pains to seek an early interview with two
+of his prominent associates in the House of Delegates, Madison and
+Jones, for the express purpose of devising with them some method of
+giving greater strength to the Confederation. "I find him," wrote
+Madison to Jefferson immediately after the interview, "strenuous for
+invigorating the federal government, though without any precise
+plan."[349] A more detailed account of the same interview was sent to
+Jefferson by another correspondent. According to the latter, Patrick
+Henry then declared that "he saw ruin inevitable, unless something was
+done to give Congress a compulsory process on delinquent States;" that
+"a bold example set by Virginia" in that direction "would have
+influence on the other States;" and that "this conviction was his only
+inducement for coming into the present Assembly." Whereupon, it was
+then agreed between them that "Jones and Madison should sketch some
+plan for giving greater power to the federal government; and Henry
+promised to sustain it on the floor."[350] Finally, such was the
+impression produced by Patrick Henry's political conduct during all
+those years that, as late as in December, 1786, Madison could speak of
+him as having "been hitherto the champion of the federal cause."[351]
+
+Not far, however, from the date last mentioned Patrick Henry ceased to
+be "the champion of the federal cause," and became its chief
+antagonist, and so remained until some time during Washington's first
+term in the presidency. What brought about this sudden and total
+revolution? It can be explained only by the discovery of some new
+influence which came into his life between 1784 and 1786, and which
+was powerful enough to reverse entirely the habitual direction of his
+political thought and conduct. Just what that influence was can now
+be easily shown.
+
+On the 3d of August, 1786, John Jay, as secretary for foreign affairs,
+presented to Congress some results of his negotiations with the
+Spanish envoy, Gardoqui, respecting a treaty with Spain; and he then
+urged that Congress, in view of certain vast advantages to our foreign
+commerce, should consent to surrender the navigation of the
+Mississippi for twenty-five or thirty years,[352]--a proposal which,
+very naturally, seemed to the six Southern States as nothing less than
+a cool invitation to them to sacrifice their own most important
+interests for the next quarter of a century, in order to build up
+during that period the interests of the seven States of the North. The
+revelation of this project, and of the ability of the Northern States
+to force it through, sent a shock of alarm and of distrust into every
+Southern community. Moreover, full details of these transactions in
+Congress were promptly conveyed to Governor Henry by James Monroe, who
+added this pungent item,--that a secret project was then under the
+serious consideration of "committees" of Northern men, for a
+dismemberment of the Union, and for setting the Southern States
+adrift, after having thus bartered away from them the use of the
+Mississippi.[353]
+
+On the same day that Monroe was writing from New York that letter to
+Governor Henry, Madison was writing from Philadelphia a letter to
+Jefferson. Having mentioned a plan for strengthening the
+Confederation, Madison says:--
+
+     "Though my wishes are in favor of such an event, yet I
+     despair so much of its accomplishment at the present crisis,
+     that I do not extend my views beyond a commercial reform. To
+     speak the truth, I almost despair even of this. You will
+     find the cause in a measure now before Congress, ... a
+     proposed treaty with Spain, one article of which shuts the
+     Mississippi for twenty or thirty years. Passing by the other
+     Southern States, figure to yourself the effect of such a
+     stipulation on the Assembly of Virginia, already jealous of
+     Northern politics, and which will be composed of thirty
+     members from the Western waters,--of a majority of others
+     attached to the Western country from interests of their own,
+     of their friends, or their constituents.... Figure to
+     yourself its effect on the people at large on the Western
+     waters, who are impatiently waiting for a favorable result
+     to the negotiation with Gardoqui, and who will consider
+     themselves sold by their Atlantic brethren. Will it be an
+     unnatural consequence if they consider themselves absolved
+     from every federal tie, and court some protection for their
+     betrayed rights?"[354]
+
+How truly Madison predicted the fatal construction which in the South,
+and particularly in Virginia, would be put upon the proposed surrender
+of the Mississippi, may be seen by a glance at some of the resolutions
+which passed the Virginia House of Delegates on the 29th of the
+following November:--
+
+     "That the common right of navigating the river Mississippi,
+     and of communicating with other nations through that
+     channel, ought to be considered as the bountiful gift of
+     nature to the United States, as proprietors of the
+     territories watered by the said river and its eastern
+     branches, and as moreover secured to them by the late
+     revolution.
+
+     "That the Confederacy, having been formed on the broad basis
+     of equal rights, in every part thereof, to the protection
+     and guardianship of the whole, a sacrifice of the rights of
+     any one part, to the supposed or real interest of another
+     part, would be a flagrant violation of justice, a direct
+     contravention of the end for which the federal government
+     was instituted, and an alarming innovation in the system of
+     the Union."[355]
+
+One day after the passage of those resolutions, Patrick Henry ceased
+to be the governor of Virginia; and five days afterward he was chosen
+by Virginia as one of its seven delegates to a convention to be held
+at Philadelphia in the following May for the purpose of revising the
+federal Constitution. But amid the widespread excitement, amid the
+anger and the suspicion then prevailing as to the liability of the
+Southern States, even under a weak confederation, to be slaughtered,
+in all their most important concerns, by the superior weight and
+number of the Northern States, it is easy to see how little inclined
+many Southern statesmen would be to increase that liability by making
+this weak confederation a strong one. In the list of such Southern
+statesmen Patrick Henry must henceforth be reckoned; and, as it was
+never his nature to do anything tepidly or by halves, his hostility
+to the project for strengthening the Confederation soon became as hot
+as it was comprehensive. On the 7th of December, only three days after
+he was chosen as a delegate to the Philadelphia convention, Madison,
+then at Richmond, wrote concerning him thus anxiously to Washington:--
+
+     "I am entirely convinced from what I observe here, that
+     unless the project of Congress can be reversed, the hopes of
+     carrying this State into a proper federal system will be
+     demolished. Many of our most federal leading men are
+     extremely soured with what has already passed. Mr. Henry,
+     who has been hitherto the champion of the federal cause, has
+     become a cold advocate, and, in the event of an actual
+     sacrifice of the Mississippi by Congress, will
+     unquestionably go over to the opposite side."[356]
+
+But in spite of this change in his attitude toward the federal cause,
+perhaps he would still go to the great convention. On that subject he
+appears to have kept his own counsel for several weeks; but by the 1st
+of March, 1787, Edmund Randolph, at Richmond, was able to send this
+word to Madison, who was back in his place in Congress: "Mr. Henry
+peremptorily refuses to go;" and Randolph mentions as Henry's reasons
+for this refusal, not only his urgent professional duties, but his
+repugnance to the proceedings of Congress in the matter of the
+Mississippi.[357] Five days later, from the same city, John Marshall
+wrote to Arthur Lee: "Mr. Henry, whose opinions have their usual
+influence, has been heard to say that he would rather part with the
+Confederation than relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi."[358]
+On the 18th of the same month, in a letter to Washington, Madison
+poured out his solicitude respecting the course which Henry was going
+to take: "I hear from Richmond, with much concern, that Mr. Henry has
+positively declined his mission to Philadelphia. Besides the loss of
+his services on that theatre, there is danger, I fear, that this step
+has proceeded from a wish to leave his conduct unfettered on another
+theatre, where the result of the convention will receive its destiny
+from his omnipotence."[359] On the next day, Madison sent off to
+Jefferson, who was then in Paris, an account of the situation: "But
+although it appears that the intended sacrifice of the Mississippi
+will not be made, the consequences of the intention and the attempt
+are likely to be very serious. I have already made known to you the
+light in which the subject was taken up by Virginia. Mr. Henry's
+disgust exceeds all measure, and I am not singular in ascribing his
+refusal to attend the convention, to the policy of keeping himself
+free to combat or espouse the result of it according to the result of
+the Mississippi business, among other circumstances."[360]
+
+Finally, on the 25th of March Madison wrote to Randolph, evidently in
+reply to the information given by the latter on the 1st of the month:
+"The refusal of Mr. Henry to join in the task of revising the
+Confederation is ominous; and the more so, I fear, if he means to be
+governed by the event which you conjecture."[361]
+
+That Patrick Henry did not attend the great convention, everybody
+knows; but the whole meaning of his refusal to do so, everybody may
+now understand somewhat more clearly, perhaps, than before.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[341] MS.
+
+[342] MS.
+
+[343] Hening, xi. 525-526.
+
+[344] MS.
+
+[345] Sparks, _Corr. Rev._ iv. 93-96. See, also, Washington's letter
+to Henry, for Nov. 30, 1785, in _Writings of W._ xii. 277-278.
+
+[346] _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Nov. 25, 1786.
+
+[347] For example, Curtis, _Hist. Const._ ii. 553-554.
+
+[348] Rives, _Life of Madison_, i. 536-537.
+
+[349] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 80.
+
+[350] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ i. 162.
+
+[351] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 264.
+
+[352] _Secret Jour. Cong._ iv. 44-63.
+
+[353] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 122.
+
+[354] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 119-120.
+
+[355] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 66-67.
+
+[356] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 264.
+
+[357] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 238-239.
+
+[358] R. H. Lee, _Life of A. Lee_, ii. 321.
+
+[359] Sparks, _Corr. Rev._ iv. 168.
+
+[360] _Madison Papers_, ii. 623.
+
+[361] _Madison Papers_, 627.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE BATTLE IN VIRGINIA OVER THE NEW CONSTITUTION
+
+
+The great convention at Philadelphia, after a session of four months,
+came to the end of its noble labors on the 17th of September, 1787.
+Washington, who had been not merely its presiding officer but its
+presiding genius, then hastened back to Mt. Vernon, and, in his great
+anxiety to win over to the new Constitution the support of his old
+friend Patrick Henry, he immediately dispatched to him a copy of that
+instrument, accompanied by a very impressive and conciliatory
+letter,[362] to which, about three weeks afterwards, was returned the
+following reply:--
+
+                                      RICHMOND, October 19, 1787.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I was honored by the receipt of your favor,
+     together with a copy of the proposed federal Constitution, a
+     few days ago, for which I beg you to accept my thanks. They
+     are also due to you from me as a citizen, on account of the
+     great fatigue necessarily attending the arduous business of
+     the late convention.
+
+     I have to lament that I cannot bring my mind to accord with
+     the proposed Constitution. The concern I feel on this
+     account is really greater than I am able to express. Perhaps
+     mature reflections may furnish me with reasons to change my
+     present sentiments into a conformity with the opinions of
+     those personages for whom I have the highest reverence. Be
+     that as it may, I beg you will be persuaded of the
+     unalterable regard and attachment with which I shall be,
+
+     Dear Sir, your obliged and very humble servant,
+
+                                                   P. HENRY.[363]
+
+Four days before the date of this letter the legislature of Virginia
+had convened at Richmond for its autumn session, and Patrick Henry had
+there taken his usual place on the most important committees, and as
+the virtual director of the thought and work of the House. Much
+solicitude was felt concerning the course which he might advise the
+legislature to adopt on the supreme question then before the
+country,--some persons even fearing that he might try to defeat the
+new Constitution in Virginia by simply preventing the call of a state
+convention. Great was Washington's satisfaction on receiving from one
+of his correspondents in the Assembly, shortly after the session
+began, this cheerful report:--
+
+     "I have not met with one in all my inquiries (and I have
+     made them with great diligence) opposed to it, except Mr.
+     Henry, who I have heard is so, but could only conjecture it
+     from a conversation with him on the subject.... The
+     transmissory note of Congress was before us to-day, when
+     Mr. Henry declared that it transcended our powers to decide
+     on the Constitution, and that it must go before a
+     convention. As it was insinuated he would aim at preventing
+     this, much pleasure was discovered at the declaration."[364]
+
+On the 24th of October, from his place in Congress, Madison sent over
+to Jefferson, in Paris, a full account of the results of the
+Philadelphia convention, and of the public feeling with reference to
+its work: "My information from Virginia is as yet extremely
+imperfect.... The part which Mr. Henry will take is unknown here. Much
+will depend on it. I had taken it for granted, from a variety of
+circumstances, that he would be in the opposition, and still think
+that will be the case. There are reports, however, which favor a
+contrary supposition."[365] But, by the 9th of December, Madison was
+able to send to Jefferson a further report, which indicated that all
+doubt respecting the hostile attitude of Patrick Henry was then
+removed. After mentioning that a majority of the people of Virginia
+seemed to be in favor of the Constitution, he added: "What change may
+be produced by the united influence and exertions of Mr. Henry, Mr.
+Mason, and the governor, with some pretty able auxiliaries, is
+uncertain.... Mr. Henry is the great adversary who will render the
+event precarious. He is, I find, with his usual address, working up
+every possible interest into a spirit of opposition."[366]
+
+Long before the date last mentioned, the legislature had regularly
+declared for a state convention, to be held at Richmond on the first
+Monday in June, 1788, then and there to determine whether or not
+Virginia would accept the new Constitution. In view of that event,
+delegates were in the mean time to be chosen by the people; and thus,
+for the intervening months, the fight was to be transferred to the
+arena of popular debate. In such a contest Patrick Henry, being once
+aroused, was not likely to take a languid or a hesitating part; and of
+the importance then attached to the part which he did take, we catch
+frequent glimpses in the correspondence of the period. Thus, on the
+19th of February, 1788, Madison, still at New York, sent this word to
+Jefferson: "The temper of Virginia, as far as I can learn, has
+undergone but little change of late. At first, there was an enthusiasm
+for the Constitution. The tide next took a sudden and strong turn in
+the opposite direction. The influence and exertions of Mr. Henry,
+Colonel Mason, and some others, will account for this.... I am told
+that a very bold language is held by Mr. Henry and some of his
+partisans."[367] On the 10th of April, Madison, then returned to his
+home in Virginia, wrote to Edmund Randolph: "The declaration of Henry,
+mentioned in your letter, is a proof to me that desperate measures
+will be his game."[368] On the 22d of the same month Madison wrote to
+Jefferson: "The adversaries take very different grounds of opposition.
+Some are opposed to the substance of the plan; others, to particular
+modifications only. Mr. Henry is supposed to aim at disunion."[369] On
+the 24th of April, Edward Carrington, writing from New York, told
+Jefferson: "Mr. H. does not openly declare for a dismemberment of the
+Union, but his arguments in support of his opposition to the
+Constitution go directly to that issue. He says that three
+confederacies would be practicable, and better suited to the good of
+commerce than one."[370] On the 28th of April, Washington wrote to
+Lafayette on account of the struggle then going forward; and after
+naming some of the leading champions of the Constitution, he adds
+sorrowfully: "Henry and Mason are its great adversaries."[371]
+Finally, as late as on the 12th of June, the Rev. John Blair Smith, at
+that time president of Hampden-Sidney College, conveyed to Madison, an
+old college friend, his own deep disapproval of the course which had
+been pursued by Patrick Henry in the management of the canvass against
+the Constitution:--
+
+     "Before the Constitution appeared, the minds of the people
+     were artfully prepared against it; so that all opposition
+     [to Mr. Henry] at the election of delegates to consider it,
+     was in vain. That gentleman has descended to lower artifices
+     and management on the occasion than I thought him capable
+     of.... If Mr. Innes has shown you a speech of Mr. Henry to
+     his constituents, which I sent him, you will see something
+     of the method he has taken to diffuse his poison.... It
+     grieves me to see such great natural talents abused to such
+     purposes."[372]
+
+On Monday, the 2d of June, 1788, the long-expected convention
+assembled at Richmond. So great was the public interest in the event
+that a full delegation was present, even on the first day; and in
+order to make room for the throngs of citizens from all parts of
+Virginia and from other States, who had flocked thither to witness the
+impending battle, it was decided that the convention should hold its
+meetings in the New Academy, on Shockoe Hill, the largest
+assembly-room in the city.
+
+Eight States had already adopted the Constitution. The five States
+which had yet to act upon the question were New Hampshire, Rhode
+Island, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia. For every reason, the
+course then to be taken by Virginia would have great consequences.
+Moreover, since the days of the struggle over independence, no
+question had so profoundly moved the people of Virginia; none had
+aroused such hopes and such fears; none had so absorbed the thoughts,
+or so embittered the relations of men. It is not strange, therefore,
+that this convention, consisting of one hundred and seventy members,
+should have been thought to represent, to an unusual degree, the
+intelligence, the character, the experience, the reputation of the
+State. Perhaps it would be true to say that, excepting Washington,
+Jefferson, and Richard Henry Lee, no Virginian of eminence was absent
+from it.
+
+Furthermore, the line of division, which from the outset parted into
+two hostile sections these one hundred and seventy Virginians, was
+something quite unparalleled. In other States it had been noted that
+the conservative classes, the men of education and of property, of
+high office, of high social and professional standing, were nearly all
+on the side of the new Constitution. Such was not the case in
+Virginia. Of the conservative classes throughout that State, quite as
+many were against the new Constitution as were in favor of it. Of the
+four distinguished citizens who had been its governors, since Virginia
+had assumed the right to elect governors,--Patrick Henry, Jefferson,
+Nelson, and Harrison,--each in turn had denounced the measure as
+unsatisfactory and dangerous; while Edmund Randolph, the governor then
+in office, having attended the great convention at Philadelphia, and
+having there refused to sign the Constitution, had published an
+impressive statement of his objections to it, and, for several months
+thereafter, had been counted among its most formidable opponents.
+Concerning the attitude of the legal profession,--a profession always
+inclined to conservatism,--Madison had written to Jefferson: "The
+general and admiralty courts, with most of the bar, oppose the
+Constitution."[373] Finally, among Virginians who were at that time
+particularly honored and trusted for patriotic services during the
+Revolution, such men as these, Theodoric Bland, William Grayson, John
+Tyler, Meriwether Smith, James Monroe, George Mason, and Richard Henry
+Lee, had declared their disapproval of the document.
+
+Nevertheless, within the convention itself, at the opening of the
+session, it was claimed by the friends of the new government that they
+then outnumbered their opponents by at least fifty votes.[374] Their
+great champion in debate was James Madison, who was powerfully
+assisted, first or last, by Edmund Pendleton, John Marshall, George
+Nicholas, Francis Corbin, George Wythe, James Innes, General Henry
+Lee, and especially by that same Governor Randolph who, after
+denouncing the Constitution for "features so odious" that he could not
+"agree to it,"[375] had finally swung completely around to its
+support.
+
+Against all this array of genius, learning, character, logical acumen,
+and eloquence, Patrick Henry held the field as protagonist for
+twenty-three days,--his chief lieutenants in the fight being Mason,
+Grayson, and John Dawson, with occasional help from Harrison, Monroe,
+and Tyler. Upon him alone fell the brunt of the battle. Out of the
+twenty-three days of that splendid tourney, there were but five days
+in which he did not take the floor. On each of several days he made
+three speeches; on one day he made five speeches; on another day
+eight. In one speech alone, he was on his legs for seven hours. The
+words of all who had any share in that debate were taken down,
+according to the imperfect art of the time, by the stenographer, David
+Robertson, whose reports, however, are said to be little more than a
+pretty full outline of the speeches actually made: but in the volume
+which contains these abstracts, one of Patrick Henry's speeches fills
+eight pages, another ten pages, another sixteen, another twenty-one,
+another forty; while, in the aggregate, his speeches constitute nearly
+one quarter of the entire book,--a book of six hundred and sixty-three
+pages.[376]
+
+Any one who has fallen under the impression, so industriously
+propagated by the ingenious enmity of Jefferson's old age, that
+Patrick Henry was a man of but meagre information and of extremely
+slender intellectual resources, ignorant especially of law, of
+political science, and of history, totally lacking in logical power
+and in precision of statement, with nothing to offset these
+deficiencies excepting a strange gift of overpowering, dithyrambic
+eloquence, will find it hard, as he turns over the leaves on which are
+recorded the debates of the Virginia convention, to understand just
+how such a person could have made the speeches which are there
+attributed to Patrick Henry, or how a mere rhapsodist could have thus
+held his ground, in close hand-to-hand combat, for twenty-three days,
+against such antagonists, on all the difficult subjects of law,
+political science, and history involved in the Constitution of the
+United States,--while showing at the same time every quality of good
+generalship as a tactician and as a party leader. "There has been, I
+am aware," says an eminent historian of the Constitution, "a modern
+scepticism concerning Patrick Henry's abilities; but I cannot share
+it.... The manner in which he carried on the opposition to the
+Constitution in the convention of Virginia, for nearly a whole month,
+shows that he possessed other powers besides those of great natural
+eloquence."[377]
+
+But, now, what were Patrick Henry's objections to the new
+Constitution?
+
+First of all, let it be noted that his objections did not spring from
+any hostility to the union of the thirteen States, or from any
+preference for a separate union of the Southern States. Undoubtedly
+there had been a time, especially under the provocations connected
+with the Mississippi business, when he and many other Southern
+statesmen sincerely thought that there might be no security for their
+interests even under the Confederation, and that this lack of security
+would be even more glaring and disastrous under the new Constitution.
+Such, for example, seems to have been the opinion of Governor Benjamin
+Harrison, as late as October the 4th, 1787, on which date he thus
+wrote to Washington: "I cannot divest myself of an opinion that ... if
+the Constitution is carried into effect, the States south of the
+Potomac will be little more than appendages to those to the northward
+of it."[378] It is very probable that this sentence accurately
+reflects, likewise, Patrick Henry's mood of thought at that time.
+Nevertheless, whatever may have been his thought under the sectional
+suspicions and alarms of the preceding months, it is certain that, at
+the date of the Virginia convention, he had come to see that the
+thirteen States must, by all means, try to keep together. "I am
+persuaded," said he, in reply to Randolph, "of what the honorable
+gentleman says, 'that separate confederacies will ruin us.'" "Sir," he
+exclaimed on another occasion, "the dissolution of the Union is most
+abhorrent to my mind. The first thing I have at heart is American
+liberty; the second thing is American union." Again he protested: "I
+mean not to breathe the spirit, nor utter the language, of
+secession."[379]
+
+In the second place, he admitted that there were great defects in the
+old Confederation, and that those defects ought to be cured by proper
+amendments, particularly in the direction of greater strength to the
+federal government. But did the proposed Constitution embody such
+amendments? On the contrary, that Constitution, instead of properly
+amending the old Confederation, simply annihilated it, and replaced
+it by something radically different and radically dangerous.
+
+     "The federal convention ought to have amended the old
+     system; for this purpose they were solely delegated; the
+     object of their mission extended to no other consideration."
+     "The distinction between a national government and a
+     confederacy is not sufficiently discerned. Had the delegates
+     who were sent to Philadelphia a power to propose a
+     consolidated government, instead of a confederacy?" "Here is
+     a resolution as radical as that which separated us from
+     Great Britain. It is radical in this transition; our rights
+     and privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the
+     States will be relinquished: and cannot we plainly see that
+     this is actually the case? The rights of conscience, trial
+     by jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities and
+     franchises, all pretensions to human rights and privileges,
+     are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change, so
+     loudly talked of by some, so inconsiderately by others." "A
+     number of characters, of the greatest eminence in this
+     country, object to this government for its consolidating
+     tendency. This is not imaginary. It is a formidable reality.
+     If consolidation proves to be as mischievous to this country
+     as it has been to other countries, what will the poor
+     inhabitants of this country do? This government will operate
+     like an ambuscade. It will destroy the state governments,
+     and swallow the liberties of the people, without giving
+     previous notice. If gentlemen are willing to run the hazard,
+     let them run it; but I shall exculpate myself by my
+     opposition and monitory warnings within these walls."[380]
+
+But, in the third place, besides transforming the old confederacy into
+a centralized and densely consolidated government, and clothing that
+government with enormous powers over States and over individuals, what
+had this new Constitution provided for the protection of States and of
+individuals? Almost nothing. It had created a new and a tremendous
+power over us; it had failed to cover us with any shield, or to
+interpose any barrier, by which, in case of need, we might save
+ourselves from the wanton and fatal exercise of that power. In short,
+the new Constitution had no bill of rights. But "a bill of rights," he
+declared, is "indispensably necessary."
+
+     "A general positive provision should be inserted in the new
+     system, securing to the States and the people every right
+     which was not conceded to the general government." "I trust
+     that gentlemen, on this occasion, will see the great objects
+     of religion, liberty of the press, trial by jury,
+     interdiction of cruel punishments, and every other sacred
+     right, secured, before they agree to that paper." "Mr.
+     Chairman, the necessity of a bill of rights appears to me to
+     be greater in this government than ever it was in any
+     government before. I have observed already that the sense of
+     European nations, and particularly Great Britain, is against
+     the construction of rights being retained which are not
+     expressly relinquished. I repeat, that all nations have
+     adopted the construction, that all rights not expressly and
+     unequivocally reserved to the people are impliedly and
+     incidentally relinquished to rulers, as necessarily
+     inseparable from delegated powers.... Let us consider the
+     sentiments which have been entertained by the people of
+     America on this subject. At the Revolution, it must be
+     admitted that it was their sense to set down those great
+     rights which ought, in all countries, to be held inviolable
+     and sacred. Virginia did so, we all remember. She made a
+     compact to reserve, expressly, certain rights.... She most
+     cautiously and guardedly reserved and secured those
+     invaluable, inestimable rights and privileges which no
+     people, inspired with the least glow of patriotic liberty,
+     ever did, or ever can, abandon. She is called upon now to
+     abandon them, and dissolve that compact which secured them
+     to her.... Will she do it? This is the question. If you
+     intend to reserve your unalienable rights, you must have the
+     most express stipulation; for, if implication be allowed,
+     you are ousted of those rights. If the people do not think
+     it necessary to reserve them, they will be supposed to be
+     given up.... If you give up these powers, without a bill of
+     rights, you will exhibit the most absurd thing to mankind
+     that ever the world saw,--a government that has abandoned
+     all its powers,--the powers of direct taxation, the sword,
+     and the purse. You have disposed of them to Congress,
+     without a bill of rights, without check, limitation, or
+     control. And still you have checks and guards; still you
+     keep barriers--pointed where? Pointed against your weakened,
+     prostrated, enervated, state government! You have a bill of
+     rights to defend you against the state government--which is
+     bereaved of all power, and yet you have none against
+     Congress--though in full and exclusive possession of all
+     power. You arm yourselves against the weak and defenceless,
+     and expose yourselves naked to the armed and powerful. Is
+     not this a conduct of unexampled absurdity?"[381]
+
+Again and again, in response to his demand for an express assertion,
+in the instrument itself, of the rights of individuals and of States,
+he was told that every one of those rights was secured, since it was
+naturally and fairly implied. "Even say," he rejoined, "it is a
+natural implication,--why not give us a right ... in express terms, in
+language that could not admit of evasions or subterfuges? If they can
+use implication for us, they can also use implication against us. We
+are giving power; they are getting power; judge, then, on which side
+the implication will be used." "Implication is dangerous, because it
+is unbounded; if it be admitted at all, and no limits prescribed, it
+admits of the utmost extension." "The existence of powers is
+sufficiently established. If we trust our dearest rights to
+implication, we shall be in a very unhappy situation."[382]
+
+Then, in addition to his objections to the general character of the
+Constitution, namely, as a consolidated government, unrestrained by an
+express guarantee of rights, he applied his criticisms in great
+detail, and with merciless rigor, to each department of the proposed
+government,--the legislative, the executive, and the judicial; and
+with respect to each one of these he insisted that its intended
+functions were such as to inspire distrust and alarm. Of course, we
+cannot here follow this fierce critic of the Constitution into all the
+detail of his criticisms; but, as a single example, we may cite a
+portion of his assault upon the executive department,--an assault, as
+will be seen, far better suited to the political apprehensions of his
+own time than of ours:--
+
+     "The Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but
+     when I come to examine these features, sir, they appear to
+     me horribly frightful. Among other deformities, it has an
+     awful squinting; it squints towards monarchy. And does not
+     this raise indignation in the breast of every true American?
+     Your president may easily become king.... Where are your
+     checks in this government? Your strongholds will be in the
+     hands of your enemies. It is on a supposition that your
+     American governors shall be honest, that all the good
+     qualities of this government are founded; but its defective
+     and imperfect construction puts it in their power to
+     perpetrate the worst of mischiefs, should they be bad men.
+     And, sir, would not all the world, from the eastern to the
+     western hemispheres, blame our distracted folly in resting
+     our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being good or
+     bad? Show me that age and country where the rights and
+     liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of
+     their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of
+     liberty.... If your American chief be a man of ambition and
+     abilities, how easy is it for him to render himself
+     absolute! The army is in his hands; and if he be a man of
+     address, it will be attached to him, and it will be the
+     subject of long meditation with him to seize the first
+     auspicious moment to accomplish his design. And, sir, will
+     the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens? I
+     would rather infinitely--and I am sure most of this
+     convention are of the same opinion--have a king, lords, and
+     commons, than a government so replete with such
+     insupportable evils. If we make a king, we may prescribe the
+     rules by which he shall rule his people, and interpose such
+     checks as shall prevent him from infringing them; but the
+     president, in the field, at the head of his army, can
+     prescribe the terms on which he shall reign master, so far
+     that it will puzzle any American ever to get his neck from
+     under the galling yoke.... Will not the recollection of his
+     crimes teach him to make one bold push for the American
+     throne? Will not the immense difference between being master
+     of everything, and being ignominiously tried and punished,
+     powerfully excite him to make this bold push? But, sir,
+     where is the existing force to punish him? Can he not, at
+     the head of his army, beat down every opposition? Away with
+     your president! we shall have a king. The army will salute
+     him monarch. Your militia will leave you, and assist in
+     making him king, and fight against you. And what have you to
+     oppose this force? What will then become of you and your
+     rights? Will not absolute despotism ensue?"[383]
+
+Without reproducing here, in further detail, Patrick Henry's
+objections to the new Constitution, it may now be stated that they all
+sprang from a single idea, and all revolved about that idea, namely,
+that the new plan of government, as it then stood, seriously
+endangered the rights and liberties of the people of the several
+States. And in holding this opinion he was not at all peculiar. Very
+many of the ablest and noblest statesmen of the time shared it with
+him. Not to name again his chief associates in Virginia, nor to cite
+the language of such men as Burke and Rawlins Lowndes, of South
+Carolina; as Timothy Bloodworth, of North Carolina; as Samuel Chase
+and Luther Martin, of Maryland; as George Clinton, of New York; as
+Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts; as
+Joshua Atherton, of New Hampshire, it may sufficiently put us into the
+tone of contemporary opinion upon the subject, to recall certain grave
+words of Jefferson, who, watching the whole scene from the calm
+distance of Paris, thus wrote on the 2d of February, 1788, to an
+American friend:--
+
+     "I own it astonishes me to find such a change wrought in the
+     opinions of our countrymen since I left them, as that three
+     fourths of them should be contented to live under a system
+     which leaves to their governors the power of taking from
+     them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion,
+     freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus
+     laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. That is a
+     degeneracy in the principles of liberty, to which I had
+     given four centuries, instead of four years."[384]
+
+Holding such objections to the proposed Constitution, what were
+Patrick Henry and his associates in the Virginia convention to do?
+Were they to reject the measure outright? Admitting that it had some
+good features, they yet thought that the best course to be taken by
+Virginia would be to remit the whole subject to a new convention of
+the States,--a convention which, being summoned after a year or more
+of intense and universal discussion, would thus represent the later,
+the more definite, and the more enlightened desires of the American
+people. But despairing of this, Patrick Henry and his friends
+concentrated all their forces upon this single and clear line of
+policy: so to press their objections to the Constitution as to induce
+the convention, not to reject it, but to postpone its adoption until
+they could refer to the other States in the American confederacy the
+following momentous proposition, namely, "a declaration of rights,
+asserting, and securing from encroachment, the great principles of
+civil and religious liberty, and the undeniable rights of the people,
+together with amendments to the most exceptionable parts of the said
+constitution of government."[385]
+
+Such, then, was the real question over which in that assemblage, from
+the first day to the last, the battle raged. The result of the battle
+was reached on Wednesday, the 25th of June; and that result was a
+victory for immediate adoption, but by a majority of only ten votes,
+instead of the fifty votes that were claimed for it at the beginning
+of the session. Moreover, even that small majority for immediate
+adoption was obtained only by the help, first, of a preamble solemnly
+affirming it to be the understanding of Virginia in this act that it
+retained every power not expressly granted to the general government;
+and, secondly, of a subsidiary resolution promising to recommend to
+Congress "whatsoever amendments may be deemed necessary."
+
+Just before the decisive question was put, Patrick Henry, knowing that
+the result would be against him, and knowing, also, from the angry
+things uttered within that House and outside of it, that much
+solicitude was abroad respecting the course likely to be taken by the
+defeated party, then and there spoke these noble words:--
+
+     "I beg pardon of this House for having taken up more time
+     than came to my share, and I thank them for the patience and
+     polite attention with which I have been heard. If I shall be
+     in the minority, I shall have those painful sensations which
+     arise from a conviction of being overpowered in a good
+     cause. Yet I will be a peaceable citizen. My head, my hand,
+     and my heart shall be at liberty to retrieve the loss of
+     liberty, and remove the defects of that system in a
+     constitutional way. I wish not to go to violence, but will
+     wait, with hopes that the spirit which predominated in the
+     Revolution is not yet gone, nor the cause of those who are
+     attached to the Revolution yet lost. I shall therefore
+     patiently wait in expectation of seeing that government
+     changed, so as to be compatible with the safety, liberty,
+     and happiness of the people."[386]
+
+Those words of the great Virginian leader proved to be a message of
+reassurance to many an anxious citizen, in many a State,--not least
+so to that great citizen who, from the slopes of Mount Vernon, was
+then watching, night and day, for signs of some abatement in the storm
+of civil discord. Those words, too, have, in our time, won for the
+orator who spoke them the deliberate, and the almost lyrical, applause
+of the greatest historian who has yet laid hand on the story of the
+Constitution: "Henry showed his genial nature, free from all
+malignity. He was like a billow of the ocean on the first bright day
+after the storm, dashing itself against the rocky cliff, and then,
+sparkling with light, retreating to its home."[387]
+
+Long after the practical effects of the Virginia convention of 1788
+had been merged in the general political life of the country, that
+convention was still proudly remembered for the magnificent exertions
+of intellectual power, and particularly of eloquence, which it had
+called forth. So lately as the year 1857, there was still living a man
+who, in his youth, had often looked in upon that famous convention,
+and whose enthusiasm, in recalling its great scenes, was not to be
+chilled even by the frosts of his ninety winters:--
+
+     "The impressions made by the powerful arguments of Madison
+     and the overwhelming eloquence of Henry can never fade from
+     my mind. I thought them almost supernatural. They seemed
+     raised up by Providence, each in his way, to produce great
+     results: the one by his grave, dignified, and irresistible
+     arguments to convince and enlighten mankind; the other, by
+     his brilliant and enrapturing eloquence to lead
+     whithersoever he would."[388]
+
+Those who had heard Patrick Henry on the other great occasions of his
+career were ready to say that his eloquence in the convention of 1788
+was, upon the whole, fully equal to anything ever exhibited by him in
+any other place. The official reports of his speeches in that
+assemblage were always declared to be inferior in "strength and
+beauty" to those actually made by him there.[389] "In forming an
+estimate of his eloquence," says one gentleman who there heard him,
+"no reliance can be placed on the printed speeches. No reporter
+whatever could take down what he actually said; and if he could, it
+would fall far short of the original."[390]
+
+In his arguments against the Constitution Patrick Henry confined
+himself to no systematic order. The convention had indeed resolved
+that the document should be discussed, clause by clause, in a regular
+manner; but in spite of the complaints and reproaches of his
+antagonists, he continually broke over all barriers, and delivered his
+"multiform and protean attacks" in such order as suited the workings
+of his own mind.
+
+In the course of that long and eager controversy, he had several
+passages of sharp personal collision with his opponents, particularly
+with Governor Randolph, whose vacillating course respecting the
+Constitution had left him exposed to the most galling comments, and
+who on one occasion, in his anguish, turned upon Patrick Henry with
+the exclamation: "I find myself attacked in the most illiberal manner
+by the honorable gentleman. I disdain his aspersions and his
+insinuations. His asperity is warranted by no principle of
+parliamentary decency, nor compatible with the least shadow of
+friendship; and if our friendship must fall, let it fall, like
+Lucifer, never to rise again."[391] Like all very eloquent men, he was
+taunted, of course, for having more eloquence than logic; for "his
+declamatory talents;" for his "vague discourses and mere sports of
+fancy;" for discarding "solid argument;" and for "throwing those
+bolts" which he had "so peculiar a dexterity at discharging."[392] On
+one occasion, old General Adam Stephen tried to burlesque the orator's
+manner of speech;[393] on another occasion, that same petulant warrior
+bluntly told Patrick that if he did "not like this government," he
+might "go and live among the Indians," and even offered to facilitate
+the orator's self-expatriation among the savages: "I know of several
+nations that live very happily; and I can furnish him with a
+vocabulary of their language."[394]
+
+Knowing, as he did, every passion and prejudice of his audience, he
+adopted, it appears, almost every conceivable method of appeal. "The
+variety of arguments," writes one witness, "which Mr. Henry generally
+presented in his speeches, addressed to the capacities, prejudices,
+and individual interests of his hearers, made his speeches very
+unequal. He rarely made in that convention a speech which Quintilian
+would have approved. If he soared at times, like the eagle, and seemed
+like the bird of Jove to be armed with thunder, he did not disdain to
+stoop like the hawk to seize his prey,--but the instant that he had
+done it, rose in pursuit of another quarry."[395]
+
+Perhaps the most wonderful example of his eloquence, if we may judge
+by contemporary descriptions, was that connected with the famous scene
+of the thunder-storm, on Tuesday, the 24th of June, only one day
+before the decisive vote was taken. The orator, it seems, had gathered
+up all his forces for what might prove to be his last appeal against
+immediate adoption, and was portraying the disasters which the new
+system of government, unless amended, was to bring upon his
+countrymen, and upon all mankind: "I see the awful immensity of the
+dangers with which it is pregnant. I see it. I feel it. I see beings
+of a higher order anxious concerning our decision. When I see beyond
+the horizon that bounds human eyes, and look at the final consummation
+of all human things, and see those intelligent beings which inhabit
+the ethereal mansions reviewing the political decisions and
+revolutions which, in the progress of time, will happen in America,
+and the consequent happiness or misery of mankind, I am led to believe
+that much of the account, on one side or the other, will depend on
+what we now decide. Our own happiness alone is not affected by the
+event. All nations are interested in the determination. We have it in
+our power to secure the happiness of one half of the human race. Its
+adoption may involve the misery of the other hemisphere." Thus far the
+stenographer had proceeded, when he suddenly stopped, and placed
+within brackets the following note: "[Here a violent storm arose,
+which put the House in such disorder, that Mr. Henry was obliged to
+conclude.]"[396] But the scene which is thus quietly despatched by the
+official reporter of the convention was again and again described, by
+many who were witnesses of it, as something most sublime and even
+appalling. After having delineated with overpowering vividness the
+calamities which were likely to befall mankind from their adoption of
+the proposed frame of government, the orator, it is said, as if
+wielding an enchanter's wand, suddenly enlarged the arena of the
+debate and the number of his auditors; for, peering beyond the veil
+which shuts in mortal sight, and pointing "to those celestial beings
+who were hovering over the scene," he addressed to them "an invocation
+that made every nerve shudder with supernatural horror, when, lo! a
+storm at that instant rose, which shook the whole building, and the
+spirits whom he had called seemed to have come at his bidding. Nor did
+his eloquence, or the storm, immediately cease; but availing himself
+of the incident, with a master's art, he seemed to mix in the fight of
+his ethereal auxiliaries, and, 'rising on the wings of the tempest, to
+seize upon the artillery of heaven, and direct its fiercest thunders
+against the heads of his adversaries.' The scene became insupportable;
+and the House rose without the formality of adjournment, the members
+rushing from their seats with precipitation and confusion."[397]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[362] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 265-266.
+
+[363] MS.
+
+[364] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 273.
+
+[365] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 356.
+
+[366] _Ibid._ i. 364-365.
+
+[367] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 378.
+
+[368] _Ibid._ i. 387.
+
+[369] Madison, _Letters_, i. 388.
+
+[370] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._, ii. 465.
+
+[371] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 356.
+
+[372] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 544, note.
+
+[373] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 541.
+
+[374] _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 274.
+
+[375] Elliot, _Debates_, i. 491; v. 502, 534-535.
+
+[376] Elliot, _Debates_, iii.
+
+[377] Curtis, _Hist. Const._ ii. 561, note.
+
+[378] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 266, note.
+
+[379] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 161, 57, 63.
+
+[380] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 23, 52, 44, 156.
+
+[381] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 150, 462, 445-446.
+
+[382] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 149-150.
+
+[383] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 58-60.
+
+[384] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 459-460.
+
+[385] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 653.
+
+[386] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 652.
+
+[387] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 316-317.
+
+[388] Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 610.
+
+[389] Kennedy, _Life of Wirt_, i. 345.
+
+[390] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[391] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 187.
+
+[392] _Ibid._ iii. 406, 104, 248, 177.
+
+[393] St. George Tucker, MS.
+
+[394] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 580.
+
+[395] St. George Tucker, MS.
+
+[396] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 625.
+
+[397] Wirt, 296-297. Also Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE AFTER-FIGHT FOR AMENDMENTS
+
+
+Thus, on the question of adopting the new Constitution, the fight was
+over; but on the question of amending that Constitution, now that it
+had been adopted, the fight, of course, was only just begun.
+
+For how could this new Constitution be amended? A way was
+provided,--but an extremely strait and narrow way. No amendment
+whatsoever could become valid until it had been accepted by three
+fourths of the States; and no amendment could be submitted to the
+States for their consideration until it had first been approved,
+either by two thirds of both houses of Congress, or else by a majority
+of a convention specially called by Congress at the request of two
+thirds of the States.
+
+Clearly, the framers of the Constitution intended that the supreme law
+of the land, when once agreed to, should have within it a principle of
+fixedness almost invincible. At any rate, the process by which alone
+alterations can be made, involves so wide an area of territory, so
+many distinct groups of population, and is withal, in itself, so
+manifold and complex, so slow, and so liable to entire stoppage, that
+any proposition looking toward change must inevitably perish long
+before reaching the far-away goal of final endorsement, unless that
+proposition be really impelled by a public demand not only very
+energetic and persistent, but well-nigh universal. Indeed, the
+constitutional provision for amendments seemed, at that time, to many,
+to be almost a constitutional prohibition of amendments.
+
+It was, in part, for this very reason that Patrick Henry had urged
+that those amendments of the Constitution which, in his opinion, were
+absolutely necessary, should be secured before its adoption, and not
+be left to the doubtful chance of their being obtained afterward, as
+the result of a process ingeniously contrived, as it were, to prevent
+their being obtained at all. But at the close of that June day on
+which he and his seventy-eight associates walked away from the
+convention wherein, on this very proposition, they had just been voted
+down, how did the case stand? The Constitution, now become the supreme
+law of the land, was a Constitution which, unless amended, would, as
+they sincerely believed, effect the political ruin of the American
+people. As good citizens, as good men, what was left for them to do?
+They had fought hard to get the Constitution amended before adoption.
+They had failed. They must now fight hard to get it amended after
+adoption. Disastrous would it be, to assume that the needed amendments
+would now be carried at any rate. True, the Virginia convention, like
+the conventions of several other States, had voted to recommend
+amendments. But the hostility to amendments, as Patrick Henry
+believed, was too deeply rooted to yield to mere recommendations. The
+necessary amendments would not find their way through all the hoppers
+and tubes and valves of the enormous mill erected within the
+Constitution, unless forced onward by popular agitation,--and by
+popular agitation widespread, determined, vehement, even alarming. The
+powerful enemies of amendments must be convinced that, until
+amendments were carried through that mill, there would be no true
+peace or content among the surrounding inhabitants.
+
+This gives us the clew to the policy steadily and firmly pursued by
+Patrick Henry as a party leader, from June, 1788, until after the
+ratification of the first ten amendments, on the 15th of December,
+1791. It was simply a strategic policy dictated by his honest view of
+the situation; a bold, manly, patriotic policy; a policy, however,
+which was greatly misunderstood, and grossly misrepresented, at the
+time; a policy, too, which grieved the heart of Washington, and for
+several years raised between him and his ancient friend the one cloud
+of distrust that ever cast a shadow upon their intercourse.
+
+In fact, at the very opening of the Virginia convention, and in view
+of the possible defeat of his demand for amendments, Patrick Henry had
+formed a clear outline of this policy, even to the extent of
+organizing throughout the State local societies for stirring up, and
+for keeping up, the needed agitation. All this is made evident by an
+important letter written by him to General John Lamb of New York, and
+dated at Richmond, June 9, 1788,--when the convention had been in
+session just one week. In this letter, after some preliminary words,
+he says:--
+
+     It is matter of great consolation to find that the
+     sentiments of a vast majority of Virginians are in unison
+     with those of our Northern friends. I am satisfied four
+     fifths of our inhabitants are opposed to the new scheme of
+     government. Indeed, in the part of this country lying south
+     of James River, I am confident, nine tenths are opposed to
+     it. And yet, strange as it may seem, the numbers in
+     convention appear equal on both sides: so that the majority,
+     which way soever it goes, will be small. The friends and
+     seekers of power have, with their usual subtilty, wriggled
+     themselves into the choice of the people, by assuming shapes
+     as various as the faces of the men they address on such
+     occasions.
+
+     If they shall carry their point, and preclude previous
+     amendments, which we have ready to offer, it will become
+     highly necessary to form the society you mention. Indeed, it
+     appears the only chance for securing a remnant of those
+     invaluable rights which are yielded by the new plan. Colonel
+     George Mason has agreed to act as chairman of our republican
+     society. His character I need not describe. He is every way
+     fit; and we have concluded to send you by Colonel Oswald a
+     copy of the Bill of Rights, and of the particular amendments
+     we intend to propose in our convention. The fate of them is
+     altogether uncertain; but of that you will be informed. To
+     assimilate our views on this great subject is of the last
+     moment; and our opponents expect much from our dissension.
+     As we see the danger, I think it is easily avoided.
+
+     I can assure you that North Carolina is more decidedly
+     opposed to the new government than Virginia. The people
+     there seem rife for hazarding all, before they submit.
+     Perhaps the organization of our system may be so contrived
+     as to include lesser associations dispersed throughout the
+     State. This will remedy in some degree the inconvenience
+     arising from our dispersed situation. Colonel Oswald's short
+     stay here prevents my saying as much on the subject as I
+     could otherwise have done. And after assuring you of my
+     ardent wishes for the happiness of our common country, and
+     the best interests of humanity, I beg leave to subscribe
+     myself, with great respect and regard,
+
+                         Sir, your obedient, humble servant,
+                                            P. HENRY.[398]
+
+On the 27th of June, within a few hours, very likely, after the final
+adjournment of the convention, Madison hastened to report to
+Washington the great and exhilarating result, but with this anxious
+and really unjust surmise respecting the course then to be pursued by
+Patrick Henry:--
+
+     "Mr. H----y declared, previous to the final question, that
+     although he should submit as a quiet citizen, he should
+     seize the first moment that offered for shaking off the yoke
+     in a constitutional way. I suspect the plan will be to
+     encourage two thirds of the legislatures in the task of
+     undoing the work; or to get a Congress appointed in the
+     first instance that will commit suicide on their own
+     authority."[399]
+
+At the same sitting, probably, Madison sent off to Hamilton, at New
+York, another report, in which his conjecture as to Patrick Henry's
+intended policy is thus stated:--
+
+     "I am so uncharitable as to suspect that the ill-will to the
+     Constitution will produce every peaceable effort to disgrace
+     and destroy it. Mr. Henry declared ... that he should wait
+     with impatience for the favorable moment of regaining, in a
+     constitutional way, the lost liberties of his country."[400]
+
+Two days afterward, by which time, doubtless, Madison's letter had
+reached Mount Vernon, Washington wrote to Benjamin Lincoln of
+Massachusetts, respecting the result of the convention:--
+
+     "Our accounts from Richmond are that ... the final decision
+     exhibited a solemn scene, and that there is every reason to
+     expect a perfect acquiescence therein by the minority. Mr.
+     Henry, the great leader of it, has signified that, though he
+     can never be reconciled to the Constitution in its present
+     form, and shall give it every constitutional opposition in
+     his power, yet he will submit to it peaceably."[401]
+
+Thus, about the end of June, 1788, there came down upon the fierce
+political strife in Virginia a lull, which lasted until the 20th of
+October, at which time the legislature assembled for its autumnal
+session. Meantime, however, the convention of New York had adopted the
+Constitution, but after a most bitter fight, and by a majority of only
+three votes, and only in consequence of the pledge that every possible
+effort should be made to obtain speedily those great amendments that
+were at last called for by a determined public demand. One of the
+efforts contemplated by the New York convention took the form of a
+circular letter to the governors of the several States, urging almost
+pathetically that "effectual measures be immediately taken for calling
+a convention" to propose those amendments which are necessary for
+allaying "the apprehensions and discontents" then so prevalent.[402]
+
+This circular letter "rekindled," as Madison then wrote to Jefferson,
+"an ardor among the opponents of the federal Constitution for an
+immediate revision of it by another general convention, ... Mr. Henry
+and his friends in Virginia enter with great zeal into the
+scheme."[403] In a letter written by Washington, nearly a month before
+the meeting of the legislature, it is plainly indicated that his mind
+was then grievously burdened by the anxieties of the situation, and
+that he was disposed to put the very worst construction upon the
+expected conduct of Patrick Henry and his party in the approaching
+session:--
+
+     "Their expedient will now probably be an attempt to procure
+     the election of so many of their own junto under the new
+     government, as, by the introduction of local and
+     embarrassing disputes, to impede or frustrate its
+     operation.... I assure you I am under painful apprehensions
+     from the single circumstance of Mr. H. having the whole game
+     to play in the Assembly of this State; and the effect it may
+     have in others should be counteracted if possible."[404]
+
+No sooner had the Assembly met, than Patrick Henry's ascendency became
+apparent. His sway over that body was such that it was described as
+"omnipotent." And by the time the session had been in progress not
+quite a month, Washington informed Madison that "the accounts from
+Richmond" were "very unpropitious to federal measures." "In one word,"
+he added, "it is said that the edicts of Mr. H. are enregistered with
+less opposition in the Virginia Assembly than those of the grand
+monarch by his parliaments. He has only to say, Let this be law, and
+it is law."[405] Within ten days from the opening of the session, the
+House showed its sensitive response to Patrick Henry's leadership by
+adopting a series of resolutions, the chief purpose of which was to
+ask Congress to call immediately a national convention for proposing
+to the States the required amendments. In the debate on the subject,
+he is said to have declared "that he should oppose every measure
+tending to the organization of the government, unless accompanied with
+measures for the amendment of the Constitution."[406]
+
+Some phrases in one of his resolutions were most offensive to those
+members of the House who had "befriended the new Constitution," and
+who, by implication at least, were held forth as "betrayers of the
+dearest rights of the people." "If Mr. Henry pleases," so wrote a
+correspondent of Washington, "he will carry the resolution in its
+present terms, than which none, in my opinion, can be more
+exceptionable or inflammatory; though, as he is sometimes kind and
+condescending, he may perhaps be induced to alter it."[407]
+
+In accordance with these resolutions, a formal application to Congress
+for a national convention was prepared by Patrick Henry, and adopted
+by the House on the 14th of November. Every word of that document
+deserves now to be read, as his own account of the spirit and purpose
+of a measure then and since then so profoundly and so cruelly
+misinterpreted:--
+
+     "The good people of this commonwealth, in convention
+     assembled, having ratified the Constitution submitted to
+     their consideration, this legislature has, in conformity to
+     that act, and the resolutions of the United States in
+     Congress assembled to them transmitted, thought proper to
+     make the arrangements that were _necessary_ for carrying it
+     into effect. Having thus shown themselves obedient to the
+     voice of their constituents, all America will find that, so
+     far as it depends on them, that plan of government will be
+     carried into immediate operation.
+
+     "But the sense of the people of Virginia would be but in
+     part complied with, and but little regarded, if we went no
+     further. In the very moment of adoption, and coeval with the
+     ratification of the new plan of government, the general
+     voice of the convention of this State pointed to objects no
+     less interesting to the people we represent, and equally
+     entitled to your attention. At the same time that, from
+     motives of affection for our sister States, the convention
+     yielded their assent to the ratification, they gave the most
+     unequivocal proofs that they dreaded its operation under the
+     present form.
+
+     "In acceding to a government under this impression, painful
+     must have been the prospect, had they not derived
+     consolation from a full expectation of its imperfections
+     being speedily amended. In this resource, therefore, they
+     placed their confidence,--a confidence that will continue to
+     support them whilst they have reason to believe they have
+     not calculated upon it in vain.
+
+     "In making known to you the objections of the people of this
+     Commonwealth to the new plan of government, we deem it
+     unnecessary to enter into a particular detail of its
+     defects, which they consider as involving all the great and
+     unalienable rights of freemen: for their sense on this
+     subject, we refer you to the proceedings of their late
+     convention, and the sense of this General Assembly, as
+     expressed in their resolutions of the     day of     .
+
+     "We think proper, however, to declare that in our opinion,
+     as those objections were not founded in speculative theory,
+     but deduced from principles which have been established by
+     the melancholy example of other nations, in different ages,
+     so they will never be removed until the cause itself shall
+     cease to exist. The sooner, therefore, the public
+     apprehensions are quieted, and the government is possessed
+     of the confidence of the people, the more salutary will be
+     its operations, and the longer its duration.
+
+     "The cause of amendments we consider as a common cause; and
+     since concessions have been made from political motives,
+     which we conceive may endanger the republic, we trust that a
+     commendable zeal will be shown for obtaining those
+     provisions which, experience has taught us, are necessary to
+     secure from danger the unalienable rights of human nature.
+
+     "The anxiety with which our countrymen press for the
+     accomplishment of this important end, will ill admit of
+     delay. The slow forms of congressional discussion and
+     recommendation, if indeed they should ever agree to any
+     change, would, we fear, be less certain of success. Happily
+     for their wishes, the Constitution hath presented an
+     alternative, by admitting the submission to a convention of
+     the States. To this, therefore, we resort, as the source
+     from whence they are to derive relief from their present
+     apprehensions. We do, therefore, in behalf of our
+     constituents, in the most earnest and solemn manner, make
+     this application to Congress, that a convention be
+     immediately called, of deputies from the several States,
+     with full power to take into their consideration the defects
+     of this Constitution, that have been suggested by the state
+     conventions, and report such amendments thereto, as they
+     shall find best suited to promote our common interests, and
+     secure to ourselves and our latest posterity the great and
+     unalienable rights of mankind."[408]
+
+Such was the purpose, such was the temper, of Virginia's appeal,
+addressed to Congress, and written by Patrick Henry, on behalf of
+immediate measures for curing the supposed defects of the
+Constitution. Was it not likely that this appeal would be granted? One
+grave doubt haunted the mind of Patrick Henry. If, in the elections
+for senators and representatives then about to occur in the several
+States, very great care was not taken, it might easily happen that a
+majority of the members of Congress would be composed of men who would
+obstruct, and perhaps entirely defeat, the desired amendments. With
+the view of doing his part towards the prevention of such a result, he
+determined that both the senators from Virginia, and as many as
+possible of its representatives, should be persons who could be
+trusted to help, and not to hinder, the great project.
+
+Accordingly, when the day came for the election of senators by the
+Assembly of Virginia, he just stood up in his place and named "Richard
+Henry Lee and William Grayson, Esquires," as the two men who ought to
+be elected as senators; and, furthermore, he named James Madison as
+the one man who ought not to be elected as senator. Whereupon the vote
+was taken; "and after some time," as the journal expresses it, the
+committee to examine the ballot-boxes "returned into the House, and
+reported that they had ... found a majority of votes in favor of
+Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson, Esquires."[409] On the 8th of
+December, 1788, just one month afterward, Madison himself, in a letter
+to Jefferson, thus alluded to the incident: "They made me a candidate
+for the Senate, for which I had not allotted my pretensions. The
+attempt was defeated by Mr. Henry, who is omnipotent in the present
+legislature, and who added to the expedients common on such occasions
+a public philippic against my federal principles."[410]
+
+Virginia's delegation in the Senate was thus made secure. How about
+her delegation in the lower house? That, also, was an affair to be
+sharply looked to. Above all things, James Madison, as the supposed
+foe of amendments, was to be prevented, if possible, from winning an
+election. Therefore the committee of the House of Delegates, which was
+appointed for the very purpose, among other things, of dividing the
+State into its ten congressional districts, so carved out those
+districts as to promote the election of the friends of the good cause,
+and especially to secure, as was hoped, the defeat of its great enemy.
+Of this committee Patrick Henry was not a member; but as a majority of
+its members were known to be his devoted followers, very naturally
+upon him, at the time, was laid the burden of the blame for
+practising this ignoble device in politics,--a device which, when
+introduced into Massachusetts several years afterward, also by a
+Revolutionary father, came to be christened with the satiric name of
+"gerrymandering." Surely it was a rare bit of luck, in the case of
+Patrick Henry, that the wits of Virginia did not anticipate the wits
+of Massachusetts by describing this trick as "henrymandering;" and
+that he thus narrowly escaped the ugly immortality of having his name
+handed down from age to age in the coinage of a base word which should
+designate a base thing,--one of the favorite, shabby manoeuvres of
+less scrupulous American politicians.[411]
+
+Thus, however, within four weeks from the opening of the session, he
+had succeeded in pressing through the legislature, in the exact form
+he wished, all these measures for giving effect to Virginia's demand
+upon Congress for amendments. This being accomplished, he withdrew
+from the service of the House for the remainder of the session,
+probably on account of the great urgency of his professional
+engagements at that time. The journal of the House affords us no trace
+of his presence there after the 18th of November; and although the
+legislature continued in session until the 13th of December, its
+business did not digress beyond local topics. To all these facts,
+rather bitter allusion is made in a letter to the governor of New
+Hampshire, written from Mount Vernon, on the 31st of January, 1789, by
+the private secretary of Washington, Tobias Lear, who thus reflected,
+no doubt, the mood of his chief:--
+
+     "Mr. Henry, the leader of the opposition in this State,
+     finding himself beaten off the ground by fair argument in
+     the state convention, and outnumbered upon the important
+     question, collected his whole strength, and pointed his
+     whole force against the government, in the Assembly. He here
+     met with but a feeble opposition.... He led on his almost
+     unresisted phalanx, and planted the standard of hostility
+     upon the very battlements of federalism. In plain English,
+     he ruled a majority of the Assembly; and his edicts were
+     registered by that body with less opposition than those of
+     the Grand Monarque have met with from his parliaments. He
+     chose the two senators.... He divided the State into
+     districts, ... taking care to arrange matters so as to have
+     the county, of which Mr. Madison is an inhabitant, thrown
+     into a district of which a majority were supposed to be
+     unfriendly to the government, and by that means exclude him
+     from the representative body in Congress. He wrote the
+     answer to Governor Clinton's letter, and likewise the
+     circular letter to the executives of the several States....
+     And after he had settled everything relative to the
+     government wholly, I suppose, to his satisfaction, he
+     mounted his horse and rode home, leaving the little business
+     of the State to be done by anybody who chose to give
+     themselves the trouble of attending to it."[412]
+
+How great was the effect of these strategic measures, forced by
+Patrick Henry through the legislature of Virginia in the autumn of
+1788, was not apparent, of course, until after the organization of the
+first Congress of the United States, in the spring of 1789. Not until
+the 5th of May could time be found by that body for paying the least
+attention to the subject of amendments. On that day Theodoric Bland,
+from Virginia, presented to the House of Representatives the solemn
+application of his State for a new convention; and, after some
+discussion, this document was entered on the journals of the
+House.[413] The subject was then dropped until the 8th of June, when
+Madison, who had been elected to Congress in spite of Patrick Henry,
+and who had good reason to know how dangerous it would be for Congress
+to trifle with the popular demand for amendments, succeeded, against
+much opposition, in getting the House to devote that day to a
+preliminary discussion of the business. It was again laid aside for
+nearly six weeks, and again got a slight hearing on the 21st of July.
+On the 13th of August it was once more brought to the reluctant
+attention of the House, and then proved the occasion of a debate which
+lasted until the 24th of that month, when the House finished its work
+on the subject, and sent up to the Senate seventeen articles of
+amendment. Only twelve of these articles succeeded in passing the
+Senate; and of these twelve, only ten received from the States that
+approval which was necessary to their ratification. This was obtained
+on the 15th of December, 1791.
+
+The course thus taken by Congress, in itself proposing amendments, was
+not at the time pleasing to the chiefs of that party which, in the
+several States, had been clamorous for amendments.[414] These men,
+desiring more radical changes in the Constitution than could be expected
+from Congress, had set their hearts on a new convention,--which,
+undoubtedly, had it been called, would have reconstructed, from top to
+bottom, the work done by the convention of 1787. Yet it should be
+noticed that the ten amendments, thus obtained under the initiative of
+Congress, embodied "nearly every material change suggested by
+Virginia;"[415] and that it was distinctly due, in no small degree, to
+the bitter and implacable urgency of the popular feeling in Virginia,
+under the stimulus of Patrick Henry's leadership, that Congress was
+induced by Madison to pay any attention to the subject. In the matter of
+amendments, therefore, Patrick Henry and his party did not get all that
+they demanded, nor in the way that they demanded; but even so much as
+they did get, they would not then have got at all, had they not demanded
+more, and demanded more, also, through the channel of a new convention,
+the dread of which, it is evident, drove Madison and his brethren in
+Congress into the prompt concession of amendments which they themselves
+did not care for. Those amendments were really a tub to the whale; but
+then that tub would not have been thrown overboard at all, had not the
+whale been there, and very angry, and altogether too troublesome with
+his foam-compelling tail, and with that huge head of his which could
+batter as well as spout.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[398] Leake, _Life of Gen. John Lamb_, 307-308.
+
+[399] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 402.
+
+[400] _Works of Hamilton_, i. 463.
+
+[401] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 392.
+
+[402] Elliot, _Debates_, ii. 414.
+
+[403] Madison, _Letters_, etc. i. 418.
+
+[404] _Writings of Washington_, ix. 433.
+
+[405] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 483.
+
+[406] _Corr. Rev._ iv. 240-241.
+
+[407] _Ibid._ iv. 241.
+
+[408] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 42-43.
+
+[409] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32.
+
+[410] Madison, _Letters_, etc., i. 443-444.
+
+[411] For contemporary allusions to this first example of
+gerrymandering, see _Writings of Washington_, ix. 446-447; _Writings
+of Jefferson_, ii. 574; Rives, _Life of Madison_, ii. 653-655;
+Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 485.
+
+[412] Bancroft, _Hist. Const._ ii. 488-489.
+
+[413] Gales, _Debates_, i. 258-261.
+
+[414] Marshall, _Life of Washington_, v. 209-210; Story, _Const._ i.
+211.
+
+[415] Howison, _Hist. Va._ ii. 333.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+LAST LABORS AT THE BAR
+
+
+The incidents embraced within the last three chapters cover the period
+from 1786 to 1791, and have been thus narrated by themselves for the
+purpose of exhibiting as distinctly as possible, and in unbroken
+sequence, Patrick Henry's relations to each succeeding phase of that
+immense national movement which produced the American Constitution,
+with its first ten amendments.
+
+During those same fervid years, however, in which he was devoting, as
+it might seem, every power of body and mind to his great labors as a
+party leader, and as a critic and moulder of the new Constitution, he
+had resumed, and he was sturdily carrying forward, most exacting
+labors in the practice of the law.
+
+Late in the year 1786, as will be remembered, being then poor and in
+debt, he declined another election to the governorship, and set
+himself to the task of repairing his private fortunes, so sadly fallen
+to decay under the noble neglect imposed by his long service of the
+public. One of his kinsmen has left on record a pleasant anecdote to
+the effect that the orator happened to mention at that time to a
+friend how anxious he was under the great burden of his debts. "Go
+back to the bar," said his friend; "your tongue will soon pay your
+debts. If you will promise to go, I will give you a retaining fee on
+the spot."[416] This course, in fact, he had already determined to
+take; and thus at the age of fifty, at no time robust in health, and
+at that time grown prematurely old under the storm and stress of all
+those unquiet years, he again buckled on his professional armor, rusty
+from long disuse, and pluckily began his life over again, in the hope
+of making some provision for his own declining days, as well as for
+the honor and welfare of his great brood of children and
+grandchildren. To this task, accordingly, he then bent himself, with a
+grim wilfulness that would not yield either to bodily weakness, or to
+the attractions or the distractions of politics. It is delightful to
+be permitted to add, that his energy was abundantly rewarded; and that
+in exactly eight years thereafter, namely in 1794, he was able to
+retire, in comfort and wealth, from all public and professional
+employments of every sort.
+
+Of course the mere announcement, in 1786, that Patrick Henry was then
+ready once more to receive clients, was enough to excite the attention
+of all persons in Virginia who might have important interests in
+litigation. His great renown throughout the country, his high personal
+character, his overwhelming gifts in argument, his incomparable gifts
+in persuasion, were such as to ensure an almost dominant advantage to
+any cause which he should espouse before any tribunal. Confining
+himself, therefore, to his function as an advocate, and taking only
+such cases as were worth his attention, he was immediately called to
+appear in the courts in all parts of the State.
+
+It is not necessary for us to try to follow this veteran and brilliant
+advocate in his triumphal progress from one court-house to another, or
+to give the detail of the innumerable causes in which he was engaged
+during these last eight years of his practice at the bar. Of all the
+causes, however, in which he ever took part as a lawyer, in any period
+of his career, probably the most difficult and important, in a legal
+aspect, was the one commonly referred to as that of the British debts,
+argued by him in the Circuit Court of the United States at Richmond,
+first in 1791, and again, in the same place, in 1793.[417]
+
+A glance at the origin of this famous cause will help us the better to
+understand the significance of his relation to it. By the treaty with
+Great Britain in 1783, British subjects were empowered "to recover
+debts previously contracted to them by our citizens, notwithstanding a
+payment of the debt into a state treasury had been made during the
+war, under the authority of a state law of sequestration." According
+to this provision a British subject, one William Jones, brought an
+action of debt in the federal court at Richmond, against a citizen of
+Virginia, Thomas Walker, on a bond dated May, 1772. The real question
+was "whether payment of a debt due before the war of the Revolution,
+from a citizen of Virginia to British subjects, into the loan office
+of Virginia, pursuant to a law of that State, discharged the debtor."
+
+The case, as will readily be seen, involved many subtle and difficult
+points of law, municipal, national, and international; and the defence
+was contained in the following five pleas: (1.) That of payment,
+generally; (2.) That of the Virginia act of sequestration, October 20,
+1777; (3.) That of the Virginia act of forfeiture, May 3, 1779; (4.)
+That of British violations of the treaty of 1783; (5.) That of the
+necessary annulment of the debt, in consequence of the dissolution of
+the co-allegiance of the two parties, on the declaration of
+independence.[418]
+
+Some idea of the importance attached to the case may be inferred from
+the assertion of Wirt, that "the whole power of the bar of Virginia
+was embarked" in it; and that the "learning, argument, and eloquence"
+exhibited in the discussion were such "as to have placed that bar, in
+the estimation of the federal judges, ... above all others in the
+United States."[419] Associated with Patrick Henry, for the defendant,
+were John Marshall, Alexander Campbell, and James Innes.
+
+For several weeks before the trial of this cause in 1791, Patrick
+Henry secluded himself from all other engagements, and settled down to
+intense study in the retirement of his home in the country. A grandson
+of the orator, Patrick Henry Fontaine, who was there as a student of
+the law, relates that he himself was sent off on a journey of sixty
+miles to procure a copy of Vattel's Law of Nations. From this and
+other works of international law, the old lawyer "made many
+quotations; and with the whole syllabus of notes and heads of
+arguments, he filled a manuscript volume more than an inch thick, and
+closely written; a book ... bound with leather, and convenient for
+carrying in his pocket. He had in his yard ... an office, built at
+some distance from his dwelling, and an avenue of fine black locusts
+shaded a walk in front of it.... He usually walked and meditated, when
+the weather permitted, in this shaded avenue.... For several days in
+succession, before his departure to Richmond to attend the court," the
+orator was seen "walking frequently in this avenue, with his note-book
+in his hand, which he often opened and read; and from his gestures,
+while promenading alone in the shade of the locusts," it was supposed
+that he was committing his speech to memory.[420] According to another
+account, so eager was his application to this labor that, in one stage
+of it, "he shut himself up in his office for three days, during which
+he did not see his family; his food was handed by a servant through
+the office door."[421] Of all this preparation, not unworthy to be
+called Demosthenic, the result was, if we may accept the opinion of
+one eminent lawyer, that Patrick Henry "came forth, on this occasion,
+a perfect master of every law, national and municipal, which touched
+the subject of investigation in the most distant point."[422]
+
+It was on the 14th of November, 1791, that the cause came on to be
+argued in the court-house at Richmond, before Judges Johnson and Blair
+of the Supreme Court, and Judge Griffin of that district. The case of
+the plaintiff was opened by Mr. Counsellor Baker, whose argument
+lasted till the evening of that day. Patrick Henry was to begin his
+argument in reply the next morning.
+
+     "The legislature was then in session; but when eleven
+     o'clock, the hour for the meeting of the court, arrived, the
+     speaker found himself without a house to do business. All
+     his authority and that of his sergeant at arms were
+     unavailing to keep the members in their seats: every
+     consideration of public duty yielded to the anxiety which
+     they felt, in common with the rest of their fellow citizens,
+     to hear this great man on this truly great and extensively
+     interesting question. Accordingly, when the court was ready
+     to proceed to business, the court-room of the capitol, large
+     as it is, was insufficient to contain the vast concourse
+     that was pressing to enter it. The portico, and the area in
+     which the statue of Washington stands, were filled with a
+     disappointed crowd, who nevertheless maintained their stand
+     without. In the court-room itself, the judges, through
+     condescension to the public anxiety, relaxed the rigor of
+     respect which they were in the habit of exacting, and
+     permitted the vacant seats of the bench, and even the
+     windows behind it, to be occupied by the impatient
+     multitude. The noise and tumult occasioned by seeking a more
+     favorable station was at length hushed, and the profound
+     silence which reigned within the room gave notice to those
+     without that the orator had risen, or was on the point of
+     rising. Every eye in front of the bar was riveted upon him
+     with the most eager attention; and so still and deep was the
+     silence that every one might hear the throbbing of his own
+     heart. Mr. Henry, however, appeared wholly unconscious that
+     all this preparation was on his account, and rose with as
+     much simplicity and composure as if the occasion had been
+     one of ordinary occurrence.... It may give the reader some
+     idea of the amplitude of the argument, when he is told that
+     Mr. Henry was engaged three days successively in its
+     delivery; and some faint conception of the enchantment which
+     he threw over it, when he learns that although it turned
+     entirely on questions of law, yet the audience, mixed as it
+     was, seemed so far from being wearied, that they followed
+     him throughout with increased enjoyment. The room continued
+     full to the last; and such was 'the listening silence' with
+     which he was heard, that not a syllable that he uttered is
+     believed to have been lost. When he finally sat down, the
+     concourse rose, with a general murmur of admiration; the
+     scene resembled the breaking up and dispersion of a great
+     theatrical assembly, which had been enjoying, for the first
+     time, the exhibition of some new and splendid drama; the
+     speaker of the House of Delegates was at length able to
+     command a quorum for business; and every quarter of the
+     city, and at length every part of the State, was filled with
+     the echoes of Mr. Henry's eloquent speech."[423]
+
+In the spring of 1793 this cause was argued a second time, before the
+same district judge, and, in addition, before Mr. Chief Justice Jay,
+and Mr. Justice Iredell of the Supreme Court. On this occasion,
+apparently, there was the same eagerness to hear Patrick Henry as
+before,--an eagerness which was shared in by the two visiting judges,
+as is indicated in part by a letter from Judge Iredell, who, on the
+27th of May, thus wrote to his wife: "We began on the great British
+causes the second day of the court, and are now in the midst of them.
+The great Patrick Henry is to speak to-day."[424] Among the throng of
+people who then poured into the court-room was John Randolph of
+Roanoke, then a stripling of twenty years, who, having got a position
+very close to the judges, was made aware of their conversation with
+one another as the case proceeded. He describes the orator as not
+expecting to speak at that time; "as old, very much wrapped up, and
+resting his head on the bar." Meanwhile the chief justice, who, in
+earlier days, had often heard Henry in the Continental Congress, told
+Iredell that that feeble old gentleman in mufflers, with his head
+bowed wearily down upon the bar, was "the greatest of orators."
+"Iredell doubted it; and, becoming impatient to hear him, they
+requested him to proceed with his argument, before he had intended to
+speak.... As he arose, he began to complain that it was a hardship,
+too great, to put the laboring oar into the hands of a decrepit old
+man, trembling, with one foot in the grave, weak in his best days, and
+far inferior to the able associate by him." Randolph then gives an
+outline of his progress through the earlier and somewhat tentative
+stages of his speech, comparing his movement to the exercise "of a
+first-rate, four-mile race-horse, sometimes displaying his whole power
+and speed for a few leaps, and then taking up again." "At last,"
+according to Randolph, the orator "got up to full speed; and took a
+rapid view of what England had done, when she had been successful in
+arms; and what would have been our fate, had we been unsuccessful. The
+color began to come and go in the face of the chief justice; while
+Iredell sat with his mouth and eyes stretched open, in perfect wonder.
+Finally, Henry arrived at his utmost height and grandeur. He raised
+his hands in one of his grand and solemn pauses.... There was a
+tumultuous burst of applause; and Judge Iredell exclaimed, 'Gracious
+God! he is an orator indeed!'"[425] It is said, also, by another
+witness, that Henry happened that day to wear on his finger a diamond
+ring; and that in the midst of the supreme splendor of his eloquence,
+a distinguished English visitor who had been given a seat on the
+bench, said with significant emphasis to one of the judges, "The
+diamond is blazing!"[426]
+
+As examples of forensic eloquence, on a great subject, before a great
+and a fit assemblage, his several speeches in the case of the British
+debts were, according to all the testimony, of the highest order of
+merit. What they were as examples of legal learning and of legal
+argumentation, may be left for every lawyer to judge for himself, by
+reading, if he so pleases, the copious extracts which have been
+preserved from the stenographic reports of these speeches, as taken by
+Robertson. Even from that point of view, they appear not to have
+suffered by comparison with the efforts made, in that cause, on the
+same side, by John Marshall himself. No inconsiderable portion of his
+auditors were members of the bar; and those keen and competent critics
+are said to have acknowledged themselves as impressed "not less by the
+matter than the manner" of his speeches.[427] Moreover, though not
+expressly mentioned, Patrick Henry's argument is pointedly referred to
+in the high compliment pronounced by Judge Iredell, when giving his
+opinion in this case:--
+
+     "The cause has been spoken to, at the bar, with a degree of
+     ability equal to any occasion.... I shall, as long as I
+     live, remember with pleasure and respect the arguments which
+     I have heard in this case. They have discovered an
+     ingenuity, a depth of investigation, and a power of
+     reasoning fully equal to anything I have ever witnessed; and
+     some of them have been adorned with a splendor of eloquence
+     surpassing what I have ever felt before. Fatigue has given
+     way under its influence, and the heart has been warmed,
+     while the understanding has been instructed."[428]
+
+It will be readily understood, however, that while Patrick Henry's
+practice included important causes turning, like the one just
+described, on propositions of law, and argued by him before the
+highest tribunals, the larger part of the practice to be had in
+Virginia at that time must have been in actions tried before juries,
+in which his success was chiefly due to his amazing endowments of
+sympathy, imagination, tact, and eloquence. The testimony of
+contemporary witnesses respecting his power in this direction is most
+abundant, and also most interesting; and, for obvious reasons, such
+portions of it as are now to be reproduced should be given in the very
+language of the persons who thus heard him, criticised him, and made
+deliberate report concerning him.
+
+First of all, in the way of preliminary analysis of Henry's genius and
+methods as an advocate before juries, may be cited a few sentences of
+Wirt, who, indeed, never heard him, but who, being himself a very
+gifted and a very ambitious advocate, eagerly collected and keenly
+scanned the accounts of many who had heard him:--
+
+     "He adapted himself, without effort, to the character of the
+     cause; seized with the quickness of intuition its defensible
+     point, and never permitted the jury to lose sight of it. Sir
+     Joshua Reynolds has said of Titian, that, by a few strokes
+     of his pencil, he knew how to mark the image and character
+     of whatever object he attempted; and produced by this means
+     a truer representation than any of his predecessors, who
+     finished every hair. In like manner Mr. Henry, by a few
+     master-strokes upon the evidence, could in general stamp
+     upon the cause whatever image or character he pleased; and
+     convert it into tragedy or comedy, at his sovereign will,
+     and with a power which no efforts of his adversary could
+     counteract. He never wearied the jury by a dry and minute
+     analysis of the evidence; he did not expend his strength in
+     finishing the hairs; he produced all his high effect by
+     those rare master-touches, and by the resistless skill with
+     which, in a very few words, he could mould and color the
+     prominent facts of a cause to his purpose. He had wonderful
+     address, too, in leading off the minds of his hearers from
+     the contemplation of unfavorable points, if at any time they
+     were too stubborn to yield to his power of
+     transformation.... It required a mind of uncommon vigilance,
+     and most intractable temper, to resist this charm with which
+     he decoyed away his hearers; it demanded a rapidity of
+     penetration, which is rarely, if ever, to be found in the
+     jury-box, to detect the intellectual juggle by which he
+     spread his nets around them; it called for a stubbornness
+     and obduracy of soul which does not exist, to sit unmoved
+     under the pictures of horror or of pity which started from
+     his canvas. They might resolve, if they pleased, to decide
+     the cause against him, and to disregard everything which he
+     could urge in the defence of his client. But it was all in
+     vain. Some feint in an unexpected direction threw them off
+     their guard, and they were gone; some happy phrase, burning
+     from the soul; some image fresh from nature's mint, and
+     bearing her own beautiful and genuine impress, struck them
+     with delightful surprise, and melted them into conciliation;
+     and conciliation towards Mr. Henry was victory inevitable.
+     In short, he understood the human character so perfectly;
+     knew so well all its strength and all its weaknesses,
+     together with every path and by-way which winds around the
+     citadel of the best fortified heart and mind, that he never
+     failed to take them, either by stratagem or storm."[429]
+
+Still further, in the way of critical analysis, should be cited the
+opinion of a distinguished student and master of eloquence, the Rev.
+Archibald Alexander of Princeton, who, having more than once heard
+Patrick Henry, wrote out, with a scholar's precision, the results of
+his own keen study into the great advocate's success in subduing men,
+and especially jurymen:--
+
+     "The power of Henry's eloquence was due, first, to the
+     greatness of his emotion and passion, accompanied with a
+     versatility which enabled him to assume at once any emotion
+     or passion which was suited to his ends. Not less
+     indispensable, secondly, was a matchless perfection of the
+     organs of expression, including the entire apparatus of
+     voice, intonation, pause, gesture, attitude, and
+     indescribable play of countenance. In no instance did he
+     ever indulge in an expression that was not instantly
+     recognized as nature itself; yet some of his penetrating and
+     subduing tones were absolutely peculiar, and as inimitable
+     as they were indescribable. These were felt by every hearer,
+     in all their force. His mightiest feelings were sometimes
+     indicated and communicated by a long pause, aided by an
+     eloquent aspect, and some significant use of his finger. The
+     sympathy between mind and mind is inexplicable. Where the
+     channels of communication are open, the faculty of revealing
+     inward passion great, and the expression of it sudden and
+     visible, the effects are extraordinary. Let these shocks of
+     influence be repeated again and again, and all other
+     opinions and ideas are for the moment absorbed or excluded;
+     the whole mind is brought into unison with that of the
+     speaker; and the spell-bound listener, till the cause
+     ceases, is under an entire fascination. Then perhaps the
+     charm ceases, upon reflection, and the infatuated hearer
+     resumes his ordinary state.
+
+     "Patrick Henry, of course, owed much to his singular insight
+     into the feelings of the common mind. In great cases he
+     scanned his jury, and formed his mental estimate; on this
+     basis he founded his appeals to their predilections and
+     character. It is what other advocates do, in a lesser
+     degree. When he knew that there were conscientious or
+     religious men among the jury, he would most solemnly address
+     himself to their sense of right, and would adroitly bring in
+     scriptural citations. If this handle was not offered, he
+     would lay bare the sensibility of patriotism. Thus it was,
+     when he succeeded in rescuing the man who had deliberately
+     shot down a neighbor; who moreover lay under the odious
+     suspicion of being a Tory, and who was proved to have
+     refused supplies to a brigade of the American army."[430]
+
+Passing now from these general descriptions to particular instances,
+we may properly request Dr. Alexander to remain somewhat longer in the
+witness-stand, and to give us, in detail, some of his own
+recollections of Patrick Henry. His testimony, accordingly, is in
+these words:--
+
+     "From my earliest childhood I had been accustomed to hear of
+     the eloquence of Patrick Henry. On this subject there
+     existed but one opinion in the country. The power of his
+     eloquence was felt equally by the learned and the unlearned.
+     No man who ever heard him speak, on any important occasion,
+     could fail to admit his uncommon power over the minds of his
+     hearers.... Being then a young man, just entering on a
+     profession in which good speaking was very important, it was
+     natural for me to observe the oratory of celebrated men. I
+     was anxious to ascertain the true secret of their power; or
+     what it was which enabled them to sway the minds of hearers,
+     almost at their will.
+
+     "In executing a mission from the synod of Virginia, in the
+     year 1794, I had to pass through the county of Prince
+     Edward, where Mr. Henry then resided. Understanding that he
+     was to appear before the circuit court, which met in that
+     county, in defence of three men charged with murder, I
+     determined to seize the opportunity of observing for myself
+     the eloquence of this extraordinary orator. It was with
+     some difficulty I obtained a seat in front of the bar, where
+     I could have a full view of the speaker, as well as hear him
+     distinctly. But I had to submit to a severe penance in
+     gratifying my curiosity; for the whole day was occupied with
+     the examination of witnesses, in which Mr. Henry was aided
+     by two other lawyers. In person, Mr. Henry was lean rather
+     than fleshy. He was rather above than below the common
+     height, but had a stoop in the shoulders which prevented him
+     from appearing as tall as he really was. In his moments of
+     animation, he had the habit of straightening his frame, and
+     adding to his apparent stature. He wore a brown wig, which
+     exhibited no indication of any great care in the dressing.
+     Over his shoulders he wore a brown camlet cloak. Under this
+     his clothing was black, something the worse for wear. The
+     expression of his countenance was that of solemnity and deep
+     earnestness. His mind appeared to be always absorbed in
+     what, for the time, occupied his attention. His forehead was
+     high and spacious, and the skin of his face more than
+     usually wrinkled for a man of fifty. His eyes were small and
+     deeply set in his head, but were of a bright blue color, and
+     twinkled much in their sockets. In short, Mr. Henry's
+     appearance had nothing very remarkable, as he sat at rest.
+     You might readily have taken him for a common planter, who
+     cared very little about his personal appearance. In his
+     manners he was uniformly respectful and courteous. Candles
+     were brought into the court-house, when the examination of
+     the witnesses closed; and the judges put it to the option of
+     the bar whether they would go on with the argument that
+     night or adjourn until the next day. Paul Carrington,
+     Junior, the attorney for the State, a man of large size,
+     and uncommon dignity of person and manner, and also an
+     accomplished lawyer, professed his willingness to proceed
+     immediately, while the testimony was fresh in the minds of
+     all. Now for the first time I heard Mr. Henry make anything
+     of a speech; and though it was short, it satisfied me of one
+     thing, which I had particularly desired to have decided:
+     namely, whether like a player he merely assumed the
+     appearance of feeling. His manner of addressing the court
+     was profoundly respectful. He would be willing to proceed
+     with the trial, 'but,' said he, 'my heart is so oppressed
+     with the weight of responsibility which rests upon me,
+     having the lives of three fellow citizens depending,
+     probably, on the exertions which I may be able to make in
+     their behalf (here he turned to the prisoners behind him),
+     that I do not feel able to proceed to-night. I hope the
+     court will indulge me, and postpone the trial till the
+     morning.' The impression made by these few words was such as
+     I assure myself no one can ever conceive by seeing them in
+     print. In the countenance, action, and intonation of the
+     speaker, there was expressed such an intensity of feeling,
+     that all my doubts were dispelled; never again did I
+     question whether Henry felt, or only acted a feeling.
+     Indeed, I experienced an instantaneous sympathy with him in
+     the emotions which he expressed; and I have no doubt the
+     same sympathy was felt by every hearer.
+
+     "As a matter of course, the proceedings were deferred till
+     the next morning. I was early at my post; the judges were
+     soon on the bench, and the prisoners at the bar. Mr.
+     Carrington ... opened with a clear and dignified speech, and
+     presented the evidence to the jury. Everything seemed
+     perfectly plain. Two brothers and a brother-in-law met two
+     other persons in pursuit of a slave, supposed to be harbored
+     by the brothers. After some altercation and mutual abuse,
+     one of the brothers, whose name was John Ford, raised a
+     loaded gun which he was carrying, and presenting it at the
+     breast of one of the other pair, shot him dead, in open day.
+     There was no doubt about the fact. Indeed, it was not
+     denied. There had been no other provocation than opprobrious
+     words. It is presumed that the opinion of every juror was
+     made up from merely hearing the testimony; as Tom Harvey,
+     the principal witness, who was acting as constable on the
+     occasion, appeared to be a respectable man. For the clearer
+     understanding of what follows, it must be observed that said
+     constable, in order to distinguish him from another of the
+     name, was commonly called Butterwood Harvey, as he lived on
+     Butterwood Creek. Mr. Henry, it is believed, understanding
+     that the people were on their guard against his faculty of
+     moving the passions and through them influencing the
+     judgment, did not resort to the pathetic as much as was his
+     usual practice in criminal cases. His main object appeared
+     to be, throughout, to cast discredit on the testimony of Tom
+     Harvey. This he attempted by causing the law respecting
+     riots to be read by one of his assistants. It appeared in
+     evidence that Tom Harvey had taken upon him to act as
+     constable, without being in commission; and that with a
+     posse of men he had entered the house of one of the Fords in
+     search of the negro, and had put Mrs. Ford, in her husband's
+     absence, into a great terror, while she was in a very
+     delicate condition, near the time of her confinement. As he
+     descanted on the evidence, he would often turn to Tom
+     Harvey--a large, bold-looking man--and with the most
+     sarcastic look would call him by some name of contempt;
+     'this Butterwood Tom Harvey,' 'this would-be constable,'
+     etc. By such expressions, his contempt for the man was
+     communicated to the hearers. I own I felt it gaining on me,
+     in spite of my better judgment; so that before he was done,
+     the impression was strong on my mind that Butterwood Harvey
+     was undeserving of the smallest credit. This impression,
+     however, I found I could counteract the moment I had time
+     for reflection. The only part of the speech in which he
+     manifested his power of touching the feelings strongly, was
+     where he dwelt on the irruption of the company into Ford's
+     house, in circumstances so perilous to the solitary wife.
+     This appeal to the sensibility of husbands--and he knew that
+     all the jury stood in this relation--was overwhelming. If
+     the verdict could have been rendered immediately after this
+     burst of the pathetic, every man, at least every husband, in
+     the house, would have been for rejecting Harvey's testimony,
+     if not for hanging him forthwith."[431]
+
+A very critical and cool-headed witness respecting Patrick Henry's
+powers as an advocate was Judge Spencer Roane, who presided in one of
+the courts in which the orator was much engaged after his return to
+the bar in 1786:--
+
+     "When I saw him there," writes Judge Roane, "he must
+     necessarily have been very rusty; yet I considered him as a
+     good lawyer.... It was as a criminal lawyer that his
+     eloquence had the finest scope.... He was a perfect master
+     of the passions of his auditory, whether in the tragic or
+     the comic line. The tones of his voice, to say nothing of
+     his matter and gesture, were insinuated into the feelings of
+     his hearers, in a manner that baffled all description. It
+     seemed to operate by mere sympathy, and by his tones alone
+     it seemed to me that he could make you cry or laugh at
+     pleasure. Yet his gesture came powerfully in aid, and, if
+     necessary, would approach almost to the ridiculous.... I
+     will try to give some account of his tragic and comic effect
+     in two instances that came before me. About the year 1792,
+     one Holland killed a young man in Botetourt.... Holland had
+     gone up from Louisa as a schoolmaster, but had turned out
+     badly, and was very unpopular. The killing was in the night,
+     and was generally believed to be murder.... At the instance
+     of the father and for a reasonable fee, Mr. H. undertook to
+     go to Greenbrier court to defend Holland. Mr. Winston and
+     myself were the judges. Such were the prejudices there, as I
+     was afterwards informed by Thomas Madison, that the people
+     there declared that even Patrick Henry need not come to
+     defend Holland, unless he brought a jury with him. On the
+     day of the trial the court-house was crowded, and I did not
+     move from my seat for fourteen hours, and had no wish to do
+     so. The examination took up a great part of the time, and
+     the lawyers were probably exhausted. Breckenridge was
+     eloquent, but Henry left no dry eye in the court-house. The
+     case, I believe, was murder, though, possibly, manslaughter
+     only; and Henry laid hold of this possibility with such
+     effect as to make all forget that Holland had killed the
+     storekeeper, and presented the deplorable case of the jury's
+     killing Holland, an innocent man. He also presented, as it
+     were, at the clerk's table, old Holland and his wife, who
+     were then in Louisa, and asked what must be the feeling of
+     this venerable pair at this awful moment, and what the
+     consequences to them of a mistaken verdict affecting the
+     life of their son. He caused the jury to lose sight of the
+     murder they were then trying, and weep with old Holland and
+     his wife, whom he painted, and perhaps proved to be, very
+     respectable. All this was done in a manner so solemn and
+     touching, and a tone so irresistible, that it was impossible
+     for the stoutest heart not to take sides with the
+     criminal.... The result of the trial was, that, after a
+     retirement of an half or quarter of an hour, the jury
+     brought in a verdict of not guilty! But on being reminded by
+     the court that they might find an inferior degree of
+     homicide, they brought in a verdict of manslaughter.
+
+     "Mr. Henry was equally successful in the comic line.... The
+     case was that a wagoner and the plaintiff were travelling to
+     Richmond, and the wagoner knocked down a turkey and put it
+     into his wagon. Complaint was made to the defendant, a
+     justice; both the parties were taken up; and the wagoner
+     agreed to take a whipping rather than be sent to jail. But
+     the plaintiff refused. The justice, however, gave him, also,
+     a small whipping; and for this the suit was brought. The
+     plaintiff's plea was that he was wholly innocent of the act
+     committed. Mr. H., on the contrary, contended that he was a
+     party aiding and assisting. In the course of his remarks he
+     thus expressed himself: 'But, gentlemen of the jury, this
+     plaintiff tells you that he had nothing to do with the
+     turkey. I dare say, gentlemen,--not until it was roasted!'
+     and he pronounced the word--'roasted'--with such rotundity
+     of voice, and comicalness of manner and gesture, that it
+     threw every one into a fit of laughter at the plaintiff,
+     who stood up in the place usually allotted to the criminals;
+     and the defendant was let off with little or no
+     damages."[432]
+
+Finally, we must recall, in illustration of our present subject, an
+anecdote left on record in 1813, by the Rev. Conrad Speece, highly
+distinguished during his lifetime, in the Presbyterian communion:--
+
+     "Many years ago," he then wrote, "I was at the trial, in one
+     of our district courts, of a man charged with murder. The
+     case was briefly this: the prisoner had gone, in execution
+     of his office as a constable, to arrest a slave who had been
+     guilty of some misconduct, and bring him to justice.
+     Expecting opposition in the business, the constable took
+     several men with him, some of them armed. They found the
+     slave on the plantation of his master, within view of the
+     house, and proceeded to seize and bind him. His mistress,
+     seeing the arrest, came down and remonstrated vehemently
+     against it. Finding her efforts unavailing, she went off to
+     a barn where her husband was, who was presently perceived
+     running briskly to the house. It was known he always kept a
+     loaded rifle over his door. The constable now desired his
+     company to remain where they were, taking care to keep the
+     slave in custody, while he himself would go to the house to
+     prevent mischief. He accordingly ran towards the house. When
+     he arrived within a short distance of it, the master
+     appeared coming out of the door with his rifle in his hand.
+     Some witnesses said that as he came to the door he drew the
+     cock of the piece, and was seen in the act of raising it to
+     the position of firing. But upon these points there was
+     not an entire agreement in the evidence. The constable,
+     standing near a small building in the yard, at this instant
+     fired, and the fire had a fatal effect. No previous malice
+     was proved against him; and his plea upon the trial was,
+     that he had taken the life of his assailant in necessary
+     self-defence.
+
+     "A great mass of testimony was delivered. This was commented
+     upon with considerable ability by the lawyer for the
+     commonwealth, and by another lawyer engaged by the friends
+     of the deceased for the prosecution. The prisoner was also
+     defended, in elaborate speeches, by two respectable
+     advocates. These proceedings brought the day to a close. The
+     general whisper through a crowded house was, that the man
+     was guilty and could not be saved.
+
+     "About dusk, candles were brought, and Henry arose. His
+     manner was ... plain, simple, and entirely unassuming.
+     'Gentlemen of the jury,' said he, 'I dare say we are all
+     very much fatigued with this tedious trial. The prisoner at
+     the bar has been well defended already; but it is my duty to
+     offer you some further observations in behalf of this
+     unfortunate man. I shall aim at brevity. But should I take
+     up more of your time than you expect, I hope you will hear
+     me with patience, when you consider that blood is
+     concerned.'
+
+     "I cannot admit the possibility that any one, who never
+     heard Henry speak, should be made fully to conceive the
+     force of impression which he gave to these few words, 'blood
+     is concerned.' I had been on my feet through the day, pushed
+     about in the crowd, and was excessively weary. I was
+     strongly of opinion, too, notwithstanding all the previous
+     defensive pleadings, that the prisoner was guilty of
+     murder; and I felt anxious to know how the matter would
+     terminate. Yet when Henry had uttered these words, my
+     feelings underwent an instantaneous change. I found
+     everything within me answering,--'Yes, since blood is
+     concerned, in the name of all that is righteous, go on; we
+     will hear you with patience until the rising of to-morrow's
+     sun!' This bowing of the soul must have been universal; for
+     the profoundest silence reigned, as if our very breath had
+     been suspended. The spell of the magician was upon us, and
+     we stood like statues around him. Under the touch of his
+     genius, every particular of the story assumed a new aspect,
+     and his cause became continually more bright and promising.
+     At length he arrived at the fatal act itself: 'You have been
+     told, gentlemen, that the prisoner was bound by every
+     obligation to avoid the supposed necessity of firing, by
+     leaping behind a house near which he stood at that moment.
+     Had he been attacked with a club, or with stones, the
+     argument would have been unanswerable, and I should feel
+     myself compelled to give up the defence in despair. But
+     surely I need not tell you, gentlemen, how wide is the
+     difference between sticks or stones, and double-triggered,
+     loaded rifles cocked at your breast!' The effect of this
+     terrific image, exhibited in this great orator's peerless
+     manner, cannot be described. I dare not attempt to delineate
+     the paroxysm of emotion which it excited in every heart. The
+     result of the whole was, that the prisoner was acquitted;
+     with the perfect approbation, I believe, of the numerous
+     assembly who attended the trial. What was it that gave such
+     transcendent force to the eloquence of Henry? His reasoning
+     powers were good; but they have been equalled, and more than
+     equalled, by those of many other men. His imagination was
+     exceedingly quick, and commanded all the stores of nature,
+     as materials for illustrating his subject. His voice and
+     delivery were inexpressibly happy. But his most irresistible
+     charm was the vivid feeling of his cause, with which he
+     spoke. Such feeling infallibly communicates itself to the
+     breast of the hearer."[433]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[416] Winston, in Wirt, 260.
+
+[417] Ware, Administrator of Jones, Plaintiff in Error, _v._ Hylton
+_et al._, Curtis, _Decisions_, i. 164-229.
+
+[418] Wirt, 316-318.
+
+[419] _Ibid._ 312.
+
+[420] Edward Fontaine, MS.
+
+[421] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 221.
+
+[422] Wirt, 312.
+
+[423] Wirt, 320-321; 368-369.
+
+[424] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 394.
+
+[425] Memorandum of J. W. Bouldin, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 274-275.
+
+[426] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222.
+
+[427] Judge Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[428] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 395.
+
+[429] Wirt, 75-76.
+
+[430] J. W. Alexander, _Life of A. Alexander_, 191-192.
+
+[431] J. W. Alexander, _Life of Archibald Alexander_, 183-187.
+
+[432] MS.
+
+[433] Howe. _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222-223.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+IN RETIREMENT
+
+
+In the year 1794, being then fifty-eight years old, and possessed at
+last of a competent fortune, Patrick Henry withdrew from his
+profession, and resolved to spend in retirement the years that should
+remain to him on earth. Removing from Prince Edward County, he lived
+for a short time at Long Island, in Campbell County; but in 1795 he
+finally established himself in the county of Charlotte, on an estate
+called Red Hill,--an estate which continued to be his home during the
+rest of his life, which gave to him his burial place, and which still
+remains in the possession of his descendants.
+
+The rapidity with which he had thus risen out of pecuniary
+embarrassments was not due alone to the earnings of his profession
+during those few years; for while his eminence as an advocate
+commanded the highest fees, probably, that were then paid in Virginia,
+it is apparent from his account-books that those fees were not at all
+exorbitant, and for a lawyer of his standing would not now be regarded
+as even considerable. The truth is that, subsequently to his youthful
+and futile attempts at business, he had so profited by the experiences
+of his life as to have become a sagacious and an expert man of
+business. "He could buy or sell a horse, or a negro, as well as
+anybody, and was peculiarly a judge of the value and quality of
+lands."[434] It seems to have been chiefly from his investments in
+lands, made by him with foresight and judgment, and from which, for a
+long time, he had reaped only burdens and anxieties, that he derived
+the wealth that secured for him the repose of his last years. The
+charge long afterward made by Jefferson, that Patrick Henry's fortune
+came either from a mean use of his right to pay his land debts in a
+depreciated currency "not worth oak-leaves," or from any connection on
+his part with the profligate and infamous Yazoo speculation, has been
+shown, by ample evidence, to be untrue.[435]
+
+The descriptions which have come down to us of the life led by the old
+statesman in those last five years of retirement make a picture
+pleasant to look upon. The house at Red Hill, which then became his
+home, "is beautifully situated on an elevated ridge, the dividing line
+of Campbell and Charlotte, within a quarter of a mile of the junction
+of Falling River with the Staunton. From it the valley of the Staunton
+stretches southward about three miles, varying from a quarter to
+nearly a mile in width, and of an oval-like form. Through most fertile
+meadows waving in their golden luxuriance, slowly winds the river,
+overhung by mossy foliage, while on all sides gently sloping hills,
+rich in verdure, enclose the whole, and impart to it an air of
+seclusion and repose. From the brow of the hill, west of the house, is
+a scene of an entirely different character: the Blue Ridge, with the
+lofty peaks of Otter, appears in the horizon at a distance of nearly
+sixty miles." Under the trees which shaded his lawn, and "in full view
+of the beautiful valley beneath, the orator was accustomed, in
+pleasant weather, to sit mornings and evenings, with his chair leaning
+against one of their trunks, and a can of cool spring-water by his
+side, from which he took frequent draughts. Occasionally, he walked to
+and fro in the yard from one clump of trees to the other, buried in
+revery, at which times he was never interrupted."[436] "His great
+delight," says one of his sons-in-law, "was in conversation, in the
+society of his friends and family, and in the resources of his own
+mind."[437] Thus beneath his own roof, or under the shadow of his own
+trees, he loved to sit, like a patriarch, with his family and his
+guests gathered affectionately around him, and there, free from
+ceremony as from care, to give himself up to the interchange of
+congenial thought whether grave or playful, and even to the sports of
+the children. "His visitors," writes one of them, "have not
+unfrequently caught him lying on the floor, with a group of these
+little ones climbing over him in every direction, or dancing around
+him with obstreperous mirth, to the tune of his violin, while the only
+contest seemed to be who should make the most noise."[438]
+
+The evidence of contemporaries respecting the sweetness of his spirit
+and his great lovableness in private life is most abundant. One who
+knew him well in his family, and who was also quite willing to be
+critical upon occasion, has said:--
+
+     "With respect to the domestic character of Mr. Henry,
+     nothing could be more amiable. In every relation, as a
+     husband, father, master, and neighbor, he was entirely
+     exemplary. As to the disposition of Mr. Henry, it was the
+     best imaginable. I am positive that I never saw him in a
+     passion, nor apparently even out of temper. Circumstances
+     which would have highly irritated other men had no such
+     visible effect on him. He was always calm and collected; and
+     the rude attacks of his adversaries in debate only whetted
+     the poignancy of his satire.... Shortly after the
+     Constitution was adopted, a series of the most abusive and
+     scurrilous pieces came out against him, under the signature
+     of Decius. They were supposed to be written by John
+     Nicholas, ... with the assistance of other more important
+     men. They assailed Mr. Henry's conduct in the Convention,
+     and slandered his character by various stories hatched up
+     against him. These pieces were extremely hateful to all Mr.
+     Henry's friends, and, indeed, to a great portion of the
+     community. I was at his house in Prince Edward during the
+     thickest of them.... He evinced no feeling on the occasion,
+     and far less condescended to parry the effects on the public
+     mind. It was too puny a contest for him, and he reposed upon
+     the consciousness of his own integrity.... With many sublime
+     virtues, he had no vice that I knew or ever heard of, and
+     scarcely a foible. I have thought, indeed, that he was too
+     much attached to property,--a defect, however, which might
+     be excused when we reflect on the largeness of a beloved
+     family, and the straitened circumstances in which he had
+     been confined during a great part of his life."[439]
+
+Concerning his personal habits, we have, through his grandson, Patrick
+Henry Fontaine, some testimony which has the merit of placing the
+great man somewhat more familiarly before us. "He was," we are told,
+"very abstemious in his diet, and used no wine or alcoholic
+stimulants. Distressed and alarmed at the increase of drunkenness
+after the Revolutionary war, he did everything in his power to arrest
+the vice. He thought that the introduction of a harmless beverage, as
+a substitute for distilled spirits, would be beneficial. To effect
+this object, he ordered from his merchant in Scotland a consignment of
+barley, and a Scotch brewer and his wife to cultivate the grain, and
+make small beer. To render the beverage fashionable and popular, he
+always had it upon his table while he was governor during his last
+term of office; and he continued its use, but drank nothing stronger,
+while he lived."[440]
+
+Though he was always a most loyal Virginian, he became, particularly
+in his later years, very unfriendly to that renowned and consolatory
+herb so long associated with the fame and fortune of his native State.
+
+     "In his old age, the condition of his nervous system made
+     the scent of a tobacco-pipe very disagreeable to him. The
+     old colored house-servants were compelled to hide their
+     pipes, and rid themselves of the scent of tobacco, before
+     they ventured to approach him.... They protested that they
+     had not smoked, or seen a pipe; and he invariably proved the
+     culprit guilty by following the scent, and leading them to
+     the corn-cob pipes hid in some crack or cranny, which he
+     made them take and throw instantly into the kitchen fire,
+     without reforming their habits, or correcting the evil,
+     which is likely to continue as long as tobacco will
+     grow."[441]
+
+Concerning another of his personal habits, during the years thus
+passed in retirement at Red Hill, there is a charming description,
+also derived from the grandson to whom we are indebted for the facts
+just mentioned:--
+
+     "His residence overlooked a large field in the bottom of
+     Staunton River, the most of which could be seen from his
+     yard. He rose early; and in the mornings of the spring,
+     summer, and fall, before sunrise, while the air was cool and
+     calm, reflecting clearly and distinctly the sounds of the
+     lowing herds and singing birds, he stood upon an eminence,
+     and gave orders and directions to his servants at work a
+     half mile distant from him. The strong, musical voices of
+     the negroes responded to him. During this elocutionary
+     morning exercise, his enunciation was clear and distinct
+     enough to be heard over an area which ten thousand people
+     could not have filled; and the tones of his voice were as
+     melodious as the notes of an Alpine horn."[442]
+
+Of course the house-servants and the field-servants just mentioned
+were slaves; and, from the beginning to the end of his life, Patrick
+Henry was a slaveholder. He bought slaves, he sold slaves, and, along
+with the other property--the lands, the houses, the cattle--bequeathed
+by him to his heirs, were numerous human beings of the African race.
+What, then, was the opinion respecting slavery held by this great
+champion of the rights of man? "Is it not amazing"--thus he wrote in
+1773--"that, at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and
+understood with precision, in a country above all others fond of
+liberty, in such an age, we find men, professing a religion the most
+humane, mild, meek, gentle, and generous, adopting a principle as
+repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and
+destructive to liberty?... Would any one believe that I am master of
+slaves of my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general
+inconvenience of living without them. I will not, I cannot, justify
+it; however culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my 'devoir' to
+virtue as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and to
+lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time will come when
+an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil:
+everything we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if
+not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a
+pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence of slavery. We owe to
+the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that
+law which warrants slavery."[443] After the Revolution, and before the
+adoption of the Constitution, he earnestly advocated, in the Virginia
+House of Delegates, some method of emancipation; and even in the
+Convention of 1788, where he argued against the Constitution on the
+ground that it obviously conferred upon the general government, in an
+emergency, that power of emancipation which, in his opinion, should be
+retained by the States, he still avowed his hostility to slavery, and
+at the same time his inability to see any practicable means of ending
+it: "Slavery is detested: we feel its fatal effects,--we deplore it
+with all the pity of humanity.... As we ought with gratitude to admire
+that decree of Heaven which has numbered us among the free, we ought
+to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow-men in
+bondage. But is it practicable, by any human means, to liberate them
+without producing the most dreadful and ruinous consequences?"[444]
+
+During all the years of his retirement, his great fame drew to him
+many strangers, who came to pay their homage to him, to look upon his
+face, to listen to his words. Such guests were always received by him
+with a cordiality that was unmistakable, and so modest and simple as
+to put them at once at their ease. Of course they desired most of all
+to hear him talk of his own past life, and of the great events in
+which he had borne so brilliant a part; but whenever he was persuaded
+to do so, it was always with the most quiet references to himself. "No
+man," says one who knew him well, "ever vaunted less of his
+achievements than Mr. H. I hardly ever heard him speak of those great
+achievements which form the prominent part of his biography. As for
+boasting, he was entirely a stranger to it, unless it be that, in his
+latter days, he seemed proud of the goodness of his lands, and, I
+believe, wished to be thought wealthy. It is my opinion that he was
+better pleased to be flattered as to his wealth than as to his great
+talents. This I have accounted for by recollecting that he had long
+been under narrow and difficult circumstances as to property, from
+which he was at length happily relieved; whereas there never was a
+time when his talents had not always been conspicuous, though he
+always seemed unconscious of them."[445]
+
+It should not be supposed that, in his final withdrawal from public
+and professional labors, he surrendered himself to the enjoyment of
+domestic happiness, without any positive occupation of the mind. From
+one of his grandsons, who was much with him in those days, the
+tradition is derived that, besides "setting a good example of honesty,
+benevolence, hospitality, and every social virtue," he assisted "in
+the education of his younger children," and especially devoted much
+time "to earnest efforts to establish true Christianity in our
+country."[446] He gave himself more than ever to the study of the
+Bible, as well as of two or three of the great English divines,
+particularly Tillotson, Butler, and Sherlock. The sermons of the
+latter, he declared, had removed "all his doubts of the truth of
+Christianity;" and from a volume which contained them, and which was
+full of his pencilled notes, he was accustomed to read "every Sunday
+evening to his family; after which they all joined in sacred music,
+while he accompanied them on the violin."[447]
+
+There seems to have been no time in his life, after his arrival at
+manhood, when Patrick Henry was not regarded by his private
+acquaintances as a positively religious person. Moreover, while he was
+most tolerant of all forms of religion, and was on peculiarly friendly
+terms with their ministers, to whose preaching he often listened, it
+is inaccurate to say, as Wirt has done, that, though he was a
+Christian, he was so "after a form of his own;" that "he was never
+attached to any particular religious society, and never ... communed
+with any church."[448] On the contrary, from a grandson who spent
+many years in his household comes the tradition that "his parents were
+members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which his uncle,
+Patrick Henry, was a minister;" that "he was baptized and made a
+member of it in early life;" and that "he lived and died an exemplary
+member of it."[449] Furthermore, in 1830, the Rev. Charles Dresser,
+rector of Antrim Parish, Halifax County, Virginia, wrote that the
+widow of Patrick Henry told him that her husband used to receive "the
+communion as often as an opportunity was offered, and on such
+occasions always fasted until after he had communicated, and spent the
+day in the greatest retirement. This he did both while governor and
+afterward."[450] In a letter to one of his daughters, written in 1796,
+he makes this touching confession:--
+
+     "Amongst other strange things said of me, I hear it is said
+     by the deists that I am one of the number; and, indeed, that
+     some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives
+     me much more pain than the appellation of Tory; because I
+     think religion of infinitely higher importance than
+     politics; and I find much cause to reproach myself that I
+     have lived so long, and have given no decided and public
+     proofs of my being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child,
+     this is a character which I prize far above all this world
+     has, or can boast."[451]
+
+While he thus spoke, humbly and sorrowfully, of his religious position
+as a thing so little known to the public that it could be entirely
+misunderstood by a portion of them, it is plain that no one who had
+seen him in the privacy of his life at home could have had any
+misunderstanding upon that subject. For years before his retirement
+from the law, it had been his custom, we are told, to spend "one hour
+every day ... in private devotion. His hour of prayer was the close of
+the day, including sunset; ... and during that sacred hour, none of
+his family intruded upon his privacy."[452]
+
+As regards his religious faith, Patrick Henry, while never
+ostentatious of it, was always ready to avow it, and to defend it. The
+French alliance during our Revolution, and our close intercourse with
+France immediately afterward, hastened among us the introduction of
+certain French writers who were assailants of Christianity, and who
+soon set up among the younger and perhaps brighter men of the country
+the fashion of casting off, as parts of an outworn and pitiful
+superstition, the religious ideas of their childhood, and even the
+morality which had found its strongest sanctions in those ideas. Upon
+all this, Patrick Henry looked with grief and alarm. In his opinion, a
+far deeper, a far wiser and nobler handling of all the immense
+questions involved in the problem of the truth of Christianity was
+furnished by such English writers as Sherlock and Bishop Butler, and,
+for popular use, even Soame Jenyns. Therefore, as French scepticism
+then had among the Virginia lawyers and politicians its diligent
+missionaries, so, with the energy and directness that always
+characterized him, he determined to confront it, if possible, with an
+equal diligence; and he then deliberately made himself, while still a
+Virginia lawyer and politician, a missionary also,--a missionary on
+behalf of rational and enlightened Christian faith. Thus during his
+second term as governor he caused to be printed, on his own account,
+an edition of Soame Jenyns's "View of the Internal Evidence of
+Christianity;" likewise, an edition of Butler's "Analogy;" and
+thenceforward, particularly among the young men of Virginia, assailed
+as they were by the fashionable scepticism, this illustrious
+colporteur was active in the defence of Christianity, not only by his
+own sublime and persuasive arguments, but by the distribution, as the
+fit occasion offered, of one or the other of these two books.
+
+Accordingly when, during the first two years of his retirement, Thomas
+Paine's "Age of Reason" made its appearance, the old statesman was
+moved to write out a somewhat elaborate treatise in defence of the
+truth of Christianity. This treatise it was his purpose to have
+published. "He read the manuscript to his family as he progressed with
+it, and completed it a short time before his death." When it was
+finished, however, being "diffident about his own work," and
+impressed, also, by the great ability of the replies to Paine which
+were then appearing in England, "he directed his wife to destroy" what
+he had written. She "complied literally with his directions," and thus
+put beyond the chance of publication a work which seemed, to some who
+heard it, to be "the most eloquent and unanswerable argument in the
+defence of the Bible which was ever written."[453]
+
+Finally, in his last will and testament, bearing the date of November
+20, 1798, and written throughout, as he says, "with my own hand," he
+chose to insert a touching affirmation of his own deep faith in
+Christianity. After distributing his estate among his descendants, he
+thus concludes: "This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear
+family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them
+rich indeed."[454]
+
+It is not to be imagined that this deep seclusion and these eager
+religious studies implied in Patrick Henry any forgetfulness of the
+political concerns of his own country, or any indifference to those
+mighty events which, during those years, were taking place in Europe,
+and were reacting with tremendous effect upon the thought, the
+emotion, and even the material interests of America. Neither did he
+succeed in thus preserving the retirement which he had resolved upon,
+without having to resist the attempts of both political parties to
+draw him forth again into official life. All these matters, indeed,
+are involved in the story of his political attitude from the close of
+his struggle for amending the Constitution down to the very close of
+his life,--a story which used to be told with angry vituperation on
+one side, perhaps with some meek apologies on the other. Certainly,
+the day for such comment is long past. In the disinterestedness which
+the lapse of time has now made an easy virtue for us, we may see,
+plainly enough, that such ungentle words as "apostate" and "turncoat,"
+with which his name used to be plentifully assaulted, were but the
+missiles of partisan excitement; and that by his act of intellectual
+readjustment with respect to the new conditions forced upon human
+society, on both sides of the Atlantic, by the French Revolution, he
+developed no occasion for apologies, since he therein did nothing that
+was unusual at that time among honest and thoughtful men everywhere,
+and nothing that was inconsistent with the professions or the
+tendencies of his own previous life. It becomes our duty, however, to
+trace this story over again, as concisely as possible, but in the
+light of much historical evidence that has never hitherto been
+presented in connection with it.
+
+Upon the adoption, in 1791, of the first ten amendments to the
+Constitution, every essential objection which he had formerly urged
+against that instrument was satisfied; and there then remained no
+good reason why he should any longer hold himself aloof from the
+cordial support of the new government, especially as directed, first
+by Washington, and afterward by John Adams,--two men with whom, both
+personally and politically, he had always been in great harmony,
+excepting only upon this single matter of the Constitution in its
+original form. Undoubtedly, the contest which he had waged on that
+question had been so hot and so bitter that, even after it was ended,
+some time would be required for his recovery from the soreness of
+spirit, from the tone of suspicion and even of enmity, which it had
+occasioned. Accordingly, in the correspondence and other records of
+the time, we catch some glimpses of him, which show that even after
+Congress had passed the great amendments, and after their approval by
+the States had become a thing assured, he still looked askance at the
+administration, and particularly at some of the financial measures
+proposed by Hamilton.[455] Nevertheless, as year by year went on, and
+as Washington and his associates continued to deal fairly, wisely,
+and, on the whole, successfully, with the enormous problems which they
+encountered; moreover, as Jefferson and Madison gradually drew off
+from Washington, and formed a party in opposition, which seemed to
+connive at the proceedings of Genet, and to encourage the formation
+among us of political clubs in apparent sympathy with the wildest and
+most anarchic doctrines which were then flung into words and into
+deeds in the streets of Paris, it happened that Patrick Henry found
+himself, like Richard Henry Lee, and many another of his companions in
+the old struggle against the Constitution, drawn more and more into
+support of the new government.
+
+In this frame of mind, probably, was he in the spring of 1793, when,
+during the session of the federal court at Richmond, he had frequent
+conversations with Chief Justice Jay and with Judge Iredell. The
+latter, having never before met Henry, had felt great dislike of him
+on account of the alleged violence of his opinions against the
+Constitution; but after making his acquaintance, Iredell thus wrote
+concerning him: "I never was more agreeably disappointed than in my
+acquaintance with him. I have been much in his company; and his
+manners are very pleasing, and his mind, I am persuaded, highly
+liberal. It is a strong additional reason I have, added to many
+others, to hold in high detestation violent party prejudice."[456]
+
+In the following year, General Henry Lee, then governor of Virginia,
+appointed Patrick Henry as a senator of the United States, to fill out
+an unexpired term. This honor he felt compelled to decline.
+
+In the course of the same year, General Lee, finding that Patrick
+Henry, though in virtual sympathy with the administration, was yet
+under the impression that Washington had cast off their old
+friendship, determined to act the part of a peacemaker between them,
+and, if possible, bring together once more two old friends who had
+been parted by political differences that no longer existed. On the
+17th of August, 1794, Lee, at Richmond, thus wrote to the President:--
+
+     "When I saw you in Philadelphia, I had many conversations
+     with you respecting Mr. Henry, and since my return I have
+     talked very freely and confidentially with that gentleman. I
+     plainly perceive that he has credited some information,
+     which he has received (from whom I know not), which induces
+     him to believe that you consider him a factious, seditious
+     character.... Assured in my own mind that his opinions are
+     groundless, I have uniformly combated them, and lament that
+     my endeavors have been unavailing. He seems to be deeply and
+     sorely affected. It is very much to be regretted; for he is
+     a man of positive virtue as well as of transcendent talents;
+     and were it not for his feelings above expressed, I verily
+     believe, he would be found among the most active supporters
+     of your administration. Excuse me for mentioning this matter
+     to you. I have long wished to do it, in the hope that it
+     would lead to a refutation of the sentiments entertained by
+     Mr. Henry."[457]
+
+To this letter Washington sent a reply which expressed unabated regard
+for his old friend; and this reply, having been shown by Lee to Henry,
+drew from him this noble-minded answer:--
+
+     TO GENERAL HENRY LEE.
+
+                                   RED HILL, 27 June, 1795.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Your very friendly communication of so much of
+     the President's letter as relates to me, demands my sincere
+     thanks. Retired as I am from the busy world, it is still
+     grateful to me to know that some portion of regard remains
+     for me amongst my countrymen; especially those of them whose
+     opinions I most value. But the esteem of that personage, who
+     is contemplated in this correspondence, is highly flattering
+     indeed.
+
+     The American Revolution was the grand operation, which
+     seemed to be assigned by the Deity to the men of this age in
+     our country, over and above the common duties of life. I
+     ever prized at a high rate the superior privilege of being
+     one in that chosen age, to which Providence intrusted its
+     favorite work. With this impression, it was impossible for
+     me to resist the impulse I felt to contribute my mite
+     towards accomplishing that event, which in future will give
+     a superior aspect to the men of these times. To the man,
+     especially, who led our armies, will that aspect belong; and
+     it is not in nature for one with my feelings to revere the
+     Revolution, without including him who stood foremost in its
+     establishment.
+
+     Every insinuation that taught me to believe I had forfeited
+     the good-will of that personage, to whom the world had
+     agreed to ascribe the appellation of good and great, must
+     needs give me pain; particularly as he had opportunities of
+     knowing my character both in public and in private life. The
+     intimation now given me, that there was no ground to believe
+     I had incurred his censure, gives very great pleasure.
+
+     Since the adoption of the present Constitution, I have
+     generally moved in a narrow circle. But in that I have never
+     omitted to inculcate a strict adherence to the principles of
+     it. And I have the satisfaction to think, that in no part of
+     the Union have the laws been more pointedly obeyed, than in
+     that where I have resided and spent my time. Projects,
+     indeed, of a contrary tendency have been hinted to me; but
+     the treatment of the projectors has been such as to prevent
+     all intercourse with them for a long time. Although a
+     democrat myself, I like not the late democratic societies.
+     As little do I like their suppression by law. Silly things
+     may amuse for awhile, but in a little time men will perceive
+     their delusions. The way to preserve in men's minds a value
+     for them, is to enact laws against them.
+
+     My present views are to spend my days in privacy. If,
+     however, it shall please God, during my life, so to order
+     the course of events as to render my feeble efforts
+     necessary for the safety of the country, in any, even the
+     smallest degree, that little which I can do shall be done.
+     Whenever you may have an opportunity, I shall be much
+     obliged by your presenting my best respects and duty to the
+     President, assuring him of my gratitude for his favorable
+     sentiments towards me.
+
+     Be assured, my dear sir, of the esteem and regard with which
+     I am yours, etc.,
+
+                                          PATRICK HENRY.[458]
+
+After seeing this letter, Washington took an opportunity to convey to
+Patrick Henry a strong practical proof of his confidence in him, and
+of his cordial friendship. The office of secretary of state having
+become vacant, Washington thus tendered the place to Patrick Henry:--
+
+                                  MOUNT VERNON, 9 October, 1795.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Whatever may be the reception of this letter,
+     truth and candor shall mark its steps. You doubtless know
+     that the office of state is vacant; and no one can be more
+     sensible than yourself of the importance of filling it with
+     a person of abilities, and one in whom the public would have
+     confidence.
+
+     It would be uncandid not to inform you that this office has
+     been offered to others; but it is as true, that it was from
+     a conviction in my own mind that you would not accept it
+     (until Tuesday last, in a conversation with General Lee, he
+     dropped sentiments which made it less doubtful), that it was
+     not offered first to you.
+
+     I need scarcely add, that if this appointment could be made
+     to comport with your own inclination, it would be as
+     pleasing to me, as I believe it would be acceptable to the
+     public. With this assurance, and with this belief, I make
+     you the offer of it. My first wish is that you would accept
+     it; the next is that you would be so good as to give me an
+     answer as soon as you conveniently can, as the public
+     business in that department is now suffering for want of a
+     secretary.[459]
+
+Though Patrick Henry declined this proposal, he declined it for
+reasons that did not shut the door against further overtures of a
+similar kind; for, within the next three months, a vacancy having
+occurred in another great office,--that of chief justice of the
+United States,--Washington again employed the friendly services of
+General Lee, whom he authorized to offer the place to Patrick Henry.
+This was done by Lee in a letter dated December 26, 1795:--
+
+     "The Senate have disagreed to the President's nomination of
+     Mr. Rutledge, and a vacancy in that important office has
+     taken place. For your country's sake, for your friends'
+     sake, for your family's sake, tell me you will obey a call
+     to it. You know my friendship for you; you know my
+     circumspection; and, I trust, you know, too, I would not
+     address you on such a subject without good grounds. Surely
+     no situation better suits you. You continue at home, only
+     [except] when on duty. Change of air and exercise will add
+     to your days. The salary excellent, and the honor very
+     great. Be explicit in your reply."[460]
+
+On the same day on which Lee thus wrote to Henry he likewise wrote to
+Washington, informing him that he had done so; but, for some cause now
+unknown, Washington received no further word from Lee for more than
+two weeks. Accordingly, on the 11th of January, 1796, in his anxiety
+to know what might be Patrick Henry's decision concerning the office
+of chief justice, Washington wrote to Lee as follows:--
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 26th ult. has been
+     received, but nothing from you since,--which is embarrassing
+     in the extreme; for not only the nomination of chief
+     justice, but an associate judge, and secretary of war, is
+     suspended on the answer you were to receive from Mr. Henry;
+     and what renders the want of it more to be regretted is,
+     that the first Monday of next month (which happens on the
+     first day of it) is the term appointed by law for the
+     meeting of the Superior Court of the United States, in this
+     city; at which, for particular reasons, the bench ought to
+     be full. I will add no more at present than that I am your
+     affectionate,
+
+                                         GEO. WASHINGTON.[461]
+
+Although Patrick Henry declined this great compliment also, his
+friendliness to the administration had become so well understood that,
+among the Federal leaders, who in the spring of 1796 were planning for
+the succession to Washington and Adams, there was a strong inclination
+to nominate Patrick Henry for the vice-presidency,--their chief doubt
+being with reference to his willingness to take the nomination.[462]
+
+All these overtures to Patrick Henry were somewhat jealously watched
+by Jefferson, who, indeed, in a letter to Monroe, on the 10th of July,
+1796, interpreted them with that easy recklessness of statement which
+so frequently embellished his private correspondence and his private
+talk. "Most assiduous court," he says of the Federalists, "is paid to
+Patrick Henry. He has been offered everything which they knew he would
+not accept."[463]
+
+A few weeks after Jefferson penned those sneering words, the person
+thus alluded to wrote to his daughter, Mrs. Aylett, concerning certain
+troublesome reports which had reached her:--
+
+     "As to the reports you have heard, of my changing sides in
+     politics, I can only say they are not true. I am too old to
+     exchange my former opinions, which have grown up into fixed
+     habits of thinking. True it is, I have condemned the conduct
+     of our members in Congress, because, in refusing to raise
+     money for the purposes of the British treaty, they, in
+     effect, would have surrendered our country bound, hand and
+     foot, to the power of the British nation.... The treaty is,
+     in my opinion, a very bad one indeed. But what must I think
+     of those men, whom I myself warned of the danger of giving
+     the power of making laws by means of treaty to the President
+     and Senate, when I see these same men denying the existence
+     of that power, which, they insisted in our convention, ought
+     properly to be exercised by the President and Senate, and by
+     none other? The policy of these men, both then and now,
+     appears to me quite void of wisdom and foresight. These
+     sentiments I did mention in conversation in Richmond, and
+     perhaps others which I don't remember.... It seems that
+     every word was watched which I casually dropped, and wrested
+     to answer party views. Who can have been so meanly employed,
+     I know not, neither do I care; for I no longer consider
+     myself as an actor on the stage of public life. It is time
+     for me to retire; and I shall never more appear in a public
+     character, unless some unlooked-for circumstance shall
+     demand from me a transient effort, not inconsistent with
+     private life--in which I have determined to continue."[464]
+
+In the autumn of 1796 the Assembly of Virginia, then under the
+political control of Jefferson, and apparently eager to compete with
+the Federalists for the possession of a great name, elected Patrick
+Henry to the governorship of the State. But the man whose purpose to
+refuse office had been proof against the attractions of the United
+States Senate, and of the highest place in Washington's cabinet, and
+of the highest judicial position in the country, was not likely to
+succumb to the opportunity of being governor of Virginia for the
+sixth time.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[434] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[435] _Hist. Mag._ for 1867, 93; 369-370.
+
+[436] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 221.
+
+[437] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[438] Cited in Wirt, 380-381.
+
+[439] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[440] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[441] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[442] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[443] Bancroft, ed. 1869, vi. 416-417.
+
+[444] Elliot, _Debates_, iii. 455-456; 590-591.
+
+[445] Spencer Roane, MS.
+
+[446] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[447] J. W. Alexander, _Life of A. Alexander_, 193; Howe, _Hist. Coll.
+Va._ 221.
+
+[448] Wirt, 402.
+
+[449] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[450] Meade, _Old Churches_, etc. ii. 12.
+
+[451] Wirt, 387.
+
+[452] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[453] Fontaine, MS. Also Meade, _Old Churches_, etc. ii. 12; and Wm.
+Wirt Henry, MS.
+
+[454] MS. Certified copy.
+
+[455] For example, D. Stuart's letter, in _Writings of Washington_, x.
+94-96; also, _Jour. Va. House Del._ for Nov. 3, 1790.
+
+[456] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 394-395.
+
+[457] _Writings of Washington_, x. 560-561.
+
+[458] _Writings of Washington_, x. 562-563.
+
+[459] _Writings of Washington_, xi. 81-82.
+
+[460] MS.
+
+[461] Lee, _Observations_, etc. 116.
+
+[462] Gibbs, _Administration of Washington_, etc. i. 337; see, also,
+Hamilton, _Works_, vi. 114.
+
+[463] Jefferson, _Writings_, iv. 148.
+
+[464] Entire letter in Wirt, 385-387.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+LAST DAYS
+
+
+The intimation given by Patrick Henry to his daughter, in the summer
+of 1796, that, though he could never again engage in a public career,
+he yet might be compelled by "some unlooked-for circumstance" to make
+"a transient effort" for the public safety, was not put to the test
+until nearly three years afterward, when it was verified in the midst
+of those days in which he was suddenly to find surcease of all earthly
+care and pain.
+
+Our story, therefore, now passes hurriedly by the year 1797,--which
+saw the entrance of John Adams into the presidency, the return of
+Monroe from France in great anger at the men who had recalled him, the
+publication of Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, everywhere an increasing
+bitterness and even violence in partisan feeling. In the same manner,
+also, must we pass by the year 1798,--which saw the popular uprising
+against France, the mounting of the black cockade against her, the
+suspension of commercial intercourse with her, the summons to
+Washington to come forth once more and lead the armies of America
+against the enemy; then the moonstruck madness of the Federalists,
+forcing upon the country the naturalization act, the alien acts, the
+sedition act; then the Kentucky resolutions, as written by Jefferson,
+declaring the acts just named to be "not law, but utterly void and of
+no force," and liable, "unless arrested on the threshold," "to drive
+these States into revolution and blood;" then the Virginia
+resolutions, as written by Madison, denouncing the same acts as
+"palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution;" finally, the
+preparations secretly making by the government of Virginia[465] for
+armed resistance to the government of the United States.
+
+Just seven days after the passage of the Virginia resolutions, an
+eminent citizen of that State appealed by letter to Patrick Henry for
+some written expression of his views upon the troubled situation, with
+the immediate object of aiding in the election of John Marshall, who,
+having just before returned from his baffled embassy to Paris, was
+then in nomination for Congress, and was encountering assaults
+directed by every energy and art of the opposition. In response to
+this appeal, Patrick Henry wrote, in the early part of the year 1799,
+the following remarkable letter, which is of deep interest still, not
+only as showing his discernment of the true nature of that crisis, but
+as furnishing a complete answer to the taunt that his mental
+faculties were then fallen into decay:--
+
+     TO ARCHIBALD BLAIR.
+
+                               RED HILL, CHARLOTTE, 8 January, 1799.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 28th of last month I have
+     received. Its contents are a fresh proof that there is cause
+     for much lamentation over the present state of things in
+     Virginia. It is possible that most of the individuals who
+     compose the contending factions are sincere, and act from
+     honest motives. But it is more than probable, that certain
+     leaders meditate a change in government. To effect this, I
+     see no way so practicable as dissolving the confederacy. And
+     I am free to own, that, in my judgment, most of the measures
+     lately pursued by the opposition party, directly and
+     certainly lead to that end. If this is not the system of the
+     party, they have none, and act 'ex tempore.'
+
+     I do acknowledge that I am not capable to form a correct
+     judgment on the present politics of the world. The wide
+     extent to which the present contentions have gone will
+     scarcely permit any observer to see enough in detail to
+     enable him to form anything like a tolerable judgment on the
+     final result, as it may respect the nations in general. But,
+     as to France, I have no doubt in saying that to her it will
+     be calamitous. Her conduct has made it the interest of the
+     great family of mankind to wish the downfall of her present
+     government; because its existence is incompatible with that
+     of all others within its reach. And, whilst I see the
+     dangers that threaten ours from her intrigues and her arms,
+     I am not so much alarmed as at the apprehension of her
+     destroying the great pillars of all government and of social
+     life,--I mean virtue, morality, and religion. This is the
+     armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us
+     invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we
+     lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed. In vain may
+     France show and vaunt her diplomatic skill, and brave
+     troops: so long as our manners and principles remain sound,
+     there is no danger. But believing, as I do, that these are
+     in danger, that infidelity in its broadest sense, under the
+     name of philosophy, is fast spreading, and that, under the
+     patronage of French manners and principles, everything that
+     ought to be dear to man is covertly but successfully
+     assailed, I feel the value of those men amongst us, who hold
+     out to the world the idea, that our continent is to exhibit
+     an originality of character; and that, instead of that
+     imitation and inferiority which the countries of the old
+     world have been in the habit of exacting from the new, we
+     shall maintain that high ground upon which nature has placed
+     us, and that Europe will alike cease to rule us and give us
+     modes of thinking.
+
+     But I must stop short, or else this letter will be all
+     preface. These prefatory remarks, however, I thought proper
+     to make, as they point out the kind of character amongst our
+     countrymen most estimable in my eyes. General Marshall and
+     his colleagues exhibited the American character as
+     respectable. France, in the period of her most triumphant
+     fortune, beheld them as unappalled. Her threats left them,
+     as she found them, mild, temperate, firm. Can it be thought
+     that, with these sentiments, I should utter anything tending
+     to prejudice General Marshall's election? Very far from it
+     indeed. Independently of the high gratification I felt from
+     his public ministry, he ever stood high in my esteem as a
+     private citizen. His temper and disposition were always
+     pleasant, his talents and integrity unquestioned. These
+     things are sufficient to place that gentleman far above any
+     competitor in the district for Congress. But, when you add
+     the particular information and insight which he has gained,
+     and is able to communicate to our public councils, it is
+     really astonishing that even blindness itself should
+     hesitate in the choice.... Tell Marshall I love him, because
+     he felt and acted as a republican, as an American.... I am
+     too old and infirm ever again to undertake public concerns.
+     I live much retired, amidst a multiplicity of blessings from
+     that Gracious Ruler of all things, to whom I owe unceasing
+     acknowledgments for his unmerited goodness to me; and if I
+     was permitted to add to the catalogue one other blessing, it
+     should be, that my countrymen should learn wisdom and
+     virtue, and in this their day to know the things that
+     pertain to their peace. Farewell.
+
+                         I am, dear Sir, yours,
+                                          PATRICK HENRY.[466]
+
+The appeal from Archibald Blair, which evoked this impressive letter,
+had suggested to the old statesman no effort which could not be made
+in his retirement. Before, however, he was to pass beyond the reach of
+all human appeals, two others were to be addressed to him, the one by
+John Adams, the other by Washington, both asking him to come forth
+into the world again; the former calling for his help in averting war
+with France, the latter for his help in averting the triumph of
+violent and dangerous counsels at home.
+
+On the 25th of February, 1799, John Adams, shaking himself free of
+his partisan counsellors,--all hot for war with France,--suddenly
+changed the course of history by sending to the Senate the names of
+these three citizens, Oliver Ellsworth, Patrick Henry, and William
+Vans Murray, "to be envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary
+to the French republic, with full powers to discuss and settle, by a
+treaty, all controversies between the United States and France." In
+his letter of the 16th of April declining the appointment, Patrick
+Henry spoke of himself as having been "confined for several weeks by a
+severe indisposition," and as being "still so sick as to be scarcely
+able to write this." "My advanced age," he added, "and increasing
+debility compel me to abandon every idea of serving my country, where
+the scene of operation is far distant, and her interests call for
+incessant and long continued exertion.... I cannot, however, forbear
+expressing, on this occasion, the high sense I entertain of the honor
+done me by the President and Senate in the appointment. And I beg you,
+sir, to present me to them in terms of the most dutiful regard,
+assuring them that this mark of their confidence in me, at a crisis so
+eventful, is an agreeable and flattering proof of their consideration
+towards me, and that nothing short of an absolute necessity could
+induce me to withhold my little aid from an administration whose
+ability, patriotism, and virtue deserve the gratitude and reverence of
+all their fellow citizens."[467]
+
+Such was John Adams's appeal to Patrick Henry and its result. The
+appeal to him from Washington--an appeal which he could not resist,
+and which induced him, even in his extreme feebleness of body, to make
+one last and noble exertion of his genius--happened in this wise. On
+the 15th of January, 1799, from Mount Vernon, Washington wrote to his
+friend a long letter, marked "confidential," in which he stated with
+great frankness his own anxieties respecting the dangers then
+threatening the country:--
+
+     "It would be a waste of time to attempt to bring to the view
+     of a person of your observation and discernment, the
+     endeavors of a certain party among us to disquiet the public
+     mind with unfounded alarms; to arraign every act of the
+     administration; to set the people at variance with their
+     government; and to embarrass all its measures. Equally
+     useless would it be to predict what must be the inevitable
+     consequences of such a policy, if it cannot be arrested.
+
+     "Unfortunately,--and extremely do I regret it,--the State of
+     Virginia has taken the lead in this opposition.... It has
+     been said that the great mass of the citizens of this State
+     are well-affected, notwithstanding, to the general
+     government and the Union; and I am willing to believe it,
+     nay, do believe it. But how is this to be reconciled with
+     their suffrages at the elections of representatives, ... who
+     are men opposed to the former, and by the tendency of their
+     measures would destroy the latter?... One of the reasons
+     assigned is, that the most respectable and best qualified
+     characters among us will not come forward.... But, at such a
+     crisis as this, when everything dear and valuable to us is
+     assailed; when this party hangs upon the wheels of
+     government as a dead weight, opposing every measure that is
+     calculated for defence and self-preservation, abetting the
+     nefarious views of another nation upon our rights; ... when
+     measures are systematically and pertinaciously pursued,
+     which must eventually dissolve the Union, or produce
+     coercion; I say, when these things have become so obvious,
+     ought characters who are best able to rescue their country
+     from the pending evil, to remain at home? Rather ought they
+     not to come forward, and by their talents and influence
+     stand in the breach which such conduct has made on the peace
+     and happiness of this country, and oppose the widening of
+     it?...
+
+     "I come, now, my good Sir, to the object of my letter, which
+     is to express a hope and an earnest wish, that you will come
+     forward at the ensuing elections (if not for Congress, which
+     you may think would take you too long from home), as a
+     candidate for representative in the General Assembly of this
+     Commonwealth.
+
+     "There are, I have no doubt, very many sensible men who
+     oppose themselves to the torrent that carries away others
+     who had rather swim with, than stem it without an able pilot
+     to conduct them; but these are neither old in legislation,
+     nor well known in the community. Your weight of character
+     and influence in the House of Representatives would be a
+     bulwark against such dangerous sentiments as are delivered
+     there at present. It would be a rallying point for the
+     timid, and an attraction of the wavering. In a word, I
+     conceive it to be of immense importance at this crisis, that
+     you should be there; and I would fain hope that all minor
+     considerations will be made to yield to the measure."[468]
+
+There can be little doubt that it was this solemn invocation on the
+part of Washington which induced the old statesman, on whom Death had
+already begun to lay his icy hands, to come forth from the solitude in
+which he had been so long buried, and offer himself for the suffrages
+of his neighbors, as their representative in the next House of
+Delegates, there to give check, if possible, to the men who seemed to
+be hurrying Virginia upon violent courses, and the republic into civil
+war. Accordingly, before the day for the usual March[469] court in
+Charlotte, the word went out through all that country that old Patrick
+Henry, whose wondrous voice in public no man had heard for those many
+years, who had indeed been almost numbered among the dead ones of
+their heroic days foregone, was to appear before all the people once
+more, and speak to them as in the former time, and give to them his
+counsel amid those thickening dangers which alone could have drawn him
+forth from the very borders of the grave.
+
+When the morning of that day came, from all the region thereabout the
+people began to stream toward the place where the orator was to speak.
+So widespread was the desire to hear him that even the college in the
+next county--the college of Hampden-Sidney--suspended its work for
+that day, and thus enabled all its members, the president himself, the
+professors, and the students, to hurry over to Charlotte court-house.
+One of those students, John Miller, of South Carolina, according to an
+account said to have been given by him in conversation forty years
+afterward, having with his companions reached the town,--
+
+     "and having learned that the great orator would speak in the
+     porch of a tavern fronting the large court-green, ... pushed
+     his way through the gathering crowd, and secured the
+     pedestal of a pillar, where he stood within eight feet of
+     him. He was very infirm, and seated in a chair conversing
+     with some old friends, waiting for the assembling of the
+     immense multitudes who were pouring in from all the
+     surrounding country to hear him. At length he arose with
+     difficulty, and stood somewhat bowed with age and weakness.
+     His face was almost colorless. His countenance was careworn;
+     and when he commenced his exordium, his voice was slightly
+     cracked and tremulous. But in a few moments a wonderful
+     transformation of the whole man occurred, as he warmed with
+     his theme. He stood erect; his eye beamed with a light that
+     was almost supernatural; his features glowed with the hue
+     and fire of youth; and his voice rang clear and melodious
+     with the intonations of some grand musical instrument whose
+     notes filled the area, and fell distinctly and delightfully
+     upon the ears of the most distant of the thousands gathered
+     before him."[470]
+
+As regards the substance of the speech then made, it will not be safe
+for us to confide very much in the supposed recollections of old men
+who heard it when they were young. Upon the whole, probably, the most
+trustworthy outline of it now to be had is that of a gentleman who
+declares that he wrote down his recollections of the speech not long
+after its delivery. According to this account, Patrick Henry--
+
+     "told them that the late proceedings of the Virginian
+     Assembly had filled him with apprehensions and alarm; that
+     they had planted thorns upon his pillow; that they had drawn
+     him from that happy retirement which it had pleased a
+     bountiful Providence to bestow, and in which he had hoped to
+     pass, in quiet, the remainder of his days; that the State
+     had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the
+     Constitution, and, in daring to pronounce upon the validity
+     of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a
+     manner not warranted by any authority, and in the highest
+     degree alarming to every considerate man; that such
+     opposition, on the part of Virginia, to the acts of the
+     general government, must beget their enforcement by military
+     power; that this would probably produce civil war, civil war
+     foreign alliances, and that foreign alliances must
+     necessarily end in subjugation to the powers called in. He
+     conjured the people to pause and consider well, before they
+     rushed into such a desperate condition, from which there
+     could be no retreat. He painted to their imaginations
+     Washington, at the head of a numerous and well-appointed
+     army, inflicting upon them military execution. 'And where,'
+     he asked, 'are our resources to meet such a conflict? Where
+     is the citizen of America who will dare to lift his hand
+     against the father of his country?' A drunken man in the
+     crowd threw up his arm, and exclaimed that he dared to do
+     it. 'No,' answered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his
+     majesty, 'you dare not do it: in such a parricidal attempt,
+     the steel would drop from your nerveless arm!' ... Mr.
+     Henry, proceeding in his address to the people, asked
+     whether the county of Charlotte would have any authority to
+     dispute an obedience to the laws of Virginia; and he
+     pronounced Virginia to be to the Union what the county of
+     Charlotte was to her. Having denied the right of a State to
+     decide upon the constitutionality of federal laws, he added,
+     that perhaps it might be necessary to say something of the
+     merits of the laws in question.[471] His private opinion was
+     that they were good and proper. But whatever might be their
+     merits, it belonged to the people, who held the reins over
+     the head of Congress, and to them alone, to say whether they
+     were acceptable or otherwise to Virginians; and that this
+     must be done by way of petition; that Congress were as much
+     our representatives as the Assembly, and had as good a right
+     to our confidence. He had seen with regret the unlimited
+     power over the purse and sword consigned to the general
+     government; but ... he had been overruled, and it was now
+     necessary to submit to the constitutional exercise of that
+     power. 'If,' said he, 'I am asked what is to be done, when a
+     people feel themselves intolerably oppressed, my answer is
+     ready,--Overturn the government. But do not, I beseech you,
+     carry matters to this length without provocation. Wait at
+     least until some infringement is made upon your rights, and
+     which cannot otherwise be redressed; for if ever you recur
+     to another change, you may bid adieu forever to
+     representative government. You can never exchange the
+     present government but for a monarchy.... Let us preserve
+     our strength for the French, the English, the Germans, or
+     whoever else shall dare to invade our territory, and not
+     exhaust it in civil commotions and intestine wars.' He
+     concluded by declaring his design to exert himself in the
+     endeavor to allay the heart-burnings and jealousies which
+     had been fomented in the state legislature; and he fervently
+     prayed, if he was deemed unworthy to effect it, that it
+     might be reserved to some other and abler hand to extend
+     this blessing over the community."[472]
+
+The outline thus given may be inaccurate in several particulars: it is
+known to be so in one. Respecting the alien and sedition acts, the
+orator expressed no opinion at all;[473] but accepting them as the law
+of the land, he counselled moderation, forbearance, and the use of
+constitutional means of redress. Than that whole effort, as has been
+said by a recent and a sagacious historian, "nothing in his life was
+nobler."[474]
+
+Upon the conclusion of the old man's speech the stand was taken by a
+very young man, John Randolph of Roanoke, who undertook to address the
+crowd, offering himself to them as a candidate for Congress, but on
+behalf of the party then opposed to Patrick Henry. By reason of
+weariness, no doubt, the latter did not remain upon the platform; but
+having "requested a friend to report to him anything which might
+require an answer," he stepped back into the tavern. "Randolph began
+by saying that he had admired that man more than any on whom the sun
+had shone, but that now he was constrained to differ from him '_toto
+coelo_.'" Whatever else Randolph may have said in his speech, whether
+important or otherwise, was spoken under the disadvantage of a cold
+and a hoarseness so severe as to render him scarcely able to "utter an
+audible sentence." Furthermore, Patrick Henry "made no reply, nor did
+he again present himself to the people."[475] There is, however, a
+tradition, not improbable, that when Randolph had finished his speech,
+and had come back into the room where the aged statesman was resting,
+the latter, taking him gently by the hand, said to him, with great
+kindness: "Young man, you call me father. Then, my son, I have
+something to say unto thee: keep justice, keep truth,--and you will
+live to think differently."
+
+As a result of the poll, Patrick Henry was, by a great majority,
+elected to the House of Delegates. But his political enemies, who, for
+sufficient reasons, greatly dreaded his appearance upon that scene of
+his ancient domination, were never any more to be embarrassed by his
+presence there. For, truly, they who, on that March day, at Charlotte
+court-house, had heard Patrick Henry, "had heard an immortal orator
+who would never speak again."[476] He seems to have gone thence to his
+home, and never to have left it. About the middle of the next month,
+being too sick to write many words, he lifted himself up in bed long
+enough to tell the secretary of state that he could not go on the
+mission to France, and to send his dying blessing to his old friend,
+the President. Early in June, his eldest daughter, Martha Fontaine,
+living at a distance of two days' travel from Red Hill, received from
+him a letter beginning with these words: "Dear Patsy, I am very
+unwell, and have Dr. Cabell with me."[477] Upon this alarming news,
+she and others of his kindred in that neighborhood made all haste to
+go to him. On arriving at Red Hill "they found him sitting in a large,
+old-fashioned armchair, in which he was easier than upon a bed." The
+disease of which he was dying was intussusception. On the 6th of June,
+all other remedies having failed, Dr. Cabell proceeded to administer
+to him a dose of liquid mercury. Taking the vial in his hand, and
+looking at it for a moment, the dying man said: "I suppose, doctor,
+this is your last resort?" The doctor replied: "I am sorry to say,
+governor, that it is. Acute inflammation of the intestine has already
+taken place; and unless it is removed, mortification will ensue, if it
+has not already commenced, which I fear." "What will be the effect of
+this medicine?" said the old man. "It will give you immediate relief,
+or"--the kind-hearted doctor could not finish the sentence. His
+patient took up the word: "You mean, doctor, that it will give relief,
+or will prove fatal immediately?" The doctor answered: "You can only
+live a very short time without it, and it may possibly relieve you."
+Then Patrick Henry said, "Excuse me, doctor, for a few minutes;" and
+drawing down over his eyes a silken cap which he usually wore, and
+still holding the vial in his hand, he prayed, in clear words, a
+simple childlike prayer, for his family, for his country, and for his
+own soul then in the presence of death. Afterward, in perfect
+calmness, he swallowed the medicine. Meanwhile, Dr. Cabell, who
+greatly loved him, went out upon the lawn, and in his grief threw
+himself down upon the earth under one of the trees, weeping bitterly.
+Soon, when he had sufficiently mastered himself, the doctor came back
+to his patient, whom he found calmly watching the congealing of the
+blood under his finger-nails, and speaking words of love and peace to
+his family, who were weeping around his chair. Among other things, he
+told them that he was thankful for that goodness of God, which, having
+blessed him through all his life, was then permitting him to die
+without any pain. Finally, fixing his eyes with much tenderness on his
+dear friend, Dr. Cabell, with whom he had formerly held many arguments
+respecting the Christian religion, he asked the doctor to observe how
+great a reality and benefit that religion was to a man about to die.
+And after Patrick Henry had spoken to his beloved physician these few
+words in praise of something which, having never failed him in all his
+life before, did not then fail him in his very last need of it, he
+continued to breathe very softly for some moments; after which they
+who were looking upon him saw that his life had departed.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[465] Henry Adams, _Life of J. Randolph,_ 27-28.
+
+[466] _Writings of Washington_, xi. 557-559.
+
+[467] _Works of John Adams_, ix. 162; viii. 641-642.
+
+[468] _Writings of Washington_, xi. 387-391.
+
+[469] Garland, _Life of John Randolph_, 130.
+
+[470] Fontaine, MS.
+
+[471] The alien and sedition acts.
+
+[472] Wirt, 393-395.
+
+[473] _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 353.
+
+[474] Henry Adams, _John Randolph_, 29.
+
+[475] J. W. Alexander, _Life of A. Alexander_, 188-189. About this
+whole scene have gathered many myths, of which several first appeared
+in a Life of Henry, in the _New Edinb. Encycl._ 1817; were thence
+copied into Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 224-225; and have thence been
+engulfed in that rich mass of unwhipped hyperboles and of unexploded
+fables still patriotically swallowed by the American public as
+American history.
+
+[476] Henry Adams.
+
+[477] Fontaine, MS.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS
+
+CITED IN THIS BOOK, WITH TITLES, PLACES, AND DATES OF THE EDITIONS
+USED.
+
+
+  ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS. (See John Adams.)
+
+  ADAMS, HENRY, The Life of Albert Gallatin. Philadelphia: 1880.
+
+  ADAMS, HENRY, John Randolph. Am. Statesmen Series. Boston: 1882.
+
+  ADAMS, JOHN. (See Novanglus, etc.)
+
+  ADAMS, JOHN, Letters of, Addressed to his Wife. Ed. by Charles
+      Francis Adams. 2 vols. Boston: 1841.
+
+  ADAMS, JOHN, The Works of. Ed. by Charles Francis Adams. 10 vols.
+      Boston: 1856.
+
+  ADAMS, SAMUEL, Life of. (See Wm. V. Wells.)
+
+  ALEXANDER, JAMES W., The Life of Archibald Alexander. New York:
+      1854.
+
+  American Archives. (Peter Force.) 9 vols. Washington: 1837-1853.
+
+  The American Quarterly Review. Vol. i. Philadelphia: 1827.
+
+  BANCROFT, GEORGE, History of the United States. 10 vols. Boston:
+      1870-1874.
+
+  BANCROFT, GEORGE, History of the United States. The Author's Last
+      Revision. 6 vols. New York: 1883-1885.
+
+  BANCROFT, GEORGE, History of the Formation of the Constitution of
+      the United States of America. 2 vols. New York: 1882.
+
+  BLAND, RICHARD, A Letter to the Clergy of Virginia, n. p. 1760.
+
+  BROUGHAM, HENRY, LORD, The Life and Times of, Written by himself. 3
+      vols. New York: 1871.
+
+  BURK, JOHN (DALY), The History of Virginia. 4 vols. Petersburg:
+      1804-1816. Last volume by Skelton Jones and Louis Hue Girardin.
+
+  BYRD, WILLIAM, Byrd Manuscripts. 2 vols. Richmond: 1866.
+
+  Calendar of Virginia State Papers. Vol. ii. Richmond: 1881.
+
+  CAMPBELL, CHARLES, The Bland Papers: Being a Selection from the
+      Manuscripts of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Jr. 2 vols. Petersburg:
+      1840.
+
+  CAMPBELL, CHARLES, History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of
+      Virginia. Philadelphia: 1860.
+
+  Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. Vol. ii.
+      Hartford: 1870.
+
+  Colonel George Rogers Clark's Sketch of his Campaign in the Illinois
+      in 1778-79. Cincinnati: 1869.
+
+  COOKE, JOHN ESTEN, Virginia: A History of the People. (Commonwealth
+      Series.) Boston: 1884.
+
+  COOLEY, THOMAS M. (See Joseph Story.)
+
+  Correspondence of the American Revolution. Edited by Jared Sparks. 4
+      vols. Boston: 1853.
+
+  CURTIS, B. R., Reports of Decisions in the Supreme Court of the
+      United States. Boston: 1855.
+
+  CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR, History of the Origin, Formation, and
+      Adoption of the Constitution of the United States. 2 vols.
+      London and New York: 1854, 1858.
+
+  CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR, Life of Daniel Webster. New York: 1872.
+
+  DE COSTA, B. F. (See William White.)
+
+  DICKINSON, JOHN, The Political Writings of. 2 vols. Wilmington:
+      1801.
+
+  ELLIOT, JONATHAN, The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on
+      the adoption of the Federal Constitution, etc. 5 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1876.
+
+  EVERETT, ALEXANDER H., Life of Patrick Henry. In Sparks's Library of
+      Am. Biography. 2d series, vol. i. Boston: 1844.
+
+  FROTHINGHAM, RICHARD, The Rise of the Republic of the United States.
+      Boston: 1872.
+
+  GALES, JOSEPH, The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the
+      United States. 2 vols. Washington: 1834.
+
+  GALLATIN, ALBERT. (See Henry Adams.)
+
+  GARLAND, HUGH A., The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke. 2 vols. New
+      York: 1860.
+
+  GIBBS, GEORGE, Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John
+      Adams, edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott. New York:
+      1846.
+
+  GIRARDIN, LOUIS HUE. (See John Burk.)
+
+  GORDON, WILLIAM, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of
+      the Independence of the United States of America; including an
+      account of the Late War, and of the Thirteen Colonies from their
+      origin to that period. 3 vols. New York: 1789.
+
+  GRIGSBY, HUGH BLAIR, The Virginia Convention of 1776. Richmond:
+      1855.
+
+  HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, Works of. Edited by John C. Hamilton. 7 vols.
+      New York: 1850-1851.
+
+  HANSARD, T. C., The Parliamentary History of England. Vol. xviii.
+      London: 1813.
+
+  HAWKS, FRANCIS L., Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of
+      the United States of America. Vol. i. New York: 1836.
+
+  HENING, WILLIAM WALLER, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of
+      all the Laws of Virginia. 13 vols. Richmond, New York, and
+      Philadelphia: 1819-1823.
+
+  HENRY, PATRICK, Life of. (See Wirt, William, and Everett, Alexander
+      H.)
+
+  HENRY, WILLIAM WIRT, Character and Public Career of Patrick Henry.
+      Pamphlet. Charlotte Court-house, Va.: 1867.
+
+  HENRY, WILLIAM WIRT, Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence, and
+      Speeches. 3 vols. New York: 1891.
+
+  HERRING, JAMES. (See National Portrait Gallery.)
+
+  HILDRETH, RICHARD, The History of the United States of America. 6
+      vols. New York: 1871-1874.
+
+  The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the
+      Antiquities, History, and Biography of America. (Henry B.
+      Dawson.) Vol. ii. 2d series, and vol. ii. 3d series. Morrisania:
+      1867 and 1873.
+
+  HOWE, HENRY, Historical Collections of Virginia. Charleston: 1845.
+
+  HOWISON, ROBERT R., A History of Virginia. Vol. i. Philadelphia:
+      1846. Vol. ii. Richmond, New York, and London: 1848.
+
+  IREDELL, JAMES, Life of. (See McRee, G. J.)
+
+  JAY, WILLIAM, The Life of John Jay. 2 vols. New York: 1833.
+
+  JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Notes on the State of Virginia. Philadelphia:
+      1825.
+
+  JEFFERSON, THOMAS, The Writings of. Ed. by H. A. Washington. 9 vols.
+      New York: 1853-1854.
+
+  JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Life of. (See H. S. Randall.)
+
+  JONES, SKELTON. (See John Burk.)
+
+  Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
+      (From 1777 to 1790.) 3 vols. Richmond: 1827-1828.
+
+  KENNEDY, JOHN P., Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt. 2 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1850.
+
+  LAMB, GENERAL JOHN, Memoir of. (See Leake, Isaac Q.)
+
+  LAMB, MARTHA J. (See Magazine of American History.)
+
+  LEAKE, ISAAC Q., Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb.
+      Albany: 1850.
+
+  LEE, CHARLES CARTER. (See Lee, Henry, Observations, etc.)
+
+  LEE, HENRY, Observations on the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, with
+      Particular Reference to the Attack they contain on the Memory of
+      the late Gen. Henry Lee. In a series of Letters. Second ed.,
+      with an Introduction and Notes by Charles Carter Lee.
+      Philadelphia: 1839.
+
+  LEE, RICHARD HENRY. (See Richard Henry Lee, 2d.)
+
+  LEE, RICHARD HENRY, 2d, Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee. 2
+      vols. Philadelphia: 1825.
+
+  LEE, RICHARD HENRY, 2d, Life of Arthur Lee, LL. D. 2 vols. Boston:
+      1829.
+
+  LEONARD, DANIEL. (See Novanglus, etc.)
+
+  LONGACRE, JAMES B. (See National Portrait Gallery.)
+
+  MACKAY, CHARLES, The Founders of the American Republic. Edinburgh
+      and London: 1885.
+
+  MACMASTER, JOHN BACH, History of the People of the United States. 2
+      vols. New York: 1883-1885.
+
+  MCREE, GRIFFITH J., Life and Correspondence of James Iredell. 2
+      vols. New York: 1857-1858.
+
+  MADISON, JAMES, The Papers of. 3 vols. Washington: 1840.
+
+  MADISON, JAMES, Letters and Other Writings of. 4 vols. Philadelphia:
+      1867.
+
+  MADISON, JAMES, Life and Times of. (See William C. Rives.)
+
+  The Magazine of American History, with Notes and Queries. Ed. by
+      Martha J. Lamb. Vol. xi. New York: 1884.
+
+  MAGRUDER, ALLAN B., John Marshall. (Am. Statesmen Series.) Boston:
+      1885.
+
+  MARSHALL, JOHN, The Life of George Washington. 5 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1804-1807.
+
+  MARSHALL, JOHN. (See Magruder, Allan B.)
+
+  MAURY, ANN, Memoirs of a Huguenot Family. New York: 1872.
+
+  MEADE, WILLIAM, Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. 2
+      vols. Philadelphia: 1872.
+
+  The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, Conducted
+      by James B. Longacre and James Herring. 2d vol. Philadelphia,
+      New York, and London: 1835.
+
+  Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, Political Essays Published in
+      the years 1774 and 1775. Boston: 1819.
+
+  PERRY, WILLIAM STEVENS, Historical Collections relating to the
+      American Colonial Church. Vol. i. Virginia. Hartford: 1870.
+
+  PEYTON, J. LEWIS, History of Augusta County, Virginia. Staunton:
+      1882.
+
+  Prior Documents. A Collection of Interesting, Authentic Papers
+      relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and America,
+      Shewing the Causes and Progress of that Misunderstanding from
+      1764 to 1775. (Almon.) London: 1777.
+
+  The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates for the Counties and
+      Corporations in the Colony of Virginia, Held at Richmond Town,
+      in the County of Henrico, on the 20th of March, 1775. Richmond:
+      1816.
+
+  RANDALL, HENRY STEPHENS, The Life of Thomas Jefferson. 3 vols. New
+      York: 1858.
+
+  RANDOLPH, JOHN. (See Adams, Henry, and Garland, Hugh A.)
+
+  REED, WILLIAM B., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed. 2 vols.
+      Philadelphia: 1847.
+
+  RIVES, WILLIAM C., History of the Life and Times of James Madison.
+      Boston: Vol. i. 2d ed. 1873. Vol. ii. 1870. Vol. iii. 1868.
+
+  ROWLAND, KATE MASON, The Life of George Mason, Including his
+      Speeches, Public Papers, and Correspondence, with an
+      Introduction by General Fitzhugh Lee. 2 vols. New York: 1892.
+
+  SLAUGHTER, REV. PHILIP, A History of St. Mark's Parish, Culpeper
+      County, Virginia, n. p. 1877.
+
+  SPARKS, JARED. (See Corr. Am. Revolution, and Washington, Writings
+      of.)
+
+  STORY, JOSEPH, Commentaries of the Constitution of the United
+      States. Ed. by Thomas M. Cooley. 2 vols. Boston: 1873.
+
+  TYLER, LYON G., The Letters and Times of the Tylers. 2 vols.
+      Richmond: 1884-1885.
+
+  The Virginia Historical Register and Literary Note-Book. Vol. iii.
+      Richmond: 1850.
+
+  Virginia State Papers, Calendar of. Vol. ii. Richmond: 1881.
+
+  WASHINGTON, GEORGE, The Writings of; Being his Correspondence,
+      Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private;
+      Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts, with a
+      Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations. Edited by Jared
+      Sparks. 12 vols. Boston and New York: 1834-1847.
+
+  WASHINGTON, GEORGE, Life of. (See John Marshall.)
+
+  WASHINGTON, H. A. (See Jefferson, Thomas, Writings of.)
+
+  WEBSTER, DANIEL, Life of. (See Geo. Ticknor Curtis.)
+
+  WELLS, WILLIAM V., The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams. 3
+      vols. Boston: 1865.
+
+  WHITE, WILLIAM, Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
+      United States of America. Ed. by B. F. De Costa. New York: 1880.
+
+  WIRT, WILLIAM, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry.
+      Third ed., corrected by the Author. Philadelphia: 1818.
+
+  WIRT, WILLIAM, Life of. (See Kennedy, John P.)
+
+  WISE, HENRY A., Seven Decades of the Union. Philadelphia: 1872.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Adams, John, on Henry's confession of illiteracy, 12;
+    early recognizes Henry's importance, 88;
+    describes enthusiasm of Virginians over oratory of Henry and Lee, 101;
+    describes social festivities at Philadelphia, 104-106;
+    in Congress asks Duane to explain motion to prepare regulations, 108;
+    describes Henry's first speech, 110;
+    debates method of voting in Congress, 110;
+    gives summary of Henry's speech against Galloway's plan, 116;
+    on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+    forms a high opinion of Henry's abilities, 124;
+    discusses with Henry the probability of war, 125;
+    on Henry's apparent profanity, 126;
+    has brief military aspirations, 154;
+    envious of military glory, 154;
+    on committees in second Continental Congress, 172, 175;
+    as likely as Henry to have been a good fighter, 188;
+    but unlike him in not offering, 188;
+    urged by Henry to advocate French alliance, 199;
+    on importance of Virginia's action in adopting a constitution, 201;
+    advocates a democratic constitution in "Thoughts on Government," 202;
+    praised for it by Henry, 204-206;
+    his complimentary reply, 206;
+    comments on Virginia aristocrats, 207;
+    his friendship with Henry, 397;
+    becomes president, 407;
+    sends French mission, 411, 412;
+    appoints Henry envoy to France, 412;
+    thanked by Henry, 412.
+
+  Adams, Samuel, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    of the second, 173;
+    friendship of Henry for, 206;
+    unfavorable to federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Alexander, Rev. Archibald, of Princeton, analyzes Henry's success
+    as a jury lawyer, 370;
+    gives anecdotes of his success, 371-375.
+
+  Alsop, John, member of second Continental Congress, 173.
+
+  Arnold, Benedict, commands marauding expedition in Virginia, 278.
+
+  Articles of Confederation, their weakness deplored by Henry, 305;
+    plans of Henry and others to strengthen, 305, 306.
+
+  Assembly, General, of Virginia. See Legislature.
+
+  Atherton, Joshua, opposes federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Atkinson, Roger, describes Virginia delegates in Continental Congress,
+    102.
+
+  Aylett, Mrs. Betsy, letter of Henry to, describing his political
+    opinions, in 1796, 405.
+
+
+  Baker, Counsellor, opposes Henry in British debts case, 362.
+
+  Baptists, petition convention for religious liberty, 209;
+    congratulate Henry on his election as governor, 216;
+    his reply, 217.
+
+  Bar of Virginia, examination for, 22-25;
+    its ability, 90;
+    leaders of, 93;
+    opposes, as a rule, the federal Constitution, 319;
+    its eminence and participation in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Barrell, William, entertains delegates to first Continental Congress,
+    at his store, 106.
+
+  Bayard, ----, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Bernard, Sir Francis, describes exciting effect of Virginia Resolves
+    in Boston, 82.
+
+  Bill of Rights, the demand for in the new federal Constitution, 324,
+    325, 326, 331;
+    secured in first ten amendments, 354, 355.
+
+  Blair, Archibald, draws forth Henry's opinions on American foreign
+    policy, 409.
+
+  Blair, John, prominent in Virginia bar, 93;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, 212;
+    tries British debts case, 362.
+
+  Bland, Richard, on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    believes submission inevitable, 67;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    by John Adams, 106;
+    in debate on manner of voting, 112;
+    opposes Henry's motion to arm militia, 137;
+    on committees, 152;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and constitution, 200.
+
+  Bland, Theodoric, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    presents to Congress Virginia's appeal for a new federal convention,
+    354.
+
+  Bland, Theophilus, letter of Tucker to, sneering at Henry, 269.
+
+  Bloodworth, Timothy, of North Carolina, opposes federal Constitution,
+    330.
+
+  Boston Port Bill, its day of going into operation made a public fast
+    day by Virginia Assembly, 97.
+
+  Boyce, Captain, asks Washington, through Henry, for a letter, 301.
+
+  Braxton, Carter, wishes an aristocratic state constitution in Virginia,
+    201;
+    recommends a pamphlet in favor of such a government, 203, 206;
+    condemned by Henry, 204, 206.
+
+  Breckenridge, ----, against Henry in murder trial, 376.
+
+  British debts case, cause for the action, 359, 360;
+    question at issue, did treaty of 1783 override a Virginia sequestration
+    act, 360;
+    the counsel, 360;
+    Henry's preparation for, 361, 362;
+    first trial and Henry's speech, 362-364;
+    intense popular interest, 363;
+    second trial before Chief Justice Jay and Justice Iredell, 364-367;
+    comparison of Henry's and Marshall's pleas, 366;
+    Iredell's opinion, 367.
+
+  Brougham, Lord, third cousin of Patrick Henry, 3;
+    resemblance between the two orators, 3, 4.
+
+  Burgesses, House of. See Legislature of Virginia.
+
+  Burgoyne, John, his campaign and capture, 240.
+
+  Burke, Aedanus, opposed to federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Butler, Bishop Joseph, his "Analogy" Henry's favorite book, 20, 391;
+    an edition printed and distributed by Henry to counteract skepticism,
+    394.
+
+  Byrd, William, of Westover, describes Sarah Syme, Henry's mother, 1, 2.
+
+
+  Cabell, Dr. George, Henry's physician in his last illness, 421, 422.
+
+  Cadwallader, John, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress,
+    105.
+
+  Campbell, Alexander, with Henry in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Carrington, Clement, son of Paul, explains Henry's military defect to
+    be lack of discipline, 187.
+
+  Carrington, Edward, on Henry's desire for disunion in 1788, 317.
+
+  Carrington, Paul, friendly with Henry at time of Virginia Resolutions,
+    74;
+    on committee of convention to frame Constitution, 200.
+
+  Carrington, Paul, Jr., opposes Henry in a murder case, 372, 373.
+
+  Carter, Charles, of Stafford, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Carter, Landon, on committee to prepare remonstrances against Stamp Act,
+    66;
+    deplores to Washington the number of inexperienced men in Virginia
+    convention of 1776, 191;
+    writes to Washington sneering at Henry's military preparations, 222,
+    223.
+
+  Cary, Archibald, on committee of Virginia convention, 152;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft constitution and bill of rights, 200;
+    reports plan to the convention, 210;
+    his reported threat to kill Henry if he should be made dictator, 226;
+    another version, 234.
+
+  Chase, Samuel, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    overwhelmed at first by Lee's and Henry's oratory, 119;
+    later discovers them to be mere men, 119;
+    opposed to federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Chatham, Lord, praises state papers of first Continental Congress, 117;
+    his death, 240.
+
+  Christian, William, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151;
+    with Henry in flight from Tarleton, 281, 282.
+
+  Clapham, Josias, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Clark, George Rogers, sent by Henry to punish Northwestern Indians, 258;
+    success of his expedition described by Henry, 258-260, 263.
+
+  Clergy of Virginia, paid in tobacco by colony, 37;
+    their sufferings from fluctuations in its value, 38;
+    their salaries cut down by Option Laws, 40, 41;
+    apply in vain to governor, 43;
+    appeal to England, 44;
+    bring suits to secure damages, 44.
+    See Parsons' Cause.
+
+  Clinton, George, opposes federal Constitution, 330;
+    his letter answered by Henry, 353.
+
+  Collier, Sir George, commands British fleet which ravages Virginia, 257,
+    264, 267.
+
+  Collins, ----, calls on John Adams, 105.
+
+  Committee of Correspondence, established, 96.
+
+  Committee of Safety, of Virginia, given control of Virginia militia, 177;
+    ignores Henry's nominal command, and keeps him from serving in field,
+    180, 181;
+    causes for its action, 184-187.
+
+  Congress, Continental, called for by Virginia Burgesses, 98;
+    delegates elected to in Virginia, 99;
+    members of described, 101-108;
+    convivialities attending session, 104-106;
+    holds first meeting and plans organization, 107-111;
+    debates method of voting, 108, 111-113;
+    elects a president and secretary, 107, 108;
+    resolves to vote by colonies, 113;
+    appoints committee to state grievances, and others, 113, 114;
+    absence of reports of its action, 114;
+    debates and rejects Galloway's plan of union, 115, 116;
+    discusses non-importation, 117;
+    appoints committees to draft state papers, 117, 118;
+    rejects Lee's draft of address to king, 118;
+    mythical account of proceedings in by Wirt, 119-122;
+    fails, according to Adams, to appreciate dangers of situation, 124;
+    warns people to be prepared for war, 129;
+    selects Washington for commander-in-chief, 152, 153;
+    second Congress convenes in 1775, 166;
+    its proceedings secret and reports meagre, 168, 171-172;
+    question as to Henry's behavior in, 168-170;
+    the important questions decided by it, 170, 171;
+    committees in, 172-175;
+    adjourns, 176;
+    decides to adopt Virginia troops, 181;
+    sends Henry a colonel's commission, 181;
+    urged by Virginia to declare independence, 197;
+    flies from Philadelphia, 230;
+    cabal in against Washington, 242-250;
+    reports of Henry to, concerning sending militia south, 260-262;
+    and concerning Matthews' invasion, 264-266.
+
+  Congress of the United States, reluctantly led by Madison to propose
+    first ten amendments, 354-355.
+
+  Connecticut, prepares for war, 131, 133.
+
+  Constitution of the United States, convention for forming it called, 309;
+    opposition to in South for fear of unfriendly action of Northern
+    States, 309-311;
+    refusal of Henry to attend convention, 310-312;
+    formed by the convention, 313;
+    its adoption urged upon Henry by Washington, 313;
+    struggle over its ratification in Virginia, 314-338;
+    at outset favored by majority in Virginia, 315;
+    campaign of Henry, Mason, and others against, 316, 317;
+    opposed by Virginia bar and bench, 319;
+    struggles in the convention, 320-338;
+    Henry's objections to, 322-330;
+    policy of opposition to work for amendments, 330;
+    ratified by convention with reservation of sovereignty, 331, 332;
+    obedience to it promised by Henry for his party, 332, 333;
+    struggle for amendments, 339-356;
+    difficulties in amending, 339, 340;
+    doubts expressed by Henry of its possibility, 341;
+    organization of a party to agitate for amendments, 341-345;
+    Virginia demands a new convention, 347-350;
+    twelve amendments proposed by Congress, 354;
+    this action probably due to Virginia's demands, 355, 356.
+
+  Constitution of Virginia, its adoption, 200-211;
+    its democratic character, 211.
+
+  Convention of Virginia. See Legislature.
+
+  Conway, General Thomas, praised in anonymous letter to Henry, 244;
+    his cabal against Washington, 250.
+
+  Conway cabal, its origin, 242;
+    attempts to prejudice Henry against Washington, 243-246;
+    explained by Washington to Henry, 248-250;
+    supposed connection of R. H. Lee with, discredits him in Virginia,
+    252, 253.
+
+  Cootes, ----, of James River, laments Henry's treasonable speech in
+    Parsons' Cause, 58, 59.
+
+  Corbin, Francis, favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Corbin, Richard, on Dunmore's order pays for gunpowder, 161.
+
+  Cornwallis, Lord, defeats Greene at Guilford, 278;
+    invades Virginia, 279;
+    sends Tarleton to capture the legislature, 279.
+
+  Cushing, Thomas, member of second Continental Congress, 174.
+
+  Custis, John, informs Henry of Conway cabal, 247.
+
+
+  Dandridge, Bartholomew, on committee to notify Henry of his election as
+    governor, 212.
+
+  Dandridge, Dorothea, second wife of Patrick Henry, 241;
+    on his religious habits, 392.
+
+  Dandridge, Colonel Nathan, Jefferson meets Henry at house of, 8.
+
+  Dandridge, Nathaniel West, contests seat of Littlepage, 61;
+    employs Henry as counsel, 61.
+
+  Davies, William, letter to concerning dictatorship in 1781, 286.
+
+  Dawson, John, assists Henry in debate on ratifying federal Constitution,
+    320.
+
+  Deane, Silas, describes Southern delegates to first Continental Congress,
+    especially Patrick Henry, 114, 115;
+    on committees of second Continental Congress, 173, 174.
+
+  Democratic party, disliked by Henry for its French sympathies, 397;
+    its attempt in Congress to block Jay treaty condemned by Henry, 405;
+    its subserviency to France and defiance of government denounced by
+    Henry, 409.
+
+  Dickinson, John, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105,
+    106;
+    on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+    prepares final draft of address, 118;
+    thinks war inevitable, 130.
+
+  Dictatorship, supposed projects for in Virginia during Revolution in
+    1776, 223-235;
+    in 1781, 285-287;
+    real meaning of term in those years, 227-229.
+
+  Digges, Dudley, in Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and constitution, 200;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, 212.
+
+  Dresser, Rev. Charles, on Henry's religious habits, 392.
+
+  Duane, James, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    moves a committee to prepare regulations for voting, 108;
+    favors Galloway's plan of home rule, 115;
+    on committee of second Continental Congress, 172.
+
+  Dunmore, Lord, dissolves House of Burgesses for protesting against
+    Boston Port Bill, 97;
+    makes a campaign against Indians, 131;
+    reports to home government the military preparations of Virginia, 133;
+    sends force to seize gunpowder, 156;
+    alarmed at advance of Henry's force, 160;
+    offers to pay for gunpowder, 160;
+    issues a proclamation against Henry, 162, 163;
+    suspected of intention to arrest him, 166;
+    describes to General Howe his operations against rebels, 178, 179;
+    his palace occupied by Henry, 214.
+
+
+  Education in Virginia, 5.
+
+  Ellsworth, Oliver, appointed envoy to France, 412.
+
+  Episcopal Church, established in Virginia, 37;
+    its increasing unpopularity, 43, 57;
+    virtually disestablished by declaration of rights, 209;
+    its incorporation proposed by Henry, 294;
+    Henry a member of, 391, 392.
+
+
+  Fauquier, Governor Francis, condemns Henry's speech against the Stamp
+    Act, 86.
+
+  Federalist party, at first viewed with suspicion by Henry, 397;
+    later sympathized with by him, 398, 399;
+    sincerity of its leaders in offering Henry office questioned by
+    Jefferson, 404;
+    its folly in passing alien and sedition acts, 408.
+
+  Fleming, John, Henry's assistant in introducing the Virginia Resolves,
+    69.
+
+  Fontaine, Edward, gives Roane's description of Henry's speech for
+    organizing militia, 146, 150.
+
+  Fontaine, Mrs. Martha, with Henry in last illness, 421.
+
+  Fontaine, Colonel Patrick Henry, statement as to Henry's classical
+    training, 15;
+    finds his examinations rigorous, 16;
+    tells story of his grandfather's conversation in Latin with a French
+    visitor, 16, 17;
+    describes his grandfather's preparation in British debts case, 361;
+    describes his abstemiousness, 386.
+
+  Ford, John, defended by Henry in a murder case, 374, 375.
+
+  France, alliance with desired by Henry as preliminary to declaring
+    independence, 194, 198, 199;
+    discussed by Charles Lee, 195;
+    adherence to, advocated strongly by Henry, 254, 255;
+    infidelity of, combated by Henry, 393;
+    its quarrel with United States during Adams's administration, 407-412;
+    its conduct toward Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry condemned by Henry,
+    409, 410;
+    commission to, nominated by Adams, 412.
+
+  Franklin, Benjamin, on committee with Henry in second Continental
+    Congress, 174, 175.
+
+  Frazer, ----, recommended to Washington by Henry, 175.
+
+  Free trade, advocated by Henry, 291, 292.
+
+  French Revolution, effect of its excesses on Henry and others, 398;
+    its infidelity condemned by Henry, 409.
+
+
+  Gadsden, Christopher, at Continental Congress, meets John Adams, 104,
+    105;
+    a member of Congress, 108;
+    in debate on manner of voting, 112;
+    on gunpowder committee of second Continental Congress, 175.
+
+  Gage, General Thomas, describes the exciting effect of the Virginia
+    Resolves over the continent, 82.
+
+  Gallatin, Albert, his alleged Latin conversation with Henry, 16, 17.
+
+  Galloway, Joseph, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    offers plan of reconciliation with England, 115;
+    its close approach to success, 115.
+
+  Gardoqui, ----, Spanish envoy, negotiates with Jay respecting navigation
+    of the Mississippi, 307, 308.
+
+  Gates, General Horatio, cabal to place him in supreme command, 242, 250;
+    praised in anonymous letter to Henry, 244;
+    consoled after battle of Camden by Virginia Assembly 277.
+
+  Genet, Edmond Charles, upheld by Jefferson and Madison, 397.
+
+  Gerry, Elbridge, opposes adoption of federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Gerrymandering, employed in 1788 against Madison in Virginia, 351, 352.
+
+  Girardin, Louis Hue, in his continuation of Burk's "History of Virginia,"
+    written under Jefferson's supervision, accuses Henry of plan to
+    establish a dictatorship in 1776, 225;
+    says the same for the year 1781, 285.
+
+  Gordon, Rev. William, describes circulation of the Virginia resolutions
+    in the Northern colonies, 80.
+
+  Grayson, William, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    assists Henry in debate, 320;
+    elected senator at Henry's dictation, 350, 353.
+
+  Greene, General Nathanael, beaten at Guilford, 278;
+    considered as possible dictator in 1781, 286.
+
+  Griffin, Judge Cyrus, tries British debts case, 362, 364.
+
+  Grigsby, Hugh Blair, considers Wirt's version of Henry's speech for
+    arming militia apocryphal, 149;
+    but admits that outline is authentic, 150;
+    reports statement of Clement Carrington regarding Henry's military
+    failings, 187;
+    on the injustice of Henry's treatment, 188.
+
+
+  Hamilton, Alexander, urges magnanimous treatment of Tories, 289;
+    letter of Madison to, warning of Henry's intention to defeat operation
+    of Constitution, 344;
+    his financial schemes disapproved by Henry, 397.
+
+  Hamilton, Colonel Henry, governor of Detroit, 259.
+
+  Hampden-Sidney College, 16;
+    suspends work to hear Henry's last speech, 415.
+
+  Hancock, John, his military aspirations, 153, 154;
+    doubtful about federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Hardwicke, Lord, declares Virginia option law invalid, 44.
+
+  Harrison, Benjamin, on committee to remonstrate against Stamp Act, 66;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    described by John Adams, 106;
+    opposes Henry's motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, 137;
+    on committee to arm militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    returns to Virginia convention, 176;
+    his flight from Tarleton, 281, 282;
+    denounces Constitution as dangerous, 319, 322;
+    assists Henry in debate, 320.
+
+  Harvey, "Butterwood Tom," his evidence assailed by Henry in a murder
+    trial, 374, 375.
+
+  Hawley, Joseph, his letter prophesying war read by John Adams to Henry,
+    125.
+
+  Henry, David, manager of "Gentleman's Magazine," kinsman of Henry, 3.
+
+  Henry, John, marries Sarah Syme, 2;
+    father of Patrick Henry, 2;
+    his education and character, 2, 3;
+    distinguished Scotch relatives, 3;
+    educates his son, 6, 13;
+    sets him up in trade, 6;
+    after his failure and marriage establishes him on a farm, 7;
+    hears his son's speech in Parsons' Cause, 49, 50.
+
+  Henry, Patrick, his birth, 2;
+      ancestry and relatives, 2-5;
+      education, 5, 6;
+      apprenticed at fifteen to a tradesman, 6;
+      fails in business with his brother, 6;
+      marries Sarah Skelton, 7;
+      established as planter by relative and fails, 7;
+      again tries store-keeping and fails, 8;
+      not cast down by embarrassments, 8, 9;
+      decides to study law, 9;
+      discussion of his alleged illiteracy, 10-19;
+      his pronunciation, 10, 11;
+      habits of self-depreciation, 11, 12;
+      his teachers, 13, 15;
+      knowledge of Latin and Greek, 13, 15;
+      mastery of language, 13;
+      signs of culture in his letters, 14;
+      anecdotes illustrating his knowledge of Latin, 16, 17;
+      his taste for reading, 18;
+      fondness for history, 19;
+      liking for Butler's "Analogy" and the Bible, 20;
+      his natural qualifications for the law, 21;
+      studies law, 22;
+      goes to Williamsburg to be examined, 22;
+      Jefferson's stories of his difficulties in passing examination, 23;
+      his own statement, 24, 25;
+      returns to Hanover to practice law, 25;
+      lives in his father-in-law's tavern, 26;
+      not a "barkeeper," 26;
+      not dependent on his father-in-law, 27;
+      stories of his lack of practice, 27;
+      their falsity shown by record of his numerous cases, 27, 28;
+      statements by Wirt and Jefferson as to his ignorance, 29, 30;
+      their impossibility, 31, 32, 34;
+      proof of technical character of his practice, 32;
+      his legal genius, 34;
+      becomes celebrated through "Parsons' Cause," 36;
+      undertakes to defend vestrymen in suit for damages, 46;
+      insists on acceptance of a jury of common people, 47;
+      description of his speech by Wirt, 49-52;
+      its overwhelming effect, 51, 52;
+      description by Maury, 53, 54;
+      denies royal authority to annul colonial laws, 54;
+      apologizes to Maury, 55, 57;
+      not really an enemy of the clergy, 56, 57;
+      his geniality, 58;
+      popularity with the masses in Virginia, 59;
+      gains great reputation and increased practice, 60;
+      goes to Williamsburg as counsel in contested election case, 60;
+      despised by committee on account of appearance, 61;
+      his speech, 61.
+    _Member of Virginia Legislature._
+      Elected representative from Louisa County, 62;
+      attacks in his first speech a project for a corrupt loan office, 64;
+      introduces resolutions against Stamp Act, 69;
+      his fiery speeches in their behalf, 72, 73;
+      after their passage leaves for home, 74;
+      neglects to preserve records of his career, 77;
+      the exception his care to record authorship of Virginia resolutions,
+      78;
+      leaves a sealed account together with his will, 83, 84, 85;
+      doubts as to his authorship, 84, note;
+      condemned in Virginia by the officials, 86;
+      denounced by Governor Fauquier, 86;
+      and by Commissary Robinson, 86, 87;
+      begins to be known in other colonies, 88;
+      gains immediate popularity in Virginia, 88, 89;
+      becomes political leader, 90;
+      his large law practice, 91, 92;
+      buys an estate, 91;
+      his great success in admiralty case, 93;
+      succeeds to practice of R. C. Nicholas, 93, 94;
+      evidence of high legal attainments, 94;
+      leads radical party in politics, 95;
+      his great activity, 96;
+      member of Committee of Correspondence, 96;
+      leads deliberations of Burgesses over Boston Port Bill, 98;
+      appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+      member of convention of county delegates, 100.
+    _Member of Continental Congress._
+      His journey to Philadelphia, 100, 101;
+      his oratory heralded by associates, 101;
+      described by Atkinson, 102;
+      speaks in favor of committee to settle method of voting, 110;
+      protests against small colonies having equal vote with large, 111;
+      urges that old constitutions are abolished, 112;
+      wishes proportional representation, excluding slaves, 112;
+      his speech not that of a mere rhetorician, 113, 114;
+      on committee on colonial trade and manufactures, 114;
+      opposes Galloway's plan, 116;
+      expects war, 116;
+      wishes non-intercourse postponed, 117;
+      on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+      his share in its composition, 117, 118;
+      on committee to declare rights of colonies, 118;
+      his practical ability not so extraordinary as his oratory, 119;
+      misrepresented as a mere declaimer, 120;
+      mythical account by Wirt of an impressive speech, 120-121;
+      asserted also to be author of rejected draft of address to the king,
+      122;
+      and to be cast in the shade by more practical men, 122;
+      this passage a slander due to Jefferson, 123;
+      not considered a mere talker by associates, 124;
+      high tribute to his practical ability by John Adams, 124, 125;
+      agrees with Adams that war must come, 125;
+      allusion of his mother to him in 1774, 126;
+      fame of his speech for arming Virginia militia, 128;
+      danger of an overestimate, 129;
+      in Virginia convention offers resolutions to prepare for war, 134;
+      opposed by his political rivals, 137;
+      and by all who dreaded an open rupture, 138, 139;
+      his speech, 140-145;
+      description of Henry's manner by St. George Tucker, 143;
+      by Randall, 146;
+      by John Roane, 146-149;
+      question as to its authenticity, 149-151;
+      chairman of committee for arming militia, 151;
+      also on committees on public lands and on encouragement of
+      manufactures, 151, 152;
+      his possible expectations of a military career, 155;
+      summary of his military beginnings, 155, 156;
+      disgusted at failure of militia to resist Governor Dunmore's
+      seizure of gunpowder, 158;
+      wishes to emphasize situation by defying governor, 158;
+      rallies county militia and marches against him, 159;
+      receives protests from conservatives, 160;
+      reinforced by thousands, 160;
+      secures money compensation for gunpowder, 160;
+      gives receipt for it, 161;
+      offers to protect colonial treasurer, 161;
+      rebuffed by him, 162;
+      denounced in proclamation by Dunmore, 162, 163;
+      condemned by conservatives, 164;
+      thanked and applauded by county conventions, 164-166;
+      returns to Continental Congress, 166;
+      escorted by volunteer guard, 167;
+      said by Jefferson to have been insignificant in Congress, 168, 169;
+      falsity of his assertions, 169, 170;
+      their lack of probability, 171;
+      his activity proved by records of Congress, 172-175;
+      interested in Indian relations, 172;
+      on committees requiring business intelligence, 172, 173;
+      commissioner to treat with Indians, 174;
+      on committee to secure lead and salt, 174;
+      asks Washington to let a Virginian serve in army for sake of
+      acquiring military training, 175;
+      returns to Virginia, 176.
+    _Political Leader in Virginia._
+      Resumes services in Virginia convention, 176;
+      purchases powder for colony, 176;
+      thanked by convention, 176;
+      appointed commander-in-chief of Virginia forces, 177;
+      his authority limited by convention and Committee of Safety, 177;
+      organizes troops, 178;
+      not permitted to lead attack on Dunmore, 180;
+      ignored by nominal subordinates, 180;
+      practically superseded by Colonel Howe of North Carolina, 180;
+      appointed colonel of a Virginia regiment, 181;
+      resigns, 181;
+      indignation of his officers and soldiers, 181-182;
+      persuades soldiers not to mutiny, 183;
+      again receives an address from officers of his own and other
+      regiments, 183, 184;
+      his military ability doubted by Committee of Safety, 185;
+      by Washington and others, 186;
+      lack of definiteness in criticisms, 186;
+      real defect seems to have been lack of discipline, 187;
+      never given a real chance to show his abilities, 188;
+      saddened by wife's death, 189;
+      reelected to Virginia convention, 190;
+      his followers oppose Pendleton for president, 191;
+      serves on all important committees, 192, 193;
+      presents numerous reports, 193;
+      eager for independence, 193;
+      but wishes first a colonial union and a foreign alliance, 194;
+      letter of Charles Lee to, on the subject, 194-196;
+      influences convention to instruct delegates to advocate all three
+      things, 197;
+      advocates colonial union and French alliance in letters to Lee and
+      Adams, 198;
+      willing to offer free trade, 199;
+      on committee to draft declaration of rights and plan of government,
+      200;
+      leads party advocating a democratic constitution, 201;
+      complains of lack of assistance, 203;
+      fears aristocratic tendencies of committee, 203, 204-206;
+      thanks John Adams for his pamphlet, 205;
+      hearty letter of Adams in reply, 206, 207;
+      writes fifteenth and sixteenth articles of Virginia bill of rights,
+      208;
+      elected governor of State, 211;
+      his letter of acceptance, 212-213;
+      takes oath of office and occupies Dunmore's palace, 214;
+      congratulated by his old troops, 214, 215;
+      by Charles Lee, 215;
+      by the Baptists of Virginia, 216, 217;
+      his reply to the latter, 217;
+      suffers from illness, 218;
+      moves family from Hanover to Williamsburg, 219;
+      seeks to maintain dignity of office, 219, 220;
+      continues in ill-health but resumes duties of office, 220;
+      receives letter from Washington advising preparations for defense,
+      221;
+      his activity in military preparations, 222;
+      sneered at by his enemies, 222, 223;
+      alleged by Jefferson to have planned a "dictatorship," 223-225;
+      doubted by Wirt, 226;
+      real meaning of the term at that time only extraordinary power,
+      227-229;
+      authorized by legislature in 1776 to exercise military powers in
+      emergency, 231, 232;
+      utter baselessness of Jefferson's charges against, 233;
+      has continued confidence of Assembly, 234;
+      reelected governor, 234;
+      issues proclamation urging Virginians to volunteer, 235;
+      labors to keep Virginia troops in field, 236;
+      sends a secret messenger to Washington for exact information, 236;
+      explains to Washington the difficulties of raising troops in
+      Virginia, 237, 238;
+      second letter accepting governorship, 239;
+      marries Dorothea Dandridge, 241;
+      his labors in trying to furnish supplies, 241;
+      great official correspondence, 241, 242;
+      his aid desired by Conway cabal, 243;
+      receives an anonymous letter against Washington, 243-245;
+      sends it to Washington with a warning, 245, 246;
+      sends second letter assuring him of his confidence, 247;
+      replies of Washington to, 248-250;
+      his strong friendship with Washington, 251, 252;
+      its significance in his later career, 251;
+      warns R. H. Lee of prejudices against him in Virginia, 252, 253;
+      despairs of public spirit in Virginia, 254;
+      urges adherence to French alliance and rejection of North's peace
+      offers, 255;
+      twice receives extraordinary powers in 1777, 256;
+      reelected to a third term, 256; his reply, 256;
+      reports the success of George R. Clark's expedition, 258-260;
+      again receives extraordinary powers, 260;
+      writes to president of Congress concerning military situation,
+      260-262;
+      foresees shifting of British attack to Virginia, 262;
+      reports situation to Washington, 263;
+      reports Matthews's raid to Congress, 264-267;
+      issues a proclamation to warn State, 266;
+      declines reelection on ground of unconstitutionality, 268;
+      complimented by General Assembly, his reply, 268;
+      his administration sneered at by Tucker, 269;
+      complimented by Washington, 269, 270;
+      declines election to Congress, 271;
+      retires to his estate, Leatherwood, 272;
+      remains in retirement a year, 272;
+      writes despondent letter to Jefferson, 273-275;
+      chosen to General Assembly, 275;
+      at once assumes leadership, 275;
+      overwhelmed by committee work, 276;
+      again in later session, 276-278;
+      introduces resolutions to console Gates after Camden, 277;
+      introduces resolution authorizing governor to convene legislature
+      elsewhere in case of invasion, 278;
+      his flight with legislature from Tarleton's raid, 281;
+      ludicrous anecdotes of popular surprise at his flight, 282-284;
+      said by Jefferson to have been again considered for a dictatorship,
+      285;
+      contrary evidence, 286, 287;
+      his further labors in sessions of 1782, 1783, 1784, 287;
+      again elected governor, 288;
+      difficulty of estimating his labors in legislature, 288;
+      favors rescinding of measures against Tories after war, 289;
+      his speech in their behalf, 290, 291;
+      urges economic benefits of their return, 291;
+      presents bill repealing acts against British goods, 292;
+      advocates free trade, 292;
+      wishes to solve Indian problem by encouraging intermarriage, 292,
+      293;
+      almost succeeds in carrying bill to that effect, 293;
+      antagonizes popular opinion in the foregoing projects, and also in
+      religious liberality, 294;
+      his amazing mastery over the House, 294, 295;
+      his appearance in legislature described by Roane, 295-297;
+      more practical than Madison, 296;
+      superior to Madison and Lee in debate, 296;
+      death of his mother, 299;
+      brings his family from Leatherwood to Salisbury, 299;
+      his showy style of living, 300;
+      letter to Washington, 301;
+      urges him to accept shares in James and Potomac navigation companies,
+      302;
+      declines a third term and retires, 302;
+      publicly thanked by delegates, 302;
+      resumes practice of law in Prince Edward County, 303;
+      returns to Assembly until 1790, 303;
+      continues popular leader, 303.
+    _Opponent of the Federal Constitution._
+      His relation to the Constitution not understood, 298;
+      not an extreme advocate of state rights, 303;
+      an early advocate of a central authority, 304;
+      supports in the main the policy of strengthening the federal
+      government, 305;
+      proposes to Madison to "invigorate" the government, 305;
+      considered by Madison a "champion of the federal cause" until 1787,
+      306;
+      learns of Jay's offer to surrender navigation of Mississippi, 307;
+      elected a delegate to the federal convention, 309;
+      refuses, because of the Mississippi scheme, to attend, 310, 311;
+      anxiety over his refusal, 311, 312;
+      receives appeal from Washington in behalf of Constitution, 313;
+      replies stating his disapproval, 313;
+      fears expressed that he would prevent calling of a state convention,
+      314;
+      but considers one necessary, 315;
+      labors to turn public opinion against the Constitution, 315, 316;
+      said to favor disunion, 317;
+      his political methods censured by President Smith, 317;
+      leads opposition to Constitution in the convention, 320;
+      his great activity in debate, 321;
+      great ability of his arguments, 321;
+      not, in the convention at least, a disunionist, 322, 323;
+      willing to admit defects in Confederation, 323;
+      objects that a new Constitution was beyond powers of federal
+      convention, 324;
+      further holds that state sovereignty is threatened, 324;
+      objects that the individual is protected by no bill of rights, 325,
+      326;
+      dreads implied powers, 327;
+      criticises the proposed government, 327;
+      considers the executive dangerous, 328, 329;
+      fears danger to popular liberties, 329;
+      wishes to submit matter to a new convention, 330;
+      failing that, wishes it postponed until a bill of rights be added,
+      331;
+      foreseeing defeat, he promises submission to majority, 332;
+      effectiveness of his eloquence, 333, 334;
+      his unwillingness to debate regularly, 334;
+      provokes Randolph into accusing him of unparliamentary behavior, 335;
+      taunted by Stephen and others as a mere declaimer, 335;
+      the variety and effectiveness of his arguments, 335, 336;
+      episode of his speech in the thunder-storm, 336-338;
+      fears amendments cannot be adopted, 341;
+      begins a campaign for them, 341, 342;
+      urges formation of societies to agitate for a bill of rights, 342,
+      343;
+      suspected by Madison of purpose to revoke ratification or block
+      action of Congress, 343, 344;
+      satisfaction produced by his announcement of submission, 344;
+      enters with zeal into plan for a second convention, 345;
+      gains complete control of Virginia Assembly, 346;
+      causes passage of resolutions asking Congress to call a national
+      convention, 346;
+      threatens to fight government unless amendments are adopted, 347;
+      condemned bitterly by Federalists, 347;
+      wishes to control Virginia delegation to Congress, 350;
+      prevents choice of Madison and dictates election of R. H. Lee and
+      Grayson as senators, 350;
+      his followers gerrymander the congressional districts, 351;
+      retires from the legislature, 352;
+      bitter comments on his action, 353;
+      fails to prevent election of Madison, 354;
+      probable effect of his action in leading Congress itself to propose
+      amendments, 355;
+      virtual success of his policy, 355, 356.
+    _In Retirement._
+      Resumes practice of law, 357;
+      driven to it by debt, 357, 358;
+      prematurely old at fifty, 358;
+      in eight years succeeds in gaining wealth enough to retire, 358;
+      great demand for his services, 359;
+      his part in the British debts case, 359-367;
+      associated with Marshall, Campbell, and Innes, 360;
+      his laborious preparations for the trial, 361;
+      masters subject completely, 362;
+      description of his plea before the district court, 363;
+      description of his second plea in same case, 1793, 364-366;
+      complimented by Justice Iredell for ability of argument, 366, 367;
+      his even greater effectiveness in criminal cases, 367;
+      analysis by Wirt of his methods, 368;
+      another description of his eloquence by A. Alexander, 369-371;
+      description by Alexander of his part in a murder case, 371-375;
+      another murder case described by Roane, 375-378;
+      also his ability in the comic line, 377;
+      description of his powers in another murder trial by Conrad Speece,
+      378-381;
+      retires permanently in 1794, 382;
+      lives at Long Island, and eventually settles at Red Hill, 382;
+      his successful investments, 383;
+      not rich through dishonorable means as suggested by Jefferson, 383;
+      his life at Red Hill, 384-395;
+      happy relations with his family, 384;
+      calmness of temper, 385;
+      unruffled by scurrilous attacks, 385, 386;
+      his advocacy of temperance, 386;
+      tries to introduce a substitute for wine, 386;
+      his dislike of tobacco, 387;
+      his elocutionary manner of directing negroes in the morning, 387;
+      his ownership of slaves and dislike of slavery, 388;
+      advocates emancipation, 389;
+      his hospitality, 389;
+      his modesty, 390;
+      tendency to plume himself on wealth, 390;
+      assists in education of children, 391;
+      his enjoyment of religious writings and sacred music, 391;
+      his religious character and habits, 391;
+      a member of the Episcopal Church, 392;
+      his anger at being called an infidel, 392;
+      alarmed at French skepticism, 393;
+      causes Butler's "Analogy" and other books to be distributed, 394;
+      writes a reply to Paine's "Age of Reason," but causes it to be
+      destroyed, 394, 395;
+      inserts an affirmation of his faith in his will, 395;
+      continues to take interest in current events, 395;
+      satisfied with the Constitution after the ten amendments, 396;
+      but finds it hard to approve at once the Federalist government, 397;
+      dislikes Hamilton's financial measures, 397;
+      gradually drawn toward Federalists and away from Jeffersonians, 398;
+      testimony of Iredell to his liberality, 398;
+      declines appointment as United States senator, 398;
+      believes that Washington considers him an enemy, 399;
+      reconciled to Washington by Henry Lee, 399;
+      his letter to Lee, 400, 401;
+      dislikes democratic societies, 401;
+      offered position as secretary of state, 402;
+      declines it, 402;
+      receives from Washington through Lee an offer of chief justiceship,
+      402, 403;
+      Washington's anxiety for his acceptance, 403;
+      declines it, 404; considered by Federalists for vice-presidency, 404;
+      sneered at by Jefferson, 404;
+      denies that he has changed opinions, 405;
+      dislikes Jay treaty, but condemns attempt of House to participate in
+      treaty power, 405;
+      elected governor of Virginia, declines, 406;
+      asked to express his opinion on political situation in 1799, 408;
+      believes that Jefferson's party plans disunion, 409;
+      alarmed at French Revolution, 409;
+      especially at infidelity, 410;
+      compliments Marshall's bearing in France, and wishes his election to
+      Congress, 410, 411;
+      urges American national feeling, 410;
+      declines Adams's nomination as minister to France, 412;
+      but expresses his sympathy with him, 412;
+      appealed to by Washington to come forward against the Democrats, 413,
+      414;
+      comes out from retirement as candidate for legislature, 415;
+      great public interest, 415;
+      description of his last speech, 416-419;
+      dissuades from resistance to the government, 417;
+      denies the power of a State to decide on federal laws, 418;
+      urges harmony and use of constitutional means of redress, 418, 419;
+      his meeting with John Randolph, 420;
+      elected by a great majority, 420;
+      returns home, 421;
+      his last illness and death, 421-423.
+    _Characteristics._
+      Absence of self-consciousness, 77;
+      abstemiousness, 386, 387;
+      audacity, 64, 69, 294;
+      business inefficiency, 6, 7, 8, 388;
+      early fondness for the woods, 5, 29, 30;
+      education, 6, 10, 13-17, 122;
+      eloquence, 48-52, 61, 64, 72, 93, 98, 115, 128, 140-151, 159, 295,
+      297, 333-338, 363, 365, 368-381, 418;
+      friendships, 251, 252, 273, 399;
+      geniality and kindliness, 57, 58, 117, 220, 277, 332, 385, 398,
+      399-401;
+      high spirits, 8, 9, 18, 76;
+      honor, 245, 251;
+      indolence in youth, 5, 6, 29;
+      influence with the people, 59, 60, 88, 89, 102, 160, 164-167,
+      181-184, 282-284, 316, 346, 415, 420;
+      keenness and quickness, 21, 33, 34;
+      legal ability, 24, 25, 29, 33, 92, 93, 94, 359-381;
+      military ability, 155, 185-188;
+      modesty, 212, 239;
+      not a mere declaimer, 98, 113, 119-125, 169, 321;
+      personal appearance, 220, 296, 300, 364, 416;
+      political sense, 109, 110, 117, 124, 125, 158, 195, 245, 258,
+      289-291;
+      practical ability, 30, 172-175, 192-193, 241, 242, 260-270, 275;
+      reading habits, 18, 19, 391;
+      religious views, 20, 56, 126, 208, 218, 389-395, 422, 423;
+      rusticity in early life, 10, 61;
+      self-depreciation, 11, 12;
+      simplicity of manners, 220, 379, 384;
+      unfriendly views of, 222, 269, 396.
+      See Jefferson, Thomas.
+    _Political Opinions._
+      Amendments to the Constitution, 340-349, 355;
+      bill of rights, 327;
+      church establishment, 53, 208-210;
+      colonial union, 116, 193-199;
+      Democratic party, 409;
+      democracy, 201, 204;
+      disunion, 317, 323, 409;
+      executive power, 328, 329;
+      federal Constitution, 313, 323-331, 405, 418;
+      French alliance, 193-199, 254, 255;
+      French Revolution, 409;
+      free trade, 291, 292;
+      gerrymandering, 351;
+      independence of colonies, 193 ff.;
+      Indians, 172, 173, 258, 292, 293;
+      Jay treaty, 405;
+      Mississippi navigation, 309-311;
+      necessity for central authority, 304-306, 322;
+      not connected with plan for a dictatorship, 224-229, 233, 234,
+      286, 287;
+      nullification, 417, 418;
+      power of crown to annul a colonial law, 53;
+      power of Parliament over colonies, 69-71, 95;
+      resistance to England, 125, 140-145;
+      slavery, 388, 389;
+      state rights, 323 ff.;
+      theory that colonies are dissolved by revolution, 111, 112;
+      Tories, 289-291;
+      treaty power, 405;
+      Virginia state Constitution, 201-206.
+
+  Henry, Rev. Patrick, uncle of Patrick Henry, helps in his education, 6;
+    a good classical scholar, 13, 15;
+    persuaded by Henry not to be present at Parsons' Cause, 57.
+
+  Henry, William, elder brother of Patrick Henry, becomes his partner in
+    trade, 6.
+
+  Henry, William Wirt, on difficulty of reconciling Jefferson's statements
+    regarding Henry's ignorance of law with his large practice, 33;
+    on baselessness of Jefferson's dictatorship story, 233.
+
+  Herkimer, his defeat by St. Leger, 240.
+
+  Holland, ----, defended by Henry on charge of murder, 376, 377.
+
+  Holt, James, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Hopkins, Stephen, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105;
+    a member, 108;
+    in second Continental Congress, 175.
+
+  Howe, General Robert, commands North Carolina and Virginia troops and
+    ignores Henry, 180.
+
+  Howe, General Sir William, letter of Dunmore to, describing military
+    operations in Virginia, 178;
+    his sluggishness in 1777, 236;
+    his movements in that year, 240, 241;
+    his capture of Philadelphia, 243.
+
+
+  Independence, brought unavoidably before country in 1776, 190, 193;
+    sentiment in Virginia convention in favor of, 193;
+    its postponement wished by Henry until a colonial union and foreign
+    alliances be formed, 194;
+    letter of Charles Lee urging its immediate declaration, 194.
+
+  Indians, troubles with in Virginia in 1774, 126, 131;
+    negotiations with in Continental Congress, 171, 172, 173, 174;
+    in Virginia convention, 192;
+    expedition of G. R. Clark against, 258-260, 263;
+    dealings with Southwestern Indians, 263;
+    proposals of Henry to encourage intermarriage with, 292, 293.
+
+  Innes, James, receives a speech of Henry to his constituents from
+    Rev. J. B. Smith, 317;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    with Henry in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Iredell, Judge James, tries British debts case, 364;
+    describes eagerness to hear Henry, 364;
+    effect of Henry's oratory upon, 365;
+    compliments him in opinion, 366;
+    won over from dislike of Henry by his moderation and liberality, 398.
+
+
+  Jay, John, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    opposes Henry's proposal to frame a new Constitution, 112;
+    favors Galloway's plan of reconciliation, 115;
+    as likely as Henry to be a good fighter, 188;
+    but inferior to him in not offering, 188;
+    proposes to Congress to surrender navigation of Mississippi, 307;
+    as chief justice, tries British debts case, 364;
+    points out Henry to Iredell as the "greatest of orators," 364;
+    affected by Henry's oratory, 365;
+    converses with him on politics, 398.
+
+  Jay treaty, condemned by Henry, 405.
+
+  Jefferson, Thomas, meets Patrick Henry, 8;
+    describes his hilarity, 9;
+    his vulgar pronunciation, 10;
+    calls him illiterate, 12;
+    yet admits his mastery over language, 13;
+    at Williamsburg when Henry comes for his bar examination, 22;
+    his stories of Henry's examination, 23;
+    says Henry was a barkeeper, 26;
+    describes him as ignorant of the law and inefficient, 29, 30;
+    comparison of his legal business with Henry's, 31;
+    baselessness of his imputations, 32, 33;
+    describes Henry's maiden speech in legislature against "loan office,"
+    64;
+    present at debate over Virginia resolutions, 73, 74;
+    his conflicting statements for and against Henry's authorship of the
+    resolves, 84, note;
+    describes Henry's attainment to leadership, 88;
+    prominent member of bar, 93;
+    declines offer of practice of R. C. Nicholas, 94;
+    asserts that Henry was totally ignorant of law, 94;
+    with radical group in politics, 95;
+    furnishes Wirt with statements of Henry's insignificance in Congress,
+    123;
+    induces Wirt not to mention his name, 123;
+    admits Henry's leadership in Virginia, 139;
+    on committee for arming militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    says that Henry committed the first overt act of war in Virginia, 155;
+    says Henry was a silent member of second Continental Congress and glad
+    to leave, 168, 169;
+    errors of fact in his statement, 169, 170;
+    appears as delegate to second Continental Congress, 173;
+    returns to Virginia convention, 176;
+    favors a democratic Constitution, 202;
+    describes plan to establish a dictatorship in Virginia, 224;
+    intimates that Henry was the proposed tyrant, 225;
+    induces Girardin to state fact in "History of Virginia," 225;
+    furnishes the story to Wirt, 226;
+    unhistorical character of his narrative, 227-229;
+    himself the recipient as governor of extraordinary powers from
+    legislature, 228;
+    probably invents the whole story, 233;
+    makes no opposition to subsequent reelections of Henry, 235;
+    his later dislike of Henry, 251;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his second reelection as governor, 256;
+    elected governor, 268;
+    fears of Tucker as to his energy, 269;
+    continues on friendly terms with Henry while governor, 273;
+    despondent letter of Henry to, on political decay, 273-275;
+    reelected, 276;
+    his flight from Tarleton, 285;
+    his story of second plan to make Henry dictator, 285;
+    unhistorical character of the story, 285-287;
+    his statement flatly contradicted by Edmund Randolph, 286;
+    told by Madison of Henry's desire to strengthen central government,
+    305;
+    and of Virginian opposition to abandoning Mississippi navigation,
+    307, 308, 311;
+    informed by Madison of opposition to Constitution in Virginia, 315,
+    316, 345;
+    not in Virginia ratifying Convention, 319;
+    opposes new constitution, 319;
+    thinks it dangerous to liberty, 330;
+    letter from Madison to, explaining his defeat for senator, 351;
+    charges Henry with paying debts in worthless paper, and with
+    connection with the Yazoo scheme, 383;
+    forms opposition party to Washington, 397;
+    sneers at Federalist advances to Henry, 404;
+    secures his election as governor of Virginia, 406;
+    his letter to Mazzei published, 407;
+    writes Kentucky resolutions, 408.
+
+  Jenyns, Soame, his "View of the Internal Evidence of Christianity,"
+    printed by Henry for private distribution, 394.
+
+  Johnson, Thomas, on committee of Continental Congress to prepare address
+    to the king, 117;
+    opposes Pendleton for president of Virginia convention, 191.
+
+  Johnston, George, aids Henry in introducing Virginia Resolves, 69, 72;
+    said by Jefferson to have written them, 84, note.
+
+  Johnstone, Governor George, his membership of North's peace commission
+    a surprise to Henry, 255.
+
+  Jones, Allen, confers with Henry over weakness of Confederation, 305,
+    306.
+
+  Jones, William, plaintiff in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Jouette, Captain John, warns Virginia legislature of Tarleton's
+    approach, 280, 281.
+
+
+  Kentucky resolutions written by Jefferson, 408.
+
+  King, address to the, in Continental Congress, 117, 118;
+    its authorship wrongly accredited to Henry, 118, 122.
+
+  Kirkland, Rev. Samuel, urged by Continental Congress to secure
+    neutrality of the Six Nations, 174.
+
+
+  Lamb, General John, letter from Henry to, on Virginia opposition to
+    Constitution, 342.
+
+  Langdon, John, on gunpowder and salt committee of the second Continental
+    Congress, 175.
+
+  Lear, Tobias, describes Henry's control of Virginia politics in 1788,
+    353.
+
+  Lee, Arthur, letter of Marshall to, 311.
+
+  Lee, General Charles, describes military preparations of colonies in
+    1774, and predicts war, 130, 131;
+    envied by Adams on his departure to command colonial army, 154;
+    appointed by Congress major-general, 172;
+    special difficulties of his situation, 173;
+    tells Washington that Virginia is ready for independence, 193;
+    eager for independence, 194;
+    urges its immediate declaration upon Henry, 194-196;
+    congratulates Henry on his election as governor, 215;
+    ridicules popular fondness for titles, 215, 216;
+    praised in anonymous letter to Henry, 244.
+
+  Lee, Henry, in Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and state Constitution, 200;
+    on committee to notify Henry of election as governor, 212;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    appoints Henry United States senator in 1794, 398;
+    determines to reconcile Washington and Henry, 398;
+    describes Henry's friendly attitude to Washington, 399;
+    acts as successful intermediary, 399-403;
+    offers to Henry, in behalf of Washington, the office of chief justice,
+    403.
+
+  Lee, Richard Henry, on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    leader of radicals in politics, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    praised by Virginia delegates as the Cicero of the age, 101;
+    meets John Adams and is praised by him, 106;
+    in debate over manner of voting, 112;
+    on committee to prepare address to king, 117;
+    author of draft rejected by Congress, 118;
+    on committee of Virginia convention for organizing militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    in second Continental Congress, 173;
+    letter of Pendleton to, describing military situation in Virginia, 178;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    urged by Henry to promote French alliance, 198;
+    favors a democratic constitution, 202;
+    appealed to for aid by Henry, 204;
+    supposed to have been won by Conway cabal, 243, 253;
+    loses popularity in Virginia, 252;
+    barely succeeds in reelection to Congress, 253;
+    consoled by Henry, 253;
+    warned of decay of public spirit in Virginia, 254;
+    Henry's only rival in leadership of General Assembly, 275;
+    compared with Henry by S. Roane, 295-296;
+    opposes a strong central government, 305;
+    not a member of Virginia ratifying convention, 319;
+    opposes ratification of Constitution, 320;
+    his election as senator dictated by Henry, 350, 353;
+    turns from Jefferson to support of Washington, 398.
+
+  Lee, Thomas Ludwell, suggested as messenger by Henry, 205.
+
+  Legislature of Virginia, first appearance of Henry before Burgesses in
+    election case, 61;
+    corruption of speaker in, 63;
+    motion for a "loan office" in, defeated by Henry, 64;
+    protests against proposed Stamp Act, 65;
+    doubts among members as to course after its passage, 66-68;
+    deliberates on Stamp Act, 68;
+    introduction of Henry's resolutions, 69;
+    opposition of old leaders, 69, 71;
+    debate in, 71-74;
+    passes, then amends resolutions, 74, 75;
+    deplores Boston Port Bill, 97;
+    dissolved by Governor Dunmore, 97;
+    its members call for a Continental Congress, 98;
+    recommend a colonial convention, 99;
+    which meets, 99;
+    appoints delegates to first Continental Congress, 99, 100;
+    adjourns, 100;
+    second convention meets, 134;
+    its determination to prepare for war, 135;
+    causes for objections to Henry's resolutions to arm militia, 136-139;
+    adopts his resolutions to arm militia, and prepares for war, 151, 152;
+    return of Virginia congressional delegates to, 176;
+    thanks them, 176;
+    appoints Henry commander-in-chief with limited powers, 177;
+    meets at Williamsburg, 190;
+    its able membership, 190;
+    struggle for presidency between Pendleton's and Henry's factions, 191;
+    committees and business transacted by, 192, 193;
+    sentiment in, said to favor independence, 193;
+    instructs delegates to Congress to propose independence, foreign
+    alliance, and a confederation, 197;
+    appoints committee to draw up state Constitution and bill of rights,
+    200;
+    aristocratic and democratic parties in, 201-207;
+    adopts declaration of rights, 207-210;
+    establishes religious liberty, 208, 209;
+    adopts state Constitution, 210;
+    its democratic form, 210, 211;
+    elects Henry governor, 211;
+    General Assembly holds first session, 220;
+    said to have planned to make Henry dictator, 223, 224, 226;
+    confers extraordinary powers on Governors Henry and Jefferson, 228,
+    231, 233;
+    adjourns, 232;
+    no trace of a plot in, as described by Jefferson, 233-235;
+    reelects Henry governor, 238, 239;
+    its sessions during 1777 and 1778, 241;
+    elects delegates to Congress, 253;
+    again confers extraordinary powers on Henry, 256;
+    and reelects him governor, 256;
+    again confers on Henry extraordinary powers, 260;
+    desires to reelect Henry for fourth term, 267;
+    on his refusal, elects Jefferson, 268;
+    passes resolutions complimenting Henry, 268;
+    elects Henry delegate to Congress, 271;
+    led by Henry in 1780 and afterwards, 275;
+    work done by it, 275-278;
+    reelects Jefferson, 276;
+    fears approach of Cornwallis, 278, 279;
+    its flight from Tarleton, 280-284;
+    reassembles at Staunton, 284, 285;
+    elects Thomas Nelson governor, 285;
+    again said to have planned to make Henry dictator, 285;
+    contrary evidence, 286, 287;
+    subsequent sessions of, 287-288;
+    its scanty reports, 288;
+    mastery of Henry over, 294-297;
+    passes bill to prevent speculation in soldiers' certificates, 295;
+    again elects Henry governor, 298;
+    offers Washington shares in canal companies, 300;
+    publicly thanks Henry on his retirement from governorship, 302;
+    passes resolutions condemning proposed surrender of Mississippi
+    navigation, 308;
+    chooses Henry delegate to constitutional convention, 309;
+    feared that it will refuse to submit Constitution to a ratifying
+    convention, 314;
+    summons a state convention, 316;
+    dominated by Henry, 346;
+    asks Congress to call a second convention, 346, 347-350;
+    elects R. H. Lee and Grayson senators at Henry's dictation, and
+    rejects Madison, 350, 351;
+    gerrymanders the State in hopes of defeating Federalists, 351;
+    unable to assemble a quorum during Henry's speech in British debts
+    case, 362, 364;
+    controlled by Jefferson, 406;
+    elects Henry governor for sixth time in 1796, 406;
+    passes resolutions condemning alien and sedition laws, 408;
+    Henry asked by Washington to become a candidate for, 414;
+    he presents himself, 415;
+    action of Assembly deplored by him, 417;
+    its action called unconstitutional, 417, 418.
+
+  Leonard, Daniel, describes the effect of the Virginia Resolves in New
+    England, 82, 83.
+
+  Lewis, Andrew, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151.
+
+  Lewis, William, his remark to Henry on the flight of the legislature
+    from Tarleton, 283.
+
+  Lincoln, Benjamin, informed by Washington of Henry's submission to the
+    Constitution, 344.
+
+  Littlepage, James, his seat in Virginia legislature contested by
+    Dandridge, 61.
+
+  Livingston, Philip, member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    of the second, 172, 173;
+    as likely as Henry to have proved a good fighter, but, unlike him,
+    never offered, 188.
+
+  Livingston, William, member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Lowndes, Rawlins, opposes federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Lynch, Thomas, meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 104, 105;
+    praised by him, 105;
+    nominates Peyton Randolph for president, 107;
+    also Charles Thomson as secretary, 107;
+    debates question of manner of voting, 112;
+    member of second Continental Congress, 172.
+
+  Lyons, ----, in Parsons' Cause with Henry, 49, 53;
+    cries "treason" against his speech, 54.
+
+
+  Madison, James, doubts Henry's authorship of Virginia Resolves, 84, note;
+    member of Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, 200;
+    his slight influence, 204;
+    introduces bill to check speculation in soldiers' certificates, 295;
+    describes Henry's eloquent support of the measure, 295;
+    less practical than Henry, 296;
+    inferior to him in debate, 296;
+    confers with Henry and finds him zealous for strengthening federal
+    government, 305, 306;
+    predicts intense opposition in South to treaty abandoning Mississippi
+    navigation, 308;
+    warns Washington of Henry's change of mind on matter of strengthening
+    the Confederation, 310;
+    informed by Randolph of Henry's refusal to attend convention, 310;
+    comments on his reasons, 311, 312;
+    informs Jefferson and Randolph of Henry's opposition to the
+    Constitution, 315, 316;
+    accuses Henry of wishing disunion, 317;
+    letter of J. B. Smith to, condemning Henry's methods, 317;
+    describes elements of opposition to Constitution, 319;
+    the principal champion of ratification, 320;
+    his power in debate, 333;
+    suspects Henry of intention to destroy effect of Constitution, 343,
+    344;
+    Washington's letters to on same subject, 346;
+    defeated for senator through Henry's influence, 351;
+    his defeat for representative attempted by gerrymandering, 351, 353;
+    elected nevertheless, 354;
+    leads House to consider constitutional amendments, 354, 355;
+    probably led by fear of Henry's opposition, 355;
+    forms opposition party to Washington, 397;
+    writes Virginia resolutions, 408.
+
+  Madison, Thomas, on Henry's defense of Holland for murder, 376.
+
+  Marshall, John, on Henry's determination to have Mississippi navigation
+    for the South, 311;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    with Henry in British debts case, 360;
+    his argument not legally superior to Henry's, 366;
+    commended for his conduct in France as a candidate for Congress by
+    Henry, 410, 411.
+
+  Martin, Luther, opposes federal Constitution, 330.
+
+  Maryland, its convention recommends organization of militia, 132;
+    its resolutions justifying this action imitated elsewhere, 133.
+
+  Mason, George, leader of radicals in Virginia, 95;
+    his high opinion of Henry's abilities, 98;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, 200, 204;
+    favors a democratic government, 202;
+    author of first fourteen articles of bill of rights, 208;
+    a devout Episcopalian, 210;
+    on committee to notify Henry of his election as governor, 212;
+    opposes ratification of Constitution, 315, 316, 320;
+    chief assistant of Henry in debate, 320;
+    agrees to act as chairman of Virginia republican society, 342.
+
+  Mason, Thompson, prominent member of Virginia bar, 93;
+    surpassed by Henry in admiralty case, 93.
+
+  Massachusetts, calls for Stamp Act Congress, 80, 81;
+    enthusiasm in for Virginia resolutions, 81, 82;
+    prepares for war, 134.
+
+  Matthews, General Edward, commands British raid into Virginia, 257,
+    264, 267.
+
+  Maury, Rev. James, wins his case for damages after annulling of option
+    law, 45;
+    describes Henry's speech in Parsons' Cause, 52-55.
+
+  Mazzei, Philip, publication of Jefferson's letter to, 407.
+
+  McIntosh, General Lachan, commander in the Northwest in 1779, 263.
+
+  McKean, Thomas, member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Meade, Rt. Rev. William, explains Henry's apology to Maury, 57.
+
+  Mercer, James, prominent member of Virginia bar, 93;
+    on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  Meredith, Samuel, Henry's brother-in-law, describes character of
+    Henry's mother, 299.
+
+  Middleton, Henry, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress,
+    105, 106;
+    a member of it, 108.
+
+  Mifflin, Thomas, entertains delegates to first Continental Congress,
+    104, 105, 106, 107;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    accompanies Washington to Boston as aide-de-camp, 154;
+    his connection with the Conway cabal, 247, 250.
+
+  Miller, John, describes Henry's last speech, 416.
+
+  Mississippi, navigation of, its abandonment proposed by Jay in
+    Congress, 307;
+    violent opposition aroused in South to its surrender, 308, 309;
+    Henry's desire to retain it makes him fear a closer union with
+    Northern States, 310, 311.
+
+  Moffett, Colonel George, flight of legislature from Tarleton to his
+    farm, 284.
+
+  Monroe, James, tells Henry of Jay's proposal to abandon Mississippi
+    navigation, 307;
+    says Northern States plan to dismember the union, 307;
+    opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    helps Henry in debate, 320;
+    letter of Jefferson to on Henry, 404;
+    recalled from France, 407.
+
+  Murray, William Vans, appointed envoy to France, 412.
+
+
+  Nelson, Hugh, remark of Henry to, 19.
+
+  Nelson, Thomas, offers resolution in Virginia convention, instructing
+    delegates to propose independence, 197;
+    conveys resolutions to Congress, 198;
+    defeated for governor by Henry in 1776, 211;
+    succeeds Jefferson as governor, 285;
+    opposes ratification of Constitution, 319.
+
+  New England, effect of Virginia resolutions in, 80, 82, 88.
+
+  Newenham, Sir Edward, sends presents to Washington, 301.
+
+  New Jersey, Assembly of, disapproves of Stamp Act Congress, 81.
+
+  Newton, Thomas, on committee of Virginia convention, 152.
+
+  New York, Virginia Resolves brought to, 80, 82;
+    ratifies the Constitution conditionally, 345;
+    sends circular letter proposing call for a second convention, 345;
+    its effect in Virginia, 345.
+
+  Nicholas, George, favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Nicholas, John, supposed author of scurrilous attacks on Henry, 385.
+
+  Nicholas, Robert Carter, one of Henry's legal examiners, 23;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    prominent in Virginia bar, 93;
+    on retiring leaves his practice to Henry, 94;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    opposes Henry's motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, 137;
+    on committee to arm militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    declines as treasurer Henry's offer of protection, 162;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to draft bill of rights and Constitution, 200;
+    favors aristocratic government, 201;
+    alleged to have made motion to appoint a dictator, 286.
+
+  North, Lord, sends peace commissioners after Burgoyne's surrender,
+    241, 254;
+    protested against by Henry, 255;
+    their failure and departure, 257.
+
+
+  Oswald, Eleazer, carries proposed constitutional amendments from Henry
+    to New York, 342, 343.
+
+
+  Page, John, describes Henry's vulgar pronunciation, 10, 11;
+    a radical in politics, 95;
+    receives a vote for governor in 1776, 211.
+
+  Page, Mann, a radical leader in Virginia, 95;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    on committee to frame bill of rights and a constitution, 200.
+
+  Paine, Thomas, his "Age of Reason" moves Henry to write a reply, 374.
+
+  Parsons' Cause, 36-55;
+    establishment of church in Virginia, 37;
+    payment of clergy, 37, 38;
+    legislation to enforce payment by vestry, 39;
+    option laws to prevent clergy profiting by high price, 40, 41;
+    royal veto, 44;
+    suits brought by clergy for damages, 44, 45;
+    suit of Maury against Fredericksville parish, 45-55;
+    selection of an unfair jury, 46, 47;
+    illegal verdict, 48;
+    Henry's speech and its effect, 48-52;
+    comments of Maury, 53-55;
+    excitement produced by, 58, 60;
+    reported to England, 86.
+
+  Pendleton, Edmund, his pronunciation an example of dialect, 11;
+    said by Jefferson to have been one of Henry's bar examiners, 23;
+    on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    believes submission necessary, 67;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    prominent at Virginia bar, 93;
+    surpassed by Henry in admiralty case, 93;
+    leader of conservative party, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    his journey with Henry and Washington, 101;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    in debate on manner of voting, 112;
+    opposes Henry's motion in Virginia convention to organize militia, 137;
+    on committee for arming militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    returns from Congress to Virginia convention, 176;
+    thanked by Virginia, 176;
+    at head of Virginia Committee of Safety, describes situation to
+    R. H. Lee, 178;
+    explains his objections to Henry's serving in field, 185;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    opposed for president by Henry's friends, 191;
+    drafts resolution instructing delegates in Congress to propose
+    independence, 197;
+    favors aristocratic government, 201;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Pennsylvania, prepares to resist England by force, 133.
+
+  Phillips, General William, commands British force invading Virginia, 278.
+
+  Powell, ----, entertains John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Providence, R. I., people of, approve Virginia Resolutions, 82.
+
+
+  Raleigh Tavern, meeting-place of Burgesses after dissolution of
+    Assembly, 98.
+
+  Randall, Henry Stephens, describes at third hand Henry's speech for
+    organizing militia, 146.
+
+  Randolph, Edmund, gives a version of Henry's warning to George III.,
+    73, note;
+    says the Virginia Resolves were written by William Fleming, 84, note;
+    in Virginia convention of 1776, 190;
+    testimony as to authorship of Virginia resolution favoring
+    independence, 197;
+    on committee to frame Constitution, 200;
+    says Henry drafted two articles of bill of rights, 208;
+    calls Washington a dictator in 1781, 229;
+    denies Jefferson's story of a Virginia dictatorship in 1781, 287;
+    informs Madison of Henry's refusal to go to constitutional convention,
+    310;
+    receives Madison's reply, 312;
+    correspondence with Madison relative to Virginia opposition to
+    ratification of Constitution, 316;
+    refuses to sign Constitution and publishes objections, 319;
+    supports it in the convention, 320;
+    twitted by Henry, turns on him fiercely, 334, 335.
+
+  Randolph, John, his part in Henry's bar examination, 23-26;
+    leader of bar in Virginia, 43.
+
+  Randolph, John, of Roanoke, describes Henry's appearance in British
+    debts case, 364, 365;
+    answers Henry's last speech, 419;
+    Henry's parting advice to, 420.
+
+  Randolph, Peyton, attorney-general, his part in Henry's bar
+    examination, 23;
+    on committee to protest against Stamp Act, 66;
+    counsels submission, 67;
+    opposes Henry's Virginia Resolves, 71;
+    his anger at their passage, 74;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 106;
+    chosen to preside, 107;
+    assures Virginia troops that gunpowder affair will be satisfactorily
+    settled, 157.
+
+  Read, George, member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Reed, Joseph, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 106;
+    doubts Henry's ability to command in the field, 186.
+
+  Religious liberty in Virginia, asserted in sixteenth article of
+    declaration of rights written by Henry, 208;
+    hitherto limited, 209;
+    petition of Baptists for, 209;
+    proposals of Henry involving, 294.
+
+  Revolution, war of, predicted by Henry, 116, 125;
+    by Hawley and John Adams, 125;
+    by Dickinson, Charles Lee, 130;
+    prepared for by Connecticut, 131, 133;
+    by Rhode Island, 132;
+    by Maryland, 132;
+    and other colonies, 133, 134;
+    by Virginia, 133-152;
+    considered inevitable by Henry, 138;
+    events of in 1776, 221;
+    in 1777, 235, 236;
+    in 1777 and 1778, 240, 241, 257.
+
+  Rhoades, Samuel, at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Riddick, Lemuel, on committee of Virginia convention for arming
+    militia, 151.
+
+  Roane, John, describes in detail Henry's delivery of the speech for
+    arming militia, 146-149;
+    said to have verified Wirt's version, 150.
+
+  Roane, Spencer, on Henry's pronunciation, 11;
+    meets Henry and R. H. Lee in Virginia Assembly, 295;
+    considers Henry more practical than Madison, less selfish than Lee,
+    296;
+    describes his superiority to Madison in debate, 296;
+    contrasts him with Lee, 296;
+    describes his manner, 296, 297;
+    describes Henry's manner of living as governor, 300;
+    gives anecdotes illustrating Henry's power as a criminal lawyer,
+    375-378.
+
+  Robertson, David, reports Henry's speeches in Virginia ratifying
+    convention, 321.
+
+  Robertson, William, of Edinburgh University, kinsman of Patrick Henry, 3.
+
+  Robertson, Rev. William, uncle of Patrick Henry, 3.
+
+  Robinson, John, speaker of House of Burgesses and treasurer of Virginia,
+    63;
+    attempt to conceal his defalcation by a "loan office," 63;
+    prevented by Henry, 64, 65.
+
+  Robinson, Rev. William, condemns Henry's behavior in Parsons' Cause, 86;
+    and describes his speech against the Stamp Act, 87.
+
+  Rodney, Caesar, a member of first Continental Congress, 108;
+    of second, 175.
+
+  Rush, Dr. Benjamin, said by Washington to be author of anonymous letter
+    to Henry, 249, 250.
+
+  Rutledge, Edward, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105,
+    106;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    praises Galloway's plan of reconciliation, 115.
+
+  Rutledge, John, meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 106;
+    a member of it, 108;
+    debates question of manner of voting, 112;
+    on committee to prepare address to the king, 117;
+    at second Continental Congress, 173;
+    as governor of South Carolina receives extraordinary powers, 228;
+    nomination for chief justice rejected by Senate, 403.
+
+
+  Schuyler, General Philip, his departure from Philadelphia as general
+    envied by John Adams, 154;
+    on committee of second Continental Congress, 172.
+
+  Shelton, Sarah, marries Patrick Henry, 7;
+    her death, 189.
+
+  Sherlock, Bishop Thomas, his sermons favorite reading of Henry, 391, 394.
+
+  Sherman, Roger, a member of first Continental Congress, 108.
+
+  Shippen, William, entertains delegates to Continental Congress, 106.
+
+  Slavery, opinions of Henry concerning, 388-389.
+
+  Simcoe, John Graves, a dashing partisan fighter, 188.
+
+  Smith, Rev. John Blair, condemns Henry's agitation against ratifying
+    the Constitution, 317.
+
+  Smith, Meriwether, opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+  Smith, Rev. William, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Spain, alliance with, desired by Henry in 1776, 194;
+    offers commercial privileges in return for abandonment of Mississippi
+    navigation, 307.
+
+  Speece, Rev. Conrad, describes Henry's eloquence in a murder trial,
+    378-381.
+
+  Spotswood, Alexander, grandfather of Henry's second wife, 241.
+
+  Sprout, Rev. ----, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105.
+
+  Stamp Act, protested against by Virginia Assembly, 65;
+    discussion whether to resist or submit after its passage, 66, 67;
+    resolutions against, introduced by Henry, 69, 71;
+    debate over, 71-74;
+    passage, reconsideration, and amendment, 75, 76;
+    influence in rousing other colonies against, 77-88.
+
+  Stamp Act Congress, proposed by Massachusetts, 80;
+    its success caused by Virginia resolutions, 81 ff.
+
+  Stark, John, his victory in 1777 at Bennington, 240.
+
+  State sovereignty, declared to be abolished by Henry before 1774, 111,
+    112;
+    its preservation demanded by Virginia in any confederation, 197;
+    not advocated in its extreme form by Henry during Revolution and
+    Confederation, 303-306;
+    considered by Henry to be threatened by federal Constitution, 324-330;
+    expressly reserved by convention in ratifying, 331.
+
+  Stephen, Adam, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151;
+    taunts Henry in ratifying convention of 1788, 335.
+
+  Steptoe, Dr. ----, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 106.
+
+  Sullivan, John, at first Continental Congress, 108;
+    answers Henry's speech in first day's debate, 110.
+
+  Syme, Mrs. Sarah, described by Colonel William Byrd, 1, 2;
+    marries John Henry, 2;
+    mother of Patrick Henry, 2;
+    her family, 4;
+    letter mentioning his absence in Congress, 126;
+    her death and character, 299.
+
+  Syme, Colonel ----, step-brother of Henry, reported to have denied his
+    complicity in dictatorship project, 226.
+
+
+  Tarleton, Sir Banastre, a dashing partisan fighter, 188;
+    sent by Cornwallis to capture Virginia legislature, 279;
+    nearly succeeds, 280.
+
+  Taylor, John, of Caroline, his pronunciation, 11.
+
+  Thacher, Oxenbridge, expresses his admiration for the Virginia
+    Resolves, 82.
+
+  Thomson, Charles, the "Sam Adams" of Philadelphia, 104;
+    meets John Adams at Continental Congress, 105;
+    nominated for secretary, 107;
+    accepts position, 108, 109;
+    describes Henry's first speech, 109.
+
+  Tillotson, Archbishop John, his sermons enjoyed by Henry, 391.
+
+  Tobacco, its use as currency and to pay salaries, 37 ff.
+
+  Tories, loathed by Henry, 274;
+    popular execration of, 289;
+    repeal of their exile favored by Henry, 290-291.
+
+  Tucker, St. George, describes debate on military resolutions in
+    Virginia convention, 137;
+    describes motives of Henry's opponents, 137;
+    describes his speech, 143, 144;
+    agreement of his version with Wirt's, 150;
+    fears that Jefferson will be no more active than Henry, 269.
+
+  Tyler, Judge John, reports Henry's narrative of his bar examination,
+    24, 25;
+    gives anecdote of Henry's speech against Stamp Act, 73, note;
+    said to have been author of Wirt's version of Henry's militia speech,
+    150;
+    with Henry in flight from Tarleton, 281, 282;
+    opposes Henry's bill to relieve Tories, 290;
+    opposes ratification of federal Constitution, 320;
+    helps Henry in debate, 320.
+
+
+  Union of the colonies, advocated by Henry as necessary prelude to
+    independence, 194, 199, 304.
+
+
+  Virginia, education in, 5, 13;
+    dialects in, 11;
+    society in, 21;
+    church government in, 37;
+    pays ministers in tobacco, 37, 38;
+    makes vestry liable for salary, 39;
+    passes option laws to prevent clergy from profiting from high price
+    of tobacco, 40, 41;
+    injustice of action, 42;
+    popularity of laws in, 43;
+    popular reluctance to grant clergy legal redress, 44, 45, 48;
+    the Parsons' Cause, 46-55;
+    enthusiasm in, for eloquence, 60;
+    popular affection for Henry begun by Parsons' Cause, 59, 60;
+    repudiation of Stamp Act, 66-76;
+    old leaders of, displaced by Henry, 66, 71, 88, 89;
+    officials of, angered by Henry's resolutions, 86;
+    popular enthusiasm for Henry, 88, 89;
+    courts in, closed by Revolution, 92;
+    conservative and radical parties in, 95;
+    practical unanimity of opinion, 95, 96;
+    its influence in Continental Congress, 113;
+    officers of its militia prepared for war, 131;
+    raises militia in various counties, 131, 133, 136;
+    first overt act of war in, committed by Henry, 155;
+    popular indignation at Dunmore's seizure of gunpowder, 157;
+    its volunteer companies persuaded not to attack him, 157;
+    expedition led by Henry forces Dunmore to make restitution, 158-160;
+    outbreak of popular approval of Henry's action, 164-167;
+    defense of, intrusted to Henry under Committee of Safety, 177;
+    operations of Dunmore in, 178, 179;
+    its troops defeat him, 179, 180;
+    indignation among them at Henry's treatment by Committee of Safety,
+    181-184;
+    celebrates with enthusiasm the resolution in favor of independence,
+    199;
+    effect of its example, 200;
+    aristocratic and democratic parties in, 200-202;
+    Virginia troops congratulate Henry on election as governor, 214;
+    high ideal held by Virginians of dignity of governor, 219, 300;
+    danger of attacks upon State urged by Washington, 221;
+    prepares for defense, 222, 223;
+    efforts of Henry to recruit in, 237, 238;
+    receives great demands for supplies, 241;
+    popular opinion condemns R. H. Lee for hostility to Washington, 252,
+    253;
+    decay of military spirit in, 253, 254;
+    ravaged by Matthews and Collier, 257, 264-267;
+    sends Clark's successful expedition into Northwest, 258-260;
+    decline of patriotism in, 274;
+    ravaged by Arnold and Phillips, 278;
+    great antipathy in, to project of abandoning Mississippi navigation,
+    308;
+    majority of people at outset favor Constitution, 315;
+    effect of Henry's exertions in turning tide, 316, 317;
+    supposed disunion feeling, 317;
+    importance Of Virginia's action, 318;
+    party divisions in State, 319, 320;
+    party divisions and leaders in convention, 320;
+    influence of Virginia's demands in forcing Congress to propose ten
+    amendments, 355, 356;
+    prepares to resist government at time of alien and sedition laws, 408;
+    its leaders condemned by Henry, 409;
+    its policy deplored by Washington, 413.
+
+  Virginia resolutions of 1765, 69-75;
+    their effect, 77-89.
+    See Legislature of Virginia, and Stamp Act, authorship of, 83-85.
+
+  Virginia resolutions of 1798, written by Madison, 408;
+    condemned by Henry as unconstitutional, 417, 418.
+
+
+  Walker, Benjamin, sent by Henry to Washington as secret messenger, 236;
+    taken by Washington as an aide-de-camp, 237.
+
+  Walker, Jeremiah, moderator of Baptist convention, 217.
+
+  Walker, Thomas, defendant in British debts case, 360.
+
+  Ward, Samuel, meets John Adams at first Continental Congress, 105;
+    debates question of manner of voting, 112;
+    chairman of committee of the whole in second Continental Congress, 171.
+
+  Warrington, Rev. Thomas, brings suit for damages after annulling of
+    option law, 44.
+
+  Washington, George, appointed delegate to Continental Congress, 99;
+    describes journey, 101;
+    described by Atkinson, 102;
+    on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151;
+    on other committees, 152;
+    his military command envied by Hancock and Adams, 154;
+    notified by Virginia troops of readiness to attack Dunmore, 157;
+    letter of Henry to, recommending Frazer, 175;
+    thanked by Virginia convention, 176;
+    doubts Henry's fitness to command in the field, 186;
+    his defeats in 1776, 221;
+    congratulates Henry on his election as governor, 221;
+    warns him against British raids, 221;
+    letter of Carter to, sneering at Henry, 222, 223;
+    receives extraordinary powers from Congress, 227;
+    called a dictator in 1781, 229;
+    surprises Hessians at Trenton, 235;
+    his situation in 1777, 236;
+    embarrassed by Henry's sending Walker to observe the army, 236, 237;
+    letter of Henry to, on military situation in Virginia, 238;
+    his movements in 1777-1778, 240, 241;
+    Conway cabal formed against, 242;
+    attacked in anonymous letter to Henry, 244, 245;
+    receives two letters of warning from Henry on the subject, 245-248;
+    his grateful replies to Henry's letters, 248-250;
+    describes Dr. Rush as author of the anonymous letter, 249, 250;
+    describes other members of cabal, 250;
+    his deep friendship for Henry, 251, 252;
+    letter of Henry to, describing Indian troubles, 263;
+    repeatedly praises Henry's activity and assistance, 269, 270;
+    considered as possible dictator in 1781, 286;
+    asks Henry's advice concerning shares in canal companies, 300, 301;
+    receives Henry's replies, 301, 302;
+    told by Madison of Henry's change of opinion relative to strengthening
+    the Confederation, 310, 311;
+    sends copy of new Constitution to Henry, 313;
+    his reply, 313;
+    assured that Henry will not prevent a convention in Virginia, 314;
+    not in Virginia ratifying convention, 319;
+    grieved by Henry's persistent opposition, 341;
+    letters of Madison to, on Henry's opposition to Constitution, 343;
+    rejoices that Henry will submit, yet fears his opposition, 344, 346;
+    his administration at first criticised then approved by Henry, 397;
+    reconciled to Henry by Lee, 399-401;
+    expresses unabated regard for him, 399;
+    receives Henry's warm reply, 400, 401;
+    offers Henry secretaryship of state, 402;
+    offers him the chief-justiceship, 403;
+    appointed to command provisional army, 407;
+    appeals to Henry to leave retirement to combat Virginia Democratic
+    party, 413, 414.
+
+  Webster, Daniel, his interview with Jefferson concerning Henry, 10, 23.
+
+  White, Rev. Alexander, brings suit for damages after annulling of option
+    law, 45.
+
+  William and Mary College, studies of Jefferson at, 22.
+
+  Williams, John, clerk of Baptist convention in Virginia, 217.
+
+  Wilson, James, member of second Continental Congress, on committees, 172,
+    174.
+
+  Winston, William, uncle of Patrick Henry, his eloquence, 5.
+
+  Winston, ----, judges murder case, 376.
+
+  Winstons of Virginia, kinsmen of Patrick Henry, 4;
+    their characteristics, 4, 5.
+
+  Wirt, William, biographer of Henry, accepts Jefferson's statements of his
+    illiteracy, 15;
+    also his statements of his failure to gain a living as a lawyer, 27;
+    and his ignorance of law, 29;
+    describes Henry's speech in the Parsons' Cause, 48-52;
+    describes him as, in consequence of Stamp Act debate, the idol of
+    Virginia, 89;
+    accepts Jefferson's statement of Henry's ignorance of law, 94;
+    says Henry was author of draft of address rejected by Congress, 117,
+    122;
+    error of his statement, 118;
+    his whole treatment of Henry's part in Congress untrustworthy, 119,
+    120;
+    describes him as a mere declaimer, 120;
+    his mythical description of Henry's opening speech, 121;
+    describes his insignificance after the opening day, 122;
+    his error due to taking Jefferson's account, 123;
+    his version of Henry's militia speech considered by some apocryphal,
+    149;
+    question of its genuineness, 149, 150;
+    accepts Jefferson's story of a projected dictatorship, but doubts
+    Henry's connection, 226;
+    accepts a similar story for 1781, 285;
+    considers Virginia bar the finest in United States, 360;
+    describes Henry's method of argument, 368, 369;
+    gives false account of Henry's religious views, 391.
+
+  Witherspoon, John, at first Continental Congress, 106;
+    instructor of Madison, 190.
+
+  Woodford, General William, commands Virginia troops in the field to
+    exclusion of Henry, 179;
+    ignores him in his reports, 180;
+    defeats Dunmore at Great Bridge, 180;
+    permits Rowe of North Carolina to supersede himself, 180;
+    his officers, however, prefer Henry, 183;
+    letter of Pendleton to, on Henry's unfitness to command, 185.
+
+  Wythe, George, one of Henry's legal examiners, 23;
+    on committee to protest to England against Stamp Act, 66;
+    believes submission necessary, 67;
+    opposes Henry's resolves, 71;
+    loses leadership to Henry, 89;
+    prominent at Virginia bar, 93;
+    leader of conservatives, 95;
+    in convention of 1776, 190;
+    favors ratification of federal Constitution, 320.
+
+
+  Young, Captain H., testimony concerning a proposed dictatorship in 1781,
+    286.
+
+
+  Zane, Isaac, on committee for arming Virginia militia, 151.
+
+
+
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+                AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS
+
+   Biographies of our most eminent American Authors,
+   written by men who are themselves prominent in the
+                   field of letters.
+
+    _The writers of these biographies are themselves
+  Americans, generally familiar with the surroundings
+    in which their subjects lived and the conditions
+   under which their work was done. Hence the volumes
+   are peculiar for the rare combination of critical
+        judgment with sympathetic understanding.
+     Collectively, the series offers a biographical
+            history of American Literature._
+
+    WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. By John Bigelow.
+    J. FENIMORE COOPER. By T. R. Lounsbury.
+    GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. By Edward Cary.
+    RALPH WALDO EMERSON. By Oliver Wendell Holmes.
+    BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By John Bach McMaster.
+    NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. By George E. Woodberry.
+    WASHINGTON IRVING. By Charles Dudley Warner.
+    SIDNEY LANIER. By Edwin Mims.
+    THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. By Ferris Greenslet.
+    HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. By T. W. Higginson.
+    JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. By Ferris Greenslet.
+    FRANCIS PARKMAN. By H. D. Sedgwick.
+    EDGAR ALLAN POE. By George E. Woodberry.
+    WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. By Rollo Ogden.
+    WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS. By William P. Trent.
+    NOAH WEBSTER. By Horace E. Scudder.
+    WALT WHITMAN. By Bliss Perry.
+    JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. By Geo. R. Carpenter.
+    NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS. By Henry A. Beers.
+
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+   a striking political, social, or economic history.
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+  the varieties of government and of social life to be
+   found in the various commonwealths included in the
+                    federal union._
+
+    CALIFORNIA. By Josiah Royce.
+    CONNECTICUT. By Alexander Johnston. (Revised Ed.)
+    INDIANA. By J. P. Dunn, Jr (Revised Edition.)
+    KANSAS. By Leverett W. Spring. (Revised Edition.)
+    KENTUCKY. By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.
+    LOUISIANA. By Albert Phelps.
+    MARYLAND. By William Hand Browne. (Revised Ed.)
+    MICHIGAN. By Thomas M. Cooley. (Revised Edition.)
+    MINNESOTA. By Wm. W. Folwell.
+    MISSOURI. By Lucien Carr.
+    NEW HAMPSHIRE. By Frank B. Sanborn.
+    NEW YORK. By Ellis H. Roberts. 2 vols. (Revised Ed.)
+    OHIO. By Rufus King. (Revised Edition.)
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+    WISCONSIN. By Reuben Gold Thwaites.
+
+                    _In preparation_
+
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+    PENNSYLVANIA. By Talcott Williams.
+
+                HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+
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+
+   Biographies of Men famous in the Political History
+   of the United States. Edited by John T. Morse, Jr.
+
+   _Separately they are interesting and entertaining
+    biographies of our most eminent public men; as a
+        series they are especially remarkable as
+    constituting a history of American politics and
+       policies more complete and more useful for
+   instruction and reference than any that I am aware
+      of._--HON. JOHN W. GRIGGS, Ex-United States
+                   Attorney-General.
+
+    BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    SAMUEL ADAMS. By James K. Hosmer.
+    PATRICK HENRY. By Moses Coit Tyler.
+    GEORGE WASHINGTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 2 volumes.
+    JOHN ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    ALEXANDER HAMILTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
+    GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. By Theodore Roosevelt.
+    JOHN JAY. By George Pellew.
+    JOHN MARSHALL. By Allan B. Magruder.
+    THOMAS JEFFERSON. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    JAMES MADISON. By Sydney Howard Gay.
+    ALBERT GALLATIN. By John Austin Stevens.
+    JAMES MONROE. By D. C. Gilman.
+    JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
+    JOHN RANDOLPH. By Henry Adams.
+    ANDREW JACKSON. By W. G. Sumner.
+    MARTIN VAN BUREN. By Edward W. Shepard.
+    HENRY CLAY. By Carl Schurz. 2 volumes.
+    DANIEL WEBSTER. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
+    JOHN C. CALHOUN. By Dr. H. Von Holst.
+    THOMAS H. BENTON. By Theodore Roosevelt.
+    LEWIS CASS. By Andrew C. McLaughlin.
+    ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By John T. Morse, Jr. 2 volumes.
+    WILLIAM H. SEWARD. By Thornton K. Lothrop.
+    SALMON P. CHASE. By Albert Bushnell Hart.
+    CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. By C. F. Adams, Jr.
+    CHARLES SUMNER. By Moorfield Storey.
+    THADDEUS STEVENS. By Samuel W. McCall.
+
+
+                    _SECOND SERIES_
+
+   Biographies of men particularly influential in the
+        recent Political History of the Nation.
+
+   _This second series is intended to supplement the
+  original list of American Statesmen by the addition
+    of the names of men who have helped to make the
+   history of the United States since the Civil War._
+
+    JAMES G. BLAINE. By Edward Stanwood.
+    JOHN SHERMAN. By Theodore E. Burton.
+    ULYSSES S. GRANT. By Samuel W. McCall. In preparation.
+
+  _Other interesting additions to the list to be made
+                    in the future._
+
+                HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling have been retained as they
+appear in the original book. Only the following possible misprints
+have been changed for this etext:
+
+Page  iv PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
+         U.S.A changed to U.S.A.
+
+Page  xi LIST OF PRINTED DOCUMENTS CITED IN THIS BOOK 424
+         added to Table of Contents
+
+Page  28 being a needy dependent
+         dependant changed to dependent
+
+Page  40 Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 508, 509.
+         comma added after 508
+
+Page 145 What would they have?
+         what changed to What
+
+Page 268 opportunity of deliberating upon
+         opportuity changed to opportunity
+
+Page 278 General Greene at Guilford, in North Carolina
+         Guildford changed to Guilford
+
+Page 284 Furthermore, as soon as possible after breakfast
+         Futhermore changed to Furthermore
+
+Page 351 expedients common on such occasions
+         occassions changed to occasions
+
+Page 383 embarrassments was not due alone
+         embarassments changed to embarrassments
+
+Page 420 mass of unwhipped hyperboles
+         hyberbole changed to hyperbole
+
+Page 432 Breckenridge, ----,
+         Breckinridge changed to Breckenridge
+
+Page 442 Absence of self-consciousness
+         conciousness changed to consciousness
+
+Page 442 Holt, James, on committee of Virginia convention
+         Virgia changed to Virginia
+
+Page 449 Randolph, John, of Roanoke
+         Roanoake change to Roanoke
+
+
+
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