Virginia, 1492-1892 a brief review of the discovery of the continent of North America, with a history of the executives of the colony and of the commonwealth of Virginia in two parts |
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| LXX. | LXX. PATRICK HENRY. |
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 | LXX. Virginia, 1492-1892 |  |
LXX.
LXX. PATRICK HENRY.
LXX. Governor.
LXX. June 29, 1776, to June 1, 1779.
Patrick Henry, the second son of John and Sarah Henry,
and one of nine children, was born on the 29th of May, 1736,
at the family seat, called "Studley," in the County of Hanover
and Colony of Virginia. In his early childhood his parents
removed to another seat in the same county, then called
"Mount Brilliant," now, "The Retreat." At this last place
Patrick Henry was raised and educated. His parents, though
not rich, were in easy circumstances, and in point of personal
character were among the most respectable inhabitants of
the Colony.
Patrick Henry was sent first to an "old field school," where,
at that period, tuition was chiefly confined to the primary
departments of learning. Under his father he acquired a
competent English education and some acquaintance with
Latin and mathematics. As a boy, he was fond of hunting
and angling, and would desert his books at any moment for
these pleasures, loving, at that time, such amusements far
better than any serious employment. Merchandise and
agriculture, and merchandise again, he tried in turn without
success, until about 1759, when at the age of twenty-four he
embraced the study of law. This was the turning point in his
life. Having when eighteen years old married Miss Sarah
Shelton, of Hanover County, Virginia, it well behooved him to
make some decided advance in life. He had met with disappointments,
and the past was marked with failures, but this
stage of Patrick Henry's experience was the deep darkness just
before the dawn. At last he had found the path for which he
was designed, and now, with him "old things are passed away;
new earth spread before him, and henceforth hitherto unseen
constellations were to guide the future statesman. It has
been said that from the beginning of his career as a lawyer,
Mr. Henry's practice was extensive; it has been frequently
asserted on the other hand, that he was not distinguished at
the bar for three years after he adopted his interesting profession.
Be these facts as they may, it is recorded history
that Patrick Henry's first great impression upon the public
was on the first of December, 1763, in the trial at Hanover
Court House, of "The Parson's Cause." In this celebrated
case the clergy were arrayed against the people, and the
contest was a bitter one. The clergy were entitled by law to
16,000 pounds of tobacco per annum, each, and the Acts of
the House of Burgesses, in 1755 and 1758, curtailed very
sensibly their revenue. Owing to the failure in these years
of the tobacco crop, these Acts provide that "all persons
from whom any tobacco was due, were authorized to pay the
same, either in tobacco or in money, after the rate of sixteen
shillings and eight pence per hundred, at the option of the
debtor." These Acts were to continue, severally, for ten
months and no longer. The law was universal in its application,
but bore specially on the clergy of the Established
Church. They resolved to bring the question to a judicial
test, and suits were accordingly brought by them, in the
various County Courts of the Colony, to recover their stipends
in the specific, tobacco. They selected the County of Hanover
as the place of the first experiment. The case went
against the defendants, and Mr. John Lewis, their attorney,
convinced that nothing more could be done, retired from the
cause. In this desperate situation Mr. Lewis's clients applied
to Patrick Henry, and he undertook to argue the case for
them before a jury at the ensuing term of Court.
Mr. William Wirt, of Richmond, Va., the accomplished
biographer of Patrick Henry, gives a soul-stirring account of
this scene; he says:
"He rose very awkwardly, and faltered much in his exordium. The
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. 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. 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. * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"In less than twenty minutes the people 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 last strain of some heavenly visitant. The mockery of the
clergy soon turned into alarm; their triumph, into confusion and despair;
and at one burst of his rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from
the bench in precipitation and terror. As for his 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 ecstacy streamed
down his cheeks, without the power or inclination to repress them."
Such is William Wirt's vivid picture of that Court House
scene, the sequel to which is so well known. The jury had
scarcely left the bar, when they returned with a verdict of
one penny damages; a motion for a new trial was overruled,
and amidst the redoubled acclamations of the people, this
forest-born Demosthenes was borne upon their shoulders out
hour he had taken captive the heart of Virginia, and had
burst upon the public gaze like Minerva from the brain of
Jove, in full armor and with a mighty war shout. Henceforth
he was to go forth conquering and to conquer.
In 1764, Mr. Henry removed from Hanover to the
County of Louisa, and resided at a place called "The
Roundabout." It was in the fall of this year that he had an
opportunity of distinguishing himself upon a new theatre.
A contest occurred in the House of Burgesses in the case of
Mr. James Littlepage, the returned member for the County
of Hanover. The rival candidate and petitioner was Nathaniel
West Dandridge. The charge against Mr. Littlepage
was bribery and corruption. The parties were heard
by their counsel, before the committee on Privileges and
Elections, and Mr. Henry was on this occasion employed by
Mr. Dandridge. He here struck amazement into the committee
by his eloquence and brilliant display on the great
subject of the rights of suffrage "superior to anything that
had been heard before within those walls."
On the 1st of May, 1765, Mr. Henry entered the House of
Burgesses as the representative from Louisa County, and by
some resolutions which he introduced in reference to The Stamp
Act, obtained the honor of being the first to inaugurate open
opposition to the oppressive measures of the British Crown.
This opposition was doomed to result in a bloody struggle, but
through crimson fields of revolution the desperate patriots
marched to victory and blood-bought independence. In 1767,
Mr. Henry removed from Louisa to his native county, Hanover,
but was continued a member of the House of Burgesses.
In 1769, he was admitted to the Bar of the General Court,
and rose to distinguished prominence in his profession.
But, events were hurrying on a mighty conflict between
the mother country and the Colonies, and soon Patrick
Henry was to display his complex genius upon a wider
field of action. He was to become the ardent, imposing,
dazzling orator of the Revolution, moving men not only by
that irresistible eloquence which took them captive, but
which was indomitable.
Much has already, in other articles in this work, been said
of Patrick Henry's eloquence and zeal in the Virginia Conventions
of 1774, 1775, and 1776; also of his brilliant appeals in the
Continental Congress of 1774 and of 1775. In this last year,
1775, he lost the wife of his youth, who had shared the changing
fortunes of his early life. Soon after, he sold the farm in
Hanover called "Scotch Town," on which he had resided,
and purchased about ten thousand acres of land in Henry
County. This county was formed in 1776 from Pittsylvania
County, and named in his honor, as was subsequently the
neighboring county of Patrick, carved from Henry County
in 1791. His estate in Henry County was known as
"Leatherwood."
In April, 1775, Lord Dunmore, Governor of the Colony of
Virginia, removed secretly all the powder from the magazine at
Williamsburg, to a sloop of war lying in the York River. This
step naturally aroused the deepest feelings of resentment
among the people, and Patrick Henry, stepping to the front,
placed himself at the head of the company of Captain Samuel
Meredith (who resigned in his favor), of Hanover
County, and marched upon Williamsburg. The effect of
this movement was like magic. Companies started up on all
sides, and it is said that five thousand men, at least, were in
arms and crossing the country to crowd around Henry's standard
and support it with their lives. The march was conducted
with the greatest regard for private rights, and in perfect
order. But, this advance meant an appeal to Heaven, that
last resort when there can be no judge on earth. This crisis Patrick
Henry saw, although the patriots in Williamsburg were
not prepared to grasp the situation. Messenger after messenger
was sent to meet Captain Henry and beg him to desist and
discharge his men. In vain; he had resolved to effect his purpose
or perish in the attempt. Dunmore, alarmed at his warlike
advance, sent out to meet him, and paid a satisfactory
equivalent of ¢330 for the powder. Lord Dunmore, in consequence
of these proceedings, issued a proclamation denouncing
number of deluded followers"; but, his threats were useless,
and this brave man by this brave act became enthroned more
permanently in the hearts of his people.
In June, 1775, Mr. Henry was appointed Colonel of
the First Virginia Regiment, and Commander-in-Chief of
all the forces of the Colony. He at once went into camp at
Williamsburg and ardently began recruiting and disciplining
the troops. Lord Dunmore (having fled from Williamsburg)
was at this time ravaging the shores of the
Chesapeake and threatening Norfolk, and the Committee of
Safety was compelled to take prompt action. Colonel William
Woodford, of the Second Virginia Regiment, was detached
at the head of a greater portion of the forces against the
enemy, and with his few, raw, Virginia recruits drove back
the best trained English soldiers and gained a brilliant
victory at the battle of Great Bridge. The action of the
Committee of Safety in selecting Woodford (who had distinguished
himself in the French and Indian war) to command
this expedition was in consequence of his military experience.
But this promotion of Woodford over Colonel Henry, and
later, the advancement in the continental line to the rank of
Brigadier-General of two Colonels, to whose appointments
his own was prior, so wounded Henry's spirit that he resigned
his commission. Public feeling rose high in sympathy with
him, and his resignation nearly produced a mutiny in the
Army. But though adverse influences were at work against
Henry's career as a soldier, the Committee of Safety and
Congress had "builded better" than they knew. Guided
by The Hand into whose keeping they had committed their
destinies, they were setting aside from the perils of war, one,
who in the conduct of the Revolution, they could not spare
from their councils. That clarion voice must not be hushed
in the wild din of battle; that leader of men's thoughts must
not be given to the mercy of the sword!
The following is the notice of Colonel Henry's resignation,
in Purdie's paper, of March 1, 1776:
"Yesterday morning the troops in this city (Williamsburg) being
forces, was about to leave them, the whole went into deep mourning,
and, being under arms, waited on him at his lodgings, where they addressed
him in the following manner," etc., etc.
Immediately after resigning his commission as Colonel,
and withdrawing from the immediate concerns of war, Patrick
Henry was elected delegate from Hanover County to
the Convention which was to meet May 6, 1776, at
Williamsburg. On the 12th of June, in this Convention, was
adopted the "Bill of Rights," and on the 29th of the same
month, "The Constitution, or Form of Government," was
unanimously adopted by Virginia. These two celebrated
papers were prepared by George Mason, of Virginia, and
stand a permanent monument to his patriotism and ability.
THE CONSTITUTION
OR
FORM OF GOVERNMENT
AGREED TO AND RESOLVED UPON BY THE
DELEGATES AND REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE SEVERAL
COUNTIES AND CORPORATIONS
OF VIRGINIA.
(Unanimously adopted, June 29, 1776.)
I. Whereas George the third, King of Great Britain and Ireland, and
elector of Hanover, heretofore intrusted with the exercise of kingly office
in this government, hath endeavoured to prevert the same into a detestable
and insupportable tyranny, by putting his negative on laws the most
wholesome and necessary for the publick good:
By denying his governours permission to post laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation for his assent,
and, when so suspended, neglecting to attend to them for many years:
By refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the persons to be benefitted
by them would relinquish the inestimable right of representation in
the legislature:
By dissolving legislative Assemblies repeatedly and continually, for
opposing with manly firmness his invasions of the rights of the people:
When dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of time,
thereby leaving the political system without any legislative head:
By endeavouring to prevent the population of our country, and for
that purpose, obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners:
By keeping among us, in times of peace, standing armies and ships of war:
By affecting to render the military independent of, and superiour to,
the civil power:
By combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giving
his assent to their pretended acts of legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever:
By plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, and
destroying the lives of our people:
By inciting insurrections of our fellow-subjects, with the allurements
of forfeiture and confiscation:
By prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, those very
negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us permission
to exclude by law:
By endeavouring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless
Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence:
By transporting, at this time, a large army of foreign mercenaries, to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation:
By answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of
injuries: And, finally, by abandoning the helm of government, and
declaring us out of his allegiance and protection.
By which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as
formerly exercised under the crown of Great Britain, is TOTALLY DISSOLVED.
II. We therefore, the delegates and representatives of the good people
of Virginia, having maturely considered the premises, and viewing with
great concern the deplorable condition to which this once happy country
must be reduced, unless some regular, adequate mode of civil polity is
speedily adopted, and in compliance with a recommendation of the General
Congress, do ordain and declare the future form of government of Virginia
to be as followeth:
III. The legislative, executive, and judiciary departments shall be
separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging
to the other; nor shall any person exercise the powers of more than
one of them at the same time, except that the justices of the county courts
shall be eligible to either House of Assembly.
IV. The legislative shall be formed of two distinct branches, who,
together, shall be a complete legislature. They shall meet once, or oftener,
V. One of these shall be called the House of Delegates, and consist of
two representatives to be chosen for each county, and for the district of
West Augusta, annually, of such men as actually reside in and are freeholders
of the same, or duly qualified according to law, and also one delegate
or representative to be chosen annually for the city of Williamsburg,
and one for the borough of Norfolk, and a representative for each of such
other cities and boroughs as may hereafter be allowed particular representation
by the legislature; but when any city or borough shall so decrease as
that the number of persons having right of suffrage therein shall have been
for the space of seven years successively less than half the number of voters
in some one county in Virginia, such city or borough thenceforward shall
cease to send a delegate or representative to the assembly.
VI. The other shall be called the Senate, and consist of twenty-four
members, of whom thirteen shall constitute a House to proceed on business,
for whose election the different counties shall be divided into twenty-four
districts, and each county of the respective district, at the time of the election
of its delegates, shall vote for one Senator, who is actually a resident
and freeholder within the district, or duly qualified according to law, and
is upwards of twenty-five years of age; and the sheriffs of each county
within five days at farthest after the last county election in the district,
shall meet at some convenient place, and from the poll so taken in their
respective counties return as a Senator the man who shall have the greatest
number of votes in the whole district. To keep up this Assembly by
rotation, the districts shall be equally divided into four classes, and numbered
by lot. At the end of one year after the general election, the six members
elected by the first division shall be displaced, and the vacancies thereby
occasioned supplied from such class or division, by new election, in the
manner aforesaid. This rotation shall be applied to each division, according
to its number, and continued in due order annually.
VII. The right of suffrage in the election of members for both Houses
shall remain as exercised at present, and each House shall choose its own
speaker, appoint its own officers, settle its own rules of proceeding, and
direct writs of election for supplying intermediate vacancies.
VIII. All laws originate in the House of Delegates, to be approved or
rejected by the Senate, or to be amended with the consent of the House of
Delegates; except money bills, which in no instance shall be altered by
the Senate, but wholly approved or rejected.
IX. A Governour, or chief magistrate, shall be chosen annually, by
joint ballot of both Houses, to be taken in each house respectively, deposited
in the conference room, the boxes examined jointly by a committee of
each house, and the numbers severally reported to them, that the appointments
may be entered, (which shall be the mode of taking the joint ballot
of both Houses in all cases) who shall not continue in that office longer
than three years successively, nor be eligible until the expiration of four
salary, shall be settled on him during his continuance in office; and
he shall, with advice of a Council of State, exercise the executive powers
of government according to the laws of this commonwealth; and shall
not, under any pretence, exercise any power or prerogative by virtue of
any law, statute, or custom, of ENGLAND: But he shall, with the advice
of the Council of State, have the power of granting reprieves or pardons,
except where prosecution shall have been carried on by the House of Delegates,
or the law shall otherwise particularly direct; in which cases, no
reprieve or pardon shall be granted, but by resolve of the House of Delegates.
X. Either House of the General Assembly may adjourn themselves
respectively. The Governour shall not prorogue or adjourn the Assembly
during their sitting, nor dissolve them at any time; but he shall, if necessary,
either by advice of the Council of State, or on application of a
majority of the House of Delegates, call them before the time to which
they shall stand prorogued or adjourned.
XI. A Privy Council, or Council of State, consisting of eight members,
shall be chosen by joint ballot of both Houses of Assembly, either
from their own members or the people at large, to assist in the administration
of government. They shall annually choose out of their own members
a president, who, in case of the death, inability, or necessary absence
of the Governour from the government, shall act as Lieutenant-Governour.
Four members shall be sufficient to act, and their advice and proceedings
shall be entered of record, and signed by the members present
(to any part whereof any member may enter his dissent) to be laid before
the General Assembly, when called for by them. This Council may appoint
their own clerk, who shall have a salary settled by law, and take an oath
of secrecy in such matters as he shall be directed by the board to conceal.
A sum of money appropriated to that purpose shall be divided annually
among the members, in proportion to their attendance; and they shall be
incapable, during their continuance in office, of sitting in either House
of Assembly. Two members shall be removed by joint ballot of both Houses
of Assembly at the end of every three years, and be ineligible for the three
next years. These vacancies, as well as those occasioned by death or
incapacity, shall be supplied by new elections, in the same manner.
XII. The delegates for Virginia to the Continental Congress shall be
chosen annually, or superseded in the meantime by joint ballot of both
Houses of Assembly.
XIII. The present militia officers shall be continued, and vacancies
supplied by appointment of the Governour, with the advice of the Privy
Council, or recommendations from the respective county courts; but the
Governour and Council shall have a power of suspending any officer, and
ordering a court-martial on complaint of misbehaviour or inability, or to
supply vacancies of officers happening when in actual service. The Governour
and, when embodied, shall alone have the direction of the militia under
the laws of the country.
The two Houses of Assembly shall, by joint ballot, appoint Judges of
the Supreme Court of Appeals, and General Court, Judges in Chancery,
Judges of Admiralty, Secretary, and the Attorney-General, to be commissioned
by the Governour, and continue in office during good behaviour.
In case of death, incapacity, or resignation, the Governour, with the
advice of the Privy Council, shall appoint persons to succeed in office, to
be approved or displaced by both Houses. These officers shall have fixed
and adequate salaries, and, together with all others holding lucrative
offices, and all ministers of the Gospel of every denomination, be incapable
of being elected members of either House of Assembly, or the Privy
Council.
XV. The Governour, with the advice of the Privy Council, shall
appoint Justices of the Peace for the counties; and in case of vacancies, or
a necessity of increasing the number hereafter, such appointments to be
made upon the recommendation of the respective county courts. The
present acting Secretary in Virginia, and Clerks of all the County Courts,
shall continue in office. In case of vacancies, either by death, incapacity,
or resignation, a Secretary shall be appointed as before directed, and the
Clerks, by the respective courts. The present and future Clerks shall hold
their offices during good behaviour, to be judged of and determined in the
General Court. The Sheriffs and Coroners shall be nominated by the
respective courts, approved by the Governour, with the advice of the
Privy Council, and commissioned by the Governour. The Justices shall
appoint Constables and all fees of the aforesaid officers be regulated by
law.
XVI. The Governour, when he is out of office, and others offending
against the state, either by mal-administration, corruption, or other means
by which the safety of the state may be endangered, shall be impeachable
by the House of Delegates; Such impeachment to be prosecuted by the
Attorney-General, or such other person or persons as the House may
appoint in the General Court, according to the laws of the land. If found
guilty, he or they shall be either forever disabled to hold any office
under government, or removed from such office pro tempore, or subjected
to such pains or penalties as the law shall direct.
XVII. If all, or any of the Judges of the General Court, shall, on good
grounds (to be judged of by the House Delegates) be accused of any of the
crimes or offences before-mentioned, such House of Delegates may in like
manner, impeach the Judge or Judges so accused, to be prosecuted in the
Court of Appeals; and he or they, if found guilty, shall be punished in
the same manner as is prescribed in the preceding clause.
XVIII. Commissions and grants shall run, IN THE NAME OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and bear test by the Governour with
and bear test by the clerks of the several courts. Indictments shall conclude,
AGAINST THE PEACE AND DIGNITY OF THE COMMONWEALTH.
XIX. A treasurer shall be appointed annually by joint ballot of both
Houses.
XX. All escheats, penalties, and forfeitures, heretofore going to the
King, shall go to the Commonwealth, save only such as the legislature may
abolish, or otherwise provide for.
XXI. The territories contained within the charters erecting the colonies,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, are hereby
ceded, released, and forever confirmed to the people of those colonies
respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction, and government,
and all other rights whatsoever which might at any time heretofore
have been claimed by Virginia, except the free navigation and use of the
rivers Potowmack and Pohomoke, with the property of the Virginia
shores or strands bordering on either of the said rivers, and all improvements
which have been or shall be made thereon. The western and
northern extent of Virginia shall in all other respects stand as fixed by
the charter of king James the first, in the year one thousand six hundred
and nine, and by the publick treaty of peace between the courts of Great
Britain and France in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty
three; unless, by act of legislature, one or more territories shall hereafter
be laid off, and governments established westward of the Allegheny
mountains. And no purchase of lands shall be made of the Indian natives
but on behalf of the publick, by authority of the General Assembly.
XXII. In order to introduce this government, the representatives of
the people met in Convention, shall choose a Governor and Privy Council,
also such other officers directed to be chosen by both Houses as may be
judged necessary to be immediately appointed. The Senate to be first
chosen by the people, to continue until the last day of March next, and
the other officers until the end of the succeeding session of Assembly. In
case of vacancies, the speaker of either House shall issue writs for new
elections.
The salary of the Governor to be appointed under the
new Constitution, was immediately fixed by a resolution of
the Convention, at one thousand pounds per annum, and the
House proceeded to elect forthwith the first Republican
Governor for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The question
was decided on the first ballot, and Patrick Henry was the
choice of these representatives of the people. In his reply
"To the Honourable, the President and House of Convention,"
in concluding his letter of acceptance, he says:
"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 honourable 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."
On the day that Virginia adopted her Constitution, she
raised her chosen son to the highest office within her gift.
And so, Patrick Henry, turned by an unseen Hand from the
path to military fame, must wear the civic wreath with which
his people crowned him. The brilliant orator, the daring
soldier, had now the statesman's honors to bear before the
world, and as a minister of the public weal, must prove
worthy of the high confidence of his compatriots.
The following extract from the Williamsburg Gazette
affords a realistic picture of colonial life at this perilous
time. On the 15th of May, 1776, the Convention of Virginia
passed Resolutions instructing their delegates in Congress to
propose to that body "to declare the United Colonies free
and independent states."
Extract from Williamsburg Gazette, of May 17th, 1776:
"In consequence of the above resolutions, universally regarded as the
only door which will lead to safety and prosperity, some gentlemen made
a handsome collection for the purpose of treating the soldiery, who next
day (May 16th) were paraded in Waller's Grove, before Brigadier-General
Lewis, attended by the gentlemen of the Committee of Safety, the members
of the General Convention, the inhabitants of this City, etc., etc.
The resolutions being read aloud to the Army, the following toasts were
given, each of them accompanied by a discharge of the Artillery and small
arms, and the acclamations of all present:
"1. The American Independent States.
"2. The Grand Congress of the United States and their respective
Legislatures.
"3. General Washington and victory to the American arms.
"The Union Flag of the American States waved upon the Capitol
during the whole of this ceremony; which being ended the soldiers partook
of the refreshments prepared for them by the affection of their countrymen,
and the evening concluded with illuminations and other demonstrations
of joy; every one seeming pleased that the domination of Great
Britain was now at an end, so wickedly and tyrannically exercised for
these twelve or thirteen years past, notwithstanding our repeated prayers
and remonstrances for redress."
"The Union Flag of the American States" here spoken
of, was probably one of the "Union flags" so frequently
mentioned in the newspapers of those days, viz.: An ordinary
English red ensign, bearing the Union jack, and carrying
some patriotic motto, such as "Liberty," "Liberty and
Property," "Liberty and Union," etc., etc.
In investigating the character of the earliest banners
borne by the revolutionary colonists in the South, we find
that the one adopted in South Carolina, September, 1775,
was a large blue flag, made with a white crescent in the
dexter corner. William Moultrie, Colonel of the Second
South Carolina Regiment, selected this design, as the
First and Second South Carolina Regiments wore in front
of their caps a silver crescent. The flag bore also the
word "Liberty" across its centre. The first armed vessels
commissioned by Washington sailed under a white
flag with a green pine-tree. A yellow ensign bearing
the device of a rattlesnake in the attitude of striking, with
the motto, "Don't tread on me," had also been previously
used. This emblem was suggested, probably, by the
cuts displayed at the head of many newspapers of the time,
which represented a snake divided into thirteen parts, each
bearing the abbreviation of a Colony with the motto beneath,
"Join or Die," typifying the necessity of union. On the
1st January, 1776, the tri-colored American banner, not yet
spangled with stars, but showing thirteen alternate stripes of
red and white, with the united red and white crosses of St.
George and St. Andrew on a blue ground in the corner, was
unfurled over the new Continental Army around Boston. It
was given to the breeze at a critical moment, for this untried
army consisted of but 9650 men.
The first recorded legislative action for the adoption of a
national flag, was on June 14, 1777, when Congress resolved
"that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen
stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen
stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."
It is not known by whom the stars were originally suggested.
After the Constitution of Virginia had been adopted, her
seal. It seems like turning our eyes back to the first crimson
streak upon the horizon of America, as we recall that earliest
seal used upon Virginia soil when King James I. ordered
April 10, 1606, that his portraiture should be engraven on
the one side with the inscription, "Sigilvm Regis Magnæ
Britaniæ, Franciæ et Hiberniæ," and on the other side, his
Arms, with the inscription, "Pro Concilio Primæ Coloniæ
Virginiæ."
To Queen Elizabeth's titles had been added that of
"Queen of Virginia," and James I., who was already the
titular sovereign of four realms, now accepted as the motto
for the London Company's coat-of-arms, "Lo! Virginia
gives a fifth crown." Although the accession of James VI.
of Scotland, in 1603, to the throne of England as James I.
really joined the two nations in one, still the countries were
not legislatively united until 1707. After this union the
motto of the Virginia arms consisted of the English shield,
with the inscription, "En Dat Virginia Quartam."
During the reign of Queen Anne, 1710, the broad seal of
the Colony of Virginia represented a crowned female figure
extending the symbol of the cross to an Indian, who, kneeling,
offers her the first fruits of the land. The inscription on this
seal was "Sigillvm Provinciæ Virginia in America," "En
Dat Virginia Quartam."
And now, last and best, we have the seal as proposed in
the Convention of 1776, by Mr. George Wythe, and chosen
by that body. On the obverse side is a female figure resting
on a spear with one hand and holding a sword in the other,
representing Virtue; her foot is pressed upon the neck of
Tyranny, indicated by a prostrate man, with a crown falling
from his head, a broken chain in his left hand and a scourge
in his right. Over the head of Virtue is engraved, "Virginia,"
and beneath her feet is inscribed, "Sic Semper
Tyrannis." In 1779, when Thomas Jefferson was Governor,
the General Assembly ordered "Perseverando" to be engraved
on the reverse side of the great seal of Virginia.
Better than the portraiture of Kings, or the emblazoned
Through it we read the souls of those who stamped their
image on it, and learn that human happiness has no security
but in freedom; and that freedom has no foundation but in
virtue.
To return now to the consideration of Patrick Henry's
life, we find that as soon as he was elected Governor preparations
were made to provide a suitable residence for him at
the Capital. The Governor's palace, together with the outbuildings
belonging to it, in Williamsburg, having by a
previous Resolution of the Convention, been appropriated as
a public hospital, was, by a Resolution of the first of July,
restored to its original purpose, and the committee who
had been appointed to notify the Governor of his election,
was now directed to inform him of the desire of the Convention
that he would make the palace his future home. On
the fifth of July, the sum of one thousand pounds was directed
by the House to be laid out in furniture for the palace,
including the furniture already there belonging to the country;
and, on the same day, the Governor and members of the
Privy Council took their respective oaths of office, and entered
at once upon the discharge of their constitutional duties.
The autumn of 1776, the year in which Patrick Henry
was made Governor of Virginia, was one of the desperate
periods of the Revolutions, "Men's hearts failing them for
fear," and darkness seemed to have settled over the patriotic
struggle. The disaster at Long Island had occurred, by
which a considerable portion of the American Army had
been cut off—a garrison of between three and four thousand
men had been taken at Fort Washington—and the American
General, with the small remainder, disheartened and in want
of every necessary, was retreating through the Jerseys before
an overwhelming power.
It was of this time that Thomas Paine wrote in "The
American Crisis, No. 1,"
"These are the times that try men's souls."
But, in the midst of the storm which raged around him,
George Washington stood unmoved. Relying upon the
arbitrament of the sword, he was resolved to do—or die.
In these moments of supreme trial, the Legislature of
Virginia swerved for a brief season from its fealty to Republican
principles. According to Thomas Jefferson:
"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 of death, over our persons and over our properties; and in June, 1781,
again under calamity, the same proposition was repeated, and wanted a
few votes only of being passed."
That Mr. Henry was thought of for this office at both of
these critical junctures, there seems to be little doubt, but
those who have studied his noble character are well assured
that no temptation to personal elevation would ever have
led him to deny that watchword, "Liberty or Death," which
he had given to his people.
In the year 1777, Patrick Henry married for his second
wife, Dorothea Dandridge, granddaughter of Governor Alexander
Spotswood, and daughter of Nathaniel West Dandridge,
a descendant of Captain John West, the brother of
Lord Delaware, once colonial Governor, also, of Virginia.
Patrick Henry was re-elected to the office of Governor until
the May session of 1779, when no longer eligible, according to
the Constitution, he retired, not, however, without an effort
on the part of his friends to retain him in his responsible
position upon some legal technicality touching his appointment
for the first term. But, he set the matter at rest by a
letter to the Speaker, and retired at the expiration of his third
term to his estate, "Leatherwood," in Henry County. In
1780 he was again in the State Assembly, serving actively in
that body until 1784. On the 17th November, 1784, Mr.
Henry was again elected Governor of Virginia, his term of
three years to commence on the 30th of that month. On the
29th of November, 1786, he resigned his position as Governor
while yet a year remained of his constitutional term.
Although simple and unostentatious in his style of living, he
found himself involved in debt at this moment, and private
in the active practice of the law means adequate to dispel
his financial obligations, and during the next six years he
attended regularly the district courts of Prince Edward and
New London. His success was abundant, and relieved him
from the financial pressure so galling to his lofty soul. On
the 4th of December, 1786, Mr. Henry was appointed by the
Legislature one of seven deputies from the Commonwealth,
to meet a Convention proposed to be held in Philadelphia on
the following May, for the purpose of revising the Federal
Constitution. His name follows Washington's on the list,
viz.: George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph,
John Blair, James Madison, George Mason, and
George Wythe. The same cause, however, which compelled
Mr. Henry's retirement from the executive chair of his state,
disabled him now from obeying this almost imperative call of
his country, and well may be imagined the conflict in that
honorable breast between private and public duty. The
Federal Constitution, the result of the Philadelphia Convention,
was not viewed with favor by Mr. Henry, although it
had the sanction of the revered name of Washington. He
feared that it threatened the liberties of his country and
endangered the rights of the sovereign states. A Convention
was called to decide the fate of this instrument in Virginia,
and Mr. Henry was chosen a member for the County of Prince
Edward. It met in Richmond, on the 2d June, 1788, and
rarely has so much talent ever been exhibited in a deliberative
body in this country. Says William Wirt:
"We may mention, therefore, Mr. Madison, the late president of the
United States; Mr. Marshall, the chief Justice; and Mr. Monroe, now the
President. What will the reader think of a body in which men like
these were only among their equals? Yet such is the fact; for there were
those sages of other days, Pendleton and Wythe; there was seen displayed
the Spartan vigour and compactness of George Nicholas; and there shone
the radiant genius and sensibility of Grayson; the Roman energy and the
Attic wit of George Mason was there; and there also, the classic taste and
harmony of Edmund Randolph; `the splendid conflagration' of the high-minded
Innis; and the matchless eloquence of the immortal Henry."
In this meeting of intellectual giants the course of discussion
Patrick Henry failed to carry his point. After the Constitution
of the United States had been formally adopted, the
government organized, and Washington elected President,
Mr. Henry gradually became reconciled to the situation.
His opposition in the Convention had not been wholly in
vain, for he secured a variety of amendments, afterwards
incorporated into the Constitution. In 1794 he retired
from the bar, with an ample estate, and removed to
his seat, "Red Hill," in Charlotte County. In 1794 he
was elected United States Senator, and in 1796 Governor
of Virginia, but declined both offices, as he did in 1795,
the appointment by Washington as Secretary of State, and
subsequently that of Minister to France, by President Adams.
After Mr. Henry had declined the position of Secretary of
State, in 1795, it appears that General Washington desired
his acceptance of the Chief-Justiceship of the Supreme Court
of the United States. But having bid a final adieu to his
profession, in 1794, he retired to the bosom of his family
and never again made his appearance in a public character.
It is true that in March, 1799, yielding to the request of
Washington and other distinguished persons, and desirous of
doing his part to avert what he feared would be the disastrous
results of the "Resolutions of '98," passed by Virginia, he
offered himself for the State Senate in his district. It was
only necessary for him to indicate his wish to fill any public
position and he was only too gladly elected. His speech at
Charlotte Court House in this connection was his last, and is
said to have been worthy of his fame. After he had spoken the
polls were opened and he was chosen by his accustomed commanding
majority. "As he finished he literally descended
into the arms of the uncontrollable throng and was borne about
in triumph." Perhaps, with a prescience sometimes given
to humanity, they felt that his sun had set in all its glory.
Too true was this prophetic instinct, for in three brief months
thereafter, their idol's voice was hushed forever. He died on
the 6th of June, 1799, and his ashes were tearfully laid to
rest at "Red Hill," his seat in Charlotte County.
William Wirt thus beautifully describes Mr. Henry when
he bade a final adieu to his profession and sought a season
of repose, so well earned in a long period of devotion to
public needs and private duties:
"He retired, loaded with honors, public and professional; and carried
with him the admiration, the gratitude, the confidence, and the love
of his country. No man had ever passed through so long a life of public
service with a reputation more perfectly unspotted. Nor had Mr. Henry,
on any occasion, sought security from censure, by that kind of prudent
silence and temporizing neutrality, which politicians so frequently observe.
On the contrary, his course had been uniformly active, bold,
intrepid, and independent. On every great subject of public interest, the
part which he had taken was open, decided, manly; his country saw his
motives, heard his reasons, approved his conduct, rested upon his virtue,
and his vigour; and contemplated with amazement, the evolution and
unremitted display of his transcendent talents. For more than thirty
years he had now stood before that country—open to the scrutiny and the
censure of the invidious—yet he retired, not only without spot or blemish,
but with all his laurels blooming full and fresh upon him—followed by the
blessings of his almost adoring countrymen, and cheered by that most
exquisite of all earthly possessions—the consciousness of having, in deed
and in truth, played well his part. He had now too, become disembarrassed
of debt; his fortune was affluent; and he enjoyed, in his retirement,
that ease and dignity, which no man ever more richly deserved."
Although Patrick Henry began life in the school of poverty,
in his later years he enjoyed an independence which
resulted partly from a remunerative profession, and partly
from judicious purchases of lands. In his habits of life he
was remarkably simple, always frugal and abstemious, and
his example as the head of a family, as well as the Chief
Executive of his native state, is without reproach. His
conversation was remarkably pure and chaste, and he was
never heard to take the name of his Maker in vain. Well
may be repeated with undiminished fervor the conclusion of
General Henry Lee's touching obituary:
"As long as our rivers flow and mountains stand, so long will your
excellence and worth be the theme of our homage and endearments; and
Virginia, bearing in mind her loss, will say to rising generations, `Imitate
Henry.' "
| LXX. Virginia, 1492-1892 | |