University of Virginia Library

PATRICK HENRY.

In vigor of intellect, in its varied exemplifications, in true manhood,
and in illustrious and material service in church, state and the army,
in the one sex, and in the typical exhibition of the sweet graces and exalted
virtues characteristic of Virginia and the Southern States, in the
other and gentler, no citizen of the Old Dominion, within its annals or
traditions, has been more honored in his descendants, including the
present generation, than John Henry, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland,
and son of John Henry and his wife Jane, the sister of William Robertson,
D.D., the divine, scholar and historian. He was a cousin of David
Henry, the publisher of the Gentleman's Magazine, and through Dr.
Robertson, the cousin of the distinguished Lord Brougham. The late
British Premier, William Ewart Gladstone, is also of the same lineage.
John Henry settled in Virginia some time prior to 1730. He enjoyed
the friendship and patronage of Governor Robert Dinwiddie, who introduced
him to the acquaintance of Colonel John Syme, of Hanover
county, who dying, his widow, née Winston, John Henry in time married.
John Henry was a most useful citizen of Hanover county, serving
as Colonel of militia, surveyor, and presiding magistrate for many
years. He had been liberally educated, was well grounded in the
classics, and, withal, was endowed with an excellent judgment and a
vigorous mind. He executed a map of Virginia, which was published
in London, in 1770. A copy of it was in the possession of Joseph
Horner, Esq., Warrenton, Virginia, a few years since. Charles Campbell
(History of Virginia, p. 521), says that "appended to it is an epitome
of the state and condition of Virginia. The marginal illustration
is profuse and, like the map, well executed." Soon after the settlement
of Colonel John Henry in Virginia, Patrick, a minister of the
Church of England followed him, and in April, 1733, by his brother's
interest, became rector of St. George's parish in the county of Spotsylvania.
He was subsequently rector of St. Paul's parish, in Hanover
county. The wife of Colonel John Henry, says Wirt, "possessed in an
eminent degree, the mild and benevolent disposition, the undeviating
probity, the correct understanding and easy elocution," for which the
ancient family of Winston is distinguished. Her brother, William
Winston, an officer in the French and Indian war, is said to have been
noted for his oratorical powers. The grave of Colonel Henry, and
presumably that of his wife, is at "Studley," their latest residence in
Hanover county. Patrick, the second son and the youngest of the family
of nine children, of Colonel John and Sarah (Winston-Syme) Henry,
was born at "Studley," May 29, 1736. Under the tuition of his father
he received the basis of a sound English education, with a knowledge
of mathematics, and of the Greek and Latin, a well-thumbed copy of

the Testament, in the former language, which was through life a prized
possession, being still preserved by a descendant. The pecuniary circumstances
of Colonel Henry impelled him to qualify his sons at an early
age to support themselves. With this view, Patrick was placed, at the
age of fifteen, with a country merchant. In the year following, his
father was encouraged by his apparent qualifications to purchase for his
two sons, William and Patrick, a small adventure of goods, to "set
them up in trade." The chief management of this mercantile venture
devolved upon Patrick, whose levity of disposition, and proclivities for
the chase and for social gatherings, illy comported with his responsibilities.
The result was a very natural one; one year put an end to the
business of the store, but Patrick was engaged for two or three years
following, in winding up the disastrous experiment. Notwithstanding
his misfortunes, at the early age of eighteen he married Sarah Shelton,
the daughter, it has been said, of the keeper of a house of entertainment
at the county seat of Hanover. By the joint assistance of their parents
the young couple were settled on a small farm, and Mr. Henry, with
the assistance of one or two slaves, again essayed the struggle for a livelihood,
but his want of agricultural skill and his aversion to systematic
labor, drove him, necessarily, after a trial of two years, to abandon this
pursuit. Selling out for cash, at a sacrifice, his little possessions, he resumed
his inauspicious mercantile pursuits, which he continued until
some time in the year 1759, as evidenced by the memorial illustration
in this work—reduced fac-similes from the originals, of an account in his
autograph, and of a quaint pair of iron-framed spectacles, said to have
been possessed and worn by him in advanced life. The second mercantile
venture was more unfortunate than the first, involving him in absolute
bankruptcy. His situation was indeed lamentable; penniless, with
an increasing family, and with the resources of his friends exhausted,
nevertheless he was sustained by innate fortitude and buoyancy of heart.
Jefferson, who first made the acquaintance of Mr. Henry after his disasters
in the winter of 1759-60, states that they were "not to be traced either
in his countenance or conduct," and that his passion was "music, dancing
and pleasantry." Mr. Henry now determined on the study of law,
"and at last found the path for which he was designed, and into which
he had been driven by the severe but kindly discipline of Providence."
Within the alleged, but absurdly inadequate time of six weeks only in preparation,
he obtained a license to practice at the age of twenty-four. According
to Wirt, Mr. Henry was but little employed in his profession for
several years; his family was chiefly maintained during this period by his
father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, who kept a tavern at Hanover Court House,
Mr. Henry lending his assistance in the entertainment of the guests, and
that his talent remained unknown until it blazed forth like a meteor,
as the advocate of the people in the famous "Parson's Cause," tried at
the November term, 1763, of Hanover Court. The opposing counsel
was Peter Lyons, subsequently of the Supreme Court of Appeals, of
the State.

The story is a winning one, but Mr. Wirt was mistaken as to the
facts. Patrick Henry came to the bar in the latter part of 1760. His
fee books, now in the possession of his family, show that his practice
was extensive from the beginning. They disclose, according to a recent
publication by his grandson, William Wirt Henry, that "from
the September of 1760, when he came to the bar, to the 31st of December,
1763," Patrick Henry charged fees in 1,185 suits, besides
many fees for preparing papers out of court, indicating that his success
was remarkable and his talents appreciated. In 1764 Mr. Henry removed
his family to the county of Louisa, residing at a place called
"Roundabout." In the fall of that year he had the opportunity of a
new theater for his genius, as the advocate before the House of Burgesses,
at Williamsburg, of Nathaniel West Dandridge, who contested
the seat in that body, on the charge of bribery and corruption, of James
Littlepage, who had been returned from Hanover County. Here Mr.
Henry "distinguished himself by a copious and brilliant display on the
great subject of the rights of suffrage, superior to any thing that had
been heard before within those walls." The same year, 1764, is memorable
as that of the passage of the Stamp Act, and for the origination
of the great question which finally led to American Independence, to
which, says Jefferson, "Mr. Henry gave the first impulse." On the
1st of May, 1765, Mr. Henry entered the House of Burgesses as the
representative from Louisa County. His first address to the House
was upon the proposition for a public Loan Office, devised by John
Robinson, the Speaker, to allow the public money to be loaned out to
individuals, on security. It was a scheme to hide certain misappropriations,
which Robinson, as Treasurer, had made and wished to conceal.
Henry opposed it with such vigor and eloquence that it was lost on the
first vote. On the 20th he was added to the committee for courts of
justice. A few days afterward his celebrated resolutions on the Stamp
Act were offered. The original, hastily written upon the fly-leaf of an
old law book, is now in the possession of Mr. William Wirt Henry.
In the stormy debate which ensued, Patrick Henry vehemently exclaimed:
"Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell,
and George the Third"—"Treason!" cried the Speaker, the cry was
echoed from every part of the House—"may profit by their example![1]
If this be treason, make the most of it." The resolutions were carried,
the last by a majority of one only.

AUTOGRAPH BILL OF PATRICK HENRY, WHILE A SHOPKEEPER,

With massive iron spectacles worn by him, from the original in the possession of R. A. Brock,
Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society.

Henry left the capital that morning for his home, and the next day,
the defeated leaders, taking advantage of his absence, succeeded in having
expunged, the fifth, last and most obnoxious of the resolutions,
which claimed "that the Assembly had the sole right to levy taxes, and
that the vesting such power in any other person whatsoever, had a
manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom."
In 1769 Mr. Henry was admitted to the bar of the General Court,
where he came into competition with the most eminent characters in the
colony, some of whom had been educated at the Temple, London, and
the names of a majority of them are historical. Here his wonderful
powers of oratory were pre-eminent. His reputation was such that in
January, 1773, Robert Carter Nicholas, who had enjoyed the first practice
at the bar, being forced to relinquish it by accepting the office of Treasurer
of the Colony, committed to him by public advertisement, his unfinished
business. Mr. Henry removed from Louisa to his native county,
Hanover, in 1767, but was continued a member of the House of Burgesses.
The exactions and odious inflictions of Great Britain continued,
and the storm of Revolution was gathering strength. Every act of resistance
on the part of the Colonial Assemblies, was met by the royal
Governors by a prompt dissolution. Thus matters progressed for several
years; when, in 1774, the Virginia House of Burgesses, having
been suddenly dissolved by Lord Dunmore, for their spirited resentment
of the Boston Port Bill, the members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and
recommended the first call of a Congress of all the friends of liberty.
By the Convention at Williamsburg, shortly afterward, Mr. Henry was
elected a delegate to the Continental Congress which met at Philadelphia,
September 4, 1774. He was the first to address this body, in an
address of such surpassing eloquence, that great as was his reputation,
he seemed to exalt himself to the magnitude of the occasion. His extraordinary
powers astonished all listeners, and he took rank as the
greatest orator of America. In the Virginia Convention, which on the
20th of March, 1775, reassembled at Richmond, in the venerable St.
John's Church (of the exterior and interior of which, before alteration,
accurate representations from photographs are given in this work), to
take further steps in the cause of liberty. Mr. Henry, on the 23d,
moved the organization of militia and that the "Colony be immediately
put in a state of defense." The bold proposal roused the resistance of
many of the firmest friends of the colonial cause, and the debate was
fierce in the extreme. But the genius of Henry rose to the full demands
of the occasion, and as the last thrilling exclamation, "give me
liberty, or give me death!" fell on the ear of the House, all were infused
with the spirit of the orator; the bill passed, and the colony was at
once placed in an attitude of defense. Lord Dunmore, on the 20th of
April following, having clandestinely removed all the powder from the

public magazine at Williamsburg, to a sloop of war lying in York river,
Henry placed himself at the head of the company of Captain Samuel
Meredith (who resigned in his favor), of Hanover county, marched
upon Williamsburg and forced the Governor to give him an order on
the Receiver-General of the Colony, for the value of the powder. In
June, Henry was appointed to the Colonelcy of the First Virginia
regiment, and the command-in-chief of all the forces of the Colony.
Colonel Henry at once went into camp at Williamsburg and ardently
began the recruitment and disciplining of the troops. But the act of
the Virginia Committee of Safety, in intrusting to Woodford, the second
colonel in rank, the duty of arresting the ravages of the motley band
of Dunmore, drove Henry, who had solicited the enterprise, from
the military service back into the councils of state. Mortified by this
disregard of his prerogative of rank, and being wounded further by
the promotion over him, in the Continental line, to the rank of Brigadier-General,
of two Colonels, to whose appointments his own was prior, he
resigned his commission. The action of the convention excited universal
condemnation, and nearly produced a mutiny in the army.

Ninety officers united in an address to Henry, regretting his loss to the
service and applauding his spirited resentment. With exalted unselfishness,
Henry exerted himself to quiet the discontent of his soldiers, and
having accomplished this, retired to his home.

Immediately upon the resignation of his commission as Colonel, he was
elected a delegate to the Convention from the county of Hanover. The
session of that body which was approaching, was pregnant with importance.
Dunmore had abdicated the government, and the royal authority
in the Colony was seen and felt no longer except in acts of hostility.
The Convention met at Williamsburg on the 6th of May, 1776. On the
29th of June, a plan of government having been adopted, Patrick Henry
was elected Governor of Virginia under its new constitution for a term
of twelve months, at a salary of one thousand pounds per annum, Virginia
currency, equivalent in value to $3,333.33⅓ in our present currency.
His competitors for the office were Thomas Nelson and John Page, the
latter of whom was subsequently Governor of Virginia. Shortly after
the election of Mr. Henry as Governor, Lord Dunmore was driven from
Gwinns Island and from the State, to return to it no more. The autumn
of the year 1776 was one of the darkest and most dispiriting periods of
the Revolution, and of which Thomas Paine, in his Crisis, used the
memorable expression, "These are the times that try the souls of men."
For a time the courage of the country fell. Washington alone was undaunted.
Even the heroism of the Virginia Legislature gave way,
and in a season of despair, the mad project of a dictator was seriously
meditated. Mr. Henry is said to have been thought of for this office,
but there is no evidence that the project was ever countenanced by him,

and his firm and unselfish patriotism, so abundantly evidenced, irrefragably
refutes bare suspicion even. That the Virginia Assembly entertained no
doubt of him is manifest in the fact that he was unanimously re-elected
Governor for another annual term on the 30th of May, 1777.

The "Father of his Country," even, did not escape the insidious
attacks of those who were basely envious of him. One of these anonymous
letters was received by Mr. Henry in January, 1778, filled with
the grossest imputations of the incapacity and dishonesty of Washington,
and suggesting Gates, Lee, or Conway as Commander-in-chief instead.
Mr. Henry at once inclosed the letter to his loved and revered friend.
Mr. Henry having completed a third term as Governor, retired from the
office, being inelegible to re-election under the constitution. His administration
had been able, vigilant and effective. The wife of Mr. Henry
died in 1775. He soon after sold the farm in Hanover, called "Scotch
Town," on which he had resided, and purchased about ten thousand
acres of land in Henry County, 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. In 1777 he married, secondly,
Dorothea Dandridge, granddaughter of Governor Alexander Spotswood,
and daughter of Nathaniel West Dandridge, a descendant of Captain
John West, the brother of Lord Delaware—both early Governors of
Virginia. Soon after the expiration of the governmental office of Mr.
Henry, he removed with his family to his newly acquired estate in Henry
county, called "Leatherwood," and resumed the practice of law. In
1780, he was again in the State Assembly and one of the most active
members in the House. He continuously served in this body until
November, 1784. Mr. Henry gave an endearing exhibition of his
generous sensibility, in the winter session of 1780, in the resolution which
he moved expressing sympathy with General Gates in his unfortunate
defeat at Camden, and giving him assurance of continued regard and
esteem upon the entrance into Richmond of the retreating General. In
November, 1784, to conciliate the Indians on the borders of Virginia,
and to avert the danger of hostility from them, Mr. Henry introduced a
remarkable resolution, providing for the intermarriage of the white with
the Indian race, and investing the offspring of such alliances with all
the rights of citizenship. It was rejected. Washington visited Richmond
on the 15th and Lafayette on the 17th of the month, and they
were received with public demonstrations. On the 17th of November, 1784,
Mr. Henry was again elected Governor of Virginia; his term of three
years to commence on the 30th of the month. The necessities of his
family compelled his resignation of his office on the 29th of November, 1786,
declining re-election for another year, as constitutionally provided. On the
4th of December in the same year, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund
Randolph, John Blair, James Madison, George Mason and George
Wythe were appointed by the Virginia Assembly delegates to the convention

to be held in May following in Philadelphia for the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, but Henry was debarred by his pecuniary circumstances (being
oppressed with debt) from obeying this honorable call. Of the Virginia
Convention to decide the relations of the State to the newly proposed
Federal Constitution, Mr. Henry was elected a member from
Prince Edward county. In this body, composed of the grandest intellects
in the Old Dominion, and which met in Richmond on the 2d of June,
1788, in a quaint old edifice subsequently known as the African Church
(and now displaced by another church with a colored membership of
nearly 4,000 members), Mr. Henry opposed the ratification of the instrument
of compact with all the eloquence and vigor of his nature. He
feared that the final result would be the destruction of the rights of the
sovereign States. His faculties rose to the altitude of the occasion, and
during his whole brilliant career he had never before appeared to greater
advantage. But, for almost the only time in his life, he failed to carry
his point. The opposing array of intellectual giants, backed by predominant
popular sentiment, were not to be overcome. His opposition, however,
was not fruitless. He secured the passage of a Bill of Rights and a
variety of amendments, afterward incorporated into the Constitution.
The Constitution having been adopted, the government organized, and
Washington elected President, the repugnance of Mr. Henry measurably
abated. The chapter of amendments considerably neutralized his objections;
but it is believed that his acquiescence resulted more from the consideration
of his duty as a citizen, his confidence in the chief magistrate
and a hopeful reliance on the wisdom and virtue of the people, than from
any material change in his opinions. 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 the State, but declined both offices, as he did, in 1795,
the appointment by Washington as Secretary of State, to succeed Jefferson,
and subsequently that of Minister to France by Adams.

From a letter of General Henry Lee, still preserved in the original,
it appears that Washington, in December, 1795, after the declination of
the office of Secretary of State, desired the acceptance by Mr. Henry
of the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court of the United States. In
1798, the strong and animated resolutions of the Virginia Assembly in
opposition to the Alien and Sedition Laws called again for his services
in the councils of Virginia, and he presented himself as a candidate, at the
spring election of 1799, for the House of Delegates. His speech on this
occasion before the polls were opened was the last effort of his eloquence.
As he finished, he literally descended into the arms of the uncontrollable
throng and was borne about in triumph; whereon the eminent Presbyterian
Divine, John H. Rice, D. D., touchingly exclaimed, "The sun has
set in all his glory."

It is memorable that the brilliant and erratic John Randolph (who
subsequently designated himself as "of Roanoke") offered himself on the
same occasion at Charlotte Court House as a candidate for Congress, and
undaunted replied to Mr. Henry with cutting satire and caustic crimination
of the Federal party. His effort was received with loud huzzas.
This was a new experience to Mr. Henry, unaccustomed to rivalry, to
be confronted by a beardless boy, for such was the youthful appearance
of Mr. Randolph. Mr. Henry returned to the rostrum, and in a
second address soared above his wonted passionate and majestic eloquence.
He unstintingly complimented the rare talents of his competitor,
whilst he deprecated the youthful errors of his political zeal, and by his
pathos wrought himself and audience to tears. In these efforts of Mr.
Henry, as attested by two of his audience, Colonels Robert Morton and
Clement Carrington, of Charlotte county, in 1837, in statements published
by the late Charles Campbell in 1867, Mr. Henry did not approve
the Alien and Sedition Laws (which he apprehended tended to civil war),
and patriotically endeavored to quiet the minds of the people and to
avert the apparent impending dissolution of the Union. He said: "Let
us all go together, right or wrong. If we go into civil war, your Washington
will lead the Governmental armies; and who, I ask, is willing to
point a bayonet against his breast?"

Mr. Henry and Mr. Randolph were each elected severally to the
stations for which they offered, but Mr. Henry, whose health had been
visibly declining for several years, died on the 6th of June, 1799, a few
months before Washington, and before the meeting of the body to which
he had been elected. His remains and those of his second wife rest
side by side beneath massive and ornate marble tablets in the family
cemetery at "Red Hill," which seat is now owned by his grandson,
William Wirt Henry.

The following obituary of Patrick Henry, which appeared contemporaneously
in the Virginia newspapers, and was written by General
Henry Lee, is a touching plaint and merits perpetuation here:

The affectionate reverence in which Patrick Henry was held is evidenced

in the commitment to memory of this lament by numerous admirers and
its oral transmission in some instances to the present day.

The distinguished orator and theologian, Rev. Archibald Alexander,
D. D., a repeated personal witness, thus lucidly and satisfactorily analyzes
the springs of the oratorical genius of Patrick Henry:

"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
the 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 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. * * *
A learned and intelligent gentleman stated to me that he once heard
Mr. Henry's defense of a man arraigned for a capital crime. So clear
and abundant was the evidence that my informant was unable to conceive
any grounds of defense, especially after the law had been ably
placed before the jury by the attorney for the Commonwealth. For a
long time after Mr. Henry began, he never once adverted to the merits
of the case or the arguments of the prosecution, but went off into a most
captivating and discursive oration on general topics, expressing opinions
in perfect accordance with those of his hearers, until having fully succeeded
in obliterating every impression of his opponent's speech, he obliquely

approached the subject, and as occasion was offered, dealt forth
strokes which seemed to tell upon the minds of the jury. In this case,
it should be added, the force of truth prevailed over the art of the consummate
orator."

The descendants of Colonel John Henry and of his eminent son Patrick
Henry, comprise the distinguished family names of Meredith, Madison,
Lewis, Bowyer, Christian, Pope, Bullitt, Campbell, Russell, Wood, Preston,
Armistead, Garland, Carrington, McDowell, Breckenridge, Floyd,
Hampton, Johnston, Southall, Venable, Hughes, Michel, Fontaine,
Roane, Lyons, Dandridge, Crenshaw, Granberry, Bailey, Scott, and
others, and embrace authors, divines, educators, governors, generals,
jurists, scientists, statesmen, etc.

A portrait of Patrick Henry, painted by Thomas Sully, and pronounced
by his contemporaries an admirable likeness, is in the possession
of his grandson, William Wirt Henry, a distinguished practitioner of
the law, and the Vice-President of the Virginia Historical Society.
From this portrait has been engraved the illustration in our work.