Part 4 (2/2)

[59] Maury, _Meuenot Fam_ 423

[60] Wirt, 39-41

[61] Me_ for 1867, 91

[62] Jefferson's _Works_, vi 365

[63] Me_ for 1867, 91

[64] These docuiven in full in the Appendix to Wirt's _Life of Henry_, as Note A

[65] _Jour Va House of Burgesses_

[66] Of this faiven 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] Me_ for 1867, 91

[68] Me_ for 1867, 91 Henry was aided in this debate by Robert Munford, also, and by John Fle: 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 Edinia_, still in e of the orator, as follows: ”'Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First, his Croe 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] Me_ for 1867, 91

[71] Cainia 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, iven above, consisting of a preainally prepared by Patrick Henry, and introduced by him on Wednesday, May 29, in the committee of the whole, and probably passed by the co 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 ho the resolution which is above numbered as 5: and that, many years afterwards, when Patrick Henry caave 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 theiven, since it lacked the resolution nu to an error in the first hurried transcription of them Those who care to study the subject further will find the materials in _Prior Docuton_, 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 iven 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 soently kept both the letters they received, and copies of the letters they wrote, and made, for the benefit of posterity, carefulthe 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 ritten 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 rele exception has to be reat affair described in the latter part of the previous chapter

Of course, it was perceived at the tiainst the Stareat an affair it was, neither Patrick Henry nor any other one 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 authorshi+p of the Virginia resolutions, and his successful championshi+p of theave 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 onehe ever did But before we cite the words in which he thus indicated this judglance 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 co day, the essential portion of the series was adopted, likewise, by the House But as the contenificance of these resolutions? As the news of them swept from colony to colony, why did they so stir men's hearts to excitee of those resolutions was e already used on the saain, in the discussions of the preceding twelve e 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 governovernly, 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 ives us the contenificance, and to the vast excitement produced by the purposes of the colonists at that precise acious writer of that period has told us, that merely upon the adoption of these resolves by the co, and could not be restrained fro for their final adoption by the House ”A manuscript of the unrevised resolves,” says Willia been sent off i, that the earliest inforht 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 the the been procured with entleland, 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]