Part 5 (2/2)

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

Froinia House of Burgesses, in the spring of 1765, to the opening of his first terress, in the fall of 1774, there stretches a period of about nine years, which, for the purposes of our present study, eneral, itwhich 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 reat 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 reatand of tentative struggle had passed: the period now entered upon was one of recognizedlines certified by victories that cahtest 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 suhborhood of Hanover Court House After coesses, 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 Tohich continued to be his seat until shortly after the Declaration of Independence, when, having becoinia, he took up his residence at Willia 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 seereat 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 ularity, and finally ceased tohis private concerns, became entirely absorbed in the concerns of the public

The fluctuations in his engage 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 tiether 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 hi 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 thesuch 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 coe 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 hiher tribunals of the land until he had qualified himself to bear his part there with success and honor Thus, the instancein the Court of Admiralty, ”in behalf of a Spanish captain, whose vessel and cargo had been libeled A gentlee, was heard to declare, after the trial was over, that he never heard a umentative 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 froan 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 aht 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 laere 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 gentle afterward tried to convince Wirt that, even at the period now in question, Patrick Henry ofully 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 professionas not to be able to see the res 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 docuot, 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, becainia, and of all her sister colonies; and nearly all the esses, 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, ainian politics, there was no real disagreeree methods as must always occur between spirits who are cautious and spirits who are bold Chief a the former were Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Peyton Randolph, and Nicholas In the van of the latter always stood Patrick Henry, and with hie 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 ih we often wished to have gone faster, we slackened our pace, that our less ardent colleaguesnothing froait soht 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 eer of an assault upon the freedom, and consequently the honor, of this connection, all stood on guard

One result, however, of this practical unani 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 co part in all the counsels of the tiesses; 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 culinia to the first Continental Congress