Part 6 (1/2)
Without here going into the faress of 1774, we may briefly indicate Patrick Henry's relation to the events in Virginia which immediately preceded his appointe On the 24th of May, 1774, the House of Burgesses, having received the alarnated 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 i the heavy calahts, and the evils of civil war; to give us one heart and one mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper hts; and that the minds of his majesty and his parliament may be inspired from above isdom, moderation, and justice, to reer, fronant with their ruin”[96] Two days afterward, the governor, Lord Dun summoned the House to the council chamber, entleesses, I have in my hand a paper published by order of your House, conceived in such terhly upon his majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it necessary for ly”[97]
At ten o'clock on the following day, May 27, the h Tavern, and there pro the policy pursued by Parliaress of all the colonies, ”to deliberate on those general measures which the united interests of A the anxious days and nights i 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 , and was admitted to the consultations of the chiefs, wrote at the ti 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 recoesses, a convention of delegates fro, 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 whoress:--
”The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her An of his present , have proceeded to lengths so dangerous and alar 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 sa deprived of their usual and accustorievances, have appointed us their representatives, to consider what is proper to be done in this dangerous crisis of A our opinion that the united wisdoress of all the colonies, we have appointed the honorable Peyton Randolph, Esquire, Richard Henry Lee, George Washi+ngton, 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 theythe conduct ish them to observe on this important occasion, we desire that they will express, in the first place, our faith and true allegiance to his htful sovereign; and that we are deteral 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 Willia, of which, of course, Patrick Henry was a ust
Between that date and the tiress at Philadelphia, wehis affairs for a long absence fro 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 _Aiven 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 ust, Patrick Henry arrived on horseback at Mt Vernon, the hoton; and having reht, he set out for Philadelphia on the following ton and of Edton'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 tiress on the et upon the ground nearly a week earlier; and carefully gathering all possible infor his future associates, fehoinians were said to ”speak in raptures about Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry, one the Cicero, and the other the Dee”[103]