Part 7 (2/2)
The plan, however, was distrusted and resisted, with stern and iress, particularly by those froinia; and an outline of what Patrick Henry said in his assault upon it, delivered on the very day on which it was introduced, is thus given by John Adainal constitution of the colonies was founded on the broadest and ulation of our trade was coh for all the protection we ever experienced from her
”We shall liberate our constituents from a corrupt House of Coislature, that may be bribed by that nation which avows, in the face of the world, that bribery is a part of her systeed to pay taxes as they do, let us be as free as they; let us have our trade open with all the world
”We are not to consent by the representatives of representatives
”I am inclined to think the present measures lead to war”[116]
The only other trace to be discovered of Patrick Henry's activity in the debates of this Congress belongs to the day just before the one on which Galloway's plan was introduced The subject then under discussion was the measure for non-importation and non-exportation On considerations of forbearance, Henry tried to have the date for the application of this , characteristically, ”We don't mean to hurt even our rascals, if we have any”[117]
Probably the ress was its preparation of those masterly state papers in which it interpreted and affirmed the constitutional attitude of the colonies, and which, when laid upon the table of the House of Lords, drew forth the splendid encomium of Chatham[118] In many respects the most important, and certainly the most difficult, of these state papers, was the address to the king The motion for such an address was made on the 1st of October On the same day the preparation of it was entrusted to a very able co of Richard Henry Lee, John Adae; and on the 21st of October the cothened by the accession of John dickinson, who had entered the Congress but four days before[119] Precisely what part Patrick Henry took in the preparation of this address is not non; but there is no evidence whatever for the assertion[120] that the first draft, which, when subress, proved to be unsatisfactory, was the work of Patrick Henry That draft, as is now abundantly proved, was prepared by the chairman of the committee, Richard Henry Lee, but after full instructions froress and from the coely entle hand of John dickinson[122] No one can doubt, however, that even though Patrick Henryto the literary execution of this fine address, he was not inactive in its construction,[123] and that he was not likely to have suggested any abatement from its free and manly spirit
The only other coress was one to which his name was added on the 19th of Septehts of the colonies,”[124] an object, certainly, far better suited to the peculiarities of his talents and of his te
Of course, the one gift in which Patrick Henry excelled all other ift of eloquence; and it is not to be doubted that in , for exae of details, he was often equaled, and perhaps even surpassed, by enius for oratory This fact, the analogue of which is coenius, seems to be the basis of an anecdote which, possibly, is authentic, and which, at any rate, has been handed down by one as always a devoted friend[125] of the great orator It is said that, after Henry and Lee had made their first speeches, Samuel Chase of Maryland was so impressed by their superiority that he walked over to the seat of one of his colleagues and said: ”We islate with these men” But some days afterward, perhaps in thetrade and commerce, the same member was able to relieve himself by the remark: ”Well, after all, I find these are but men, and, in mere matters of business, but very coht to pass froress, and upon Patrick Henry's part in it, without some reference to Wirt's treatment of the subject in a book which has now been, for nearly three quarters of a century, the chief source of public infor Patrick Henry There is perhaps no other portion of this book which is less worthy of respect[127] It is not only unhistoric in nearly all the very few alleged facts of the narrative, but it does great injustice to Patrick Henry by representing hih most impressive rhapsodist in debate, and as without any claim to the character of a serious statesrandiose and ularly out of hare,--an asselo-Saxon lawyers, politicians, and men of business, ere probably about as practical and sober-ether for any ins by convening his Congress one day too soon, namely, on the 4th of September, which was Sunday; and he represents the ers” to one another, and as sitting, after their preli and deep silence,” thearound upon each other with a sort of helpless anxiety, ”every individual” being reluctant ”to open a business so fearfully momentous” But
”in the midst of this deep and death-like silence, and just when it was beginning to beco, Mr
Henry arose slowly, as if borne down by the weight of the subject After faltering, according to his habit, through a most impressive exordium, in which he merely echoed back the consciousness of every other heart in deploring his inability to do justice to the occasion, he launched gradually into a recital of the colonial wrongs Rising, as he advanced, with the grandeur of his subject, and glowing at length with all the majesty and expectation of the occasion, his speech seemed more than that of lory in the House of Burgesses of Virginia were astonished at the manner in which his talents seemed to swell and expand themselves to fill the vaster theatre in which he was now placed There was no rant, no rhapsody, no labor of the understanding, no straining of the voice, no confusion of the utterance His countenance was erect, his eye steady, his action noble, his enunciation clear and firm, his mind poised on its centre, his views of his subject co with a nificence and a variety which struck even that assembly with amazement and awe He sat down amidst murmurs of astonishreatest orator of Virginia, he was now on every hand adreat speech from Patrick Henry, which certainly was not made on that occasion, and probably was never reat speech froh the journal could have informed him that Lee was not even in the House on that day Moreover, he makes Patrick Henry to be the author of the unfortunate first draft of the address to the king,--a document which ritten by another es of lamentation and of homily with reference to Patrick Henry's inability to express hilect of literature” Finally, he thinks it due ”to historic truth to record that the superior powers” of Patrick Henry ”were h he and Richard Henry Lee ”took the undisputed lead in the asserievances were the topic,” yet they were both ”completely thrown into the shade” ”when called down frohts of declamation to that severer test of intellectual excellence, the details of business,”--the writer here seerievances” were not the topic ”during the first days of the session,”
and that the very speeches by which these two men are said to have made theirto methods of procedure[129]
Since the death of Wirt, and the publication of the biography of him by Kennedy, it has been possible for us to ascertain just how the genial author of ”The Life and Character of Patrick Henry” caravely e relative to the first Congress” appears to have been composed from data furnished by Jefferson, who, however, was not a inal manuscript the very words of Jefferson were surrounded with quotation marks, and were attributed to hireat man, who loved not to send out calumnies into the world with his own name attached to them, came to inspect this portion of Wirt's manuscript, he was moved by his usual prudence to write such a letter as drew fro consolatory assurance:--
”Your repose shall never be endangered by any act of mine, if I can help it Immediately on the receipt of your last letter, and before the ain the whole passage relative to the first Congress, oether from the communication”[130]
The final adjournress, it will be reether more than seven weeks of the closest intellectual inti, no sublihts ofabout for the display of his preternatural gift of articulate wind, could have grappled in keen debate, for all those weeks, on the greatest of earthly subjects, with fifty of the ablestto their view all his own intellectual poverty, and without losing the very last shred of their intellectual respect for him Whatever may have been the impression formed of Patrick Henry as acan be plainer than that those men carried with them to their hoence, integrity, and pohich was the basis of his subsequent fa afterward, John Adams, who formed his estimate of Patrick Henry chiefly froress, and as never iums on any ress of 1774 there was not one member, except Patrick Henry, who appearedsensible of the precipice, or rather the pinnacle, on which we stood, and had candor and courage enough to acknowledge it”[131] To Wirt likewise, a few years later, the same hard critic of men testified that Patrick Henry always iacity, clear foresight, daring enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted integrity, with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the honor, and felicity of his country and his species”[132]
Of the parting intervieeen these two h personal acquaintance, there reraphic account that reveals to us so of the conscious kinshi+p which seeether their robust and iress,” says John Adaht, in the autumn of 1774, I had with Mr Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction that our resolves, declarations of rights, enus, petitions, remonstrances, and addresses, associations, and non-iht be expected by the people in America, and however necessary to cement the union of the colonies, would be but waste paper in England Mr Henry said they reed with overnment I had but just received a short and hasty letter, written to'a few broken hints,' as he called the[133] with these words: 'After all, we ht' This letter I read to Mr Henry, who listened with great attention; and as soon as I had pronounced the words, 'After all, we y and veheet, broke out with: 'By God, I am of that man's mind!'”[134]
This anecdote, it may be mentioned, contains the only instance on record, for any period of Patrick Henry's life, i his use of what at first may seem a profane oath John Adae the story rests, declares that he did not at the tiard Patrick Henry's words as an oath, but rather as a solereat occasion
At any rate, that asseveration proved to be a prophecy; for frohted up for an instant the next inevitable stage in the evolution of events,--the tragic and bloody outcome of all these wary lucubrations and devices of the asse to note that, at the very tiress at Philadelphia was busy with its stern work, the people of Virginia were grappling with the peril of an Indian war assailing them from beyond their western ht a letter written at Hanover, on the 15th of October, 1774, by the agedfar out towards the exposed district; and this letter is a touching eneral anxiety over the two concurrent events, and of the motherly pride and piety of the writer:--
”My son Patrick has been gone to Philadelphia near seven weeks The affairs of Congress are kept with great secrecy, nobody being allowed to be present I assure you we have our lowland troubles and fears with respect to Great Britain
Perhaps our good God ood to us out of these many evils which threaten us, not only from the mountains but from the seas”[135]