Part 8 (2/2)

[124] 4 _Ae John Tyler, in Wirt, 109, note

[126] For another form of this tradition, see Curtis's _Life of Webster_, i 588

[127] Pages 105-113

[128] Wirt, 105, 106

[129] The exact rules under debate during those first two days are given in 4 _Am Arch_ i 898, 899

[130] Kennedy, _Mem of Wirt_, i 364

[131] _Works of John Adams_, x 78

[132] _Ibid_ x 277

[133] As a an with these words, instead of ”concluding” with them

[134] _Works of John Adausta County_, 345, where will be found the entire letter

CHAPTER IX

”AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT”

We now approach that brilliant passage in the life of Patrick Henry when, in the presence of the second revolutionary convention of Virginia, he proclaimed the futility of all further efforts for peace, and the instant necessity of preparing for war

The speech which he is said to have made on that occasion has been coenerations of American schoolboys, and is now perhaps faer number of the American people than any other considerable bit of secular prose in our language The old church at Richmond, in which he made this marvelous speech, is in our time visited every year, as a patriotic shrine, by thousands of pilgrims, who seek curiously the very spot upon the floor where the orator is believed to have stood when he uttered those words of flame It is chiefly the tradition of that one speech which to-day keeps alive, in millions of American homes, the name of Patrick Henry, and which lifts him, in the popular faith, almost to the rank of some mythical hero of romance

In reality, that speech, and the resolutions in support of which that speech was made, constituted Patrick Henry's individual declaration of war against Great Britain But the question is: To what extent, if any, was he therein original, or even in advance of his fellow-countryinia convention?

It is essential to a just understanding of the history of that crisis in revolutionary thought, and it is of very high importance, likewise, to the historic position of Patrick Henry, that no mistake be committed here; especially that he be not made the victim of a disastrous reaction fro the precise nature and extent of the service then rendered by him to the cause of the Revolution

We need, therefore, to glance for a moment at the period between October, 1774, and March, 1775, with the purpose of tracing therein the rowth of the popular conviction that a ith Great Britain had become inevitable, and was to be immediately prepared for by the several colonies,--two propositions which forreat occasion now before us

As early as the 21st of October, 1774, the first Continental Congress, after having suggested all possiblewar, made this solemn declaration to the people of the colonies: ”We think ourselves bound in duty to observe to you that the scheainst these colonies have been so conducted as to render it prudent that you should extend your views to mournful events, and be in all respects prepared for every eency”[137] Just six days later, John dickinson, a ress, wrote to an Aland: ”I wish for peace ardently; but rateful by being unexpected The first act of violence on the part of administration in Ae this winter or next year, will put the whole continent in ar day, the same prudent statesland: ”The most peaceful provinces are now animated; and a civil war is unavoidable, unless there be a quick change of British measures”[139] On the 29th of October, the eccentric Charles Lee, as keenly watching the symptoms of colonial discontent and resistance, wrote froinia, Rhode Island, and Carolina are for had a sufficient number instructed to beco province is following the example In short, unless the banditti at West they have done, their royal paymaster will hear of reviews andas those he is presented with in Hyde Park and Wientleow: ”The province of Virginia is raising one company in every county This province has taken the hint, and has begun to raise e bodies, capable of acquitting themselves with honor in the field”[141] At about the same time, the General assembly of Connecticut ordered that every town should at once supply itself with ”double the quantity of powder, balls, and flints” that had been hitherto required by law[142] On the 5th of Nove Lord Dun at Fort Gower, on the Ohio River, and passed this resolution: ”That ill exert every poithin us for the defence of Ahts and privileges, not in any precipitate, riotous, or tuularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen”[143] Not far from the same time, the people of Rhode Island carried off to Providence from the batteries at Newport forty-four pieces of cannon; and the governor frankly told the commander of a British naval force near at hand that they had done this in order to prevent these cannon fro theht offer to molest the colony”[144] Early in December, the Provincial Convention of Maryland recoe should form themselves into ency,”--with a sort of gri their recoumentative irony:--

”_Resolved_ unanientleth and only stable security of a free government; and that such militia will relieve our mother country from any expense in our protection and defence, will obviate the pretence of a necessity for taxing us on that account, and render it unnecessary to keep any standing arerous to liberty--in this province”[145]

The shrewdness of this courteous political thrust on the part of the convention of Maryland seems to have been so heartily relished by others that it was thenceforward used again and again by similar conventions elsewhere; and in fact, for the next few months, these sentences became almost the stereotyped for and drilling of the militia,--as, for example, that of Newcastle County, Delaware,[146] on the 21st of Deceinia,[147] on the 17th of January, 1775; and that of Augusta County, Virginia,[148] on the 22d of February

In the mean time Lord Duninia; and so early as the 24th of December, 1774, he had written to the Earl of Dart a company of men, whom they call an independent co their coovern fact of military preparation, which Lord Duninia, could have been reported with equal truth concerning nearly every other colony In the early part of January, 1775, the asseave order that the entire militia of that colony should be mustered every week[150] In the latter part of January, the provincial convention of Pennsylvania, though representing a colony of Quakers, boldly proclaimed that, if the administration ”should determine by force to effect a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the British Parliament,” it would ”resist such force, and at every hazarddefend the rights and liberties of Aress of Massachusetts urged the people to ”spare neither time, pains, nor expense, at so critical a juncture, in perfecting themselves forthwith in military discipline”[152]

When, therefore, so late as Monday, the 20th of March, 1775, the second revolutionary convention of Virginia assembled at Richmond, its members ell aware that one of the chief measures to co the localtheir own constituents, and of placing thely, on Thursday, the 23d of March, after three days had been given to necessary preliminary subjects, the inevitable subject of military preparations was reached Then it was that Patrick Henry took the floor andhis motion, undoubtedly, with a speech:--