Part 13 (1/2)

[217] 4 _Am Arch_ iii 1962

[218] _Ibid_ iv 1669

[219] _Ibid_ iv 1517

[220] _Ibid_ iv 1515, 1516

[221] 4 _Am Arch_ iv 1516; also, Wirt, 180, 181

[222] 4 _Am Arch_ iv 1516

[223] 4 _Am Arch_ iv 1516, 1517

[224] _Ibid_ iv 1518

[225] 4 _Am Arch_ iv 1519

[226] Wirt, 175

[227] _Writings of Washi+ngton_, iii 309

[228] W B Reed, _Life of Joseph Reed_, i 173

[229] Grigsby, _Va Conv of 1776_, 52, 53, note

[230] Grigsby, _Va Conv of 1776_, 151, 152

CHAPTER XII

INDEPENDENCE

Upon thisclose of a military career which had opened with so much expectation and even _eclat_, Patrick Henry returned, early in March, 1776, to his home in the county of Hanover,--a horeat sorrow In the e the previous year, his wife, Sarah, the wife of his youth, the mother of his six children, had passed away His own subsequent release from public labor, however bitter in its occasion, reat solace in the feeeks of repose which he then had under his own roof, with the privilege ofto the happiness of hiscompanionshi+p and sympathy

But in such a crisis of his country's fate, such ato remain in seclusion; and the promptness and the heartiness hich he was now summoned back into the service of the public as a civilian, after the recent humiliations of his military career, were accented, perhaps, on the part of his neighbors, by so of the fervor of intended coe For, in the , along a path streith corpses and ith blood, towards the doctrine that a total separation fro hitherto conteht after all be neither, but on the contrary, the only resource left to thele for political existence This supreinia convention, which was under appoint May Almost at once, therefore, after his return home, Patrick Henry was elected by his native county to represent it in that convention

On Monday athered at Willia On its roll of members we see many of those naress of this history,--the nauided Virginia during all that stormy period,--Pendleton, Cary, Mason, Nicholas, Bland, the Lees, Mann Page, Dudley Digges, Wythe, Edmund Randolph, and a few others For the first time also, on such a roll, wepolitical philosopher, then but four years fro instruction of President Witherspoon at Princeton But while a few very able men had places in that convention, it was, at the tie nu of the session Landon Carter wrote to Washi+ngton:--

”I could have wished that anorance all over the colony, as it seems to have done; for this present convention abounds with too ate our bark on this dangerous coast; so that I fear the few skilful pilots who have hitherto done tolerably well to keep her clear from destruction, will not be able to conduct her with coanization of the House was, on the part of the friends of Patrick Henry, ainst Edmund Pendleton, as theseries of restraints upon theof the convention Pendleton was nominated for its president,--a most suitable nomination, and one which under ordinary circumstances would have been carried by acclamation Thomas Johnson, however, a stanch follower of Patrick Henry, at once presented an opposing candidate; and although Pendleton was elected, he was not elected without a contest, or without this significant hint that the fires of indignation against hi party in that house and throughout the colony

The convention lasted just two ery of its business, as the journal indicates, Patrick Henry bore a very large part In the course of the session, he seems to have served on perhaps a majority of all its committees On the 6th of May, he was es and elections; on the 7th, of a co of salt, saltpetre, and gunpowder;” on the 8th, of the corievances;” on the 21st, of a committee ”to inquire for a proper hospital for the reception and accommodation of the sick and wounded soldiers;” on the 22d, of a committee to inquire into the truth of a co encroach in an ordinance for aug four troops of horse, and for raising men for the defence of the frontier counties; on the 4th of June, of a committee to inquire into the causes for the depreciation of paper oods are sold at the public store; on the 14th of June, of a coinia to the Shawanese Indians; on the 15th of June, of a co in a a mode of punishment for the enemies of America in this colony; and on the 22d of June, of a coistrates to continue the adeneral s in criminal and other cases”

The journal also mentions his frequent activity in the House in the presentation of reports from some of these comrievances, on the 16th of May, on the 22d of May, and on the 15th of June On the latter occasion, he made to the House three detailed reports on as many different topics[232]

Of course, the question overshadowing all others in that convention was the question of independence General Charles Lee, whose , and as intently watching the currents of political thought in all the colonies, assured Washi+ngton, in a letter written on the 10th of May, that ”a noble spirit” possessed the convention; and that the meree ”in their sentiments about the mode”[233] That Patrick Henry was in favor of independence hardly needs to bethose who disagreed with soer and as resolute for independence as any man, he doubted whether the tiht that the declaration should be so tireat conditions of success,--first, the firm union of the colonies then powers, particularly of France and Spain For these reasons, he would have had independence delayed until a confederation of the colonies could be established by written articles, which, he probably supposed, would take but a feeeks; and also until Aotiate with the French and Spanish courts