Part 15 (1/2)
On Friday, the 5th of July, 1776, Patrick Henry took the oath of office,[255] and entered upon his duties as governor of the coinia The salary attached to the position was fixed at one thousand pounds sterling for the year; and the governor was invited to take up his residence in the palace at Willia No one had resided in the palace since Lord Duninia could hardly fail to note the poetic retribution whereby the very man whom, fourteen months before, Lord Dunmore had contemptuously denounced as ”a certain Patrick Henry of Hanover County,” should now become Lord Dunmore's immediate successor in that mansion of state, and should be able, if he chose, to write proclaainst Lord Dunmore upon the same desk on which Lord Dunainst hiratulations to the new governor, were his devoted friends, the first and second regiinia, who told him that they vieith the sincerest sentihest office in the State, and who gave to him likewise this affectionate assurance: ”our hearts are willing, and aristrate”[256] On the 29th of July, the erratic General Charles Lee, as then in Charleston, sent on his congratulations in a letter a for its tart cordiality and its peppery playfulness:--
”I ratulate you on the noble conduct of your country citizens deserving of the high honor to which you are exalted For the being elected to the first istracy of a free people is certainly the pinnacle of hulory; and I am persuaded that they could not have made a happier choice
Will you excuse me,--but I am myself so extremely democratical, that I think it a fault in your constitution that the governor should be eligible for three years successively It appears to overn a very dangerous influence But this is not the worst A man who is fond of office, and has his eye upon reelection, will be courting favor and popularity at the expense of his duty
There is a barbaris us that extremely shocks me: I mean those tinsel epithets hich (I come in for my share) we are so beplastered,--'his excellency,' and 'his honor,' 'the honorable president of the honorable congress,'
or 'the honorable convention' This fulsoh adapted to barbarous nifici' in poreat, free, manly, equal commonwealth, it is quite abominable For my own part, I would as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as the 'excellency' hich I anity was there in the sist the Romans,--'Marcus Tullius Cicero,' 'Decimo Bruto Imperatori,' or 'Caio Marcello Consuli,'--than to 'his excellency Major-General Noodle,' or to 'the honorable John Doodle'If, therefore, I should sometimes address a letter to you without the 'excellency' tacked, you must not esteem it a mark of personal or official disrespect, but the reverse”[257]
Of all the words of congratulation which poured in upon the new governor, probably none caht from the heart, and none could have been quite so sweet to hiust, were uttered by soinia, who, in many an hour of need, had learned to look up to Patrick Henry as their strong and splendid chaislature and in the courts On the date just ates of the Baptist churches” of the State, being met in convention at Louisa, sent to him this address:--
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,--As your advanceovernor of this co leave to present your excellency with our ratulations
Your public virtues are such that we are under no teovernment at this truly critical conjuncture, as you have always distinguished yourself by your zeal and activity for her welfare, in whatever departious co to request of you
Your constant attachhts of conscience, leaves us no rooards while orthily de, very long, a public blessing to this your native country, and, after a life of usefulness here, crown you with ined by order: JEREMIAH WALKER, _Moderator_
JOHN WILLIAMS, _Clerk_
To these loving and jubilant words, the governor replied in an off-hand letter, the deep feeling of which is not the less evident because it is restrained,--a letter which is as choice and noble in diction as it is in thought:--
TO THE MINISTERS AND DELEGATES OF THE BAPTIST CHURCHES, AND THE MEMBERS OF THAT COMMUNION
GENTLEMEN,--I aed to you for your very kind address, and the favorable senti my conduct and the principles which have directed it My constant endeavor shall be to guard the rights of all my fellow-citizens from every encroach in our country, and that those religious distinctions, which forotten Happy must every friend to virtue and A us, at this most critical and important period, is, who shall be foreious and civil liberties
My most earnest wish is, that Christian charity, forbearance, and love, may unite all our different persuasions, as brethren who ether; and I trust that the tireet each other as the peaceable possessors of that just and equal system of liberty adopted by the last convention, and in support of which entlemen, your most obedient and very huust 13, 1776
On the day on which Governor Henry orn into office, the convention finally adjourned, havingof the General asse October In the mean time, therefore, all the interests of the State were to be in the iovernor and privy council; and, for a part of that tiovernor himself was disabled for service Forencounter in the history of Patrick Henry, the first mention of that infirree, during the re full possession of the governor's palace, which had to be reat change in his life by returning to his home in the county of Hanover There he lay ill for some time;[259] and upon his recovery he re, which continued to be their hoinia had been accustoovernors as personages of very great dignity
Several of those governors had been connected with the English peerage; all had served in Virginia in a vice-regal capacity; nificence It is not to be supposed that Governor Henry would be able or willing to assurandeur as his predecessors had done; and yet he felt, and the people of Virginia felt, that in the transition fronity of that office should not be allowed to decline in any important particular Moreover, as a contemporary observer s of for a coarse and conity; and perhaps he wished to show them that they were mistaken”[260] At any rate, by the testi himself to the requireentleness and his simplicity of manner, to have borne hi, of the executive authority of a great and proud commonwealth He ceased to appear frequently upon the streets; and whenever he did appear, he was carefully arrayed in a dressed wig, in black small-clothes, and in a scarlet cloak; and his presence and demeanor were such as to sustain, in the popular h office
He had so far recovered fro the summer, as to be at his post of duty when the General assean its first session, on Monday, the 7th of October, 1776 His health, however, was still extreed to notify the House ”that the low state of his health rendered him unable to attend to the duties of his office, and that his physicians had recommended to him to retire therefroth”[261]
His absence see By the 16th of November, as one may infer from entries in the journal of the House,[262] he was able to resume his official duties
The summer and autumn of that year proved to be a dismal period for the American cause Before our eyes, aslook back over those days, there ust 27, the battle of Long Island; August 29, Washi+ngton's retreat across East River; Septe the American troops at Kip's Bay, and the American retreat from New York; September 16, the battle of Harle of New York; October 28, the battle of White Plains; Noveton; Noveton's retreat across the Jerseys In the ton found tihts of Harlem, on the 5th of October, to his old friend, Patrick Henry, congratulating hiinia and on his recovery fro thehiiving to hi the iainst the eneton says to the governor, ”o up your rivers in quest of provisions, or for the purpose of destroying your towns”[263] Indeed, Virginia was just then exposed to hostile attacks on all sides;[264] and it was so plain that any attack by water would have found an easy approach to Willia, that, in the course of the next few months, the public records and the public stores were re, on every account, a ”nition of this danger by Governor Henry, early in the autuainst it, were interpreted by son both of personal cowardice and of official self-glorification,--as is indicated by a letter written by the aged Landon Carter to General Washi+ngton, on the 31st of October, and filled with all arrulity and insinuation,--a letter from which it may be profitable for us to quote a few sentences, as qualifying so Patrick Henry which commonly flon upon us so copiously from all that period