Part 29 (1/2)
One of those students, John Miller, of South Carolina, according to an account said to have been given by hi with his co learned that the great orator would speak in the porch of a tavern fronting the large court-green,pushed his way through the gathering crowd, and secured the pedestal of a pillar, where he stood within eight feet of hi with so of the i in froth he arose with difficulty, and stood soe and weakness
His face was almost colorless His countenance was careworn; and when he cohtly cracked and tremulous But in a few moments a wonderful transformation of the whole man occurred, as he warht that was alloith the hue and fire of youth; and his voice rang clear and rand musical instrument whose notes filled the area, and fell distinctly and delightfully upon the ears of the athered before hiards the substance of the speech then made, it will not be safe for us to confide very much in the supposed recollections of oldUpon the whole, probably, the entleman who declares that he wrote down his recollections of the speech not long after its delivery According to this account, Patrick Henry--
”told theinian assembly had filled him with apprehensions and alarm; that they had planted thorns upon his pillow; that they had drawn him from that happy retirement which it had pleased a bountiful Providence to bestow, and in which he had hoped to pass, in quiet, the remainder of his days; that the State had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the Constitution, and, in daring to pronounce upon the validity of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a ree alar to every considerate inia, to the acts of the general governet their enforcement by military power; that this would probably produce civil war, civil war foreign alliances, and that foreign alliances ation to the powers called in He conjured the people to pause and consider well, before they rushed into such a desperate condition, froinations Washi+ngton, at the head of a nu upon them military execution 'And where,'
he asked, 'are our resources to meet such a conflict? Where is the citizen of Aainst the father of his country?' A drunken man in the crowd threw up his arm, and exclai aloft in all his majesty, 'you dare not do it: in such a parricidal attempt, the steel would drop fro in his address to the people, asked whether the county of Charlotte would have any authority to dispute an obedience to the laws of Virginia; and he pronounced Virginia to be to the Union what the county of Charlotte was to her Having denied the right of a State to decide upon the constitutionality of federal laws, he added, that perhaps itof the merits of the laws in question[471] His private opinion was that they were good and proper But whatever ed to the people, who held the reins over the head of Congress, and to them alone, to say whether they were acceptable or otherwise to Virginians; and that this ress were as ood a right to our confidence He had seen with regret the unlieneral government; buthe had been overruled, and it was now necessary to submit to the constitutional exercise of that power 'If,' said he, 'I am asked what is to be done, when a people feel themselves intolerably oppressed, overnth without provocation Wait at least until sohts, and which cannot otherwise be redressed; for if ever you recur to another change, you overnovernth for the French, the English, the Germans, or whoever else shall dare to invade our territory, and not exhaust it in civil co his design to exert his and jealousies which had been foislature; and he fervently prayed, if he was deeht be reserved to so over the coiven may be inaccurate in several particulars: it is known to be so in one Respecting the alien and sedition acts, the orator expressed no opinion at all;[473] but accepting them as the law of the land, he counselled moderation, forbearance, and the use of constitutional means of redress Than that whole effort, as has been said by a recent and a sagacious historian, ”nothing in his life was nobler”[474]
Upon the conclusion of the oldman, John Randolph of Roanoke, who undertook to address the crowd, offering hiress, but on behalf of the party then opposed to Patrick Henry By reason of weariness, no doubt, the latter did not re ”requested a friend to report to hiht require an answer,” he stepped back into the tavern ”Randolph began by saying that he had admired that man more than any on whom the sun had shone, but that noas constrained to differ from him '_toto coelo_'” Whatever else Randolph may have said in his speech, whether ie of a cold and a hoarseness so severe as to render him scarcely able to ”utter an audible sentence” Furtherain present himself to the people”[475] There is, however, a tradition, not improbable, that when Randolph had finished his speech, and had co, the latter, taking hito say unto thee: keep justice, keep truth,--and you will live to think differently”
As a result of the poll, Patrick Henry was, by a great ates But his political enereatly dreaded his appearance upon that scene of his ancient domination, were never any more to be embarrassed by his presence there For, truly, they who, on that March day, at Charlotte court-house, had heard Patrick Henry, ”had heard an iain”[476] He seeone thence to his home, and never to have left it About thetoo sick to write h to tell the secretary of state that he could not go on theto his old friend, the President Early in June, his eldest daughter, Martha Fontaine, living at a distance of two days' travel fro with these words: ”Dear Patsy, I am very unwell, and have Dr Cabell withnews, she and others of his kindred in that neighborhoodat Red Hill ”they found hie, old-fashi+oned armchair, in which he was easier than upon a bed” The disease of which he was dying was intussusception On the 6th of June, all other re failed, Dr Cabell proceeded to ad the vial in his hand, and looking at it for aman said: ”I suppose, doctor, this is your last resort?” The doctor replied: ”I aovernor, that it is Acute inflammation of the intestine has already taken place; and unless it is removed, mortification will ensue, if it has not already commenced, which I fear” ”What will be the effect of this ive you immediate relief, or”--the kind-hearted doctor could not finish the sentence His patient took up the word: ”You ive relief, or will prove fatal immediately?” The doctor answered: ”You can only live a very short time without it, and it may possibly relieve you”
Then Patrick Henry said, ”Excusedown over his eyes a silken cap which he usually wore, and still holding the vial in his hand, he prayed, in clear words, a simple childlike prayer, for his family, for his country, and for his own soul then in the presence of death Afterward, in perfect calreatly loved hirief threw hi bitterly
Soon, when he had sufficiently mastered himself, the doctor caealing of the blood under his finger-nails, and speaking words of love and peace to his fas, he told theoodness of God, which, having blessed hi hi his eyes with much tenderness on his dear friend, Dr Cabell, ho the Christian religion, he asked the doctor to observe how great a reality and benefit that religion was to a man about to die
And after Patrick Henry had spoken to his beloved physician these feords in praise of so never failed him in all his life before, did not then fail him in his very last need of it, he continued to breathe very softly for so upon him saw that his life had departed
FOOTNOTES:
[465] Henry Adas of Washi+ngton_, xi 557-559
[467] _Works of John Adas of Washi+ngton_, xi 387-391
[469] Garland, _Life of John Randolph_, 130
[470] Fontaine, MS
[471] The alien and sedition acts
[472] Wirt, 393-395
[473] _Hist Mag_ for 1873, 353
[474] Henry Adams, _John Randolph_, 29
[475] J W Alexander, _Life of A Alexander_, 188-189 About this whole scene have gathered many myths, of which several first appeared in a Life of Henry, in the _New Edinb Encycl_ 1817; were thence copied into Howe, _Hist Coll Va_ 224-225; and have thence been engulfed in that rich mass of unwhipped hyperboles and of unexploded fables still patriotically sed by the American public as American history
[476] Henry Adams
[477] Fontaine, MS
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