Patrick Henry, the second son of John and Sarah Henry, and one of nine
children, was born May 29, 1736, in the county of Hanover and colony
of Virginia. Until ten years of age, Patrick Henry was sent to a
school in the neighborhood, where he learned to read and write, and
made some small progress in arithmetic. He was then taken home, and,
under the direction of his father, who had opened a grammar school in
his own house, he acquired a superficial knowledge of the Latin
language. At the same time, he made a considerable proficiency in the
mathematics, the only branch of education for which, it seems, he
discovered, in his youth, the slightest predilection. He was
passionately addicted to the sports of the field, and could not brook
the confinement and toil which education required. His father, unable
to sustain the expense of his large and increasing family, found it
necessary to qualify his sons, at a very early age, to support
themselves. With this view, Patrick was placed, at the age of fifteen,
behind the counter of a trader in the country. In the next year, his
father purchased a small adventure of goods for his two sons, William
and Patrick, and ‘set them up in trade.’ William’s habits of idleness
were such, that the chief management of their concerns devolved upon
the younger brother, and that management was most wretched. One year
put an end to this experiment, and Patrick was engaged, for the two or
three following years, in settling the accounts of the firm as well as
he could. At the early age of eighteen, he married a Miss Shelton, the
daughter of a respectable farmer in the neighborhood; and, by the
joint assistance of their parents, the young couple were settled on a
small farm, where, with one or two slaves, Mr. Henry had to dig the
earth for subsistence. His want of agricultural skill, and his
unconquerable aversion to every species of systematic labor, caused
him, after a trial of two years, to abandon this pursuit. His next
step seems to have been dictated by absolute despair; for, selling off
his little possessions at a sacrifice for cash, he entered a second
time into the unauspicious business of merchandise. But the same want
of method, the same facility of temper, soon became apparent. He
resumed his violin, his flute, his books, his inspection of human
nature, and not unfrequently shut up his shop to indulge himself in
the favorite sports of his youth. His reading, however, began to
assume a more serious character. He studied geography, read the
charters and history of the colony, and became fond of historical
works generally, particularly those of Greece and Rome, and, from the
tenacity of his memory and the strength of his judgment, soon made
himself master of their contents. Livy was his favorite; and, having
procured a translation, he made it a rule to read it through, once, at
least, in every year, during the earlier part of his life. The second
mercantile experiment in a few years left him a bankrupt; every
remnant of his property was gone, and his friends were unable to
assist him any further. As a last effort, he determined to make trial
of the law. No one expected him to succeed; his unfortunate habits
were by no means suited to so laborious a profession, and the
situation of his affairs forbade an extensive course of reading. After
a six weeks’ preparation, he obtained a license to practice the law,
being at this time of the age of four and twenty. He was, at the time
of his admission to practice, not only unable to draw a declaration or
a plea, but incapable, it is said, of the most common and simple
business of his profession, even the mode of ordering a suit, giving a
notice, or making a motion in court. For three years, the wants and
distresses of his family were extreme. The profits of his practice
could not have supplied them even with the necessaries of life; and he
seems to have spent the greatest part of his time, both during his
study of the law and the practice of the first two or three years,
with his father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, who then kept a tavern at Hanover
court-house. Whenever Mr. Shelton was from home, Mr. Henry supplied
his place in the tavern. The controversy between the clergy on the one
hand, and the legislature and people of the colony on the other,
touching the stipend claimed by the former, which had created a great
excitement in Virginia, was the occasion on which his genius first
broke forth. The display which he made in _the parsons’ cause_, as it
was popularly called, placed him, at once, at the head of his
profession, in that quarter of the colony in which he practiced. In
the year 1764, he removed to the county of Louisa, and resided at a
place called the Roundabout. In the autumn of the same year, a contest
having occurred, in the house of burgesses, in the case of Mr. James
Littlepage, the returned member of the county of Hanover, who was
charged with bribery and corruption, the parties were heard by
counsel, before the committee of privileges and elections, and Henry
was on this occasion employed by Mr. Dandridge, the rival candidate.
Henry distinguished himself by a brilliant display on the subject of
the rights of suffrage. Such a burst of eloquence, from a man so very
plain and humble in his appearance, struck the committee with
amazement; a deep silence took place during the speech, and not a
sound but from his lips was to be heard in the room.
In 1765, he was elected member of the house of burgesses, with express
reference to an opposition to the British stamp-act. After having
waited in vain for some step to be taken by another, and when the
session was within three days of its expected close, he introduced his
celebrated resolutions on the stamp-act. After his death, there was
found among his papers one sealed, and thus indorsed:――‘Enclosed are
the resolutions of the Virginia assembly, in 1765, concerning the
stamp-act. Let my executors open this paper.’ Within was found a copy
of the resolutions in his own hand-writing. On the back of the paper
containing the resolutions, is the following indorsement, also in his
hand-writing:――‘The within resolutions passed the house of burgesses
in May, 1765. They formed the first opposition to the stamp-act, and
the scheme of taxing America by the British parliament. All the
colonies, either through fear, or want of opportunity to form an
opposition, or from influence of some kind or other, had remained
silent. I had been for the first time elected a burgess a few days
before, was young, inexperienced, unacquainted with the forms of the
house, and the members that composed it. Finding the men of weight
averse to opposition, and the commencement of the tax at hand, and
that no person was likely to step forth, I determined to venture, and
alone, unadvised, and unassisted, on a blank leaf of an old law book,
wrote the within. Upon offering them to the house, violent debates
ensued. Many threats were uttered, and much abuse cast on me, by the
party for submission. After a long and warm contest, the resolutions
passed by a very small majority, perhaps of one or two only. The alarm
spread throughout America with astonishing quickness, and the
ministerial party were overwhelmed. The great point of resistance to
British taxation was universally established in the colonies. This
brought on the war, which finally separated the two countries, and
gave independence to ours. Whether this will prove a blessing or a
curse, will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which
a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they will be
great and happy. If they are of a contrary character, they will be
miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation. Reader,
whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere, practice virtue
thyself, and encourage it in others. P. HENRY.
It was in the midst of the debate above-mentioned, that he exclaimed,
‘Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the
Third――‘Treason!’ cried the speaker――‘Treason, treason!’ echoed from
every part of the house. Henry faltered not for an instant; but taking
a loftier attitude, and fixing on the speaker an eye of fire, he
finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis――‘_may profit by their
example_. If _this_ be treason, make the most of it.’ From this
period, Mr. Henry became the idol of the people of Virginia; nor was
his name confined to his native state. His influence was felt
throughout the continent, and he was every where regarded as one of
the great champions of colonial liberty. In the year 1769, he was
admitted to the bar of the general court. He wanted that learning,
whose place no genius can supply to the lawyer; and he wanted those
habits of steady and persevering application, without which that
learning is not to be acquired. But on questions before a jury, his
knowledge of human nature, and the rapidity as well as justness of his
inferences, from the flitting expressions of the countenance, as to
what was passing in the hearts of his hearers, availed him fully. The
defense of criminal cases was his great professional forte. The house
of burgesses of Virginia, which had led the opposition to the
stamp-act, kept their high ground during the whole of the ensuing
contest.
Mr. Henry having removed again from Louisa to his native county, in
the year 1767 or 1768, continued a member of that house till the close
of the revolution; and there could be no want of boldness in any body
of which he was a member. He was one of the standing committee of
correspondence and inquiry concerning the pretensions of the British,
which was appointed by the house, March 12, 1773. He was also of the
number of delegates sent by Virginia to the first general congress of
the colonies, which assembled in Philadelphia, September 4, 1774. When
the congress rose, he returned home, and entered the legislature of
Virginia again, determined upon prosecuting the work of national
independence. In this career, he became, by his zeal and efficiency,
obnoxious to the royal governor, and to all who were disposed to
maintain the royal cause, or who dreaded the resort to force.
When intelligence was received of the battles of Lexington and Concord
in Massachusetts, Henry summoned volunteers to meet him, in order to
compel the governor of Virginia (lord Dunmore) to restore a quantity
of powder which the latter had caused to be taken from the public
magazine at Williamsburg. This was the first military movement in
Virginia. The governor issued a proclamation, calling upon the people
to resist it; but Henry, at the head of a considerable corps, obliged
his lordship to consent to the payment of a pecuniary compensation for
the powder withdrawn. The volunteers returned in triumph to their
homes. As soon, however, as all seemed again quiet, the governor sent
forth, though without any effect, a violent manifesto against ‘a
certain Patrick Henry, and a number of deluded followers,’ etc.
Henry took a leading party in all the subsequent measures which ended
in the prostration of the royal authority, and the erection of an
independent government in Virginia. The colonial convention of 1775
elected him the colonel of the first regiment, and the commander of
‘all the forces raised and to be raised for the defense of the
colony.’ He soon resigned this command, from a belief that he could
serve the cause of his country more effectually in the public councils
than in the field. Immediately upon his resignation he was elected a
delegate to the convention, and, not long after, _the first governor
of the commonwealth_――a post in which he proved signally serviceable,
by sustaining the public spirit during the revolutionary struggle,
providing recruits and supplies for the continental army, and crushing
the intrigues of the tories who infested Virginia. His administration
was prolonged by reëlections until 1779, when he retired from the
office, being no longer eligible without intermission, according to
the constitution. As a member of the legislature, to which he at once
returned, he continued to serve the great cause until the end of the
war, when he was again elected governor of Virginia. The state of his
affairs obliged him to resign the station in the autumn of 1786. In
December of that year, he was appointed by the legislature one of the
deputies to the convention, held at Philadelphia, for the purpose of
revising the federal constitution. This appointment he declined, it
being necessary for him to resume the practice of the law, in order to
make some provision for his family. During the six following years, he
regularly attended the courts, and his great reputation obtained for
him lucrative business. His next appearance in political life was as a
member of the convention, which was to decide the fate of the federal
constitution in Virginia. Some of the features of that instrument
inspired him with fears for the liberties of the country. All his
great powers of eloquence and his personal influence were exerted to
procure the rejection of it. The amendments proposed by Virginia
originated in the objections so vehemently and plausibly urged by him
and his associates. He became, nevertheless, a convert to the
excellence of the system, and an earnest _federalist_, in the twofold
acceptation of the term. In the spring of 1791, he bade a final adieu
to public life, and, in 1794, to the bar, at which he had gained some
brilliant triumphs, which are commemorated by his distinguished
biographer William Wirt (Life of P. Henry, Philadelphia, 1817). In
1796, the post of governor of the state was once more tendered to him
and refused. In the following year, his health began to decline, and
continued to sink gradually until the moment of his death, which took
place on the 6th of June. Mr. Henry, by his two marriages, was the
father of fifteen children. By his first wife, he had six, of whom two
only survived him; by his last, he had six sons and three daughters,
all of whom, together with their mother, were living at his death. He
had been fortunate during the latter part of his life; and, chiefly by
the means of judicious purchases of lands, left his family, large as
it was, not only independent, but rich. In his habits of living he was
remarkably temperate and frugal. He seldom drank any thing but water;
and his table was furnished in the most simple manner. His morals were
strict. As a husband, a father, a master, he had no superior. He was
kind and hospitable to the stranger, and most friendly and
accommodating to his neighbors. He was nearly six feet high; spare,
and what may be called raw-boned, with a slight stoop of the
shoulders; his complexion was dark, sun-burned, and sallow, without
any appearance of blood in his cheeks; his countenance grave,
thoughtful and penetrating, and strongly marked with the lineaments of
deep reflection: the earnestness of his manner, united with an
habitual contraction or knitting of his brows, and those lines of
thought with which his face was profusely furrowed, gave to his
countenance, at some times, the appearance of severity. Henry was
gifted with a strong and musical voice, and a most expressive
countenance, and he acquired particular skill in the use of them. His
style of speaking, to judge from the representations of his hearers,
was altogether more successful than that of any of his cotemporaries.
He could be vehement, insinuating, humorous and sarcastic by turns,
and always with the utmost effect. He was a natural orator, of the
highest order, combining imagination, acuteness, dexterity and
ingenuity, with the most forcible action and extraordinary powers of
face and utterance. As a statesman, his principal merits were sagacity
and boldness. His name is brilliantly and lastingly connected with the
history of his country’s emancipation.