381 



HENRY, PATRICK. 



HENRY, PATRICK. 



392 





in fire volumes folio, and has since been frequently reprinted. This 

 work has been greatly admired by many persons, on account of the 

 piety of the author and the lively style in which it is written : and 

 perhaps it is the best Commentary on the Bible for the use of those 

 persons who are more anxious to obtain a devout sentiment from a 

 text than to understand the real meaning of the passage. Matthew 

 Henry did not live to complete the ' Exposition.' The remarks on 

 the latter books of the New Testament, from Romans to Revelations, 

 were written by the ministers whose names are printed in the ' Expo- 

 sition.' Matthew Henry was also the author of many other works, of 

 which the principal are ' Inquiry into the Nature of Schism ; ' ' Life 

 of Philip Henry;' 'Scripture Catechism;' 'Communicant's Com- 

 panion ; ' ' Discourses against Vice and Profanenees ; ' ' Method of 

 Prayer,' and numerous sermons on separate subjects. The miscellaneous 

 works were republished in 8vo, London, 1830. 



The life of Matthew Henry has been written by Tong, 8vo, 1716 ; 

 tut a fuller and more accurate account of his life and writings is 

 given by Williams in his ' Memoirs of the Life, Character, and Writ- 

 ings of the Rev. M. Henry," prefixed to the edition of the ' Exposition," 

 published ill 3 vols. Svo, London, 1828. 



HKNRY, PATRICK, an American orator and statesman, was born 

 in Hanover county, Virginia colony, May 29th, 1736. His father was 

 a planter in easy circumstances, though burdened with a large family ; 

 and Patrick when a boy learned in his father's house a little Latin and 

 less Greek, both of which be speedily forgot, but acquired instead 

 considerable skill in hunting, fishing, and shooting, in which the greater 

 part of his time was spent. At sixteen his father set him up in a 

 small store, in which he was as unsuccessful as in his classical studies. 

 At eighteen he married, and took a small farm ; but most of his 

 time was employed in loitering about in the bar of his father-in-law's 

 tavern at Hanover, serving the customers, or amusing them with his 

 pleasantries. The farm failing, he again opened a store, but this after 

 a short trial resulted in bankruptcy. His misfortunes however, 

 according to his biographer. " were not to be traced either in his 

 countenance or his conduct." He had, under them all, found ample 

 solace in his long solitary hunting and fishing excursions, music and 

 dancing, of which he was passionately fond, and the Hanover tavern- 

 bar. Sow however he determined to take a new course, and "with 

 a buoyant mind resolved on becoming a lawyer." Doubtless had it 

 been necessary in Virginia, as at Lincoln's Inn or the Temple, to have 

 eaten through certain terms in order to bo called to the bar, the young 

 Henry would have been found equal to the occasion ; as it was, he 

 took a shorter course. He gave ' six weeks of close application " to 

 legal studies, presented himself at the examination (probably not a very 

 Revere one), passed, and received the usual license to act as a barrister. 

 Little alteration was however seemingly made in Henry's habits. 

 He still resided, if he did not still serve, at the tavern ; shot and fished 

 as usual ; mixed familiarly with all classes at the tavern-bar ; dressed 

 as coarsely, and moved as awkwardly, as the rudest of the country 

 people ; and was in fact only known as a jovial young lawyer without 

 briefs, and with only a little pettifogging village business. But the 

 three years thus spent were not wholly spent in idleness. He had 

 been an observant witness of the progress of events ; he read men if 

 he did not read books ; and was prepared to make up by shrewdness 

 and tact for his deficiencies in legal lore. The time had arrived which 

 was to show of what stuff he was made. What was known as the "great 

 parsons' cause," and which proved to be an important step in the pro 

 gresit towards American independence, had arrived at its determination 

 Tobacco had for some time been the legal currency in Virginia, anc 

 the incomes of the established clergy of the colony were, by acts of the 

 colonial legislature (1696 and 1748), which had received the roya 

 assent, fixed at 1 6,000 Ibs. of tobacco each ; but after some failures o 

 the crop the legislature passed an act (1758), commuting the payment 

 to one of twopence for each pound of tobacco. This was the market 

 price when the previous act was passed, but the market-price was 

 now three times that sum, and the clergy refused to concur. On the 

 question being submitted to the English government, the king in 

 council refused his assent to the act. The matter was now brought 

 by the action of a clergyman named Maury against the collector ant 

 his sureties, before the law-courts of Virginia. The judges on the 

 technical question decided in favour of the claims of the clergy, on 

 the ground that the act of 1758 wag not of force without the roya 

 assent. It only remained therefore, as it would seem, as a matter o 

 form, to impannel a jury to assess the damage?. The counsel for th 

 defendants held that the case was in fact at an end, and on hU clients 

 insisting on going before the jury, withdrew from the cause. Affairs 

 stood thus when Patrick Henry was applied to and accepted the brie 

 ( in the day of trial, December 1st 1763, the court was crowded wit 

 the clergy and their friends, and their opponents the planters and th 

 popular party. Henry's father was the presiding judge. The plaintiff- 

 counsel merely explained the state of the law, and eulogised the clergy 

 it was a plain case, and could not be made plainer. Patrick Henry 

 rose to reply : it was his first speech. He commenced awkwnrdl 

 faltered in his exordium, and his friends were in despair ; but he eoo 

 recovered himself, and soon every eye and ear was strained to catc 

 each word and gesture of the orator. Spurning aside the technicalitie 

 of the case, be with fiery earnestness argued for the right of the colon 

 to legislate for itself on matters of internal administration, denounce* 



le clergy for their want of patriotism in appealing to the king, and 

 'ter endeavouring to show that the act of 1758 was an act good in 

 self, and one required by the circumstances of the colony, he, 

 athering force as he went, declared that the " king who annuls or 

 isallows laws of so salutary a nature degenerates into a tyrant, and 

 arfeits all right to obedience." Such language had never before been 

 eard in a public court. Criea of " Treason ! treason ! " were uttered 

 rom the clergy, but were drowned in the popular acclamations. The 

 ase had commenced as one of pecuniary compensation : Henry con- 

 erted it into one involving the independence of the colonial legislature, 

 nd the extent to which obedience was due to the English crown by 

 le American people. The auditors were aroused to perfect frenzy. 

 i. verdict of a penny damages was at once returned, and the judges, 

 arried away by the popular feeling regardless of what was evidently 

 le law of the case refused unanimously a motion for a new trial. 

 'his still further stimulated the popular joy, and Henry was borne 

 bout the streets in triumph on the shoulders of the crowd. The remem- 

 rance of that day long lived fresh in tho memory of the Virginians. 

 Writing sixty years afterwards, Mr. Wirt said that the old people of 

 hat part of the country were accustomed to say, in their homely 

 ashion, as the highest compliment they could pay to a speaker, 

 He's almost equal to Patrick, when he pled against the parsons." 

 )n the other hand, there was a talk of indicting the young lawyer for 

 ising seditious words, and lists of witnesses were made out ; but 

 natters were tending to another issue, and the report of Henry's 

 peech did no little to advance their progress. 



Henry was at cue step the foremost man at the local bar : he removed 

 a Louisa, and having greatly distinguished himself by a speech he 

 made as counsel before the House of Burgesses in defeuca of the right 

 if suffrage, he was at the next vacancy (1765) elected as a representa- 

 ive in the Virginian legislature. It was a period of intense expectation, 

 tfews had sometime since reached America of the imposition of the 

 obnoxious ' Stamp Act.' The day for its enforcement approached, 

 Mid neither of the colonies had made a sign, la the legislature of 

 Virginia all was hesitation and timidity. Henry, when but a few days 

 a member, determined to bring matters to a crisis. He moved five 

 resolutions, affirming in the strongest manner the undoubted, unin- 

 errupted, and inalienable right of the people of Virginia to be governed 

 >y their own laws, respecting internal polity and taxation, and declaring 

 that any attempt to vest such power in any other person whatever, 

 was an encroachment on American freedom. The debate was a stormy 

 one, and the storm rose to its height when Henry, after supporting 

 iis resolutions with a torrent of impassioned eloquence, exclaimed in a 

 voice of thunder "Ciesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his 

 Iromwell, and George the Third " " Treason ! " shouted the 

 Speaker, and " treason ! treason ! " re-echoed from all parts of the 

 louse ; but Henry, fixing his eye on the Speaker, continued without 

 faltering " may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the 

 most of it" The effect was electrical, and the resolutions were adopted, 

 though one of them was afterwards rescinded. Thus, as Jefferson 

 afterwards said, " Henry gave the earliest impulse to the ball of the 

 revolution ;" and the ball thus set a rolling in Virginia was soon taken 

 up by the other colonies. In all the subsequent proceedings Henry 

 played an equally decided part. With Jefferson and Peyton Randolph 

 lie was one of the first to sign Washington's non-importation agree- 

 ment in 1769; but he was regarded as the leader in Virginia of the 

 Democratic party, of which Jefferson eventually became the head and 

 representative, in opposition to the more conservative party, of which 

 Washington was the head, and the great landholders formed the body. 

 As Henry was the first to sound the note of revolution, so he was 

 the first to give the signal of an appeal to arms. As early as March 23, 

 1775, he said in one of his fiery speeches in the convention of Virginia, 

 " Sir, of peace there is no longer any hope. If we wish to be free, we 

 must fight I An appeal to arms, and to the God of Hosts, is all that 

 is left to us ! " words which, though disavowed by the more cautious, 

 found ready acceptance with the young and the ardent throughout the 

 country. 



When independence was declared, the state of Virginia elected 

 Patrick Henry its first governor, and he was re-elected the three follow- 

 ing years, when he was succeeded by Jefferson. To the duties of his 

 office he addressed himself with honesty and earnestness of purpose, 

 but he threw off none of his old homely and popular habits. Nor 

 did his views alter with the circumstances. As governor he was as 

 ardent a democrat as he had been when a penniless adventurer. To 

 the adoption of the federal constitution he offered the most determined 

 opposition, viewing it as interfering too much with state freedom of 

 action, of the right to which he held very strong opinions. But 

 when the constitution was adopted, he is said to have given in a 

 ready adhesion to it. In the federal government Henry held no office. 

 Washington nominated him Secretary of State in 1795, but there was 

 no great cordiality between them, and Henry declined the office, as he 

 also did that of envoy to Paris, offered to him by President Adams in 

 1799. He died on the 6th of June 1799. To the last he retained his 

 fondness for field-sports, and he does not seem to have ever con- 

 quered hia aversion to study. His library is said by his biographer 

 to have consisted at his death of merely a few odd volumes. 



(Wirt, Life of Patrick Henry; Bancroft, Hittory of America; 

 Mahon, &c.) 



