Patrick Henry Part 8

FOOTNOTES:

[102] _Washington's Writings_, ii. 503.

[103] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 357.

[104] Meade, _Old Churches and Families of Va._ i. 220, 221.

[105] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 361.

[106] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 357-364.

[107] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 365.

[108] _Am. Quarterly Review_, i. 30, whence it is quoted in _Works of John Adams_, iii. 29, 30, note. As regards the value of this testimony of Charles Thomson, we should note that it is something alleged to have been said by him at the age of ninety, in a conversation with a friend, and by the latter reported to the author of the article above cited in the _Am. Quart. Rev._

[109] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 365.

[110] It seems to me that the second paragraph on page 366 of volume ii. of the _Works of John Adams_ must be taken as his memorandum of his own speech; and that what follows on that page, as well as on page 367, and the first half of page 368, is erroneously understood by the editor as belonging to the first day's debate. It must have been an outline of the second day's debate. This is proved partly by the fact that it mentions Lee as taking part in the debate; but according to the journal, Lee did not appear in Congress until the second day. 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 898.

[111] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 366-368.

[112] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 898, 899.

[113] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 899.

[114] _Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll._ ii. 181.

[115] The text of Galloway's plan is given in 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 905, 906.

[116] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 390.

[117] _Works of John Adams_, ii. 385.

[118] Hansard, _Parl. Hist._ xviii. 155, 156 note, 157.

[119] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 906, 907, 927.

[120] Wirt, 109.

[121] _Works of John Adams_, x. 79; ii. 396, note; Lee's _Life of R.

H. Lee_, i. 116-118, 270-272.

[122] _Political Writings_, ii. 19-29.

[123] Thus John Adams, on 11th October, writes: "Spent the evening with Mr. Henry at his lodgings consulting about a pet.i.tion to the king." _Works_, ii. 396.

[124] 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 904.

[125] Judge John Tyler, in Wirt, 109, note.

[126] For another form of this tradition, see Curtis's _Life of Webster_, i. 588.

[127] Pages 105-113.

[128] Wirt, 105, 106.

[129] The exact rules under debate during those first two days are given in 4 _Am. Arch._ i. 898, 899.

[130] Kennedy, _Mem. of Wirt_, i. 364.

[131] _Works of John Adams_, x. 78.

[132] _Ibid._ x. 277.

[133] As a matter of fact, the letter from Hawley began with these words, instead of "concluding" with them.

[134] _Works of John Adams_, x. 277, 278.

[135] Peyton, _History of Augusta County_, 345, where will be found the entire letter.

CHAPTER IX

"AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT"

We now approach that brilliant pa.s.sage in the life of Patrick Henry when, in the presence of the second revolutionary convention of Virginia, he proclaimed the futility of all further efforts for peace, and the instant necessity of preparing for war.

The speech which he is said to have made on that occasion has been committed to memory and declaimed by several generations of American schoolboys, and is now perhaps familiarly known to a larger number of the American people than any other considerable bit of secular prose in our language. The old church at Richmond, in which he made this marvelous speech, is in our time visited every year, as a patriotic shrine, by thousands of pilgrims, who seek curiously the very spot upon the floor where the orator is believed to have stood when he uttered those words of flame. It is chiefly the tradition of that one speech which to-day keeps alive, in millions of American homes, the name of Patrick Henry, and which lifts him, in the popular faith, almost to the rank of some mythical hero of romance.

In reality, that speech, and the resolutions in support of which that speech was made, const.i.tuted Patrick Henry's individual declaration of war against Great Britain. But the question is: To what extent, if any, was he therein original, or even in advance of his fellow-countrymen, and particularly of his a.s.sociates in the Virginia convention?

It is essential to a just understanding of the history of that crisis in revolutionary thought, and it is of very high importance, likewise, to the historic position of Patrick Henry, that no mistake be committed here; especially that he be not made the victim of a disastrous reaction from any overstatement[136] respecting the precise nature and extent of the service then rendered by him to the cause of the Revolution.

We need, therefore, to glance for a moment at the period between October, 1774, and March, 1775, with the purpose of tracing therein the more important tokens of the growth of the popular conviction that a war with Great Britain had become inevitable, and was to be immediately prepared for by the several colonies,--two propositions which form the substance of all that Patrick Henry said on the great occasion now before us.

As early as the 21st of October, 1774, the first Continental Congress, after having suggested all possible methods for averting war, made this solemn declaration to the people of the colonies: "We think ourselves bound in duty to observe to you that the schemes agitated against these colonies have been so conducted as to render it prudent that you should extend your views to mournful events, and be in all respects prepared for every emergency."[137] Just six days later, John d.i.c.kinson, a most conservative and peace-loving member of that Congress, wrote to an American friend in England: "I wish for peace ardently; but must say, delightful as it is, it will come more grateful by being unexpected. The first act of violence on the part of administration in America, or the attempt to reinforce General Gage this winter or next year, will put the whole continent in arms, from Nova Scotia to Georgia."[138] On the following day, the same prudent statesman wrote to another American friend, also in England: "The most peaceful provinces are now animated; and a civil war is unavoidable, unless there be a quick change of British measures."[139] On the 29th of October, the eccentric Charles Lee, who was keenly watching the symptoms of colonial discontent and resistance, wrote from Philadelphia to an English n.o.bleman: "Virginia, Rhode Island, and Carolina are forming corps. Ma.s.sachusetts Bay has long had a sufficient number instructed to become instructive of the rest. Even this Quakering province is following the example.... In short, unless the banditti at Westminster speedily undo everything they have done, their royal paymaster will hear of reviews and manoeuvres not quite so entertaining as those he is presented with in Hyde Park and Wimbledon Common."[140] On the 1st of November, a gentleman in Maryland wrote to a kinsman in Glasgow: "The province of Virginia is raising one company in every county.... This province has taken the hint, and has begun to raise men in every county also; and to the northward they have large bodies, capable of acquitting themselves with honor in the field."[141] At about the same time, the General a.s.sembly of Connecticut ordered that every town should at once supply itself with "double the quant.i.ty of powder, b.a.l.l.s, and flints" that had been hitherto required by law.[142] On the 5th of November, the officers of the Virginia troops accompanying Lord Dunmore on his campaign against the Indians held a meeting at Fort Gower, on the Ohio River, and pa.s.sed this resolution: "That we will exert every power within us for the defence of American liberty, and for the support of her just rights and privileges, not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen."[143] Not far from the same time, the people of Rhode Island carried off to Providence from the batteries at Newport forty-four pieces of cannon; and the governor frankly told the commander of a British naval force near at hand that they had done this in order to prevent these cannon from falling into his hands, and with the purpose of using them against "any power that might offer to molest the colony."[144] Early in December, the Provincial Convention of Maryland recommended that all persons between sixteen and fifty years of age should form themselves into military companies, and "be in readiness to act on any emergency,"--with a sort of grim humor prefacing their recommendation by this exquisite morsel of argumentative irony:--

"_Resolved_ unanimously, that a well-regulated militia, composed of the gentlemen freeholders and other freemen, is the natural strength and only stable security of a free government; and that such militia will relieve our mother country from any expense in our protection and defence, will obviate the pretence of a necessity for taxing us on that account, and render it unnecessary to keep any standing army--ever dangerous to liberty--in this province."[145]

The shrewdness of this courteous political thrust on the part of the convention of Maryland seems to have been so heartily relished by others that it was thenceforward used again and again by similar conventions elsewhere; and in fact, for the next few months, these sentences became almost the stereotyped formula by which revolutionary a.s.semblages justified the arming and drilling of the militia,--as, for example, that of Newcastle County, Delaware,[146] on the 21st of December; that of Fairfax County, Virginia,[147] on the 17th of January, 1775; and that of Augusta County, Virginia,[148] on the 22d of February.

In the mean time Lord Dunmore was not blind to all these military preparations in Virginia; and so early as the 24th of December, 1774, he had written to the Earl of Dartmouth: "Every county, besides, is now arming a company of men, whom they call an independent company, for the avowed purpose of protecting their committees, and to be employed against government, if occasion require."[149] Moreover, this alarming fact of military preparation, which Lord Dunmore had thus reported concerning Virginia, could have been reported with equal truth concerning nearly every other colony. In the early part of January, 1775, the a.s.sembly of Connecticut gave order that the entire militia of that colony should be mustered every week.[150] In the latter part of January, the provincial convention of Pennsylvania, though representing a colony of Quakers, boldly proclaimed that, if the administration "should determine by force to effect a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the British Parliament," it would "resist such force, and at every hazard ... defend the rights and liberties of America."[151] On the 15th of February, the Provincial Congress of Ma.s.sachusetts urged the people to "spare neither time, pains, nor expense, at so critical a juncture, in perfecting themselves forthwith in military discipline."[152]

When, therefore, so late as Monday, the 20th of March, 1775, the second revolutionary convention of Virginia a.s.sembled at Richmond, its members were well aware that one of the chief measures to come before them for consideration must be that of recognizing the local military preparations among their own const.i.tuents, and of placing them all under some common organization and control. Accordingly, on Thursday, the 23d of March, after three days had been given to necessary preliminary subjects, the inevitable subject of military preparations was reached. Then it was that Patrick Henry took the floor and moved the adoption of the following resolutions, supporting his motion, undoubtedly, with a speech:--