A particularly heroic rendition of Patrick Henry's Liberty or Death speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1775. |
On
March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry rose
before the Virginia House of Burgesses meeting
in Richmond to speak in support of mobilizing the Militia to oppose British
military moves. The speaker had a
reputation as a firebrand. He was reported to have said, “Is life so
dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me,
give
me liberty, or give me death!” The cheering House, already ousted from
meeting in Williamsburg by edict of
the Royal Governor and sitting illegally, was moved to opt for
mobilization.
Or so the story goes, as it
was reconstructed by Henry’s
biographer William Wirt in
1817. No official record of the meeting reported the contents of the
speech. Only one contemporaneous written
description survives. In it Henry was
quoted as alluding to the failure of the Crown
to protect the colony from Indians
and slave uprisings and was quoted
as using some very intemperate and
probably profane descriptions of the
Governor, but no mention of famous phrase.
Wirt claimed to have
reconstructed the speech form the fading memories of the few surviving
members. Whatever Henry said, however,
if must have been a hell of a speech, for he was credited for calling Virginia to arms.
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Patrick Henry by Daniel Lynch |
It was not Henry’s first
famous speech, nor the first one whose exact wording is in doubt. Ten years earlier as a freshman in House, He
had introduced a resolution in opposition to the Stamp Act in terms so incendiary it brought charges of treason. He was quoted as saying, “Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First
his Cromwell; and George the Third may profit by their
example. If this be treason,
make the most of it!” In fact the only eye witness account claims that Henry apologized to the body if they mistook
his words for treason and asserted that he was a loyal subject of the King.
Whatever he said worked, largely because he chose to
introduce his resolution when a bare quorum of the House was present and the
most ardent Crown loyalists were absent.
Henry was born to the middling level of Virginia planter society in 1736, the son of an
educated Scottish emigrant. His early career was rocky. He twice failed as a planter before taking up
the law.
Henry rose to fame for "arguing the Parson's case |
He made a name for himself by defending Louisa County, in a case about limiting
the price of the tobacco paid in
support of the Anglican Clergy. The British Parliament had overturned
Virginia’s Two Penny Act and a local
clergyman sued the county for back wages. Henry simply ignored the law in the case and
attacked clergy as “enemies of the
community,” accused the King of tyranny for annulling the law, and said
such a tyrant, “forfeits all right of obedience from his subject.” The humiliated Padre was awarded 1 penny and
Henry’s political career launched.
Although an
early ally of Thomas Jefferson,
their temperaments, and ambitions were quite different and they soon found
themselves often bitter rivals. In 1776 Henry was elected the first post-colonial Governor of Virginia.
The main
theaters of the Revolution were far
away in his term and he spent a lot of effort planning and executing an invasion of Cherokee lands, where he had land
speculations. In 1789 he was succeeded by Jefferson just as the war began to heat up.
After the
Revolution, Henry was again served as Governor in 1784-86. He refused to attend the Constitutional Convention in 1787 because he “smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward the monarchy.” Parting bitterly from his previous political
ally and personal friend James Madison, Henry
became one of the most vocal and extreme Anti-Federalists. He voted against ratification in the Virginia convention of 1788, but Madison
carried the day.
Despite his views, George
Washington, on the advice of Alexander
Hamilton, first offered him the post of Secretary of State before turning to Jefferson.
A 1955 U.S. Post office commemorative stamp in the Patriots series. |
Henry’s politics took a sharp turn in the 1790’s after
the outbreak of the French
Revolution. Over the years His
personal fortunes had grown, thanks to a couple of fortuitous and strategic marriages, and he had become a wealthy
large scale planter with hundreds of slaves.
With significant property to protect, he developed a fear and loathing
of the same “rabble” to which he had
been a popular hero. With John Marshall he rallied Virginia Federalists and was elected to the House of Delegates.
Three months before he could take his seat he died of stomach cancer at his plantation Red Hill on June 6, 1799. Some biographers
believe that the pain was so great that he poisoned
himself.
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