Who was this young lawyer that stirred these dignified Virginia gentlemen in powdered hair, knee breeches, and silver buckles? [Sidenote: =Patrick as a boy=] =81. The Orator of the Revolution.= Patrick Henry was born in Virginia (1736). His father was a well-educated Scotchman, who taught school and became a lawyer. His mother was of Welsh blood. Young Patrick went to school, but he liked to hunt and fish far better than to study. He was a puzzle to his parents. [Sidenote: =Early failures=] By the time he was eighteen he had failed as a student, as a clerk, and as a storekeeper. He then married. The parents on both sides helped them to start farming with a few slaves. In two years Patrick Henry was forced to sell. Once more he tried keeping a country store. In three years the store closed its doors and Patrick Henry, aged twenty-three, was without an occupation. [Sidenote: =Liked to study history and law=] He now turned to the study of law. Although not in love with school when a boy, he loved to read the Bible. He also had a strong liking for history, and, in his youth, read the histories of Greece, of Rome, of England, and of the colonies. By a few months of hard study of the law he passed the examination. He succeeded from the first, and in less than four years had been engaged in more than one thousand cases. [Sidenote: =Succeeded as a lawyer=] [Sidenote: =Patrick's father the judge=] =82. The Parsons' Case.= In 1763 Patrick Henry set all Virginia to talking about him as a lawyer. This colony had paid its clergymen from the beginning. Each one received a certain number of pounds of tobacco for his salary. But the price was now high and now low. A dispute arose because of this and was taken into court. But no great lawyer would take the people's side. Patrick Henry did. The courthouse was filled with people, many clergymen among them. In the judge's chair sat Patrick's own father. [Sidenote: =Henry's first great speech=] [Sidenote: =The people overjoyed=] Henry began his speech in an awkward way. The clergymen felt encouraged, while his friends and father felt uneasy. Soon he began to warm up. His words came more freely, and his gestures grew more graceful. The people began to listen, and then to lean forward spellbound by the charm of his eloquence and the power of his argument. The clergy grew angry and left the room. His father, forgetting that he was judge, cried for joy. When Henry finished, the people seized him and carried him on their shoulders from the court room and around the yard, shouting and cheering all the while. [Illustration: PEOPLE OF THE COURT CARRYING PATRICK HENRY ON THEIR SHOULDERS AROUND THE GREEN] [Sidenote: =Elected a lawmaker=] Patrick Henry was now the people's hero. At the election the following year his friends chose him to go to the House of Burgesses, and there, in 1765, he made his stirring speech against the Stamp Act. [Sidenote: =The Stamp Act repealed=]