But while this renowned act in Patrick Henry's life had consequences
so notable in their bearing on great national and international
movements, it is interesting to observe, also, its immediate effects
on his own personal position in the world, and on the development of
his career. We can hardly be surprised to find, on the one hand, that
his act gave deep offence to one very considerable class of persons in
Virginia,--the official representatives of the English government, and
their natural allies, those thoughtful and conscientious colonists
who, by temperament and conviction, were inclined to lay a heavy
accent on the principle of civil authority and order. Of course, as
the official head of this not ignoble class, stood Francis Fauquier,
the lieutenant-governor of the colony; and his letter to the lords of
trade, written from Williamsburg a few days after the close of the
session, contains a striking narrative of this stormy proceeding, and
an almost amusing touch of official undervaluation of Patrick Henry:
"In the course of the debate, I have heard that very indecent language
was used by a Mr. Henry, a young lawyer, who had not been above a
month a member of the House, and who carried all the young members
with him."[85] But a far more specific and intense expression of
antipathy came, a few weeks later, from the Reverend William Robinson,
the colonial commissary of the Bishop of London. Writing, on the 12th
of August, to his metropolitan, he gave an account of Patrick Henry's
very offensive management of the cause against the parsons, before
becoming a member of the House of Burgesses; and then added:--
"He has since been chosen a representative for one of the
counties, in which character he has lately distinguished
himself in the House of Burgesses on occasion of the arrival
of an act of Parliament for stamp duties, while the Assembly
was sitting. He blazed out in a violent speech against the
authority of Parliament and the king, comparing his majesty
to a Tarquin, a Caesar, and a Charles the First, and not
sparing insinuations that he wished another Cromwell would
arise. He made a motion for several outrageous resolves,
some of which passed and were again erased as soon as his
back was turned.... Mr. Henry, the hero of whom I have been
writing, is gone quietly into the upper parts of the country
to recommend himself to his constituents by spreading
treason and enforcing firm resolutions against the authority
of the British Parliament."[86]
Such was Patrick Henry's introduction to the upper spheres of English
society,--spheres in which his name was to become still better known
as time rolled on, and for conduct not likely to efface the impression
of this bitter beginning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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