At the close of 1777 Mr. Harrison resigned his seat in Congress and returned to the bosom of his family. No one member had performed more labor than him--no one was more highly esteemed and honored. He was emphatically a working man--a colossus in the cause of liberty and human rights. He returned home to enjoy repose. This was of but short duration. He was immediately elected to the Virginia Legislature and made Speaker, which station he ably filled for five consecutive years. During that period the revolutionary storm spent its fury upon the Old Dominion. The traitor Arnold and the tyrant Cornwallis were tinging its streams and saturating its soil with the blood of its noble sons. Fire, sword, murder, rapine, ruin and destruction marked their savage course. Her legislature was driven from Richmond to Charlotteville--to Staunton--to the Warm Springs and found but a transient rest at either place. During these rapid removes Mr. Harrison remained cool, collected and firm and was prolific in the best measures to ward off impending dangers. He did much to rouse the people to action and dispel the terrors of their minds. He knew no "fugitive fear"--the assertion of another writer to the contrary notwithstanding and without any foundation in fact, for the purpose of raising his own hero above his proper level by climbing upon the shoulders of the towering reputation of Mr. Harrison. This fictitious capital will not answer even at this late day. Records speak for the dead in a voice that paralyzes the slanderer like the hand writing that shook the sturdy frame of Belshazzar. In 1782 Mr. Harrison was elected Governor of Virginia and assumed a herculean task. The recent devastations of the British army aided by tories who remained on the soil, had thrown everything into one chaotic mass. He entered upon the discharge of his duties with an energy that showed no "fugitive fear" and became one of the most popular chief magistrates that ever filled the gubernatorial chair of the Old Dominion. He was re-elected twice and was then inelligible by the constitution and once more sought retirement. Without his knowledge or consent he was immediately after nominated for the legislature and for the first time defeated. This was effected by a cunning device of his opponent. When Governor he had ordered the militia to level the embankments at Yorktown which was the first and last unpopular act of his life. This was the political hobby-horse on which his opponent gained the race. Mr. Harrison removed into the adjoining county of Surrey and was returned to the same Legislature with his successful competitor. To add to the chagrin of his opponents he was elected Speaker of the House. Before the year expired he was urged to return to his former residence. Old age and declining health induced him to permanently retire from public life.