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take; but as for me,' cried he, with both his arms extended aloft, his brows knit, every feature marked with the resolute purpose of his soul, and his voice swelled to its boldest note of exclamation- Give me Liberty, or give me Death !' *

He took his seat. No murmur of applause was heard. The effect was too deep. After the trance of a moment, several members started from their seats. The cry, 'to arms!' seemed to quiver on every lip, and gleam from every eye. Richard H. Lee arose and supported Mr. Henry, with his usual spirit and elegance. But his melody was lost amid the agitations of that ocean, which the master-spirit of the storm had lifted up on high. That supernatural voice still sounded in their ears, and shivered along their arteries. They heard, in every pause, the cry of liberty or death. They became impatient of speech, their souls were on fire for action.

Upon Lord Dunmore's seizing the gunpowder at Williamsburg, in the night after the battle of Lexington, Henry summoned volunteers to meet him; and marching down toward the capitol, compelled the agent of Dunmore to give a pecuniary compensation for it. This was the first military movement in Virginia. The colonial convention of 1775, elected him the colonel of the first regiment, and the commander of "all the forces raised, and to be raised for the defense of the colony." Soon resigning his command, he was elected a delegate to the convention, and not long after, in 1776, the first governor of the commonwealth, an office he held, by successive re-elections, until 1779, when, without any intermission, he was no longer constitutionally eligible. While holding that office he was signally serviceable in sustaining public spirit during the gloomiest period of the revolution, providing recruits, and crushing the intrigues of the tories.

On leaving the office of governor, he served until the end of the war in the legislature, when he was again elected governor, until the state of his affairs caused him to resign in the autumn of 1786. Until 1794, he regularly attended the courts, where his great reputation obtained for him a lucrative business. "In 1788 he was a member of the convention of Virginia, which so ably and eloquently discussed the constitution of the United States. He employed his masterly eloquence, day after day, in opposition to the proposed constitution. His hostility to it proceeded entirely from an apprehension that the federal government would swallow the sovereignty of the States; and that ultimately the liberty of the people would be destroyed, or crushed, by an overgrown and ponderous consolidation of political power. The constitution having been adopted, the government organized, and Washington elected president, his repugnance measurably abated. The chapter of amendments considerably neutralized his objections: but, nevertheless, it is believed that his acquiescence resulted more from the consideration of a citizen's duty, confidence in the chief magistrate, and a hope

* Now and then a sentence is originated on occasions of momentous public interest, which so vividly expresses a great idea, that it is at once seized upon, and becomes immortal. "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" will never be lost. It is of the same character with "Opposition to Tyrants is obedience to God!" Other examples less startling, but not less appropriate, are of more recent origin. "Your Strength is in your Wrongs!" "My Goods are for sale-not my Principles!”

ful reliance on the wisdom and virtue of the people, rather than from any material change in his opinions.”

In 1794, Mr. Henry retired from the bar. In 1796 the post of governor was once more tendered to him, and refused. In 1798 the strong and animated resolutions of the Virginia Assembly, in opposition to the alied and sedition laws, which laws he was in favor of, 'conjured up the most frightful visions of civil war, disunion, blood, and anarchy; and under the impulse of these phantoms, to make what he considered a virtuous effort for his country, he presented himself in Charlotte county as a candidate for the House of Delegates, at the spring election of 1799,' although he had retired to private life three years previously.

On this occasion he encountered the eccentric John Randolph, who had presented himself as a candidate for congress, and opposed those measures Mr. Henry advocated. They met at the court-house, and supported a long and animated discussion. Mr. Henry was then in his sixty-seventh year; the measure of his fame was full; the late proceedings of the Virginia Assembly, in relation to the alien and sedition laws, had filled him with alarm-"had planted his pillow with thorns, and he had quitted his retirement to make one more, his last effort for his country." Enfeebled by age and ill-health, with a linen cap on his head, he mounted the hustings, and commenced with difficulty; but as he proceeded, his eye lighted up with its wonted fire, his voice assumed its wonted majesty; gradually accumulating strength and animation, his eloquence seemed like an avalanche threatening to overwhelm his adversary. Many present considered it his best effort. In the course of the speech, Mr. Henry said, "The alien and sedition laws were only the fruits of that constitution, the adoption of which he opposed. ... If we are wrong, let us all go wrong together," at the same time clasping his hands and waving his body to the right and left. His auditory unconsciously waved with him. As he finished he literally descended into the arms of the obstreperous throng, and was borne about in triumph, when Dr. John H. Rice exclaimed, "The sun has set in all his glory!"

As Mr. Henry left the stand, Mr. Randolph, with undaunted courage, arose in his place. He was then about twenty-six years of age-a mere boy from college, who had, probably, never yet addressed a political assemblyof a youthful and unprepossessing appearance. The audience, considering it presumptuous for him to speak after Mr. Henry, partially dispersed, and an Irishman present, exclaimed, "Tut! tut! it won't do, it's nothing but the bating of an old tin pan after hearing a fine church-organ." But if "the sun of the other had set in all his glory," his was about to rise with, perhaps, an equal brilliancy. He commenced: "his singular person and peculiar aspect; his novel, shrill, vibratory intonations; his solemn, slow-marching, and swelling periods; his caustic crimination of the prevailing political party; his cutting satire; the tout ensemble of his public debut, soon calmed the tumultuous crowd, and inclined all to listen to the strange orator, while he replied at length to the sentiments of their old favorite. When he had concluded, loud huzzas rang through the welkin.

This was a new event to Mr. Henry. He had not been accustomed to a rival, and little expected one in a beardless boy for such was the aspect of the champion who now appeared to contend for the palm which he was

wont to appropriate to himself. He returned to the stage and commenced a second address, in which he soared above his usual vehemence and majesty. Such is usually the fruit of emulation and rivalship. He frequently adverted to his youthful competitor with parental tenderness; complimented his rare talents with the liberality of profusion; and, while regretting what he deprecated as the political errors of youthful zeal, actually wrought himself and audience into an enthusiasm of sympathy and benevolence that issued in an ocean of tears. The gesture, intonations, and pathos of Mr. Henry, operated like an epidemic on the transported assembly. The contagion was universal. An hysterical phrensy pervaded the audience to such a degree, that they were at the same moment literally weeping and laughing. At this juncture the speaker descended from the stage. Shouts of applause rent the air, and were echoed from the skies. The whole spectacle as it really was, would not only mock every attempt at description, but would almost challenge the imagination of any one who had not witnessed it.

Mr. Henry was elected by his usual commanding majority, and the most formidable preparations were made to oppose him in the assembly. But "the disease, which had been preying upon him for two years, now hastened to its crisis; and on the 6th of June, 1799, this friend of liberty and man

was no more.

By his first wife he had six children, and by his last, six sons and three daughters. He left them a large landed property. He was temperate and frugal in his habits of living, and seldom drank anything but water. He was nearly six feet in height, spare, and raw-boned, and with a slight stoop in his shoulders; his complexion dark and sallow; his countenance grave, thoughtful, and penetrating, and strongly marked with the lines of profound reflection, which with his earnest manner, and the habitual knitting and contracting of his brows, gave at times an expression of severity.

career.

In private life, Mr. Henry was as amiable as he was brilliant in his public He was an exemplary Christian, and his illustrious life was greatly ornamented by the religion which he professed. In his will he left the following testimony respecting the Christian religion: "I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is the Christian religion. If they have that, and I had not given one shilling, they would be

and I had given them the whole world, thch; and if they have not that,

would be poor.”

We continue this article with the statement of some facts and a few anecdotes.

When fourteen years of age, Mr. Henry went with his mother in a carriage to the Fork Church, in Hanover, to hear preach the celebrated Samuel Davies, afterward president of Princeton College. His eloquence made a deep impression on his youthful mind, and he always remarked, he was the greatest orator he ever heard. When a member of the Continental Congress, he said, the first men in that body were Washington, Richard Henry Lee, and Roger Sherman; and later in life, Roger Sherman and George Mason, the greatest statesmen he ever knew. When governor, he had printed and circulated in Richmond, at his own expense, Soame Jenyns' View of Christianity, and Butler's Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion. Sherlock's sermons, he affirmed, was the work which removed

all his doubts of the truth of Christianity; a copy of which, until a short time since, was in the possession of his children, filled with marginal notes. He read it every Sunday evening to his family, after which they all joined in sacred music, while he accompanied them on the violin. He never quoted poetry. His quotations were from the Bible, and his illustrations from the Bible, ancient and modern history. He was opposed to the adoption of the federal constitution, because he thought it gave too much power to the general government; and in conversation with a friend, he remarked with emphasis; “The President of the United States will always come in at the head of a party. He will be supported in all his acts by a party. You do not now think much of the patronage of the president; but the day is coming when it will be tremendous, and from this power the country may sooner or later fall."

In the British debt cause, of which Wirt gives a full account, Mr. Henry made great preparation. He shut himself up in his office for three days, during which he did not see his family; his food was handed by a servant through the office-door. The Countess of Huntington, then in this country, was among the auditors, and remarked, after hearing the arguments of the several speakers, "That if every one of them had spoken in Westminster Hall, they would have been honored with a peerage." Mr. Henry had a diamond ring on his finger, and while he was speaking, the countess exclaimed to the judge, Iredell-who had never before heard him-"The diamond is blazing !” "Gracious God!" replied he, "he is an orator, indeed." In this cause he injured his voice so that it never recovered its original power.

The following anecdote was related by President Madison, at the conclusion of the late war, to a party of gentlemen assembled at his residence in Washington. In the revolutionary war, certificates were given by the legislature to the Virginia line on continental establishment, stating the amount due to them, which was to be paid at a future time. The necessities of the soldiers, in many instances, compelled them to part with the certificates to speculators for a trivial sum. Madison brought a bill before the legislature to put a stop to it. He had previously asked Mr. Henry if he was willing to support it. The reply was The reply was "Yes;" but having no further communication with him on the subject, Mr. Madison feared he had forgotten the circumstance. After the bill was read, he turned to where Mr. Henry sat, with an anxious eye, upon which the latter immediately arose and addressed the house. Mr. Madison said, that upon that occasion he was particularly eloquent. His voice reminded him of a trumpeter on the field of battle, calling the troops to a charge. He looked alternately to the house and the audience, and saw they were with the orator; and, at the conclusion, one of the chief speculators in tickets, then in the galleries, exclaimed, in an audible voice: "That bill ought to pass!"-it did pass, and unanimously. Many years ago (writes the Rev. Dr. Speece), I was at the trial, in one of our District Courts, of a man charged with murder. The case was briefly this the prisoner had gone, in execution of his office as constable, to arrest a slave who had been guilty of some misconduct, and bring him to justice. Expecting opposition in the business, the constable took several men with him, some of them armed. They found the slave on the plantation of his

master, within view of the house, and proceeded to seize and bind him. His mistress, seeing the arrest, came down and remonstrated vehemently against it. Finding her efforts unavailing, she went off to a barn where her husband was, who was presently perceived running briskly to the house. It was known he always kept a loaded rifle over his door. The constable now desired his company to remain where they were, taking care to keep the slave in custody, while he himself would go to the house to prevent mischief. He accordingly ran toward the house. When he arrived within a short distance of it, the master appeared, coming out of the door with his rifle in his hand. Some witnesses said that as he came to the door he drew the cock of the piece, and was seen in the act of raising it to the position of firing. But upon these points, there was not an entire agreement in the evidence. The constable, standing near a small building in the yard, at this instant fired, and the fire had a fatal effect. No previous malice was proved against him; and his plea upon the trial was, that he had taken the life of his assailant in necessary self-defense.

A great mass of testimony was delivered. This was commented upon with considerable ability by the lawyer for the commonwealth, and by another lawyer engaged by the friends of the deceased for the prosecution. The prisoner was also defended, in elaborate speeches, by two respectable advocates. These proceedings brought the day to a close. The general whisper through a crowded house was, that the man was guilty and could not be saved.

About dusk candles were brought, and Henry arose. His manner was exactly that which the British Spy describes with so much felicity: plain, simple, and entirely unassuming. Gentlemen of the jury,' said he, ‘I dare say we are all very much fatigued with this tedious trial. The prisoner at the bar has been well defended already; but it is my duty to offer you some further observations in behalf of this unfortunate man. I shall aim at brevity. But should I take up more of your time than you expect, I hope you will hear me with patience, when you consider that BLOOD is concerned."

I cannot admit the possibility that any one who never heard Henry speak should be made fully to conceive the force of impression which he gave to these few words, "blood is concerned." I had been on my feet through the day, pushed about in the crowd, and was excessively weary. I was strongly of opinion, too, notwithstanding all the previous defensive pleadings, that the prisoner was guilty of murder; and I felt anxious to know how the matter would terminate. Yet when Henry had uttered these words, my feelings underwent an instantaneous change; I found everything within me answering at once, yes, since blood is concerned, in the name of all that is righteous, go on; we will hear you with patience until the rising of tomorrow's sun. This bowing of the soul must have been universal; for the profoundest silence reigned, as if our very breath had been suspended. The spell of the magician was upon us, and we stood like statues around him. Under the torch of his genius, every particular of the story assumed a new aspect, and his cause became continually more bright and promising. At length he arrived at the fatal act itself. You have been told, gentlemen, that the prisoner was bound by every obligation to avoid the supposed necessity of firing, by leaping behind a house near which he stood at that

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