Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1845-12-04
MIS- CELLAN EOUS.
From the Buffalo Pilot.
PATRICK HENRY.

We find in the Baptist Register the fol
lowing: and to US, it is new. 1t appear:
that, soon after Henry's noted case of ITO
bacco and the Preserves,'' as it was some
times called, he heard of case of oppres
sion for conscience sake. The English
church, having been established by law il
Virginia, became, as all such establishments
are wont to do, exceedingly intolerant to-
wards other sects. In prosecution of this
system of conversion, three Baptist clergy
men had been indicted. at Fredericksburg
for preaching the gospel of the Son of Goo
contrary to the statute. Henry hearing oil
this, rode some fifty miles TO volunteer his
services in defence of the oppressed. He
entered the court, being unknown to all pre-
sent save the bench and the bar, while the
Indictment was being read by the clerk
He sat within the bar until the reading was
finished, and the Kings attorney had con-
cluded some remarks in defence of the pro-
secution, when he rose, and reached out his
hand for the paper, and, without more cere-
mony, proceeded with the following speech;
'May it please your worships: think ]
heard read by the prosecutor, as ! entered
this house, the paper now hold in my hand.
If have rightly understood, the Kings at
torney of the colony has framed an indict-
ment for the purpose of arraigning and pun
ishing by Imprisonment, three inofensive
persons before the bar Of this court, for a
crime of great magntude-as disturbers of
the peace May it please the court, what
did hear read Did | hear it distinctly,
or was it a mistake of my own? Did |
hear an expression, as if a crime, that these
men, whom your worships are about TO try
for misdemeanor, are charged witE-what:"
and, continuing in low, solemn tone,
''preaching the gospel of the Son of God -
Pausing amidst the most profound silence
and breathless establishment, he slowly
waved the paper three times around his
head, when lifting his hands and eyes to
heaven, with peculiar and impressive energy,
he exclaimed, "Great God!" The excla-
mation-the burst of feeling from the au-
dience-were all overpowering, Mr. Hen
ry resumed
"May it please your worshipe, in day
like this-when truth is about to burst her
fetters-when mankind are about to be a
reused to claim their natural and inalienable
rights-when the yoke of oppression, that
has reached the wilderness of America, and
the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and
civil power are about to be dissevered-at
such period, when libertv-liberty of con-
science-is about to awake from her slum-
behring's, and inquire into the reason Of such
charges as | find exhibited here to-day in
this Indictment - Another fearful pause,
while the speaker alternately cast his sharp
piercing eyes on the court and the prison.
ers, and resumed: of am not deceived
according to the contents Of the paper now
hold in my hand, these men are accused of
preaching the gospel of the Son Of God =
Great God" Another long pause, while he
again waved the indictment around his head
while deeper impression was made on
it please your worships, there are periods
in the history Of man when corruption and
depravity have SO long debased the human
character, that man sinks under the weight
of the oppressor's hand-becomes his SER
vile, his abiect slave, he ticks the hand that
smites him, he bows in passive obedience
to the mandates Of the despot; and, in this
state of servility he receives his letters of
perpetual bondage. But may it please your
worships, such day has passed away
From that period when our fathers left the
land of their nativity for settlement in these
American wilds-for liberty-for civil and
religious liberty-for liberty of conscience
to worship their Creator according to their
own conceptions of Heavens revealed will
from the moment they placed their feet
upon the American continent, and, In the
deeply imbedded forest, sought an asylum
from persecution and tyranny-from that