Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1855-03-21
PATRICK HENRY.

tage IN tho suburbs, and it is all paid for.
PATRICK HENRY.
This brilliant and powerful orator whom
every American names with pride, was
born in Virginia, on the 29th of Nav,
1886 His boybood was as unpromising
as could be well imagined He was va
grant truant, hating his books, and de-
lighting In nothing so much as his angle
rod and his gun. At the age of fifteen.
his father finding it difficult to meet the
expenses of large and still growing fam
lily, Patrick was placed behind the coun-
ter OF a country store Here he remained
a year, when his father set him up in bu-
slness in company with an elder brother,
more idle and negligent if possible, than
himself. The result was as might have
been supposed-bankruptcy in a short
space of time
Young Henry was possessed of an ami
able and sensitive spirit, and although too
indoent to rouse himself to any great eff
fort, yet his soul was CALLED at his want of
success, and the inevitable ruin which
stared him in the face. AS he was con-
fined to his store, and could not seek re-
lief in the outdoor sports in which he so
greatly delighted, he sought to solace his
spirit with his flute and such books as fell
IN his way In this way, he acquired a
love for reading, which grew into pas
sion, and became the germ of his future
greatness. From childhood, he took great
delight in the study of character and it
used to be one of his pastimes to get to
gether in his store a dozen men of the
neigh borhood, and excite them to discus
sion, and then silently watch every ex-
preston and word and motion, and paint
their characters on his own brain, and
fancy how they would severally act under
/ given circumstances This also became
| the end Of his reading-the study of hu-
man nature Little did he then think of
the mighty power of scrutiny of human
character he was unfolding and nourish-
ing in his soul, and which in after life en-
abled him to read so readily the tablet of
character, hidden to nearly all other eyes,
! IN the bosom of its possessor When his
company was dull and silent, he would
rouse them with accounts of what he had
read and seen, or entertain them with the
creations of a wild but manly imagina-
ton and when they were sufficiently ex-
cited, would resume his taciturnity and
observation
This was the early selftrainiDg of Pat
rick Henry. Here he began to develop
those mighty gifts, which in after life con-
stituted him, as Jefferson declared, one
of the greatest orators that ever lived +"
"Never was there a man, in any age"
says Writ, "who possessed, in a more EN-.
inent degree, the lucid and nervous style
of argument, the command of the most
beautiful imagery, or that language of
passion which burns from soul to soul"
About this period with his usual reck-
lessness, at the early age of eighteen, he
married and went on small plantation,
where with a couple of slaves he titled the
soil for two years. Wearying of the sweat
of labor Notwithstanding his past disas-
trous experience, he converted all his
means into ready money. and embarked
once more in trade-once more to run a
rapid race into bankruptcy and ruin.
In absolute despair, he determined to
study the lava study iE which all prog
nosticated failure. In six weeks from the
time of entering the Office, he passed his
examination, astonishing his examiners,
not by his acquaintance with the law, but
by the strength of his intellect, and the
brilliancy of his genius Having obtained
his license, his success was small for three
years, during which he suffered all the
horrors of poverty /; when an event
brought him into notoriety, and placed
him at once at the head of the Virginia
bar.
For long time, tobacco had been me.
dium of exchange in Virginia, as wampun
%Ia I'd, 81
pound was fixed by law. Tie salaries of
the clergy were generally paid in tobacco
AS might have been foreseen. the fuctua
tions in prices led to much discussion and
discomfort The subject became an en-
crossing one, and the colony was divided
a large portion of them siding with the
clergy. and the balance in favor of the le-
gislature After much angry discussion
in public assemblies, and through the
press. the cause was brought to an issue
before the courts of law Patrick Henry
then about twenty seven years old, pleaded
against the clergy. with such wonderful
effect as at once to astonish every body
and to establish his reputation as public
pfeader and orator.
From this point, the life of Patrick
Henry is brilliantly connected with The
history of his country. Jefferson says o
him, that he did more than any Other
man to put the ball of revolution in mo
; ton" He died on the 9th day of June
1899, in the sixty fourth year of his age
! with an unshaken reliance in the Infinite
for whom he ever entertained the mos
. profound reverence and love-a firm be
lever in viytue as the only basis of char
, acter and happiness.-W. Amtr. BiQg.