Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1856-06-28
PATRICK HENRY.

federation was not fully understood
in many of the colonies'in the days of
their first settlement. Even Virginia is
placed on record as having attempted 10
suppress the increase of dissenters. The
following speech Of Patrick Henry, made
in defence of the dissenting cIergymen
arrested for violation Of the law recogni-
zing an established church, is worthy of
the orator and the occasion:
He entered the court, says his biogra.
pher, being unknown to all present save
the bench and the bar, while the indict-
ment 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
prosecution, when he arose, reached ont
his hand fnr the paper, and without more
ceremony, proceeded with the following
speech:
May it please your worships, think /
heard read by the prosecutors as | enter
Ell this house, the paper I now hold in
my hand. If have rightly understood,
the kings attorney of the colony has
framed an indictment for the purpose of
arraigning and Furnishing by imprison-
ment three inoffensive persons before the
bar of this court for crime of great
~, r.,,1&,,Jo J;e%,,rbore ,f 4Eo v,oooo
Ede hear read.1 Did hear an express
sion as if crime, that these men whom
your worships are about TO try for misde-
meanor, are charged With-what?" and
continuing with q low, solemn t0ne,-
preaching the gospel of the Sou of God!'
Pausing amid the most profound silence
and breathless astonishment, he slowly
waved the paper three times around his
head, when, lifting his hands and eyes to
heaven, with peculiar and impressive en-.
ergy he exclaimed: Great God!' The
exclamation, the burst of feeling from the
audience, were overpowering, Mr., Hen
ry resumed:
May ii please your worships: In day
like this-when truth is about to break
her fetters; when mankind are about to
be aroused to claim natural and inaliena-
Bile rights; when the yoke of oppression
that has reached the wilderness of Anne
rica, and the unnatural alliance Of &C.
clesiastical and civil power, are about to
be dissolved; at such period, when lib
erty, liberty of conscience, is about to
awake from her slumberings, and inquire
into the reassn Of such charges as | find
exhibited here to-day in this Indictment,
it is time, your worships, that law even
should tremhle before the power Of mo-
raj right lAnother fearful pause, while
the speaker alternately cast his sharp,
piercing eyes on the court and the pri'
soners. and resumed.1 IF am not de.
ceived, according to the contents Of this
paper now hold in my hand, these men
are accused of preaching the gospel OF
the Son of God! Great God!' IAno-
ther long pause, while he again waved
the indictment around his head, and a
deeper impression was made on the au-
ditory.l
Resuming his speech: May it please
your worships: there are periods in the
history Of man when corruption and de-
pravity have so long debased the human
character, that mar sinks under the iron
weight of the oppressor's hand-becomes
his servile, ahect slave; he licks the hand
that s,nites him; he bows in passive obe-
dience to the mandates of the despot; and
in this state of servllity he receives his
fetters of perpetual bondage. But may
| it please yaur worships, such "a day has
passed away. From that period wher
| our fathers left the land Of their nativity
! for settlement in these Americaa wilds
for liberty, for civil and religions iibert,
/ nf conscience. 10 wnrshin their CreatnI