St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1856-09-11
8iograp9ital.
PATRICK HENRY.

29th of May, 1886. His boyhood
was as unpromising as could be we'll
imagined. He was vagrant truant,
hating his books, and delighting 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 a large and still growing
family, Patrick was placed behind the
counter of country store. Here he
remained year, when his father
set him up in business in com pany
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 amiable and sensitive spirit, and
although too indolent to rouse him
self to any great effort, 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 relief in 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 love for
reading, which grew into passion,
and became the germ of his future
greatness. From childhood, he took
great delight in the study of charac-
ter and it used to be one of his pas
times to get togetherin his store doz-
en- men of the neighborhood, and ex-
cite them to discussion, and then 81
lently watch every expression and
motion, and paint their characters on
his own brain, and fancy how they
would severally act under given cir.
cumstances. This also became the
end of his reading-the study of hu.
man nature Little did he then think
the mighty power Of scrutiny of human
character he was unfolding and nour-
ishing in his soul, and which in after
life enabled him to read so readily the
tablet of character, hidden to nearly
all other eyes, in the bosom of it's pos.
SCISSOR. When his company was dull
and silent, he would rouse them with
accounts of what he had read and
4 seen, or entertain them with the Gre
ations of wild but manly imagina
ton and when they were Sufficiently
excited, would resume his taciturnity
and observation.
This was the early selftraining OF
Patrick Henry. Here he began to de.
velop those mighty gifts, which in af:
ter life constituted him, as Jefferson
declared, tone of the greatest ora
tors that ever lived" ."Never was
there man, in any age" says Writ,
"who possessed, in more eminent
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
recklessness, at the early age of
eighteen, he married and went on a
small plantation, where with couple
Of slaves he titled the soil for two years.
Wearying of the sweat of labor, not
withstanding his past disastrous ex-
perience, 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 in which
all prognosticated failure. In six
weeks from the time of entering the
Office, he passed his examination, as
tonishing his examiners, not by his
acquaintance with the law, but by the
strength Of his intellect, and the bril-
liancy of his genious. Having OBJ
tanned his license, his success was
small for three years, during which
he suffered all the horrors of poverty !;
when an event brought him in to no
toriety, and placed him at once at
the head Of the Virginia bar.
For long time, tobacco had been a
medium of exchange in Virginia, as
wampum amongst the Indians, and
the price per pound was fixed by law.
The salaries of the clergy were gene
rally paid in tobacco. AS might have
been foreseen, the fluctuations in
prices led to much discussion and dis
content. The subject became amen
crossing one, and the colony was di-
vided, a large portion of them siding
with the clergy, and the balance in
favor Of the Legislature. 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 wonder
fnl effect, as atonce to astonish every
body, and to establish his reputation
as public pleader and orator.
From this point, the life of Patrick
Henry is brilliantly connected with
the history Of his country. Jefferson
says of him, that he did more than
any other man to put the ball ofrevo-
luton in motion" He died on the