Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-12-17
Patrick Henry i'm the Virginia House of
Burgesses.

There was everything in his appearance
! and social status to provoke displeasure.-
He was clad in an old, faded, peach bios
som coat, rude in fabric as in fashion; hi
knee breeches, instead Of fine cloth or velvet
consisted of dressed leather; his head wa
covered with an old rusty tiewig, innocen
of powder, and utterly insignificant besid
the flowing perukes of the "nabobs," as they
were then called. There was nothing in The
bearing of his shabbly figure to re
deem its coarse appearance. The shoulder:
stopped; it moved stifily, awkwardly; when
the compressed lips opened to speak, the
words which came forth were pronounced
in way to crate painfully upon the cult.
waited ears of the listeners. Earth Tarth
learning larnin', and natural, naiteraL The
effect was as disagreable as that produced
to-day upon an American by the pronunci-
alton of foreigner. This alone threw a
gulf between the rustic youth and the Ok
ford educated gentlemen. But all personal
objections sank into insiguifcance beside the
audacity of the propositions offered by the
coarsey-apparelled young man. His assumr-
tion of leadership would at any time have
been regarded by the old baronS as presump-
tuous, but he did more. He placed himself
in determined hostility to each and all-for
his celebrated resolutions were the gauntlet
of defiance, thrown down to all the prein-
dices of the paSt-the old world theories
in their very essence and foundation. They
fell like thunderbolt. They distinctly de-
MED the right of Parliament to legislate up
on matters concerning the American colo
nies-hence their right to lay imposts-
hence the constitutiouality of the Stamp
Act. The reading of the resolutions was
the signal for a storm. The lightning was
succeeded by the roar of the opposition
thunder. The advocates of further petition,
protest, and memorial fought with all the
passion virulence and animoSity of men who
are outraged in their political convictions,
their personal vanity, and their views of
social proprety. Henry says that storm
of abuse was visited upon him, and Jeffer-
son, then youth and listener from the
lobby, declares that "the debate was most
bloody" 1t was in the midst of his speech
that Henry, with arms extended aloft and
flashing eyes, thundered out his celebrated
words, Caesar had his Brutus! Charles the
First his Cromwell and George the
Third" His voice was drowned in vi
olent and indignant cries of "Treasonl Trea-
sonP rolling upward from every part of
the house, and from the lips of the Speaker.
1t was a moment which tries manhood, and
tests the fibre of the soul-Henry's bore
the strain. His figure rose aloft with
prouder defiance; his eye flashed with fires
more naughty and determined. Confront
ing his opponents with the scornful wrath
of an aroused giant, his voice rang out clear
and strong "And George the Third" he
repeated, may profit by their examplel If
this be treason, make the most of i'll" The
resolutions were carried. Driven through,
over all opposition, and in spite of the most
tremendous attacks, they were adopted
the last by bare majority. Peyton Ran
dolph, in passing through his lobby, was
heard to exclaim, with bitter oath, that
he would have given give hundred guineas
for a single vote" 1t was little to OFFER
The triumph of Henry was the overthrow
forever of the past-the regime of the aris-
tocracy, as it was of the leadership of the
great class to which the opponents of the
orator belonged. Their policy of memorials
and petitions was swept away in moment.
Their prestige was gone. The old world
was dead-the tocsin of revolution had
been sounded. OneVote would have silenced
the alarm bell, and five hundred guineas
was not much to offer for 1.-THE Ceatugq.