The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-22


denoe in the Virginia Convention, l. g. the
resolutions which proposed this movement in
Congress, MIR. Henry appears to have yelled
whatever eloquence he had, and to have been
satisfied to repose on his laurels He re-
NAMED silent when the proposition for indie
pendence was about to be decided by the Vir-
ginia Convention. The supernatural
voice" was not heard on occasion so great
and exacting. Although a member of the
committee that drafted the Declaration of
Rights and the first Constitution of Virginia,
Mr.. Henry spoke on none of these inspiring
themes, and he permitted another member of
his committee to offer the resolution of inde-
pendence. Such poverty of speech, to say
the least, was unworthy of such an orator as
Writ has described and tradition has accepted
True, an explanation has been limited that
deeply involves Henry integrity as a patriot
It has been conjectured that his zeal for liberty
had declined, that he had undergone change
of his political opinions which he was un-
willing to confess in public; and there has
been brought to light in modern times a very
curious letter from General Charles Lee
written in May, 1875, in which he refers to
Mr.. Henry on the supposition of letter
from the latter taking grounds against inde-
pendence. But our explanation is different,
and not SO cruel. The falling off, we are dis
posed to believe, was that of the orator rather
than of the patriot; and we must believe this
at the peril of far worse suspicious. There
must surely be some explanation of this utter
want of evidence of the orator, Just where we
should expect such evidence. That Patrick
Henry had been fattered, that he had been
overvalued by country audiences, and that he
was therefore failure in Congress, it is
reasonable to believe. But for whatever
reason he failed, our general PROPOSE
ton is not disturbed to the effect that
the historical evidences of him as an
orator are essentially deficient, and that of
him in this character we are thus permitted
most seriously to doubt.
If our Virginia orator failed to set the Sus-
quehanna on fire, it was perhaps no more
than his failure to display his genius in any
like conspicuous circumstances in his life
1t is most remarkable, and we may add sig
niticant fact, that the greatest triumphs ac-
corded to him by his biographers were won in
comparatively obscure places and before small
audiences. If we may except the apocrypha
of the House of Burgesses, they were mostly
affairs of the county meeting and the local
gathering. If his neighbors thought him a
god, as Writ says, that does not prove
great deal, as many mans neIghbors have
overestimated their prodigy; and the good
people of Charlotte county have no peculiar
claim, as we are aware, for putting their
opinions instead of the worlds, and having
their apotheosis accepted by mankind.
Patrick Henry, we repeat, we cannot admit
to be in any such sense an orator. What
then shall we say? Certainly there lived
such man as Patrick Henry, and certainly
he spoke with some remarkable effect in his
day Rather, let us take the hint Just afford
ed us by Mr.. Writ, and reconcile number of
apparent contradictions, by concluding that
Patrick Henry was of the class distinctively
known in our country (America) as stump
speakers, and that he was very eminent
representative of that class. To speak with
volubility, to affect an audience with the
vlvacity of our delivery, to make vague i'm
pressions on them of assent, or of o sort of
physical sympathy with the energy of
our discourse, may have certain
merit; and it is quite sure to found with the
vulgar the reputation of an orator. 1t is
precisely such a style as will account for
most of the triumphs of Patrick Henry, while
explaining the barrenness of the popular
recollections of the man, and reconciling the
curiously conflicting statements which we
have of his ignorance, his want of real intel
lectual force, and yet, his unquestionable
popularity as q speaker, and an undoubted
fame as such, very unduly, but not i'm
probably, expanded as the last has been by
the literary art of biographer and the char
acteristic extravaganza of tradition. A
theory that answers SO many exigencies is
perhaps the best that can be formed under
the circumstances.
If it offends the fancy of his countrymen,
or the pride of his descendants we shall be
glad to have these point out to us wherein
we may possibly and unwittingly have Of
Tended that true object of common regard
the truth of history
In behalf and in the interest of this truth,
few more words are indispensable. We
have in this article nothing to do with the
record of Patrick Henry as a politician, ex-
cept SO far as it touches the question whether
or not he was great orator. But really the
one question enters into the other further
than might be generally supposed. The
maxim of Quintilian that ''the orator must be
good man" has a deeper sense than that
yielded on first reflection. The warmth that
constitutes true eloquence must proceed from
an amount and degree of sensibility such as
can be furnished only by an acute and deter
mined sense of virtue. The demagogue, the
man who speaks in any sort of selfish inte-
rest, with any lack of allegiance to truth,
cannot possibly be an orator in the highest
and best sense of that term.
The test is an unfortunate one for Patrick
Henry. Even throwing out of view the i'm
putations which we have already seen cast
upon his patriotism, and his relations to the
movement for the independence of America,
there is enough ascertained in his public
career to condemn him, in measured language.
as the most inconsistent of politicians and
the most detestable "turn-coat" of his day.
He started by avowing himself the most de-
mocratic of-democrats. He was a man of the
people, "a poor worm, democrat intus ct
IN cute. He even quarrelled with the French
cookery of Mr.. Jefferson's table at Monticello,
thought it unrepublcan to supplant the dish
of "bacon and green's, and ''did not approve
of gentlemen abjuring their native victuals."
Yet this excessive democrat, this homely