The Irish standard., 1910-06-11

| mouse having been burned to the
ground, young Patrick gave up the
uncongenial task of farming and en-
tered once more into the mercantile
! business, handicapped by some debts,
poverty, and a growing family. 1t is
Hugh Blair Grigsby who tells us that,
For Patrick Henry, the cradle began
to rock at eighteen and was still rock
ing at 65?"
Though his store keeping was a
failure, he did not give up; instead,
he set about studying law, and in an
incredibly short space of time had
mastered enough to apply for Ii
cense. There is tradition that all of
this took him just six weeks, however,
that may be, when the raw-boned
countryman appeared before the aris-
tocratic Board of Examiners at Will
liamsburg, they hesitated about even
giving him a trial. Be that as it
may, he finally secured his license
after some amusing difficulties which
have furnished the theme for some
good stories, and applied himself as
siduously to meagre practice until
1863 when he won his celebrated case
against the Parsons Cause IN this
Rev. James Maury, who, incidentally,
had among his scholars five boys,
three of whom grew to be Presidents
of the United States, and all after
wards being Signers of the Declara-
ton Of independence!
Having established his reputation as
an orator. Patrick Henry's name
swept over the country, reaching it's
apex on March 90, 1875, when, in old
| st. Johns Church, Richmond he
Numbered the challenge, "Gve me
| liberty, or give me DEATH" And
the House of Burgesses in 1865, he
shocked that august assemblage by
appearing in "buckskin short clothes,
yarn stockings and wig without
powder" his bodily shortcomings. were
ever afterwards, lost sight Of in his
mental greatness. AS an orator,
Henry has been compared to the Eng
lish Earl of Chatham. In standing
for his democratic views, he was said
to be "the very d." but in his
home life he was always the devoted
husband and kind parent.
Entering the political arena as a
Burgess, serving later in Congress, he
retired from that life in 1895 as Gov
ernor of Virginia. having been in
that distinguished office for ten years,
during which period of new democ-
racy. there were many politicians who
were far from easy to hold. But from
staunch Democrat, and though, to-
wards the end of his life. he and JEFF
ferson seems to have been at cross
purposes, most biographers attribute
this to trivial causes, and the name of
Americas greatest orator has been
high enrolled in the ranks of true
Democracy.
In 1896. Henry cast anchor at Red
Hill" in Charlotte County, Virginia,
after lie had been man of many
homes. His first wife had died in
1916, and in 1777 he had married
M !, no, l.;l
his second family whom he took with
him to RED HILL" and among his
seventeen children, perhaps his great
est pride was in his daughter, Doro-
thea, one of the beauties Of the eigh-
| teenth century, whose exquisite fea-
lures are familiar to many upon the
canvas Of James Sharpless.
| And in this last home, with his we'll
earned honors, his happy family; with
| friends in plenty and a scarcity of
enemies; with money enough to graft
| fy his creature comforts, he found
the sort of life sought after by world
tried public men. In the old house
| which Is now owned by Mrs. Eliza
beth Henry Lyons, are still to be seen
| bits of antique furniture which be-
longed to the eminent statesman:
there are cabinets filled with faded
documents penned with his own hand:
there is the desk at which he wrote.
the chairs in which he sat; and it is
In such little touches, in the midst
of his home surroundings, that one
feels nearer to the great man than
through all the ink that has been
spilled over and above him.
Patrick Henry needs no epitaph
greater than his famous words that
have echoed and re-echoed through
the centuries until they are known
wherever the English language is
heard. He spoke, not alone to the dis
couraged colonists, but to the world