The Washington herald., 1913-01-24
NO. II.

served.l
tCcryrsht. 1915. by Mcclure Newsrsper syndiestel
NO. II.
The Burgesses feared to speak treason;
they were content to protest of their
rights, and let the issue, bring conclusions
to light.
II had been hot fighting to get even
that much said. The men hitherto ac-
cepted always as leaders in the House
had wished to hold II back from rash
and heated action. and there had been
bitter debates before even those sig
nifcant premises for a revolutionary con-
clusion had been forced to adoption. Old
leaders and new. young men and old
alike. had willingly united in the me-
mortal of 1854: but now that the Stamp
Act was law, conservative members
shrank from doing what must look so
like a fiat defiance Of Parliament.
Only young men would have had the
audacity to urge such action: only very
extraordinary young men would have
had the capacity to induce the House to
take ii. But such young men were at
hand, their leader as veritable a demo-
crat as had ever taken the floor in that
assembly.
A Leader from the Plain People
Patrick Henry was not of the aristoc-
racy of the colony. Good Scots blood
ran in his veins, quickened by the live
ly strain of an old Welsh stock His
father came of a race of scholars, and,
good churchman though he was, knew
his Iivy and his Horace better than his
Bible. His mother came of a vivacious
line of easy-going wits and takers. which
but a touch more of steadiness and en-
ergy might any day have made famous
His father had served his County OF
Hanover very capably and acceptably as
surveyor. colonel. magistrate: and ms
uncle had been beloved as the faithful
pastor of quiet parishes. But they had
been no long time in the colony: they
lived back from the tidewater counties
where the real aristocracy had its
strength and supremacy: they were OF
that middle class of yeomen-gentlemen
who love liberty, but do not affect rank
"A vigorous aristocracy favors the
growth Of personal eminence even In
those who are not of II, but only near
it," and these plain men OF the middle
counties were the more excellent and
individual in the cultivation of their
powers by reason OF the contact. But
there was a touch of rustlcity, neg
leCt OF polish. a rough candor of speech
about them which set them apart ana
distinguished them sharply enough when
they came into the presence of the court
" and formal gentlemen who practlced
the manners OF London in the river coun-
ties.
4 Rustic Figure In the House.
Patrick Henry, at any rate. must have
seemed a very rustic figure to the Bur-
gesses when he first came to take his
seat amongst them on a May day in
1865.
He was known. indeed, to many. This
was the man. they must have known,
who had won so strange a verdict from
a jury two years ago in the celebrated
parsons case at Hanover Court House,
against the law and the evidence. But
his careless dress and manner, his loose.
ungainly figure. his listless, absent bear
ing must have set many courtly MEM
Der staring.
For such men as Washington. indeed.
there can have been nothing either
strange or unattractive in the rough eN-
terror and unstudied ways of the new
member. Punctiliods though he was him
self in every point Of dress and bearing.
Washington's life had most OF II been
spent with men who looked thus. and
Yet were stun of true courage and rich
capacity within. The manner of a man
could count as no test of quality with
him.
His experience had covered the whole
variety of Virginian life. He was an
aristocrat by taste, not by principle.
And Patrick Henry had, in fact, come
to the same growth as he In essential
quality and principle. though by another
way Henry's life had been wilful. ca
PRECIOUS, a bit haphaZard: Washington's
all the while subject to discipline; but
both men had touched and seen the
whole energy of the Commonwealth,
knew its hope. could divine its destiny.
There was but one Virginia. and they
were her children. II could not take
long to bring them to an understanding
and comradeship in affairs.
A Winner in Debate.
II was characteristic OF the new
member that he should step at once |
and unhesitatingly to a place or lead |
ership when debate of the stamp act |
stirred the House, and that he should |
sweep the majority into his fol-
lowing with a charm and dash of eIo-
quence that came like a revelation upon |
the quiet assembly.
He was but twenty-nine years old. but
he had spent all his life in learning how
the world went, and by what manner OF
speech it was moved and governed. He
lldO TOdTIleu Jne WOOuS Win no
but for sport. or a quiet hour with a
book or his fancy in the shape of the
Trees. He had kept country store, and
ct gossip and talk of affairs of colony
and country side take precedence of busi-
ness.
Finally he had turned with a per-
relish to the law. and had set
himself to plead causes for his neigh
oors in a way that made judges stare
and juries surrender at discretion. In
he had seemed to read the
passions OF men. Books no less than
men. the chance company OF an old au-
he neighborly land he lived in, seemed
10 fill him with the quick principles or
he people and poIity to which he be-
onged, and to lend him an inevitably
every living phrase in which TO utter
hem.
His Power Over Men.
The universal sympathy and insight
which made his pleasantly SO engaging
% men OF every stamp rendered his
power no less than terrible when he
urned to play upon their passions He
cas not conscious of any audacity when
ne sprsng to his feet upon the instant
Ie saw the House resolved into COM
nittee to consider the stamp act. 1t was
Il the ardur of his nature to speak when
conviction moved him strongly. without
hought of prcprtety or precedence; and
eading his resolutions from a tiy-lea.