The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-05-02

What other conclusion could any
man draw if he deemed the colonists
men. and proud men at that?
The Burgesses feared to speak
treason; they were content to pro-
test of their rights, and let the
issue bring conclusions to light
It had been hot fighting to get even
that much said The men hitherto
accepted always as leaders in the
house had wished to hold it back from
rash and heated action, and there had
been bitter debates before even those
significant premises for a revolution
airy conclusion had been forced to
adoption. Old leaders and new, young
men and old alike, had willingly united
In the memorial of 1854; but now that
the Stamp Act was law, conservative
members shrank from doing what
must look 80 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 it. But such young men
were at hand, their leader as veritable
a Democrat as had ever taken the
floor in that assembly.
A Leader From the Plain People.
Patrick Henry was not of the aris-
tocracy OF the colony. Good Scots
blood ran in his veins, quickened by
the lively strain of an old Welsh stock.
His father came of a race of scholars,
and, good churchman though he was,
knew his Livy and his Horace better
than his Bible. His mother came Of
a vivacious line of easy-going wits
and takers, which had a touch more
Of steadiness and energy might any
day have made famous.
His father had served his county of
Hanover very capably and acceptably
as surveyor, colonel, magistrate, and
his uncle had been beloved as the
faithful pastor of quiet parishes. But
they had been no long time in the col
ony; they lived back from the tide
water counties where the real aristoc-
they were Of that middle class of yeo-
men-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 it, but only near
it," and these plain men Of the mid
die counties were the more excellent
and individual in the cultivation of
their powers by reason of the contact.
But there was a touch of rusticity, a
neglect of polish, rough candor OF
speech about them which set them
apart and distinguished them sharply
enough when they came into the pres
ence of the courtly and formal gentle
men who practiced the manners OF
London in the river counties.
A Rustic Figure in the Home.
Patrick Henry, at any rate, must
have seemed very rustic figure to
the Burgesses when he first came to
take his seat amongst them on May
day in 1865.
He was known, indeed, to many.
This was the man. they must have
known, who had won so strange YER
dict 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 bearing, must have set
many a courtly member staring.
For such men as Washington, in
deed, there can have been nothing
either strange or unattractive in the
rough exterior and unstudied ways OF
the new member Punctilious though
he was himself in every point of dress
and bearing, Washington's life had
most of it been spent with men who
looked thus, and yet were stuff 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 prlr-
ciple 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, capricious, bit hap
hazard, Washington's all the while
subject to discipline; but both men
had touched and seen the whole en-
ergy of the commonwealth, knew it's
hope, could divine its destiny.
There was but one Virginia, and
they were her children. 1t could not
take long TO bring them to an under
standing and comradeship in affairs.
A Winner In Debate.
1t was characteristic of the new
member that he should step at once
and unhesitatingly to a place of lead
ership when debate of the Stamp Act
stirred the house, and that he should
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