The Famous Speech Which, Delivered by the American Hampden in the
Virginia Convention, Kindled the Fire of Revolution in
the Thirteen Colonies in 1775.
In the thick of national crises the ability to persuade others is the strongest power an individual can wield. Such a power was Patrick Henry's.
From the earlier disagreements with the mother country his influence was all for the assertion of colonial liberties. He was born May 9, 1736. In 1765, a young man not yet thirty, he became a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. The Stamp Act had excited the people. Young Henry, with a presumption which angered many of his maturer colleagues, offered resolutions setting forth the rights of the colony. In the debate he suddenly uttered the words:
"Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third——"
A clamor arose, and cries of "Treason! Treason!"
With perfect coolness the orator continued:
——"may profit by their example." Then, firmly: "If this be treason, make the most of it!"
Thus began the public life of a man whose youth had been most unpromising in its slovenliness and laziness, who had failed at farming and at business, and who had succeeded at law only after a dubious beginning which was turned into triumph by a quite unlooked-for burst of eloquence. His services to his country continued until his voluntary retirement from public life in 1791, at the age of fifty-five. Subsequently Washington and Adams offered him high offices, but Henry declined successively to be United States Senator, Secretary of State, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or minister to France. In 1799, urged by Washington, he consented to be elected to the Virginia Legislature, but died June 6, before taking his seat. We here print his great speech in the Virginia Conventon, 1775, as recorded by his first biographer.
Mr. President: It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the worst, and to provide for it.