Patrick Henry

A detailed Summary of Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry was a lawyer patriot, orator and was a symbol for the the American fight for liberty and self government. Patrick Henry was born in 1736 in Hanover County, Virginia 1736 and died in 1799. He was educated in a country school and in a school kept by his father. Henry tried merchandising and farming, but lost money at both. He then turned his mind to the study of law, and was admitted to practice in 1760.

Three years later he won reputation by the management of a famous law case, known as the Parson's Cause. At that day the clergymen of Virginia, like those of England, were entitled to salaries from public funds. Their salaries were given in part in the currency of the day, namely tobacco. In 1764 he moved to Louisa county, Virginia, where, as a lawyer, he argued in defense of broad voting rights before the House of Burgesses. The following year he was elected to the House and soon became its leading radical member. He instilled the point that a king who vetoed a good and helpful law made by a locally elected representative body was not a leader to his people. Patrick Henry had been called a traitor who committed treason in his struggle against the Stamp Act. In 1774 he represented Virginia in

1776- Married Dorothea Dandridge who became the mother of his latest child.

1799- March 4:  Although his health was failing, Patrick Henry made his last public speech to the voters at Charlotte County Courthouse. George Washington had convinced Patrick Henry to run in the election for the Virginia legislature.  He won the election but died before the legislature convened that autumn.

President Washington appointed him Secretary of State in 1795, but Henry did not want the office. In 1799, President Adams appointed him envoy to France, but failing health required him to decline this office too; in that same year he died.

In 1776, Henry was elected Governor of Virginia. He was re-elected for three terms and then succeeded by Thomas Jefferson. He was again elected to the office in 1784. Patrick Henry was a strong critic of the constitution proposed in 1787. He was in favor of the strongest possible government for the individual states, and a weak federal government. He was also very critical of the fact that the convention was conducted in secret.

1776- February 28: Henry resigned his military appointment.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have be

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Category: People