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PATRICK HENRY.

PATRICK HENRY was born of respectable parentage, in the county of Hanover, state of Virginia, on the 29th of May, 1736. He displayed in his youth none of those admirable qualities which, in after life, rendered him the admiration of his country, and the terror of her enemies. Deficient in early education, and deprived of the opportunities of improvement by which the powers of his mind could be developed, his genius, which was at a future period destined to shine so brilliantly, was involved in obscurity until aroused from its dormant condition, by circumstances which brought all its powerful energies into action, and displayed its vigor and splendor to his astonished associates and countrymen. Agriculture and shop keeping were successively pursued and abandoned by him. Failure attended his early career, and in whatever avocations he was engaged, or when struggling to subdue his undisciplined spirits to the useful employments of life, he seemed to be doomed to an humble and unprosperous condition. At the age of eighteen, he married a Miss Shelton. After all other means of subsistence had failed, he determined to exchange manual labor for the practice of the law, and after studying for about six weeks, obtained, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, with great difficulty, a license to practice. It was not, however, until he had reached his twenty-seventh year, that an opportunity occurred for a trial of his strength at the bar, when the powers of his unrivalled genius were exhibited in full relief, and placed him at once in the highest rank of his profession. The cause in which he first made his appearance before a court and jury, was familiarly called the parsons' cause, and involved a question upon which the country was very much excited; the clergy and people being arrayed in opposition. A decision of the court on a demurrer in favor of the claims of the clergy, had left nothing undetermined but the amount of damages in the cause which was pending. The counsel who had been concerned for the defendants having retired from the management of the case, Mr. HENRY was retained, and on a writ of inquiry of damages, he took advantage of the opportunity furnished of addressing the jury, to enter into a

discussion of the points which had been previously settled, and although in deviation from regular practice, succeeded by the force of his eloquence in inducing the jury to give but nominal damages. The management of the cause gained for him the most enthusiastic applause, and brought him so prominently before the public, that he became the idol of the people whom he had so efficiently served, and received the most earnest demonstrations of their admiration.

In 1764, he removed to the county of Louisa, and in the fall of that year, appeared before a committee of the house of burgesses, then sitting at Williamsburg, as counsel in the case of a contested election, and amidst the fashion and splendor of the seat of government, the rustic orator commanded attention and respect.

A wider field for the display of his eloquence was soon open to him, and as the controversy with Great Britain began to thicken, the champion of the people's rights was called into the public counsels, to rebuke the spirit of despotism, and sustain the drooping spirits of his countrymen, by an eloquence which springing from the great fountain of nature, no power could control or subdue. The seat of a member of the house of burgesses was vacated to make room for him, and in the month of May, 1765, he was elected a member. He was now destined to act among the most accomplished and distinguished men of the country. Following no other guide than his pure and patriotic spirit, and using no other instrument of action but his own matchless eloquence, he rapidly ascended to the loftiest station in the confidence and affections, both of the legislature and of the people. Taking at once a bold stand, he rallied around him the opposition, and became the envy and the terror of the aristocracy. His plebeian origin and rustic appearance were singularly contrasted with the rich veins of intellectual wealth, which the collisions of debate and party strife brought to the public view. By his almost unaided skill, he defeated the aristocracy in a favorite measure, and acquired an ascendency at the outset of his public career which enabled him to give the impress of his own undaunted spirit to the future counsels of the state. In 1765, "alone, unadvised and unassisted," he wrote on the blank leaf of an old law book the resolutions of 1765, denouncing the stamp act and asserting the rights of the people. On offering them to the legislature, they met with violent opposition, which drew from Mr. HENRY one of the most vivid and powerful efforts of his eloquence. Breasting the storm, and bidding defiance to the cries of treason, by which in vain it was attempted to silence him, he secured their adoption, and thus gave an impulse to public feeling, and a character to the

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