Patrick Henry

American attorney and politician

• Born: May 29, 1736
• Birthplace: Studley Plantation, Hanover County, Virginia
• Died: June 6, 1799
• Place of death: Red Hill Plantation, Charlotte County, Virginia

Expressing his libertarian ideas through a uniquely powerful oratory, Henry was a principal architect of the American Revolution. He is especially remembered for his poignant words before the revolutionary convention in Virginia in 1775: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

Early Life

Patrick Henry was born in Hanover County, Virginia, the second son of John Henry, a well-educated Scotsman from Aberdeen, and Sarah Winston Syme, the young and charming widow of Colonel John Syme. Henry’s early years were characteristic of a farm boy in colonial Virginia. Hunting and fishing were consuming enthusiasms for him, although he also received a sound education (focused on mathematics and the Latin classics) from local schoolmasters, his uncle Patrick Henry (a minister), and his father.

At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed as a clerk in a country store. A year later, he joined his older brother as a partner in a similar venture, which, however, failed. Meanwhile, Henry had fallen in love with Sarah Shelton, the daughter of nearby landowner John Shelton, and the two were married in the fall of 1754. The young couple took up residence on a small farm that had been given to them by Sarah’s father. For three years they eked out a marginal existence, but worse was to come. In 1757, their house was destroyed by fire. Destitute, they moved into the large tavern owned by Sarah’s father at Hanover Courthouse, where Henry for a time supported himself and his family, now including four children, by helping manage the tavern for his father-in-law.

By all accounts, Henry was a charming and convivial taverner, but there is otherwise little in his life to this point to foretell the kind of impact he would have on American history. Proximity to a busy provincial courthouse and frequent association with those who came and went there must have inspired his latent abilities, for by the age of twenty-four he had resolved upon becoming a lawyer. The normal course for a young man of such ambitions would have been to apprentice himself to an established lawyer who had attended one of the Inns of Court of London (there were no law schools in the American colonies; the first would be established in 1779 in Virginia at William and Mary College).

Henry, however, attempted his project through a program of self-study and, miraculously, succeeded within a year. His board of examiners was headed by the illustrious brothers Peyton and John Randolph. Impressed more by the force of natural genius he displayed in his examination than by his spotty knowledge of law, they admitted him to the bar. Their somewhat reluctant confidence was more than justified, for within three years, Henry had become a successful lawyer. Having handled some 1,125 cases, most of which he won, he was, at the age of twenty-seven, poised to enter the arena of history-making events.

Life’s Work

The case that catapulted Patrick Henry to widespread recognition as a bold political spirit with a singular gift for oratory was the Parson’s Cause of 1763. In colonial America, as in England, the Anglican Church was supported by general taxation, and in Virginia, salaries for the clergy were tied to the price of tobacco. A 1758 act of the Virginia legislature had fixed the nominal price of tobacco for this purpose at two pence per pound. Since this was far less than the actual commodity value of tobacco, the clergy petitioned King George III and his Privy Council to overrule the act. George did indeed overrule the act, thereby allowing the Virginia clergy to sue for back pay.

Henry was engaged to handle the defense in the pivotal case brought by the Reverend Mr. James Maury. The youthful attorney’s argument asserted that the 1758 law was just and that in overturning it, the king was acting as a tyrant. The jury of sturdy farmers was so impressed that it awarded the plaintiff Maury only a penny in damages. Henry’s fame soon spread throughout Virginia, thereby laying the ground for his entry into the forefront of colonial politics.

In May, 1765, Henry entered the House of Burgesses, only a few weeks after Britain had passed the notorious Stamp Act. On his twenty-ninth birthday, only ten days after taking his seat as a representative, he proposed a number of resolutions against the Stamp Act, based on the assumption that only colonial legislatures had the right to levy colonial taxes. A lean six-footer, with plain angular features and dark, deep-set eyes, the somewhat ungainly and roughly dressed young legislator climaxed his defense of the resolutions with the threatening words (as reported by Thomas Jefferson), “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third—” whereupon, interrupted by cries of “Treason!” Henry concluded, “may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.” His daring speech galvanized the House of Burgesses into adopting his resolutions, and Virginia became an example to the other colonies in the rising resistance to taxation without representation.

Over the next few years, Patrick Henry’s fame and authority as a revolutionary leader increased, as from his seat in the House of Burgesses he continued to oppose British encroachment upon the autonomy of the colonies. In September, 1774, he served as a member of the First Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia to deal with new British coercive measures imposed in the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party. Some six months later, he was an organizer of the revolutionary convention convened in Richmond to decide how Virginia should respond to the worsening situation, and it was in this setting, on March 23, 1775, that he made the speech that served as a call to arms for the colonies in the coming struggle. Arguing for the need to raise armed forces immediately, he concluded,

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Swayed by the dramatic impact of this speech, the members of the convention authorized the formation of companies of militia, one of which was led by Henry himself in May to demand restoration of the gunpowder seized from the Williamsburg magazine by the Loyalist governor, Lord Dunmore. Although he succeeded, he was not cut out for military leadership. After a short appointment as a regimental commander, and burdened by grief for the death of his wife, he resigned his commission and returned home on February 28, 1776.

His absence from public life was only brief; in May, he took part in drafting the new constitution of Virginia, and on June 29 he was elected the first governor of the newly constituted commonwealth, a position in which he served for three years (retiring in 1779) and to which he was reelected for two years in 1784. Meanwhile, he had married again, to Dorothea Dandridge, and had taken up residence on a huge tract of land in the mountainous western area of the state. A representative of the Virginia legislature from 1786 to 1790, he declined a nomination to the Constitutional Convention, while from his legislative seat he bitterly opposed Virginia’s adoption of the Constitution in 1788, fearing its restrictive effect upon the sovereignty of the states, particularly those of the South. His vehement and sustained opposition was insufficient to prevent adoption, but it did prompt a general recognition of the need for constitutional amendments, leading to the framing of the first ten amendments; the Bill of Rights passed in 1791.

From 1790 to 1795, Henry returned to private law practice. The last years of his life were spent in semiretirement at his Red Hill plantation in Charlotte County. He refused the positions of both secretary of state and chief justice offered to him in 1795 by George Washington, but, increasingly reconciled to the principles of Federalism in his last years, he agreed in 1799 to run for the Virginia legislature once again. Elected, he did not live to serve his term, dying on June 6, 1799.

Significance

The American Revolution was produced by heroic talents and energies that together achieved critical mass; within this process, the oratory of Patrick Henry was catalytic in effect. In an era of great public speakers, it was his voice in particular that provided a rallying cry for the colonial patriots at critical moments, especially in 1765, during the Stamp Act controversy, and, ten years later, on the eve of the battles of Lexington and Concord. His oratory was legendary in its own time. Characterized, according to contemporary accounts, by extraordinary dramatic nuance and force, it stands as an enduring example of the power of an individual speaker to influence large-scale events.

Henry’s resistance to the principles of Federalism in later years is also indicative of a deep strain both in his character and in American society. Born in a picturesque but still largely “wild” region of Virginia, his first love was the land—its topography and vegetation, its creatures, and its seasons. The concept of liberty for him was rooted in a deep respect for nature and the individual autonomy nurtured by the frontier environment. His opposition to British rule and to federal authority should be seen as the two sides of a single coin. His anti-Federalist speeches in the Virginia assembly were a main influence behind the passage of the Bill of Rights. Yet the same kinds of sentiments divided the nation half a century later on the issue of states’ rights—a controversy that even the Civil War did not eradicate.

In many ways, Henry’s achievements are the stuff of which American legends have been forged. Son of colonial Virginia, self-made forensic genius, patriot, and lifelong spokesman for individual rights, even at the expense of national unity, his life is part of the national mythology of America, and his famous words “Give me liberty, or give me death” have etched themselves on the national psyche.

Bibliography

Axelrad, Jacob. Patrick Henry, the Voice of Freedom. New York: Random House, 1947. A book for the general reader, somewhat dated in approach but useful for its economical account of Henry’s career and its informative commentary on contemporary historical events.

Beeman, Richard R. Patrick Henry: A Biography. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974. A solid, thoroughly researched, academic history. Beeman’s vision of Henry is somewhat deconstructionist; he is not the legendary hero but a man more characteristic of his times. Beeman deals especially well with the less celebrated aspects of Henry’s career, such as his role as governor and administrator.

Campbell, Norine Dickson. Patrick Henry, Patriot and Statesman. New York: Devin-Adair, 1969. The value of this work lies in its sense of the living presence of history as well as in the occasional emphatic detail produced by devoted research.

McCants, David A. Patrick Henry, the Orator. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. An analysis of Henry’s oratory within its historical and political contexts.

Mayer, Henry. A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic. New York: Franklin Watts, 1986. A substantial, well-researched, and absorbing biography that places Henry in the context of his time. Emphasizes his roots in the “evangelical revolt” against Virginia’s aristocratic establishment.

Mayo, Bernard. Myths and Men: Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959. A collection of perceptive commentaries on the major leadership of the American Revolution. The essay on Henry is valuable as an economical, balanced overview of the issues of scholarship and historiography surrounding his biography.

Meade, Robert Douthat. Patrick Henry. 2 vols. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1957-1969. The most comprehensive biography of Henry to appear in the twentieth century, likely to become the standard authoritative reference work. Meade’s coverage of his subject is meticulous, based on definitive research into all aspects of Henry’s private and public life.

Tyler, Moses Coit. Patrick Henry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1887. A masterpiece of nineteenth century historiography, the first modern biography of Henry, and best for the general reader. The worshipful view of Henry, though old-fashioned, is deeply sincere.

Vaughan, David J. Give Me Liberty: The Uncompromising Statesmanship of Patrick Henry. Nashville, Tenn.: Cumberland House, 1997. Vaughan’s book is divided into three sections. Part 1 provides an overview of Henry’s life, part 2 describes his character traits, and part 3 assesses his legacy.

Willison, George F. Patrick Henry and His World. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969. Probably the best all-around general study. Willison’s title is appropriate; the coverage of background historical material is thorough and illuminating. The book is well-paced, admirably written, and spiced with colorful, often amusing anecdotes.