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Historical SummaryEVERY schoolboy is familiar with the account of Patrick Henry’s bold speech before the Virginia burgesses introducing a series of resolves denouncing the Stamp Act. Textbooks follow John Burk’s account in his History of Virginia (1805): "Caesar," said [Henry], "had his Brutus, Charles his Cromwell, and (pausing) George the third (here a cry of treason, treason was heard, supposed to issue from the chair, but with admirable presence of mind he proceeded) may profit by their examples. Sir, if this be treason," he continued, "make the most of it." In his Life of Patrick Henry William Wirt states that Jefferson confirmed this story. As a student of law at Williamsburg Jefferson attended the debates on that day and heard the famous "Treason speech." Henry cast an oratorical spell over Jefferson and many another great Virginian. "He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote," declared the author of the Declaration of Independence. Now it so happens that an eyewitness to the incident reported it in his diary, which was only recently discovered in the Archives de la Marine in Paris. Although the writer has not been identified, he appears to have been an agent of the French government, possibly the Chevalier d’Annemours. According to his account which follows, the Virginia patriot was a good deal more cautious than he has traditionally been pictured and actually apologized for remarks which might have been construed as disloyal to the monarch. The resolves introduced by Henry denied the right of Parliament to levy internal taxes on the colonies. The next step was to deny to Parliament all power to tax or legislate for the colonies and to assert that the sole authority over the plantations was vested in the crown. Finally, that last link was snapped and the revolution was on. When Patrick Henry spoke his piece in 1765 he was about as far to the left as anyone in America was ready to go at that time. Hence, his remarks and conduct before the House of Burgesses, even were we to accept the more cautious account of the eyewitness, are a forecast of the shape of things to come. This conflict of reports raises the question of levels of credibility. In this case a casual eyewitness, perhaps not too familiar with the English language, entered in his diary immediately after the event took place an account of the speech. Fifty years later Thomas Jefferson, who was himself present, drawing upon his distant but still vivid recollections, confirmed the traditional account. Whose reporting is the better evidence? Washington’s Diary for May 30, 1765, merely states: "Peter Green came to me a gardener." Those who point to this passage as proof that Washington, while admittedly a great national leader, could never hold down a cub reporter’s job for a single day, ignore the fact that he had already left Williamsburg for Mount Vernon. Washington’s annoying practice of confining his Diary to commonplace entries, domestic and personal incidents, should not blind us to the fact that he quickly accepted Henry’s challenge and became a leading supporter of the American cause among the planters of the South. A firebrand in his youth, a reactionary in old age, Patrick Henry is the perfect illustration of the subtle relation between arteriosclerosis and politics.
Key QuoteAn unidentified eyewitness hears a bold speech before the Virginia burgesses: "If this be treason . . ."
The American Historical Review
Patrick Henry Warns George III
[1765]
May the 30th. Set out early from hallway house in the chair and breakfasted at York, arrived at Williamsburg at 12, where I saw three Negroes hanging at the gallows for having robbed Mr. Waltho of 300 pounds. I went immediately to the Assembly which was sitting, where I was entertained with very strong debates concerning duties that the Parliament wants to lay on the American colonies, which they call or style stamp duties.
Shortly after I came in, one of the members stood up and said he had read that in former times Tarquin and Julius had their Brutus, Charles had his Cromwell, and he did not doubt but some good American would stand up in favor of his country; but (says he) in a more moderate manner, and was going to continue, when the Speaker of the House rose and, said he, the last that stood up had spoken treason, and was sorry to see that not one of the members of the House was loyal enough to stop him before he had gone so far.
Upon which the same member stood up again (his name is Henry) and said that if he had affronted the Speaker or the House, he was ready to ask pardon, and he would show his loyalty to His Majesty, King George the Third, at the expense of the last drop of his blood. But what he had said must be attributed to the interest of his country’s dying liberty which he had at heart, and the heat of passion might have led him to have said something more than he intended. But, again, if he said anything wrong, he begged the Speaker and the House’s pardon. Some other members stood up and backed him, on which that affair was dropped.
May the 31st. I returned to the Assembly to-day, and heard very hot debates still about the stamp duties. The whole House was for entering resolutions on the records but they differed much with regard the contents or purport thereof. Some were for showing their resentment to the highest. One of the resolutions that
these proposed, was that any person that would offer to sustain that the Parliament of England had a right to impose or lay any tax or duties whatsoever on the American colonies, without the consent of the inhabitants thereof, should be looked upon as a traitor, and deemed an enemy to his country. There were some others to the same purpose, and the majority was for entering these resolutions; upon which the Governor dissolved the Assembly, which hindered their proceeding.
Chicago: Archives De La Marine in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed December 3, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=IHTGYQ92QAHMZ11.
MLA: . Archives De La Marine, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 3 Dec. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=IHTGYQ92QAHMZ11.
Harvard: , Archives De La Marine. cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 3 December 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=IHTGYQ92QAHMZ11.
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