Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/202

174 gesses a resolution establishing committees of correspondence between the colonies, which gave unity to the Revolutionary agitation, and in May, 1774, he was foremost in the movement to call a Continental congress. At this time the celebrated George Mason first met Henry, and recorded his estimate of him in these words: "He is by far the most powerful speaker I ever heard. Every word he says not only engages but commands the atten- tion, and your passions are no longer your own when he addresses them. But his eloquence is the smallest part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the first man upon this continent, as well in abili- ties as public virtues, and had he lived in Rome about the time of the first Punic war, when the Roman people had arrived at their meridian glory, and their virtues not tarnished, Mr. Henry's talents must have put him at the head of that glorious commonwealth."

He was a delegate to the 1st Continental con- gress, and opened its deliberations by a speech that won him the reputation of being the fore- most orator on the continent. In this speech he declared, '* I am not a Virginian, but an American." In congress, Henry served on several important committees, among which was that to prepare the address to the king. The first draft of this paper is said to have been from his pen ; but as it was too advanced for the party represented by John Dick- inson, the latter was added to the committee and modified the address, if he did not recast it. At a most critical period in the deliberations of that congress, Joseph Galloway, a Tory, introduced a plan of reconciliation between the mother country and the colonies, which would have left them in somewhat the same relations to each other as were subsequently established between England and Canada. The plan was advocated by some of the foremost members, and it was believed that it had the approval of the government. Mr. Henry led the opposition to it, and was the only one noted by John Adams in his diary as opposing it in debate. It was defeated by the vote of one colony only, and thus the destiny of the continent was changed. On 25 March, 1775, Mr. Henry moved in the Vir- ginia convention that the colony be put into a state of defence at once, preparatory to the war, which was imminent, and carried his motion by a speech that for true eloquence has never been surpassed. In May following he led a volunteer force against Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, in order to compel him to restore the colony's gun- powder, which had been removed by him from the public magazine and put on board a British ship. This was the first resistance by arms to the British authority in that colony. After obtaining from the governor remuneration for the gunpowder, he repaired to the Continental congress, then holding its second session, and at its close accepted the commission of colonel of the 1st Virginia regiment, and commander of all the Virginia forces, which had been given him by the convention of his state in his absence. His want of military experience gave occasion to some jealousy on the part of other officers, and when the Virginia troops were soon afterward taken into the Continental army, con- gress, in commissioning the officers, made a sub- ordinate a brigadier-general, and offered Col. Henry the command of a single regiment, which slight was followed by his refusal to accept the commis- sion. He was at once elected to the Virginia con- vention, which met in May, 1776. Here he ar- ranged the introduction of the resolutions direct- ing the delegates in congress to move for independ- ence, and determining that the colony should at once frame a bill of rights and a constitution as an independent state. By his powers of oratory he overcame all opposition, and obtained a unanimous vote for the resolutions. He was active in the formation of the constitution of his state, which served as a model for the other states, and he pro- posed the section of the Virginia bill of rights that guarantees religious liberty. Through his exer- tions, Virginia afterward asked and obtained an amendment to the Federal constitution, embodying in it a similar guarantee. On the adoption of the constitution in 1776, he was elected the first gover- nor of the state, and was re-elected in 1777 and in 1778. Not being eligible under the constitution for four years afterward, he returned to the legis- lature, but was again elected governor in 1784 and 1785, and in 1786 declined a re-election. He was again elected in 1796, but again declined. During his first service as governor he had to inaugurate a new government in the midst of the Revolution- ary war, and his executive talents were put to a severe test, which they stood in such a manner as greatly added to his renown. In 1777 he planned and sent out the expedition, under Gen. George Rogers Clarke, which conquered the vast territory northwest of the Ohio, and forced England to yield it at the treaty of peace. At the close of ,the war he advocated the return of the banished Tories, and opening our ports at once to immigration and to commerce. He resisted the performance on our part of the treaty with Great Britain until that power had performed her treaty obligation to sur- render the northwestern posts. He was a firm and persistent advocate of our right to the free naviga- tion of the Mississippi, whose mouth was held by Spain, a matter of such importance that at one time it threatened the disruption of the Union. He early saw the defects in the articles of confed- eration, and advocated a stronger Federal govern- ment. He declined the appointment as delegate to the convention that framed the constitution of the United States, because of private reasons : but served in the state convention of 1788, which rati- fied it. He advocated the adoption of amendments to the constitution before its ratification by Vir- ginia, and offered the amendments that were recom- mended by the convention, the most important of which have been adopted. Many of his predictions as to the future of the Federal government read like prophecy in the light of subsequent history Among other things, he distinctly foretold the abolition of slavery by congress, in a speech in the convention, delivered 24 June, 1788 (see Elli- ott's " Debates," vol. iii., p. 589), in which he said : " Among ten thousand implied powers which they may assume, they may, if engaged in war, liberate every one of your slaves if they please. And this must and will be done by men, a majority of whom have not a common interest with you. . . . Another thing will contribute to bring this event about. Slavery is detested. We feel its fatal effects ; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. Let all these considerations, at some future period, press with full force on the minds of congress. Let that urbanity, which I trust will distinguish America, and the necessity of national defence — let all these things operate on their minds; they will search that paper and see if they have power of manu- mission. And have they not, sir % Have they not power to provide for the general defence and wel- fare 1 May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery ? May they not pronounce all slaves free? and will they not be warranted by that power? This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The paper speaks to the point.