Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/203

Rh They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and" will clearly and certainly exercise it." The adoption of the first eleven amendments having quieted in a great measure his apprehensions as to the constitution, he sustained the administra- tion of Washington, though not fully approving of all its measures. The earliest manifestations of the French revolution caused him to predict the result, and the influence of French infidelity and Jacobinism upon America excited his alarm, lest they should produce disunion and anarchy. He retired from public life in 1791, after a continu- ous service of twenty-six years, but continued the practice of law, which he had resumed at the close of the Revolution with great success. He was appointed by Gov. Henry Lee U. S. senator in 1794. Washington offered to make him secretary of state in 1795, and afterward chief justice of the United States, and President John Adams nomi- nated him as a special minister to France. But the state of his health, and the care of a large fam- ily, caused him to decline these offices. In 1799, on the passage of the Virginia resolutions claiming the right of a state to resist the execution of an obnoxious act of congress, he was induced by an appeal of Washington to offer himself for a seat in the legislature, for the purpose of resisting what they both considered a doctrine fraught with the greatest danger to the Union. He did not ap- prove of the alien and sedition laws, which occa- sioned the resolutions, and in his speech as a can- didate he urged the use of every constitutional means to effect their repeal. He was elected, but died before taking his seat.

The transcendent powers of Mr. Henry as an orator are testified to by so many men of the great- est culture and ability that he justly ranks among the great orators of the world. Among the dis- tinguished men that heard him. and have left on record their impressions, the following may be mentioned : Dr. Archibald Alexander said of him : "From my earliest childhood 1 had been accus- tomed to hear of the eloquence of Patrick Henry. On this subject there existed but one opinion in the country. The power of his eloquence was felt equally by the learned and the unlearned. No man who ever heard him speak on any important occasion could fail to admit his uncommon power over the minds of his hearers. . . . The power of Henry's eloquence was due, first, to the greatness of his emotion and passion, accompanied with a versatility which enabled him to assume at once any emotion or passion which suited his ends. Not less indispensable, secondly, was a matchless per- fection of the organs of expression, including the apparatus of voice, intonation, pause, gesture, atti- tude, and indescribable play of countenance. In no instance did he ever indulge in an expression that was not instantly recognized as nature itself; yet some of his penetrating and subduing tones were absolutely peculiar, and as inimitable as they were indescribable. These were felt by every hearer in all their force. His mightiest feelings were sometimes indicated and communicated by a long pause, aided by an eloquent aspect, and some sig- nificant use of his fingers." Thomas Jefferson at- tended the debate on the resolutions against the stamp act, and wrote concerning it : "I heard the splendid display of Mr. Henry's talents as a popu- lar orator. They were great indeed, such as I have never heard from any other man. He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote." And in describing Edmund Pendleton, Mr. Jefferson said of him: "He had not, indeed, the poetical fancy of Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and over- whelming diction." Mr. Wirt, in his "Life of Henry," says that Mr. Jefferson considered him " the greatest orator that ever lived." John Ran- dolph, of Roanoke, pronounced him the greatest of orators, and declared that he was " Shakespeare and Garriek combined." Mr. Henry was twice married — first to Sarah Shelton, daughter of a neighbor, and afterward to Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge, a granddaughter of Gov. Alexander Spotswood. He was a devoted Christian, and left a spotless character. His life has been written by William Wirt (1817), by Alex- ander H. Everett in Sparks's "American Biog- raphy," and by Moses Coit Tyler in the series of "American Statesmen " (Boston, 1887). — His grand- son, William Wirt, b. at Red Hill, Charlotte co., Va., 14 Feb., 1831, was educated at the University of Virginia, where he took the degree of master of arts in 1850. He was admitted to the bar in 1853, and served as state's attorney for his county during several years. He afterward removed to Rich- mond, and served four sessions in the legislature, declining a re-election. He is vice-president of the Virginia historical society, has contributed to current literature, and has delivered several his- torical addresses, including a "Defence of Capt. John Smith's Narrative " before the Virginia his- torical society on 24 Feb., 1882, and one in Phila- delphia on the centennial of the motion for inde- pendence. He has in preparation (1887) a "Life of Patrick Henry."

HENRY, Pierre Francois, French author, b. in Nancy, 28 May, 1759 ; d. in Paris, 12 Aug*, 1833. He became a lawyer, and afterward an actor, but did not succeed, and after the revolution held sev- eral municipal offices. He wrote a " History of the Directory " (2 vols., Paris, 1801), and translated from the English many volumes of history, travels, and biography, including Marshall's " Life of Washington " (5 vols., Paris, 1807). He also wrote a "Description of North America" for Mentelli's " Geographie universelle."

HENRY, Robert, educator, b. in Charleston, S. C., 6 Dec, 1792 ; d. in Columbia, S. C, 6 Feb., 1856. He was graduated at the University of Edin- burgh in 1814, and, after travelling on the conti- nent of Europe, returned to Charleston, and was minister to the French Huguenot congregation there for two years, preaching alternately in French and English. He became professor of logic and moral philosophy in South Carolina college in 1818, and afterward of metaphysics and political philosophy. He was president in 1834-'5, accepted the chair of metaphysics and belles-lettres in 1839, and was again president in 1842-'5, also perform- ing for a time the duties of professor of Greek. He wrote articles for the southern reviews, and published, besides occasional sermons, eulogies on Jonathan Maxcy, and John C. Calhoun.

HENRY, William, inventor, b. in Chester county, Pa., 19 May, 1729; d. in Lancaster, Pa., 15 Dec, 1786. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his grandparents settled in Pennsylvania in 1722. While yet a young man, he began the manufacture of fire-arms at Lancaster, Pa., and was afterward appointed armorer to the troops that were collected for Braddock's expedition, and ordered to Virginia. In 1758 he was commissioned justice of the peace, and in 1760 visited England. In 1771 he was appointed one of the commissioners to examine whether the opening of communication between the Delaware and Ohio rivers for the purposes of navigation or land-carriage were practicable. He was chosen to the assembly in 1776, and the following year was elected treasurer of Lan-