Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/201

 eomposed this very committee, did in after times, fre- quently allude to this period of his life, to prove the practical inutility of his character, and have appUed to him the saying, which Wilkes applied to lord Chatham, that " all his power and efficacy was seated in his tongue/^* What figure he might have made in war, had the opportunity been allowed him, can now be only matter of speculation. His personal braveiy, so far as I have heard, has never been called in question; or if it has, it has been without evidence; and neither his ardour in the public cause, or his strong natural sense, can with any colour of justice be disputed. If we superadd to these qualities, that presence of mind, that promptitude, boldness, and novelty of view — that dex- terous address, and fertility of expedient, for which he was remarkable — I can see no reason to doubt, that he w^ould have justified the highest expectations of his admirers, had he been permitted to command the expe- dition which he courted. As to his want of experience, the alleged ground for keeping him so ignominiously confined to head quarters, he possessed pretty nearly as much experience as colonel Washington had, when he covered the retreat of Braddock's routed forces; as much too, as those young generals of ours, who have recently covered themselves with so much glory on our northern frontier: nor would it seem to comport with that respect which the committee owed to the convene tion, from whom both colonel Henry and themselves had received their respective appointments, to arrogate the power of reversing the decree of the convention, and practically degrading the officer of their first choice.


 * — homines inertisstmi, quorum omnis vis, vii tiisqne in lingua sita est.

Sallust. Oratio sec. De Rep. Or<L. Z

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