Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/229

Rh There is a tradition that col. Archibald Cary the speaker of the senate, was principally instrumental in crushing this project; that meeting col. Syme, the stepbrother of col. Henry, in the lobby of the house, he accosted him very fiercely in terms like these:—"I am told that your brother wishes to be dictator: tell him, from me, that the day of his appointment shall be the day of his death—for he shall feel my dagger in his heart before the sunset of that day:" and the tradition adds, that col. Syme in great agitation, declared, "that if such a project existed, his brother had no hand in it, for that nothing could be more foreign to him, than to countenance any office which could endanger, in the most distant manner, the liberties of his country." The intrepidity and violence of col. Cary^s character renders the tradition probable; but it furnishes no proof of Mr. Henry^s implication in the scheme. It is most certain, that both himself and his friends have firmly and uniformly persisted in asserting his innocence; and there seems to be neither candour nor justice in imputing to him without evidence, a scheme which might just as well have originated in the assembly itself It was not more than a month afterwards, that congress actually did, with relation to general Washington, very nearly what the Virginia legislature are said to have contemplated in regard to Mr. Henry: they invested him with powers very little short of dictatorial: yet no one ever suspected general Washington of having prompted the measure. Why then shall Mr. Henry be suspected? Neither general Washington himself, nor any other patriot, had maintained the principles of the revolution with more consistency and uniformity than Patrick Henry: and it will certainly never satisfy a fair enquirer.