Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/277

 engaging deportment out of the house — the uncommon kindness and gentleness of his nature — the simpHcity, frankness, and amenity of his manners — the innocent playfulness and instruction of his conversation — the integrity of his life — and the high sense of the services which he had rendered to the cause of liberty and his country — he w^ill readily perceive, that the opinions and wishes of such a man would be, of themselves, almost decisive of any question.

The artifice of resorting to erroneous local pre- judices, in a legislative debate, is certainly not to be commended. Truth stands in need of no such aids. It must be admitted that there is more purity, as well as dignity, in supporting a sound measure, by sound arguments only; and we must be prepared to become Jesuits, before we can justify a resort to wrong means, to promote even a right end. In excuse of Mr. Henry, we have nothing to urge except immemorial and almost uni- versal usage: and it is moreover, highly probable that ma- ny of the instances, in which he was accused of resorting improperly to local prejudices, were cases in which the questions were, from their nature, to be decided in a great measure by local interests. Of this description is the following one, now furnished at my request, in writing by judge Archibald Stuart, from whom I had the pleasure to hear it in conversation several years ago.

" At your request, I attempt a narrative of the extra- ordinary effects of Mr. Henry^s eloquence in the Vir- ginia legislature, about the year 1784, when I was pre- sent as a member of that body.

The finances of the country had been much derang- ed during the war, and public credit was at a low ebb; a party in the legislature thought it then high time to place the character and credit of the state on a more

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