Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/280

 25Q SKETCHES OF THE

If this be a fair specimen of the cases (as probably it is) in which Mr. Henry was accused of appeahng improperly to local prejudices, the censure seems unde- seiTcd. It is obvious that the considerations urged by him, on this occasion, belonged properly to the subject, and that the appeal to local circumstances was fairly made. Candour will justify us in looking, with great distrust, to the censures cast on this extraordinary man, by rivals whom he had obscured.

On the 17th of November, 1784, Mr. Henry was again elected governor of Virginia, to commence his service from the 30th day of the same month. The communication made by him to the first legislature which met after his election, is inserted in the Appendix; it is given at large, as a specimen of Mr. Jlenry's style in more extended compositions than have yet been sub- mitted to the reader, and for the further purpose of showing, that the objects with which a governor of Vir- ginia, acting within the pale of the constitution, is con- versant in time of peace, are not such as to shed much lustre on his character, or to solicit, very powerfully, the attention of his biographer.*

In examining the public archives of this date, there is a circumstance whose frequent and indeed constant recurrence, presses itself most painfully on the attention: I mean the resignation of state officers, on the plea of a necessit)^ to resort to some more effectual means of sub- sistence. It is not generally known, that the councils of Virginia were, during the period of which w^e are now speaking, enlightened and adorned by some of the brightest of her sons: much less is it known that they


 * Sec Appendix. Note B.

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