Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/417

 mortal, asked the people aloud, "Why they thus followed Mr. Henry about?—"Mr. Henry" said he, "is not a God!" "No," said Mr. Henry, deeply affected both by the scene and the remark; " no, indeed, my friend; I am but a poor worm of the dust—as fleeting and unsubstantial, as the shadow of the cloud that flies over your fields, and is remembered no more." The tone with which this was uttered, and the look which accompanied it, affected every heart, and silenced every voice. Envy and opposition were disarmed by his humility; the recollection of his past services rushed upon every memory, and he "read his history" in their swimming eyes.

Before the polls were opened, he addressed the people of the county to the following effect: "He told them that the late proceedings of the Virginian assembly had filled him with apprehensions and alarm; that they had planted thorns upon his pillow; that they had drawn him from that happy retirement which it had pleased a bountiful Providence to bestow, and in which he had hoped to pass, in quiet, the remainder of his days; that the state had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the constitution; and in daring to pronounce upon the validity of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction, in a manner not warranted by any authority, and in the highest degree alarming to every considerate man; that such opposition on the part of Virginia, to the acts of the general government, must beget their enforcement by military power; that this would probably produce civil war; civil war, foreign alliances; and that foreign alliances, must necessarily end in subjugation to the powers called in. He conjured the people to pause and consider well, before they rushed into such a desperate condition, from which there could be no re-