Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/418

 394 SKETCHES OF THE

treat. He paiuted to their imaginations^ Washington, at the head of a numerous and well appointed army^ inflicting upon them mihtary execution: ' and where (he asked) are our resources to meet such a con- flict? — Where is the citizen of America who will dare to lift his hand against the father of his coun- try?^ A drunken man in the crowds threw up his arm, and exclaimed that ' he dared to do it." — ' No/ answered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his majesty: ^ you dare not do it: in such a pmricidal attempt, the steel would drop from your nerveless arm!' ' The look and gesture at this moment, (says a correspondent,) gave to these words an energy on my mind, unequalled by any thing that I have ever witnessed.^ Mr. Henry, proceeding in his address to the people, asked, ' whe- ther the county of Charlotte would have any authority to dispute an obedience to the laws of Virginia; and he pronounced Virginia to be to the union, what the county of Charlotte was to lier. Having denied the right of a state to decide upon the constitutionality of federal laws, he added, that perhaps it might be necessary to say something of the merits of the laws in question. His private opinion was, that th^y were ' good and proper,' But, whatever might be their merits, it belonged to the people, who held the reins over the head of congress, and to them alone, to say whether they were acceptable or otherwise, to Virginians; and that this must be done by way of petition. That congress were as much our repT^esentatives as the assembly, and had as good a right to our confidence. He had seen with regret, the unli- mited power over the purse and sword, consigned to the general government; but that he had been overruled, and it was now necessary to submit to the constitutional exercise of that power. ' If/ said he, • I am asked

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