Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/444

 420 SKETCHES OF THE

5. So in the case of the federal constitution^ whither did the current of the American people tend? Most certainly to its adoption; yet Mr. Henry, to use his own language, "with manly firmness, and in spite of an erring world,^^ with the revered Washington too, at their head, opposed its adoption with all the powers of his eloquence.

The truth seems to be, that this charge is only a variation of that conveyed by the opprobrious epithets of demagogue and factious tribune, which we have seeii that his rivals long since sought to fasten upon him ; and there can be little doubt, that it proceeded from the writhings and contortions of the same agonized envy. That a poor young man, issuing from his native w oods, unknown, unfriended, and comparatively unlettered, should have been able, by the mere force of unassisted nature, to break to pieces the strong political confederacy which then ruled the country, to annihilate all the arts diXid finesse of parliamentary intrigue: to eclipse, by his sagacity, the experience of age; and, by the sole strength of his native genius, to throw into the shade all the hard earned attainments of literature and science, was entirely too humiliating to be borne in silence. It was necessary, therefore, to resort to some solution of this phenomenon, which should at once, reduce the honours of this plebeian upstart, and soothe the wounded feelings of those, whose pride he had brought down. Hence it became fashionable, in the higher circles, to speak of Mr. Henry as a designing demagogue, a factious tribum, who carried his points, not by fair and open debate, but by violent and inflammatory appeals to the worst passions of the multitude; and who frequently gave himself the air of leading the people, when in truth, he was merely following their own blind lead.

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