Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/75

 LIFE OF HENRY. 5\

These were some of the stars of first magnitude that shone m the house of burgesses in the year 1765. There was, yet, a ckister of minor kiminaries, which it were endless to dehneate, but whose blended rays con- tributed to form that uncommon galaxy, in which the plebeian Henry was now called upon to take his place. What had he to enable him to cope with all this lustre of talents and erudition.^ Very little more than the native strength of his character; a constancy of soul, which no array of power could shake; a genius that designed with all the boldness of Angelo, and an imagination that co- loured with all the felicity of Titian.

It has been already stated that Mr. Henry was elected with express reference to an opposition to the stamp act. It was not, however, expected by his constituents, or meditated by himself, that he should lead the opposi- tion. The addresses of the preceding year, made to the king, lords, and commons, in which so sti'ong a truth had been stated, as that the stamp act, if persisted in, would reduce the colony to a state of slavery, founded a hope, that those who had commenced the opposition by remonstrance, would continue to give it the eclat of their high names, by resistance of a bolder character, if bolder should be necessary. Mr. Henry waited, there- fore, to file in under the first champion that should raise the banner of colonial liberty. In the mean time an- other subject, unexpectedly, occurred to call him up, and it was on this other, that he made his debut in the house.

The incident has been stated to me in the following terms, by a gentleman who heard the debate.* " The


 * Mr. Jefferson.

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