Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/238

 HENRY

HENRY

liberty or death. They became impatient of speech — their souls were on fire for action." The resolutions were adopted. In ;May he led a volun-

ST JOHAJ S CHUR<rH.

lAI RICHA^O/MD, VA •

teer force against Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, to oblige him to restore or pay for gunpowder taken from the public magazine, and he tlius bec.ime the leader in resistance by arras to British authority in Virginia. The Virginia convention of 1775 made him commander of all the Virginia forces and during his absence in Philadelphia on attendance at the second session of the Continental congress, commissioned him colo- nel of the 1st Virginia regiment. When the Vir- ginia troops were taken into the Continental army congress commissioned a subordinate, brigadier- general, and offered a single regiment to Colonel Henrj', who declined any commission from that body. He was elected to the Virginia conven- tion of May, 1776, charged with " the care of the republic,"' the royal governor having fled. This convention framed a new constitution and elected Henry the first governor of the state on the first ballot. He wjis re-elected in 1777, 1778, 1784 and 1785 and in 1786 declined a re-election. In 1777 he planned and sent out the George Rogers Clarke expedition which conquered the northwest, and would not ratify the treaty with Great Britain until the northwest posts were surrendered as agreed by the treaty. He served in the Virginia convention that ratified the Fed- eral constitution, and after vehemently opposing it as dangerous to the liberties of the people he offered amendments to the instrument which were partially adopted. In 1794 he declined the appointment of U.S. senator made by Gov. Henry Lee and withdrew from public life. In 1795 he declined the position of secretary of state in President Washington's cabinet, in 1796 the posi- tion of justice of tiie U.S. supreme court and the nomination for governor of Virginia, and in 1797, the mission to France offered by President Adam.s. In 1799 lie allowed hiuiself to be elected

to the state legislature in order to oppose the Virginia resolutions of 1798, which he deemed dangerous, but he died before taking his seat. His first wife died in 1775. and on Oct. 9, 1777, he married as his second wife, Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge, a granddaughter of Gov. Alexander Spotswood. His life was written by William Wirt (1817) ; by Alexander H. Everett in Sparks' "American Biography" (1844-48); by Moses Coit Tyler in " American Statesmen " (1887), and by his grandson. William Wirt Henry (3 vols., 1891-92). His body lies in a grave on the estate in Charlotte county wliere he formerly lived, and the simple gravestone is inscribed with the one line. " His Fame His Best Epitaph." He died in Rod Hill. Charlotte county, Va., June 6, 1799.

HENRY, Patrick, representative, was born in Madison county, Miss.. Feb. 13, 1843 ; son of Patrick and Bettie (West) Henry, grandson of William Henry, of Kentucky, and a descendant of the Rev. Robert Henry, of Charlotte county, Va. He entered Mississippi college at Clinton, and afterward Madison college at Sharon, Miss., and when the civil war began he was a student at the Nashville, Tenn., military college. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service in the 6th Mississippi Infantry regiment and served tliroughout the war, returning home as major of the 14th consolidated Mississippi regi- ment. He engaged in farming until 1873, when he began to practise law at Brandon, 3Iiss. He was a member of the state legislature in 1890, and a delegate from the state at large to the state constitutional convention in the same year ; and was a Democratic representative from the seventh congressional district in the ooth, 56th, 57th congre,«ses. 1807-l<.t03.

HENRY, Robert, educator, was born in Charleston, S.C, Dec. 6, 1792. He was graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1814, and returned to his native city in 1816, where he preached to a French Huguenot congregation until 1818. He then accepted the chair of logic and moral philosophy in South Carolina college, and was later transferred to the professorship of metaphysics and political philosophy. He was president of the college, 1834-35 and 1842-45 ; professor of metaphysics and belles-lettres from 1839, and for a time was acting professor of Greek. He is the autiior of numerous pamphlets and contributions to periodicals. He died in Columbia. S.C, Feb. 6, 18.56.

HENRY, Robert Lee, representative, was born ill Lin.l.Mi. T.'xas. May 12. 1864 : son of Capt. Frani-is Marion and ]\laiy E. (Taylor) Henry, and grandson of Henry Henry, of Tennessee. He re- moved to Bowie county in 1878. and was grad- uated from the University of Texas. M.A.. with valedictorian honors in 1885. He was admitted