HENRY, PATRICK, late governor of Virginia, was born about the year 1740 From all that has been recorded of him, what was precisely the condition of his parentage does not clearly appear. The chronicles of the provincial governments in North America, of the revolutionary war, and of the governments of Virginia and the United States since the year 1776, afford less satisfactory information of Mr Henry, and his specific services, than of any other man, at all distinguished in those several eras. He was born at a time, and among a people, when, and with whom, family legends were not very fashionable ; unless they could be gilded by the lustre of office, or by the more imposing, though stupid pageantry of opulence. In the colonial era, the agents of the crown, and those advantageously connect ed NI, ith the public offices, were most generally from the mother country. The public archives, therefore, contain few traces of persons not in the confidence or employment of the provincial governments.
From the accounts most to be relied on, Mr Henry was of an obscure family. His education was limited ; and poor ly calculated to form an ordinary genius for eminence. His -elevation, fame, and influence, resulted from unlettered, un adorned, but strong intuitive faculties. His gigantic mind bounded over all juvenile preparation for the active scenes of life. He was formed by nature a prophet among the most wise and most learned. He was therefore excused from the tardy, and sometimes discouraging, process of scholastic ratiocination ; and, at the age when others yield blossoms of hope, often blighted by towardness or adver‘ sity, he was covered with delicious and matured fruit. He was a man of genius, eloquence, and virtue. He stepped on the stage of life without previous notification ; and se lected and acted his own character without the ceremony of rehearsal. His appearance commanded applause ; his performance was followed by universal eclat ; and his exit left his country in tears. In every situation of life he ma nifested an accurate perception and love of truth, which he always courted as the charm of his affections ; and clearly demonstrated, by all his calculations and conclusions, that judgment taught him what experience alone could teach his cotemporaries.
At the age of twenty-five, Mr Henry was elected a mem ber of the general assembly of Virginia. During the ses sion of 1765, he introduced, for the consideration of the le gislature, certain resolutions, fraught with the spirit of po pular liberty, and pointedly protesting against the tyranny of the British government, which had then begun to be dis played with iron features in all the colonies, more especially in Virginia. The resolutions were approved by a majority of the assembly, and were the first adopted by any of the colonial legislatures against the famous stamp act. They not only declared what was tyranny and usurpation on the part of the mother country, and in contravention of char tered rights; but also defined the privileges and immtinities of the colonists. These resolutions were the commence ment of that opposition, which, though varied from time to time, ultimately resulted in the establishment of the inde pendence of the United States. The debate on them was turbulent and proscriptive on the one side ; zealous, de termined, and vehement, on the other. The apologists of British tyranny raised the cry of " treason!" against the advocates of liberty and the rights of the colonists. In the midst of the storm, Mr Henry, until then unknown, burst forth with the thunder of his native eloquence ; seared the visages of his haughty antagonists by his consuming scowl ; and dealt out threatened vengeance on all, who should dare to array themselves against a people determined to assert their freedom. Encouraged by the undismayed front of their champion leader, his associates joined his standard, and marched boldly with him to the point of de cision. It is recorded, in the reports of that celebrated par liamentary rencounter, that though the British authority remained yet unbroken, the old system of sergeantry still continued of force in the country, and the very hall, in which the assembly of Virginia convened, was thronged by his majesty's officers and procurers, Mr Henry, stimu lated by the insolent and menacing denunciations of him self by his royal antagonists, exclaimed : " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First a Cromwell, and George the Third—" here he was called to order by the presiding officer.