and caught the flashings of his eye,-who had been fas. cinated by his smile, or repulsed by his terrific frown, and who always found themselves incompetent to express fully the power with which he impressed conviction. When all his great attributes were fully aroused, his language, like that of Pindar, burst forth with spontaneous force and splendid majesty. Ordinarily, his reasoning was made obvious by the intense light of genius with which it was invested; and if, sometimes, his judgment seemed bewildered, it was not so much from obscurity of perception, as from profuseness of emotion; like the throne of Milton's Heaven, his mind, when most excited, would grow "dark from excess of light." He himself intimated that his chief lamp was the inward light of reason, which is the brightest "affluence of essence increate." When called upon the stage of public life, he trusted to the guidance of truth, patriotism, and justice, those primeval principles which "shine aloft as stars." The blazing brand of heaven which flashed upon the earth, and arrested the careering steeds of Diomed, was not more appalling to their affrighted driver, than were the awful denunciations which Henry hurled against tyranny and guilt.

Grattan said of the Irish orator, Malone, that "when young, his eloquence was ocean in a storm; when old, ocean in a calm; but whether in a calm or storm, the same great element, the sublimest and most magnificent phenomenon of creation." Tradition and history speak in rapturous terms of Patrick Henry's eloquence, and some of his speeches, reported by cotemporaries, substantiate his fame. But as well might one attempt to

paint lightning with charcoal, as to delineate a soul like his in dull words. In order properly to appreciate his power, we

"--Should have seen him in the Campus Martius,—

In the tribunal,-shaking all the tribes

With mighty speech. His words seemed oracles,
That pierced their bosoms: and each man would turn,

And gaze in wonder on his neighbor's face,

That with the like dumb wonder answer'd him :

Then some would weep, some shout, some, deeper touch'd,
Keep down the cry with motion of their hands,

In fear but to have lost a syllable.”

We should have seen him when he knew that he spoke under the shadow of the scaffold,—when British cannon were booming in the North, and standing in the outlawed assembly of Virginia, like a lion at bay, he caught the first cry of distress from Lexington and Bunker Hill, with a generous devotion that made no reserve, and knew no fear, with a voice solemn, tremulous with patriotic rage, and swelling over the thrilled audience like a trumpet-call to arms, and with an eye flashing unutterable fire, he exclaimed-"Give me liberty, or give me death!"

CHAPTER X.

RICHARD HENRY LEE,

THE POLISHED STATESMAN.

MR. LEE was a dignified citizen and scholar whose profound erudition and captivating rhetoric were rendered very efficient in moulding the early institutions of our land. He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, January 20, 1732. His juvenile studies were pursued in his father's house, but his more mature education was acquired in Yorkshire, England. Mr. Lee was noted for his assiduity as a student, and early became distinguished for his proficiency in the classics. He returned to his native land when about twenty years of age, and, as he possessed a large fortune, his time was mainly devoted to the improvement of his mind. Works of civil and political morality, history, law, and elegant literature were constantly perused by him with avidity, and their principles made effective in practical life.

The first public service which Mr. Lee attempted, was in the capacity of captain of the volunteer companies which were raised in 1755, for the purpose of aiding the expedition under General Braddock. In his

twenty-fifth year, he was appointed to a civil office in his county, which attested the high personal consideration in which he was held. Soon after, he was chosen a delegate to the House of Burgesses, and thus began the political career which gave his name its chief

renown.

Mr. Lee was a republican of an early and rigid stamp. When, in 1764, the declaratory Act was passed in the British Parliament, claiming the right to tax America, he was the first to bring forward the subject to the notice of the Assembly of which he was a member. A special committee having, in consequence been appointed to draught an address to the King, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the House of Commons, Mr. Lee, as chairman, prepared the first two papers. These, as his biographer remarks, "contain the genuine principles of the Revolution, and abound in the firm and eloquent sentiments of freemen." In 1765, Patrick Henry introduced in the Virginia legislature his famous resolutions against the Stamp-Act, which had just been passed by Parliament. Lee lent Henry's motion his zealous and powerful assistance. Shortly after the triumph gained on that occasion, Lee planned and effected an association "for the purpose of deterring all persons from accepting the office of vendor of stamp paper, and for awing into silence and inactivity those who might still be attached to the supremacy of the mother country, and disposed to advocate the right of colony taxation." This result the association. bound themselves to attain, "at every hazard, and paying no regard to danger or to death.”

The tax on tea, and the measure adopted by Parliament in 1767, " to make provision for quartering a part of the regular army" at the expense of the colony, Lee exerted himself every way to oppose, perceiving, as he did, their despotic tendency, and feeling that a struggle for freedom was inevitable. In 1773, a plan was adopted by the House of Burgesses, for the formation of corresponding committees to be organized by the legislatures of the several Colonies, and also that of corresponding clubs or societies, among the “lovers of liberty" throughout the Provinces, for the purpose of diffusing amongst the people a correct knowledge of their rights, of keeping them informed of every attempt to infringe them, and of rousing a spirit of resistance to all arbitrary measures. Of both these important suggestions Mr. Lee was the author.

In 1774, the first general Congress assembled at Philadelphia. Mr. Lee was a delegate from Virginia. His labors during this session, and throughout his whole Congressional career, were unremitting and invaluable. In all the leading measures he took an active part, and was not less influential in the appeals which went abroad from his pen than in the counsels which came living from his lips. He was the author of many important State papers, and the resolute defender of the boldest resistance against foreign aggression. The great motion of June 7, 1776, "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be