Patrick Henry: Bold as a Lion – Part Three

In Parts One and Two of this series on Founding Father Patrick Henry, we learned that Henry was a lawyer, orator, and statesman. He was born in 1736, in Hanover County, Virginia. Receiving no formal schooling, Henry was taught the classics, Latin, and Greek at home by his father and his uncle. It was his uncle who taught him this maxim: “To be true and just in all my dealings. To bear no malice or hatred in my heart. To keep my hands from picking and stealing. Not to covet other men’s goods, but to learn and labor truly to get my own living, and to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me.” Henry taught himself the law and, in 1760, at the age of 24, began a successful law practice in Hanover County.  

In 1765, at the age of 29, Henry was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. At the end of his very first legislative session, Henry rose to speak. Virtually unknown by anyone present, he introduced seven resolutions attacking the British Parliament’s Stamp Act and railed against Parliament’s authority to tax the colonists without their representation. Some of Virginia’s most notable statesmen had debated this issue a year earlier, having issued an appeal to England, declaring that such an act would be a violation of their constitutional rights as a colony. Their opposition was based on the principle of their original Charter of 1606. 

As outlined in Part Two of this series, this Charter was issued by the English Parliament and had enabled the founding of Jamestown. Essentially, it guaranteed each of the colonies, specifically Virginia, the rights of all Englishmen. These rights included “all the privileges, liberties, and immunities of denizens and natural subjects to all intents and purposes as if they had been abiding and born within the realm of England.”  

Henry’s first five resolves were basically a repeat of the appeal they had made the year before, and to repeat it was to risk their being seen as treasonous and was considered unwise by the assembly. The sixth resolve stated that the colony was not bound to obey any unconstitutional law, and the seventh made anyone who disagreed with the first six an enemy of the colony itself. A line was thereby drawn in the sand, and initially Patrick Henry was the only one on the other side. 

Many of the burgesses, however, began to see Henry’s reasoning, and the boldness with which he spoke caused them to begin to confidently support his resolutions. At a time when others were hesitating between two opinions, Henry had emerged as a firebrand, a blazing torch for the cause of liberty.  

Many colonists, including Thomas Jefferson, had wondered where Henry, who had no formal education, gained such a command of the English language. The answer was simple: he was a student of the English Bible. His knowledge of Scripture, and his daily reading of the Bible, gave him the bold confidence he needed. Armed with Truth, Henry possessed a phenomenal ability to argue aspects of the Common Law and the legal history of the English colonies in America.

Fast forward ten years. Tension was steadily building between England and the American colonies. On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry rose up during the Second Virginia Convention’s debates on whether to declare independence or to negotiate with the British and famously proclaimed: “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!…Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?…Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” 

Few of us know the full story of liberty, the cost, the courage, and the sacrifices that were made by the American colonists. It follows that most Americans today have little regard for the precious gift we have been given. However, on a day when no one else had the courage to stand, one young man did, and it turned the tide of history. His name was Patrick Henry. 

Where would we be without the Patrick Henrys of history? May the righteous be bold as lions.   

Tim Lewis can be reached at TimLewis1@windstream.net.