PATRICK HENRY (1736-1799)

Tradition has decreed that the leading orator of the revolutionary period was Patrick Henry of Virginia, and in the absence of a method of weighing the oratory of a vanished period, the verdict of tradition will stand. Of the great numbers of orations and speeches made during the decade before 1775 and the decade after it, surprisingly few have been recorded in the words in which they were first given. Most of the fiery harangues of the pre-revolutionary days are lost to us. Henry's powerful appeal to the Virginia Assembly in 1775-we can judge only by the testimony of those who heard it and by its effect upon the assembly perished with the occasion. The version of it that has been declaimed by generations of school boys was written by William Wirt from memory years after the event. Henry's later orations, many of them taken down in short hand and preserved in their original language, were equally effective at the time they were given, but as read to-day none of them has the literary finish and the balance of period and the effectiveness of phraseology of the earlier effort. Undoubtedly the orator's personal presence, his rapt intensity, his emotionality, his methods of delivery were more potent than his words. He was "full of the fire and splendor of the South." The literary quality was added by Wirt, and added, it must be said, with consummate skill. He added indeed the one element that Henry lacked, and adding it, he raised Henry to a place among the great "single-speech" orators of the world.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth-and listen to the song of that to siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, 15 and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the 20 worst, and to provide for it.

insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation -the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britian any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And 25 judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace 30 themselves and the house? Is it that

THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809)

The fires of a great revolution attract always from the whole world the most adventurous spirits of the time. Certainly no revolution ever attracted a more fiery soul or a more effective partisan than did the American revolution when it drew to itself the impetuous cosmopolitan Thomas Paine. An Englishman by birth and, curiously enough, a Quaker by training, he became a man without a country and a man at odds with all the creeds of his day. He was unknown until well after middle life, having succeeded in nothing he bad undertaken. He then fell in with Franklin, who was at the time in London, and was induced by him to try his fortunes in the new world. Never did Franklin do his country a better service. In Philadelphia Paine's latent powers sprang quickly into life. He became an editor, then a publicist, issuing in 1774 his Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, a document which exerted a powerful influence. From this moment he became the leading propagandist of the patriot cause. His Crisis, with its opening sentence "These are the times which try men's souls," Washington ordered read before his officers, to stimulate their patriotism. Thirteen regular numbers and several supernumerary numbers of this periodical were issued during the war and their effect upon the morale of the country can not be overestimated. Paine's pen was in constant activity and his writings went always into surprisingly large editions.

After the conflict was over, and cool heads and deliberate measures were needed, Paine found himself out of his element. In 1787 he returned to England, but soon the French revolution attacted him to another storm centre and he plunged again into conflict. His Rights of Man became one of the leading documents of that historic struggle. Fresh from new free democratic America, he bore the new gospel of "all men created free and equal." He was the connecting link between the two great uprisings: the one common figure in both. The storm over, again he sank into obscurity. His Age of Reason, an attack upon the established churches and the Christian dogmas of his day, a book not at all as dangerous as it was once believed to be, estranged him from America, and there was no place for him in France or England. He became a man without a country indeed. Franklin had once said "Where Liberty is, there is my country" and Paine had replied "Where Liberty is not, there is my country." He was a man in advance of his times, a citizen of the world in the full meaning of the term.

His influence on revolutionary America was enormous. He was an agitator, wholly without humor; he was a propagandist who used every method he thought would be effective; he was a journalist who knew his readers,-largely the plain people,-and who knew perfectly the value of timeliness and sensation. Of constructive ability he had little, though his political doctrines, derived largely from Locke and Rousseau, influenced the republic builders who followed him. He was a creature of the tempest, exulting in it, directing it, but powerless when once its violence had passed away.

GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM

[From Common Sense.]

5

as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the Crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.

But where, say some, is the King of America? I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honours, let a 10 A government of our own is our day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming natural right: and when a man seriously the Charter; let it be brought forth reflects on the precariousness of human placed on the Divine Law, the Word of affairs, he will become convinced, that it God; let a crown be placed thereon, by is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a which the world may know, that so far 15 constitution of our own in a cool delit

erate manner, while we have it in our
power, than to trust such an interesting
event to time and chance. If we omit it
now, some Massanello may hereafter
arise, who, laying hold of popular dis- 5
quietudes, may collect together the des-
perate and the discontented, and by
assuming to themselves the powers of
government, finally sweep away the lib-
erties of the Continent like a deluge. 1o
Should the government of America re-
turn again into the hands of Britain, the
tottering situation of things will be a
temptation for some desperate adventurer
to try his fortune; and in such case, what 15
relief can Britain give? Ere she could
hear the news, the fatal business might
be done; and ourselves suffering like the
wretched Britons under the oppression
of the Conqueror. Ye that oppose in- 20
dependence now, ye know not what ye
do: ye are opening a door to eternal
tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of
government. There are thousands and
tens of thousands, who would think it 25
glorious to expel from the Continent, that
barbarous and hellish power, which hath
stirred up the Indians and the Negroes to
destroy us; the cruelty hath a double
guilt, it is dealing brutally by us, and 30
treacherously by them.

of his Image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated from the earth, or have only a casual existence were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber and the murderer would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.

O! ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the Globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

[Jan. 10, 1776.]

"THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN'S SOULS"

[From "The Crisis."]

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we

To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded thro' a thousand pores instruct us to detest, is 35 madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them; and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection will increase, or that we 40 esteem too lightly: it is dearness only shall agree better when we have ten times more and greater concerns to quar、 rel over than ever?

Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time 45 that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord now is broken, the people of England are presenting addresses against us. 50 There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the Continent forgive the murders of Britain. 55 The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the Guardians

that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then there is not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long. I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would

92

5

have been much better. We did not
make a proper use of last winter, neither
could we, while we were in a dependent
state. However, the fault, if it were
one, was all our own; we have none to
blame but ourselves. But no great deal
is lost yet. All that Howe has been
doing for this month past, is rather a
ravage than a conquest, which the spirit
of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have 10
quickly repulsed, and which time and a
little resolution will soon recover.

I have as little superstition in me as
any man living, but my secret opinion
has ever been, and still is, that God 15
Almighty will not give up a people to
military destruction, or leave them un-
supportedly to perish, who have so earn-
estly and so repeatedly sought to avoid
the calamities of war, by every decent 20
method which wisdom could invent.
Neither have I so much of the infidel in
me, as to suppose that He has relinquished
the government of the world, and given
us up to the care of devils; and as I do 25
not, I cannot see on what grounds the
king of Britain can look up to heaven
for help against us: a common murderer,
a highwayman, or a housebreaker, has as
good a pretence as he.

30

2

aginary apparition would have upon a
private murderer. They sift out the
hidden thoughts of man, and hold them
up in public to the world. Many a dis-
guised tory has lately shown his head,
that shall penitentially solemnize with I
curses the day on which Howe arrived
upon the Delaware.

As I was with the troops at Fort Lee, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those who live at a distance know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was exceedingly cramped, the place being a narrow neck of land between the North River and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one fourth so great as Howe could bring against us. We had no army at hand to have relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on our defence. Our ammunition, light artillery and the best part of our stores, had been removed, on the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys, in which case Fort Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object, which such forts are raised to defend. Such was our situation and condition at fort Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with information that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven miles above: Major General Green, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three quar

'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them: Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French 35 fleet of flat bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was 40 performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from 45 ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer 50 ters of an hour, and marched at the head

habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which

of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of

might otherwise have lain forever undis- 55 our troops went over the bridge, the rest

covered. In fact, they have the same

effect on secret traitors, which an im

over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the