Patrick Henry: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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[[File:Patrick Henry broadside.jpg|thumb|right|''A Hue & Cry'', Virginia [[broadside (printing)|broadside]], 1775]]

As he concluded, Henry plunged an ivory letter opener towards his chest in imitation of the Roman patriot [[Cato the Younger]]. Henry's speech carried the day, and the convention adopted his amendments.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=170–172}} The text of this speech first appeared in print in 1817, eighteen years after Patrick Henry's death, in Wirt's biography of Henry. In 1815, Wirt wrote to a friend, "from 1763 to 1789... not one of his speeches lives in print, writing or memory. All that is told me is, that on such and such an occasion, he made a distinguished speech".<ref>{{sfn|Raphael, ''Founding Myths,'' |p. =147.</ref>}} Wirt corresponded with men who had heard the speech and others who were acquainted with people who were there at the time. All agreed that the speech had produced a profound effect, but it seems that only one tried to render an actual text. Judge [[St. George Tucker]], who had been present for the speech, gave Wirt his recollections and Wirt wrote back stating that "I have taken almost entirely Mr. Henry's speech in the Convention of '75 from you, as well as your description of its effect on your verbatim." The original letter with Tucker's remembrances has been lost.<ref name="{{sfn|Raphael, |p. =148">Raphael, ''Founding Myths,'' p. 148.</ref>}}

For 160 years Wirt's account was taken at face value. In the 1970s, historians began to question the authenticity of Wirt's reconstruction.<ref>Judy Hemple, "The Textual and Cultural Authenticity of Patrick Henry's 'Liberty or Death' Speech," ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'' 63 (1977): 298–310; see Ray Raphael, ''Founding Myths,'' 311 note 7 for additional discussions among historians.</ref> Contemporary historians observe that Henry was known to have used fear of Indian and slave revolts in promoting military action against the British and that, according to the only written first-hand account of the speech, Henry used some graphic name-calling that Wirt did not include in his heroic rendition.<ref>{{sfn|Raphael, ''Founding Myths,'' |pp=145–156, 311–313.</ref>}} Tucker's account was based upon recollections and not notes several decades after the speech; he wrote, "In vain should I attempt to give any idea of his speech".<ref>{{sfn|Raphael, ''Founding Myths,'' |p. =149.</ref>}} Scholars have argued to what extent the speech we know is the work of Wirt or Tucker.<ref name="{{sfn|Raphael, |p. =148"/>}}

On April 21, 1775, Governor Dunmore had the [[Royal Marines]] under his command [[Gunpowder Incident|seize gunpowder from the magazine]] in Williamsburg and take it to a naval ship. This outraged Virginians. Henry had left for Philadelphia, having been elected a delegate to the [[Second Continental Congress]], but a messenger caught up with him before he left Hanover County. He returned to take command of the county's militia and, on May 2, march on Williamsburg, with, Dunmore wrote, "all the Appearances of actual War".{{sfn|Kukla|pp=173–180}} Henry likely had force enough to take Williamsburg and deal Dunmore a humiliating defeat, but increasingly urgent and prominent messengers urging caution slowed Henry's advance, and in [[New Kent County, Virginia|New Kent County]], still some {{convert|16|mile}} from Williamsburg, three of Henry's fellow delegates to Congress helped persuade him to leave off his march, once, as Henry insisted, the value of the powder was paid for by [[bill of exchange]].{{sfn|Kukla|pp=180–182}}

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*{{cite book|last=McCants|first=David A.|title=Patrick Henry, the Orator|year=1990|location=Westport, CT|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-26210-4|ref={{sfnRef|McCants}}}}

*{{cite book|last=Meade|first=Robert D.|year=1957|title=Patrick Henry: Patriot in the Making|location=Philadelphia|publisher=Lippincott|oclc= 964630|ref={{sfnRef|Meade}}}}

*{{cite book|last=Raphael, |first=Ray (|year=2004), ''|title=Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past'', |location=New York: |publisher=The New Press. {{ISBN|isbn=978-1-56584-921-31|ref={{sfnRef|Raphael}}}}▼

==Further reading==

* Beeman, Richard R. (1974), ''Patrick Henry: A Biography'', New York: McGraw-Hill. {{ISBN|0-07-004280-2}}

* Jewett, Thomas (2004), ''Patrick Henry: America's Radical Dissenter'', [http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2004_summer_fall/henry.htm Early America Review Summer/Fall 2004]

* Meade, Robert D. (1969), ''Patrick Henry: Practical Revolutionary'', Philadelphia: Lippincott

▲* Raphael, Ray (2004), ''Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past'', New York: The New Press. {{ISBN|1-56584-921-3}}

* [[Harlow Unger|Unger, Harlow]] (2010), ''Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call To a New Nation'', Cambridge: Da Capo Press. {{ISBN|978-0-306-81886-8}}