manner? As to insults offered to the laws, I know of none. In this respect, I believe this Commonwealth would not suffer by a comparison with the former government. The laws are as well executed and as patiently acquiesced in as they were under the royal administration. Compare the situation of the countrycompare that of our citizens to what it was then-and decide whether persons and property are not as safe and secure as they were at that time. Is there a man in this Commonwealth whose person can be insulted with impunity? Cannot redress be had here for personal insults or injuries, as well as in any part of the world?—as well as in those countries where aristocrats and monarchs triumph and reign? Is not the protection of property in full operation here? The contrary cannot with truth be charged on this Commonwealth. Those severe charges which are exhibited against it appear to be totally groundless. On a fair investigation we shall be found to be surrounded with no real dangers."

He adverted to the case of Josiah Philips, which Randolph had introduced, and, overlooking the fact that he had been tried on an indictment for highway robbery and not under the act of attainder, justified his execution on the ground of his being an outlaw and enemy of the human race. He insisted that the middle and lower ranks of the people were not discontented; that if there were discontents, they existed among politicians whose microscopic vision could see defects in old systems, and whose illuminated imaginations discovered the necessity of a change. He urged that by the confederation the rights of territory were secured; that under the new system, you will most infallibly lose the Mississippi. He declared that we might be confederated with the adopting States without ratifying this system. "You will find no reductions of the public burdens by this system. The splendid maintenance of the President, and of the members of both houses, and the salaries and fees of the swarm of officers and dependents of the Government, will cost the continent immense sums. Double sets of collectors will double the expenses; to those are to be added oppressive excise men and customhouse officers. The people have an hereditary hatred of custom-house officers. The experience of the mother country leads me to detest them.'

138

138 The hostility to tax gatherers of all kinds, which Henry here expressed, as on several other occasions during the session, reminds us

An incident in the delivery of this speech should be noted, not so much on its own account, as tending to show the temper of Randolph and Henry toward each other, which resulted the following day in one of the most celebrated parliamentary explosions in our annals. In the course of his remarks Henry had animadverted upon the words "We, the people," as designed to appeal to the prejudices of the people. "The words," he contended, "were introduced to recommend it to the people at large-to those citizens who are to be levelled and degraded to a herd, and who, by the operation of this blessed system, are to be transformed from respectable independent citizens to abject dependent subjects or slaves. The honorable gentleman (Randolph) has anticipated what we are to be reduced to by degradingly assimilating us to a herd." Here Randolph rose and said that he did not use that word to excite any odium, but merely to convey an idea of a multitude. Henry replied that the word had made a deep impression on his mind, and that he verily believed that system would operate as he had said. He then said: "I will exchange that abominable word for requisitions-requisitions which gentlemen affect to despise, have nothing degrading in them. On this depends our political prosperity. I will never give up that darling word requisitions. My country may give it up. A majority may wrest it from me; but I will never give it up till my grave. Requisitions are attended with one singular advantage. They are attended by deliberation." When Henry concluded his remarks the House rose. Thus closed the first week of the Convention, during which we have seen that Henry stood alone in opposition to a phalanx of the ablest men of that era; for, with the exception of a speech from Mason, he had received no assistance from his friends. It was easy, however, to perceive, from his last effort as well as from the tone of his opponents, that, instead of losing ground, he was evidently advancing; that his arguments were more compact and guarded; that his sarcasm, though within the limits of the strictest decorum, wore a keener edge, and that he would either

of Dr. Johnson's definition of the word excise-"a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged, not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid."-Johnson's Folio Dictionary, Ed. 1765.

ultimately triumph or make the victory of his opponents hardly worth the wearing. 139

139 It was often remarked by the contemporaries of Henry that his best school of preparation on any great question was listening to the speeches of those who engaged in the debate. A friend informs me that he spent several days with the late James Marshall, of Fauquier, a brother of the Chief Justice, a gentleman of almost as high intellect as the Judge, and of more various accomplishments, who told him that Henry's opponents in debate, to contrast their knowledge with his want of it, would often display ostentatiously all they knew respecting the subject under discussion, and that, consequently, when they were done speaking Mr. Henry knew as much of the subject in hand as they did. Then the superiority of his intellect would show itself in the perfect mastery which he would evince over the whole subject. 'And if,' said Mr. Marshall, 'he spoke three times on the same subject, which he sometimes did, his last view of it would be the clearest and most striking that could be conceived.'" C. C. Lee, Esq., letter dated December 6, 1856.

CHAPTER IV.

On Monday, the ninth of June, the combatants, refreshed by the rest of the Sabbath, returned with new vigor to the field. The House had now gone through with the election details which had heretofore consumed the first half hour of the morning, and immediately went into committee. The first and second sections of the first article of the Constitution were still the nominal order of the day; but the debate from the first had comprehended the entire scope of that instrument. The rumors of great debates had spread over the neighboring counties, and the crowd that pressed the hall and the galleries seemed rather to increase than diminish. Henry and Mason, who had, according to their usual habit, walked arm in arm from the Swan, were seen to pause a few moments at the steps of the Academy, evidently engaged in consultation, and with difficulty made their way to their seats in the house.140

Wythe had just taken the chair, when Henry rose to conclude his unfinished speech of Saturday. His first sentences were short and broken, as if uttered to assure himself of his voice and position. He then introduced a topic which had long been dreaded by his opponents, but which startled them like a clap of thunder in a clear sky. "There is one thing," he said, "that I must mention. There is a dispute between us and the Spaniards about the right of navigating the Mississippi. This dispute has sprung from the Federal Government. I wish a great deal may be said upon the subject. In my opinion, the preservation of that river calls for our most serious consideration. It has been agitated in Congress. Seven States have

140 On the authority of the Rev. Mr. Clay, of Bedford, who was a member of the Convention.

voted so, as that it is known to the Spaniards, that under our existing system the Mississippi shall be taken from them. Seven States wished to relinquish this river to them. The six Southern States opposed it. Seven States not being sufficient to convey it away, it remains ours. If I am wrong, there is a member on this floor who can contradict the facts; I will readily retract. This new government, I conceive, will enable those States who have already discovered their inclination that way to give away this river. Will the honorable gentleman (Randolph) advise us to relinquish this inestimable navigation, and to place formidable enemies on our backs? I hope this will be explained. I was not in Congress at the time these transactions took place. I may not have stated every fact. Let us hear how the great and important right of navigating that river has been attended to, and whether I am mistaken that Federal measures will lose it to us forever. If a bare majority of Congress can make laws, the situation of our Western citizens is dreadful."

Of the connection of the Mississippi with the interests of Virginia we will treat at length when the memorable discussion of the subject took place a few days later; at present it is only necessary to say that Kentucky, whose western boundary impinged on that river, was then a part of Virginia, and was represented in the Convention by twelve members, whose votes might decide the fate of the new plan.

Henry then proceeded to reply to the arguments of Randolph, Madison, and Corbin in detail, with a force of logic and with a fullness of illustration which he had not before evinced in his speeches. He reviewed the dangers likely to flow from the nonpayment of the debt due to France, bestowing an elegant compliment on Mr. Jefferson, whom he called "an illustrious citizen, who, at a great distance from us, remembers and studies our happiness; who was well acquainted with the policy of European nations, and who, amid the splendor and dissipation of courts, yet thinks of bills of rights and those despised little things called maxims ;" and speaking of Louis the Sixteenth as "that great friend of America." He reviewed our relations with Spain and with Holland, and showed with great plausibility that we had nothing to fear from them. He then examined the arguments of Randolph, drawn from our position in respect of the neighboring States, and gave his reasons for concluding that neither Mary