ou to convey to them in the most acceptable
manner.

I shall execute the duties of that high station to which I
am again called by the favor of my fellow-citizens,
according to the best of my abilities, and I shall rely upon
the candor and wisdom of the Assembly to excuse and supply
my defects. The good of the Commonwealth shall be the only
object of my pursuit, and I shall measure my happiness
according to the success which shall attend my endeavors to
establish the public liberty. I beg to be presented to the
Assembly, and that they and you will be assured that I am,
with every sentiment of the highest regard, their and your
most obedient and very humble servant,

P. HENRY.[283]

After a perusal of this nobly written letter, the gentle reader will
have no difficulty in concluding that, if indeed the author of it was
then lying in wait for an opportunity to set up a despotism in
Virginia, he had already become an adept in the hypocrisy which
enabled him, not only to conceal the fact, but to convey an impression
quite the opposite.

FOOTNOTES:

[255] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 154.

[256] 4 _Am. Arch._ vi. 1602, 1603, note.

[257] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 631.

[258] 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 905, 906.

[259] George Rogers Clark's _Campaign in the Illinois_, 11.

[260] Spencer Roane, MS.

[261] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32.

[262] _Ibid._ 57-59.

[263] _Writings of Washington_, iv. 138.

[264] See Letters from the president of Va. Privy Council and from
General Lewis, in 5 _Am. Arch._ i. 736.

[265] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 229.

[266] Compare _Jour. Va. House Del._ 8.

[267] 5 _Am. Arch._ ii. 1305-1306.

[268] Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i. 363, 413; and _Hist. Mag._ i.
52.

[269] _Writings of Jefferson_, viii. 368-371; also Phila. ed. of
_Notes_, 1825, 172-176.

[270] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. Pref. Rem. vi.

[271] See Jefferson's explicit endorsement of Girardin's book in his
own _Writings_, i. 50.

[272] Burk, _Hist. Va._ 189, 190.

[273] Wirt, _Life of Henry_, 204-205.

[274] Elliot's _Debates_, iii. 160.

[275] Cited by William Wirt Henry, _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 349.

[276] _Jour. Va. House of Del._ 106-108.

[277] _Jour. Va. H. Del._ 75; and Randall, _Life of Jefferson_, i.
205.

[278] William Wirt Henry, _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 350.

[279] 5 _Am. Arch._ iii. 1425-1426.

[280] I refer, for ex