he should have
to utter some harsh things toward the clergy, which he would not like to
do in his presence. The presiding magistrate was the father of young
Henry. The sheriff, according to Mr. Maury's own account, finding some
gentlemen unwilling to serve on the jury, summoned men of the common
people. Mr. Maury objected to them, but Patrick Henry insisting that
"they were honest men," they were immediately called to the book and
sworn. Three or four of them, it was said, were dissenters "of that
denomination called 'New Lights.'" On the plaintiff's side the only
evidence was that of Messrs. Gist and McDowall, tobacco-buyers, who
testified that fifty shillings per hundred weight was the current price
of tobacco at that time. On the defendant's side was produced the Rev.
James Maury's receipt for one hundred and forty-four pounds paid him by
Thomas Johnson, Jr. The case was opened for the plaintiff by Peter
Lyons. When Patrick Henry rose to reply, his commencement was awkward,
unpromising, embarrassed. In a few moments he began to warm with his
subject, and catching inspiration from the surrounding scene, his
attitude grew more erect, his gesture bolder, his eye kindled and
dilated with the radiance of genius, his voice ceased to falter, and the
witchery of its tones made the blood run cold and the hair stand on end.
The people, charmed by the enchanter's magnetic influence, hung with
rapture upon his accents; in every part of the house, on every bench, in
every window, they stooped forward from their stands in breathless
silence, astonished, delighted, riveted upon the youthful orator, whose
eloquence blended the beauty of the rainbow with the terror of the
cataract. He contended that the act of 1758 had every characteristic of
a good law, and could not be annulled consistently with the original
compact between king and people, and he declared that a king who
disallowed laws so salutary, from being the father of his people
degenerated into a tyrant, and forfeited all right to obedience. Some
part of the audience were struck with horror at this declaration, and
the opposing advocate, Mr. Lyons, exclaimed, in impassioned tones, "The
gentleman has spoken treason!" and from some gentlemen in the crowd
arose a confused murmur of "Treason! Treason!" Yet Henry, without any
interruption from the court, proceeded in his bold philippic; and one of
the jury was so carried away by his feelings as every now and then to
give the spea