law book, "Coke upon Littleton." Before offering
them, he showed them to two members, John Fleming, of Goochland, and
George Johnson, of Fairfax. Mr. Johnson seconded the resolutions.
Speaker Robinson objected to them as inflammatory. The first three
appear to have passed by small majorities, without alteration. The
fourth was passed amended, so as to read as follows: "Resolved, That his
majesty's liege people of this his most ancient and loyal colony have,
without interruption, enjoyed the inestimable right of being governed by
such laws respecting their internal polity and taxation as are derived
from their own consent, with the approbation of their sovereign or his
substitute, and that the same hath never been forfeited or yielded up,
but hath been constantly recognized by the king and people of Great
Britain."

The last of the five resolutions was carried by a majority of only one
vote, being twenty to nineteen, and the debate on it, in the language of
Mr. Jefferson, was "most bloody." Speaker Robinson, Peyton Randolph,
attorney-general, Richard Bland, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, and all
the old leaders of the house and proprietors of large estates, made a
strenuous resistance. Mr. Jefferson says the resolutions of Henry "were
opposed by Robinson and all the cyphers of the aristocracy." John
Randolph resisted them with all his might. How Washington voted is not
known, the yeas and nays never being recorded on the journal in that
age. He considered the stamp act ill-judged and unconstitutional, and
was of opinion that it could not be enforced. Mr. Henry was ably
supported in a logical argument by Mr. George Johnson, a lawyer of
Alexandria.

In the course of this stormy debate many threats were uttered by the
party for submission, and much abuse heaped upon Mr. Henry, but he
carried the young members with him. Jefferson, then a student of William
and Mary, standing at the door of the house, overheard the debate. After
Speaker Robinson had declared the result of the vote, Peyton Randolph,
as he entered the lobby near Jefferson, exclaimed with an oath, "I would
have given five hundred guineas for a single vote!" One more vote would
have defeated the last resolution.[542:A]

Scarce a vestige of this speech of Henry survives. Mr. Jefferson
declared that he never heard such eloquence from any other man. While
Mr. Henry was inveighing against the stamp act, he exclaimed: "Tarquin
and Caesar had each his Brutus, Charl