Adams'
diary[579:B] are all that survive of this celebrated speech.

Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee towered supereminent in debate; yet
it soon came to be remarked that in composition and the routine of
actual business they were surpassed by many.[579:C] But "the egotism of
human nature will seldom allow us to credit a man for one excellence,
without detracting from him in other respects; if he has genius, we
imagine he has not common sense; if he is a poet, we suppose that he is
not a logician."[580:A] It has been seen that George Mason considered
Henry "the first man on this continent in ability as in public virtues."
A great man only can adequately appreciate a great man. Henry was
capable of being no less efficient in the committee-room than on the
floor of debate.[580:B] There was no test of intellectual excellence too
severe for him. The state-papers of Richard Henry Lee are sufficient
proofs of his capacity.

The proceedings were conducted in secret session. Intelligence which was
received from Boston riveted more closely the union of the North and
South; minor differences were lost sight of in view of the portentous
common danger. The congress made a declaration of rights. Dickinson
composed the petition to the king, and the address to the inhabitants of
Quebec; Jay an address to the people of Great Britain; and Richard Henry
Lee a memorial to the inhabitants of the British colonies. The congress,
after a session of fifty-one days, adjourned in October.

Mr. Henry, on his return home, being asked, "Who is the greatest man in
congress?" replied, "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South
Carolina, is by far the greatest orator; but if you speak of solid
information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably the
greatest man on that floor." John Adams, the eloquent and indomitable
advocate of independence, mentions Lee, Henry, and Hooper as the orators
of that body. Washington, in a letter addressed to Captain Mackenzie,
who had formerly served under him, and was now among the British troops
at Boston, gave it as his opinion, that it was neither the wish nor
the interest of Massachusetts, nor of any of the colonies, to set up
for independence; yet they never would submit to the loss of their
constitutional rights. The same opinion was avowed by Jefferson,
Franklin, and other leading men; yet there was undoubtedly then, and
long had been, a strong undercurrent, a heavy ground-swell in t