, to the
astonishment of all who knew him, poured forth a strain of such
impassioned eloquence as not only carried the cause, contrary to
all previous expectation, but placed him ever afterwards at the
head of his profession in the colony. To this very day, says Mr.
Wirt, writing in 1818, the impression remains, and the old people
of that district think that no higher compliment can be paid to
any public speaker than to say of him in their homely phrase, "He
is almost equal to Patrick when he plead (pleaded) against the
parsons!"

The natural eloquence which on this occasion flashed forth from
the coarse and unlettered Henry, as the spark-of fire from the
flint, continued to distinguished him both as a Member of the
House of Burgesses at Williamsburg, and afterwards as a member of
Congress. He took from the first a bold and active part against
the pretensions of the mother country; indeed Mr. Jefferson goes
so far as to declare that "Mr. Henry certainly gave the earliest
impulse to the ball of revolution." His most celebrated burst of
oratory, or rather turn of phrase, was in this very year 1765,
when descanting in the House of Burgesses on the tyranny of the
Stamp Act. "Caesar--" he cried, in a voice of thunder and with an
eye of fire--"Caesar had his Brutus--Charles the First had his
Cromwell--and George the Third"--"Treason!" here exclaimed the
Speaker, "Treason! Treason!" re-echoed from every part of the
House. Henry did not for an instant falter, but fixing his eye
firmly on the Speaker, he concluded his sentence thus "--may profit
by their example. If this be treason make the most of it!"

Indolence and aversion to reading seemed almost as natural to
Henry's mind as powers of debate. To the last he never overcame
them. Thus, at his death, in 1799, his books were found to be
extremely few, and these too consisting chiefly of odd volumes.
But his gift of speech was (for his hearers) sufficiently
supported by his fiery energy, his practical shrewdness, and his
ever keen glance into the feelings and characters of other. Nor
were these his only claims to his country's favor. He retained the
manners and custom of the common people, with what his friendly
biographer terms "religious caution.--He dressed as plainly as the
plainest of them," continues Mr. Wirt, "ate only thei