Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry was the American Revolution's greatest orator and then opposed the constitution it produced. Born in Hanover County, Virginia in 1736 to a Scottish immigrant planter, he failed twice as a storekeeper and once as a farmer, read law for a few weeks, and talked his way through the bar examination. He made his name in 1763 in the Parson's Cause, arguing against clergy suing for salaries fixed in tobacco, and asserting that a king who annuls a colonial law degenerates into a tyrant. The jury awarded the plaintiff one penny. He entered the House of Burgesses in 1765 and immediately introduced resolutions against the Stamp Act, denying parliament's right to tax the colonies. Cries of treason interrupted him, and the traditional reply — that if this be treason, make the most of it — comes from later accounts. On 23 March 1775 at St John's Church in Richmond, urging that the colony be put in a state of defence, he closed with the words that fixed him in memory: that he knew not what course others might take, but as for him, give him liberty or give him death. The text was reconstructed decades later by a biographer from listeners' recollections. He was five times governor of Virginia and declined to attend the Constitutional Convention, saying he smelt a rat. He then led the fight against ratification, arguing that a strong central government would consume the states and that there was no bill of rights — an objection that produced the first ten amendments. He enslaved dozens of people and wrote that he could not justify it. He died in 1799.
- Lived: 1736 CE – 1799 CE
- Nationality: American
- Roles: orator, statesman, founding_father
