by him on Wednesday, May 29, in the committee of the
whole, and probably passed by the committee on that day; that at once,
without waiting for the action of the House upon the subject, copies
of the series got abroad, and were soon published in the newspapers of
the several colonies, as though actually adopted by the House; that on
Thursday, May 30, the series was cut down in the House by rejection of
the preamble and the resolutions 6 and 7, and by the adoption of only
the first five as given above; that on the day after that, when
Patrick Henry had gone home, the House still further cut down the
series by expunging the resolution which is above numbered as 5: and
that, many years afterwards, when Patrick Henry came to prepare a copy
for transmission to posterity, he gave the resolutions just as they
stood when adopted by the House on May 30, and not as they stood when
originally introduced by him in committee of the whole on the day
before, nor as they stood when mutilated by the cowardly act of the
House on the day after. It will be noticed, therefore, that the
so-called resolutions of Virginia, which were actually published and
known to the colonies in 1765, and which did so much to fire their
hearts, were not the resolutions as adopted by the House, but were the
resolutions as first introduced, and probably passed, in committee of
the whole; and that even this copy of them was inaccurately given,
since it lacked the resolution numbered above as 3, probably owing to
an error in the first hurried transcription of them. Those who care to
study the subject further will find the materials in _Prior
Documents_, 6, 7; Marshall, _Life of Washington_, i. note iv.;
Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 180 note; Gordon, _Hist. Am.
Rev._, i. 129-139; _Works of Jefferson_, vi. 366, 367; Wirt, _Life of
Henry_, 56-63; Everett, _Life of Henry_, 265-273, with important note
by Jared Sparks in Appendix, 391-398. It may be mentioned that the
narrative given in Burk, _Hist. Va._, iii. 305-310, is untrustworthy.

CHAPTER VI

CONSEQUENCES

Seldom has a celebrated man shown more indifference to the
preservation of the records and credentials of his career than did
Patrick Henry. While some of his famous associates in the Revolution
diligently kept both the letters they received, and copies of the
letters they wrote, and made, for the benefit of posterity, careful
memoranda concerning the events of their lives, Patrick Henry d