dy his
name had broken over the borders of Virginia, had traveled even so far
as to New England, and that in Boston itself he was a person whom
people were beginning to talk about. For example, in his Diary for the
22d of July, 1770, John Adams speaks of meeting some gentlemen from
Virginia, and of going out to Cambridge with them. One of them is
mentioned by name as having this distinction,--that he "is an intimate
friend of Mr. Patrick Henry, the first mover of the Virginia resolves
in 1765."[87] Thus, even so early, the incipient revolutionist in New
England had got his thoughts on his brilliant political kinsman in
Virginia.

But it was chiefly within the limits of his own splendid and gallant
colony, and among an eager and impressionable people whose habitual
hatred of all restraints turned into undying love for this dashing
champion of natural liberty, that Patrick Henry was now instantly
crowned with his crown of sovereignty. By his resolutions against the
Stamp Act, as Jefferson testifies, "Mr. Henry took the lead out of the
hands of those who had heretofore guided the proceedings of the
House, that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Randolph, and
Nicholas."[88] Wirt does not put the case too strongly when he
declares, that "after this debate there was no longer a question among
the body of the people, as to Mr. Henry's being the first statesman
and orator in Virginia. Those, indeed, whose ranks he had scattered,
and whom he had thrown into the shade, still tried to brand him with
the names of declaimer and demagogue. But this was obviously the
effect of envy and mortified pride.... From the period of which we
have been speaking, Mr. Henry became the idol of the people of
Virginia."[89]

FOOTNOTES:

[73] See this view supported by Wirt, in his life by Kennedy, ii. 73.

[74] Gordon, _Hist. of Am. Rev._ i. 131.

[75] Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 178-181.

[76] Cited in Frothingham, 181.

[77] Oxenbridge Thacher.

[78] _Works of John Adams_, x. 287.

[79] Frothingham, 181.

[80] Cited by Sparks, in Everett, _Life of Henry_, 396.

[81] Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, 181.

[82] Daniel Leonard, in _Novanglus and Massachusettensis_, 147, 148.

[83] As the historic importance of the Virginia resolutions became
more and more apparent, a disposition was manifested to deny to
Patrick Henry the honor of having written them. As early as 1790,
Madison, between whom and Henry there was nea