d tenders, which," as Washington
says to the governor, "may go up your rivers in quest of provisions,
or for the purpose of destroying your towns."[263] Indeed, Virginia
was just then exposed to hostile attacks on all sides;[264] and it was
so plain that any attack by water would have found an easy approach to
Williamsburg, that, in the course of the next few months, the public
records and the public stores were removed to Richmond, as being, on
every account, a "more secure site."[265] Apparently, however, the
prompt recognition of this danger by Governor Henry, early in the
autumn of 1776, and his vigorous military preparations against it,
were interpreted by some of his political enemies as a sign both of
personal cowardice and of official self-glorification,--as is
indicated by a letter written by the aged Landon Carter to General
Washington, on the 31st of October, and filled with all manner of
caustic garrulity and insinuation,--a letter from which it may be
profitable for us to quote a few sentences, as qualifying somewhat
that stream of honeyed testimony respecting Patrick Henry which
commonly flows down upon us so copiously from all that period.

"If I don't err in conjecture," says Carter, "I can't help
thinking that the head of our Commonwealth has as great a
palace of fear and apprehension as can possess the heart of
any being; and if we compare rumor with actual movements, I
believe it will prove itself to every sensible man. As soon
as the Congress sent for our first, third, fourth, fifth,
and sixth regiments to assist you in contest against the
enemy where they really were ... there got a report among
the soldiery that Dignity had declared it would not reside
in Williamsburg without two thousand men under arms to guard
him. This had like to have occasioned a mutiny. A desertion
of many from the several companies did follow; boisterous
fellows resisting, and swearing they would not leave their
county.... What a finesse of popularity was this?... As soon
as the regiments were gone, this great man found an interest
with the council of state, perhaps timorous as himself, to
issue orders for the militia of twenty-six counties, and
five companies of a minute battalion, to march to
Williamsburg, to protect him only against his own fears; and
to make this the more popular, it was endeavored that the
House of