. M. Hughes, of Hobart College; and
from the Rev. Stephen H. Synnott, rector of St. John's, Ithaca.

M. C. T.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 3 June, 1887.

PREFACE

TO REVISED EDITION

I have gladly used the opportunity afforded by a new edition of this
book to give the text a minute revision from beginning to end, and to
make numerous changes both in its substance and in its form.

During the eleven years that have passed since it first came from the
press, considerable additions have been made to our documentary
materials for the period covered by it, the most important for our
purpose being the publication, for the first time, of the
correspondence and the speeches of Patrick Henry and of George Mason,
the former with a life, in three volumes, by William Wirt Henry, the
latter also with a life, in two volumes, by Kate Mason Rowland.
Besides procuring for my own pages whatever benefit I could draw from
these texts, I have tried, while turning over very frequently the
writings of Patrick Henry's contemporaries, to be always on the watch
for the means of correcting any mistakes I may have made concerning
him, whether as to fact or as to opinion.

In this work of rectification I have likewise been aided by
suggestions from many persons, of whom I would particularly mention
the Right Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., D. D., Bishop of North
Carolina, and Mr. William Wirt Henry.

M. C. T.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 31 March, 1898

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. EARLY YEARS 1
II. WAS HE ILLITERATE? 10
III. BECOMES A LAWYER 22
IV. A CELEBRATED CASE 36
V. FIRST TRIUMPHS AT THE CAPITAL 56
VI. CONSEQUENCES 77
VII. STEADY WORK 90
VIII. IN THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 101
IX. "AFTER ALL, WE MUST FIGHT" 128
X. THE RAPE OF THE GUNPOWDER 153
XI. IN CONGRESS AND IN CAMP 168
XII. INDEPENDENCE 189
XIII. FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA 214
XIV. GOVER