Chapter XIV: Governor a Second Time

Patrick Henry's second term as governor extended from the 28th of June, 1777, to the 28th of June, 1778: a twelvemonth of vast and even decisive events in the struggle for national independence,--its awful disasters being more than relieved by the successes, both diplomatic and military, which were compressed within that narrow strip of time. Let us try, by a glance at the chief items in the record of that year, to bring before our eyes the historic environment amid which the governor of Virginia then wrought at his heavy tasks: July 6, 1777, American evacuation of Ticonderoga at the approach of Burgoyne; August 6, defeat of Herkimer by the British under St. Leger; August 16, Stark's victory over the British at Bennington; September 11, defeat of Washington at Brandywine; September 27, entrance of the British into Philadelphia; October 4, defeat of Washington at Germantown; October 16, surrender of Burgoyne and his entire army; December 11, Washington's retirement into winter quarters at Valley Forge; February 6, 1778, American treaty of alliance with France; May 11, death of Lord Chatham; June 13, Lord North's peace commissioners propose to Congress a cessation of hostilities; June 18, the British evacuate Philadelphia; June 28, the battle of Monmouth.

The story of the personal life of Patrick Henry during those stern and agitating months is lighted up by the mention of his marriage, on the 9th of October, 1777, to Dorothea Dandridge, a granddaughter of the old royal governor, Alexander Spotswood,--a lady who was much younger than her husband, and whose companionship proved to be the solace of all the years that remained to him on earth.

The pressure of official business upon him can hardly have been less than during the previous year. The General Assembly was in session from the 20th of October, 1777, until the 24th of January, 1778, and from the 4th of May to the 1st of June, 1778,--involving, of course, a long strain of attention by the governor to the work of the two houses. Moreover, the prominence of Virginia among the States, and, at the same time, her exemption from the most formidable assaults of the enemy, led to great demands being made upon her both for men and for supplies. To meet these demands, either by satisfying them or by explaining his failure to do so, involved a copious and laborious correspondence on the part of Governor Henry, not only with his own official subordinates in the State, but with the president of Congress, with the board of war, and with the general of the army. The official letters which he thus wrote are a monument of his ardor and energy as a war governor, his attention to details, his broad practical sense, his hopefulness and patience under galling disappointments and defeats.[284]

Perhaps nothing in the life of Governor Henry during his second term of office has so touching an interest for us now, as has the course which he took respecting the famous intrigue, which was developed into alarming proportions during the winter of 1777 and 1778, for the displacement of Washington, and for the elevation of the shallow and ill-balanced Gates to the supreme command of the armies. It is probable that several men of prominence in the army, in Congress, and in the several state governments, were drawn into this cabal, although most of them had too much caution to commit themselves to it by any documentary evidence which could rise up and destroy them in case of its failure. The leaders in the plot very naturally felt the great importance of securing the secret support of men of high influence in Washington's own State; and by many it was then believed that they had actually won over no less a man than Richard Henry Lee. Of course, if also the sanction of Governor Patrick Henry could be secured, a prodigious advantage would be gained. Accordingly, from the town of York, in Pennsylvania, whither Congress had fled on the advance of the enemy towards Philadelphia, the following letter was sent to him,--a letter written in a disguised hand, without signature, but evidently by a personal friend, a man of position, and a master of the art of plausible statement:--

YORKTOWN, 12 January, 1778.

DEAR SIR,--The common danger of our country first brought
you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the influence
of your conversation and eloquence upon the opinions of this
country in the beginning of the present controversy. You
first taught us to shake off our idolatrous attachment to
royalty, and to oppose its encroachments upon our liberties
with our very lives. By these means you saved us from ruin.
The independence of America is the offspring of that liberal
spirit of thinking and acting, which followed the
destruction of the sceptres of kings, and the mighty power
of Great Britain.

But, Sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A dreary
wilderness is still before us; and unless a Moses or a
Joshua are raised up in our behalf, we must perish before we
reach the promised land. We have nothing to fear from our
enemies on the way. General Howe, it is true, has taken
Philadelphia, but he has only changed his prison. His
dominions are bounded on all sides by his out-sentries.
America can only be undone by herself. She looks up to her
councils and arms for protection; but, alas! what are they?
Her representation in Congress dwindled to only twenty-one
members; her Adams, her Wilson, her Henry are no more among
them. Her councils weak, and partial remedies applied
constantly for universal diseases. Her army, what is it? A
major-general belonging to it called it a few days ago, in
my hearing, a mob. Discipline unknown or wholly neglected.
The quartermaster's and commissary's departments filled with
idleness, ignorance, and peculation; our hospitals crowded
with six thousand sick, but half provided with necessaries
or accommodations, and more dying in them in one month than
perished in the field during the whole of the last campaign.
The money depreciating, without any effectual measures being
taken to raise it; the country distracted with the Don
Quixote attempts to regulate the price of provisions; an
artificial famine created by it, and a real one dreaded from
it; the spirit of the people failing through a more intimate
acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes; many
submitting daily to General Howe; and more wishing to do it,
only to avoid the calamities which threaten our country. But
is our case desperate? By no means. We have wisdom, virtue
and strength enough to save us, if they could be called into
action. The northern army has shown us what Americans are
capable of doing with a General at their head. The spirit of
the southern army is no way inferior to the spirit of the
northern. A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway, would in a few weeks
render them an irresistible body of men. The last of the
above officers has accepted of the new office of
inspector-general of our army, in order to reform abuses;
but the remedy is only a palliative one. In one of his
letters to a friend he says, 'A great and good God hath
decreed America to be free, or the [General] and weak
counsellors would have ruined her long ago.' You may rest
assured of each of the facts related in this letter. The
author of it is one of your Philadelphia friends. A hint of
his name, if found out by the handwriting, must not be
mentioned to your most intimate friend. Even the letter must
be thrown into the fire. But some of its contents ought to
be made public, in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our
country. I rely upon your prudence, and am, dear Sir, with
my usual attachment to you, and to our beloved independence,

Yours sincerely.

How was Patrick Henry to deal with such a letter as this? Even though he should reject its reasoning, and spurn the temptation with which it assailed him, should he merely burn it, and be silent? The incident furnished a fair test of his loyalty in friendship, his faith in principle, his soundness of judgment, his clear and cool grasp of the public situation,--in a word, of his manliness and his statesmanship. This is the way in which he stood the test:--

PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

WILLIAMSBURG, 20 February, 1778.

DEAR SIR,--You will, no doubt, be surprised at seeing the
enclosed letter, in which the encomiums bestowed on me are
as undeserved, as the censures aimed at you are unjust. I am
sorry there should be one man who counts himself my friend,
who is not yours.

Perhaps I give you needless trouble in handing you this
paper. The writer of it may be too insignificant to deserve
any notice. If I knew this to be the case, I should not have
intruded on your time, which is so precious. But there may
possibly be some scheme or party forming to your prejudice.
The enclosed leads to such a suspicion. Believe, me, Sir, I
have too high a sense of the obligations America has to you,
to abet or countenance so unworthy a proceeding. The most
exalted merit has ever been found to attract envy. But I
please myself with the hope that the same fortitude and
greatness of mind, which have hitherto braved all the
difficulties and dangers inseparable from your station, will
rise superior to every attempt of the envious partisan. I
really cannot tell who is the writer of this letter, which
not a little perplexes me. The handwriting is altogether
strange to me.

To give you the trouble of this gives me pain. It would suit
my inclination better to give you some assistance in the
great business of the war. But I will not conceal anything
from you, by which you may be affected; for I really think
your personal welfare and the happiness of America are
intimately connected. I beg you will be assured of that high
regard and esteem with which I ever am, dear sir, your
affectionate friend and very humble servant.

Fifteen days passed after the dispatch of that letter, when, having as yet no answer, but with a heart still full of anxiety respecting this mysterious and ill-boding cabal against his old friend, Governor Henry wrote again:--

PATRICK HENRY TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

WILLIAMSBURG, 5 March, 1778.

DEAR SIR,--By an express, which Colonel Finnie sent to camp,
I enclosed to you an anonymous letter which I hope got safe
to hand. I am anxious to hear something that will serve to
explain the strange affair, which I am now informed is taken
up respecting you. Mr. Custis has just paid us a visit, and
by him I learn sundry particulars concerning General
Mifflin, that much surprised me. It is very hard to trace
the schemes and windings of the enemies to America. I really
thought that man its friend; however, I am too far from him
to judge of his present temper.

While you face the armed enemies of our liberty in the
field, and by the favor of God have been kept unhurt, I
trust your country will never harbor in her bosom the
miscreant, who would ruin her best supporter. I wish not to
flatter; but when arts, unworthy honest men, are used to
defame and traduce you, I think it not amiss, but a duty, to
assure you of that estimation in which the public hold you.
Not that I think any testimony I can bear is necessary for
your support, or private satisfaction; for a bare
recollection of what is past must give you sufficient
pleasure in every circumstance of life. But I cannot help
assuring you, on this occasion, of the high sense of
gratitude which all ranks of men in this our native country
bear to you. It will give me sincere pleasure to manifest my
regards, and render my best services to you or yours. I do
not like to make a parade of these things, and I know you
are not fond of it; however, I hope the occasion will plead
my excuse. Wishing you all possible felicity, I am, my dear
Sir, your ever affectionate friend and very humble servant.

Before Washington received this second letter, he had already begun to write the following reply to the first:--

GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY.

VALLEY FORGE, 27 March, 1778.

DEAR SIR,--About eight days ago I was honored with your
favor of the 20th ultimo. Your friendship, sir, in
transmitting to me the anonymous letter you had received,
lays me under the most grateful obligations, and if my
acknowledgments can be due for anything more, it is for the
polite and delicate terms in which you have been pleased to
communicate the matter.

I have ever been happy in supposing that I had a place in
your esteem, and the proof you have afforded on this
occasion makes me peculiarly so. The favorable light in
which you hold me is truly flattering; but I should feel
much regret, if I thought the happiness of America so
intimately connected with my personal welfare, as you so
obligingly seem to consider it. All I can say is, that she
has ever had, and I trust she ever will have, my honest
exertions to promote her interest. I cannot hope that my
services have been the best; but my heart tells me they have
been the best that I could render.

That I may have erred in using the means in my power for
accomplishing the objects of the arduous, exalted station
with which I am honored, I cannot doubt; nor do I wish my
conduct to be exempted from reprehension farther than it may
deserve. Error is the portion of humanity, and to censure
it, whether committed by this or that public character, is
the prerogative of freemen. However, being intimately
acquainted with the man I conceive to be the author of the
letter transmitted, and having always received from him the
strongest professions of attachment and regard, I am
constrained to consider him as not possessing, at least, a
great degree of candor and sincerity, though his views in
addressing you should have been the result of conviction,
and founded in motives of public good. This is not the only
secret, insidious attempt that has been made to wound my
reputation. There have been others equally base, cruel, and
ungenerous, because conducted with as little frankness, and
proceeding from views, perhaps, as personally interested. I
am, dear sir, with great esteem and regard, your much
obliged friend, etc.

The writing of the foregoing letter was not finished, when Governor Henry's second letter reached him; and this additional proof of friendship so touched the heart of Washington that, on the next day, he wrote again, this time with far less self-restraint than before:--

GEORGE WASHINGTON TO PATRICK HENRY

CAMP, 28 March, 1778.

DEAR SIR,--Just as I was about to close my letter of
yesterday, your favor of the 5th instant came to hand. I can
only thank you again, in the language of the most
undissembled gratitude, for your friendship; and assure you,
that the indulgent disposition, which Virginia in
particular, and the States in general, entertain towards me,
gives me the most sensible pleasure. The approbation of my
country is what I wish; and as far as my abilities and
opportunities will permit, I hope I shall endeavor to
deserve it. It is the highest reward to a feeling mind; and
happy are they, who so conduct themselves as to merit it.

The anonymous letter with which you were pleased to favor
me, was written by Dr. Rush, so far as I can judge from a
similitude of hands. This man has been elaborate and studied
in his professions of regard for me; and long since the
letter to you. My caution to avoid anything which could
injure the service, prevented me from communicating, but to
a very few of my friends, the intrigues of a faction which I
know was formed against me, since it might serve to publish
our internal dissensions; but their own restless zeal to
advance their views has too clearly betrayed them, and made
concealment on my part fruitless. I cannot precisely mark
the extent of their views, but it appeared, in general, that
General Gates was to be exalted on the ruin of my reputation
and influence. This I am authorized to say, from undeniable
facts in my own possession, from publications, the evident
scope of which could not be mistaken, and from private
detractions industriously circulated. General Mifflin, it is
commonly supposed, bore the second part in the cabal; and
General Conway, I know, was a very active and malignant
partisan; but I have good reason to believe that their
machinations have recoiled most sensibly upon themselves.
With sentiments of great esteem and regard, I am, dear sir,
your affectionate humble servant.[285]

This incident in the lives of Washington and Patrick Henry is to be noted by us, not only for its own exquisite delicacy and nobility, but likewise as the culminating fact in the growth of a very deep and true friendship between the two men,--a friendship which seems to have begun many years before, probably in the House of Burgesses, and which lasted with increasing strength and tenderness, and with but a single episode of estrangement, during the rest of their lives. Moreover, he who tries to interpret the later career of Patrick Henry, especially after the establishment of the government under the Constitution, and who leaves out of the account Henry's profound friendship for Washington, and the basis of moral and intellectual congeniality on which that friendship rested, will lose an important clew to the perfect naturalness and consistency of Henry's political course during his last years. A fierce partisan outcry was then raised against him in Virginia, and he was bitterly denounced as a political apostate, simply because, in the parting of the ways of Washington and of Jefferson, Patrick Henry no longer walked with Jefferson. In truth, Patrick Henry was never Washington's follower nor Jefferson's: he was no man's follower. From the beginning, he had always done for himself his own thinking, whether right or wrong. At the same time, a careful student of the three men may see that, in his thinking, Patrick Henry had a closer and a truer moral kinship with Washington than with Jefferson. At present, however, we pause before the touching incident that has just been narrated in the relations between Washington and Henry, in order to mark its bearing on their subsequent intercourse. Washington, in whose nature confidence was a plant of slow growth, and who was quick neither to love nor to cease from loving, never forgot that proof of his friend's friendship. Thenceforward, until that one year in which they both died, the letters which passed between them, while never effusive, were evidently the letters of two strong men who loved and trusted each other without reserve.

Not long before the close of the governor's second term in office, he had occasion to write to Richard Henry Lee two letters, which are of considerable interest, not only as indicating the cordial intimacy between these two great rivals in oratory, but also for the light they throw both on the under-currents of bitterness then ruffling the politics of Virginia, and on Patrick Henry's attitude towards the one great question at that time uppermost in the politics of the nation. During the previous autumn, it seems, also, Lee had fallen into great disfavor in Virginia, from which he had so far emerged by the 23d of January, 1778, as to be then reëlected to Congress, to fill out an unexpired term.[286] Shortly afterward, however, harsh speech against him was to be heard in Virginia once more, of which his friend, the governor, thus informed him, in a letter dated April 4, 1778:--

"You are again traduced by a certain set who have drawn in
others, who say that you are engaged in a scheme to discard
General Washington. I know you too well to suppose that you
would engage in anything not evidently calculated to serve
the cause of whiggism.... But it is your fate to suffer the
constant attacks of disguised Tories who take this measure
to lessen you. Farewell, my dear friend. In praying for your
welfare, I pray for that of my country, to which your life
and service are of the last moment."[287]

Furthermore, on the 30th of May, the General Assembly made choice of their delegates in Congress for the following year. Lee was again elected, but by so small a vote that his name stood next to the lowest on the list.[288] Concerning this stinging slight, he appears to have spoken in his next letters to the governor; for, on the 18th of June, the latter addressed to him, from Williamsburg, this reply:--

MY DEAR SIR,--Both your last letters came to hand to-day. I
felt for you, on seeing the order in which the balloting
placed the delegates in Congress. It is an effect of that
rancorous malice that has so long followed you, through that
arduous path of duty which you have invariably travelled,
since America resolved to resist her oppressors.

Is it any pleasure to you to remark, that at the same era in
which these men figure against you, public spirit seems to
have taken its flight from Virginia? It is too much the
case; for the quota of our troops is not half made up, and
no chance seems to remain for completing it. The Assembly
voted three hundred and fifty horse, and two thousand men,
to be forthwith raised, and to join the grand army. Great
bounties are offered; but, I fear, the only effect will be
to expose our state to contempt,--for I believe no soldiers
will enlist, especially in the infantry.

Can you credit it?--no effort was made for supporting or
restoring public credit. I pressed it warmly on some, but in
vain. This is the reason we get no soldiers.

We shall issue fifty or sixty thousand dollars in cash to
equip the cavalry, and their time is to expire at Christmas.
I believe they will not be in the field before that time.

Let not Congress rely on Virginia for soldiers. I tell you
my opinion: they will not be got here, until a different
spirit prevails.

In the next paragraph of his letter, the governor passes from these local matters to what was then the one commanding topic in national affairs. Lord North's peace commissioners had already arrived, and were seeking to win back the Americans into free colonial relations with the mother country, and away from their new-formed friendship with perfidious France. With what energy Patrick Henry was prepared to reject all these British blandishments, may be read in the passionate sentences which conclude his letter:--

I look at the past condition of America, as at a dreadful
precipice, from which we have escaped by means of the
generous French, to whom I will be ever-lastingly bound by
the most heartfelt gratitude. But I must mistake matters, if
some of those men who traduce you, do not prefer the offers
of Britain. You will have a different game to play now with
the commissioners. How comes Governor Johnstone there? I do
not see how it comports with his past life.

Surely Congress will never recede from our French friends.
Salvation to America depends upon our holding fast our
attachment to them. I shall date our ruin from the moment
that it is exchanged for anything Great Britain can say, or
do. She can never be cordial with us. Baffled, defeated,
disgraced by her colonies, she will ever meditate revenge.
We can find no safety but in her ruin, or, at least, in her
extreme humiliation; which has not happened, and cannot
happen, until she is deluged with blood, or thoroughly
purged by a revolution, which shall wipe from existence the
present king with his connections, and the present system
with those who aid and abet it.

For God's sake, my dear sir, quit not the councils of your
country, until you see us forever disjoined from Great
Britain. The old leaven still works. The fleshpots of Egypt
are still savory to degenerate palates. Again we are undone,
if the French alliance is not religiously observed. Excuse
my freedom. I know your love to our country,--and this is my
motive. May Heaven give you health and prosperity.

I am yours affectionately,
PATRICK HENRY.[289]

Before coming to the end of our story of Governor Henry's second term, it should be mentioned that twice during this period did the General Assembly confide to him those extraordinary powers which by many were spoken of as dictatorial; first, on the 22d of January, 1778,[290] and again, on the 28th of May, of the same year.[291] Finally, so safe had been this great trust in his hands, and so efficiently had he borne himself, in all the labors and responsibilities of his high office, that, on the 29th of May, the House of Delegates, by resolution, unanimously elected him as governor for a third term,--an act in which, on the same day, the Senate voted its concurrence. On the 30th of May, Thomas Jefferson, from the committee appointed to notify the governor of his reëlection, reported to the House the following answer:--

GENTLEMEN,--The General Assembly, in again electing me
governor of this commonwealth, have done me very signal
honor. I trust that their confidence, thus continued in me,
will not be misplaced. I beg you will be pleased, gentlemen,
to present me to the General Assembly in terms of grateful
acknowledgment for this fresh instance of their favor
towards me; and to assure them, that my best endeavors shall
be used to promote the public good, in that station to which
they have once more been pleased to call me.[292]

FOOTNOTES:

[284] Of the official letters of Governor Henry, doubtless many have perished; a few have been printed in Sparks, Force, Wirt, and elsewhere; a considerable number, also, are preserved in manuscript in the archives of the Department of State at Washington. Copies of the latter are before me as I write. As justifying the statement made in the text, I would refer to his letters of August 30, 1777; of October 29, 1777; of October 30, 1777; of December 6, 1777; of December 9, 1777; of January 20, 1778; of January 28, 1778; and of June 18, 1778.

[285] _Writings of Washington_, v. 495-497; 512-515.

[286] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 131.

[287] Given in Grigsby, _Va. Conv. of_ 1776, 142 note.

[288] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 27, 33.

[289] Lee, _Life of Richard Henry Lee_, i. 195 196.

[290] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 72, 81, 85, 125, 126.

[291] _Ibid._ 15, 16, 17.

[292] _Ibid._ 26, 30.