203. A Warning against Conciliation (1778)
No account of the Revolution would be complete without some quotation from Patrick Henry, the southern counterpart of Samuel Adams, member of Congress, governor, and leader of the patriots. Unfortunately there is no text preserved of a single one of his glowing speeches. The extract below, from a letter to Richard Henry Lee, shows his spirit : the issue was a plan of conciliation proposed by Great Britain after the French alliance. — Bibliography : William Wirt Henry, Patrick Henry ; Moses Coit Tyler, Patrick Henry ; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 107. — Bibliography of the plan of conciliation : Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, I, ch. iii; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 139.
Williamsburg June 18th, 1778.
. . . 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. 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 everlastingly 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.
