in it. The address was, therefore, committed for amendment; and one prepared by Mr. Jay, and offered by governor Livingston, was reported and adopted, with scarcely an alteration. These facts are stated by a gentleman to whom they were communicated by Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Harrison, of the Virginia delegation, (except that Mr. Harrison erroneously ascribed the draught to governor Livingston,) and to whom they were afterwards confirmed by governor Livingston himself. Mr. Henry’s draught of a petition to the king was equally unsuccessful, and was recommitted for amendment. Mr. John Dickinson (the author of the Farmer’s letters) was added to the committee, and a new draught prepared by him was adopted.[1]
This is one of those incidents in the life of Mr. Henry to which an allusion was made in a former page, when it was observed, that notwithstanding the wonderful gifts which he had derived from nature, he lived himself, to deplore his early neglect of literature. But for this neglect, that imperishable trophy won by the pen of Mr. John Dickinson would have been his; and the fame of his genius, instead of resting on tradition, or the short-lived report of his present biographer, would have flourished on the immortal page of the American history.
It is a trite remark, that the talents for speaking and
- ↑ The late governor Tyler, a warm friend of Mr. Henry’s, used to relate an anecdote in strict accordance with this statement: it was, that after these two gentlemen had made their first speeches, Mr. Chase, a delegate from Maryland, walked across the house to the seat of his colleague, and said to him, in an under voice—“We might as well go home; we are not able to legislate with these men.” But that after the house came to descend to details, the same Mr. Chase was heard to remark, “Well, after all, I find these are but men—and in mere matters of business, but very common men.”
