HENRY, Patrick, statesman, born at Studley, Hanover County, Virginia, 29 May, 1736; died in Red Hill, Charlotte County, Virginia, 6 June, 1799. His father, John Henry, was a Scotchman, son of Alexander Henry and Jean Robertson, a cousin of the historian William Robertson and of the mother of Lord Brougham. His mother was Sarah Winston, of the English family of that name. The father of Patrick Henry gave his son a classical education, but he entered upon business at an early age.
At eighteen he married, and, having tried farming and merchandise without success, became a lawyer in 1760. His fee-books show a large practice from the beginning of his professional life; but his surpassing powers as an orator were not discovered till, in December, 1763, he argued what is known as the "Parson's cause." This was a suit brought by a minister of the established church in Virginia to recover his salary, which had been fixed at 16,000 pounds of tobacco. A short crop had caused a great advance in its market price, and induced the colonial legislature to pass an act commuting the salaries of the ministers into money at the rate of two pence for a pound of tobacco, which was its former price. This act had not been approved by the king, but the house of burgesses determined to enforce it. In his speech for the de-fence Mr. Henry displayed powers of oratory of the first order, and boldly struck the key-note of the American Revolution by arguing that "a king, by disallowing acts of a salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience."
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