File:The magazine of American history with notes and queries (1877) (14784468872).jpg

Identifier: magazineofamericv11stev (find matches)
Title: The magazine of American history with notes and queries
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Stevens, John Austin, 1827-1910. ed. cn DeCosta, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1831-1904. ed. cn Johnston, Henry Phelps, 1842-1923, ed. cn Lamb, Martha J. (Martha Joanna), 1829-1893. ed. cn Pond, Nathan Gillett, 1832-1894 ed Abbatt, William, 1851-1935, comp
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Publisher: New York : A.S. Barnes
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ohis strong human sympathies. There is nothing to show that he was con-sidered by his contemporaries a rude or ignorant person. From some chancephrases in his private letters he seems to have shared Jeffersons distrustof the planter class; but the old nabobs were not so absurd as to re-gard him as their social inferior. His wonderful oratory made him a thousand times their superior. Bythe common consent of all his contemporaries his eloquence was inde-scribable ; and even Jefferson, who indulged in somewhat undemocraticsneers at his origin, said that he spoke as Homer wrote. Mr. Wirt hascast a doubt by his rhetoric upon this point as upon others. His exag- THE VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 379 geration enfeebles the delineation. But enough has been established tomake it certain that Patrick Henry was one of the two or three greatestorators of the world. One of his contemporaries, who had often felt thespell of his eloquence, declared that his force lay rather in his manner than
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(From the Portrait by Sully.) in his matter— in the greatness of his emotion and passion, the match-less perfection of the organs of expression ; the intonation, pause, gesture,attitude, and indescribable play of countenance. It is certain that heswayed every assembly which he addressed, apparently at his pleasure.Whenever he was fully aroused he overthrew all opposition, and forced his 380 THE VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE listeners as from a species of magnetism to accept his views as the only trueones. Any comparison of him with the very greatest of his contemporaries,would only establish their inferiority. His superiority was acknowledged.When he rose in Congress and exclaimed, British oppression has effacedthe boundaries of the several colonies—the distinctions between Virginians,Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more—I amnot a Virginian but an American ! his listeners are said to have declaredhim the greatest public speaker on the continent. No

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