Patrick Henry First Among Patriots

I finished this fine history book written by Thomas Kidd. It is not for everyone as it is pretty thick history. Very interesting as it has some unique features to books about the founding fathers. I have read several. While this guy is no McCullough or Goodwin he writes well.

The book delves into George Washington more than most books of this nature. Henry and W (the first one) were born the same year and died 4 months apart They both cut their teath politically together in the House of Burgeses. The book writes plenty about W corresondence for which he was not known for.

Henry is most famous for his give me librty speech. He was a great orator and many of his contmporaries said he should stop at the oratory as his politcal skills were limited.

He was Govenor of Virginia 5 times (one year terms). He would serve a year and have to go back and run his business because he was not wealthy enough to serve the government. My how times have changed. I guess he was not a very good politician if he could not figure out how to get rich while serving. They have figured that out in Washington now.

He started out a s shopkeeper and failed, he was a bartender at his father's pub in the Virginia capital and became friends with Jefferson. Decided to change jobs and went and tested for the bar and became a lawyer. He was self educated as he only attended primary school- very well read in the classics. His first case was defending the state sponsored church against a bunch of priests suing for back wages. Preachrs were paid with tobaco and they petitioned the King to be paid in cash and won. A drouth came by and the price of tobacco skyrocketed and they petitioned the King;s court to revert back to tobaco payment and they did. They then sued the Virginia government for back wages. Henry who was a prominant Anglican defened the Church and won based on his arguement against English control of Virginia taxes and business. He won and spent the rest of his life on the same theme. It went downhill from there and you know the rest of the story.

He stood for religious freedom and state funding for all churchs or none at all. He proposed (or maybe just supported) a tax that would be sent to the churches and if you did not attend church you would not pay the tax. Sounds like the wrong incentives to me. It failed

He was at the front of supporting the revolution and going by the details of the book it is a wonder that the revolution succeeded. It was nip and tuck all of the way. He helped prevent a coup to remove Washington as head of the Continental Army in the dark days of Valley Forge. Washington was very grateful until the end.

Henry opposed the ratification of the Constitution. He was afraid a strong central government would only replace the King's tyrany. His was and others were so vocal and had such strong concerns that it resulted in the Bill of Rights which was written to restrict the powers of the Federal Government. He voted against ratification but after passage fell in line and stood against susession which was not out of the question for Virginia at the time.

He was a slave owner and like his contemporaries did not see the irony of freedom in a land of slavery. They sowed the seeds of the civil war but it would not be a union if slavery was outlawed as part of the formation of the nation.

The book is very detailed and not for everyone but it is a great book to show the not so pretty underbelly of the revolutionary process. Henry is not a first among patriots but he was an important and influencial figure in Virginia's role. Erin is decendent of the Henry family. Soemthing to be proud of.

My next book is on Mao the untold story. 800 pages so it will be a while until my next post

Max