Patrick Henry essays

Patrick Henry essays Patrick Henry was a lawyer patriot, orator and was a symbol for the the American fight for liberty and self government. Patrick Henry was born in 1736 in Hanover County, Virginia 1736 and died in 1799. He was educated in a country school and in a school kept by his father. Henry tried merchandising and farming, but lost money at both. He then turned his mind to the study of law, and was admitted to practice in 1760. Three years later he won reputation by the management of a famous law case, known as the Parson's Cause. At that day the clergymen of Virginia, like those of England, were entitled to salaries from public funds. Their salaries were given in part in the currency of the day, namely tobacco. In 1764 he moved to Louisa county, Virginia, where, as a lawyer, he argued in defense of broad voting rights before the House of Burgesses. The following year he was elected to the House and soon became its leading radical member. He instilled the point that a king who vetoed a good and helpful law made by a locally elected representative body was not a leader to his people. Patrick Henry had been called a traitor who committed treason in his struggle against the Stamp Act. In 1774 he represented Virginia in the First Continental Congress where he continued in the role of firecracker. At the start of the revolution, he returned to his native state and lead militia in defense of V irginia's gunpowder store, when the royal Governor spirited it aboard a British ship. Henry forced the Governor Lord Dunmore to pay for the power at fair price. In March 1775 Patrick Henry told colonists to arm themselves in the war against England, speaking the immortal words: I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death Henry's call to arms was returned with a warrant on his head placed by the King of England. Henry responded with the remark a Quaker in religion but ...