Patrick Henry: Voice That Started the American Revolution

Introduction: A Revolutionary Before the Revolution

On December 1, 1763, a young, relatively unknown lawyer stood in public for the first time and openly defended in court the rights of the American colonies to be free. He started his speech by stuttering and stammering, but that did not last long. When he had finished speaking, cries of treason went up from the crowd; however, his argument was so persuasive that the jury sided with him. The young lawyer's name was Patrick Henry, and while he may have started his speech roughly, by the time he finished he had set himself on the path to becoming one of the founding fathers of the United States of America.

Patrick Henry is not known as a great warrior, but while he did fight a few battles with muskets and cannons, words were his most effective weapons. His ability to deliver those words in a persuasive manner is what made him great. Long before others in the colonies were stating their support for independence, Patrick Henry was building the intellectual and legal foundations of the Revolution. In effect, it was Patrick Henry who started the American Revolution.

Early Life and Entry into Law

Born on May 29, 1736, Patrick Henry was the son of a Virginia planter who had emigrated from Scotland. His mother was the daughter of a prominent local family. He received most of his education from his father, who had attended King's College in Aberdeen, Scotland. Henry began his career young, working as a clerk for a local merchant, but when he attempted to strike out on his own, he failed. He opened a store with his brother that quickly closed, then tried his hand as a planter. When Henry was just eighteen, he married sixteen-year-old Sarah Shelton, whose dowry included a 600-acre farm complete with a house and six slaves ("Biography of Patrick Henry"). Within a few years the house had burned down and the farm was in financial ruin. Henry, who was then working in a tavern near a courthouse, began reading law. By 1760, "self-taught and barely prepared, Henry persuaded the panel of distinguished Virginia attorneys…that he had the intelligence to warrant admission to the bar" ("Biography of Patrick Henry").

The Parson's Cause: Seed of Revolution

After just a few short years practicing law, Patrick Henry became involved in a case that no other lawyers in the area would touch — one that became known as the Parson's Cause. This case involved the Reverend James Maury, who sued the Colony of Virginia for 300 British pounds. Since the Anglican Church was the official religion of the Colony of Virginia, Anglican ministers were paid by the colony. In 1748, tobacco was a common form of currency, and "the salary of a parson was set at 16,000 pounds of tobacco a year" ("The Parsons' Cause Trial: 1763"). But in 1755, and again in 1758, drought forced the colony to enact laws allowing payments in tobacco to be made with the colony's paper money. The shortage of tobacco caused by the drought had driven prices sharply upward. The colony then enacted the "Two Penny Act," which set the price for payment to the clergy at two pence per pound of tobacco, even though the market price was closer to four pence per pound. In effect, the clergy were being paid roughly half of what they had been owed (Tyler, 1887, pp. 33–34).

The clergy of Virginia complained to the King of England that they were being treated unfairly, and the King agreed, allowing the clergy to sue the colony for back wages. Reverend James Maury then sued Virginia for 300 British pounds in back pay. While most observers felt this was an open-and-shut case and that Maury was clearly entitled to the money, Patrick Henry felt differently. When no one else would argue for the side of the Colony of Virginia, Henry stepped forward and took the case.

In court, Henry argued what was known as the "compact theory of government" — a theory holding that while the people had an obligation to obey the laws and dictates of the King, the King had certain obligations and responsibilities to the people in return. Maury himself, in a letter written shortly after the trial, complained that Henry argued that setting the clergy's pay at two pence per pound of tobacco "had every characteristic of a good law, that it was a law of general utility, and could not, consistently with what he called the original compact between King and people, stipulated protection on the one hand and obedience on the other, be annulled" (Maury, 1763).

In effect, Patrick Henry argued that the law which set the clergy's wages was a "good law," enacted for the general good of all the people of the colony, and that according to the social contract between King and people, the King was not permitted to nullify this law or allow the clergy to sue the colony for back wages. By doing so, the King had broken his contract with the people, and as a result the people no longer had any obligation to obey him. Patrick Henry thus became one of the first American colonists to argue that the people of the colonies had the right to withdraw their allegiance from the King because of his tyrannical actions. At the Parson's trial, fifteen years before the start of the Revolution, Henry stated that when such a thing happens, the King "instead of being a father to his people, degenerates into a tyrant" ("The Parsons' Cause Trial: 1763 — The Suit"). It can be argued that this moment was the true beginning of the American Revolution.

Much like the accusations that would come later, many felt that Henry had spoken treason by using this argument. But the jury agreed with him, and instead of awarding Maury the 300 British pounds he had requested, they awarded him the amount of just one penny. The jury had clearly accepted Henry's argument that a contract existed between King and people, and that the King had broken it by siding with the clergy. As a result of this victory, Patrick Henry gained fame and prominence, and entered political life.