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[73] See this view supported by Wirt, in his life by Kennedy, ii. 73.

[74] Gordon, Hist. of Am. Rev. i. 131.

[75] Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 178–181.

[76] Cited in Frothingham, 181.

[77] Oxenbridge Thacher.

[78] Works of John Adams, x. 287.

[79] Frothingham, 181.

[80] Cited by Sparks, in Everett, Life of Henry, 396.

[81] Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 181.

[82] Daniel Leonard, in Novanglus and Massachusettensis, 147, 148.

[83] As the historic importance of the Virginia resolutions became more and more apparent, a disposition was manifested to deny to Patrick Henry the honor of having written them. As early as 1790, Madison, between whom and Henry there was nearly always a sharp hostility, significantly asked Edmund Pendleton to tell him “where the resolutions proposed by Mr. Henry really originated.” Letters and Other Writings of Madison, i. 515. Edmund Randolph is said to have asserted that they were written by William Fleming; a statement of which Jefferson remarked, “It is to me incomprehensible.” Works, vi. 484. But to Jefferson’s own testimony on the same subject, I would apply the same remark. In his Memorandum, he says without hesitation that the resolutions “were drawn up by George Johnston, a lawyer of the Northern Neck, a very able, logical, and correct speaker.” Hist. Mag. for 1867, 91. But in another paper, written at about the same time, Jefferson said: “I can readily enough believe these resolutions were written by Mr. Henry himself. They bear the stamp of his mind, strong, without precision. That they were written by Johnston, who seconded them, was only the rumor of the day, and very possibly unfounded.” Works, vi. 484. In the face of all this tissue of rumor, guesswork, and self-contradiction, the deliberate statement of Patrick Henry himself that he wrote the five resolutions referred to by him, and that he wrote them “alone, unadvised, and unassisted,” must close the discussion.

[84] Verified from the original manuscript, now in possession of Mr. W. W. Henry.

[85] Cited by Sparks, in Everett, Life of Henry, 392.

[86] Perry, Hist. Coll. i. 514, 515.

[87] Works of John Adams, ii. 249.

[88] Works of Jefferson, vi. 368.

[89] Life of Henry, 66.

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