George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[277] beyond himself, ‘Tarquin,’ he cried, ‘and Caesar,

chap XIII.} 1765 May.

had each his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell; and George the Third——’ ‘Treason!’ shouted the Speaker; ‘treason, treason!’ was echoed round the house, while Henry, fixing his eye on the first interrupter, continued without faltering, ‘may profit by their example!’¹

Swayed by his words, the committee of the whole showed its good will to the spirit of all the resolutions enumerated; but the five offered by Patrick Henry were alone reported to the house, and on Thursday, the thirtieth of May, having been adopted by small majorities, the fifth by a vote of twenty to nineteen, they became a part of the public record. ‘I would have given five hundred guineas for a single vote,’² ‘exclaimed the Attorney-General, aloud, as he came out past young Jefferson, into whose youthful soul the proceedings of that day sunk so deeply, that resistance to tyranny became a part of his nature. But Henry carried all the young members with him.’³ That night, thinking his work done, he rode home; but the next day, in his absence, an attempt was made to strike all the resolutions off the journals, and the fifth, and the fifth only, was blotted out. The Lieutenant Governor, though he did not believe new elections would fall on what he esteemed cool, reasonable men, dissolved the assembly; but the four resolutions which remained on the journals and the two others, on which no vote had been taken, were published in the newspapers throughout