progress of a struggle involving the future fortunes of half mankind. "To those beings," says Mr. Wirt, on the authority of Judge Archibald Stuart, who was a member of the Convention, and present at the debate, "to those beings he had addressed an invocation with a most thrilling look and action, that made every nerve shudder with supernatural horror, when, lo! a storm at that instant arose, which shook the whole building, and the spirits whom he had called seemed to have come at his bidding. Nor did his eloquence or the storm immediately cease. Availing himself of the incident with a master's art, he seemed to mix in the fight of his ethereal auxiliaries, and, rising on the wings of the tempest, to seize upon the artillery of heaven, and direct its fiercest thunders against the heads of his adversaries.' The scene became insupportable, and the House rose without the formality of adjournment, the members rushing from their seats with precipitation and confusion."

The reporter presents the passage in the speech of Henry here alluded to in the following form;

"The honorable gentleman tells you of important blessings, which he imagines will result to us and to mankind in general from the adoption of this system. As for me, I can only see the awful immensity of the dangers with which it

is pregnant. I see it. I feel it. I see beings of a higher order anxious concerning our decision. I extend my view beyond the horizon that limits human vision, and behold those superior intelligences anticipating the political revolutions which in process of time may take place in America, and the consequent happiness or misery of mankind. I am led to believe that much of the account on one side or the other will depend on what we now decide. Our own happiness alone is not affected by the event. All nations are interested in the determination. We have it in our own power to secure the happiness of one half of the human race. Its adoption may involve the misery of the other hemisphere."

Here," says says the reporter, in a parenthesis, "a violent storm arose, which put the House in such disorder, that Mr. Henry was obliged to conclude."

Mr. Wirt remarks, in a note, that, "by comparing the statement of Judge Stuart with this passage in the printed debates, the reader may decide how far these may be relied on as specimens of Mr. Henry's eloquence." The passage as reported certainly carries internal evidence of being a very feeble and inadequate transcript of the orator's language; but we suspect that the reporter's parenthesis will be thought by most readers a much more natural and plausible ac

count of the reasons and manner of adjournment, than the glowing statement of the learned judge.

The general discussion was continued on the 25th, and two or three new speakers took, for the first time, a prominent part in the debate; Colonel Innis, then attorney-general of the state, who seems to have been a very remarkable orator, and whose eloquence is characterized by Mr. Wirt, in his usual florid style, as a "splendid conflagration," Judge Tyler, and Zachariah Johnson. Randolph, Henry, Madison, Monroe, and Grayson, mingled, as usual, in the discussion. At the close of this day's debate, the question was taken, and on the two following days the proceedings of the Convention were brought, in the manner that has been already mentioned, to a close.

Although the views of Henry were not adopted by the Convention, he seems to have suffered no diminution of his personal influence in consequence of the part which he took on this occasion. At the session of the Assembly, which was held on the following October, he succeeded in preventing the election of Mr. Madison to the Senate of the United States, and in carrying that of Richard Henry Lee and Mr. Grayson, the latter of whom had been in the Convention an active opponent of the constitution. At the

same session, he moved a resolution requesting Congress to call another General Convention, for the purpose of amending the instrument as adopted. A motion was made to amend this resolution by substituting another, inviting Congress to propose to the states, in the constitutional way, the bill of rights and series of amendments proposed by Henry, and adopted at the Richmond Convention. This motion was rejected, and the original proposal of Henry was adopted by a triumphant majority of more than two to one.

Thus terminated the action of Henry upon the great reform effected in the government by the adoption of the federal constitution. While we render the fullest justice to the correctness of his intentions, and to the superiority of talent and eloquence with which he supported his views in the Convention, we may pronounce it, without hesitation, a most fortunate thing for the country that they did not prevail. Still more fortunate will it be, if the dangers which he apprehended shall prove, in the sequel, to have been imaginary, and not to have been adjourned for a time, only to burst upon us with greater fury in proportion to the immense augmentation, which will have taken place in the interval in the extent and population of the country. The enemies of liberal constitutions abroad generally look forward to the early occurrence among us of some such

catastrophe, and are sustained in their gloomy forebodings by the opinions of many of our most judicious and best informed citizens. Yet when we find the superior liberality of our institutions, accompanied, as it thus far has been, by a corresponding superiority in the intelligence, morality, and general well-being of the people, we may venture, perhaps, to regard such apprehensions as groundless, and to consider the establishment of our republican empire as the opening of a new and more auspicious chapter in the history of

man.

CHAPTER VIII.

Retirement of Henry from political and professional Life. Domestic Occupations.- Death and Character.

THE proceedings detailed in the preceding chapter were the last, of a political character, in which Henry was engaged. It is understood, that, on the retirement of Mr. Jefferson from the office of Secretary of State, Henry was requested to take charge of that department of the government; and it is rumored, that, at a later period, during the administration of John Adams, he was