Patrick Henry's Defense.
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 45, No. 10, October 1905.
In the days of colonial struggle, in Virginia, when aristocratic and ecclesiastic rule forbade the people the privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, the churches that differed from the Episcopal church, especially the Baptists, were severely persecuted. Many Baptist preachers were imprisoned, and even publicly whipped. In the year 1768, three Baptist preachers, Lewis Craig, John Waller and James Chiles, were arrested at Fredericksburg, Va., for preaching the gospel. The bail required was nearly two thousand pounds sterling, though the time was only two days. At the trial they were promised liberty if they would agree to preach no more in the country for a year and one day. This they sternly refused to do and were thrown into prison. Through the efforts of their friends they were finally released, and awaited the day of their trial in court. At the trial, with no lawyer to plead their cause, the clerk proceeded to read the indictment. While this was being read, Patrick Henry, who had heard of the circumstance and the prospective trial, entered the room and took his seat. When the indictment had been read, the king's attorney made some remarks in support of the prosecution. After he had spoken there was a slight pause in which Patrick Henry arose slowly, and taking the paper containing the indictment, said, "May it please your worships, I think I heard read by the prosecutor, as I entered the house, the paper I now hold in my hand. If I have rightly understood, the king's attorney has framed an indictment for the purpose of arraigning and punishing by imprisonment three inoffensive persons before the bar of this court for a crime of great magnitude, as disturbers of peace. May it please the court, what did I hear? Did I hear distinctly, or was it a mistake of my own? Did I hear an expression as of a crime that these men whom your worships are about to try for misdemeanor are charged with - with - what?" Then with a low, solemn, heavy tone, he continued, - "Preaching the gospel of the Son of God."A silence like death reigned in the court house. Patrick Henry paused, waved the paper three times above his head, and then, raising his eyes and hands toward heaven, with impressive and peculiar energy exclaimed, "Great God!" A burst of feeling from the audience followed this exclamation. When the excitement had somewhat abated, he continued: "May it please your worships, in a day like this, when truth is about to burst her fetters; when mankind are about to be aroused to claim their natural and inalienable rights; when the yoke of oppression that has reached the wilderness of America is about to be removed, and the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and civil power is about to be severed, - at such a period, when liberty of conscience is about to wake from her slumberings and inquire into the reason of such charges as I find here today exhibited in this indictment?" - here he paused and alternately cast his eyes upon the court and upon the prisoners, and resumed - "if I am not deceived, according to the contents of the paper I now hold in my hand, these men are accused of preaching the gospel of the Son of God! Great God!" A deeper impression was visible as he paused and slowly waved the paper round his head. "May it please your worships," he continued, "there are period in the history of man when corruption and depravity have so long debased the human character that man sinks under the weight of the oppressors hands - becomes his servile, his abject slave; he licks the hand that smites him; he bows in passive obedience to the mandates of the despot; and in this state of servility he receives his fetters of perpetual bondage. But from that period when our fathers left the land of their nativity for these American wilds, from the moment they placed their feet upon the American continent, from that moment despotism was crushed, the fetters of darkness were broken and heaven decreed that man should be free - free to worship God according to the Bible. Were it not for this, in vain were all their sufferings and bloodshed to subjugate this New World, if we their offspring must still be oppressed and persecuted. But may it please your worships, permit me to inquire once more for what these men are to be tried? This paper says "for preaching the gospel of the Saviour to Adam's fallen race." For the third time he slowly waved the indictment round his head, and lifting his eyes to heaven in a solemn manner, and again looking at the court, he exclaimed, with the full power of his voice, "What laws have they violated?" The excitement of the audience was wrought up to the highest pitch, the bench and bar were moved, the scene became painful, and the presiding magistrate exclaimed, "Sheriff, discharge those men!"
The cruel hand of oppression fell heavily upon all who opposed the aristocratic and empty worship of the Episcopal church in the colony of Virginia.
The Baptists, who have always been a liberty loving people, ought not to forget the unselfish devotion of Patrick Henry to the cause of liberty. By the aid of such men they gained the boon for which they prayed and labored, the right to worship God in their own way, and others who enjoy religious freedom with them today owe to that ancient order more than is generally conceded.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
