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Added to "Patrick Henry"
[[Image:Bland jones.jpg|200px|thumb|A depiction Henry speaking in the Virginia House of Burgesses.]]
[[Image:Bland jones.jpg|200px|thumb|A depiction Henry speaking in the Virginia House of Burgesses.]]
==Legislator==
At the time Henry became a member of the House of Burgesses, Virginia and the other colonies were already in turmoil over the controversial [[Stamp Act]], which the British Parliament had passed a few months earlier, imposing a tax on the American colonies (by means of a revenue stamp) without the consent of the colonial legislatures: a measure generally considered contrary to both legal tradition and the colonial charters themselves. Not surprisingly, given his earlier stance in "the Parsons' Cause," Henry strongly identified with the Whig faction opposing the Stamp Act and similar transgressions, and immediately associated with other Whigs in the Burgesses who were writing the Stamp Act Resolves in response. These Resolves not only expressed disagreement with the Stamp Act but clearly stated that Parliament had no capacity to tax the American colonies, which made the controversy a constitutional, rather than a simply economic, issue.
Despite his youth and the fact that he had only just become a member of the legislature, Henry took the lead in presenting the Resolves to the House and calling for their adoption. On May 30, 1765, only nine days after being sworn in as a legislator, Henry made a dramatic speech in advocating for the Resolves. At the end of this speech, referencing past "tyrants" who had been assassinated by defenders of liberty, Henry proclaimed, "[[Julius Caesar|Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and [[George III|George the Third]] may profit by their example." He could not doubt, he added, that "some American jealous of the liberties of his country would, in due course, appear." To many listeners, this sounded like an indirect call for assassination of the king, and some in the House shouted, "Treason!" to which Henry reportedly responded, "If this be treason, then make the most of it." It seems unlikely, though, that Henry was at this stage even advocating independence, much less an armed struggle or overthrow of the king. He affirmed his loyalty to the king, even saying he was ready to shed his last drop of blood for George III, but stressed that the monarch was similarly bound to adhere to the ancient constitutions of the realm and recognize the traditional privileges and liberties the colonists possessed as "free-born Englishmen."
== Quotes ==
== Quotes ==
* "The rising greatness of our country is greatly tarnished by the general prevalence of [[deism]], which with me, is but another name for vice and depravity. I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of their number and indeed, that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of tory; because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics."
* "The rising greatness of our country is greatly tarnished by the general prevalence of [[deism]], which with me, is but another name for vice and depravity. I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of their number and indeed, that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of tory; because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics."