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Two Faces of a Movement: Part One - Page 4

© Brian Tubbs

Henry's contention that the people had a right to resist taxation by Parliament and that dissent from such view should be squelched was too much for the august Virginia gentlemen of the House of Burgesses. But his failed resolutions were nevertheless widely published, thanks in part to the stubborn refusal of a Virginia newspaper editor to do the same. Soon, their sentiments (embellished by many zealous admirers of Henry and the stand he took) swept the country.

The fact that James Otis, one of the strongest critics of British colonial policy, was uncomfortable with Henry's Resolves is telling. Otis condemned the Virginia Resolves as "treasonable." Otis, who tended to keep one foot in both the moderate and radical camps, ultimately found himself lonely on the fence.

The people had taken the sentiments of Patrick Henry to heart. As Miller writes: "[M]any Americans found themselves warmly in accord" with Henry's Resolves, which marked "the beginning of the revolutionary movement in the American colonies."

Whether Whig leaders, like James Otis, could channel this new revolutionary movement in a peaceful, constructive direction remained to be seen.

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Raphael, Ray, A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence, part of Howard Zinn's "People's History" series, The New Press, 2001

Morgan, Edmund S. & Morgan, Helen M., The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution, The University of North Carolina Press, 1953

Miller, John C., Origins of the American Revolution, Stanford University Press, 1959

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