So the American Revolution begins on April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord. And the colonies, soon to be states are going to be wrapped into this war for eight years. Now when we think about the American Revolution, we generally think about those military generals. General Washington, General Nathaniel Green, Horatio Gates, fighting and winning and losing battles. Perhaps we think about John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Dickinson at the Continental Congress at Philadelphia and the Declaration of Independence. But there's a huge effort that has to be made in support of the war in the various colonies and then states. You have to keep the government running. You have to keep the supplies going to the armies. You have to keep the soldiers going to the armies as well. And Henry's going to take the leading role here in Virginia in support of the war effort. Initially, he goes to the Second Continental Congress in 1775 in Philadelphia. And when he returns in August of 1775, he is made the commander-in-chief of Virginia's new military forces. Those forces that he had suggested we create back in March. He's going to have a very brief military command, however. The military is controlled by the Convention and in particular by the Committee of Safety, which is led by Edmund Pendleton, one of the more conservative members of the convention. And they're a little concerned about Henry leading the military. First of all, they point out that he doesn't have a lot of military experience; in fact he has no military experience. Second, he's a little headstrong, and they are a little concerns that Henry, who's very capable of whipping people up into a frenzy, might be headstrong in his military action. And third, they're a little concerned that he might become a little too powerful at the head of the military force, which I think is grossly unfair to Henry, but it's clearly motivating them. Henry is insulted by some of their reactions. For example, Edmund Pendleton allows Henry's second in command to report directly to Pendleton rather than going through the commander, Patrick Henry. When there is talk of making the Virginia military part of Continental Army, Henry is going to receive a lower rank than other officers. Henry is insulted; he's an 18th century gentleman; his honor has been questioned. He resigns from his position. Some of the soldiers who feel badly about what's happened to Henry threaten to also step out of the army. And Henry urges them, no, the American Revolution is far more important. You need to support the Revolution. But after he resigns in February 1776, he can't stay out of the Revolution long; he can't stay out of politics. He's quickly elected to the Virginia Convention again. George Washington says that it's probably just as well, we need Henry in the legislature. He says the legislature "made a Capitol mistake when they took Henry out of the Senate to place him in the Field." Because some of the most important issues are going to be resolved by that Virginia Convention. In June, they are deciding to encourage the Continental Congress to declare independence. They also are going to draft the first constitution for the independent state of Virginia. And a number of issues will come up in that constitution. One is, the constitution is going to guarantee religious freedom for all people, toleration for all people, unlike the established church that existed in colonial Virginia. Patrick Henry takes a part in that. He also warns that the Virginia constitution as it's drafted, the governor is too weak. That the governor needs more power. Now that was an unpopular position. People associated a powerful governor with the king. But Patrick Henry's going to prove to be correct, that the governor in the initial Virginia constitution is so weak that he can't really administer the state properly. But once the constitution is adopted in June of 1776, Patrick Henry, of course, is elected to be Virginia's first governor. He's going to serve three terms as governor, which is the maximum allowed under the constitution. Now he's relatively successful as a wartime governor in a number of difficult situations. He supports George Washington; he tries to provide troops and supplies as much as possible. During Valley Forge, he probably exceeds his legal authority trying to see to it once he's told about the troops suffering at Valley Forge, trying to get supplies off to Valley Forge. He makes a decision to support George Rogers Clark, when Clark goes out to the Northwest Territories, the old Northwest Territories, again Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, to attack the British there. Very important because Clark's victories in the old Northwest is probably significant in the treaty of why that territory is made part of the United States, rather than maintained as part of Canada. So he's keeping things running. He's the most popular man in Virginia, with the possible exception of George Washington. And that's no small feat, in the midst of a war effort that is very devastating for all of the different states. Now, after his time as governor is over he's going to come back to the Virginia legislature. it's now the House of Delegates under the Virginia constitution and he will be very engaged in war time efforts there as well. For example, one of the problems faced during the war was how do you finance the war? How do you pay the soldiers? How do you pay for the supplies? How do you keep government running? Well, what the Continental Congress had done is basically printed paper money that wasn't supported by taxes and so the value of that money was just collapsing. And by the time Patrick Henry is back in the legislature in 1779, there's an effort to devalue that currency, to basically say if you have 40 continental dollars, we'll give you one new dollar for those 40 continental dollars that you used to have. Henry is opposed to this; he says this is really going to hurt the small farmers and the small people of Virginia who've been trying to support the army, and have been supplying their cattle and their pigs and their wheat and corn. And he proposes instead biting the bullet and taking the difficult action that was necessary. Let's impose taxes, so that we can raise the revenue. I know we have a war going on, but let's raise the revenue that's necessary to support the currency so that it won't collapse. And initially he wins that debate, but then Virginia gets weak knees and decides to go along with the devaluation of the currency. I bring this all up because the arguments that are sometimes made that Patrick Henry was all wind, that is was only his great speeches. He's a demagogue rather than a very serious politician and lawyer. They are certainly not true. Here Henry was being wiser than many other people, and he understood the complexities of trying to run the government in the midst of a war. But he's going to end up having difficulties with the second governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson.
