What about Patrick Henry? Henry is largely remembered today as the great orator of the American Revolution, the man who famously declared: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" However, he was much more than that, as is demonstrated in Henry Mayer's biography A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic, which I finished reading just a few weeks ago. Mayer's biography paints a fascinating portrait of Henry, who served as Virginia's first elected governor and was arguably the one of the first populists in American politics (he once claimed that he spoke "the language of thousands"). Henry was also one the most prominent leaders of the opposition to the new U.S. Constitution, arguing that it gave too much power to the national government and failed to protect the rights of the people. Although he failed in his effort to have his home state reject the Constitution, he did succeed in creating pressure for amending the Constitution to include a Bill of Rights.
Henry was also somewhat of a paradox. He was a populist in politics, but to some extent aspired to be a member of the social elite. He denounced the institution of slavery, yet was unwilling to give up his own slaves because of the "general inconvenience of living without them." This pattern can also be seen with regard to his religious beliefs. Henry's uncle was a clergyman in the Anglican Church (later the Episcopal Church), the officially established church of Virginia, and his father was a strong supporter of the established Church. However, his mother and sisters became attracted to the evangelical form of Christianity that emerged during the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, with its more emotional approach to the Christian faith, in contrast with the staid respectability of Anglicanism. Henry himself frequently traveled with his mother and sisters to hear the Reverend Samuel Davies--a Presbyterian minister who was a fervent evangelical--preach. Henry was much impressed by Davies' skills as a speaker, and Henry's own oratorical talent may have been nurtured by listening to Davies. Nevertheless, for some reason Henry never officially left Anglicanism--even though he retained a sympathy for religious dissenters like the Presbyterians and Baptists of his day.
Still, according to Mayer, near the end of his life, Henry "grew more religious, beginning every day with a period of Bible reading and declaring his 'misfortune' that he had not 'found time to read it with the proper attention and feeling till lately. I trust in the mercy of Heaven that it is not too late'" (p. 467). He even went so far as to lament to his daughter: "I find much cause to reproach myself that I have lived so long and have given no decided proofs of my being a Christian" (quoted in Mayer, p. 468). In his will, Henry would write: "This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed" (quoted in Mayer, p. 473). Perhaps most striking are the words of his second wife Dolly, writing to her stepdaughter Betsy about Henry's death:
Oh, my dear Betsy what a scene have been witness to--I wish all the Heroes of the Deistical Party [e.g., Jefferson?] could have seen my Ever-Honored Husband pay his last debt to Nature...He met death with a firmness and in full confidence that through the merits of a bleeding Saviour his sins would be pardoned. (quoted in Mayer, p. 472)
So, was Patrick Henry a Christian? Since we cannot know what he truly believed in his heart, we can only speculate. However, given his own words and actions near the end of his life, and the testimony of his wife, it seems quite possible that he was. At the very least, the religious sentiments he expressed exhibit a clear contrast to those of other leading figures of the Revolution like Jefferson and Paine, and are less ambiguous than those of Washington.
Image: Portrait of Patrick Henry by George Bagby Matthews (after Thomas Sully), from Wikimedia Commons