"Old Pat," said Caesar, when they were both about ten, "you shore can talk. You got a golden tongue."

By the time Pat was fourteen, his father and mother were convinced that their lazy, lovable son would never amount to anything. "The Henrys," writes Mrs. Campion, "had eleven children. Ten of them were plain, honest sparrows; but one... was an eagle."

At last the eagle learned to soar:

"We cannot allow the British king to stifle the voice of Virginia..."

"If this be treason, make the most of it..."

"Is life so dear, or peace to sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery..." "as for me... give me liberty... or give me death!"

The right words, spoken strong and clear by one leader, determined the course of the future. But Patrick Henry was a man of deeds as well as of words. Lawyer, legislator, captain of men, first commander-in-chief of Virginia's revolutionary forces, five times governor of Virginia, friend of Washington and John Adam, Patrick Henry's game was perhaps obscured for a time by Jefferson's animosity. Yet Jefferson admitted at the end, what readers of this spirited biography will discover, that Patrick Henry "was as well suited to the times as any man ever was... far above all in maintaining the spirit of the American Revolution."

From the dust jacket