Martinsburgh Gazette

REVOLUTIONARY ANECDOTES.

PATRICK HENRY AND BILLY COWMAN.

The versatility of talent for which the
celebrated American orator, statesman
and patriot, Patrick Henry, was distinguished, was illustrated in the most happy manner, on a trial which took place
in the district court of New-London,
Virginia, soon after the war of independence. During the distress of the continental army. consequent on the plundering, burnings and devastations of Cornwallis, Phillips, and their worthy compeer and brother general. the traitor Arnold, in 1781, Mr. Venable, a commissary of the army, took for the use of the
troops two steers, from Mr. Hook, a
wealthy Scotchman, who was suspected
of being a tory. The act had not been
strictly legal; and on the establishment of
peace, Hook, under the advice of Cowman, a lawyer of some distinction,
brought an action of trespass against Mr.
Venable. Mr. Henry appeared for the
defendant, and conducted the cause in a
manner highly gratifying to his hearers,
the unlucky Hook always excepted. After he became animated in the cause, he
had the most complete control over the
passions of his audience; at one time he
would excite their indignation, and then
vengeance was visible in every countenance against Hook: again, when he chose
to relax and ridicule him, the whole
audience was in a roar of laughter.—
He painted the American army exposed almost naked to the rigour of a winter's sky, and marking the frozen ground
over which they marched, with the blood
of their unshod feet;—"Where is the
man," he exclaimed "who had an American heart in his bosom, who would
not have thrown open his fields, his
barns, his cellars, the doors of his house,
the portals of his breast, to have received with open arms the meanest soldier
in that little band of famished patriots?
Where is the man? there he stands; but
whether an American heart beats in his
bosom, you gentlemen are the judge."
He then carried the jury, by the magic
of his imagination to the plains around
York, the surrender of which, together
with the capture of Cornwallis, followed
shortly after the act complained of. He
depicted the surrender in the most glowing and brilliant colours of his unrivalled eloquence; the audience saw before their
eyes the humiliation and dejection of the
British, as they marched out of their
trenches: they saw the triumph that lighted up the face of every patriot; they
heard the sounds of victory, the cry of
Washington and Liberty. as it rung
and echoed through the American ranks,
and was reverberated from the hills and
shores of the neighboring river; "but
hark!" continued Henry, what notes
of discord are those which disturb the
general joy, and silence the acclamations
of victory? they are the notes of John
Hook, hoarsely bawling through the
American camp, beef! beef! beef!"

The court was convulsed with laughter, when Hook, turning to the clerk,
said, "never mind mon; wait till Billy
Cowman gets up, and he'll show him the
law" But Mr. Cowman was so completely overwhelmed by the torrent which
bore upon his client, that when he rose
to reply to Mr. Henry he was scarcely
able to make an intelligible or audible
remark. The cause was decided almost
by acclamation.

The jury retired for
form sake, and instantly returned with
a verdict for the defendant.