Battles of Great Lawyers: Patrick Henry THE BRITISH DEBTS CASE Bv ARTHUR WAKELING
TRICK HENRY, when he was a young married man of twenty
three years, was a complete failure. He had tried clerking, farming and keep ing a country store, all with equally negative or disastrous results. “Best of all," he said cheerfully to
himself, “I will become a lawyer." Six weeks he allowed himself, as a
matter of formality, to prepare for the bar. During this time he read one book-"Coke upon Littleton"—sup plemented by an equally strenuous perusal of the "Digest of the Virginia Acts.” His examiners,
Wythe,
Pendleton,
common law to the most intricate and subtle points of international jurispru dence.
When the Circuit Court of the United States opened at Richmond in 1790 a number
of
cases
were
brought
by
Englishmen to whom money had been owing by American debtors before the Revolution. The various defendants joined together and retained Patrick Henry, John Mar
shall, Alexander Campbell and James Innes as counsel. Messrs. Ronald, Baker, Wickham and Starke appeared
for the plaintiff in the test case of William Jones, a surviving partner in the Eng
Peyton Randolph and John Randolph, hardly knew whether to be more amazed at his ignorance of law or his profound knowledge of history. After no little
lish law firm of Farrel and Jones, against
deliberation, he received his license.
in the suit, for he had, as Governor of Virginia during the Revolution, been
"Mr. Henry," John Randolph ex claimed enthusiastically after his exam ination of the young neophyte, “if
Dr. Thomas Walker.
The action was
brought on a bond dated May 11, 1772.
Patrick Henry was peculiarly involved
responsible in large part for an act of sequestration, which provided that
your industry be only half equal to your
"it should be lawful for any citizen
genius, I augur that you will do well and become an ornament and an honor to your profession." This was in 1760. Thirty years after
of this commonwealth, owing money to a subject of Great Britain, to pay
ward, at the end of a long and successful career as a lawyer, statesman and
executive, Patrick Henry fought the greatest legal battle of his life. This action, known as the British
debts case, was not only one of unusual importance, but it was also one of the greatest difliculty. It involved legal questions ranging from the simplest and most self-evident propositions of
the same or any part thereof, from time to time, as he should think fit, into the loan ofiice of the state; taking thereout
a certificate of the same in the name of the creditor, with an endorsement
under the hand of the commissioner of the loan office, expressing the name of the payee, and delivering such certificate to the governor and council, whose
receipt should discharge him from so much of the debt." The defendant held that debts were
