2009-04
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/31/2009
HENRY, Patrick (1736-1799). Best known for his "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech in 1775, Patrick Henry served as Virginia's Governor, 1776-1778 and again, 1784-1786. Prior to the Revolutionary War , Thomas Lord Fairfax owned over five million acres of valuable land in the northern part of Virginia. Upon his death in 1781 while the war was still raging, his property was left to his nephew, Denny Fairfax (aka Denny Martin), a British citizen. However, the state of Virginia passed a law giving the state authority to confiscate property of Loyalists, such as the Fairfax family. The state confiscated the land and sold it David Hunter. Denny Martin filed a lawsuit with the state courts of Virginia challenging Hunter's right to the land. This was decided in the State's favor, April 24, 1794. However, Martin appealed. The governor of Virginia Robert Brooke, in a letter dated December 25, 1794, requested that Patrick Henry represent the State of Virginia in this appeal (Xerox copy of the Brooke letter included). Patrick Henry declined as follows; Autograph Letter Signed, "P. Henry," Red Hill Plantation, Charlotte, Feb'y. 14,1795, 1pp., professional repair to vertical fold, else fine, presented in modern frame. In part, "I had the honor to receive your Excellency's dispatches yesterday by W. Claiborne, and am very sorry your favor of the 24th Dec. did not reach me because by its miscarriage I have been prevented from making my acknowledgement for your Excellency's attention in due time. I am very sensible of the Distinction of your Excellency's shown me in the business referred to in which the Commonwealth is so deeply interested. But having declined the practice of law for some time past having remained in my attention to the object which form the Grounds of the Contest with the Fairfax Family I must beg leave to decline embracing in it. ...." The Virginia State Supreme Court upheld the confiscation. The Case was finally resolved in the United States Supreme Court 1816, concluding the Federal Governments supremacy over the States (defeating the basis of States Rights argument).
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