Evening Star Newspaper, June 29, 1930, Page 93

Duamore proclaimed him a rebel, and it vll with eitisens acting as his armed. escort that Henry journeyed to Philadelphia for the second By now his speech was on the tongues in the hearts of men. No more was it & mat- ter of taxes, a lawyer's wrangle about laws, but an overwhelming desire to be frce. On the very day the session opened Efthan Allen took Ticon- deroga “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental -Congress,” without authority . from either, and Massachusctts-men were gath- ering at Bunker Hill. Joyously supporting John and Samuel Adams in their nomination of George Washington to be commander-ifi-chief of the Colonial forces, and after serving on every important commit- tee until adjournment, Henry hurried hmne" to accept the leadership of Virginia's forces. Hav- ing urged war, he felt it a point of honor to take ! the field himself, but the laurels of a soldier were denied him, for Pendleton's clique, gaining , control of the Committee on Safety, igmored ° and humiliated-him te such a degree that self- respect compelled his resignation. 3 Yet no injustice had the power to curdle his patriotism nor bitterness to blur his vision. Back in the Virginia Legislature again, on May 12, 1776, we find h.m writing resolutions that ordered Virginia's congressional delegation to “procure an immediate, clear and full decla- ration of independence,” and in one of the greatest speeches of his career he carried the proposition without a dissenting vote. ‘Thus instructed, Richard Henry Lee made the motion in Philadelphia on June 7, and out of it came the Declaration of Independence. 'AND still Henry did not feel that his work was done. A permanent State government remained to be formed, and with all his soul he was resolved that it should be tn expression of every democratic ideal, every human longing. Under his inspiration, aristocratic George Mason flamed to greatness and produced the Virginia Bill of Rights, the first written con- stitution of a free State in the history of the world and, also, the noblest. With a governor to elect, a people’s love expressed itself and Patrick Henry was swept into office’ oen =& great wave of adoration. Three years he served—years of drudgery and heartbreak—for his terms covered the darkest hours of the Revolution. Believing in Washing- ton as the one man able to save America, Henry stripped Virginia to supply the army with men— men and supplies—and in letter after letter the harassed commander-in-chief poured out his gratitude. At the war’'s end there is another instance of the courage and vision that put Patrick Henry beyond any other leader of his day. All the THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 25, 1930. Henry stopped at Mount Vernon for a night with Washington, and the two rode on to Philadelphia in ¢company. rage of a war-worn people was directed against the Tories—exile, death, confiscation, no pun- ishment could be too severe—and it was against this passion of revenge that Henry flung his eloquence. Crying out against the poison of hate and pointing to the New World's need of man power, he turned to the menacing faces about h'm. and exclaimed, “Afraid of them? ‘' What, sirs, shall we, who have laid the proud Britislf Hon at our feet, now be afraid of her whelps?™ In the same noble, far-seeing spirit he fought the confiscation of British goods as an injustice that would kill their hopes of com- 21 merce. “Let her (commerce) be as free as air,” he pleaded. *“She will range the whole creation and return on the four winds of heaven | to bless the land with plenty.” Flected governor again in 1784 for a two- year term, he refused re-clection in 1786 in order to make provision’for his family. The father of many children (he had 17 in all by his*two marriages), ‘he had not charged a fee s'nce 1773, devoting a full 13 years to the serv- ice of his country. In 1788, however, he was again forced to quit his practice to attend a State convention called to pass upon the new Federal Constitution framed the year before. It was Henry's bitter fight against Virginia's ratification that lost him the friendship of Washington, estranged many others who had held him dear and clouded his fame as far as hisiory is concerned, yet any fair reading of the record proves that his stand was wise. I’lls bitter antzgonism to the Constitution proceeded from the fact that it contained no bill of rights, providing no protection what- soever for States and individuals. Facing a convention in which Madison and Marshall could count a majority of 50 votes, Henry fought for 23 days, and at the end a majority of 10 was secured only by a solemn pledge to propose and demand the amecndments that he asked. He barred Madiscn from election to Congress until that rising statesman took fresh oath to make the fight for a bill of rights. Madison kept his promise, and the first 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States are as much Patrick Henry's as though he had written them in with his own hand. Washington, recovering from his fears and distrusts, returned to his old faith in and af- fection for Henry, and offered him in turn the posts of Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but mere office holding had no lure tc draw the patriot from the quiet of his retirement. ) Only one thing had power to stir him from his illness and exhaustion. When Madison be- gan to attack the Constitution as fiercely as he had defended it, and joined with Jeflerson to tear at the very foundations of Government, Washington begged Henry to come to rescue and stem the tide of ugly passion. Dragging himself from his bed, Patrick Henry gathered his failing forces for this final service, and even as he completed a tremendous and effective appeal for the sanctity of the Union fell back into the arms of his friends. Two months later he breathed his last, dead on the field of battle as much as any soldier. (Copyright, 1630.) Dating Back F rom the Glorio‘us:_ Fourth—a S mrili:?g BII of History. Continued from Fourth Page most important and far-reaching war of the eighteenth century. On the one side there were ° ranged Prussia, England and Hanover, while confronting them were Austria, France and Rus- sta, together with Saxony and Sweden and Spain, ‘There was no special advantage to be gained by Pranee in this controversy. It would have been better for her to remain aloof in order $o oppose England alone, with which country hostilities had already broken out in America. Certainly there was no paramount issue involved for her, but, on the other hand, much to hazard by reversing her centuries-old policy and espo! the cause of Austria, her enemy of the ages, Dher opponent in the war just ended. . There was in the picture, however, a vain, ambitious woman to reckon with—one who had visions of playing an exalted, epoch-making part on the world stage, and who nursed a grievance. REDERICK OF PRUSSIA, great warrior ‘and keen statesman as he was, had one great failing. A master of satire, he had & tongue that could cut and stab like a sword, and he did not scruple to use it at the expense of all manner of people, be these private per- sons or his cotemporaries vecupying the thrones of Europe, their ministers or mistresses. Im this way he made many enemies for Prussia, none among them more bitter, however, than . Mme. Pompadour. He was always meost out- spoken in his utter contempt of the flabby Louis, while he subjected his favorite to the greatest ridicule. His gibes and coarse barrack-room humer, in- dulged in at her expense, wounded the vain, haughty woman to the quick and made of her an implacable foe, thereby precluding any mili~ tary alliance of France with Prussia. On .the other hand, Maria Theresa, though far from approving of Mme. de Pompadour, bad. enough sound sense to give heed to the counsel of the masters of diplomacy who represented Austria at the Court of France to gain her comfidence and favor by assuming an attitude of greatest friendliness toward her. They knew that to win her was to win France. Maria Theresa, therefore, made her a superb present as an evidence of her good will, while her minister, the versatile, adroit Count vem Kaumitz, plied the favorite with all the delicate arts of flattery. He induced her to emlist the King as an ally of Austria in the war which seemed inevitable. This she set herself to do, and fully accomplished it through persistent effort. With this end accomplished, the fate of France was sealed. In endeavoring to play a major part in the war, de Pompadour, although without any genius for military leadership, continually meddled in the direction of the army, and thus contributed further to the disasters which lay before. She appointed and dismissed the military leaders without regard to merit, but according to her predileetions, and interfered in the stratagems of campaigns. Thus she was not only respon- ' sible for the entrance of France into the war en the losing side, but by her direct actions mate- rially precipitated the final cammmftb!_. erushing defeat of the French army. ‘The disastrous outcome of the war, the hu- miliation suffered thereby, the shattered dreams of conquest and subugation, of humbling ene-" mies and dictating terms of surrender, proved * & load too great for Mme. de Pompadour to bear. Her physique, never robust, broke under - the strain, and she passed away a comparatively young woman of 42. It has been said that as her simple funeral cortege left Versailles, the scenes of her triumphs, en route te Paris, the rain was pouring down. The King, observing the passing, pro¢ession from his window, re- marked with the most utter indifference, “The marquise has a wet day for her Jjourney.” defeat of France in Europe brought about her defeat on this side of the ocean in the so-called French and Indian War, which.ran coneurrently with the Seven Years' War, and thus was decided the most momentous question ' ever brought to a determination on this eonti- nent, which was whether Prance should main- tain her possessions here or not. In this ques- tion was involved a consideration of the most vital importance to this Nation in particular and to the human race in general, being nothing Jess than the feasibility and the practical estab- lishment of free, democratic government upon the earth. For had France been able to hold in America the areas claimed and partly actu- ally occupied by her, comprehending all terri- tory west of the Allegheny Mountains, from Hudson Bay te the Gulf of Mexico, the Eng- lish-speaking races in the New World would not have been able to expand beyond the nartow’ ' strip of land occupied by them between the rocky barrier of the mountains and the Atlantic, and the Revolutiorary War would never have - been fought. Indeed, it may be doubted if this foothold of the British could have itself been permanently maintaitied, siricé it 'was evidentily the intention of the French to inflame ‘the Indian hordes. against their rivals, .and with this powerful aid drive them into the sea. As the eminent American historian, Francis Parkman, says in his classic, “Montcalin and Wolfs”: “America owes much to thé imbecility of Louis XV and the ambitious vanity and per- sonal dislikes of his mistress. * * * It Was the fatuity of Louis XV ‘and his' Pompadoar that made the conquest of Canada possible. Had they not broken the traditiorial policy of France, allied themselves to Austria, hér an- cient enemy, and plunged neédlessly into the European war, the whole force of the kingdom would have been turned, from the first, to the humbling of England and the defénse of the French colonies. The French soldiers left dead on inglorious Continental battlefields could have saved Canada, and perhaps made good her claim to the vast territories of the West.” The triumphs of the British and Colonial arms not only opened up to the English col- onjes the boundless, inestimably rich territory of the West, but, by removing an active and aggressive enemy from their immediate prox- imity to them, the ome indispensable condition, Boar’s H1//. For John Masefield. By Cecil Roberts. It twas May, with a gleam of the sun and a rain-washed sky, When we sat in your house en the hill, as we talked of the things That drift through the mind in the hour when tea ss nigh, And your garden was noisy with chirping and flutter of wings, And golden zwith blossoming broom, and full of the scent That comes after rain; while below, falling gently away, Ran woodlands and pastures; and there, where the sight was spent And failed in the haze of the vallcy, old Oxford lay. I do not remember the things we said in that houwr, Enough were the fellowship, sight of the broom in flower, But sometimes, sn pauses, I knew vou were fugitive, And the far gleamto your cyes, which tells me you are A wanderer over the earth who always will live Drawn to the path of a dream or a mariner’s star; And your wvoice when it bade me good-by, as the rain clouds curled Ovwer the ridge of the hill, had the longing again ~ To sail with a fleet of dreams through the seas of the world, To know tempests and peoples and ports on the edge of the main. under God's provision, for, their successful . struggle for ultimate independence and develop= ment as & sovereign mation. P And that is why, on the Fourth of Jyly, fire- crackers pop. throughout this land of the free; why. orators prate, and sparklers, pinwheels and, soaring rockets jewel the night with gems of light.. - Seminole Oil Problems. Tm:' Seminole ofl field, in Oklahoma, which has developed at a particularly rapid rate, has tested the ingenuily of the operator ahd'* the expert in'calculations of depths and othey ** conditions, - These wells showed varying depths to such ah extent that the formation of the pool was diffi- cult to ‘determine. It was discovered latéf, however, that the wells, instead of going straight - down, turnied off to the side in many instances, * sometimes at an angle of as much as 45" degrees. i In many cases wells which were 660 feet' apart had crossed before reaching the oil. In order to determine the amount of drift of the wells. a bottle, partly filled with hydro- ' fluoric acid, which is the acid used in etching glass, was lowered into the wells. The etching on the side of the bottle gave the angle of deflection of vertical and aided greatly in determining just what the variance from ver- tical amounted to in feet. The oil in this area presented a second problem in the fact that there was little or no gas with the oil to throw it to the surface. An ingenious method of raising the oil without the necessity of installing expensive pumping equip- ment was worked out. Gas and air were pumped to the bottom of the well, where they mixed with the oil and forced the oil to the surface. Eventually it will be necessary to install pumping equipment, but for the present at least the mew method has been found satis- factory. Border for the Garden. THE season for planting the perennmial border for - the home garden is about at hand. The gardener who had great plans during the Winter, which somehow failed to be worked out, can make a fine start now for next year. The best method is to make a diagram, marking out the locations of the various plants desired, and then going systematically to work preparing the ground for planting late in Sum- mer or with the advent of cool weather. Perennials for blooming next year may be started from seed planted in the latter part of August if the seed bed is kept moist and pro- tected from the sun, either with paper mulch or by the old-fashioned method of covering the ground with burlap sacks until the plants are well sprouted and sufficiently advanced to stand the sunlight. When plants are started from seeds by this method it is well to expose them to the sun gradually for a longer period each day in order that they may.not be burned out by too great - exposure while they are in the tender stage.