The Growth of Discontent

One important result of the dissensions between America and England, and of the revolutionary sentiment which was rapidly extending, was the growth of a powerful school of oratory, the necessary outcome of political agitation. Numbers of glowing orators appeared, whose eloquent appeals did much towards spreading the flame of discontent and sustaining the people in their ardent resistance to the tyranny of the British Parliament. The most important of these political leaders and orators were natives of Virginia, Massachusetts, and South Carolina. In Virginia the brilliant declamations of Patrick Henry were firebrands of revolution. Other skilled and accomplished orators were Edmund Pendleton, Richard Bland, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, and Richard Henry Lee. Two other Virginians of extraordinary abilities we may here name, George Washington, already the greatest soldier in America, and Thomas Jefferson, a man of remarkable powers, all of which were steadily exerted in the cause of American liberty.

To the skill and ardor of Otis and Thacher, as defenders of the rights of their countrymen, we have already adverted. Not less ardent and fearless was Samuel Adams, one of the greatest of ante-Revolutionary Americans. Other prominent leaders in Massachusetts were John Hancock, Thomas Cushing, and James Bowdoin, merchants; Samuel Cooper, a clergyman; Josiah Quincy and Robert Treat Paine, lawyers; and John Winthrop, a Harvard professor. The notable orators of South Carolina were John Rutledge, whose powers rivalled those of Patrick Henry; Christopher Gadsden, a fearless republican; Henry Laurens, David Ramsay, and Edward Rutledge, brother of John, and whose eloquence was as graceful as his brother's was impetuous. We might add to these names those of men of equal ability, daring and patriotism in the other provinces, but it will suffice here to name Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, to whose services in the cause of liberty we have already given some attention, and who, mentally, was one of the greatest men that the world has ever produced. To his name may be added that of Thomas Paine, an advocate of liberty of remarkable brilliance of style and uncompromising courage in publishing his sentiments. Of the stirring events which followed the repeal of the Stamp Act we give a brief but lucid review from Lodge's "Short History of the English Colonies in America."]