This statement, published
in the life of Mason, was carefully verified for me by my
friend, the late William Wirt Henry, grandson and biographer
of Patrick Henry, as appears by a letter from him in my possession.*
[Footnote]
*I attach a passage from Mr. William Wirt Henry's letter, dated
December 28, 1892.
"I am glad to be able to say that you may rely on the correctness
of the passage at page 221 of Howe's Historical Collections of Va.
giving Patrick Henry's estimate of Roger Sherman. It was furnished
the author by my father and though a youth I well remember Mr. Howe's
visit to Red Hill, my father's residence. My father, John Henry,
was about three years of age when his father died, but his mother
long survived Patrick Henry, as did several of his older children.
From his mother, brothers and sisters my father learned many
personal reminiscences of his father and his exceptionally
retentive memory enabled him to relate them accurately. I have
often heard him relate the reminiscences given on that page by
Mr. Howe."
[End of Footnote]
John Adams, in a letter to his wife, speaks of Sherman as
"That old Puritan, as honest as an angel, and as firm in
the cause of Independence as Mt.
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