Editing Patrick Henry (section)

===Parson's Cause (1760–1763)===
While at Hanover Tavern, Henry found time to study the law. How long he did so is unclear; he later said it was as little as a month. On the advice of a local lawyer, Henry in 1760 applied for a lawyer's license, appearing before the examiners—prominent attorneys in the colonial capital of Williamsburg. The examiners were impressed by Henry's mind even though his knowledge of legal procedures was scant. He passed in April 1760, and he thereafter opened a practice, appearing in the courts of Hanover and nearby counties.<ref name = "a" />{{sfn|Kukla|pp=30–40}} Henry became a skilled lawyer because in court "he displayed quick wit, knowledge of human nature, and forensic gifts."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gruberg|first1=Marin|title=Patrick Henry|url=https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1164/patrick-henry%20the%20original|publisher=The First Amendment Encyclopedia presented by the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies|access-date=August 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230828201423/https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1164/patrick-henry|archive-date=August 28, 2023|url-status=live|year=2009}}</ref>

The droughts of the 1750s had led to a rise in the price of tobacco. Hard currency was scarce in Virginia, and salaries in the colony were often expressed in terms of pounds of tobacco. Prior to the drought, the price of tobacco had long been two[[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|pence]] per pound (0.45 kilograms) and in 1755 and 1758, the Virginia House of Burgesses, the elected lower house of the colonial legislature, passed the [[Two Penny Act]], allowing debts expressed in tobacco to be paid at the rate of twopence per pound for a limited period.{{sfn|Campbell|p=28}} These payees included public officials, including Anglican clergy—Anglicanism was Virginia's established church—and several ministers petitioned the [[Board of Trade]] in London to overrule the Burgesses, which it did. Five clergymen then brought suit for back pay, cases known as the Parson's Cause; of them, only the Reverend [[James Maury]] was successful, and a jury was to be empaneled in Hanover County on December 1, 1763, to fix damages. Henry was engaged as counsel by Maury's parish [[vestry]] for this hearing.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=39–41}} Patrick Henry's father, Colonel John Henry, was the presiding judge.{{sfn|McCants|p=40}}

[[File:Parson's Cause by Cooke.jpg|thumb|left|''Patrick Henry Arguing the Parson's Cause'' by [[George Cooke (painter)|George Cooke]]]]
After the evidence was presented proving the facts at issue, Maury's counsel gave a speech in praise of the clergy, many of whom were in attendance. Henry responded with a one-hour speech, ignoring the question of damages, but which focused on the unconstitutionality of the veto of the Two Penny Act by the king's government. Henry deemed any king who annulled good laws, such as the Two Penny Act, as a "tyrant" who "forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience", and the clergy, by challenging an impartial law designed to bring economic relief, had shown themselves to be "enemies of the community".{{sfn|McCants|pp=118–119}} The opposing counsel accused Henry of treason, and some took up that cry, but Henry continued, and the judge did nothing to stop him.{{sfn|McCants|p=119}} Henry urged the jury to make an example of Maury, for the benefit of any who might seek to imitate him and suggested the jury return damages of [[History of the British farthing|one farthing]].{{sfn|Kukla|p=45}} The jury was out for only moments and fixed damages at one penny. Henry was hailed as a hero. According to biographer Henry Mayer, Henry had "defined the prerogatives of the local elite by the unorthodox means of mobilizing the emotions of the lower ranks of religious and political outsiders."{{sfn|Mayer|p=66}} Henry's popularity greatly increased, and he added 164 new clients in the year after the Parson's Cause.{{sfn|Campbell|p=37}}