Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Parsons' case, the

A short crop of tobacco in Virginia having enhanced the value of that staple, and the issuing of bills of credit (1755) for the first time in that province having depreciated the currency, the Assembly passed a temporary act authorizing the payment of all tobacco debts in the depreciated currency, at a stipulated price. Three years later (1758) an expected short crop caused the re-enactment of this tender-law. The salaries of the parish ministers, sixty-five in number, were payable in tobacco, and they were likely to become losers by this tender-law. The clergy sent an agent to England, who obtained an Order in Council pronouncing the law void. Suits were brought to recover the difference between twopence per pound in depreciated currency and the tobacco, to which, by law, the ministers were entitled. In defending one of these suits the rare eloquence of Patrick Henry was first developed.