American eloquence: A collection of speeches and addresses, by the most eminent orators of America. Vol. 1

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AMERICAN ELOQUENCE:
^ (EoUection of
SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES,
BY THE MOST EMINENT
OEATORS OF AMERICA;
WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES,
By frank MOORE.
" There were Gyants in the earth in thofe dayes mightie men,
which were of olde, men of renowne."
IN TWO VOLUMES,
VOL. I.
NEW YOEK:
D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY.
COLUMBUS, 0.:
FOLLETT & FOSTER.
185Y.
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
lALPH BROWN DRAUGHON UMAWT
AUBURN, AlABAAAA 3««90
EuTEEED, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1857, by
T>. APPLETON & COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of Ne* York.
PS LCI
v./
SPECIAL
GOLLtCTIOMS
PREFACE.
The design of the present work is to furnisli a convenient and popular
Library Edition of tlie most celebrated Speeches and Addresses, forensic and
parliamentary, of the principal Orators and Statesmen of America. It
contains many which have never before been included in any collection
;
and heretofore inaccessible to the student and general reader. As far as
attainable, specimens of the eloquence of the Continental Congress have been
given, which fully illustrate the principles and portray the sufferings of the
Kevolutionary Period. Many entire speeches from the debates in Congress,
since the year 17S9, under tne present organization of the Government, will
also be found in this work. Selections from the earnest and able discussions
in the State Conventions of the principles involved in the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, also foi-m a considerable portion of the work ; and thus
render it valuable as a means of acquiring an understanding of that important
instrument.
The biographical sketches, preceding the selections from the works of
each orator, are intended to present a brief outline of their lives and public
services, the limited space allowed for that portion of the work precluding
more extended notices. The analytical index attached to the work may
render it generally useful as a book of reference.
The want of a work of this kind is too obvious to make any apology
necessary for its publication at the present time. Should its success warrant
such a course, another series, embracing the moke keoent and livikg oeatoks,
prepared upon the same .plan, will be offered to the public.
PREFACE,
In closing, the Editor acknowledges his obligations to the numerous
individuals from whom he has received valuable assistance, and especially
to his brother, George H. Moore ; to Mrs. Laura Wolcott Gibbs, for permission
to copy the miniature of Alexander Hamilton, painted by her, and now in her
possession ; to Dr. John W. Francis, for the extension of his usual courtesies
;
to Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman, for valuable suggestions ; to Mr. "William Hunter,
of the State Department, Washington, for the material contained in the
sketch of his father's life; to the Libraries of the New York Historical
Society, the Mercantile Library Association, the ISTew York Society Library,
and the Astor Library, as well as to the officers of these Institutions for the
facility with which he has been enabled to make use of their valuable
collections.
New Yoek, August, 1st, 1857.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
J
JAilES OTIS
:
Sketch of his Life,
Speech on the Writs of Assistance,
On the study of the Law,
PATRICK HENRY
:
Sketch of his Life, .
Speech on the Federal Constitution, .
Another speech on the same subject.
Reply to Edmund Randolph, .
RICHARD HEXRT LEE
:
Sketch of his Life, .... Address of the American Colonies to the iU'
habitants of Great Britain : 1775, .
WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON:
Sketch of his Life, .... 48
Charge to the Grand Jury of Charleston Dis-trict,
South Carolina : 1776, . . 50
JOSEPH WARREN
:
Sketch of his Life, .
Oration on the Boston Massacre,
JAMES WILSON
:
Sketch of his Life, .... 65
Vindication of the Colonies; a speech deliver-ed
in the Convention for the Province of
Pennsylvania: 1775, . . .68
Speech on the Federal Constitution, . 74
WILLIAM LIVINGSTON
Sketch of his Life, . . . _ 82
Speech to the New Jersey Legislature : 1777, 88
FISHER AMES
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .91
Speech on Madison's Resolutions, . , 92
Speech on the British Treaty, . . 104
JOHN RUTLED6E :
Sketch of his Life, . . . .113
Address to the South Carolina Assembly: 1776, 120
Speech to the General Assembly : 1782, . 122
JAJIES MADISON:
"""
Sketch of his Life, . . . . 125
Speech on the Federal Constitution, j_ . 127
Speech on the British Treaty, . . .144
JOHN JAY:
Sketch of his Life, .... 151
Address to the People of Great Britain : 1774, 159
EDMUND RANDOLPH
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . . 153
Speech on the Federal Constitution, . 165
Argument in the Trial of Aaron Burr, . 174
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
:
Sketch of his Life, .... 183
Speech on the Federal Constitution, . . 187
Remarks in the Federal Convention of New
York, on Mr. Gilbert Livingston's pro-posed
amendment to the Constitution, 195
Further remarks on the Federal Constitution, 200
Argument in the case of Harry Croswell, . 204
Speech on the Revenue System, . . 215
JOHN HANCOCK
:
Sketch of his Life, ....224
Oration on the Boston Massacre, . . 227
JOHN ADAMS
:
Sketch of his Life, ....232
Speech in defence ofthe British Soldiers: 1770, 235
Inaugural Address : 1797, . . . 248
GEORGE WASHINGTON:
Sketch of his Life,
Inaugural Address : 1789,
Farewell Address,
. 251
252
. 254
ELIAS BOUDINOT:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .262
Oration before the New Jeraey Society of Cin-cinnati,
. , . . . 264
Speech on Non-Intercourse with Great Brit-ain
: 1794, . . . .270
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
JOHN DICKINSON:
Sketch of his Life 273
Speech in the Pennsylvania Assembly : 1764, 277
The Declaration on Taking up Arms : 1775, 286
JOHN WITHERSPOON:
Sketch of his Life 290
Speech on the Conference with Lord Howe, . 298
Remarks on the Confederation, . . 296
Speech on the Conyention with Eurgoyne, . 298
Speech on the Appointment of Plenipoten-tiaries,
..... 301
Speech on the Loan Office Certificates, . 303
A Portion of a speech on the Finances, . 305
DAVID RAMSAY
:
Sketch of his Life 308
Oration on the Advantages of American In-dependence,
. . ; . . 310
Extract from an Oration on the Cession of
Louisiana to the United States, . . 318
SAMUEL ADAMS
Sketch of his Life, . . . .819
Oration on American Independence, . . 324
JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .331
An Appeal, under the signature of "Hy-perion
:" 1768, . . . .334
Speech in Defence of the British Soldiers
:
1770, 336
BENJAMIN RUSH
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .346
Address to the People of the United States,
1787, previous to the meeting of the
Federal Convention, . . . 347
BOBERT R. LIVINGSTON
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .350
Oration before the New York Society of Cin-cinnati
: 1787, . . '\ . - . 352
The Purse and Sword ; an extract, . . 355
H. H. BRACKENRIDGE
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .356
An Eulogium on " the brave men who have
fallen in the contest with Great Britain :"
1779, 358
CHARLES PINCKNEY
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .361
Observations on the Federal Constitution, . 362
LUTHER MARTIN
:
Sketch of his Life 871
Speech on the Federal Convention, . . 373
OLIVER ELLSWORTH
:
Sketch of his Life 401
Remarks on the Federal Constitution, . 404
Speech on the Power of Congress to levy
Taxes, ..... 406
CHRISTOPHER GORE
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .410
Speech on the Prohibition of certain Imports
:
1814, 412
Speech on Direct Taxation, . . . 417
RED JACKET
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .423
Reply to Samuel Dexter, . . . 426
Defence of stifF-armed-George, . . 427
Reply to Mr. Cram, . . . .429
URIAH TRACY:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .431
Speech on a proposed amendment of the Con-stitution:
1802, . . . .482
Remarks on the Judiciary Systetn, . 442
HENRY LEE
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .447
Eulogy on Washington, . . . 449
60UVERNEUR MORRIS:
Sketch of his Life, ....453
Speech on the Judiciary, . . ' . 457
Discourse before the New York Historical
Society: 1812, . . . .466
Speech on the Navigation of the Mississippi, 475
Oration over the dead body of Hamilton, . 487
BOBERT GOODLOE HARPER
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .489
Speech on the Aggressions of France, . 491
Speech on the Appointment of Foreign Minis-ters,......
503
THOMAS ADDIS EMMET
:
Sketch of his Life, .... 825
Speech in the trial of William S. Smith, . 528
Argument in the trial of Robert M. Goodwin, 537
GEORGE RICHARDS MINOT
:
Sketch of his Life, .... 551
Eulogy on Washington, . . . 552
HARRISON GRAY OTIS
:
Sketch of his Life, ....5o7
Eulogy on Hamilton, . . . 559
DE WITT CLINTON
:
Sketch of his Life, . . . .565
Speech on the Navigation of the Mississippi, 567
AMEKICAN ELOQUENCE.
JAMES OTIS.
Thb subject of this memoir, descended in the fifth generation from John Otis, who came
over from England at a very early period of the Colony of Massachusetts Eay, and settled at
Hingham, was born on the 5th of February, 1725, in the family mansion, at Great Marshes, now
West Barnstable, Massachusetts. Nothing is known of his early youth. Pursuing his classical
studies under the guidance of the Eeverend Jonathan Eussel, minister of the parish in which he
lived, he entered Harvard College in June, 1739, and took his first degree in 1743. " During
the first two years of his college life," says his biographer, "his natural ardor and vivacity made
his society much courted by the elder students, and engaged him more in amusement than in
study ; but he changed his course in the junior year, and began thenceforward to give indica-tions
of great talent and power of application." The only record of his having taken any part
in the usual collegiate courses, is that of a syllogistic disputation, on receiving his first degree.
At college, excepting his two first years, he was serious in his disposition and steady in the
prosecution of his studies. When he came home during the vacations, being so devoted to his
books, he was seldom seen ; and the near neighbors to his father's dwelling would sometimes
only remark his return after he had been at home a fortnight. Though enveloped and marked
with some of the gravity and abstraction natural to severe application, he would occasionally
discover the wit and humor which formed, afterwards, striking ingredients in his character. A
small party of young people being assembled one day at his father's house, when he was at home
during a college vacation, he had taken a slight part in their sports, when, after much persua-sion,
they induced him to play a country dance for them with his violin, on Vi'hich instrument
he then practised a little. The set was made up, and after they were fairly engaged, he suddenly
stopped, and holding up his fiddle and bow, exclaimed, " So Orpheus fiddled, and so danced the
brutes ! " and then tossing the instrument aside, rushed into the garden, followed by the disap-pointed
revellers, who were obliged to convert their intended dance into a frolicsome chase after
the fugitive musician.
It was the intention of Mr. Otis to qualify himself for the practice of law, but he did not
engage in the appropriate studies for that purpose injmediately on leaving college. He wisely
devoted nearly two years to the pursuits of general literature and science, intending thereby to
establish broad and deep the foundations of his professional studies. In 1745 he commenced the
study of the law, in the ofiice of Jeremiah Gridley, at that time the most eminent lawyer in the
province ; and on completing those studies, he removed to Plymouth, and practised there during
the years 1748 and 1749. Finding the "narrow range of country business " unsuited to Ms
powers, he returned to Boston, where he soon rose to the highest position in his profession,
being often called upon from other colonies and distant provinces for legal assistance and advice.
2 JAMES OTIS.
Tlirough all his professional engagements, he still retained his taste for literature. In 1760, he
published " The Kudiments of Latin Prosody, with a Dissertation on Letters, and the Principles
of Harmony, in Poetic and Prosaic Composition, collected from the best "Writers." He also
composed a similar work on Greek Prosody, which was never published, but perished with all
the rest of his papers.
The important events preceding and connected with the American Eevolution, attracted the
attention of Mr. Otis. On the death of George the Second, in 1760, his grandson reached the
throne. The conquest of Canada was completed, and rumors were widely spread that the colo-nies
were to be deprived of their charters and formed into royal governments. The new king
issued orders that enabled his officers of the revenue to compel the sheriffs and constables of the
provinces to search for goods which it was supposed had not paid the taxes imposed by Parlia-ment.
The good will of the colonists was wanted no longer to advance the prosecution of the
war, and Writs of Assistance were undertaken through the influence of royal governors and some
other interested friends of the Crown. The first application for those writs was made at Salem,
Massachusetts. Stephen Sewall,* who was the Chief Justice of the Superior Court, expressed
great doubt of the legality of such writs, and of the authority of the court to grant them. The
other judges would not favor it ; and as it was an application of the Crown, that could not be
dismissed without a hearing, it was postponed to the nest term of the court, to be holden at
Boston, in February, 1761. The probable result of this question caused great anxiety among
the mercantile portion of the community. The merchants spplied to Benjamin Pratt,t to under-take
their cause, but he declined, being about to leave Boston for Kew York, of which province
he had been appointed Chief Justice. They then solicited Otis, and Oxenbridge Thacher,t both
of whom engaged to make their defence.
The arguments in this important case, were heard in the Council Chamber of the old Town
House in Boston. Chief Justice Sewall having died, Lieut. Gov. Hutchinson had been appointed
as his successor, and before him the case was opened, by Mr. Gridley,§ Otis's veteran law teacher,
then Attorney General. He was followed by Mr. Thacher, with great ingenuity and ability,
on the side of the merchants. " But," in the language of President Adams, " Otis was a flame
Stephen Sewall was the son of Major Samuel Sewall, of Salem, Mass. He was horn in December, 1702, and gradnated
at Harvard College, in 1721. In 1728 he was chosen tutor in the College, and occnpied that position until 1739, when he
was called to take a seat on the Bench of the Superior Court. On the death of Chief Justice Dudley, in 1752, he was ap-pointed
to succeed him, though not the senior judge. He was distinguished for his honor, integrity, moderation, and great
beijevolcnce. He died in December, 1760, and the loss of this impartial, high-minded magistrate, at that critical period,
was rightly esteemed a great public misfortune.
~^ + Mr. Tratt affords a striking example how strong talent and energy of mind may raise one from a humble lot, and make
evon calamity the foundation of prosperity. He was bred a mechanic, and met with a serious injury that prevented him
from pursuing his occupatiou. He turned his mind to study, entered Harvard College, and took his first degree in 1737.
He studied law, and rose to great distinction at the bar. Through the friendship of Governor Pownall, he was made Chief
Justice of New York, in 1761. A cause of great difficulty, which had been many years depending, being brought up soon
after he had taken his seat, gave him an opportunity of displaying the depth and acuteness of his intellect, and the sound-ness
of his judgment, and secured for him at once the public respect and confidence. He wrote some political essays on
the topics of the day; and a few remaining fragments in verse of his composition, a specimen of which is preserved in
Knapp's Biography, prove that he possessed both taste and talent for poetry. He presided over the Courts of New York
but two years, dying in 1763, at the age of fifty-five.— ruder.
J Mr. Thacher was at that time one of the heads of the bar in Boston ; was a fine scholar, and possessed of much general
learning. He received his degree at Harvard College, in 173S. Unassuming and affable in his deportment, of strict moral-ity,
punctual in his religious duties, and with sectarian attachments, that made him, like a large majority of the people
around him, look with jealousy and enmity on the meditated encroachments of the English hierarchy; he was in all these
respects fitted to be popular. To these qualities he joined the purest and most ardent patriotism, and a quick perception
of those in power. His opposition gave the government great uneasiness; his disposition and habits secured public confi-dence
; his moderation, learning, and ability, gave weight to His opinions, and prevented him from being considered as
under the influence of others. John Adams s.ays, the advocates of the Crown "hated hiai worse than they did James Otis
or Samuel Adams." Thacher published some essays on the subject of an alteration proposed by Lieutenant Governor
Hutchinson relative to the value of gold and silver; also, a pamphlet against the policy of the Navigaticp Act, and the
Acts of Trade, entitled, " The Sentiments ofa Bi-itUh Ame'-ican.'" He died, of a pulmonary complaint, in 1765.
§ Mr. Gridley was one of the principal lawyers and civilians of this time. He took his degree at Harvard College, In
1T25. He came to Boston as an assistant in the Grammar School, for some time preached occasionally ; but turning his at-tention
to the law, he soon rose to distinction In the profession. He set on foot a weekly journal, in 1732, called the Ee
Acarsal, in which he wrote on various literary as well as political subjects; but it lasted only one year. He was a Whig In
politics, and as a representative from Brookline, in the General Court, opposed the measnrea of the ministry. He was
JAMES OTIS.
of fire ; witli a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of
historical e^ ents and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into
futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, lie hurried away all before him. American
independence was then and there born. The seeds of patriots and heroes, to defend the Non
sine Diis animosus in/am* to defend the vigorous youth, were then and there sown. Every
man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take arms
against Writs of Assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition
to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Independence was born.
In fifteen years, i. e. in 1776, he grew up to manhood and declared himself free." The princi-ples
Otis educed and elaborated with such profound learning, humor and pathos, could not be
subverted, and the court at the close of his speech adjourned for consideration : Chief Justice
Hutchinson, at the end of the term, giving the opinion, " The Court has considered the subject
of "Writs of Assistance, and can see no foundation for such a writ; but as the practice in
England is not known, it has been thought best to continue the question to the nest term, that
in the mean time opportunity may be given to know the result." t
It was on the occasion of this masterly performance, when Otis stood forth as the bold and
brilliant advocate of colonial rights, that he became famous. Although he had never before
interfered in public affairs, his exertions on this single occasion secured him a commanding
popularity with the friends of their country, and the terror and vengeance of her enemies
;
neither of which ever deserted him. In May, 1761, he was chosen to the Legislature, in which
assembly he wielded immense power. His superiority as a legislator was everywhere acknowl-edged,
and in all important measures he was foremost. In 1762 he published the "Vindication
of the Conduct of the House of Eepresentatives of the Province of Massachusetts Bay," &c., a
work in which many volumes are concentrated. "Look over the Declarations of Eights and
Wrongs issued by Congress in 1774," says John Adams. "Look into the Declaration of Inde-pendence,
in 1776. Look into the Writings of Dr. Price and Dr. Priestly. Look into all the
French Constitutions of government; and to cap the climax, look into Mr. Thomas Paine's
Common Sense, Crisis, and Eights of Man ; and what can you find that is not to be found in
solid substance in this Vindication of the House of Eepresentatives ? " Mr. Otis was a member
of the Congress which met at New York in the month of October in the year 1765. During
the same year he published " A Vindication of the British Colonies," &c. Also, "Considera-tions
on behalf of the Colonists, in a Letter to a Noble Lord." It was written with spirit and
ability, and was the last work that appeai-ed from his pen. On the return of Otis to the colo-nial
legislature of 1766, he was appointed chairman of a committee to reply to a message of
Governor Bernard, in which that officer had shown some resentment. In the answer to the
message they say, " It appears to us an undue exercise of the prerogative to lay us under the
necessity either of silence, or of being thought out of season in making a reply. Your Excel-lency
says, that these times have been more difficult than they need have been ; which is also
the opinion of this House. Those who have made them so, have reason to regret the injury
they have done to a sincere and honest people." It need not be said that Otis had neither
respect nor fear of the royal governor. The same year Mr. Otis brought before the legislature
a proposition " for. opening a gallery of the House for such as wished to hear the debates
;
thus aiding in the establishment of one of the most important principles of representative gov-ernment,
the publicity of legislative proceedings. Until this time it had been customary for the
legislative assemblies to sit with closed doors, and it was with gi-eat reluctance that the change
was made.
During the summer of the year 1767, Parliament passed an act " to raise a revenue in
however, appointed Attorney-General, when Mr. Trowbridge was promoted to the Bench, and In that capacity was obliged
to defend the famous " Writs of Assistance," in which he was opposed and wholly confuted by his pnpil, Otis. Ho was a
Colonel of the Militia, and Grand Master of the Free Masons, and belonged to some other charitable associations. IIu died
in Boston, September Tth, n67.—£liot
* This motto was furnished by Sir 'William Jones for the Alliance Medal, struck in Paris to commemorate the alUanoa
between France and America.
+ "When the next term came," says Mr. Adams, "no Judgment was pronounced,—nothing was said about Writs ol
Assistance."
4 JAMES OTIS.
America," imposing duties on glass, paper, painters' colors and tea ; and by virtue of another
act, the king was empowered to put the customs and other duties in America, and the execution
of the laws relating to trade in the colonies, under the management of resident commissioners.
The news of the passage of these bills revived the popular excitement which arose at the time
of the Stamp Act, which had died away on its repeal. A town meeting was held in Boston, at
which Mr. Otis appeared, " contrary to his usual practice, as the adviser of cautious and mode-rate
proceedings," for which moderation he was charged with being a friend to the act for
appointing commissioners. To this charge he replied, "If the name and office of Commissioner
General imports no more than that of a Surveyor General, no man of sense will contend about
a name. The tax—the tax is undoubtedly, at present, the apparent matter of grievance." At
this meeting resolutions were passed to encourage the manufactures of the province, and to
abstain from the purchase of articles on which duties were imposed, thus deceiving Bernard,
the governor, by the quiet character of their proceedings, which were represented as "the last
efforts of an expiring faction," but at the same time becoming more firm and decided.
To all the movements of the king and ministry to abridge the liberties of the colonists, Otis
maintained a decided and fearless opposition. Bold and daring in the expression of his prin-ciples
and opinions, he sometimes gave utterance to unguarded epithets, but never employed
his gift of irony and sarcasm in a spirit of hatred towards the masses of mankind. Owing to a
severe refutation of some strictures upon him, published in the public papers in 1769, he was
attacked by one John Robinson, a commissioner of the customs, in a coffee-house in Boston, and
in a general affray was cruelly wounded ; from the effects of which he never recovered. His
wounds did not prove mortal, but his reason was shattered, and his great usefulness to his coun-try
destroyed. He gained heavy damages for the assault ; but in an interval of returning reason
he forgave his destroyer and remitted the judgment. He lived until May 28, 1783. On that
day, during a heavy thunder-storm, he, with a greater part of the family with whom he resided,
had entered the house to wait until the shower should have passed. Otis, with his cane in one
hand, stood against the part of a door which opened into the front entry, and was in the act of
telling the assembled group a story, when an explosion took place, which seemed to shake the
solid earth, and he fell without a struggle, or an utterance, instantaneously dead. He had often
expressed a desire to die as he did. In one of his lucid intervals, a few weeks previous to his
death, he said to his sister: "I hope, when God Almighty, in his righteous providence, shall
take me out of time into eternity, that it will be by a flash of lightning." He lived to see the
Independence of the Colonies, but never fully to enjoy it.
" When the glorious work which he begun,
Shall stand the most complete beneath the sun
;
When peace shall come to crown the grand design,
His eyes shall live to see the work Divine
—
The heavens shall then his generous ' spirit claim
In storms as loud as his immortal fame !
'
Hark ! the deep thunders echo round the skies
!
On wings of flame the eternal errand flies
;
One chosen, charitable bolt is sped
—
And Otis mingles with the glorious dead."
—
Dawes.
THE WEITS OF ASSISTANCE.
Mat it Please totjh Honoes : I was de-sired
by one of the Court to look into the
books, and consider the question now before
them concerning Writs of Assistance. I have
accordingly considered it, and now appear
not only in obedience to your order, but like-wise
in behalf of the inhabitants of this town,
who have presented another petition, and out
of regard to the liberties of the subject. And
I take this opportunity to declare, that whether
under a fee or not, (for in such a cause as this 1
despise a fee,) I wiU to my dying day oppose
with all the powers and faculties God has given
me, aU such instruments of slavery on the one
hand, and villany on the other, as this writ of
assistance is.
It appears to me the worst instrument of
arbitrary power, the most destructive of English
liberty and the fundamental principles of law,
that ever was found in an English law book. I
THE WEITS OF ASSISTANCE.
mnst therefore beg your honors' patience and
attention to the whole range of an argument,
that may perhaps appear nncommon in many
things, as well as to points of learning that are
more remote and unusual : that the whole ten-dency
of my design may the more easily be per-ceived,
the conclusions better descend, and the
force of them be better felt. I shall not think
much of my pains- in this cause, as I engaged in
it from principle. I was solicited to argue this
cause as Advocate General ; and because I would
not, I have been charged with desertion from
my office.* To this charge I can give a very
sufficient answer. I renounced that office, and
I argue this cause from the same principle ; and
I argue it with the greater pleasure, as it is in
favor of British liberty, at a time when we hear
the greatest monarch upon earth declaring from
his throne that he glories in the name of Briton,
and that the privileges of his people are dearer
to him than the most valuable prerogatives of
his crown ; and as it is in opposition to a kind
of power, the exercise of which in former
periods of history, cost one King of England
his head, and another his throne. I have taken
more pains in this cause than I ever will take
again, although my engaging in this and another
popular cause has raised much resentment. But
I think I can sincerely declare, that I cheerfully
submit myself to every odious name for con-science'
sake ; and from my soul I despise all
those, whose guilt, malice, or folly has made
them my foes. Let the consequences be what
they will, I am determined to proceed. The
only principles of public conduct, that are wor-thy
of a gentleman or a man, are to sacrifice
estate, ease, health, and applause, and even
life, to the sacred calls of his country.
These manly sentiments, in private life,
make the good citizen ; in public life, the
patriot and the hero. I do not say, that when
Ijrought to the test, I shall be invincible. I
pray God I may never be brought to the mel-ancholy
trial, but if ever I should, it will be
then known how far I can reduce to practice
principles which I know to be founded in
truth. In the mean time I will proceed to the
subject of this writ.
Your honors will find in the old books con-cerning
the office of a justice of the peace, pre-cedents
of general warrants to search suspected
houses. But in more modern books, you will
find only special warrants to search such and
such houses, specially named, in which the
complainant has before sworn that he suspects
his goods are concealed ; and will find it ad-judged,
that special warrants only are legal.
In the same manner I rely on it, that the writ
prayed for in this petition, being general, is
illegal. It is a power that places the liberty
of every man in the hands of every petty officer.
* Otis had lately been occupying the office of Advocate
General of the Crown, and had resigned because "he be-lieved
these writs to be illegal and tyrannical," and would
not prostitute his office to the support of an oppressive act.
I say I admit that special -writa of assistance, to
search special places, may be granted to certain
persons on oath ; but I deny that the writ now
prayed for can be granted, for I beg leave to
make some observations on the writ itself, be-fore
I proceed to other acts of Parliament. In
the first place, the writ is universal, being
directed " to all and singular justices, sherifis,
constables, and all other officers and subjects ;
"
so that, in short, it is directed to every subject
in the king's dominions. Every one with this
writ may be a tyrant ; if this commission be
legal, a tyrant in a legal manner, also, may con-trol,
imprison, or murder any one within the
realm. In the next place, it is perpetual, there
is no retnrn. A man is accountable to no per-son
for his doings. Every man may reign
secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror
and desolation around him, until the trump of
the archangel shall excite difierent emotions in
his soul. In the third place, a person with this
writ, in the daytime, may enter all houses,
shops, &c., at will, and command all to assist
him. Fourthly, by this writ, not only depu-ties,
&c., but even their menial servants, are
allowed to lord it over us. What is this but to
have the curse of Canaan with a witness on us
;
to be the servant of servants, the most despica-ble
of God's creation ? Now one of the most
essential branches of English liberty is the free-dom
of one's house. A man's house is his
castle ; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well
guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ,
if it should be declared legal, would totally an-nihilate
this privilege. Custom-house officers
may enter our houses when they please ; we
are commanded to permit their entry. Their
menial servants may enter, may break locks,
bars, and every thing in their way : and whe-ther
they break through malice or revenge, no
man, no court can inquire. Bare suspicion
without oath is sufficient. This wanton exer-cise
of this power is not a chimerical suggestion
of a heated brain. I will mention some facts.
Mr. Pew had one of these writs, and when Mr.
Ware succeeded him, he endorsed this writ over
to Mr. Ware : so that, these writs are negotia-ble
from one officer to another ; and so your
honors have no opportunity of judging the
persons to whom this vast power is delegated.
Another instance is this : Mr. Justice Walley
had called this same Mr. Ware before him, by a
constable, to answer for a breach of tlie sab-bath-
day acts, or that of profane swearing. As
soon as he had finished, Mr. Ware asked him
if he had done. He replied. Yes. Well then,
said Mr. Ware, I will show you a little of my
power. I command you to permit me to search
your house for uncustomed goods; and went
on to search the house from the garret to the
cellar ; and then served the constable in the
same manner ! But to show another absurdity
in this writ, if it should be established, I insist
upon it every person, by the 14th Charles Se-cond,
has this power as well as the custom-house
oncers. The words are, "it shall be
6 JAMES OTIS.
lawful for any person or persons authorized,
&c." What a scene does this open! Every-man
prompted by revenge, ill-humor, or wan-tonness
to inspect the inside of his neighbor's
house, may get a writ of assistance. Others
will ask it from self-defence ; one arbitrary
exertion will provoke another, until society be
involved in tumult and in blood.
The summary of this speech can be best, and
can now be only given in the words of John
Adams, who divides it into five parts
:
1. "He began with an exordium, containing
an apology for his resignation of the ofiice of
Advocate General in the Court ofAdmiralty ; and
for his appearance in that cause in opposition
to the Crown, and in favor of the town of Bos-ton,
and the merchants of Boston and Salem.
2. "A dissertation on the rights of man in a
state of nature. He asserted that every man,
merely natural, was an independent sovereign,
subject to no law but the law written on his
heart, and revealed to him by his Maker, in the
constitution of his nature, and the inspiration
of his understanding and his conscience. His
right to his life, his liberty, no created being
could rightfully contest. Nor was his right to
his property less incontestable. The club that
he had snapped from a tree, for a staff or for
defence, was his own. His bow and arrow
were his own ; if by a pebble he had killed a
partridge or a squirrel, it was his own. No
creature, man or beast, had a right to take it
from him. If he had taken an eel, or a smelt,
or a sculpion, it was his property. In short, he
sported upon this topic with so much wit and
humor, and at the same time with so much in-disputable
truth and reason, that he was not
less entertaining than instructive. He asserted
that these rights were inherent and inalienable.
That they never could be surrendered or alien-ated,
but by idiots or madmen, and all the acts
of idiots and lunatics were void, and not obliga-tory,
by all the laws of God and man. Nor
were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a Qua-ker
in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson in Vir-ginia,
ever asserted the rights of negroes in
stronger terms. Young as I was, and ignorant
as I was, I shuddered at the doctrine he
taught ; and I have all my life shuddered, and
still shudder, at the consequences that may be
drawn from such premises. Shall we say, that
the rights of masters and servants clash, and
can be decided only by force ? I adore the idea
of gradual abolitions! but who shall decide
how fast or how slowly these abolitions shall
be made ?
3. "From individual independence he pro-ceeded
to association. If it was inconsistent
with the dignity of human nature to say that
men were gregarious animals, like wild geese,
it surely could offend no delicacy to say they
were social animals by nature ; that there were
natural sympathies, and above all, the sweet
attraction of the sexes, which must soon draw
them together in little groups, and by degrees
in larger congregations, for mutual assistance
and defence. And this must have happened
before any formal covenant, by express words or
signs, was concluded. When general councils
and deliberations commenced, the objects could
be no other than the mutual defence and secu-rity
of. every individual for his life, his liberty,
and his property. To suppose them to have
surrendered these in any other way than by
equal rules and general consent, was to suppose
them idiots or madmen, whose acts were never
binding. To suppose them surprised by fraud,
or compelled by force into any other compact,
such fraud and such force could confer no obli-gation.
Every man had a right to trample it
under foot whenever he pleased. In short, he
asserted these rights to be derived only from
nature, and the author of nature; that they
were inherent, inalienable, and indefeasible by
any laws, pacts, contracts, covenants, or stipu-lations,
which man could devise.
4. " These principles and these rights were
wrought into the English constitution, as fun-damental
laws. And under this head he went
back to the old Saxon laws, and to Magna
Charta, and the fifty confirmations of it in Par-liament,
and the executions ordained against
the violators of it, and the national vengeance
which had been taken on them from time to
time, down to the Jameses and Charleses ; and
to the position of rights and the bill of rights,
and the revolution. He asserted, that the se-curity
of these rights to life, liberty and prop-erty,
had been the object of all those struggles
against arbitrary power, temporal and spiritual,
civil and political, military and ecclesiastical, in
every age. He asserted, that our ancestors, as
British subjects, and we, their descendants, as
British subjects, were entitled to all those
rights, by the British constitution, as well as
by the law of nature, and our provincial char-acter,
as much as any inhabitant of London or
Bristol, or any part of England ; and were not
to be cheated out of them by any phantom of
'virtual representation,' or any other fiction
of law or politics, or any monkish trick of de-ceit
and hypocrisy.
5. "He then examined the acts of trade, one
by one, and demonstrated, that if they were
considered as revenue laws, they destroyed aU
our security of property, liberty, and life, every
right of nature, and the English constitution,
and the charter of the province. Here he
considered the distinction between ' external
and internal taxes,' at that time a popular and
commonplace distinction. But he asserted
that there was no such distinction in theory,
or upon any principle but 'necessity.' The
necessity that the commerce of the empire
should be under one direction, was obvious.
The Americans had been so sensible of this ne-cessity,
that they had connived at the distinc-tion
between external and internal taxes, and
had submitted to the acts of trade as regula-tions
of commerce, but never as taxations, or
THE STUDY OF THE LAW.
revenue laws. Nor had the British govern-ment,
till now, ever dared to attempt to en-force
them as taxations or revenue laws. They
had lain dormant in that character for a cen-tury
almost. The navigation act he allowed to
be binding upon us, because we had consented
to it by our own legislature. Here he gave a
history of the navigation act of the first of
Charles II., a plagiarism from Oliver Crom-well.
This act had lain dormant for fifteen
years. In 1675, after repeated letters and or-ders
from the king. Governor Leverett very
candidly informs his majesty that the law had
not been executed, because it was thought un-constitutional
; Parliament not having authority
over us."
THE STUDY OF THE LAW.
I shall always lament that I did not take a
year or two further for more general inquiries
in the arts and sciences before I sat down to
the laborious study of the laws of my country.
Early and short clerkships and a premature
rushing into practice, without a competent
knowledge in the theory of law, have blasted
the hopes of (and ruined the expectations
formed by the parents of) most of the students
in the profession, who have fallen within my ob-servation
for these ten or fifteen years past.
I hold it to be of vast importance that a
young man should be able to make some eclat
at his opening, which it is in vain to expect from
one under twenty-five : missing of this is very
apt to discourage and dispirit him, and what is
of worse consequence, may prevent the appli-cation
of clients ever after. It has been ob-served
before I was born, if a man don't obtain
a character in any profession soon after his first
appearance, he hardly will ever obtain one.
The bulk of mankind, I need not inform you,
who have conversed with, studied and found
many of them out, are a gaping crew, and like
little children and all other gazing creatures,
won't look long upon one object which gives
them pleasure ; much less wiU they seek for en-tertainment
where they have been twice or
thrice disappointed. The late eminent Mr.
John Eeed, who, by some, has been perhaps
justly esteemed the greatest common lawyer
this continent ever saw, was, you know, many
years a clergyman, and had attained the age of
forty before he began the practice, if not before
he began the study, of the law. Sir Peter
King, formerly Lord High Chancellor of Eng-land,
kept a grocer's shop till he was turned of
thirty, then fell into an acquaintance with the
immortal John Locke, who discovered a genius
in him, advised him to books and assisted in
his education ; after which he took to the study
of the common law, and finally attained to the
highest place to which his royal master could
advance a lawyer. I think I have been told
the Lord Chief Justice Pemberton, or some one
of the Chief Justices of England, was a bankrupt,
and in the Fleet prison for debt, before he even
dreamed of being a lawyer. I mention these
instances, not as arguments to prove it would
be most eligible to stay till thirty or forty, be-fore
a man begins the study of a profession he
is to live by ; but this inference I think very
fairly follows, that those gentlemen availed
themselves much of the ripeness of their judg-ments
when they began this study, and made
much swifter progress than a young man of
twenty with all the genius in the world could
do ; or they would have been approaching su-perannuation
before they would be equipped
with a suflicient degree of learning once to
give hope for the success they found, and then
such hope would vanish, unless they could get
a new lease of life and understanding.*
* This extract is taken from a letter addressed by James
Otis to his father, in reiference to the legal education of his
younger brother, Samuel Allyne Otis, who, in later life, be-came
Secretary of the Senate of the United States.
PATRICK HENRY.
Tms distinguished " orator of nature," was born at Studley, in the county of Hanover, and
Colony of Virginia, His father emigrated to America, from Aberdeen, Scotland, in quest of
fortune, sometimfi prior to 1730 ; and his mother, who belonged to the family of Winstons, was
a native of the county in which he was born. On the maternal side, he seems to have belonged
to an oratorical race. His uncle, William Winston, is said to have been highly gifted with that
peculiar cast of eloquence for which Mr. Henry became afterwards so justly celebrated. An
anecdote of this gentleman's rhetorical powers is recorded by the eloquent biographer of Mr.
Henry. During the French and Indian war, soon after the defeat of the unfortunate Braddock,
when the militia were marched to the frontiers of Virginia against the enemy, William Win-ston
was the lieutenant of a company. The men, who were indifferently clothed, without tents,
and exposed to the rigor and inclemency of the weather, discovered great aversion to the ser-vice,
and were anxious and even clamorous to return to their families ; when Winston, mounting
a stump, addressed them with such keenness of invective, and declaimed with such force of
eloquence, on liberty and patriotism, that when he concluded, the general cry was, " Let us
march on ; lead us against the enemy ! " and they were now willing and anxious to encounter
all those difficulties and dangers which, but a few moments before, had almost produced a
mutiny.
The youth of Mr. Henry gave no presage of his future greatness. He was idle and indolent
;
playing truant from his school, and spending the greater portion of his time in the sports of the
field ; often sitting whole days upon the margin of some stream, waiting for a bite, or even " one
glorious nibble." The lamentable effects of this idleness clung to him through life. After pass-ing
one year as merchant's clerk, young Henry, at the age of sixteen, was established in trade
by his father, but " through laziness, the love of music, the charms of the chase, and a readiness
to trust every one,'''' he soon became bankrupt. One advantage, however, he derived from
this experiment ; it was in the study of humar, nature. AH his customers underwent his scru-tiny,
not with reference to their integrity or solvency, but in relation to the structure of their
minds and opinions. In this school, it is the opinion of his biographer, Mr. Henry was prepared
for his future life. " For those continual efforts to render himself intelligible to his plain and
unlettered hearers, on subjects entirely new to them, taught him that clear and simple style
which forms the best vehicle of thought to a popular assembly ; while his attempts to interest
and affect them, in order that he might hear from them the echo of nature's voice, instructed
him in those topics of persuasion by which men are most certainly to be moved, and in the kind
of imagery and structure of language which were the best fitted to strike and agitate their
hearts."
At the early age of eighteen, Mr. Henry was married to Miss Shelton, the daughter of a poor
but honest farmer in the neighborhood of his birthplace. The young couple settled on a small
farm, and " with the assistance of one or two slaves, Mr. Henry had to delve the earth for his
subsistence." His want of agricultural. skill and natural aversion to aU kinds of systematic
labor, closed his career as a farmer in two years, when he again commenced and again failed in
K
-^ ^'^S ir ^ JachruOTh
II Jt IJ A^ppleton & C*
patkick: henry, g
mercantile pursuits. Unsuccessful in every thing he had attempted to procure himself and his
family subsistence, he, as a last effort, determined to make a trial of the law. To the study of
that profession, " which is said to require the lucubrations of twenty years, Mr. Henry devoted
not more than six weeks ; " and at the age of twenty-four he was admitted to the bar. His
practice for the first three or four years yielded him but a very scanty return, during which time
he performed the duties of an assistant to his father-in-law at a country inn.
The celebrated controversy,* in 1763, between the clergy and the legislature of Virginia,
touching the stipend of the former, was the occasion on which Mr. Henry's genius first broke
forth. "On this first trial of his strength," says Mr. Wirt, "he rose very awkwardly, and fal-tered
much in his exordium. The people hung their heads at so unpromising a commencement
;
the clergy were observed to exchange sly looks with each other ; and his father is described as
having almost sunk with confusion from his seat. But these feelings were of short duration,
and soon gave place to others, of a very different character. For, now were these wonderful
faculties which he possessed for the first time developed; and now was first witnessed that
mysterious and almost supernatural transformation of appearance, which the fire of his own elo-quence
never failed to work in him. For, as his mind rolled along and began to glow from its
own action, all the exunios of the clown seemed to shed themselves spontaneously. His attitude,
by degrees, became erect and lofty. The spirit of his genius awakened all his features. His
countenance shone with a nobleness and grandeur which it had never before exhibited. There
was a lightning in his eyes which seemed to rive the spectator. His action became graceful,
bold, and commanding ; and in the tones of his voice, but more especially in his emphasis, there
was a peculiar charm, a magic, of which any one who ever heard him will speak as soon as he
is named, but of which no one can give any adequate description. They can only say that it
struck upon the ear and upon the heart, in a manner which language cannot tell. Add to aU
these his wonder-working fancy, and the peculiar phraseology in which he clothed its images;
for he painted to the heart with a force that almost petrified it. In the language of those who
heard him on this occasion, ' he made their blood run cold, and their hair to rise on end.'
" It will not be difficult for any one who ever heard this most extraordinary man, to believe the
whole account of this transaction which is given by his surviving hearers ; and from their ac-count,
the court-house of Hanover County must have exhibited, on this occasion, a scene as pic-turesque
as has ever been witnessed in real life. They say that the people, whose countenance
had fallen as he arose, had heard but a very few sentences before they began to look up ; then
to look at each other with surprise, as if doubting the evidence of their own senses ; then, at-tracted
by some strong gesture, struck by some majestic attitude, fascinated by the spell of his
eye, the charm of his emphasis, and the varied and commanding expression of his countenance,
they could look away no more. In less than twenty minutes they might be seen in every part
of the house, on every bench, in every window, stooping forward from their stands, in death-like
silence ; their features fixed in amazement and awe ; aU their senses listening and riveted
upon the speaker, as if to catch the last strain of some heavenly visitant. The mockery of the
clergy was soon turned into alarm ; their triumph into confusion and despair ; and at one burst
of his rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from the bench in precipitation and terror.
As for the father, such was his surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that, forgetting
where he was, and the character which he was filling, tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks,
without the power or inclination to repress them. The jury seem to have been completely be-wildered
; for, thoughtless even of the admitted right of the plaintiff, they had scarcely left the
bar when they returned with a verdict of one penny damages. A motion was made for a new
trial ; but the court, too, had now lost the equipoise of their judgment, and overruled the motion
by a unanimous vote. The verdict and judgment overruling the motion, were followed by re-doubled
acclamations from within and without the house. The people, who had with difficulty
kept their hands off their champion, from the moment of closing his harangue, no sooner saw
'the fate of the cause finally sealed, than they seized him at the bar, and in spite of his own ex-ertions,
and the continued cry of ' order ' from the sheriffs and the court, they bore him out of
The points in ttia controversy are lucidly laid down in Wirt's Life of Henry.
10 PATKICK HENKY.
the coTirt-liouse, and raising him on their shoulders, carried him about the yard, in a kind of
electioneering triumph."
His success in the "parson's cause" introduced him at once to an extensive practice; but he
never could confine himself to the arduous studies necessary for a thorough knowledge of the
law: the consequence was, on questions merely legal his inferiors in talents frequently em-barrassed
him, and he was required to use all the resources of his master-mind to maintain the
position he had reached. In 1765, as a member of the House of Burgesses, Mr. Henry in-troduced
his resolutions against the Stamp Act, which proved the opening of the American
Revolution in the colony of Virginia. It was in the midst of the debate upon those resolutions,
that he " exclaimed, in a voice of thunder and with the look of a god, ' Csesar had his Brutus
—
Charles the First his Cromwell—and George the Third—('Treason!' cried the Speaker:
' treason ! treason !
' echoed from every part of the house. Henry faltered not for an instant, but
rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing on the Speaker an eye of the most determined fire, finished
his sentence with the firmest emphasis)
—
may profit hy their example. If this be treason, make
the most of it." * After passing several years successfully upon the legislative floor, Mr. Henry
returned to the practice of his profession.
On the 4th of September, 17T4, the first Congress met in Carpenter's Hall, at Philadelphia.
This assembly was composed of the most eminent men of the several colonies, on the wisdom
of whose councils was staked the liberties of the colonists and their posterity. The first meeting
is described as "awfully solemn. The object which had called them together was of incal-culable
magnitude." After the organization, in the midst of a deep and death-like silence, every
member reluctant to open a business so fearfully momentous, " Mr. Henry rose slowly, as if
borne down by the weight of the subject, and, after faltering, according to his habit, through a
most impressive exordium, he launched gradually into a recital of the colonial wrongs. Eising,
as he advanced, with the grandeur of his subject, and glowing at length with all the majesty
and expectation of the occasion, his speech seemed more than that of mortal man. There was
no rant, no rhapsody, no labor of the understanding, no straining of the voice, no confusion of
the utterance. His countenance was erect, his eye steady, his action noble, his enunciation clear
and firm, his mind poised on its centre, his views of his subject comprehensive and great, and
his imagination corruscating with a magnificence and a variety which struck even that assembly
with amazement and awe. He sat down amid murmurs of astonishment and applause ; and as
he had been before proclaimed the greatest orator of Virginia, he was now, on every hand,
admitted to be the first orator of America." No report of this speech has been preserved.
That Congress adjourned in October, and Mr. Henry returned to his home. On the 20th of
March following (1775), the Virginia Convention, which had met the previous year at "Williams-bnrgh,
then the capital of the State, convened at Eichmond. Of this body Mr. Henry was a
member. Although the colonies were then laboring under severe grievances, and at the same
time were insisting with great firmness upon their constitutional rights, yet they gave the most
explicit and solemn pledge of their faith and true allegiance to His Majesty King George the
Third, avowed to support him with their lives and fortunes, and were ardent in their wishes for
a return of that friendly intercourse from which the colonies had derived so much benefit.
These were the sentiments held by those eminent statesmen and patriots on the opening of that
convention ; but with Mr. Henry it was different. In his judgment, all hopes of a reconciliation
were gone. Firm in this opinion, he introduced his celebrated resolutions advocating prepara-tion
for a military defence of the colony. Those resolutions he sustained in a powerful speech,
and they were adopted ; after which a committee, of which Mr. Henry and George Washington
were members, was appointed to prepare and report a plan to carry into effect the meaning of
the resolutions. After the report was made and the plan adopted, the convention adjourned.
On the 20th of April, 1775, in the dead of the night. Lord Dunmore sent one of his naval
captains, with a body of marines, into the town of "Williamsburgh, carried off twenty barrels of
* A very curious parallel to this scene occurred In the Legislature of Massachusetts, three years prior to this, on the
occasion of the presentation of Otls's remonstrance against the governor and council's mating or increasing estahlishments
without the consent of the House. A thrilling account of those proceedings is given in Tudor's Life of James Otis.
PATEICK HENEY. ll
powder from the public magazine, and placed them on board the armed schooner Magdalen,
lying at anchor in James Eiver. The people of the town on learning of the affair early the next
morning, became highly exasperated ; a considerable body of them taking up arms, determined
to compel a restoration of the powder. The council convened, and addressed a letter to Lord
Dunmore, asking for its return ; but it was not until the 2d day of May, when Mr. Henry, hav-ing
convened the Independent company of Hanover, by request, addressed them, and being
appointed their leader, marched against his lordship, and obtained " three hundred and thirty
pounds," the estimated value of the powder. " Thus, the same man, whose genius had in the
year 1765 given the first political impulse to the Revolution, had now the additional honor of
heading the first military movement in Virginia, in support of the same cause." On the meet-ing
of the Virginia convention in 1776, after the declaration of rights was published, and a plan
of government established, Mr. Henry was elected governor of the colony. His career in this
ofiBce is not marked by any extraordinary operations of his own. Lord Dunmore had evacuated
the territory of the colony, and the military operations against the British Crown, which had
been carried on during the previous year, were brought to a close. In 1777, and again in 1778,
Mr. Henry was re-elected to the office of governor ; declining a third re-election in 1779, which
had been tendered him by the Assembly.
The first wife of Mr. Henry having died in the year 1775, he sold the farm on which he had
been residing in Hanover county, and purchased several thousand acres of valuable land in the
county of Henry ; a county which had been erected during his administration as governor
;
and which had taken its name from him, as did afterwards its neighboring county of Patrick.
In 1777 he married Dorothea, the daughter of Mr. Nathaniel W. Dandridge, with whom he retired
to his new estate ; and there resumed the practice of the law, confining himself mainly to the duties
of counsellor and advocate, and leaving the technical duties to the care of his junior associates.
Shortly after the termination of Mr. Henry's office as governor, he was elected to the State
Assembly, in which body he remained until the close of his active life ; taking a prominent part
in its proceedings, and distinguishing himself by his liberality of feeling and soundness of judg-ment,
not less than by the superiority of his powers in debate. On the close of the Revolution,
he proposed in the Assembly, that the loyalists who had left the State during the war, should
be permitted to return. This proposition was resisted, but through the influence of Mr. Henry's
" overwhelming eloquence," was finally adopted. In the same high-toned spirit he supported
and carried, although vigorously opposed, a proposal for removing the restraints upon British
commerce. " Why should we fetter commerce ? " said he ; "a man in chains droops and bows
to the earth ; his spirits are broken ; but let him twist the fetters from his legs and he will
stand upright. Fetter not Commerce, Sir ; let her be as free as air. She will range the whole
creation, and return on the wings of the four winds of heaven to bless the land with plenty."
In the year 1784, Mr. Henry introduced into the Assembly, a " bill for the encouragement
of marriages with the Indians." The frontier settlements had been subject to the continual
depredations of the Indians. Treaties were of no avail ; and in this bill, Mr. Henry suggested,
as a means to prevent these troubles, intermarriages of the whites and Indians ; and held out
pecuniary bounty, to be repeated at the birth of every child of such marriages ; exemption from
taxes, and the free use of an educational institution, to be established at the expense of the
State. This bill was rejected. In November of the same year, Mr. Henry was again elected
Governor of Virginia ; in which oflSce he remained until 1786, when he was compelled by
poverty to resign his office, and again return to the practice of the law. However, he did not
remain long out of public life. In 1788 he was a member of the convention of Virginia, which
adopted the new federal constitution. In this Assembly he opposed the adoption ; because, he
contended, it consolidated the States into one government, thereby destroying their individual
sovereignty. His speeches on this occasion surpassed all his former efforts ; and they operated
so powerfully that but a small majority voted for the new constitution.
Declining a re-election to the Assembly in 1791, Mr. Henry retired from public life. Four
years after President "Washington offered him the important station of Secretary of State. This
!ie declined, preferring to remain in retirement. Again, in 1796, he was elected Governor of
12 PATEICK HEFEY.
the State ; this he also declined. In the year 1797 his health began to fail, and those energies
which had enabled him to withstand the power of Great Britain, and urge onward the glorious Ee-volution,
existed no longer in their original force. The uncertainty of the political issues at this
period bore sorely and heavily upon Mr. Henry's sinking spirits. The clash of opposing parties
agonized his mind. He was alarmed at the hideous scenes of the revolution then enacting in
France, and apprehensive that these scenes were about being enacted over again in his own
country, "In a mind thus prepared," says his biographer, "the strong and animated resolutions
of the Virginia Assembly in 1798, in relation to the alien and sedition laws, conjured up the
most frightful visions of civil war, disunion, blood and anarchy ; and under the impulse of these
phantoms, to make what Jis considered a virtuous effort for his country, he presented himself in
Charlotte county, as a candidate for the House of Delegates, at the spring election of 1799."
On the day of the election, before the polls were opened, he addressed the people of the county to
the following effect : " He told them that the late proceedings of the Virginia Assembly had
filled him with apprehension and alarm ; that they had planted thorns upon his pillow ; that
they had drawn him from that happy retirement which it had pleased a bountiful Providence to
bestow, and in which he had hoped to pass, in quiet, the remainder of his days ; that the State
had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the constitution ; and in daring to pro-nounce
upon the validity of federal laws, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a manner not war-ranted
by any authority, and in the highest degree alarming to every considerate man ; that
such opposition, on the part of Virginia, to the acts of the general government, must beget their
enforcement by military power ; that this would probably produce civil war ; civU war, foreign
alliances ; and that foreign alliances must necessarily end in subjugation to the powers called ui.
He conjured the people to pause and consider well, before they rushed into such a desperate
condition, from which there could be no retreat. He painted to their imaginations, Washington,
at the head of a numerous and well-appointed army, inflicting upon them military execution : 'and
where (he asked) are our resources to meet such a conflict ? Where is the citizen of America
who will dare to lift his hand against the father of his country ?
' A drunken man in the crowd
threw up his arm, and exclaimed that ' he dared to do it.' ' No,' answered Mr. Henry, rising
aloft in all his majesty: ^youdare not do it: in such a parricidal attempt, the steel would drop
from your nerveless arm!'' Mr. Henry, proceeding in his address to the people, asked, 'whether
the county of Charlotte would have any authority to dispute an obedience to the laws of Vir-ginia
; and he pronounced Virginia to be to the Union, what the county of Charlotte was to
her.
" Having denied the right of a State to decide upon the constitutionality of federal laws, he
added, that perhaps it might be necessary to say something of the merits of the laws in question.
His private opinion was, that they were ' good and proper.'' But, whatever might be their
merits, it belonged to the people, who held the reins over the head of Congress, and to them
alone, to say whether they were acceptable or otherwise, to Virginians ; and that this must be
done by way of petition. That Congress were as much our representatives as the Assembly,
and had as good a right to our confidence. He had seen, with regret, the unlimited power over
the purse and sword consigned to the general government ; but that he had been overruled, and
it was now necessary to submit to the constitutional exercise of that power. 'If,' said he, 'I
am asked what is to be done, when a people feel themselves intolerably oppressed, my answer is
ready : Overturn the government. But do not, I beseech you, carry matters to this length, with-out
provocation. Wait at least until some infringement is made upon your rights, and which
cannot otherwise be redressed ; for if ever you recur to another change, you may bid adieu for
ever to representative government. You can never exchange the present government but for a
monarchy. If the administration have done wrong, let us all go wrong together rather than
split into factions, which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs. Let us pre-serve
our strength for the French, the English, the Germans, or whoever else shall dare to in-vade
our territory, and not exhaust it in civil commotions and intestine wars.' He concluded,
by declaring his design to exert himself in the endeavor to allay the heart-burnings and jeal-ousies
which had been fomented, in the State legislature ; and he fervently prayed, if U was
THE FEDEEAL CONSTITUTION. 13
deemed unworthy to effect it, that it might be reserved to some other aad abler hand, to extend
this blessing over the community." *
This was the last effort of Mr. Henry's eloquence. The polls were opened after he had concluded
this speech, and he was elected : but -ho never took his seat. His health had been declining gra-dually
for two years, when, on the sixth day of June, 1799, he died, full of honors—as a states-man,
orator and patriot, unsurpassed and uneclipsed.
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.t
The Preamble and the two first sections of
the first article of the Constitution being under
consideration, Mr. Henry thus addressed the
convention 4
Mr. Chaiemah : The public mind, as well as
my own, is extremely uneasy at the proposed
change of government. Give me leave to form
one of the number of those, who wish to be
thoroughly acquainted with the reasons of this
perilous and uneasy situation, and why we are
brought hither to decide on this great national
question. I consider myself as the servant of
the people of this commonwealth, as a sentinel
over their rights, liberty, and happiness. I
represent their feelings when I say, that they
are exceedingly uneasy, being brought from
that state of full security, which they enjoy, to
* Experience had taught Mr. Henry that in opposing tho
adoption of the constitution, he had mistaken the source of
public danger ; that the power of the states was yet too great,
in times of discord and war, for the power of the Union.
The constitution, moreover, was the law of the land, and as
such, he had sworn to obey it. He had seen it administered
conscientiously, and for the good of the whole; he had, since
Its adoption, never leagued himself with the factions which
embarrassed its operations. With parties, as such, he had
no connection, and in this crisis he could come forward with
clean bands tu its support.
—
Administrations of Washington
amd Adorns ; Tuckefs Life ofJefferson.
t So general was the conviction that public welfare re-quired
a government of more extensive powers than those
vested in the general government by the articles of confed-eration,
that in May, 1787, a convention composed of dele-gates
from all the States in the Union, with the exception of
Ehode Island, assembled at Philadelphia, to take the subject
under consideration. This convention continued its sessions
with closed doors until the seventeenth of the following
September, when the Federal Constitution was promulgated.
The convention resolved, "That the constitution be laid be-fore
the United States, in Congress assembled, and that it is
the opinion of this convention that it should afterwards be
submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each State
by the people thereof, for their assent and ratification; " and
in conformity with this recommendation. Congress, on the
twenty-eighth of the same month, p.issed a resolution di-recting
that tho constitution should be submitted to conven-tions,
to be assembled in the several States of the Union.
The conventions subsequently assembled, and the expediency
of adopting the constitution was ably and eloquently dis-cussed.
i This speech was delivered in the Virginia convention,
on the fourth of June, 1783.
the present delusive appearance of things. Be-fore
the meeting of the late Federal convention
at Philadelphia, a general peace, and an univer-sal
tranquillity prevailed in this country, and
the minds of our citizens were at perfect re-pose;
but since that period, they are exceed-ingly
uneasy and disquieted. When I wished
for an appointment to this convention, my mind
was extremely agitated for the situation of pub-lic
affairs. I conceive the republic to be in ex-treme
danger. If our situation be thus uneasy,
whence has arisen this fearful jeopardy ? It
arises from this fatal system ; it arises from a
proposal to cliange our government—a propo-sal
that goes to the utter annihilation of the
most solemn engagements of the States—a pro-posal
of establishing nine States into a confede-racy,
to the eventual exclusion of four States.
It goes to the annihilation of those solemn
treaties we have formed with foreign nations.
The present circumstances of France, the good
offices rendered us by that kingdom, require
our most faithful and most punctual adherence
to our treaty with her. We are in alliance with
the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Prussians: those
treaties bound us as thirteen St.ues, confede-rated
together. Yet here is a proposal to sever
that confederacy. Is it possible that we shall
abandon all our treaties and national engage-ments?
And for what? I expected to have
heard the reasons of an event so unexpected to
my mind, and many others. Was our civil
polity, or public justice, endangered or sapped ?
Was the real existence of the country threat-ened,
or was this preceded by a mournful pro-gression
of events? This proposal of altering
our federal government is of a most alarming
nature : make the best of this new government
—say it is composed of any thing but inspira-tion—
you ought to be extremely cautious,
watchful, jealous of your liberty; for, instead
of securing your rights, you may lose them for
ever. If a wrong step be now made, the re-public
may be lost for ever. If this new govern-ment
will not come up to the expectation of the
people, and they should be disappointed, their
liberty will be lost, and tyranny must and will
arise. I repeat it again, and I beg gentlemen
to consider, that a wrong step, made now, wUl
plunge us into misery, and our republic will be
lost. It will be necessary for this convention
to have a faithful historical detail of the facts
that preceded the session of the federal conven-
14 PATEIGK HENRY.
tion, and the reasons that actuated its members
in proposing an entire alteration of government —and to demonstrate the dangers that awaited
ns. If they were of such awful magnitude as
to warrant a proposal so extremely perilous as
this, I must assert that this convention has an
absolute right to a thorough discovery of every
circumstance relative to this great event. And
here I would make this inquiry of those worthy
characters who composed a part of the late
federal convention. I am sure they were fully
impressed with the necessity of forming a great
consolidated government, instead of a confede-ration.
That this is a consolidated government
is demonstrably clear ; and the danger of such
a government is, to my mind, very striking. I
have the highest veneration for those gentle-men
; but, sir, give me leave to demand, what
right had they to say, " We, the People ? " My
political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious so-licitude
for the public welfare, leads me to ask,
who authorized them to speak the language of,
"We, the People," instead of We, the States?
States are the characteristics, and the soul of a
confederation. If the States be not the agents
of this compact, it must be one great consoli-dated
national government of the people of all
the States. I have the highest respect for those
gentlemen who formed the convention; and
were some of them not here, I would express
some testimonial of esteem for them. America
had on a former occasion put the utmost confi-dence
in them; a confidence which was well
plaped; and I am sure, sir, I would give up
any thing to them ; I would cheerfully confide
in them as my representatives. But, sir, on
this great occasion, I would demand the cause
of their conduct. Even from that illustrious
man, who saved us by his valor, I would have
a reason for his conduct ; that liberty which he
has given us by his valor, tells me to ask this
reason, and sure I am, were he here, he would
give us that reason : but there are other gentle-men
here, who can give us this information.
The people gave them no power to use their
name. That they exceeded their power is per-fectly
clear. It is not mere curiosity that actu-ates
me ; I wish to hear the real, actual, exist-ing
danger, which should lead us to take those
steps so dangerous in my conception. Disor-ders
have arisen in other parts of America, but
here, sir, no dangers, no insurrection or tumult,
has happened ; every thing has been calm and
tranquil. But notwithstanding this, we are
wandering on the great ocean of human aifairs.
I see no landmark to guide us. We are run-ning
we know not whither. Difference in
opinion has gone to a degree of inflammatory
resentment, in different parts of the country,
which has been occasioned by this perilous in-novation.
The federal convention ought to
have amended the old system; for this purpose
they were solely delegated: the object of their
mission extended to no other consideration.
You must therefore forgive the solicitation of
one unworthy member, to know what danger
could have arisen under the present confedera-tion,
and what are the causes of this proposal
to change our government.
This inquiry was answered by an eloquent
and powerful speech from Mr. Eandolph ; and
the debate passed into other hands until the
next day, when Mr. Henry continued
:
Me. Chaieman: I am much obliged to the
very worthy gentleman* for his encomium. I
wish I were possessed of talents, or possessed
of any thing, that might enable me to elucidate
this great subject. I am not free from suspi-cion
: I am apt to entertain doubts : I rose yes-terday
to ask a question, which arose in my
own mind. When I asked that question, I
thought the meaning of my interrogation was
obvious : the fate of this question and of Amer-ica,
may depend on this. Have they said, We,
the States ? Have they made a proposal of a
compact between States? If they had, this
would be a confederation : it is otherwise most
clearly a consolidated government. The whole
question turns, sir, on that poor little thing
—
the expression. We, the People, instead of the
States of America. I need not take much
pains to show, that the principles of this sys-tem
are extremely pernicious, impolitic, and
dangerous. Is this a monarchy, like England
a compact between prince and people; with
checks on the former to secure the liberty of
the latter ? Is this a confederacy, like Holland —an association of a number of independent
States, each of which retains its individual sov-ereignty
? It is not a democracy, wherein the
people retain all their rights securely. Had
these principles been adhered to, we should
not have been brought to this alarming transi-tion,
from a confederacy to a consolidated gov-ernment.
We have no detail of those great
considerations which, in my opinion, ought to
have abounded before we should recur to a
government of this kind. Here is a revolution
as radical as that which separated us from
Great Britain. It is as radical, if in this transi-tion,
our rights and privileges are endangered,
and the sovereignty of the States relinquished.
And cannot we plainly see that this is actually
* General Lee, of Westmoreland, speaking in reference to
Mr. Ilenry's opening speech, had remarked to the conven-tion,
" I feel every power of my mind moved by the lan-guage
of the honorable gentleman yesterday. The echit and
brilliancy which have distinguished that gentleman, the
honors witli which he has been dignified, and the brilliant
talents which he has so ofte.i displayed, have attracted my
respect and attention. On so important an occasion, and be-fore
BO respectable a body, I expected a new display of his
powers of oratory; but, instead of proceeding to investigate
the merits of the new plan of government, the icorthy char
ader informs us of horrors which he felt, of apprehensions
in his mind, which made him tremblingly fearful of the
fate of the commonwealth. Mr. Chairman, was it proper to
appeal to the /ear of this House? The question before ns
belongs to the judgment of this House. I trust he ia come
to jttdge, and not to alarm."
THE FEDEEAL CONSTITUTION. 16
the case ? The rights of conscience, trial by
jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities
and franchises, all pretensions to human rights
and privileges, are rendered insecure, if not
lost, by this change so loudly talked of by
some, and inconsiderately by others. Is this
tame relinquishment of rights worthy of free-men?
Is it worthy of that manly fortitude
that ought to characterize republicans? It is
said eight States have adopted this plan. I de-clare
that if twelve States and a half had adopt-ed
it, I would, with manly firmness, and in spite
of an erring world, reject it. You are not to
inquire how your trade may be increased, nor
how you are to become a great and powerful
people, but how your liberties can be secured
;
for liberty ought to be the direct end of your
government. Having premised these things, I
shall, with the aid of my judgment and infor-mation,
which I confess are not extensive, go
into the discussion of this system more minute-ly.
Is it necessary for your liberty, that you
should abandon those great rights by the adop-tion
of this system ? Is the relinquishment of
the trial by jury, and the liberty of the press,
necessary for your liberty ? Will the abandon-ment
of your most sacred rights, tend to the
security of your liberty ? Liberty, the greatest
of all earthly blessings—give us that precious
jewel, and you may take every thing else. But
I am fearful I have lived long enough to become
an old-fashioned fellow. Perhaps an invincible
attachment to the dearest rights of man, may,
in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed
old-fashioned : if so, I am contented to be so.
I say, the time has been when every pulse of
my heart beat for American liberty, and which,
I believe, had a counterpart in the breast of
every true American. But suspicions have
gone forth—suspicions of my integrity. It has
been publicly reported that my professions are
not real. Twenty-three years ago was I sup-posed
a traitor to my country : I was then said
to be a bane of sedition, because I supported
the rights of my country : I may be thought
suspicious, when I say our privileges and rights
are in danger : but, sir, a number of the people
of this country are weak enough to think these
things are too true. I am happy to find that
the gentlemen on the other side, declare they
are groundless : but, sir, suspicion is a virtue,
as long as its object is the preservation of the
public good, and as long as it stays within pro-per
bounds : should it fall on me, I am content-ed
: conscious rectitude is a powerful consola-tion:
I trust there are many who think my
professions for the public good to be real. Let
your suspicion look to both sides: there are
many on the other side, who, possibly, may
have been persuaded of the necessity of these
measures, which I conceive to be dangerous to
your liberty. Guard with jealous attention the
public liberty. Suspect every one who ap-proaches
that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing
will preserve it, but downright force. When-ever
you give up that force, you are inevitably
ruined. I am answered by gentlemen, that
though I may speak of terrors, yet the fact is,
that we are surrounded by none of the dangers
I apprehend. I conceive this new government
to be one of those dangers : it has produced
those horrors, which distress many of our best
citizens. We are come hither to preserve the
poor commonwealth of Virginia, if it can be
possibly done : something must be done to pre-serve
your liberty and mine. The confedera-tion,
this same despised government, merits, in
my opinion, the highest encomium : it carried
us through a long and dangerous war : it ren-dered
us victorious in that bloody conflict with
a powerful nation : it has secured us a territory
greater than any European monarch possesses:
and shall a government which has been thus
strong and vigorous, be accused of imbecility,
and abandoned for want of energy ? Consider
what you are about to do, before you part with
this government. Take longer time in reckon-ing
things : revolutions like this have happened
in almost every country in Europe : similar ex-amples
are to be found in ancient Greece and
ancient Kome : instances of the people losing
their liberty by their own carelessness and the
ambition of a few. We are cautioned by the
honorable gentleman who presides, against fac-tion
and turbulence. I acknowledge that licen-tiousness
is dangerous, and that it ought to be
provided against : I acknowledge also the new
form of government may eftectually prevent
it : yet, there is another thing it will as eflfect-ually
do : it will oppress and ruin the people.
There are sufiicient guards placed against sedi-tion
and licentiousness: for when power is
given to this government to suppress these, or,
for any other purpose, the language it assumes
is clear, express, and unequivocal; but when
this constitution speaks of privileges, there is
an ambiguity, sir, a fatal ambiguity—an ambi-guity
which is very astonishing. In the clause
under consideration, there is the strangest lan-guage
that I can conceive. I mean, when it
says, that there shall not be more representa-tives
than one for every 30,000. Now, sir, how
ea'sy is it to evade this privilege ? " The num-ber
shall not exceed one for every 30,000." This
may be satisfied by one representative from
each State. Let our numbers be ever so
great, this immense continent may, by this
artful expression, be reduced to have but thir-teen
representatives. I confess this construc-tion
is not natural ; but tlie ambiguity of the
expression lays a good ground for a quarrel.
Why was it not clearly and unequivocally ex-pressed,
that they should be entitled to have
one for every 30,000? This would have obvi-ated
all disputes; and was this difiicult to be
done? What is the inference ? When popula-tion
increases, and a State shall send represent-atives
in this proportion, Congress may remand
them, because the right of liaving one for every
30,000 is not clearly expressed. This possibility
of reducing the number to one for each State,
approximates to probability by that other ex-
16 PATEICK HENET.
pression, " but each State shall at least have
one representative." Now is it not clear that,
from the first expression, the number might be
reduced so much, that some States should have
no representative at all, were it not for the in-sertion
of this last expression ? And as this is
the only restriction upon them, we may fairly
conclude that they may restrain the number to
one from each State. Perhaps the same hor-rors
may hang over my mind again. I shall be
told I am continually afraid : but, sir, I have
strong cause of apprehension. In some parts
of the plan before you, the great rights of free-men
are endangered, in other parts absolutely
taken away. How does your trial by jury
stand ? In civil cases gone—not sufficiently se-cured
in criminal—this best privilege is gone.
But we are told that we need not fear, because
those in power being our representatives, will
not abuse the powers we put in their hands. I
am not well versed in history, but I will sub-mit
to your recollection, whether liberty has
been destroyed most often by the licentiousness
of the people, or by the tyranny of rulers. I
imagine, sir, you will find the balance on the
side of tyranny. Happy wiU you be, if you
miss the fate of those nations, who, omitting to
resist their oppressors, or negligently suffering
their liberty to be wrested from them, have
groaned under intolerable despotism ! Most of
the human race are now in this deplorable con-dition.
And those nations who have gone in
search of grandeur, power and splendor, have
also fallen a sacrifice, and been the victims of
their own foUy. While they acquired those
visionary blessings, they lost their freedom.
My great objection to this government is, that
it does not leave us the means of defending our
rights, or of waging war against tyrants. It
is urged by some gentlemen, that this new plan
will bring us an acquisition of strength ; an
army, and the militia of the States. This is an
idea extremely ridiculous: gentlemen cannot
be in earnest. This acquisition will trample on
your fallen liberty. Let my beloved Americans
guard against that fatal lethargy that has per-vaded
the universe. Have we the means of re-sisting
disciplined armies, when our only defence,
the militia, is put into the hands of Congress ?
The honorable gentleman said, that great
danger would ensue, if the convention rose
without adopting this system. I ask, where is
that danger? I see none. Other gentlemen
have told us, within these walls, that the Union
is gone—or, that the Union wiU be gone. Is
not this trifling with the judgment of their
fellow-citizens ? TUl they tell us the ground of
their fears, I will consider them as imaginary.
I rose to make inquiry where those dangers
were ; they could make no answer : I believe I
never shall have that answer. Is there a dis-position
in the people of this country to revolt
against the dominion of laws ? Has there been
a single tumult in Virginia? Have not the
people of Virginia, when laboring under the
severest pressure of accumulated distresses.
manifested the most cordial acquiescence in the
execution of the laws? What could be more
awful, than their unanimous acquiescence under
general distresses ? Is there any revolution in
Virginia? Whither is the spirit of America
gone ? Whither is the genius of America fled?
It was but yesterday, when our enemies marched
in triumph through our country. Yet the peo-ple
of tlais country could not be appalled by
their pompous armaments : they stopped their
career, and victoriously captured them : where
is the peril now, compared to that ?
Some minds are agitated by foreign alarms.
Happily for us, there is no real danger from
Europe ; that coimtry is engaged in more ardu-ous
business ; from that quarter, there is no
cause of fear : you may sleep in safety for ever
for them. Where is the danger ? If, sir, there
was any, I would recur to the American spirit
to defend us—that spirit which has enabled us
to surmount the greatest difliculties : to that
illustrious spirit I address my most fervent
prayer, to prevent our adopting a system de-structive
to liberty. Let not gentlemen be told,
that it is not safe to reject this government.
Wherefore is it not safe ? We are told there
are dangers ; but those dangers are ideal ; they
cannot be demonstrated. To encourage us to
adopt it, they tell us that there is a plain, easy
way of getting amendments. When I come to
contemplate this part, I suppose that I am mad,
or, that my countrymen are so. The way to
amendment is, in my conception, shut. Let us
consider this plain, easy way. " The Congress,
whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem
it necessary, shall propose amendments to this
constitution ; or, on the application of the legis-latures
of two-thirds of the several Slates, shall
call a convention for proposing amendments,
which, in either case, shall be valid to all in-tents
and purposes, as part of this constitution,
when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths
of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths
thereof, as the one or the other mode
of ratification may be proposed by the Congress.
Provided, that no amendment which may be
made prior to the year 1808, shall, in any man-ner,
aftect the first and fourth clauses in the
ninth section of the first article ; and that no
State, without its consent, shall be deprived of
its equal suffi-age in the Senate." Hence it ap-pears,
that three-fourths of the States must
ultimately agree to any amendments that may
be necessary. Let us consider the consequences
of this. However uncharitable it may appear,
yet I must express my opinion, that the most
unworthy characters may get into power and
prevent the introduction of amendments. Let
us suppose, (for the case is supposable, possible
and probable,) that you happen to deal these
powers to unworthy hands ; wiU they relinquish
powers already in their possession, or agree to
amendments ? Two-thirds of the Congress, or
of the State legislatures, are necessary even to
propose amendments. If one-third of these be
unworthy men, they may prevent the applica-
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. IT
tion for amendments ; but a destructive and
mischievous feature is, that three-fourths of the
State legislatures, or of the State conventions,
must concur in the amendments when proposed.
In such numerous bodies, there must necessarily
be some designing, bad men. To suppose that
so large a number as three-fourths of the States
will concur, is to suppose that they will possess
genius, intelligence and integrity, approaching
to miraculous. It would, indeed, be miraculous,
that they should concur in the same amend-ments,
or, even in such as would bear some
likeness to one another. For four of the small-est
States, that do not collectively contain one-tenth
part of the population of the United
States, may obstruct the most salutary and
necessary amendments. Nay, in these four
states, six-tenths of the people may reject these
amendments ; and suppose, that amendments
shall be opposed to amendments, (which is
highly probable,) is it possible, that three-fourths
can ever agree to the same amend-ments?
A bare majority in these four small
States, may hinder the adoption of amendments
;
so that we may fairly and justly conclude, that
one-twentieth part of the American people
may prevent the removal of the most grievous
inconveniences and oppression, by refusing to
accede to amendments. A trifling minority
may reject the most salutary amendments.
Is this an easy mode of securing the public
liberty? It is, sir, a most fearful situation,
when the most contemptible minority can
prevent the alteration of the most oppressive
government; for it may, in many respects,
prove to be such. Is this the spirit of republi-canism
? What, sir, is the genius of democracy ?
Let me read that clause of the BUI of Eights of
Virginia which relates to this : 3d clause
;
" That government is, or ought to be, instituted
for the common benefit, protection and security
of the people, nation, or community. Of all
the various modes and forms of government,
that is best, which is capable of producing the
greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is
most effectually secured against the danger of
mal-adrainistration, and that whenever any go-vernment
shall be found inadequate, or contrary
to these purposes, a majority of the community
hath an indubitatile, unalienable and indefeasi-ble
right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such
manner as shall be judged most conducive to
the public weal." This, sir, is the language of
democracy—that a majority of the community
have a right to alter their government when
found to be oppressive: but how different is
the genius of your new constitution from this
!
How different from the sentiments of freemen,
thai a contemptible minority can prevent the
good of the majority! If then, gentlemen,
standing on this ground, are come to that point,
that they are willing to bind themselves and
their posterity to be oppressed, I am amazed
and inexpressibly astonished. If this be the
opinion of the majority, I must submit ; but to
me, sir, it appears perilous and destructive; I
2
cannot help thinking so : perhaps it may be the
result of my age ; these may be feelings natural
to a man of my years, when the American
spirit has left him, and his mental powers, like
the members of the body, are decayed. If, sir,
amendments are left to the twentieth, or to the
tenth part of the people of America, your liberty
is gone for ever. We have heard that there is a
great deal of bribery practised in the House of
Commons in England ; and that many of the
members raise themselves to preferments, by
selling the rights of the people. But, sir, the
tenth part of that body cannot continue oppres-sions
on the rest of the people. English liberty
is, in this case, on a firmer foundation than
American liberty. It will be easily contrived
to procure the opposition of one-tenth of the
people to any alteration, however judicious.
The honorable gentleman who presides, told
us, that to prevent abuses in our government,
we will assemble in convention, recall our dele-gated
powers, and punish our servants for
abusing the trust reposed in them. Oh, sir, we
should have fine times indeed, if to punish
tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the
people. Your arms, wherewith you could de-fend
yourselves, are gone; and you have no
longer an aristocratical, no longer a democrat-ical
spirit. Did you ever read of any revolution
in any nation, brought about by the punish-ment
of those in power, inflicted by those who
had no power at all ? You read of a riot act in
a country which is called one of the freest in
the world, where a few neighbors cannot as-semble
without the risk of being shot by a
hired soldiery, the engines of despotism. We
may see such an act in America. A standing
army we shall have also, to execute the execra-ble
commands of tyranny : and how are you to
punish them ? Will you order them to be pun-ished?
Who shall obey these orders? WiU
your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined
regiment? In what situation are we to be
?
The clause before you gives a power of direct
taxation, unbounded and unlimited; exclusive
power of legislation in all cases whatsoever, for
ten miles square, and over all places purchased
for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dock-yards, &c. What resistance could be
made ? The attempt would be madness. You
will find all the strength of this country in the
hands of your enemies: those garrisons will
naturally be the strongest places in the country.
Your militia is given up to Congress also, in
another part of this plan : they will therefore
act as they think proper : all power will be in
their own possession: you cannot force them
to receive their punishment. Of what service
would militia be to you, when most probably
you will not have a single musket in the state ?
For, as arms are to be provided by Congress,
they may, or may not, furnish them.
Let us here call your attention to that part
which gives the Congress power " To provide
for organizing, arming and disciplining the
militia, and for governing such parts of them aa
18 PATRICK HENRY.
may be employed in the service of the United
States, reserving to the states respectively the
appointment of the officers, and the authority of
training the militia, according to the discipline
prescribed by Congress." By this, sir, you see
that their control over our last and best defence
is unlimited. If they neglect or refuse to dis-cipline
or arm our militia, they will be useless
:
the states can do neither, this power being ex-clusively
given to Congress. The power of
appointing officers over men not disciplined or
armed, is ridiculous: so that this pretended
little remnant of power, left to the States, may,
at the pleasure of Congress, be rendered nuga-tory.
Our situation wUl be deplorable indeed
:
nor can we ever expect to get this government
amended ; since I have already shown, that a
vei-y small minority may prevent it, and that
small minority interested in the continuance of
the oppression. Will the oppressor let go the
oppressed ? Was there ever an instance ? Can
the annals of mankind exhibit one single exam-ple,
where rulers, overcharged with power,
willingly let go the oppressed, though solicited
and requested most earnestly ? The application
foi* amendments will therefore be fruitless.
Sometimes the oppressed have got loose by one
of those bloody struggles that desolate a
country. But a willing relinquishment of
power is one of those things which human
nature never was, nor ever will be, capable of.
The honorable gentleman's observations, re-specting
the people's right of being the agents
In the formation of this government, are not
accurate, in "iiy humble conception. The dis-tinction
between a national government and a
confederacy, is not sufficiently discerned. Had
the delegates, who were sent to Philadelphia, a
power to propose a consolidated government
instead of a confederacy ? Were they not de-puted
by States, and not by the people ? The
assent of the people, in their collective capacity,
is not necessary to the formation of a federal
government. The people have no right to enter
into leagues, alliances, or confederations : they
are not the proper agents for this purpose:
States and sovereign powers are the only proper
agents for this kind of government. Show me
an instance where the people have exercised
this business : has it not always gone through
the legislatures? I refer you to the treaties
with France, Holland, and other nations : how
were they made? Were they not made by the
States ? Are the people, therefore, in their ag-gregate
capacity, the proper persons to form a
confederacy ? This, therefore, ought to depend
on the consent of the legislatures ; the people
have never sent delegates to make any proposi-tion
of changing the government. Yet I must
say, at the same time, that it was made on
grounds the most pure, and perhaps I might
have been brought to consent to it, so far as to
the change of government; but there is one
thing in it, which I never would acquiesce in.
I mean, the changing it into a consolidated gov-ernment,
which is so abhorrent to my mind.
The honorable gentleman then went on to
the figure we make with foreign nations ; the
contemptible one we make in France and Hol-land,
which, according to the substance of my
notes, he attributes to the present feeble gov-ernment.
An opinion has gone forth, we find,
that we are a contemptible people: the time i
has been when we were thought otherwise. 1
Under this same despised government, we com- i
manded the respect of all Europe : wherefore
are we now reckoned otherwise ? The Ameri-can
spirit has fled from hence : it has gone to
regions, where it has never been expected : it
has gone to the people of France, in search of
a splendid government—a strong, energetic gov-ernment.
Shall we imitate the example of thoso
nations, who have gone from a simple to a
splendid government ? Are those nations more
worthy of our imitation ? What can make an
adequate satisfaction to them for the loss they
have suffered in attaining such a government-—
for the loss of their liberty ? If we admit this
consolidated government, it will be because we
like a great and splendid one. Some way or
other we must be a great and mighty empire
;
we must have an army, and a navy, and a num-ber
of things. When the American spirit was
in its youth, the language of America was dif-ferent
: liberty, sir, was then the primary object.
We are descended from a people whose govern-ment
was founded on liberty : our glorious fore-fathers,
of Great Britain, made liberty the fotm-dation
of every thing. That country is become
a great, mighty and splendid nation ; not be-cause
their government is strong and energetic
:
but, sir, because liberty is its direct end and
foundation. We drew the spirit of liberty from
our British ancestors ; by that spirit we have
triumphed over every difficulty. But now, sir,
the American spirit, assisted by the ropes and
chains of consolidation, is about to convert this
country into a powerful and mighty empire. If
you make the citizens of this country agree to
become the subjects of one great consolidated
empire of America, your government will not
have sufficient energy to keep them together
:
such a government is incompatible with the ge-nius
of republicanism. There will be no checks,
no real balances, in this government. What
can avail your specious, imaginary balances;
your rope-dancing, chain-rattling, ridiculous,
ideal checks and contrivances? But, sir, we
are not feared by foreigners ; we do not make
nations tremble. Would this constitute happi-ness,
or secure liberty ? I trust, sir, our politi-cal
hemisphere will ever direct its operations to
the security of those objects. Consider our
situation, sir; go to the poor man, ask him
what he does ; he will inform you that he en-joys
the fruits of his labor, under his own fig-tree,
with his wife and children around him, in
peace and security. Go to every other member
of the society, you will find the same tranquil
ease and content ; you will find no alarms or
disturbances ! Why then tell us of dangers, to
terrify us into the adoption of this new form of
TEE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 19
government ? And yet who knows the dangers
that this new system may produce ? They are
out of the sight of the common people : they
cannot foresee latent consequences. I dread the
operation of it on the middling and lower classes
of people : it is for them I fear the adoption of
this system. I fear I tire the patience of the
committee, but I beg to be indulged with a few
more observations.
When I thus profess myself an advocate for
the liberty of the people, I shall be told, I am
a designing man, that I am to be a great man,
that I am to be a demagogue ; and many similar
illiberal insinuations will be thrown out ; but,
sir, conscious rectitude outweighs these things
with me. I see great jeopardy in this new gov-ernment
: I see none from our present one. I
hope some gentleman or other will bring forth,
in full array, those dangers, if there be any,
that we may see and touch them ; I have said
that I thought this a consolidated government
:
I will now prove it. Will the great rights of
the people be secured by this government?
Suppose it should prove oppressive, how can it
be altered? Our bill of rights declares, "That
a majority of the community hath an indubita-ble,
unalienable and indefeasible right to reform,
alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be
judged most conducive to the public weal." I
have just proved, that one-tenth, or less, of the
people of America—a most despicable minority,
may prevent this reform, or alteration. Sup-pose
the people of Virginia should wish to alter
their government, can a majority of them do
it ? No, because they are connected with other
men; oi, in other words, consolidated with
other States. When the people of Virginia, at
a future day, shall wish to alter their govern-ment,
though they should be unanimous in this
desire, yet they may be prevented therefrom by
a despicable minority at the extremity of the
United States. The founders of your own con-stitution
made your government changeable:
but the power of changing it is gone from you
!
Whither is it gone ? It is placed in the same
hands that hold the rights of twelve other
States ; and those, who hold those rights, have
right and power to keep them. It is not the
particular government of Virginia; one of the
leading features of that government is, that a
majority can alter it, when necessary for the
public good. This government is not a Virgin-ian,
but an American government. Is it not
therefore a consolidated government? The
sixth clause of your bill of rights tells you,
" That elections of members to serve as repre-sentatives
of the people in Assembly, ought to
be free, and that all men, having sufficient evi-dence
of permanent, common interest with, and
attachment to the community, have the right of
suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of
their property, for public uses, without their
own consent, or that of their representa-tives
so elected, nor bound by any law to which
they have not in like manner assented for the
public good." But what does this constitution
say ? The clause under consideration gives an
unlimited and unbounded power of taxation.
Suppose every delegate from Vu-ginia opposes
a law laying a tax, what will it avail ? They
are opposed by a majority ; eleven members can
destroy their efforts: those feeble ten cannot
prevent the passing the most oppressive tax-law.
So that in direct opposition to the spirit
and express language of your declaration of
rights, you are taxed, not by your own consent,
but by people who have no connection with
you.
The next clause of the bill of rights tells
you, "That all power of suspending law, or
the execution of laws, by any authority, with-out
the consent of the representatives of the
people, is injurious to their rights, and ought
not to be exercised." This tells us that there
can be no suspension of government, or laws,
without our own consent ; yet this constitution
can counteract and suspend any of our laws, that
contravene its oppressive operation; for they
have the power of direct taxation, which sus-pends
our bill of rights ; and it is expressly pro-vided,
that they can make all laws necessary for
carrying their powers into execution ; and it is
declared paramount to the laws and constitu-tions
of the States. Consider how the only re-maining
defence, we have left, is destroyed in
this manner. Besides the expenses of main-taining
the Senate and other House in as much
splendor as they please, there is to be a great
and mighty president, with very extensive pow-ers—
the powers of a king. He is to be sup-ported
in extravagant magnificence : so that the
whole of our property may be taken by this
American government, by laying what taxes
they please, giving themselves what salaries
they please, and suspending our laws at their
pleasure. I might be thought too inquisitive,
but I believe I should take up but very little of
your time in enumerating the little power that
is left to the government of Virginia ; for this
power is reduced to little or nothing. Their
garrisons, magazines, arsenals, and forts, which
will be situated in the strongest places within
the States—their ten miles square, with all the
fine ornaments of human life, added to their
powers, and taken from the States, will reduce
the power of the latter to nothing. The voice
of tradition, I trust, will inform posterity of our
struggles forfreedom. If our descendants be wor-thy
the name of Americans, they will preserve,
and hand down to their latest posterity, the
transactions of the present times ; and though,
I confess, my exclamations are not worthy the
hearing, they will see that I have done my ut-most
to preserve their liberty : for I never will
give up the power of direct taxation, but for a
scourge. I am willing to give it conditionally;
that is, after non-compliance with requisitions
:
I will do more, sir, and what I hope will con-vince
the most sceptical man, that I am a lover
of the American Union ; that in case Virginia
shall not make punctual payment, the control
of our custom-houses, and the whole regulation
20 PATEICK HENKY.
of trade, shall be given to Congress ; and that
Virginia shall depend on Congress even for
passports, till Virginia shall have paid the last
farthing, and furnished the last soldier. Nay,
sir, there is another alternative to which I
would consent : even that they should strike us
out of the Union, and take away from us all
federal privileges, till we comply with federal
requisitions; but let it depend upon our own
pleasure to pay our money in the most easy
manner for our people. Were all the States,
more terrible than the mother country, to join
against us, I hope Virginia could defend her-self;
but, sir, the dissolution of the Union is
most abhorrent to my mind. The first thing I
have at heart is American liberty ; the second
thing is American union ; and I hope the people
of Virginia will endeavor to preserve that union.
The increasing population of the Southern
States, is far greater than that of New England;
consequently, in a short time, they will be far
more numerous than the people of that coun-try.
Consider this, and you will find this State
more particularly interested to support Ameri-can
liberty, and not bind our posterity by an
improvident relinquishment of our rights. I
would give the best security for a punctual
compliance with requisitions; but I beseech
gentlemen, at all hazards, not to grant this un-limited
power of taxation.
The honorable gentleman has told us that
these powers given to Congress, are accompa-nied
by a judiciary which will correct all. On
examination, you will find this very judiciary
oppressively constructed, your jury-trial de-stroyed,
and the judges dependent on Congress.
In this scheme of energetic government, the
people will find two sets of tax-gatherers—the
State and the federal sheriifs. This, it seems to
me, will produce such dreadful oppression, as the
people cannot possibly bear. The federal sheriff
may commit what oppression, make what dis-tresses,
he pleases, and ruin you with impunity
:
for how are you to tie his hands ? Have you
any sufficient, decided means of preventing him
from sucking your blood by speculations, com-missions,
and fees? Thus thousands of your
people will be most shamefully robbed. Our
State sheriffs, those unfeeling bloodsuckers,
have, under the watchful eye of our legislature,
committed the most horrid and barbarous rav-ages
on our people. It has required the most
constant vigilance of the legislature to keep
them from totally ruining the people. A re-peated
succession of laws has been made, to
suppress their iniquitous speculations and cruel
extortions ; and as often has their nefarious in-genuity
devised methods of evading the force of
those laws: in the struggle, they have gene-rally
triumphed over the legislature. It is a
fact, that lands have sold for five shillings,
which were worth one hundred pounds. If
sheriffs, thus immediately under the eye of our
State legislature and judiciary, have dared to
commit these outrages, what would they not
have done if their masters had been at Phila-delphia
or New York ? If they perpetrate the
most unwarrantable outrage, on your persons or
property, you cannot get redress on this side ot
Philadelphia or New York : and how can you
get it there ? If your domestic avocations could
permit you to go thither, there you must appeal
to judges sworn to support this constitution in
opposition to that of any State, and who may
also be inclined to favor their own officers.
When these harpies are aided by excisemen,
who may search, at any time, your houses and
most secret recesses, will the people bear it?
If you think so, you differ from me. Where I
thought there was a possibility of such mis-chiefs,
I would grant power with a niggardly
hand; and here there is a strong probability
that these oppressions shall actually happen. I
may be told, that it is safe to err on that side
;
because such regulations may be made by Con-gress,
as shall restrain these officers, and be-cause
laws are made by our representatives, and
judged by righteous judges : but, sir, as these
regulations may be made, so they may not;
and many reasons there are to induce a belief,
that they wiU not : I shall therefore be an infi-del
on that point tUl the day of my death.
This constitution is said to have beautiful
features; but when I come to examine these
features, sir, they appear to me horribly fright-ful.
Among other deformities, it has an awful
squinting ; it squints towards monarchy : and
does not this raise indignation in the breast of
every true American? Your Pi-esident may
easily become king. Your Senate is so imper-fectly
constructed, that your dearest rights may
be sacrificed by what may be a small minority
:
and a very small minority may continue for ever
unchangeably this government, although hor-ridly
defective. Where are your checks in tliis
government? Your strongholds will be in the
hands of your enemies. It is on a supposition
that your American governors shall be honest,
that all the good qualities of this'' government
are founded; but its defective and imperfect
construction, puts it in their power to perpetrate
the worst of mischiefs, should they be bad
men. And, sir, would not all the world, from
the eastern to the western hemisphere, blame
our distracted folly in resting our rights upon
the contingency of our rulers being good or
bad? Show me that age and country where
the rights and liberties of the people were
placed on the sole chance of their rulers being
good men, without a consequent loss of liberty.
I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has
ever followed, with absolute certainty, every
such mad attempt. If your American chief be
a man of ambition and abilities, how easy will
it be for him to render himself absolute ! The <
army is in his hands, and, if he be a man of
address, it will be attached to him ; and it will ,
be the subject of long meditation with him to
seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish
his design. And, sir, will the American spirit
solely relieve you when this happens ? I would
rather infinitely, and I am sure most of this
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION". 21
convention are of the same opinion, have a
king, lords and commons, than a government
so replete with such insupportable evils. If we
make a king, we may prescribe the rules by
which he shall rule his people, and interpose
such checks as shall prevent him from infringing
them: but the president in the field, at the
bead of his army, can prescribe the terms on
which he shall reign master, so far that it will
puzzle any American ever to get his neck from
under the galling yoke. I cannot, with patience,
think of this idea. If ever he violates the laws,
one of two things will happen : he will come
at the head of his army to carry every thing
before him ; or, he will give bail, or do what
Mr. Chief Justice will order him. If he be
guilty, will not the recollection of his crimes
teach him to make one bold push for the
American throne ? Will not the immense dif-ference
between being master of every thing,
and being ignominiously tried and punished,
powerfully excite him to make this bold push ?
But, sir, where is the existing force to punish
him? Can he not, at the head of his army,
beat down every opposition ? Away with your
president, we shall have a king: the army will
salute him monarch ; your militia will leave
you, and assist in making him king, and fight
against you : and what have you to oppose tliis
force? What will then become of you and
your rights^ Will not absolute despotism
ensue ? [Here Mr. Henry strongly and pathetic-ally
expatiated on the probability of the presi-dent's
enslaving America, and the horrid con-sequences
that must result.]
What can be more defective than the clause
concerning the elections? The control given
to Congress, over the time, place and manner
of holding elections, will totally destroy the
end of suffrage. The elections may be held at
one place, and the most inconvenient in the
state ; or they may be at remote distances from
those who have a right of suflrage : hence, nine
out of ten must either not vote at all, or vote
for strangers : for the most influential characters
will be applied to, to know who are the most
proper to be chosen. I repeat, that the control
of Congress over the manner, &c. of electing,
well warrants this idea. The natural conse-quence
will be, that this democratic branch
will possess none of the public confidence : the
people will be prejudiced against representatives
chosen in such an injudicious manner. The
proceedings in the northern conclave will be
hidden from the yeomanry of this country. We
are told, that the yeas and nays shall be taken
and entered on the journals : this, sir, will
avail nothing: it may be locked up in their
chests, and concealed for ever from the people
;
for they are not to publish what parts they
think require secrecy ; they may think, and
will think, the whole requires it.
Another beautiful feature of this constitu-tion,
is the publication, from time to time, of
the receipts and expenditures of the public
money. This expression, from time to time, is
very indefinite and indeterminate : it may ex-tend
to a century. Grant that any of them are
wicked, they may squander the public money
so as to ruin you, and yet this expression will
give you no redress. I say, they may ruin
you ; for where, sir, is the responsibility ? The
yeas and nays will show you nothing, unless
they be fools as well as knaves; for, after
having wickedly trampled on the rights of the
people, they would act like fools indeed, were
they to publish and divulge their iniquity,
when they have it equally in their power to
suppress and conceal it. Where is the respon-sibility—
that leading principle in the British
government? In that government, a punish-ment,
certain and inevitable, is provided; but
in this, there is no real, actual punishment for
the grossest mal-administration. They may go
without punishment, though they commit the
most outrageous violation on our immunities.
That paper may tell me they will be punished.
I ask, by what law ? They must make the law,
for there is no existing law to do it. What
—
will they make a law to punish themselves?
This, sir, is my great objection to the constitu-tion,
that there is no true responsibility, and
that the preservation of our liberty depends on
the single chance of men being virtuous enough
to make laws to punish themselves. In the
country from which we are descended, they
have real, and not imaginary responsibility;
for there, mal-administration has cost their
heads to some of the most saucy geniuses that
ever were. The senate, by making treaties,
may destroy your liberty and laws, for want of
responsibility. Two-thirds of those that shall
happen to be present, can, with the president,
make treaties, that shall be the supreme law of
the land : they may make the most ruinous
treaties, and yet there is no punishment for
them. Whoever shows me a punishment pro-vided
for them, will oblige me. So, sir, not-withstanding
there are eight pillars, they want
another. Where will they make another? I
trust, sir, the exclusion of the evils wherewith
this system is replete, in its present form, will
be made a condition precedent to its adoption,
by this or any other state. The transition from
a general, unqualified admission to oflices, to a
consolidation of government, seems easy ; for,
though the American States are dissimilar in
tlieir structure, this will assimilate them : this,
sir, is itself a strong consolidating feature, and
is not one of the least dangerous in that system.
Nine States are sufficient to establish this gov-ernment
over those nine. Imagine that nine
have come into it. Virginia has certain scru-ples.
Suppose she will consequently refuse to
join with those States : may not they still con-tinue
in friendship and union with her? If she
sends her annual requisitions in dollars, do you
think their stomiifhs will be so squeamish as
to refuse her dollars? Will they not accept
her regiments ? They would intimidate you into
an inconsiderate adoption, and frighten you
with ideal evils, and that the Union shall be
PATEICK HENEY.
dissolved. 'Tis a bugbear, sir : the fact is, sir,
that the eight adopting States can hardly stand
on their own legs. Public fame teUs us, that
the adopting States have already heart-burnings
and animosity, and repent their precipitate
hurry : this, sir, may occasion exceeding great
mischief. When I reflect on these, and many
other circumstances, I must think those States
will be found to be in confederacy with us. If
we pay our quota of money annually, and fur-nish
our ratable number of men, when neces-sary,
I can see no danger from a rejection.
The history of Switzerland clearly proves, that
we might be in amicable alliance with those
States, without adopting this constitution.
Switzerland is a confederacy, consisting of dis-similar
governments. Tliis is an example, which
proves that governments, of dissimilar struc-tures,
may be confederated. That confederate
republic has stood upwards of four hundred
years ; and, although several of the individual
republics are democratic, and the rest aristo-cratic,
no evil has resulted from this dissimilar-ity,
for they have braved all the power of
France and Germany, during that long period.
The Swiss spirit, sir, has kept them together;
they have encountered and overcome immense
difficulties, with patience and fortitude. In the
vicinity of powerful and ambitious monarchs,
they have retained their independence, repub-lican
simplicity and valor. [Here Mr. Henry
drew a comparison between the people of that
country and those of France, and made a quo-tation
from Addison, illustrating the subject.]
Look at the peasants of that country, and of
France, and mark the difference. You will
find the condition of the former far more desir-able
and comfortable. No matter whether a
people be great, splendid and powerful, if they
enjoy freedom. The Turkish Grand Seignior,
along-side of our president, would put us to
disgrace: but we should be abundantly con-soled
for this disgrace, should our citizen be
put in contrast with the Turkish slave.
The most valuable end of government, is the
liberty of the inhabitants. No possible advan-tages
can compensate for the loss of this privi-lege.
Show me the reason why the American
Union is to be dissolved. Who are those eight
adopting States? Are they averse, to give us a
little time to consider, before we conclude?
Would such a disposition render a junction with
them eligible ; or, is it the genius of that kind
of government, to precipitate a people hastily
into measures of the utrnost importance, and
grant no indulgence ? If it be, sir, is it for us
to accede to such a government ? We have a
right to have time to consider—we shall there-fore
insist upon it. Unless the government be
amended, we can never accept it. The adopt-ing
States will doubtless accept our money and
our regiments; and what is to be the conse-quence,
if we are disunited? I believe that it
is yet doubtful, whether it is not proper to
stand by awhile, and see the effect of its adop-tion
in other States. In forming a government.
the utmost care should be taken, to prevent ita
becoming oppressive ; and this government is
of such an intricate and complicated nature,
that no man on this earth can know its real
operation. The other States have no reason to
think, from the antecedent conduct of Virginia,
that she has any intention of seceding from the
Union, or of being less active to support the
general welfare. Would they not, therefore,
acquiesce in our taking time to deliberate—de-liberate
whether the measure be not perDous,
not only for us, but the adopting States. Per-mit
me, sir, to say, that a great majority of the
people, even in the adopting States, are averse
to this government; I believe I would be right
to say, that they have been egregiously misled.
Pennsylvania has, perhaps, been tacked into it.
If the other States, who have adopted it, have
not been tricked, still they were too much hur-ried
into its adoption. There were very re-spectable
minorities in several of them ; and, if
reports be true, a clear majority of the people
are averse to it. If we also accede, and it
should prove grievous, the peace and prosperity
of our country, which we all love, will be de-stroyed.
This government has not the affection
of the people, at present. Should it be oppres-sive,
their affection will be totally estranged
from it—and, sir, you know, that a government
without their affections can neither be durable
nor happy. I speak as one poor individual—bu