Part 21 (2/2)
GENERAL WAshi+NGTON
The promise contained in this letter was fulfilled on the 19th of the sa and careful state hi his letter with an assurance of his ”unalterable affection”
and ”most sincere attach publicdeclined to be put in nomination for a third year, as permitted by the Constitution, he finally retired froates, about the same time, by unanimous vote, crowned hiht adistrate of this Co him that they retain a perfect sense of his abilities in the discharge of the duties of that high and important office, and wish him all domestic happiness on his return to private life”[346]
This return to private life s, his return, after an interruption of more than twelve years, to the practice of the law For this purpose he deeive up his remote home at Leatherwood, and to establish himself in Prince Edward County,--a place about midway between his former residence and the capital, and much better suited to his convenience, as an active practitioner in the courts Accordingly, in Prince Edward County he continued to reside from the latter part of 1786 until 1795 Furtherates in the asse there his old position as leader, he continued to serve in every session until the end of 1790, at which time he finally withdrew from all official connection with public life Thus it happened that, by his retireovernorshi+p in 1786, and by his alates, he was put into a situation to act ressively andthe whole period of the struggle over the new Constitution
As regards his attitude toward that great business, we need, first of all, to clear away soathered about the question of his habitual views respecting the relations of the several States to the general government It has been common to suppose that, even prior to the movement for the new Constitution, Patrick Henry had always been an extrehts of the States as opposed to the central authority of the Union; and that the tremendous resistance which he es of the affair prior to the adoption of the first group of ainal and habitual tendency of his mind[347] Such, however, seeeneral it may be said that, at the very outset of the Revolution, Patrick Henry was one of the first of our statesnize the existence and the imperial character of a certain cohesive central authority, arising from the very nature of the revolutionary act which the several colonies were then taking As early as 1774, in the first Continental Congress, it was he who exclaimed: ”All distinctions are thron All America is thrown into one inians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are noof 1776, at the approach of the question of independence, it was he who even incurred reproach by his anxiety to defer independence until after the basis for a general government should have been established, lest the several States, in separating froland, should lapse into a separation froinia from 1776 to 1779, his official correspondence with the president of Congress, with the board of war, and with the general of the army is pervaded by proofs of his respect for the supreovernment within its proper sphere Finally, as a leader in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1780 to 1784, he was in the nity to the general govern to the admission of his most unfriendly modern critic, Patrick Henry showed hithen the federal authority”
than did, for exareat rival in the House, Richard Henry Lee; and for the ti and active exponents of two adverse political systems in both state and national questions”[348] In 1784, by which ti, Patrick Henry was ainia to express alarm, and to propose the only appropriate reislature, in May of that year, he took pains to seek an early intervieith two of his proates, Madison and Jones, for the express purpose of devising with theth to the Confederation ”I find him,” wrote Madison to Jefferson i the federal governh without any precise plan”[349] A more detailed account of the same intervieas sent to Jefferson by another correspondent According to the latter, Patrick Henry then declared that ”he saw ruin inevitable, unless soress a compulsory process on delinquent States;” that ”a bold exainia” in that direction ”would have influence on the other States;” and that ”this conviction was his only induce into the present assereed between thereater power to the federal government; and Henry promised to sustain it on the floor”[350] Finally, such was the i all those years that, as late as in Dece ”been hitherto the champion of the federal cause”[351]
Not far, however, from the date last mentioned Patrick Henry ceased to be ”the chaonist, and so reton's first terht about this sudden and total revolution? It can be explained only by the discovery of some new influence which came into his life between 1784 and 1786, and which was powerful enough to reverse entirely the habitual direction of his political thought and conduct Just what that influence was can now be easily shown
On the 3d of August, 1786, John Jay, as secretary for foreign affairs, presented to Congress sootiations with the Spanish envoy, Gardoqui, respecting a treaty with Spain; and he then urged that Congress, in view of certain vast advantages to our foreign coation of the Mississippi for twenty-five or thirty years,[352]--a proposal which, very naturally, see less than a cool invitation to them to sacrifice their own most important interests for the next quarter of a century, in order to build up during that period the interests of the seven States of the North The revelation of this project, and of the ability of the Northern States to force it through, sent a shock of alarm and of distrust into every Southern coress were promptly conveyed to Governor Henry by Jaent item,--that a secret project was then under the serious consideration of ”committees” of Northernthe Southern States adrift, after having thus bartered away from them the use of the Mississippi[353]
On the sa fro frothe Confederation, Madison says:--
”Though my wishes are in favor of such an event, yet I despair so much of its accomplishment at the present crisis, that I do not extend my views beyond a commercial reform To speak the truth, I almost despair even of this You will find the cause in a ress,a proposed treaty with Spain, one article of which shuts the Mississippi for twenty or thirty years Passing by the other Southern States, figure to yourself the effect of such a stipulation on the asseinia, already jealous of Northern politics, and which will be composed of thirty members from the Western waters,--of a majority of others attached to the Western country from interests of their own, of their friends, or their constituents Figure to yourself its effect on the people at large on the Western waters, who are iotiation with Gardoqui, and ill consider themselves sold by their Atlantic brethren Will it be an unnatural consequence if they consider themselves absolved from every federal tie, and court sohts?”[354]
How truly Madison predicted the fatal construction which in the South, and particularly in Virginia, would be put upon the proposed surrender of the Mississippi, lance at soinia House of Delegates on the 29th of the following Nove the river Mississippi, and of coht to be considered as the bountiful gift of nature to the United States, as proprietors of the territories watered by the said river and its eastern branches, and as moreover secured to the been forhts, in every part thereof, to the protection and guardianshi+p of the whole, a sacrifice of the rights of any one part, to the supposed or real interest of another part, would be a flagrant violation of justice, a direct contravention of the end for which the federal govern innovation in the systee of those resolutions, Patrick Henry ceased to be the governor of Virginia; and five days afterward he was chosen by Virginia as one of its seven delegates to a convention to be held at Philadelphia in the following May for the purpose of revising the federal Constitution But aer and the suspicion then prevailing as to the liability of the Southern States, even under a weak confederation, to be slaughtered, in all their ht and number of the Northern States, it is easy to see how little inclined many Southern states this weak confederation a strong one In the list of such Southern statesmen Patrick Henry must henceforth be reckoned; and, as it was never his nature to do anything tepidly or by halves, his hostility to the project for strengthening the Confederation soon became as hot as it was comprehensive On the 7th of Deceate to the Philadelphia convention, Madison, then at Richton:--
”I am entirely convinced froress can be reversed, the hopes of carrying this State into a proper federal syste men are extremely soured hat has already passed Mr Henry, who has been hitherto the champion of the federal cause, has become a cold advocate, and, in the event of an actual sacrifice of the Mississippi by Congress, will unquestionably go over to the opposite side”[356]
But in spite of this change in his attitude toward the federal cause, perhaps he would still go to the great convention On that subject he appears to have kept his own counsel for several weeks; but by the 1st of March, 1787, Edmund Randolph, at Richmond, was able to send this word to Madison, as back in his place in Congress: ”Mr Henry pereo;” and Randolph ent professional duties, but his repugnance to the proceedings of Congress in the matter of the Mississippi[357] Five days later, from the same city, John Marshall wrote to Arthur Lee: ”Mr Henry, whose opinions have their usual influence, has been heard to say that he would rather part with the Confederation than relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi”[358]
On the 18th of the saton, Madison poured out his solicitude respecting the course which Henry was going to take: ”I hear from Richmond, with much concern, that Mr Henry has positively declined his mission to Philadelphia Besides the loss of his services on that theatre, there is danger, I fear, that this step has proceeded from a wish to leave his conduct unfettered on another theatre, where the result of the convention will receive its destiny from his omnipotence”[359] On the next day, Madison sent off to Jefferson, as then in Paris, an account of the situation: ”But although it appears that the intended sacrifice of the Mississippi will not be made, the consequences of the intention and the attempt are likely to be very serious I have already ht in which the subject was taken up by Virginia Mr Henry's disgust exceeds allhis refusal to attend the convention, to the policy of keeping hi to the result of the Mississippi business, a other circumstances”[360]
Finally, on the 25th of March Madison wrote to Randolph, evidently in reply to the inforiven by the latter on the 1st of the month: ”The refusal of Mr Henry to join in the task of revising the Confederation is ooverned by the event which you conjecture”[361]
That Patrick Henry did not attend the great convention, everybody knows; but the wholeof his refusal to do so, everybody may now understand somewhat more clearly, perhaps, than before
FOOTNOTES:
[341] MS
[342] MS
[343] Hening, xi 525-526
[344] MS
[345] Sparks, _Corr Rev_ iv 93-96 See, also, Washi+ngton's letter to Henry, for Nov 30, 1785, in _Writings of W_ xii 277-278