Part 23 (1/2)
Then, in addition to his objections to the general character of the Constitution, naovernhts, he applied his criticisor, to each departislative, the executive, and the judicial; and with respect to each one of these he insisted that its intended functions were such as to inspire distrust and alarm Of course, we cannot here follow this fierce critic of the Constitution into all the detail of his criticisle example, we may cite a portion of his assault upon the executive department,--an assault, as will be seen, far better suited to the political apprehensions of his own time than of ours:--
”The Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to exahtful A; it squints towards nation in the breast of every true A Where are your checks in this governholds will be in the hands of your eneovernors 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 hehts upon the contingency of our rulers being good or bad? Show hts and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty If your American chief be a man of ambition and abilities, how easy is it 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 hi meditation with hin And, sir, will the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens? I would rather infinitely--and I am sure , lords, and coovernment so replete with such insupportable evils If we , we may prescribe the rules by which he shall rule his people, and interpose such checks as shall prevent hi them; but the president, in the field, at the head of his arn et his neck fro yoke Will not the recollection of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for the A nominiously tried and punished, powerfully excite hi force to punish him? Can he not, at the head of his army, beat down every opposition? Aith your president! we shall have a king The army will salute hi hiainst you And what have you to oppose this force? What will then becohts? Will not absolute despotis here, in further detail, Patrick Henry's objections to the new Constitution, it le idea, and all revolved about that idea, naovernhts and liberties of the people of the several States And in holding this opinion he was not at all peculiar Very many of the ablest and noblest statesain his chief associates in Virginia, nor to cite the language of such men as Burke and Rawlins Lowndes, of South Carolina; as Timothy Bloodworth, of North Carolina; as Sae Clinton, of New York; as Sae Gerry, of Massachusetts; as Joshua Atherton, of New Hampshi+re, it may sufficiently put us into the tone of conterave words of Jefferson, atching the whole scene from the calm distance of Paris, thus wrote on the 2d of February, 1788, to an American friend:--
”I own it astonishes ht in the opinions of our countrymen since I left them, as that three fourths of them should be contented to live under a syste froion, freedom of the press, freedo theeneracy in the principles of liberty, to which I had given four centuries, instead of four years”[384]
Holding such objections to the proposed Constitution, ere Patrick Henry and his associates in the Virginia convention to do?
Were they to reject the ood features, they yet thought that the best course to be taken by Virginia would be to remit the whole subject to a new convention of the States,--a convention which, being summoned after a year or more of intense and universal discussion, would thus represent the later, the htened desires of the A of this, Patrick Henry and his friends concentrated all their forces upon this single and clear line of policy: so to press their objections to the Constitution as to induce the convention, not to reject it, but to postpone its adoption until they could refer to the other States in the A hts, asserting, and securing froious liberty, and the undeniable rights of the people, together with amendments to the overnment”[385]
Such, then, was the real question over which in that asseed The result of the battle was reached on Wednesday, the 25th of June; and that result was a victory for immediate adoption, but by a majority of only ten votes, instead of the fifty votes that were clai of the session Moreover, even that small majority for immediate adoption was obtained only by the help, first, of a preainia in this act that it retained every power not expressly granted to the general govern to recoress ”whatsoever amendments may be deemed necessary”
Just before the decisive question was put, Patrick Henry, knowing that the result would be against his uttered within that House and outside of it, thatthe course likely to be taken by the defeated party, then and there spoke these noble words:--
”I beg pardon of this House for having taken up more time than came to my share, and I thank them for the patience and polite attention hich I have been heard If I shall be in the minority, I shall have those painful sensations which arise froood cause Yet I will be a peaceable citizen My head, my hand, and my heart shall be at liberty to retrieve the loss of liberty, and remove the defects of that systeo to violence, but ait, with hopes that the spirit which predoone, nor the cause of those who are attached to the Revolution yet lost I shall therefore patiently wait in expectation of seeing that governed, so as to be compatible with the safety, liberty, and happiness of the people”[386]
Those words of the great Virginian leader proved to be a e of reassurance to many an anxious citizen, in reat citizen who, froht and day, for signs of some abatement in the storm of civil discord Those words, too, have, in our time, won for the orator who spoke thereatest historian who has yet laid hand on the story of the Constitution: ”Henry showed his genial nature, free fronity He was like a billow of the ocean on the first bright day after the storainst the rocky cliff, and then, sparkling with light, retreating to its hoinia convention of 1788 had been eneral political life of the country, that convention was still proudly renificent exertions of intellectual power, and particularly of eloquence, which it had called forth So lately as the year 1857, there was still living a man who, in his youth, had often looked in upon that fareat scenes, was not to be chilled even by the frosts of his ninety winters:--
”The iu eloquence of Henry can never fade froht them almost supernatural They seereat results: the one by his grave, dignified, and irresistible arguhteneloquence to lead whithersoever he would”[388]
Those who had heard Patrick Henry on the other great occasions of his career were ready to say that his eloquence in the convention of 1788 was, upon the whole, fully equal to anything ever exhibited by him in any other place The official reports of his speeches in that asseth and beauty” to those actuallyan estientleman who there heard him, ”no reliance can be placed on the printed speeches No reporter whatever could take dohat he actually said; and if he could, it would fall far short of the original”[390]
In his arguainst the Constitution Patrick Henry confined himself to no systematic order The convention had indeed resolved that the docuular manner; but in spite of the coonists, he continually broke over all barriers, and delivered his ”multifors of his own er controversy, he had several passages of sharp personal collision with his opponents, particularly with Governor Randolph, whose vacillating course respecting the Constitution had left hi couish, turned upon Patrick Henry with the exclamation: ”I find myself attacked in the entleman I disdain his aspersions and his insinuations His asperity is warranted by no principle of parliamentary decency, nor compatible with the least shadow of friendshi+p; and if our friendshi+p ain”[391] Like all very eloquentic; for ”his declaue discourses and u those bolts” which he had ”so peculiar a dexterity at discharging”[392] On one occasion, old General Adam Stephen tried to burlesque the orator's manner of speech;[393] on another occasion, that same petulant warrior bluntly told Patrick that if he did ”not like this govern the Indians,” and even offered to facilitate the orator's self-expatriation aes: ”I know of several nations that live very happily; and I can furnish hi, as he did, every passion and prejudice of his audience, he adopted, it appears, aluenerally presented in his speeches, addressed to the capacities, prejudices, and individual interests of his hearers, made his speeches very unequal He rarely made in that convention a speech which Quintilian would have approved If he soared at tile, and seemed like the bird of Jove to be armed with thunder, he did not disdain to stoop like the hawk to seize his prey,--but the instant that he had done it, rose in pursuit of another quarry”[395]
Perhaps the e by contemporary descriptions, was that connected with the famous scene of the thunder-storm, on Tuesday, the 24th of June, only one day before the decisive vote was taken The orator, it seeht prove to be his last appeal against i the disasters which the new syste upon his countrymen, and upon all ers hich it is pregnant I see it I feel it I see beings of a higher order anxious concerning our decision When I see beyond the horizon that bounds human eyes, and look at the final consus which inhabit the etherealthe political decisions and revolutions which, in the progress of time, will happen in America, and the consequent happiness or misery of mankind, I am led to believe that much of the account, on one side or the other, will depend ondecide Our own happiness alone is not affected by the event All nations are interested in the determination We have it in our power to secure the happiness of one half of the human race Its adoption may involve the rapher had proceeded, when he suddenly stopped, and placed within brackets the following note: ”[Here a violent storm arose, which put the House in such disorder, that Mr Henry was obliged to conclude]”[396] But the scene which is thus quietly despatched by the official reporter of the convention was again and again described, bydelineated with overpowering vividness the calamities which were likely to befall overn an enchanter's wand, suddenly enlarged the arena of the debate and the nu beyond the veil which shuts in s ere hovering over the scene,” he addressed to them ”an invocation that made every nerve shudder with supernatural horror, when, lo! a stor, and the spirits who Nor did his eloquence, or the stor himself of the incident, with a ht of his ethereal auxiliaries, and, 'rising on the wings of the tempest, to seize upon the artillery of heaven, and direct its fiercest thunders against the heads of his adversaries' The scene became insupportable; and the House rose without the for from their seats with precipitation and confusion”[397]
FOOTNOTES:
[362] _Writings of Washi+ngton_, ix 265-266
[363] MS
[364] _Writings of Washi+ngton_, ix 273
[365] Madison, _Letters_, etc i 356
[366] _Ibid_ i 364-365
[367] Madison, _Letters_, etc i 378
[368] _Ibid_ i 387
[369] Madison, _Letters_, i 388