Yesterday was the anniversary of Patrick
Henry’s famous Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech. Many are probably not aware that this man was
a fierce Anti-Federalist. Men like
Patrick Henry were prescient in their analysis of our U.S. Constitution. We are witnessing in real time, the
warnings of a man who knew government and human nature. Here are a few excerpts from a speech he made
on June, 7 1788:
...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 undubitable, 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. Suppose 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; or, in other words, consolidated with other States: When the people
of Virginia at a future day shall wish to alter their Government, 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 Constitution 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 Virginian but an
American government.
But what does this Constitution say? The
clause under consideration gives an unlimited and unbounded power of taxation:
Suppose every delegate from Virginia 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 without 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 suspends our Bill of Rights; and it is expressly provided, that they can
make all laws necessary for carrying their powers into execution; and it is
declared paramount to the laws and constitutions of the States. Consider how
the only remaining defence we have left is destroyed in this manner. Besides
the expenses of maintaining the Senate and other House in as much splendor as
they please, there is to be a great and mighty President, with very extensive
powers; the powers of a King: He is to be supported 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
Wow, he nailed it there. As for an American president living in
extravagant magnificence, all we have to do is look at the Obama’s. And yes, this president has accumulated power
– a power that rivals any monarch.
What about the judiciary? Do they not put a check on the outrages of a
President and Congress? Again, Patrick
Henry nails it:
If they perpetrate the most
unwarrantable outrage on your person or property, you cannot get redress on
this side of 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 mischiefs, I would grant power with a
niggardly hand
And see if you can’t draw any parallels
with today’s federal government and the warnings proclaimed by Patrick Henry
over 200 years ago:
Another beautiful feature of this
Constitution 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 extend 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 shew 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 public and
divulge their iniquity, when they have it equally in their power to suppress
and conceal it. --- Where is the responsibility --- that leading principle in
the British government? In that government a punishment, certain and
inevitable, is provided: But in this, there is no real actual punishment for
the grossest maladministration. 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 Constitution, 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, maladministration 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.
Maladministration is exactly what is
happening in Washington D.C. and there is no form of punishment that can
redress the wrongs these subversives have inflicted upon us citizens. The Anti-Federalist was right. Time will tell what is to become of us.
Source: http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1786-1800/the-anti-federalist-papers/speech-of-patrick-henry-(june-7-1788).php
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