----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kiracofe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: Hampton (Virginia) National Cemetary: 757.723.7104


> In regard to the recent discussions of state versus national loyalties,
> the truth seems to lie somewhere between the two poles of "my country is
> Virginia" (Randolph of Roanoke) and "I am not a Virginian but an
> American" (Patrick Henry -- please excuse the rough paraphrasing).

One must be careful in order to interpret Henry's famous statement
accurately.  Henry's statement here represented one side in a debate within
Virginia, that over the question what George III's constructive abdication
as King of Virginia legally meant.  Some people, such as Thomas Jefferson ,
insisted that the king's abdication merely opened up the possibility of
naming a new governor; for them, there was no state of nature.  Others, like
Henry (and, unless memory fails, John Page -- it has been a while since I
read this material), said that since every officeholder in Virginia, from
the county courts to the House of Burgesses, held his office mediately from
the king, the end of the House of Hanover in Virginia meant that no officer
in Virginia held legitimate governmental power anymore.  Virginia, as Henry
understood the matter, rested in a perfect Lockean state of nature, along
with the other rebellious colonies.

Seemingly, most Virginians opted for Jefferson's argument:  The colonial
government continued to operate, insofar as it could, until the adoption of
the May Convention's 1776 Virginia Constitution.  It was much easier simply
to allow the militia, the county courts, etc., to continue to operate as if
nothing had happened than it would have been to assume there was no law of
any kind in Virginia until a representative body could be convened to create
new, republican institutions.  Henry's statement came in the context of his
insistence in the same speech that there was no law anymore in (formerly)
British North America (Canada excepted), so there were no longer any
boundaries among the colonies.  (Those boundaries, too, had all been drawn
by the kings -- or, in a couple of cases, by Cromwell's Parliament.)  Henry
found himself in the awkward situation of being an American, not a
Virginian, at a particular moment, but that was a diagnosis based on his
political theory, not a statement reflecting the relative strengths of his
affections.

Constantine Gutzman
Department of History
Western Connecticut State University

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html