Very, very interesting, Jon!   Thank you for posting this (especially
on this day when we--though not Patrick Henry's generation--inaugurate
a president every four years).

Best--

--Jurretta


On Jan 20, 2006, at 11:54 AM, Jon Kukla wrote:

> While looking for something else this morning, I stumbled again upon
> Patrick Henry's opening speech on June 5, 1788, in the Virginia
> Convention
> that was debating whether to ratify the proposed new Constitution of
> the
> United States. Henry had reservations about the potential abuse of
> presidential power :
> jk
>
> 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 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 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 head 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 can not with
> patience
> think of this idea. If ever he violate the laws, one of two things will
> happen: he will come at the head of the army to carry everything 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 difference
> between being master of everything 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 this force? What will then become of you and your rights? Will
> not
> absolute despotism ensue?
>
>
> Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
> Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
> 1250 Red Hill Road
> Brookneal, Virginia 24528
> www.redhill.org
> Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463
>
> Fax 434-376-2647
>
> - M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager
> - Karen Gorham-Smith, Associate Curator
> - Edith Poindexter, Curator
>
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>

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