Patrick Henry Quotes
This fatal system ... instead of securing your rights, you may lose them forever.
Patrick Henry, 1736-1799, Member, Virginia House of Burgesses, Member of the Continental Congress, Governor of Virginia, Referring to the Constitution which he opposed, Quoted in Bernard Bailyn, The Debate on the Constitution, The Library of America, 1993
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Note the use of the phrase “against the government.” One of the unique aspects of the American Constitution and The Bill of Rights is that the government is considered a potential and even probable infringer on the liberties of the people. It is almost as though the government was the potential enemy. Modern libertarians state this very explicitly and it is ever present in the views of both the right and left wings of American politics. Most centrists recoil at the thought that some citizens see the government as the enemy, but even in America there have been times where the government has infringed on the rights of citizens only to have the courts or future administrations and Congresses correct the error.
Jefferson and many others thought the original drafting of the Constitution was deficient in not explicitly protecting rights from the government. See {586024}. When it came time for ratification, it was clear that ratification would not take place unless that was remedied and the Bill of Rights made the ratification possible by satisfying many critics of whom Jefferson was but one. Note that the protection sought was from the President and the Congress.
See George Mason for the contrary view. {606646}
Americans are divided as to whether this should be encouraged and helped or not.
This is probably the first known use of the Bill of Rights phrase in the English language. For the earliest American use, see Edward Rutledge.
the authors of the Constitution
the drafting of the Constitution Left before it ended.
Arguing for a Bill of Rights to assuage public objections to the original Constitution:
Patrick Henry was an American attorney, planter, politician, and orator best known for his declaration to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.
