Coming out of the Philadelphia Convention, many Americans had different perspectives about what had transpired and how effective the Constitution could be as a governing document.
Tag: Patrick Henry
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Two Supreme Coordinate Powers
Gouverneur Morris. Engraving by: J. Rogers. -
The Deftness of the Federalists
Patrick Henry. By: Currier & Ives. As the Constitution was being drafted and ratified, opinions ranged on the prospects for it effectively governing America. Some in the Philadelphia Convention believed it was “nothing more than a combination of the peculiarities of two of the State Governments which separately had been found insufficient.” Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787, 519 quoting Madison, in Farrand, ed., Records of the Federal Convention, II, 291. Even some Federalists, who favored a strong national government, concluded that there was “a preposterous combination of powers in the President and Senate, which may be used improperly.” Edward Carrington to Jefferson, Oct. 23, 1787, Boyd, ed., Jefferson Papers, XII, 255.
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A Moral Reformation
Patrick Henry. By: George Bagby Matthews. As eluded to in Virtue as a Principle and Foundation, vices had come to plague American society shortly after the American Revolution. Patrick Henry said, in 1780, that he “feared that our Body politic was dangerously sick,” as from top to bottom, society appeared to be embracing vice. Patrick Henry to Jefferson, Feb. 15, 1780, Boyd, ed., Jefferson Papers, III, 293.
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Autopsies of the Dead Republics
Edmund Pendleton. By: William Pendleton. Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece were intertwined with the American Revolution and the establishment of the American republic.
Last Best Hope of Earth 