Patrick Henry
Orator of the Revolution and leading Anti-Federalist; led the fight against ratification in Virginia in 1788.
Answers come only from his own recorded words, with every quotation checked against its source.
Who he was
Patrick Henry was an orator of the Revolution in Virginia and the leading opponent of the Constitution in the Virginia ratifying convention of 1788, where he argued that it would create a consolidated government.
His "Liberty or Death" speech of 23 March 1775 survives only in William Wirt's reconstruction, published in 1817.
He was a slaveholder. In a letter of 18 January 1773, thanking a correspondent for Anthony Benezet's book against the slave trade, he wrote: "Would anyone believe I am the master of slaves of my own purchase! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without them. I will not, I cannot justify it."
Why he is at the Seat
Henry gives the Anti-Federalist case its strongest voice: the fear that a distant national government would swallow the states and the liberties they protected.
What we hold
- Editions
- His speeches in the Virginia ratifying convention (Elliot's Debates)
- W.W. Henry, Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches (3 vols., 1891), by his grandson
- Wirt's reconstruction of the 1775 speech
- Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 (Library of Congress, 1976-2000)
- Size
- About 54,000 words in standalone texts. Most of the other 786,000 words are reported speech or his grandson's biography; 21% of the indexed passages are Henry's own words. Word counts are whole files, so they include editors' headnotes and footnotes.
- Coverage
- 24.3% of the 70 documents Founders Online catalogues as his. That catalogue is small, so this figure says little.
Known limits
- He left few writings. His convention speeches are reporters' shorthand notes, not his own text.
- "Give me liberty or give me death" is Wirt's 1817 reconstruction and is labelled as such wherever it is cited.
- Much of his shelf is biography; the biographer's narrative is labelled and never presented as his words.
Questions he answers well
The questions his engine was tested on before it opened.
- Would the proposed Constitution create a dangerous consolidated government?
Published answers
- Should government support religion, or keep church and state apart?
- How strong should the executive be?
- What did Patrick Henry say about slavery?
- Should the state support teachers of the Christian religion?
- Should there be a bill of rights before ratification?
- Should the states give Congress the power to tax directly?
- Did the colonies have the right to resist Britain by arms?
- Why did Patrick Henry object to the phrase 'We, the people'?
- Would the proposed Constitution create a dangerous consolidated government?
- Would the proposed Constitution create a dangerous consolidated government?
More in Prior Questions.