鈥淕ive me liberty, or give me death:鈥� Remembering Patrick Henry, the Forgotten Founder
Patrick Henry was enormously popular during the American Revolution. Even Thomas Jefferson, who over time developed a deep loathing of Henry (some would say jealousy), had to admit that 鈥渋t is not now easy to say what we should have done without Patrick Henry.鈥� Edmund Randolph, a patriot leader in his own right, explained that 鈥淚t was Patrick Henry 鈥� awakening the genius of his country, and binding a band of patriots together to hurl defiance at the tyranny of so formidable a nation as Great Britain.鈥� Yet, today, Patrick Henry is ill-remembered; most Americans might recall at best perhaps a snippet from a famous speech: 鈥済ive me liberty, or give me death.鈥� The reasons for our historic forgetfulness are several: after the Revolution, Henry chose to oppose ratification of the U.S. Constitution, believing that it created a distant and too-powerful government, and he refused proffered position in George Washington鈥檚 administration, diminishing his historic memory. Equally important, Henry died in 1799 shortly after a political campaign in which, at Washington鈥檚 behest, he opposed Jefferson鈥檚 and James Madison鈥檚 ill-advised radical states鈥� rights attack on the U.S. government, and Jefferson spent the next twenty-six years systematically attacking Henry鈥檚 legacy. Patrick Henry, who helped to ignite a revolution, deserves better. This course will explore how he over卢came challenges to reach the pinnacle of Virginia politics and unite Americans behind a challenge to Britain 鈥� the eighteenth century鈥檚 super-power, why he opposed the U.S. Constitu卢tion, and why he then came out of retirement to defend the people鈥檚 Constitution against the attacks of Jefferson and Madison. Participants should evaluate Henry鈥檚 role in proclaiming a revolution and consider whether he had an equally important role in saving it. The course should also develop an improved appreciation for the complex political, economic, and religious forces that shaped the early republic. As a biographical course, it also demonstrates how personalities play an important role in even the most foundational national history. Image Attribution: The background image for this webpage is Patrick Henry before the Virginia House of Burgesses by Peter F. Rothermel (1851) with special thanks to the owner, the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation. The painting of Patrick Henry's 1765 "Caesar had his Brutus" speech (discussed in the second lecture) is entirely romanticized -- neither Henry nor the House of Burgesses looked at all like this -- but it does show that hagiography of Henry, almost god-like veneration, began shortly after this death.
