Against All Enemies?: From the book; Conspiracy in Philadelphia by Gary North

 Against All Enemies?: Conspiracy in Philadelphia by Gary North

 

3. Patrick Henry: “By Whose Authority?”

Patrick Henry had been invited to attend the Philadelphia Convention, but he had refused.  A year later, he spoke out against ratification. He had seen the meaning of “We the People,” and he warned against its implications during the debates over ratification. I quoted his statement at the beginning of this chapter. It bears repeating.

Give me leave to demand, what right had they to say, ‘We the

People,’ instead of ‘We the States’?  States are the characteristics, and the soul of a confederation. If the States be not the agents of this

compact, it must be one great consolidated national government of

the people of all the States. . . . Had the delegates, who were sent to

Philadelphia a power to propose a consolidated government instead

of a confederacy? Were they not deputed by States, and not by the

people? The assent of the people, in their collective capacity, is not

necessary to the formation of a federal government. The people have

no right to enter into leagues, alliances, or confederations: they are

not the proper agents for this purpose: States and sovereign powers

are the only proper agents for this kind of government. Show me an

instance where the people have exercised this business: has it not al-

ways gone through the legislatures? . . . This, therefore, ought to de-

pend on the consent of the legislatures.

     Henry said emphatically of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, “The people gave them no power to use their name. That they exceeded their power is perfectly clear.” In modern terminology, this was a form of property infringement. He reminded his listeners of the nature of the original authorization of the Convention: “The federal convention ought to have amended the old

system; for this purpose they were solely delegated: the object of their mission extended to no other consideration.”

24

But because the legislatures authorized the conventions, they in effect had sanctioned this public transfer of the locus of sovereignty. This transfer was illegal

21

. Lienesch,

New

Order

, p. 64.

22

.

The Annals of America

, 18 vols. (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), IV,

pp. 62

–

67.

23

. See Madison’s letter to the

North American Review

(Aug. 28, 1830), in

Mind of

the Founder

, p. 540.