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Patrick Henry

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Why Patrick Henry? We chose Patrick Henry to grace the masthead of our website because we believe he embodies the passion with which we pursue the mission of Right Principles. We also believe the political environment which inspired his great “give me liberty or give me death” speech is analogous to today’s in significant ways. Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech to the delegates to the Virginia Convention in March 1775. The convention was discussing an enumeration of grievances from the Stamp Act, to the Boston Massacre, to the Coercive Acts, which the colonists had with the British government. Those grievances had been presented to the Crown in a colonial petition. The delegates speaking before him were of the mind that the colonial government beast could be sated, grievances reconciled, and the general British oppression lifted. Henry contended that they were indulging in “illusions of hope.” The British gave the colonists’ petition an apparently gracious reception of calming words which Henry characterized as an “insidious smile”. He drew the delegates’ attention away from that gracious reception and focused instead on “those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land”. To Henry, the actions on the ground, the encroaching presence of British troops in the colonists’ lives revealed the true intentions of the British government. Patrick Henry was not fooled by the smooth words of the Crown or the illusions of hope of the more naïve of his fellow delegates. No, he could feel the clutch of the “tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament”. And so it is today in 21st century America. After the vanquishing and implosion of the Soviet Union, the world has seen the undisputed primacy of free market capitalism and its productive bounty for some two decades. Even the communist Chinese have recognized the power of an unleashed entrepreneurial spirit to produce the goods and services on which societies depend. Finally, after decades of debate with the liberals and socialists on the left, it seemed a proven wisdom that the U.S. thrived and prospered best with a low tax, free market capitalist and minimalist government. However, under democrat and republican administrations alike, the controlling forces of the federal government have continued to expand. The federal government’s reach extends deep into all of our societal institutions; the economy, private businesses, our educational system, healthcare, the labor market, our media and more. And government’s once creeping advance has erupted into a tsunami in the fall of 2008 with the economic crisis and the tri-fecta of liberal control of all three branches of the U.S. government. Trillions are being spent to shore-up the banking system, bail out insurance and auto companies and “stimulate” in the areas of education, energy, healthcare, science and technology. In the name of rescuing the economy all manner of new government programs and controls are being proposed in the healthcare, financial, automobile and other industries amounting to a virtual nationalization. Just as the British Crown’s reach cast an oppressive shadow throughout all aspects of colonial life, so to, the American people today are being enveloped in a wave of taxes, laws, regulations and a mountain of national debt that will take generations to repay. This is all manifesting before a backdrop of declining morality and values in an age where destructive relativist thinking reins supreme. As it was for our founding fathers, it will take a monumental effort by us all to turn back this oppressive, stifling tide of big government. But it can be done, as long as we know what our principles are and, more importantly, if we stick to them. We must refuse to abandon them for the sake of political expediency as so many so-called Republicans have done, resulting in the electoral disaster those who support limited government have recently suffered at their hands. Henry’s strong commitment to principle resulted in an even more long lasting effect on the country he helped found than his famous speech. A true apostle of limited government, Henry feared that the Federal Constitution proposed in 1788 to replace the weak and tenuous bonds of unity that held sway under the Articles of Confederation would produce a powerful government that was too centralized and too far removed from its citizens. He denounced the Constitution as “clearly a consolidated government” that would destroy the rightful powers of the states. While the “Anti-Federalists” group to which he belonged ultimately failed to prevent the passage of the Constitution, their opposition had the effect of producing a much stronger document which included a set of 10 Amendments known to us as the Bill of Rights, which explicitly state that there are certain rights – including the rights to the free practice of religion, to speech, to press, to bear arms – that cannot be infringed upon by the government under any circumstances. Henry stuck to his principles and, even though losing the immediate battle, succeeded in producing an ultimately superior document because of his fidelity to those principles. Indeed, Patrick Henry’s wisdom to listen to the facts on the ground rather than the rhetoric in the air, informs the mission of Right Principles. His relentless passion inspires our activities, and drives us to spread the message and fight the good fight. And, with the same conviction which inspired his most famous phrase, we will prevail because we know our cause is Right! For more about the life of Patrick Henry click here - http://www.redhill.org/biography_detailed.html

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