During my speech on the 235th Anniversity of the United States Constitution, I quoted one of Patrick Henry’s speeches during the debates regarding the ratification of our federal constitution.
“I am not free from suspicion: I am apt to entertain doubts. I rose yesterday to ask a question which arose in my own mind. When I asked that question, I though that the meaning of my interrogation was obvious. The fate of this question and of America may depend on this!
Have they said, We, the states?
Have they made a proposal of a compact between states?
The questions turns, on that poor little thing - the expression, We, the people, instead of the states of America.
Is this a monarchy, like England - a compact between prince and people, with checks on the former to secure the liberty of the latter? …
It is not a democracy, wherein the people retain all their rights securely? Had these principles been adhered to, we should not have been brought to this alarming transition, from a confederacy to a consolidated government”.
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