Which best describes Patrick Henry?
1.He agreed with Alexander Hamilton and opposed the Constitution.
2. He was a Federalist and opposed the Constitution.
3. He was an Anti-Federalist and opposed the Constitution.
4. He disagreed with Alexander Hamilton and favored the Constitution.
Answer: The correct option is 3.
Patrick Henry one of the signatories to the American Constitution can be best categorized as an Anti-Federalist who was against the writing of the Constitution. This stance revealed him in the centre stage in the debates regarding the formation of the United States government after the Revolutionary War.
Since Henry was an Anti-Federalist, he worried much about centralism, which he was sure would be formed by adopting the Constitution. He believed this could lead to tyranny as they saw in the British monarchy from which they fought hard to gain freedom. For instance, Henry during the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788, opposed the adoption of the constitution, he said “I smell a Rat”.
As for Henry, he had no chance for the Constitution because he claimed that it did not guarantee enough the individual and states’ rights. He greatly expressed his concern on the lack of a bill of rights in the initial constitution as this he felt was a major defect. On this ground, he supported states’ rights and challenged the powers of federal supremacy which made him associate with the other Anti-Federalists such as Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee.
In this regard, the reader should remember that Henry’s stance was opposed to the Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton who advocated for a central authority. This disagreement explains the ideology of Federalists and Anti-Federalists at this critical period in history about the creation of the United States. Because of Henry’s oratory and relentless fight, though on the losing side during the ratification debate, the subsequent amendments that included the Bill of Rights later incorporated most of the issues raised by the Anti-Federalists like him.
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