First Influence

     Patrick Henry was the main advocate for the Bill of Rights. Mainly his goal was to make sure that America's citizens had their individual rights protected. He thought that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government and was too restricting in the states’ governments. In fact, when the Constitutional Convention took place, Henry was asked to attend but said no. Patrick Henry even went as far as describing the Constitution as “pernicious, impolite, and dangerous” (pernicious means death-giving, so it's sort of funny that he would put that on the same level of evil as being impolite). He wanted to just strengthen the Articles of Confederation. As governor of Virginia, Henry felt the aftereffects of dropping his argument against the Constitution. Henry instilled in Americans a general suspicion of government authority. It's a good thing to question authority and not just blindly follow rules. The point of this post was to show that Patrick Henry has made a very lasting impression on America. Not only did he largely contribute to national law, he also helped show Americans to question that law.

Picture Citation: "Patrick Henry - Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." Archiving Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America. Web. 03 Mar. 2010.