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“Give me liberty or give me death! Just don’t make me Secretary of State!” [1]
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Date: 2025-03-25
Patrick Henry is being commemorated today for the 250th anniversary of his famous speech to the Second Virginia Convention.
After the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution, the new government began. George Washington was elected the first President, mainly because people saw him as a stable, trustworthy person who could lead the new country through inevitable growing pains as it adjusted to living under a Constitution. Washington was known to believe that a strong federal government was necessary.
Patrick Henry had strong anti-Federalist views. Henry feared that Federalism would allow the United States to regress back to a state of monarchy, and he did not want to be associated with Washington’s Federalist views.
So when George Washington asked him to become his Secretary of State in 1795, Patrick Henry refused, saying he preferred to stay at home on his farm in Virginia with his second wife and 17 children.
Patrick Henry also refused the positions of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Minister to Spain, for the same reason.
Washington wanted Henry for Secretary of State because he thought that Henry’s anti-Federalist views would help to bring balance to his administration, which had slightly more Federalists than anti-Federalists.
Washington understood Henry’s wishes to avoid public service, and they maintained an amicable relationship.
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