Passage 1 is excerpted from a speech delivered by Patrick Henry and Passage 2 is excerpted from a speech delivered by James Madison. Both speeches were delivered during the Virginia Commonwealth Debates of 1788. The two statesmen disagreed over whether the Articles of Confederation, the current form of government at that time, should be replaced by the U.S. Constitution.
Passage 1
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect
every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing
will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up
that force, you are inevitably ruined. I am answered by
gentlemen, that, though I might speak of terrors, yet the fact
was, that we were surrounded by none of the dangers I
apprehended. I conceive this new government to be one of
those dangers: it has produced those horrors which distress
many of our best citizens. We are come hither to preserve the
poor commonwealth of Virginia, if it can be possibly done:
something must be done to preserve your liberty and mine. The
Confederation, this same despised government, merits, in my
opinion, the highest encomium: it carried us through a long and
dangerous war; it rendered us victorious in that bloody conflict
with a powerful nation; it has secured us a territory greater than
any European monarch possesses: and shall a government
which has been thus strong and vigorous, be accused of
imbecility, and abandoned for want of energy? Consider what
you are about to do before you part with the government. Take
longer time in reckoning things; revolutions like this have
happened in almost every country in Europe; similar examples
are to be found in ancient Greece and ancient Rome —
instances of the people losing their liberty by their own
carelessness and the ambition of a few. We are cautioned by
the honorable gentleman, who presides, against faction and
turbulence. I acknowledge that licentiousness* is dangerous,
and that it ought to be provided against: I acknowledge, also,
the new form of government may effectually prevent it: yet
there is another thing it will as effectually do — it will oppress
and ruin the people.
Passage 2
Before I proceed to make some additions to the reasons
which have been adduced by my honorable friend over the
way, I must take the liberty to make some observations on what
was said by another gentleman, (Mr. Henry). He told us that
this Constitution ought to be rejected because it endangered the
public liberty, in his opinion, in many instances. Give me leave
to make one answer to that observation: Let the dangers which
this system is supposed to be replete with be clearly pointed
out: if any dangerous and unnecessary powers be given to the
general legislature, let them be plainly demonstrated; and let us
not rest satisfied with general assertions of danger, without
examination. If powers be necessary, apparent danger is not a
sufficient reason against conceding them. He has suggested that
licentiousness has seldom produced the loss of liberty; but that
the tyranny of rulers has almost always effected it. Since the
general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more
instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by
gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by
violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination
of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of
power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority,
have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics,
have, more frequently than any other cause, produced
despotism. If we go over the whole history of ancient and
modern republics, we shall find their destruction to have
generally resulted from those causes. If we consider the
peculiar situation of the United States, and what are the sources
of that diversity of sentiment which pervades its inhabitants,
we shall find great danger to fear that the same causes may
terminate here in the same fatal effects which they produced in
those republics. This danger ought to be wisely guarded
against. Perhaps, in the progress of this discussion, it will
appear that the only possible remedy for those evils, and means
of preserving and protecting the principles of republicanism,
will be found in that very system which is now exclaimed
against as the parent of oppression.
*A lack of moral restraint.
Passage 1
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect
every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing
will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up
that force, you are inevitably ruined. I am answered by
gentlemen, that, though I might speak of terrors, yet the fact
was, that we were surrounded by none of the dangers I
apprehended. I conceive this new government to be one of
those dangers: it has produced those horrors which distress
many of our best citizens. We are come hither to preserve the
poor commonwealth of Virginia, if it can be possibly done:
something must be done to preserve your liberty and mine. The
Confederation, this same despised government, merits, in my
opinion, the highest encomium: it carried us through a long and
dangerous war; it rendered us victorious in that bloody conflict
with a powerful nation; it has secured us a territory greater than
any European monarch possesses: and shall a government
which has been thus strong and vigorous, be accused of
imbecility, and abandoned for want of energy? Consider what
you are about to do before you part with the government. Take
longer time in reckoning things; revolutions like this have
happened in almost every country in Europe; similar examples
are to be found in ancient Greece and ancient Rome —
instances of the people losing their liberty by their own
carelessness and the ambition of a few. We are cautioned by
the honorable gentleman, who presides, against faction and
turbulence. I acknowledge that licentiousness* is dangerous,
and that it ought to be provided against: I acknowledge, also,
the new form of government may effectually prevent it: yet
there is another thing it will as effectually do — it will oppress
and ruin the people.
Passage 2
Before I proceed to make some additions to the reasons
which have been adduced by my honorable friend over the
way, I must take the liberty to make some observations on what
was said by another gentleman, (Mr. Henry). He told us that
this Constitution ought to be rejected because it endangered the
public liberty, in his opinion, in many instances. Give me leave
to make one answer to that observation: Let the dangers which
this system is supposed to be replete with be clearly pointed
out: if any dangerous and unnecessary powers be given to the
general legislature, let them be plainly demonstrated; and let us
not rest satisfied with general assertions of danger, without
examination. If powers be necessary, apparent danger is not a
sufficient reason against conceding them. He has suggested that
licentiousness has seldom produced the loss of liberty; but that
the tyranny of rulers has almost always effected it. Since the
general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more
instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by
gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by
violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination
of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of
power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority,
have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics,
have, more frequently than any other cause, produced
despotism. If we go over the whole history of ancient and
modern republics, we shall find their destruction to have
generally resulted from those causes. If we consider the
peculiar situation of the United States, and what are the sources
of that diversity of sentiment which pervades its inhabitants,
we shall find great danger to fear that the same causes may
terminate here in the same fatal effects which they produced in
those republics. This danger ought to be wisely guarded
against. Perhaps, in the progress of this discussion, it will
appear that the only possible remedy for those evils, and means
of preserving and protecting the principles of republicanism,
will be found in that very system which is now exclaimed
against as the parent of oppression.
*A lack of moral restraint.